Volume 1: Reborn in the 1980s, selling lunch boxes with my mother Chapter 104 Boss Tong's Little Thoughts
Time flies and it’s Mid-Autumn Festival again.
This year's Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival of great significance, not only for Hu Qiongfang and her son, but also for the Hu and He families.
Two weeks before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Hu Qiongfang's house was finally completed!
Building houses in rural areas in this era did not have as many decoration techniques as in later generations. After the house was built, they would paint the walls with white lime, and then wait for the walls to dry before they could move in.
Those who are more particular will even paste the ceiling.
Hu Qiongfang only had a layer of ceiling pasted on the room where the third mother lived, and the roofs of the remaining rooms were empty. However, the family had to open a shop to sell food, and it would be smoky and fire-filled all day long, so it would be inconvenient to paste the ceiling. By then, the roof would be dirty and drip oil, so it would be better to leave it empty.
The house was built, and Grandpa Hu secretly asked someone to choose an auspicious day. Hu Qiongfang officially moved into the new home with her two children.
According to local customs, when building a house or moving into a new home, one must hold a banquet and entertain guests. Hu Qiongfang discussed it with her daughter, and neither mother nor daughter wanted to invite Jiang Lesheng. But if they were to hold a banquet for the move, they could not avoid this brother-in-law. In the end, Hu Qiongfang simply decided not to hold a banquet.
The three families who helped with the move had a meal together.
Of course, all members of Grandpa Hu's family joined in the effort, even the children who were in school took time off to come back and help.
Wang Chunjuan and Han Dajun also came to help, but their two children were in school and did not come during the day. They waited until dinner time to bring them over.
Even the new neighbor, Mr. Tong, the owner of the gas station, personally gave me a pair of brand new big red thermos as gifts.
Although Mr. He and his wife did not show up in person, they asked someone to send a gift to Hu Qiongfang: another pair of thermos bottles with a picture of magpies climbing on plum trees printed on them.
"Fortunately, my family owns a store, otherwise there would be so many thermos bottles that we would never be able to use them again." Looking at the room full of thermos bottles, Jiang Tian couldn't help but frown.
The new house was better than Jiang Tian had imagined. There were four rooms in front, the easternmost one, two small rooms on the north and south sides, and a large south-facing room with two beds, which was her and Hu Qiongfang's bedroom.
The small room on the north side is my younger brother Jiang Cheng ’s bedroom and study.
The three rooms on the west side are directly connected. There is a cashier counter at the entrance and a row of display cabinets at the back, which can be used to sell cigarettes, alcohol, beverages and other things in the future.
Next to the cashier is the ordering area.
Nowadays, small restaurants along provincial roads are not as sophisticated as they are in later generations. They just have menus written on whiteboards or cardboard, and when customers come to eat, they just order according to the menu.
Jiang Tian spent some money on the "ordering area" and begged her uncle for help. She built a display cabinet with wood, glass and screens, just like the stewed food shops of later generations. She placed the prepared food in it, and when customers came, they could order whatever they saw. When there were no customers, she would pull the screens so that even flies could not fly in.
What's even more hilarious is that as soon as their display cabinet was put up, several restaurant owners nearby came to Hu Qiongfang to ask which carpenter she had made the display cabinet. They also wanted to find someone to make the same one.
Before Hu Qiongfang could react, Jiang Tian asked her uncle to come out and take the order.
Why not do a business that comes to your doorstep?
Small business owners in this era do whatever makes money. If someone wants a display cabinet and my uncle knows how to make it, why not take over the job?
Anyway, there is no patent protection these days. If you don't do it, others will turn around and bring a carpenter to take a look and copy your stuff in no time.
My uncle was a little hesitant at first because his family was going to build a house soon.
The second uncle acted decisively and sent his brother back home to make money.
"Just go and make cabinets for people. Building a house requires help anyway. I can hire one more person, and it won't cost much per day. At most, you can pay for the help."
My second uncle can also repair some wooden furniture, but when it comes to carpentry skills, my eldest uncle is the best. He has learned this craft from a master carpenter.
Making cabinets for others, such as the display cabinets in my girl's house, is not difficult at all. One can be made in two days. Excluding consumables , you can earn at least ten dollars.
How much does it cost to hire a laborer? Of course, you can earn more by making cabinets for others .
The children were busy making money, and Grandpa Hu was not idle either. Just as Jiang Tian had guessed, the whole family was living on the provincial road, and Grandpa could not stay in his hometown alone.
Grandpa Hu’s daily routine now is to pick vegetables from his own vegetable garden in the morning. If it is not enough, he will pay to buy some from the village.
After harvesting the vegetables, he would drive the family’s ox cart slowly towards the town.
When we get to the provincial road, it's usually around nine in the morning. We unload the vegetables, help our daughter pick and wash them, and work until noon. After lunch, we drive the ox cart back slowly.
In the meantime, I also took some time to visit my wife who was selling rice balls at the gas station.
Grandma Hu now counts the money she earns from the stall every day. She is almost dizzy with joy. Sometimes, if she sells late at night, she just stays at her daughter's house.
The old man saw that even his wife didn't come home, so he quickly urged his second son to build his own house.
Hu Jianjun has been busy like a top lately, spinning around.
First, I found a few people from home to help cut down all the messy small trees and weeds on the land and piled them aside. After they were dried, they could be sent to my younger sister's box lunch room as firewood.
Then we hired someone to clean out the garbage that had been piled up there for years, and we dug the stinking ditch at the back two meters deep.
When they dug one-third of the way, the water source appeared, and it was actually a pool of living water!
Hu Jianjun was overjoyed and spent a little more money to dig a well at the water outlet.
The open-air wellhead was soon filled with water, which flowed into the pond along the drainage ditch reserved next to the well platform.
Hu Jianjun had people build a platform with red bricks and cement on three sides of the well, so that it would be very convenient for his family to wash clothes, vegetables, etc. here in the future.
It took nearly half a month just to clean the foundation.
Work was suspended for two days to allow the workers to go home and celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Hu Jianjun also went back to the village to celebrate the festival with his mother, sister and her family.
Tong Zhiyuan's appetite has been spoiled by Hu Qiongfang's boxed lunches and Grandma Hu's glutinous rice balls. During this holiday season, both businesses were closed, and Boss Tong suddenly felt empty.
Oh! I don't know if Sister Qiongfang has any plans to remarry.
If she was willing, Tong Zhiyuan would really like to ask a matchmaker to try.
At his age, with two children, it would be a bit naive and ridiculous for him to talk about "pursuing love".
Boss Tong just wants to find a good woman who is willing to live a stable life with him.
How about waiting until after the festival to find out what Grandma Hu has to say?
