Food: Selling Boxed Meals at a Construction Site

At three o’clock, the workers’ afternoon shift began, and the cafeteria could finally close up shop.

"No one else is coming. Let’s close up and clean," the serving lady said, poking her head out to look. The place was empty.

Phew~

The three people in the kitchen all let out a collective sigh of relief.

"We finally got through it. You’re amazing, Sister Wang. You knew the inspectors were coming ahead of time and made sure we were fully prepared."

"It was still a bit rushed. I heard there will be three inspections, so we’d better stay on our toes from now on." Sister Wang praised as she cleared the trays from the counter, "Qiangzi, you did great today. Thanks to your shady... friends, we were able to get all the ingredients prepped. You should find some time in the next few days to take them out for a meal or karaoke to thank them."

"Okay, Sis. Can I get it reimbursed?" Wang Qiang immediately stopped playing his game when he heard that.

"Yes, I’ll reimburse you for all of it. But don’t go crazy."

"You got it."

After getting permission, Wang Qiang dusted off his pants and swaggered out.

Sister Wang watched him go, feeling a bit emotional. ’That kid is finally starting to settle down and focus on proper work, not just fooling around like before.’

Her gaze returned to her work, but she couldn’t help but wonder about something.

Yesterday, the workers had gathered and caused a fuss, so she had originally planned to just get by today with the bare minimum.

But unexpectedly, at nine this morning, she got a sudden call from the construction site’s logistics manager, saying someone would be coming to inspect the cafeteria’s food quality today.

In the rush, she had to rely on Qiangzi’s shady friends to get all the ingredients together in time and have everything ready before the lunch rush.

But because they were so busy, she hadn’t had time to calculate the costs.

With two big meat dishes like today’s, the budget was definitely blown. This meal was a losing venture.

The next day at four in the morning, Xu An woke up precisely one second before his alarm went off. He rode his bicycle to the town’s wholesale market to pick up the meat he had ordered yesterday, a round trip that took an hour and twenty minutes.

He would be able to move the freezer home this afternoon. After that, he wouldn’t have to spend over an hour every morning making a trip to the wholesale market for meat.

He could just buy meat at the market in the afternoon after closing up shop. The price of meat was fifty cents cheaper per jin in the afternoon, and those fifty cents saved would be pure profit.

Going from fifty bento boxes to sixty was only an increase of ten, but the workload had doubled.

With fifty boxes, the family’s heirloom-sized iron wok could just barely handle it all in one go. But with ten more, one batch wasn’t enough; he had to cook everything in two separate batches.

Still, stir-frying in two batches allowed the ingredients to absorb more flavor, which could be considered a silver lining.

As of today, Xu An and Xu Heping had been running their stall at the Zijing Garden construction site for nine days. They were very familiar with the situation there and had even built up a base of regular customers.

Therefore, Xu An felt confident leaving the bento box business here to Xu Heping while he went to the Hai City Library construction site to expand their sales.

Although this construction site wasn’t huge, there were two smaller ones nearby. The total number of workers across all three sites was over three hundred.

If that didn’t work out, there was another site with over two hundred people a bit farther away.

Xu An refused to believe that he couldn’t even sell thirty bento boxes across these four sites.

Since Xu An and Xu Heping were working separately today, it wasn’t convenient to bring Xu Kang and Xu Le along, so the two children started throwing a tantrum.

In the end, only after Xu An promised to bring them back some tanghulu and super-awesome stickers did the two of them obediently agree to stay home with their grandmother.

They left fifteen minutes earlier than usual today, arriving at the entrance of the Zijing Garden construction site at 10:30.

The fried noodle stall was already set up. Today, they were obediently off to the side, not occupying Xu An’s spot.

’They must have asked around after they went back yesterday and found out we really do have a temporary stall permit, so they don’t dare cause trouble anymore.’

Xu An unloaded two foam boxes full of bento boxes, a bucket of soup, and a large bag of disposable utensils from the three-wheeled cart.

He flipped two large baskets upside down on the ground, placed a wooden board on top of them, and set out the whiteboard with the day’s menu written on it. With that, this stall was set up.

He left the bicycle with Xu Heping and then drove the three-wheeled cart off toward the other construction site.

It took him twenty minutes, and he arrived at 11:10.

’Hai City Library Construction Site.’

The library wasn’t located in the central district of Hai City, but it was in a new, developing area. In another five years, most of the residential buildings here would be demolished and replaced with office towers, becoming Hai City’s new CBD in 2020.

Even now, private construction or home modification was already forbidden here. Even just adding an awning required going through a series of incredibly tedious procedures.

Starting in 2016, anyone in Xu Family Village who wanted to build a new house or even renovate had to submit reports for approval.

Also starting in 2016, rumors began to circulate that the Xu Family Village area was going to be demolished and redeveloped. But all the way until 2027, the rumors remained just rumors, and Xu An never got to become a "demolition second-generation heir."

Next to this construction site was a residential area with quite a few restaurants and many roadside stalls.

Seven or eight stalls were set up at the site entrance, selling a wide variety of things like fried noodles and fried rice, sweet soups, malatang, hand-grabbed pancakes, and roujiamo.

Xu An found an empty spot and parked his three-wheeled cart. He went around and gave each of the stall owners a cigarette, exchanging a few pleasantries.

There were a few workers standing in front of each stall. Seeing that Xu An was selling bento boxes, which weren’t in direct competition with them, the other owners took the cigarettes and went back to their work without paying him much mind.

As soon as Xu An set up his whiteboard with the day’s menu, it attracted the attention of a few workers walking out of the construction site.

’Eight-yuan bento box: Preserved mustard greens with pork belly, stir-fried tofu skin, garlic choy sum, plus lotus root and pork bone soup.’

’Do we pick one or two, or does one box come with all that?’ Their curiosity piqued, the men walked over to the stall to check.

"Boss, how much for a bento box?"

"Eight yuan each. You get everything written on the board," Xu An said, holding one up for them to see.

Slices of pork belly three fingers wide, with alternating layers of fat and lean meat, lay atop the preserved mustard greens, jiggling slightly with Xu An’s movement. The tofu skin was cut into fine shreds, looking especially appetizing against the green peppers and garlic leaves. The garlic choy sum looked crisp and refreshing. The lotus root soup had a rich color and an fragrant aroma; a piece of lotus root had been cut by the ladle, its fibrous strands still connecting the two halves.

Looking at the food, the three men were practically drooling. They spoke in unison, "Boss, one of those."

"You got it!" All these days of running the stall had trained Xu An well. He deftly ladled out three portions of lotus root soup, packed them with the bento boxes, and handed them to the three men.

The Hai City Library construction site happened to be at the center of the three work sites. Across the street was a row of restaurants, so foot traffic from workers, residents, and office employees all converged here.

For every ten people who checked out Xu An’s stall, one or two would make a purchase.

He started selling at 11:10 and was sold out by 12:30.

’The old ancestors were right: a tree dies if it’s moved, but a person thrives.’

’If I’d just stuck to the Zijing Garden site, I would’ve sold thirty at the very most. Now, I’ve sold thirty all by myself over here.’

’I just wonder how Heping did today.’

Meanwhile, back with Xu Heping, a full fifteen minutes passed after Xu An left before his first customer of the day arrived.

The first workers to come out all headed straight for the row of fast-food restaurants across the street, with the largest crowd gathering in front of Jiajia Fast Food Restaurant.

When Xu Dongliang got off work and came to the entrance, he was surprised to see only Xu Heping. He looked around but didn’t see Xu An, Xu Kang, or Xu Le.

"How come it’s just you? Where’s Anzi and the others? Why didn’t they come today?" Xu Dongliang grabbed a bento box, paid, and then squatted down by Xu Heping’s feet to eat and chat.

"He went to set up a stall at another construction site. He was afraid he’d be too busy to watch the kids, so he didn’t bring them out today," Xu Heping explained.

"He really is impulsive, isn’t he? But the competition here is fierce, so it’s a good idea to check out other sites." Xu Dongliang wasn’t too surprised. This was just Anzi’s style.

If he wanted to set up a stall, he did it. If he wanted to change locations, he changed locations. He was decisive and never dithered.

’That’s the kind of personality that can achieve great things.’