He calmed his wife down and persuaded her to give up the idea of embezzling public funds to invest in stocks for her younger brother.
Feng Haidong saw his wife off to work, and then he officially began to get busy with his evening business.
After selecting the large, intact crayfish, Feng Haidong washed them with a brush and then set them all aside.
Next, Feng Haidong dismantled all the remaining smaller crayfish, whose claws were damaged.
He pulled off all the shrimp heads, leaving only the tail, and removed the shrimp vein.
Feng Haidong planned to deep-fry these shrimp tails and sell them as salt and pepper shrimp tails when he set up his stall in the evening.
After processing all the crayfish separately, Feng Haidong went inside to retrieve the liquefied gas cylinder from the house.
After shaking it, Feng Haidong found that there wasn't much gas left in the LPG tank. He then hung the LPG tank on the back of his bicycle, intending to go to the factory to refill it and also buy a can of oil and some seasonings.
In the afternoon, when Feng Haidong went to the factory to refill the liquefied gas tanks, he found that there weren't many people at the factory that afternoon.
So he didn't linger. Once the liquefied gas tank was full, he quickly left.
He went to the North City Market again, bought a large bucket of cooking oil and some seasonings, and then rushed home.
After all that running around to the factory and buying seasonings, it was almost 5 p.m. when Feng Haidong finally got home.
After calculating his son's dismissal time from school, Feng Haidong decided not to delay any longer and began to busy himself at home.
First, wash the peppercorns you bought, then stir-fry them on the lowest heat on the gas stove in the kitchen.
After frying the Sichuan peppercorns until fragrant, pour the prepared salt into the pot and continue to stir-fry over low heat until the salt turns slightly yellow. Finally, add a little fennel and sesame seeds to the pot and stir-fry.
Once the aroma is released, pour the contents of the pan onto a cutting board.
Feng Haidong used a rolling pin from home to roll the peppercorns, fennel seeds, and sesame seeds into a fine powder on the cutting board. Finally, he sifted the powder through a fine sieve he had bought that afternoon.
After the Sichuan peppercorn salt was made, Feng Haidong put it into a small jar.
Then, he went back to the yard, connected the stove and the gas, put the large pot he had bought earlier on the stove, and poured enough oil into the pot.
Once the oil is hot, coat the plucked shrimp tails with some cornstarch and then deep-fry them.
Because Feng Haidong was deep-frying the shrimp tails in the open air in the courtyard, the aroma of the fried shrimp tails instantly filled the entire residential compound.
Soon, the residents upstairs started peeking out of their homes, following the scent.
The residents upstairs from Feng Haidong's house were the first to discover it.
"Hey, I was wondering whose fried food smelled so good! Feng Haidong, why are you doing this right here in the yard?"
"So this is the flavor that comes from Lu Wanling's family?"
"Feng Haidong, what are you doing?"
"These past two days, your house has smelled delicious cooking every day. Have you struck it rich? You're eating so well every day! My son keeps saying my cooking is bad because of the smell of your food."
"Yes, my daughter says it every day too."
"Feng Haidong, what are you making that smells so good?"
Hearing his upstairs neighbors peeking out and asking him what he was doing, he realized...
Feng Haidong looked up at his upstairs neighbor and said, "Oh, it's nothing. It's just frying some crayfish tails. How could that make you rich? These are all small shrimp left over from the morning. They're worthless and very cheap."
As he spoke, Feng Haidong used a large slotted spoon to scoop the shrimp tails out of the pot.
The neighbors upstairs were also tempted when they saw Feng Haidong scoop out the yellow and red shrimp tails.
A neighbor who lived on the second floor of Feng Haidong's house saw him put another batch of shrimp tails into the pot after he took them out, and asked curiously, "Feng Haidong, how many did you buy?"
Feng Haidong looked up and laughed, saying, "Not much, maybe a dozen or so pounds."
Upon hearing "more than ten kilograms," the person on the second floor was immediately surprised: "More than ten kilograms? Are you planning to eat this as your main meal?"
Feng Haidong said frankly, "How could my family possibly eat this much? I plan to sell these at the night market tonight."
This statement startled the upstairs neighbors.
Soon everyone started asking questions all at once.
"Feng Haidong, are you going to start a business?"
"Sell them at the night market? Will these even sell?"
"Feng Haidong, why is your family suddenly going into business?"
"I've been wondering why you brought a cart home these past few days. Turns out you really are going to do business?"
"The food stalls at the night market seem to be doing pretty well at night, but will these shrimp tails fetch a good price? Will anyone actually eat them?"
Hearing the questions raised by his upstairs neighbors, Feng Haidong did not offer any further explanation.
As he scooped out the second batch of shrimp tails from the pot, he calmly replied, "I'm just going to give it a try. Our factory hasn't had any work for almost half a year, so I'm finding something to do."
Although Feng Haidong's response was rather bland, his words still caused a stir among the neighbors.
It's not that people have any aversion or disdain for business people.
After all, there are many people doing business nowadays, and the policies also allow everyone to do business.
What the neighbors didn't expect was that Feng Haidong would go into business.
The family compound where Feng Haidong's family lived was a house allocated to them by his wife's work unit. Although not everyone in the compound worked for the same unit, they all belonged to different enterprises under the commercial sector.
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