Doing business with bicycles
It turned out that Zhang Qingjie's sweetheart liked to eat bait, so he specifically begged the boss to cook two skewers of bait for him when he sold skewers in the evening.
Yukuai is a common traditional food in Yunnan and Yunnan. Every household makes it. It is made from rice and is a bit similar to rice cake, but it is chewier than rice cake.
"It's not a big deal, don't worry, Brother Zhang, I'll add it when I come to sell skewers this afternoon." Shen Roujiao replied softly, thanking his sweetheart in her heart, which she herself didn't expect.
Zhang Qingjie's face instantly broke into a smile, and the tofu pudding in his hand tasted even better.
Seeing how he was eating with such relish, several young people who worked in the factory also stopped and the stall was soon filled with people.
The eldest brother asked the younger sister to stand aside and rest, and he was only responsible for shouting and collecting money, while he did the work.
After Zhang Qingjie finished eating, he wiped his mouth with a feeling of unfulfilled desire and said to the young boss: "I'll come again in the evening, don't forget!"
Shen Roujiao took out another piece of sweet potato cake and handed it to him, "Brother Zhang, I'll never forget it. There will be something even more delicious in a few days. You must come and try it."
"Really? Is it better than the skewers?" Zhang Qingjie was too embarrassed to take the sweet potato cake from Shen Roujiao. He had already eaten one for free, so how could he take another one? It was not easy for a girl to run a business.
"Yes, it's much better than skewers. Brother Zhang, take this sweet potato cake. I want to owe you a favor."
She blinked her eyes and stared at Zhang Qingjie with a serious expression, which made Zhang's heart beat fast. He didn't know what kind of favor the young boss wanted to ask for.
"It's like this. My father and second brother work in a factory far away. I want to buy them a bicycle. It will be fine if it's second-hand. I need to trouble Brother Zhang to take a look. Do you have any old bicycles in your factory that are durable? There's no rush. I can save enough money in ten days. I'll let Brother Zhang know first. It's not a big deal!"
The young boss watched Zhang Qingjie let out a long sigh, patted his chest, and said cheerfully: "This is just a small matter, isn't it worth you to owe me a favor? Isn't it just a matter of asking a few questions? I'm not bragging, you really found the right person to come to me for this matter. I guarantee to get you a cheap and durable one. I didn't expect that the young boss is so filial."
Looking at Zhang Qingjie's leaving figure, Shen Roujiao laughed secretly.
In the original text, as the first young man in the factory who rides a motorcycle and uses a pager, a bicycle is nothing to him.
Shen Roujiao didn't ask him for help for this reason. The main reason was that Zhang Qingjie was a good bargainer.
Find him, you can save money! !
The three siblings were busy all morning, and more people came to eat tofu pudding than yesterday. Many people who didn't know there was a stall here before came here based on hearsay, and the bucket of tofu pudding was sold out. When Shen Roujiao collected the money, she repeatedly said that there would be skewers in the evening, so everyone should remember to come and try it.
Seeing such good business, the eldest and fourth brothers were so happy that they couldn't stop smiling.
Unable to wait until we got home, on the way back, the eldest brother anxiously asked, "Little sister, how much did you earn this morning?"
"Brother, guess what!" Shen Roujiao was also happy and kept the answer a secret, intentionally teasing them.
"I guess." Shen Tianyou couldn't wait to continue.
Yesterday the barrel was only half full, my sister said we couldn't do more, so we tried and earned two dollars. Today the barrel was two-thirds full, so we had to earn at least three dollars.
Shen Tianyou raised three fingers, "Three!" He was confident in his answer.
"Three pieces?" The eldest brother obviously didn't believe it. He turned to look at the younger sister, eager to know the exact answer.
Shen Roujiao held the wad of cash in her hand, patted it again and again, and deliberately dragged out the conversation, "Fourth brother is very smart, the answer is close. I made three dollars and thirty-two cents this morning!"
"Really? Really?" Shen Tianhua happily lifted up his little sister and spun around. "Little sister, you are awesome!!"
When the elder brother got tired of spinning, Shen Tianyou rushed over, lifted up his younger sister and continued spinning, shouting, "Little sister, you are so amazing, brother admires you!"
The two of them turned around and laughed, and finally fell on the grass by the roadside. The eldest brother did not pull them up, but lay down beside them. The three of them looked quietly at the bright blue sky, their hearts were as sweet as honey, and they wanted to laugh from the bottom of their hearts.
There is finally some hope for this day.
Passing by the entrance of the village, there were a few women sitting at a gossip spot under a locust tree. Auntie Xu saw them selling tofu pudding yesterday, and now most of the village knows about it. The curious people asked loudly, "Those women from the Shen family, can you sell all the tofu pudding? If there is any left, remember to give it to the people in our village so that everyone can have a taste."
He enjoyed the excitement and secretly felt that the brother and sister could not achieve anything significant.
Shen Tianyou got angry after hearing this, his face darkened as iron, and he cursed secretly: "You look down on people."
The younger sister was not angry, and smiled and said, "Sorry, ladies. Business is good today, and not a single bowl is left. Let's treat the whole village to a meal some other time."
"Sister." Shen Tianhua pulled Shen Roujiao's arm.
Those gossipers were clearly making fun of them, but I was so stupid that not only did I not understand, I even wanted to treat the whole village to tofu pudding. Isn't that stupid?
"Are you stupid?" The fourth brother lost his temper and dragged the little sister away, scolding her as he walked, "Didn't you hear that they are a joke!"
"Brother, I'm not stupid. They didn't really want to eat, and I didn't really want to treat them."
Not to mention another day, right now, even if the Shen family really invited the whole village to eat, no one would dare to eat. They were afraid that after eating, Shen's father would come to borrow money.
Everyone in the village knew that the Shen family was short of money, especially money.
My eldest brother is good-looking, but he is almost 30 years old, and no one has come to propose marriage to him. An old man with four bachelors, who would be interested in him?
However, in Shen Roujiao's view, this is actually a good thing.
In the vast majority of families, the discord between brothers is mostly caused by problems in the relationship between sisters-in-law.
Not to mention the distant past, the current Shen's father and his brother, Shen Shanhe, Shen Roujiao's uncle, are living examples. Shen Shanhe wanted to help his brother, but was pointed at and scolded by his wife Zhao Ye, who forced Shen's father to pay back the money, looking extremely ugly.
How good it is now, without outsiders interfering, the five brothers and sisters of the Shen family are united as one, and with one mind, they can accomplish anything.
Don’t think about anything else, just focus on making money.
The first pot of gold in life is the hardest.
Shen Roujiao knew clearly that selling tofu pudding and skewers was only enough to keep her well fed and clothed, and she was still a long way from her goal.
In her previous life, she made her first fortune by selling wholesale clothing. But now, her experience from her previous life was of no use, and she had to find a new way to make money, a way to make a lot of money.
By the time we got home, we were all exhausted.
The eldest brother and the fourth brother fell asleep immediately, snoring one after another.
Shen Roujiao made a good account, put the three yuan and thirty-two cents she earned together with yesterday's money, wrapped them in a floral handkerchief with foundation, pressed it under the pillow, and soon had a sweet dream.
In the dream, they lived in a five-story villa and their life was extremely good.
…
The third brother Shen Tiannan walked around in the mountains for several times and finally found all the materials his younger sister needed. He returned home excitedly, but saw that the few people were sleeping soundly and he was reluctant to wake them up.
Seeing that it was almost noon, Shen Tiannan put down what he was doing and went to the kitchen to prepare lunch.
As soon as the noodles came out of the pot, Father Shen and his second brother pushed open the gate.
The weather was hot, and the sun was even more scorching at noon. Shen Tiannan fetched some well water for his father and brother to cool down.
"Your younger sister, older brother..." Father Shen stood under the eaves, wiping the sweat from his brow.
"Hmph! I'm so tired that I'm sleeping. Don't worry, Dad, I'm with my big brother now, nothing will happen." Shen Tiannan is gentle and smart. Unfortunately, he was not assigned to the factory.
"That's good. Don't feed them the noodles yet, or they will clump together and won't taste good." Father Shen put down the towel in his hand and gave specific instructions.
"I know. Dad and second brother, please come inside and eat noodles. After you finish eating, take a rest. I'll wait until they wake up and then cook."
After wiping his face, Shen Tiancheng did not follow his father into the house. He took out five or six red fruits from his pocket and handed them to his third brother. "We saw a sand apple tree on the road. Here are a few red ones. Share them. Dad and I tried one. It was sour and sweet. I'm sure my little sister will like it."
The second brother guessed correctly, Shen Roujiao liked it very much, she ate three by herself. Shen Tiannan lied that he had eaten it himself, and gave his to the younger sister.
They slept until almost two in the afternoon. Basically, they woke up after their father and second brother passed away.
While eating noodles, Shen Tianyou reported this morning's results to his third brother, and he couldn't help but feel happy again.
After the meal, Shen Tiannan spread the materials he found in the mountains in the shade at the base of the wall, including dry bamboo leaves, rice straw, wheat stalks, and long, thick and hard amaranth stalks.
The younger sister left in a hurry this morning and only said that she wanted to find these things but didn't say what they were for. At this moment, the three brothers were looking at the rows of waste grass, totally confused and stunned.
"Brother, take out your little notebook. I'll do one step and you write down one line." Shen Roujiao carried out a jar of pickled vegetables from the kitchen and walked towards the wall, looking like she was going to do something big.
While the eldest brother went into the room to get the notebook, the youngest sister asked the fourth brother to find a large basin, fill it halfway with water and set it aside for use.
I saw the youngest sister first cleaned up the excess leaves of the amaranth stalks, cut the stalks into even small pieces with a knife, put them into a basin of water to wash them again and again, and then took them out to drain; she also found a broken pottery basin under the eaves, mixed dry bamboo leaves, rice straw, and wheat in a ratio of two parts, one part, and burned them into ash. The burnt bamboo leaf ash was relatively coarse in texture, so the youngest sister asked her third brother to help her grind it into fine powder.
She added cool water to the black ash powder, stirred it thoroughly, filtered out the grass ash residue, leaving only edible ash water.
"Little sister, what can this black water do?" Shen Tianyou was the first to lose his temper, because he had a bad feeling that Shen Roujiao was doing something harmful to her health.
"Fourth brother, don't worry. Just watch."
As soon as she finished speaking, Shen Roujiao grabbed a handful of salt and put it into the amaranth bowl. She kept grabbing and stirring it until the large grains of salt disappeared.
"Brother, can you bring me the piece of tofu left over from this morning?" Shen Roujiao raised her wrist, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and revealed two fangs.
The tofu was brought over and was crushed into small pieces by Shen Roujiao in no time. As she was crushing, she said, "Next, it's time to witness a miracle. Brothers, please watch carefully."