Chapter 38: I Spit
At 12:02 PM, Ding Nan and Luo Min arrived right on time at Xu An’s lunch box stall.
After buying their lunch boxes, the two didn’t leave right away. Instead, they stood there looking at each other, seeming like they had something to say but were hesitant to speak.
Xu An couldn’t ignore such an obvious gesture and asked them directly, "Is there something I can help you with?"
Ding Nan and Luo Min glanced at each other again, and Luo Min was the one who finally spoke up.
"Boss, it’s been getting hotter and hotter these days. We were wondering if you could offer a delivery service?" Fearing Xu An would refuse, Luo Min quickly pointed to the three-story building across the street and said, "Our company is right over there, less than a hundred meters away. It’s really close."
Xu An looked at the fine beads of sweat on their foreheads, hesitated for a moment, but ultimately nodded.
Two orders wasn’t much, but the key was that they were close by. Plus, they were regular customers, so it wasn’t an impossible request to fulfill.
Seeing Xu An agree, the other office workers standing nearby started gesturing wildly and all talking at once, asking if he could deliver to their places too.
This sudden wave of enthusiasm left Xu An a bit stunned. In the end, he set a rule: a minimum of two orders for delivery within a 300-meter radius.
Those who had come alone looked a little disappointed, but those who had come in groups of two or three were clearly delighted.
’Starting tomorrow, we can just sit in the office with the AC blasting and wait for the boss to bring our lunch boxes over! Yes!’
As Xu An was writing down their order quantities, addresses, and delivery times, the student army from Hai City Nautical College had already arrived at the entrance to the food street.
The moment they spotted Xu An’s lunch box stall, they were like bulls in a colosseum that had just seen a red flag, kicking up their heels and charging over.
The sheer force of their charge was so impressive that even the vendors who had witnessed their commotion yesterday were left speechless.
The office workers who hadn’t witnessed this spectacle yesterday all took a step to the side, distancing themselves from the scene, afraid they might get sprayed with the owner’s blood.
Having been through yesterday’s ordeal, Xu An and Liang Dani were not only calm today but also took an amused interest in counting how many students had shown up.
Today, there were actually over fifty of them, one and a half times the number from yesterday.
Unfortunately, Xu An only had thirty-two lunch boxes left at his stall. With so many wolves and so little meat, some people were doomed from the start not to get one.
In no more than two minutes, all thirty-two lunch boxes were snatched up, and the remaining people could only turn back empty-handed.
After the students dispersed, the office workers on the side breathed a collective sigh of relief when they saw that no bloodbath had occurred. They returned to the stall to continue registering their information.
Old Han, who had been at the very front of the student charge, was a little curious about what they were doing. He walked up behind a few of them and craned his neck to watch.
"Aisha Clothing Company, two lunch boxes, delivered by 11:50. Is that correct?"
"Yes, that’s right, that’s right."
"That’ll be sixteen yuan in total."
"Do we have to pay first? Can we pay when the lunch boxes are delivered?"
Ding Nan and Luo Min hesitated. Although eight yuan wasn’t much, if the owner decided to just pack up and leave, they’d still be pretty upset about it.
"I’ve been setting up here for over a week, and I plan to keep selling here for the long run. I’m building a long-term business." Xu An knew what they were worried about and tried to explain, but his explanation sounded a bit weak and unconvincing.
"Boss, it’s not that we don’t trust you, but you’ve just got this little tricycle. If you really did take off, we’d have no way of finding you, right? If you had a proper storefront or something, we wouldn’t have a problem with pre-ordering." Ding Nan wrestled with it for a moment before finally saying what was on his mind.
The other office workers nearby chimed in, agreeing.
"Yeah, yeah, it’s not a lot of money, but losing it for no reason is still frustrating."
"It’s pretty much the same if we pay you after delivery, isn’t it? Not much of a difference. Boss, why don’t you reconsider?"
Seeing this, Xu An felt a bit helpless and quickly thought about his options.
"How about this? I won’t collect payment upfront. You can pay when the lunch boxes are delivered. However, I’ll need to charge a fifty-cent delivery fee. If you’re okay with that, I’ll deliver. If not, you can still come here to buy them. How does that sound?"
As soon as they heard about the delivery fee, some people started to back out.
But people like Ding Nan and Luo Min, who hated the heat, found the fifty-cent delivery fee acceptable and readily agreed with a nod.
So, Xu An wrote down their names, an order number, their company address, and other specific details in his notebook.
After Ding Nan and Luo Min left, two other office workers quickly squeezed forward and rattled off their information.
Two of the office workers requested the same delivery time, so one of them had to give in and choose a time slot ten minutes later.
’Eating lunch a little later is still better than having to go out in the scorching heat to buy it yourself.’
Old Han watched for a while before he realized what Xu An was doing.
’What a great idea!’
’For just a fifty-cent delivery fee, I wouldn’t have to walk nearly two kilometers in this scorching heat to buy a lunch box anymore.’
Once the office workers had finished registering, Old Han sidled up with a grin.
"Boss, can you deliver to Hai City Nautical College? If you can, we can get you a headcount right away."
Xu An thought for a moment. The Nautical College was over nine hundred meters away, making the round trip almost two kilometers. Adding in the time for the hand-off, one trip would take about twenty minutes. That was too long.
Thinking of this, Xu An decisively shook his head and refused. "This is just a trial period for now. I’m only delivering orders within a 300-meter radius. Your school is outside that range."
"But Boss, our school might be a little far, but we’ll have at least thirty orders, right?" He directed that last part at the other students, who all chimed in with agreement.
Old Han saw Xu An’s conflicted expression, thought about the office workers’ orders, and instantly understood what he was wrestling with.
"How about this, Boss? You just have to deliver to the school gate. We’ll do cash on delivery, and I’ll handle the rest. You can head back as soon as you get the money. That won’t take up much time. What do you think? Can that work?"
With the offer laid out so clearly, hesitating any further would just be pretentious. Xu An finally made his decision. ’Let’s do it!’
Old Han didn’t waste any time. He immediately did a headcount on the spot and, in less than five minutes, tallied up the number of people who wanted to order lunch boxes.
The total was forty-two orders, to be delivered by 12:15 PM.
After watching the students leave, Xu An and Liang Dani began to pack up the stall.
The students alone accounted for a third of his output. After subtracting the office workers’ pre-orders, the number of lunch boxes left was clearly not enough to meet the demand from the construction workers, unless he could increase production.
Xu An realized that increasing production capacity was an urgent matter, unless he was content to just tend to his own small patch.
Increasing capacity would mean getting more equipment and hiring more help. If he did that, the small courtyard and kitchen at his house would no longer be enough. He’d have to find a new location.
’If I’m going to find a new location, why not consider renting a storefront?’
’With a storefront, when I take pre-orders, people won’t worry that I’m just a street vendor who could disappear at any moment.’
’With a storefront, I could get a business license and all that, and become a legitimate sole proprietor.’
’With a storefront, I could also expand my sales area.’
’Right now, EatUp, one of the leaders in the food delivery industry, has only just started expanding. Even at their fastest, they won’t reach Hai City until next year.’
’If I have a storefront, I can get in before they expand to Hai City and get the first piece of the pie.’
...
Xu An’s thoughts drifted further and further away.
It was the second day Gao was in charge of procurement for the store, and as usual, he went to the Anxin Food Processing Company to pick up goods.
But there was a change today. The rotten meat on the outdoor shelves from yesterday had all been cleared away, replaced with some meat that was only slightly spoiled.
Gao now stood in front of the shelves, observing the meat, and an idea began to form in his mind.
’This meat still looks pretty fresh. There’s nothing wrong with its appearance, it’s just that the color is a bit dull and pale.’
’You can only catch a faint foul smell if you get close. If I use a lot of seasoning when cooking, I could probably cover it up.’
’Maybe I should buy a piece and try it out.’
Gao picked out a piece of pork from the shelf, weighing about a pound, and took it to the counter with his other goods.
At the checkout, the old man in the leather jacket gave Gao a few long looks.
"This meat on the outside shelves is only for feeding cats and dogs. It’s not for people to eat. You know that, right?"
"I know, I know. There are a lot of stray cats near where I live. I saw this meat was cheap and figured I’d cook it for them."
Only then did the old man nod. He rang up the purchase and reminded him again, "We’re in it for the long haul here. We’re conscientious people. We wouldn’t sell anything that could make people sick."
Gao verbally agreed again and again, but inwardly he was cursing.
’Old bastard!’
’Selling expired food and still pretending to be a good guy!’
’Pah!’