Volume 1: Reborn in the 1980s, selling lunch boxes with my mother Chapter 39: Opening a noodle shop?
What Jiang Tian didn't know was that ever since Jiang Cheng was bullied at school and the principal took sides, Hu Qiongfang had wanted to transfer her son to another school.
Children without parents are easily bullied in the village.
I originally thought that the school should be better, after all, there are teachers watching over me.
But who would have thought that it would be fine in normal times, but once Jiang Cheng had a conflict with his classmates, since there was no man to support them in their family, even the principal had to advise them to be patient.
Jiang Cheng was bullied by several senior students that day. If Jiang Tian hadn't gone to the police station to report the case and made a big deal out of it, there is a high probability that his family would have had to swallow their anger .
What else can we do?
She was a woman, and she couldn't beat the fathers of those students.
If Jiang Cheng goes to school to make trouble and offends the principal and the class teacher, what will he do if he is bullied by teachers in school in the future?
They were lucky this time, the police station was willing to take care of the matter, but what about next time? What about the next time?
Everyone in the village knew that she was a widow with a child and was easy to bully. The adults ignored them, and the children saw it, so of course they followed suit and bullied Jiang Cheng, who had lost his father, at school.
Why did everyone in the village advise her to find another man to marry as soon as possible?
After all, no one had any bad intentions. They just thought that if she found another one, there would be a man at home to support her, and no one would dare to bully the three of them.
But life doesn't work that way.
Didn't Hu Qiongfang have a man before? Didn't her man make money?
If a man has a biased and mean mother-in-law, no matter how much money he earns, his wife and children will still have a hard life.
There are also those women in the village who are often beaten black and blue by their own men. Outsiders do not bully them. Instead, they are bullied by the husbands who they think will protect their wives and children.
Even for the sake of her two children growing up safely, Hu Qiongfang no longer wants to find another man.
The solution she thought of was to move to a place near the provincial road with her son and daughter.
In this way, Jiang Cheng can transfer to the primary school in the town, and Jiang Tian can go back to junior high school next year, which is closer to commute.
But if this happens, it will be impossible to catch eels.
Hu Qiongfang was still hesitant at first. After all, the bulk of the family's income now came from selling loaches and eels. If she didn't live in the village anymore, it would be inconvenient to do this.
But something that Hu Qiongfang saw in Li Guifen's store today suddenly gave her an inspiration.
"Originally, we adults should worry about things like making money. I told you this just because I didn't want you to worry. Don't worry, even if we move, Mom can still support you."
Hu Qiongfang slowly and briefly explained her plan to her two children.
"Today when I was selling eels in someone's shop, I happened to meet someone who couldn't get used to the rice here, so I asked the boss if I could make him two bowls of eel noodles."
"I didn't expect that a bowl of eel noodles could be sold for two yuan in a store."
"The eel shreds covering the noodles, I estimate, used at most half a pound of yellow eel, the rest were onions, green and red peppers, and the pulled noodles in the bowl were at most three ounces."
"I calculated that a bowl of noodles like this costs at most one dollar, but the store can sell it for two dollars. After deducting the cost of rent, coal cakes, oil and salt, the store can make at least 50 cents."
"I make 50 cents on a bowl of noodles, so 10 bowls is 5 yuan. If I can sell 100 bowls of noodles for three meals a day, I can make a net profit of 50 yuan."
Hearing her mother say this, Jiang Tian's eyes lit up: "Mom, this business can be done!"
"Think about it, everyone coming and going on the provincial road is in a hurry. Not everyone can stop the car, order a few dishes, and spend two hours eating a meal, right?"
"Making noodles is different. We prepare the toppings in advance. When customers come, we cook the noodles directly and then cover them with the toppings . A bowl of noodles can be served from the time it is put into the pot to the table in just a few minutes."
"If there are long-distance buses coming here to eat noodles, with 40 to 50 people on each bus, and a few more buses coming every day, our business will not have to worry about not making money."
Hu Qiongfang poked her daughter's forehead with amusement: "How many buses are there in a few days? You are so beautiful!"
Jiang Tian chuckled: "If we don't have a bus, a truck will do. Mom, you see, many trucks are in a hurry to get on the road. They don't have time to stop and order food, but they always have time to stop and eat a bowl of noodles, right?"
"Just do as I say. We'll prepare the toppings in advance and cook the noodles when the customers arrive. After the noodles are cooked, let the customers choose the toppings themselves. Our noodles cook quickly, and those truck drivers can have a hot meal of noodles within a few minutes of getting off the truck. Do you think they would be willing to come to our restaurant to eat?"
Jiang Tian originally wanted to persuade her mother to open a shop on the provincial road to sell boxed lunches.
But these two times when she strolled around the provincial road, she didn't find the white foam lunch boxes of later generations. When she thought about it carefully, it seemed that this kind of foam lunch box would not appear on the streets for another two years.
Although there are now food vendors along the provincial highway, they all cook the meals at home, just like the mechanic's wife did before, and put them in covered aluminum pots, which are then kept warm on a coal stove.
People of this generation usually bring an aluminum lunch box when they go out, and when they buy food outside, they also use their own lunch boxes.
After all, the price level is still very low at this time, a meal is not expensive to begin with, and if you add the cost of a foam lunch box, how can the boss still make money?
After realizing this, Jiang Tian felt quite disappointed, but unexpectedly, the simple Ms. Hu gave her such a big surprise!
Yes, we can’t sell boxed lunches, but we can open a noodle shop first.
She is not bragging, but the hand-rolled noodles made by Ms. Hu are something you will always remember after having eaten them once.
As for the toppings, that’s not a problem at all, as this is her “field of expertise”!
After sending her younger brother to do his homework, Jiang Tian took a pencil and an old notebook and wrote a few inscriptions for Hu Qiongfang on the spot.
There is plenty of seafood here and it is cheap, so the first choice for toppings is still various kinds of seafood.
Shredded eel noodles, river shrimp noodles, and smoked fish noodles are all common.
Jiang Tian also gave her mother an idea. In addition to these dishes, she could also stir-fry some sour beans and minced meat, stir-fried pork liver with sour peppers, shredded pork with green peppers, etc. every day, and also make some braised eggs, braised dried tofu, braised pork head, braised tofu skin, etc. as side dishes.
"For example, if you order a bowl of shredded eel noodles, it costs two yuan. If the customer wants to add other toppings, they don't have to order a separate bowl of noodles. They can just pay more for the toppings."
"We can charge for the toppings separately. A serving of sour beans and minced meat is 30 cents, stir-fried pork liver with sour peppers is 50 cents, shredded pork with green peppers is 20 cents, and braised eggs and braised dried tofu are also charged separately."
Hu Qiongfang's eyes lit up. This was a good idea!
