Chapter 87
"Baked sweet potatoes - fragrant and sweet baked sweet potatoes -"
An old lady was pushing a metal tricycle, shouting as she walked. Chen Lanjun waved her hand: "I want one."
I picked up a big roasted sweet potato and held it in my hand. It was still a little hot.
Chen Lanjun blew on the sweet potatoes while peeling them with her fingertips. The aroma of the sweet potatoes roasted over charcoal fire lingered at her nose, and they were especially sweet when she took a bite.
The right shoulder was patted: "No, is this what you eat for lunch?"
Zhao Hong followed her example and sat on the curb, teasing her, "You are a millionaire, why do you eat so simply?"
"What a bullshit ten thousand yuan household," Chen Lanjun said, "I only have a few hundred yuan on me, and the rest is all used to cover this."
"What did they put in?" Zhao Hong was puzzled. "Where did they spend so much money?"
Chen Lanjun changed her hand to hold the sweet potato and pointed to the door of the state-owned store: "Here, that bag of candy."
A young girl was holding a red paper bag on her wrist with the words "New Year Candy" written on it.
Most of these paper bags and candies with a strong New Year atmosphere came from Chen Lanjun's advance payment. There was no other way. After officially taking over the finances of the Fourth Food Factory, Tong Tong and she found that not only was there not much money on the books, but they also owed their superiors and brother units 20,000 yuan. I really don't know what the hell is going on.
As a last resort, Chen Lanjun had to urgently use her savings to purchase new packaging.
But the effect was good. She waited here for two days and found that many customers still bought the Lucky Food New Year Candy they produced. This made her feel a little relieved. Looking at the momentum, the money she put in should pay off.
Zhao Hong sighed: "You really are... Tsk, you deserve to make money."
"Of course," Chen Lanjun said, "Why are you here?"
"Stop talking." Zhao Hong kicked the fallen leaves on the ground with his toes. "My mom loved me so much during the first two days after I came back that she didn't even let me boil water. But these past two days, she's been annoyed by me staying at home."
He tightened his throat and imitated Shen Mudan's tone and said, "You are such a grown-up, lying at home sleeping all day, what kind of person is that? You just create garbage. When you come back, I have to take out the garbage one more time!"
Chen Lanjun couldn't help but laugh: "So, you came out?"
"I was kicked out," Zhao Hong said. "Oh, my mother also asked me to ask you, have you bought the New Year's goods?"
"Well, as for this one..." Chen Lanjun lowered her head and took another bite of the roasted sweet potato, "Let's just buy it."
If those New Year sugar cookies at home that we keep as experiments are counted.
"My mother guessed it right," Zhao Hong said. "She said that you must be busy with business and don't have time to buy New Year's goods. Then you can come to our house to celebrate the New Year together, so as to save you the trouble."
Chen Lanjun thought about it and said, "That's fine."
Having achieved the purpose of going out, Zhao Hong could report to his mother. He looked very relaxed and asked, "Is there anything you want me to do?"
"Yes," Chen Lanjun turned to look at him, "It's a job you are very familiar with."
Zhao Hong blinked: "What?"
"Let's set up a stall."
When I returned to the banyan tree, I heard a burst of laughter before I entered the door. Pang Xiaopeng was talking to several young people. When he saw Chen Lanjun and Zhao Hong coming, he immediately stood up from his chair and said, "Sister Lan, I have already talked to them."
They were all familiar faces from when she was setting up stalls as an educated youth. When they saw her, they all called her "Sister Lan" affectionately.
Chen Lanjun greeted everyone one by one, clasping her hands together and saying, "I'm really sorry to bother you all now."
"No way," said a tall man, "You can get paid and help Sister Lan, why not come?"
Pang Xiaopeng said: "I have told them that we will make a schedule and divide the time for setting up stalls by region. Some people will go to the countryside to celebrate the New Year and just bring their goods over."
Chen Lanjun pointed at Zhao Hong and said, "We need to add one more person."
Pang Xiaopeng looked at him and said with a smile: "Okay, let Brother Hong recall the past."
Zhao Hong said: "I have no problem, but...what should I sell at the stall?"
Chen Lanjun pulled out a red paper bag from the utility room inside: "New Year's gift package."
It is said to be a New Year gift package, but in fact it is quite simple. It just wraps up candies, biscuits, cakes and the like in packaging with a New Year flavor - they are all stock, and they are specially tied with colorful ribbons, which looks pretty good.
Zhao Hong took the gift bag and understood it as soon as he lifted it: "This thing is very suitable for giving as a gift during the Chinese New Year."
"Yeah, we think so too," the tall man said with a smile, "Sister Lan, how about you sell me two bags first, and I'll take them back to my parents."
"I want to buy three packs, too. They sound pretty fun."
…
So, for some unknown reason, I sold dozens of packs among my acquaintances.
The day before New Year's Eve, Pang Xiaopeng and Tong Tong, who had been busy for a long time, went home to urgently prepare for the New Year. The house under the banyan tree suddenly seemed much emptier. Chen Lanjun got up early in the morning, listened to the sound of firecrackers for half a day, and finally went out and wandered aimlessly on the street. The street market was full of people, whether it was the cured meat shop, the cake shop or the store, they were all crowded.
When she arrived at an old bakery, she stopped, thought for a moment, and then plunged into the crowd queuing to buy some snacks such as radish cakes.
In this kind of old-fashioned bakery, the snacks are all sold in bulk, without any packaging. Snacks of the same flavor are neatly stacked together and weighed by kilograms by the salesperson before being handed over to customers. Therefore, the sales speed is relatively slow and the queue is relatively long.
Customers who have families waiting at home became a little anxious. They kept looking forward and muttering things like "Why is it so slow?"
Chen Lanjun was not in a hurry. She hid in the team and looked at the people around her casually.
In front of her was a mother and daughter. The daughter was probably in elementary school. She had two pigtails with red hairbands on them.
Chen Lanjun's gaze lingered on the red hairband for a moment.
This reminded Chen Lanjun of her mother Zheng Mei.
During the Spring Festival when she was a child, she always liked to move two or three stools to the yard and braid Chen Lanjun and her younger sister's hair in the daylight. While humming the tune of "Pull up the two-foot red hair string and tie it up happily", she carefully braided her daughters' hair into pigtails. After braiding, she pulled the pigtails and said with a smile, "It looks so beautiful."
However, after entering middle school, Chen Lanjun felt it was too unfashionable and refused to wear a red string anymore. Zheng Mei had to give up and hummed "Other girls have flowers to wear" while steaming rice cakes.
Thinking of the busy figure, Chen Lanjun couldn't help but smile, but then she felt a little melancholy. "Every festival makes me miss my family more", especially during the Spring Festival, there is a desire engraved in my blood to reunite with my family.
Still miss them a little.
She looked at the little girl chattering with her mother and sighed softly.
After I’m done with this busy period, I’ll find a chance to go home and visit.
After waiting in line for a long time and facing the impatient gaze of the salesperson, Chen Lanjun ordered two taels of each flavor of pastry.
After taking a bite of the radish cake, Chen Lanjun couldn't help but sigh. Fortunately, the cakes in stock at the Fourth Food Factory were not these, otherwise it would be difficult to sell them out. It was also fortunate that these time-honored cake shops were closed during the Chinese New Year, otherwise it would be difficult to leave a gap.
It would be more reliable to produce some new snacks in the future, such as chocolate, crispy candy, etc. Otherwise, there would be no chance of competing with these traditional pastry shops.
Thinking about all sorts of things, Chen Lanjun slowly walked towards the banyan tree.
However, when she reached the door of her house, she suddenly stopped and rubbed her eyes.
Am I seeing that?
My parents, sister, niece, and younger sister are all waiting at the door?
Just as she was in a daze, a little girl as cute as a pink ball jumped into her arms:
"Auntie, we are here to celebrate the New Year with you!"
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