Chapter 13: Not Even Enough Meat to Get Stuck in the Teeth
Qiao Xingguo’s hometown was in Jianghan. The economy in Jianghan wasn’t very developed, and the job opportunities were limited.
Most of the people in Qiao Xingguo’s village worked as migrant laborers. He and his wife had followed their fellow villagers to work at the Zijing Garden construction site.
He was relatively satisfied with the pay. The only thing he wasn’t happy about was how shoddy the ingredients at the construction site were.
Maybe it was because the weather had been hot lately, and the kitchen staff felt too stuffy to put any effort into cooking. For several days in a row, lunch had been mainly noodles—they’d just boil a pot of topping, and that was it.
Qiao Xingguo started work at six in the morning and clocked out at half past ten. He headed toward the site’s canteen with a few other workers who had just finished their shift.
"I wonder what the canteen’s making today. We’re so close, but I can’t smell a thing." Qiao Xingguo sniffed hard in the direction of the canteen but couldn’t catch any aroma.
"Not smelling anything is a bad sign. It means we’re having noodles again for lunch. I just wonder what kind of topping it’ll be today," the worker next to him chimed in cheerfully.
As they spoke, the three men walked into the canteen’s sheet-metal building. There weren’t many people yet, so the ceiling fans hadn’t been turned on. The heat from the kitchen cooking seeped out, making the whole room feel stuffy and hot.
Qiao Xingguo quickened his pace and went to the serving window, craning his neck to look inside.
Inside the kitchen, two large pots were boiling. One held rice noodles, while the other contained a topping made from a combination of shredded wood ear mushrooms, shredded carrots, bok choy, and slivered pork, along with some other unidentifiable ingredients.
’Well, what do you know. Noodles again,’ he thought. ’These kitchen workers are lazy to the bone.’
Though he was grumbling internally, his hands moved quickly. He grabbed a medium-sized stainless steel bowl from a nearby rack and handed it to the woman serving the food.
The woman used chopsticks to pull out two large clumps of rice noodles and place them in the bowl, then used a ladle to pour half a scoop of topping over the noodles.
"A little more topping, please. This isn’t even enough to mix into the noodles," Qiao Xingguo said to the server with a placating smile.
"If everyone gets extra, someone will go without." The woman put down the ladle and picked up a pair of chopsticks. "I know you all work hard, so we fried some extra eggs for you. One per person."
The fried egg was... well, the white was white and the yolk was yolk, perfectly round. It looked nice enough sitting on top of the noodles, but it didn’t taste much like an egg.
If Xu An had been there, he would have recognized this fried egg as a pre-processed product made with Hex Technology.
Ordinarily, one egg makes one fried egg. But with Hex Technology, one egg can be turned into three. It’s harmless to the human body, meets food safety standards, and significantly reduces costs.
From small roadside stalls to large fast-food chains, many places liked to use these kinds of fried eggs.
He finished the fried egg in a couple of bites and polished off the rest of the noodles in just a few mouthfuls, not leaving a single drop of the broth.
He put down his bowl and chopsticks. His stomach felt full, but it seemed like something was still missing.
He hadn’t had a decent piece of meat in days. The few slivers of pork in the topping weren’t even enough to get stuck in his teeth.
’Maybe I should go check out a restaurant outside the construction site,’ he thought. ’Get a chicken leg to treat myself.’
No sooner had he thought it than his body acted on the impulse. He placed his bowl and chopsticks in the collection bin and headed for the construction site’s main gate.
Outside the site, Jiajia Fast Food Restaurant was already open. A few customers were seated inside in twos and threes, but none of them were wearing work clothes or a hard hat.
Qiao Xingguo got the hint and didn’t go in. Instead, he stood at the entrance and shouted inside, "Boss, do you have braised chicken legs? How much for one?"
"Five yuan for a chicken leg, eight for a chicken leg lunch box," a voice called out from the cashier’s counter, but no one was visible.
Qiao Xingguo sucked in a sharp breath. ’Five yuan for a single chicken leg... that’s a bit expensive.’
Just as he was hesitating, the voice from behind the counter called out again, "Are you buying or not? If not, don’t block the doorway."
’Forget it. It’s more cost-effective to wait for my wife to get off work and then come back to share a chicken leg lunch box.’
Qiao Xingguo returned to the construction site gate and sat down to wait in the shade of a tree.
He had just sat down when a tricycle rode over and stopped nearby, followed by a bicycle that also came to a halt.
A tall, thin, and slightly green-looking teenager hopped off the tricycle. Together with a sturdy, medium-built teenager who got off the bicycle, they lifted two small children out of the tricycle’s cargo bed.
The tall, thin teenager deftly opened two foam boxes and breathed a sigh of relief after checking that everything inside was fine. He untied a large plastic bag from the front of the tricycle and took out a stack of small, round containers.
The two children were in charge of handing over containers, the tall, thin teen ladled food from a bucket into them, and the sturdy teen was responsible for putting on the lids. Their coordination was seamless.
Qiao Xingguo squinted, his eyes drawn to a large piece of cardboard in the corner of the tricycle. There seemed to be words written on it.
’Meat Patty with Steamed Egg;
Minced Pork with Eggplant;
Cabbage with Vermicelli;
Includes free Tomato and Egg Soup;
Eight yuan per set.’
Qiao Xingguo’s eyes shot wide open. ’No way. All that food for just eight yuan? Maybe you only get to pick one or two of the dishes.’
He stood up from under the tree and walked toward the tricycle.
The tall, thin teenager was Xu An, the sturdy one was Xu Heping, and the two children were Xu Kang and Xu Le.
The four of them had set out from Xu Family Village at ten o’clock. Xu An was strong and pedaled furiously the whole way. The trip, which should have taken over an hour, was completed in just forty-five minutes.
As soon as they stopped, he checked to see if any of the lunch boxes had spilled. Fortunately, the road had been repaved the year before last and was very smooth. Thanks to the shock absorption from the foam boxes, not a single one of the thirty lunch boxes had spilled.
Seeing that there were no customers yet, the four of them started adding the soup to the lunch boxes.
Suddenly, a sturdy, middle-aged man in a hard hat walked over. He didn’t say anything, just stared intently at their work.
"Hey, brother. Interested in a lunch box?" Xu An handed the soup ladle to Xu Heping, took a lunch box out of a foam container, and held it up for Qiao Xingguo to see, showing him the contents.
"Eight yuan a set. Each one comes with a box of white rice, a meat patty with steamed egg, minced pork with eggplant, and cabbage with vermicelli. They’re all dishes that go great with rice."
"All this for just eight yuan? Are the meat and vegetables fresh?" Qiao Xingguo was tempted, but he was a little worried the ingredients weren’t fresh.
"You don’t have to worry about that. The meat is bought from the wholesale market, and the vegetables are homegrown from our own fields. That’s why it can be so cheap." Xu An put the lunch box away, packing it back in its bag. "I know the project at this site is a long one. We’re not here to make a quick buck and run. We want to do long-term business here, not some shady operation."
While Qiao Xingguo was still hesitating, a commotion erupted at the site’s entrance. A tall, dark-skinned young man was leading a group of workers toward them. With a great RUSH, a large crowd swarmed the tricycle, surrounding it completely.
It was Uncle Dongliang, and he had brought his fellow workers over. Judging by the size of the group, there were more than twenty of them.