Food: Selling Boxed Meals at a Construction Site

As Xu An was gathering bamboo leaves in the grove, Third Granny approached from the outskirts of the village with someone in tow. She spotted Xu An and gave him a wave.

Trailing behind Third Granny was a girl who looked to be about his own age.

She wore a pair of clunky black rubber shoes caked in mud that still looked fresh.

She wore a pair of school uniform pants, the cuffs tucked into her rubber shoes. Her top was a very dated, short-sleeved floral blouse.

Her dark hair was styled into two braids that lay over her shoulders. The skin visible outside her clothes was a healthy, unevenly tanned wheat color.

She had a delicate and pretty face, carried herself with a natural poise, and had a very warm and approachable smile.

"Third Granny," Xu An said in greeting, then asked, "Is this a relative visiting your family?"

Third Granny pushed the girl forward and said with a cheerful laugh, "Anzi, this is the helper I found for you. Take a look. What do you think?"

Xu An had wondered what kind of helper Third Granny would find him. He’d imagined all sorts—tall, short, fat, and thin.

But he truly never expected her to bring him a girl.

’Since she’s here as a potential helper, I should evaluate if she’s right for the job based on a helper’s standards.’

’The mud on her rubber shoes isn’t even dry. Third Granny must have pulled her right out of the fields. She’s hardworking.’

’Her tan is uneven, with lighter and darker patches. It’s clearly from working outside, not her natural skin color.’

’And her hands... her fingers are long and slender, but her knuckles are a bit large, and her palms are calloused. You can’t fake that.’

Combined with his good first impression, Xu An was quite satisfied with the girl.

"Hi, I’m Xu An. I run a boxed lunch business—a food stall.

Work starts at five in the morning and ends at two in the afternoon. I provide lunch. During the trial period, the pay is twenty-five a day. After that, it’s thirty a day.

Your main duties will be helping prep the ingredients and selling the boxed lunches with us at the stall.

Can you accept those terms?"

The girl must have already heard about the pay and job details from Third Granny. Hearing Xu An’s question, she didn’t hesitate for a second, replying decisively, "Yes."

The next morning at 4:50 AM, the alarm clock went off right on schedule. Xu An woke up instantly, silencing it before it could ring a second time.

Just as he sat up, he heard a knock on the courtyard gate.

He opened it and saw the girl Third Granny had recommended. Today was her first day.

The girl was standing outside the gate with an old-fashioned roadster bicycle. She wore a straw hat beaded with dew, a sign she had probably been waiting for quite some time.

The girl pushed her bicycle into the courtyard, leaned it against the wall, then turned to Xu An and asked, "What do you need me to do now?"

Xu An took two large bags of pork loin from the freezer in the kitchen and set them down by the well.

"The main dish today is sweet and sour pork tenderloin. I need you to wash all this meat, then slice it up so I can marinate it."

"You got it."

The girl nimbly dumped the meat into a plastic basin. Grabbing the pump handle on the well, she pressed down hard, and water gushed onto the meat with a SPLASH.

She picked off all the stray hairs, bone fragments, and other impurities from the meat, gave it another rinse with well water, then transferred the meat to a clean basin.

She took out a cutting board and was just about to start slicing the meat when she suddenly froze.

’What is sweet and sour pork tenderloin? What’s it supposed to look like? How should I cut this? Into strips? Chunks? Little cubes?’

When Xu An returned after washing up, he was greeted by the sight of the bright courtyard lights illuminating the open space.

A braided girl stood holding a cleaver, staring pensively at the pork tenderloin on the cutting board, yet to make the first cut.

"What’s wrong? Is there a problem with the meat?"

"Boss, I’ve never seen sweet and sour pork tenderloin before. I don’t know how I’m supposed to cut the meat," the girl said, looking up with a serious expression, the cleaver still in her hand.

...

They stared blankly at each other for three seconds. Then, Xu An took the cleaver she offered him and sliced off two strips of meat, each about four inches long and half an inch thick.

"This length and thickness will do."

The girl took the cleaver back. Her technique was a little unpracticed, but she firmly began cutting strips of similar thickness.

Xu An watched for a moment and, seeing no issues, returned to the kitchen. From the freezer, he retrieved two basins of firm tofu that had been soaking in water.

The courtyard gate creaked open again. Turning his head, Xu An saw Xu Heping walk in.

He yawned as he walked, vigorously rubbing his face. "Anzi, what’s on the menu today?"

The words had barely left his mouth when Xu Heping realized the person cutting meat wasn’t Xu An, but a strange girl.

"Hello, I’m Liang Dani. The boss just hired me as a helper. Today’s my first trial day," Liang Dani said, taking the initiative as she looked at Xu Heping, who was clearly confused by the situation.

"Hi, hi. Your name is a little old-fashioned, hahaha." Xu Heping’s brain seemed to short-circuit, and he blurted out the first thought that came to his mind.

Liang Dani must have been used to similar comments. She simply smiled, picked up her cleaver, and went back to work on the pork tenderloin.

Xu Heping hurried into the kitchen and draped an arm over Xu An’s shoulder. "Wow, you work fast," he whispered. "You only said yesterday you needed to hire someone, and today she’s already here.

Why didn’t you give me a heads-up? I was startled when I walked in just now."

"Why didn’t I tell you? Where were you yesterday?" Xu An shrugged, shaking Xu Heping’s hand off his shoulder.

After settling on the new hire last night, Xu An had wanted to let Xu Heping know.

But Xu Heping’s house had been locked up tight. Xu An hadn’t seen a trace of him by the big banyan tree at the village entrance or the pond behind the village.

"Hehe." Knowing he was in the wrong, Xu Heping didn’t try to argue. He just washed his hands and joined Xu An in the work.

Xu An was now getting ready to make fried tofu balls.

He crumbled all the firm tofu, then mixed in diced carrots, diced ham, chopped scallions, and a moderate amount of seasoning until everything was well combined.

Squeezing the mixture through the circle formed by his thumb and index finger, he formed perfect, round balls.

He poured half a bucket of soybean oil into the iron wok and heated it until it was shimmering. Then, he dropped the balls in and fried them until they were golden brown before scooping them out.

And just like that, the fried tofu balls were finished.

The tenderloin that Liang Dani had prepared was now marinated. Xu An placed the marinated pork, now coated in starch, next to the stove.

He heated the wok again to medium heat, then added the tenderloin strips and fried them over a low flame until golden brown. He then removed them and set them aside.

He left a little oil in the bottom of the wok and added sugar, ketchup, white vinegar, and water. He cooked the mixture until it thickened and bubbled, completing the sauce.

He tossed the fried tenderloin back into the wok and stir-fried it quickly, making sure every single strip was evenly coated in the glistening sauce.

After plating the dish, he sprinkled a handful of white sesame seeds on top. The sweet and sour pork tenderloin was complete.

Next up was spicy stir-fried dried radish. He stir-fried the rehydrated and diced radishes with onions, garlic, and green chilies until they were savory and fragrant.

The last item was the rice. Previously, he’d had to cook two separate batches in his small pot.

Now, with the large iron pot, one batch was equal to the previous two. But since the number of boxed lunches had shot up, he still needed to cook two full, massive pots.

While the rice cooked, the three of them began packing the finished dishes into the lunch boxes.

At 9:30 AM, once all the rice was packed away, Xu An set up a table, brought out bowls and chopsticks, and called out to the others, "Time to eat!"

Liang Dani had woken up at 4:30 that morning to make sure she wasn’t late. She’d skipped breakfast and biked straight over.

She had been bustling around working for four and a half hours straight. While it wasn’t heavy labor, it was still physically draining.

On top of that, she had been under constant aromatic assault from the kitchen. Liang Dani was already famished, feeling so empty she thought she might just drop dead from hunger at any moment.

So when she finally heard Xu An’s call to eat, she grabbed a vintage, wide-mouthed bowl with a rooster print without a moment’s hesitation.

’It wouldn’t look good to eat too much on my first day,’ she thought, so she made sure to pack the rice down firmly in her bowl.

A normal serving in this bowl would be a heaping portion, but the packed-down mound in Liang Dani’s hands weighed almost twice as much.

A moment ago, she had been telling herself to be reserved. But the second a piece of the sweet and sour pork entered her mouth, all rationality vanished.

Accompanied by the three dishes on the table, she wolfed down two entire bowls of packed-down rice, finally finishing with a large bowl of Chinese yam and pork bone soup.

Full of soup and rice, Liang Dani leaned back in her chair, utterly content.

’That meal was just too good!’

’Taking this job was the smartest decision I’ve ever made!’

’Waking up at four-thirty? A daily wage of only thirty yuan? In the face of food this delicious, all of that is meaningless!’