Chapter 108 [108] She is the happiest mother in the world.
A customer asked, "Madam, do you sell chili oil? I'd like to buy some to go back and eat with my rice. The food in the cafeteria is really bland."
Zhang Lancao asked, "It's sweet. You're not used to it, are you? No charge. I'll give you some."
As he spoke, his hands kept moving. He took a plastic bag and put some in it.
The customer said, "I'm a bricklayer. It's not sweet, it's boiled cabbage. It has no taste at all. Please fill me up with more, give me two cents worth."
As soon as this customer said this, another one also remembered the bad thing: "Boss, I want to buy two cents too. I'm almost vomiting from the boiled vegetables in our cafeteria."
With two customers taking the lead, more outsiders started to curse the black-hearted boss.
The situation is like this these days. Most outsiders work in illegal factories and construction sites. Few bosses will provide workers with decent food. They just have to make do with boiled cabbage and rice.
The food and accommodation are not as good as before, the work is hard, and the life of the lower-level workers is very difficult.
It is better to mix it with rice or pickles.
Zhang Lancao once again seized the opportunity. Since everyone needed chili sauce so much, should she make a special chili sauce for rice?
Since there were no customers in the store, she started thinking about this: if the workers bought hot sauce and brought it to class, it could also be a disguised way to promote their store.
If the hot sauce is well made, the store can add another source of income. What's more, this thing will not go bad. Once it is made, just put it in the jar.
Also, we are running a noodle shop, and this thing is easy to copy. If we can make outstanding chili sauce, the business of the store will always be guaranteed.
She decided to start making chili sauce tomorrow.
At the kindergarten gate, little Yuanyuan rested his legs on his mother's waist, rubbing his soft cheek against hers, and his tiny arms clung to her neck, like a little sloth clinging to a tree and refusing to let go: "Mom, Yuanyuan is a little sad."
"What's the matter?"
"I have to be separated from my mother again," Xiao Yuanyuan said with a bitter face: "It's so sad!"
Zhang Lancao suspected that she had to do this every morning. She suppressed her laughter and cooperated by pinching her chubby little cheeks. "Today I have a very difficult task for you. Mom wants to learn painting. If you learn well in school, go home and teach Mom how to paint, okay?"
Xiao Yuanyuan had no choice but to accept his fate: "Okay."
The people of Yucheng pickle cowpeas in winter. Zhang Lancao also pickles them every winter. It is easy to make. Soak the soybeans in water overnight. The steamer used to sell buns can be used. Put them on the pot and steam them until they can be powdered when squeezed. Put the steamed soybeans in the sun until the moisture is gone. Cover them with a fine steamer cloth and put straw on the top layer to ferment for 7 days. A layer of mold will grow on the surface of the soybeans. Then wash them clean, dry them, put them in a jar, add salt to preserve them, and use them at any time.
This kind of cowpea is fine for eating at home, but it is not tasty enough to sell. Zhang Lancao uses green onions and onions to stir-fry the oil to make it more fragrant, then adds red pepper and cowpea and stir-fries it again. Finally, sprinkles some sesame seeds and fried peanuts in it. It can be regarded as a dish.
She bought small glass jars to put the sauce in, selling it for 20 cents a bottle. The workers mixed it with rice, and boiled cabbage was no longer so difficult to swallow. She sold several bottles every day. Gradually, many people developed a habit of it, and they couldn't eat without the fermented black bean sauce. She sold more than a dozen bottles a day.
"Big sister, give me a few more bottles of your chili sauce," the older brother I first met at Laobanzhai walked in and said, "Your chili sauce is addictive. I can't even eat rice without it. It's just that your place is far away, and it's not easy to come here."
The mold grown on fermented soybeans is indeed addictive and you will want to eat it again and again.
Zhang Lancao didn't know the chemical reaction involved, but women are naturally empathetic. She put herself in the shoes of others and realized that she really liked eating cowpea rice.
When she heard this, she had an idea. The grocery store sells pickled mustard greens. What if she put this in the grocery store?
"If it were sold in a grocery store, would you buy it, brother?"
"Of course!"
"I just don't know if the grocery store is willing to sell it."
“Why don’t they do something that can make money?”
Zhang Lancao felt the customer was right. Taking advantage of the afternoon when no one was around, she took a dozen bottles and walked into the grocery store. She often bought things from her store and was quite familiar with it. "The chili sauce I make is very popular in my store. I sell it for 20 cents a bottle. I'll give you the purchase price of 18 cents. Are you willing to sell it to me?"
The owner of this grocery store is an old man who married into his wife's family. His children also take the woman's surname. He is usually very stingy. Naturally, this store is not his. He inherited it after his original wife passed away.
The reason why he is able to do business is entirely because his store is large and has a wide range of products. It is considered a large-scale store in this alley. With his attitude towards doing business, he will go bankrupt sooner or later, but he himself has no idea.
He looks down on all outsiders and has a strong sense of superiority.
He slanted his eyebrows, thinking Zhang Lancao was trying to rip him off: "What's so good about chili sauce? It's only 20 cents a bottle, and pickled mustard greens are only 2 cents a bag. You must be crazy about money."
Zhang Lancao's heart sank when she heard this. This old man obviously didn't look like Tang Aiguo at all. She just remembered her ex-husband.
She wasn't really good at arguing directly with people, but she was very annoyed. Why did he teach her a lesson? There was no point in accepting the wrath of outsiders, so she said, "My customers all pay 20 cents for it, and some even buy several bottles at a time. You may not be able to afford it, so it's normal that you don't want to buy it."
Old man: "...Who can't afford it? I'm the boss."
Zhang Lancao: "I am also a boss and I have my own shop."
The old man: "...You're so cocky opening a crappy noodle shop, but you might end up going bankrupt one day."
Zhang Lancao decided not to come to this old man's house to buy things anymore: "Even if your store goes bankrupt, mine won't."
She couldn't let this old man look down on her. She was determined to try another grocery store.
I took the chili sauce to the grocery store on the main road and said, "Madam, our customers all love this chili sauce. Do you want to try selling it? Sell it first and collect the money later. If it doesn't sell, I'll take it back."
The lady boss asked, "Can I try it?"
"become."
This chili sauce is not good for your mouth to get wet, and it won’t go bad if you don’t put the used spoon back.
The fragrance of fermented mold mycelium and soybeans is stimulated by stir-frying in oil. The peppers Zhang Lancao bought locally are not spicy and are more fragrant, which unintentionally appeals to a larger audience group.
The proprietress is a Shanghai native who prefers sweet foods to spicy ones. After taking her first bite, she actually wanted to dip a steamed bun in it, but Zhang Lancao moved the bottle away: "You can't eat it like that. It will spoil if your saliva touches it."
The lady boss smiled and said, "I bought this bottle myself. It's pretty good. You can sell it here."
Then he thought of something and said, "But nowadays, business is all about packaging. Look, this is just a transparent glass bottle with nothing on it. Look at pickled mustard greens, people even use a name for it."
These things were beyond Zhang Lancao's comprehension. After all, everyone in the store knew that she made them by hand, and no one asked her to put them on. But she had a particularly good advantage, which was that she could listen to other people's opinions: "How do I do this?"
The boss lady taught her: "Look at other people's cans. There are papers on them, stating the raw materials. If you go to a printing factory, they can produce this kind of thing. It shouldn't cost much."
Zhang Lancao thought this was true, so she rode her bicycle to the printing factory. At that time, she had already recognized hundreds of characters and could understand the road signs by herself, but it still took her a while to find them.
Zhang Lancao couldn't think of a better name, so the chili sauce used the same name as the store, Outsider Chili Sauce.
She originally planned to go back in ten days or so, but unexpectedly, the proprietress came to the store on the fifth day, settled the bill for the previous ten bottles, and took out another 20 bottles in one go.
The store was out of stock, so Zhang Lancao went directly to the grain and oil store and carried a sack of soybeans, intending to make more this time.
She was carrying the sacks to the store. Suddenly, a hand lifted up a handful of soybeans and took them. "Big sister, let me help you."
Zhang Lancao is very strong and can carry it herself, so she doesn't feel comfortable asking the customer to do it: "It's okay, I'm very strong."
Xu Fei walked towards the store while carrying soybeans and said, "This is not a job for you women. You should find a man so that someone can do the rough work."
Zhang Lancao: "I can carry it myself, I don't need anyone else." If she is really busy, she can also pay to hire someone.
She had a husband before, and in both of their lives, she did all the heavy work at home by herself.
Xu Fei put a sack of soybeans in the kitchen, wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "It's not easy for you to raise a child and run a store by yourself. Having a man means having a companion. Don't worry, I like Yuanyuan very much. I will treat her as my own daughter in the future."
Zhang Lancao: "No, I don't plan to look for it again."
As a single woman raising a child, many people will ask about the child's father.
Zhang Lancao always pulls people aside to explain: "My ex-husband is dead, but don't tell the children this."
Everyone expressed their understanding.
So everyone thought she was a widow.
In Zhang Lancao's mind, she was a widow and Tang Aiguo was as good as dead.
Xu Fei said: "It doesn't matter, I don't mind that you are a widow."
Zhang Lancao felt as if something was scraping against her ears. "It's not that I feel I'm not worthy of you. I will spend my whole life with my daughter alone and won't look for anyone else."
Xu Fei was stunned.
Although he works on a construction site, he is a skilled worker and earns 50 yuan a month. He is not married yet and his conditions are quite good. Is there anything else that Zhang Lancao is not satisfied with?
"No, it's so hard for you to run the store alone."
Zhang Lancao: "I didn't feel tired, I just felt happy."
She no longer had to serve others three meals a day. Every bowl of noodles she made could be exchanged for money. The amount in her passbook was getting bigger and bigger. She liked this feeling of having more.
These are the confidence she has in facing life.
There is no need for outsiders to tell her how she should live and spend money, and to keep telling her that a woman should know how to manage her life and serve her husband well, so as not to be criticized.
She had never lived so happily in her two lives.
Admittedly, running a shop is hard work. You have to wash hundreds of noodle bowls a day, and carry heavy coal and flour.
She had gone to buy flour in the wind and rain, and had also encountered unreasonable customers who refused to pay and bullied others.
She was not afraid of physical pain, but what made her even more uncomfortable was the pain in her heart.
She had only been able to gain this freedom in two lifetimes, and she would never set foot in it again.
After Zhang Lancao made this batch of chili sauce, she went to several grocery stores. The sales were not very noticeable at first, but after about two months, the advantage of the repurchase rate came into play and the sales speed increased significantly.
Zhang Lancao wondered whether she should supply more grocery stores.
She had a hunch that making chili sauce was a lucrative business.
Her noodle shop can now earn about 11 or 12 yuan a day steadily, which is probably the limit.
It’s still more profitable to make chili sauce. There are so many grocery stores in Shanghai.
Zhang Lancao figured it out and just did it. There was no reason not to do a more profitable business. She spent 50 cents to hire an aunt to wash dishes in the store, so that she could save two hours a day to sell chili sauce.
The convenience store can try selling products first without spending any money, who wouldn’t want that?
She rode her bicycle and stocked up all the grocery stores within a five-kilometer radius, except, of course, the dead old man's house that was closest to her.
In 1982, landline phones were not so popular. If you installed one privately, the installation fee alone would be two thousand yuan, which was unaffordable for ordinary businessmen. Zhang Lancao's store was far from the main road, and public phones could not reach her store. She could only go there every now and then to check on the goods, replenish the stock, and settle the bill.
Zhang Lancao is very busy every day. She is either in the noodle shop or taking chili sauce to the grocery store to restock the stock.
Along with your mood, your wallet is also getting fatter!
Pang Juan's daughter is learning piano. She said that little girls should be well trained and have many talents to learn.
Zhang Lancao is now very confident. She has earned nearly 500 yuan this month, not including the goods she sells in the grocery store. So she sent them to her piano teacher to let her try.
It is indeed expensive, costing 30 cents for a class, but for Zhang Lancao now, it is just a drop in the bucket.
"Yuanyuan, do you like learning piano?"
"dislike."
"So what do you want to learn?"
"Fighting," Xiao Yuanyuan pointed at the martial arts movie on the black and white TV, "Fight the bad guys, don't dare to bully mom."
Zhang Lancao felt warm in her heart.
This happened more than a month ago. A customer finished his noodles and left without paying, so she chased him and argued with him.
The other party showed no apology, probably thinking that she was a woman who was easy to bully and that he couldn't do anything to her. He relied on his physical strength to glare at her and raise his voice to intimidate her, "I just won't give it to you, what can you do? Do you believe I will beat you up?"
Xiao Yuanyuan picked up a stone and threw it over: "Bad guy, bullying mom!"
Xiao Yuanyuan's aim was surprisingly accurate, and the scoundrel was hit on the head: "You damn girl, you..."
"If you dare to touch my daughter, just try!" Zhang Lancao glared at the man, and her gentle and delicate facial lines burst out with terrifying ferocity.
It's like a mother wolf staring at an animal. If anyone dares to hurt her daughter's hair, she will show her claws and fight to the death.
The man was shocked by her ferocity, swallowed his saliva, and strode away.
Pang Juan once asked her if she wanted to look for another one, as she felt it was a bit pitiful for her to take care of her daughter alone without a pillar of support in the family.
Zhang Lancao felt that she was not pitiful at all.
She is the happiest mother in the world.
It's hard not to love a mother like this.
It's hard not to love a daughter like this.
They all live for each other.
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