The next day, they arrived at the construction site at 10:45 a.m. as usual. There seemed to be a few people waiting at the entrance, including Qiao Guoxing.
When Qiao Guoxing finished work in the evening, he discussed it with his wife and decided that he would buy a boxed lunch at the entrance of the canteen after work at noon and take it to the canteen. When she got off work, the two of them would eat the canteen food together with the boxed lunch, so that they could eat their fill and have a good meal.
Seeing a tall, thin man riding a tricycle in the distance, followed by a burly young man, one knew that Xu An and his group had arrived.
Qiao Guoxing squinted hard, trying to see the dishes in today's boxed lunch.
Boiled sliced pork, winter melon and meatball soup, braised tofu, and night-blooming cereus soup; eight yuan a serving.
Just looking at the names of the dishes made Qiao Guoxing's mouth water.
As soon as Xu An parked his car, Qiao Guoxing rushed to the front of the car, opened the styrofoam box, took out a boxed lunch, and handed it to Xu An to fill with soup.
The other workers gathered around, and two of them even bought some for their fellow workers, one taking three portions and the other taking four.
The first styrofoam box was more than half empty.
From the moment this group started, they never stopped working. Xu An was in charge of collecting money, giving change, and handing out meals; Xu Le handed out soup containers; Xu Heping ladled out soup; and Xu Kang put on the lids. The small assembly line was running smoothly.
When Uncle Dongliang arrived with a group of workers, there were only eight boxed meals left, which they devoured, leaving several people without any left.
Xu An made a total of forty-five servings today, thinking that if they sold slowly over a long period of time, they would be sold out. However, they were sold out in less than an hour.
The group of people who didn't manage to buy any boxed meals complained a little, but Xu An gave each of them a bowl of night-blooming cereus soup before they reluctantly left.
Xu Dongliang had been worried that Xu An's business wouldn't survive without his help. Now, seeing the situation, he was finally relieved; even without his help, the business had succeeded.
Today, the canteen at the construction site was still serving noodles, but the topping had been changed to meat sauce, which was more substantial than yesterday's topping that only had a few shreds of meat.
Most workers didn't have much of a problem with the canteen, since it was free and they were happy as long as it filled their stomachs.
As they were engrossed in eating their noodles, they suddenly smelled the aroma of meat.
The fresh, spicy aroma attracted the attention of many people, who looked around to find the source of the smell, and finally their gaze settled in the direction where Qiao Guoxing and his wife were.
The two of them lined up the boxed lunches they had bought from Xu An on the table and ate them with great relish, along with the meat sauce noodles from the cafeteria.
Seeing how much they were enjoying their meal, everyone suddenly felt that their own bowl of meat sauce noodles didn't taste so good anymore.
Someone moved closer and sat down next to Qiao Guoxing, patted him on the shoulder, and asked bluntly, "Hey buddy, which restaurant makes this lunchbox? It looks like a lot of dishes. How much is it?"
Qiao Guoxing, being straightforward, swallowed his food and replied, "There's a stall outside the factory that sells this for only eight yuan."
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his toe. Looking down, he saw that his wife had stepped on his foot.
Qiao Guoxing looked at his wife with an innocent expression and asked, "What's wrong?"
After the man left, his wife muttered under her breath, "That stall doesn't serve many boxed meals, only thirty or forty. There are five or six hundred people at the construction site. If more people find out, will you still be able to buy any?"
"Do you think the boss is stupid? If business is good, he'll definitely make more to sell. There are a lot more boxed meals today than yesterday, so there's no worry about not being able to buy them," Qiao Guoxing said with a smile.
"When there are more boxed meals, will there still be so much vegetables and meat? Many restaurants and fast food outlets start with large portions and affordable prices, but once business gets good, they start cutting corners."
These words filled Qiao Guoxing with regret.
"What's said is said, and there's no going back." Qiao Guoxing secretly decided: "Whenever he cuts corners, we won't buy it."
Because of the increased quantity, the average cost is 50 cents less than yesterday, and the net profit for 40 boxed meals is 100 yuan.
Based on the current sales volume, even if we add ten more tomorrow, we can still sell them.
The next morning, I went to Baldy Chen's shop and picked up fifteen jin of meat, seven jin of which was pork belly. For vegetables, I prepared potatoes and bok choy from my second uncle Xu Guoqiang's house.
Today we had to prepare fifty boxed meals. Grandma Xu even helped pick vegetables while lying in her rocking chair. We rushed as fast as we could and barely made it before eleven o'clock.
Some workers who finished work early were waiting at the door at 10:40, but Xu An didn't show up by 10:50. They assumed he wasn't coming to set up his stall today and had gone to the restaurant across the street to eat.
Qiao Xingguo waited under the shade of the tree after getting off work at 10:30. He had been dozing off twice but hadn't woken up from his nap. He was also wondering what was going on.
'Could it be that they go back and decide it's a bad deal, so they won't come back?'
By the time the clock struck 58, Qiao Xingguo's wife had already come out.
"What about that little stall that sells boxed lunches?"
"They haven't come yet, and we don't know if they'll even come."
"Wait five more minutes. If they're still not here, hurry up and go to the cafeteria. Otherwise, with so many people, you don't know how long you'll have to wait in line."
Xu An did not disappoint everyone's wait. He appeared at 11 o'clock sharp, riding his tricycle. There were still two little children sitting on the tricycle, followed by the young man on a bicycle.
The crowd first looked at the whiteboard tied to Xu An's car. Today's dishes were: braised pork, wolf tooth potatoes, bok choy, and mung bean soup.
Seeing that braised pork was on today's menu, everyone got excited, afraid of being left behind, and rushed to grab their boxed lunches.
They carried the boxed lunches in their hands and waited patiently for Xu Heping to serve them mung bean soup.
Although this group only consisted of five or six people, they sold sixteen boxed meals.
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