Food: Selling Boxed Meals at a Construction Site

Chapter 81: Chapter 81: Scram

To expand, you had to look at how much money was in your pocket.

Back home, Xu An took out his ledger and started calculating. It had been eighteen days since the restaurant opened in early July. Orders for meal boxes had grown from just over one hundred to nearly seven hundred.

As of today, the restaurant’s total revenue was 68,000 yuan. After deducting labor, utilities, rent, and purchasing costs, the net profit was 11,700 yuan!

11,700 yuan in eighteen days—that was some pretty impressive income!

The next step was to find an anchor for Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant, one that couldn’t be destroyed by "Chifanla."

The construction workers were the foundation of Xu’s Fast Food’s launch, but it was obviously impossible to rely on them for future growth.

Not unless Xu An could be like the Brocade Hotel and get an exclusive contract for the entire construction site’s meal box supply. That way, whether they ate or not, or wherever they ate, the money would end up in his pocket.

But with no connections, no network, and no capital, how could a tiny fast-food joint possibly land an order like that?

He had to find a breakthrough with another consumer group.

Xu An held a pen and scribbled one meaningless character after another in his notebook. Finally, a single word appeared on the page—Company!

The word "Company" appeared again and again, densely layered until it filled an entire page, yet Xu An’s eyes only grew brighter.

’That’s it, companies!’

’In his previous life, the first company he worked for after entering the workforce had a lunch-inclusive employee benefit.’

’But the company didn’t have a cafeteria. Instead, it used a meal subsidy system.’

’There were two types of subsidies. One was a 15-yuan meal voucher per day; the other was an equivalent of 10 yuan in cash, distributed with the salary.’

’If you chose the vouchers, the company offered two restaurants to choose from. An administrator would collect everyone’s choices, submit them to the restaurant, and the restaurant would prepare and deliver the meals before the lunch break.’

’When it was time for lunch, employees just had to go to the common area and find the meal box with their name on it.’

’Xu An had even chatted with the delivery guys before. His company wasn’t the only one with this arrangement; in that office building alone, there were over twenty others.’

’So, did companies like that exist in Hai City?’

This was the information age; some information could be found online.

Xu An pulled out his phone, opened QQ, typed "Hai City" into the search bar, and hit search. A number of groups with "Hai City" in their names appeared below.

Hai City Working Stiffs, Hai City Wujiang Folks, Hai City Design Exchange...

He picked a few groups that looked like they were created by office workers, sent join requests, and set his phone aside.

When they first started the meal box business, the two of them had agreed that once he was making eight or ten thousand yuan, he would pay back ten times the cost of the tricycle.

Now, with a net profit of 11,700, it was time to settle this debt with Xu Heping.

Xu An counted out 1,600 yuan, put it in his pocket, and went out with a flashlight.

Arriving at the gate to Xu Heping’s yard, he saw the light was still on in Xu Heping’s bedroom. He knocked on the gate and called for Heping to come down and open it.

A figure walked to the window, glanced at the gate, then quickly left, came downstairs, walked out the front door, and opened the gate.

"It’s almost nine. Why’d you come looking for me all of a sudden? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah." Xu An didn’t go in. He just stood at the gate, reached into his pocket, pulled out a roll of cash, and handed it to Xu Heping. "This is the money I promised you. 1,600 yuan, not a cent less."

Xu Heping raised an eyebrow, taking the money with some surprise. After counting it, he couldn’t help but remark, "You’ve only been open for half a month and you can already give me this 1,600? Business must be really good."

With that, Xu Heping counted out 200 yuan and pushed the rest back into Xu An’s hand. "The tricycle’s second-hand price was only 160. I’ll just take 200. Consider the extra 40 as interest."

"We agreed on the amount, and that’s the amount. Business is business, even between family." Xu An put his hands behind his back and said firmly, "If you hadn’t come to help back then, my little stall might never have gotten off the ground."

"What help was I? I just lent a hand here and there and sponsored you with a tricycle that’s been sitting idle for years." Xu Heping thought for a moment, then pulled three red bills from the remaining cash. "How about this? I’ll take another 300 yuan as my wages for helping you out before you opened. That’s fair, right?"

Xu An was both exasperated and amused by this. When other people made money in business, they fought to the death over it. But here was Heping, thinking he was being paid too much.

Before Xu An could say anything, Xu Heping continued.

"You still have to go to college, and tuition and living expenses aren’t cheap. And Kangkang and Lele should be starting kindergarten soon, right? You can’t just let them hang around the restaurant forever. You have a ton of expenses coming up. I don’t really have anything to spend money on, so there’s no need to give me this much."

Xu An’s expression slowly turned strange.

’Something’s not right, not right at all. Since when did Xu Heping, the king of the kids, become so mature and sensible, spouting all this wisdom?’

Thinking of a certain possibility, his gaze on Xu Heping became even more peculiar. Xu An asked tentatively, "Have you ever heard of nucleic acid?"

"’Nucleic... what?’ Some kind of calculation? Are you trying to say ’walnut’?" Xu Heping asked, his face a mask of confusion.

"The successful maiden flight of the Long March 7?"

"The what now? What flight?" Xu Heping looked even more bewildered, to the point where he wanted to reach out and feel Xu An’s forehead to check if he had a fever.

’Okay, I was overthinking things.’

AHEM.

Xu An gave a couple of light coughs to cover his embarrassment and quickly changed the subject. "Heping, there’s something I’ve been hiding from you."

If they were in a video game, a giant question mark would probably be popping up over Xu Heping’s head right now.

"I’m not planning on going to college. What I told you in the internet cafe about applying to the country’s top two universities was true, but the application period is over now, and it can’t be changed. Which means, I have no school to go to."

In that instant, an incredibly complex mix of emotions washed over Xu Heping’s face—disbelief, anger, frustration, disappointment, sadness—all finally melting into a long sigh.

He reached out, patted Xu An on the shoulder, pushed him out of the yard, and shut the gate. Then, the roll of cash flew out from inside the yard and landed at Xu An’s feet.

"Get lost!"

The word was like a lion’s growl—not loud, even somewhat low—but it contained boundless fury.

Xu An looked at the money on the ground, then at the closed gate.

’Yeah, that news was probably a bit too much for him. I should give him some time to digest it.’

He picked up the money and counted it. 1,600 yuan, all there.

’Oh well. Since you don’t want to take it, I’ll just consider it an investment. 1,600 yuan for a five-percent stake in the business. That’s not too much, right?’

Usable funds +1,600 yuan. Nice!

「A small incident occurred that night.」

In his dream, Xu An went to a snack shop and ordered some fried chicken strips. They were fried to fragrant perfection, making his mouth water.

He picked up a chicken strip and put it in his mouth, only to discover—why did these chicken strips have bones?

He tried another one; it also had bones.

He tried yet another, and it still had bones...

Xu An was furious. He slammed the table and called for the owner, ready to argue.

Suddenly, the shop began to shake violently, and a pillar fell, crashing down on him...

Xu An jolted awake from the dream and realized there was something in his mouth. He reached up and felt a small hand.

That little rascal Xu Kang had stuck his hand in his mouth at some point. No wonder the chicken strips in his dream had bones!

He felt a heavy pressure on his stomach. Reaching down to feel, he thought, ’Good heavens!’

Xu Le had done a complete 180-degree turn in his sleep. His head was by the foot of the bed, and his left foot was draped across Xu An’s stomach. No wonder he’d felt pressure there.

He got up, repositioned the two boys, tucked them in, and then lay back down.

Staring at the dark ceiling and the large central beam of the house, he couldn’t help but calculate how much it would cost to tear down and rebuild the house.

As he thought about it, Xu An drifted back to sleep.

Xu Kang’s little hand found its way back into Xu An’s mouth, and Xu Le once again slept with his head at the foot of the bed, his left foot resting on Xu An’s stomach...

It was a good night’s sleep, except for the part where the chicken strips had bones.

「The next morning at six,」 Xu Heping appeared outside Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant right on time.

The only difference from usual was the two huge dark circles under his eyes, a clear sign he hadn’t slept well the night before.

For the entire morning, Xu Heping worked in silence, not even glancing at Xu An.

While everyone was busy, three burly men appeared outside the restaurant. They hesitated, nudging each other before finally entering.

"Is the... the boss here?"

Xu An poked his head out of the kitchen. Seeing the three men, he recalled what Zhou Qi had told him the day before about three guys from his hometown wanting to be delivery riders. He immediately greeted them warmly. "Hello! You must be Zhou Qi’s friends from back home, right? Did Zhou Qi tell you about the pay and everything?"

"He did, he did. We know all about it." The men spoke as they pulled their ID cards out of their pockets and handed them to Xu An. "Here are our IDs. Our bikes are parked outside."

Xu An took the IDs to check them. The youngest of the three was over thirty-two, while the oldest was over thirty-eight.

But for the delivery rider business, age wasn’t an issue. As long as they were healthy and could find their way around—not directionally challenged—it would be fine.

"Alright. Go ahead and eat first. After you’ve eaten, we’ll head out and get to work."

"Huh?"

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