«Chapter 8»
By the time she’d finished all that, it was already past five o’clock in the afternoon. Come to think of it, Li Lanlan felt she was the very picture of a woman of action; whenever an idea struck her, she’d spring into action immediately, without the slightest delay.
By a little past five in the afternoon, the sky over Jing City had already begun to darken. Li Lanlan, carrying her gear and pushing her little trolley, made her way towards the office block, proceeding with great care, terrified that everything might spill out before she even reached her destination.
This was a fifty-yuan note, after all!
Fifty yuan was worth its weight in gold these days!
Li Lanlan pedalled the little tricycle with great effort, having to watch out for pedestrians all the way—mainly because this wasn’t one of those electric tricycles that would come along a few years later.
This was a human-powered tricycle, requiring her to pedal it along stroke by stroke.
At that moment, she missed Wang Dashan back home terribly; if Wang Dashan were here, she wouldn’t have to do this back-breaking work.
Li Fangfang watched Li Lanlan pedalling the little tricycle towards them from a distance. She gave her husband, Zhang Zhiyong, a slap on the thigh. The pain made Zhang Zhiyong jump straight up from his chair, muttering, “What’s it got to do with me now?”
“Quick, keep an eye on the stall—I’m going to meet someone!”
With that, she hurried off towards Li Lanlan. “Oh my, Lanlan, that feisty, no-nonsense nature of yours really is just my cup of tea.
We only spoke about it at lunchtime, and by this afternoon you’ve got everything sorted. That’s the way it should be—what’s the point of doing business if you’re always dithering about like that!”
As she spoke, she pushed Li Lanlan’s little tricycle over to the side of her own stall.
“Lanlan, just set up right next to me. I’ve got a prime spot here—the kids head straight this way as soon as they come out. Business is booming; I can’t keep up!”
There was a large empty space next to Li Fangfang’s grilled sausage stall, so Li Lanlan took her advice and set up her stall there.
Once she’d unpacked everything, Li Lanlan placed the sauce pot on the briquette stove. As soon as she lifted the lid, the aroma wafted out.
Li Fangfang’s eyes were fixed on the pot. Li Lanlan took a paper bowl, filled it with a handful of potato slices, poured a spoonful of piping hot sauce over them, and handed it to Li Fangfang.
Li Fangfang snatched it up, dipped it in the sauce, and took a hearty mouthful. She didn’t stop until she’d finished the whole bowl, then gave a thumbs-up.
“ ‘Lalan, your cooking is absolutely brilliant! Your business is bound to thrive! No, no, don’t give it to us—we’ll buy it. These are business supplies; you can’t just be giving them away bowl by bowl. It’s a small-scale business, so just think of this as me being a big sister, helping you get your business off the ground!’
Li Fangfang took the second bowl Li Lalan handed her and had her husband fetch five yuan to hand over.
“Sister Fangfang, aren’t you embarrassing me? You’ve helped me so much, and I’m treating you to some potato slices yet still asking for money—what sort of person would I be!”
Seeing that Li Lanlan simply wouldn’t accept it, Li Fangfang had no choice but to say, “All right, Lanlan, I’ll let you off this time, but you must take my money next time!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll definitely take it next time. If I don’t, you can keep an eye on me!”
Watching this, Li Fangfang felt that this Lanlan was exactly her sort—straightforward in character and generous with her money. She was someone worth getting to know, so she couldn’t be stingy either.
She had Zhang Zhiyong wrap up two grilled sausages and two pieces of wheat dough, then handed them over. “Lanlan, have a taste. These are homemade and taste pretty good. It’s not just the kids from the cram school who love them—even our own children can’t get enough of them!”
Li Lanlan took them and had a bite; they did taste rather good.
“Sister Fangfang, how much are you selling these for? I’d like to use that as a reference to set a price for my crisps too!”
“Fifty cents a stick—that’s the price for both!”
Li Lanlan had a rough idea now. Those grilled sausages were the kind of starch-based sausages sold in later times. Her plastic bowl was quite large, so she decided to sell a bowl for fifty cents as well—that seemed about right.
By now, a steady stream of children on their way to cram school had arrived. Spotting the new stall with its rich aroma, some of the curious ones made their way over.
A chubby little boy approached. He looked plump and round—truly befitting the capital; the child was quite chubby. Back home, he’d be the grandchild of every elderly person’s dreams.
He addressed Li Fangfang first: “Auntie, one grilled sausage and one piece of wheat glutinous dumpling!”
Li Fangfang had everything prepared in advance; she just needed to warm it up slightly. After handing over the money, he walked over to Li Lanlan.
“Auntie, how much are your potato slices?”
“This bowl is one portion, and it’s fifty fen.
Li Lanlan was still a bit nervous; a portion like this wasn’t even half a potato, and she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to sell it!
The chubby boy cheerfully pulled out a one-yuan note and handed it to Li Lanlan: “Give me two portions, please!”
Li Lanlan deftly packed the food and handed it over, collecting the money. It was like finding money on the ground—she’d earned a whole yuan in just a few moments!
As the crowd grew, Li Lanlan became busier and busier. By seven o’clock, the crowd had thinned out a bit. Li Lanlan took a look and realised she’d almost sold out; only a bit of the broth remained.
No wonder, in later times, businesspeople from this era would say that doing business back then was like picking up money—it all depended on whether you were willing to bend down.
And she certainly was—she was more than willing!
Li Fangfang and the others had prepared quite a lot of ingredients. After this rush, most of what they’d prepared had been sold, so now they were getting ready for the next round.
“Lalan, it’s your first day here, so you didn’t prepare enough. There’s still a rush at eight and nine o’clock!”
“I’m not greedy; selling this much today is already pretty good!”
Li Lanlan smiled cheerfully. After saying goodbye to Li Fangfang and her husband, she pedalled her tricycle back home. When she arrived, the elderly Wang couple were out; she reckoned she’d be on her own tonight, so she went into the kitchen to wash up all the pots, pans and bowls.
She then took everything to her room and put it away.
Only then did she start counting the money. Li Lanlan counted the notes one by one, interspersed with some coins; the total came to eighty-seven yuan and fifty fen, all earned in less than two hours. Most of today’s costs had gone on the pot, the coal stove, and two large buckets, whilst the potatoes themselves had cost less than ten yuan in total. The profit margin was truly enormous.
Li Lanlan had previously toiled away at menial jobs and had never considered running her own business. What’s more, her cooking skills in her younger days were, frankly, nothing to write home about.
Whenever her mother came to visit, the first thing she did was put down the things she’d brought for her, and the second was to cook. Even as a young girl, she’d hated cooking and wasn’t very good at it; she’d cut potatoes thicker than chopsticks.
This was quite a rarity in a farming family, given that her mother had been standing on a small stool to cook for the whole family since she was just over five years old.
Li Lanlan, however, would much rather roam the hills and fields digging for medicinal herbs, catching scorpions, or pushing a handcart to the county town to sell vegetables than do housework or cook at home.
Jia Fanghua had long since given up on trying to set her straight, so she simply made a little extra each time and urged her son-in-law to learn to cook a bit.
Unfortunately, both were masters of laziness: one would steam plain buns, whilst the other would slice potatoes into strands as thick as chopsticks. Even when the children were howling with hunger, they wouldn’t touch their parents’ ‘masterpieces’; for a time, the family even resorted to buying noodles from the shop every day.
With six of them, a single meal would set us back over thirty yuan – it was a real drain on the wallet. Only then did the two of them learn to cook; actually, it tasted quite good. Later on, the children took over the cooking, and she and Wang Dashan would get told off by Jia Fanghua every time.
The truth was, after a day’s work outside, they were so exhausted they couldn’t bear to move. Although her work was a little lighter than Wang Dashan’s, it wasn’t much better.
It was impossible to balance work and family, especially for an ordinary family like theirs. If they insisted on trying, one of them would inevitably end up worn out and gaunt.
But society is inherently harsher on women, expecting them to be both a perfect hostess and a skilled cook.
She only picked up these cooking skills after the children had gone off to university; it was out of sheer boredom that she gradually learnt from short-video platforms.
It was truly a dull time back then, sitting in the shop all day. Although she was sheltered from the wind and rain, she’d lost a little bit of her freedom.
Being someone who’s used to a laid-back lifestyle, she really couldn’t get used to it.
Looking at those stacks of small change piled up here, it really felt like looking at her own little darling—so endearing and precious.
She’d recouped her costs in a single day and made over thirty yuan—in just one day!
But if she were to do this long-term, she couldn’t keep milking her employer like this; she’d have to rent a place of her own to work from.
After all, doing it here once or twice was fine, but it certainly wouldn’t work in the long run. Regardless of whether they minded or not, it simply wasn’t the right way to go about things.
She had no idea if there were any flats to rent in this sort of compound, or how expensive they might be. She’d brought a thousand yuan with her when she came to the capital, and after buying her ticket, she had just over eight hundred left. She wasn’t sure if that would be enough to rent a place.
Li Lanlan decided to ask Wang Caixia; she’d been here a long time and knew her way around.
Once she’d tidied up, Li Lanlan went to sleep.
In Yulong Village, Ningzhou County, just as Li Lanlan was drifting off to a peaceful sleep, Wang Dashan was in the midst of a terrible crisis. One child was worth five thousand ducks; four children meant twenty thousand. His second daughter, in particular, was worth twenty thousand ducks all on her own.
Just a couple of days ago, everything had been fine. The children had come to their grandmother’s house, where their older brothers and sisters were looking after them. Wang Dashan had thought the children had all but forgotten about their mother; he had breathed a sigh of relief, believing the worst was over.
However, he had underestimated a child’s attachment to their mother. As a result, that very evening he heard that his younger brother’s sons were demanding to go back to their mother.
These children have also started asking for their mother. Before Lanlan left for Beijing, she’d already made arrangements with the eldest, telling the child that Mummy was going to her aunt’s house to earn money to buy her tasty treats, which had kept the child quiet.
Wang Dashan gave the eldest two yuan in pocket money to keep him quiet. As for why he didn’t tell the second child?
Mainly because this child is a real clingy one; just as a sloth cannot leave the tree, this child cannot be separated from her mother for a single moment of the day.
Her mother must be within her sight. Previously, when bringing the child here, they had told her they were coming to Grandma’s house to eat delicious food, and that had fooled her.
A couple of days ago, he’d managed to fool her by saying Mum would be back in a couple of days. Children are so innocent; seeing Dad here, she believed him.
But the child is also very clever. Sure enough, on the third day she started making a fuss, wailing and crying her eyes out.
Before his second child was born, Wang Dashan had always thought that children couldn’t be all that difficult to handle. If a child was disobedient, a good spanking would sort things out—though he didn’t actually hit his children.
Then he met his second child, that little rascal!