In the family without status, being a beautiful woman abandoned by her husband, she always encountered some unscrupulous people. Once, she and her brother witnessed the village chief trying to do something to her mom.
Luckily, her Grandpa arrived just in time.
But not long after, Li Fugui falsely accused her Grandpa of stealing, and he was detained a few times. Grandpa was old and couldn't withstand the stress, and within a year, he fell ill and passed away. Her Grandma was already weak and sickly, and with the poor harvests over the years, she was literally starved to death.
The family was left with just them, an orphaned mother-child pair, relying solely on Mom's labor. Life was tight, and they were often gossiped about.
Now Mom and she had moved away from the village, no longer needing to heed some people's idle chatter, not having to worry constantly about the gossipers.
"Mom, you just sit aside and collect the money. I can handle all this myself." Liang Hongmei couldn't sit still and was anxious next to her.
"Mom's worked all her life, and she's really not quite adapting." Liang Hongmei stood hesitantly at the stall, watching as Lin Wan quickly sold a few pancakes.
Receiving a few cents here and there, feeling cheerful and steady inside.
After a few days, the businesses on the nearby streets knew that their family's egg pancakes were delicious. Even when it's not the market day, people would occasionally buy some to taste.
"Xiao Wan, just doing this is a bit too easy-going. Mom sees the empty storefront at the entrance staying empty, why don't we also try opening a little restaurant? Selling more or less, we can always earn a few cents." Liang Hongmei, seeing the daily income, no longer had the initial bad thoughts, always feeling secure making money, able to support the two kids.
"That's fine. What should we sell at noon?"
"Mom's the best at cooking. Let's make rice noodles and fried rice at noon." Liang Hongmei thought for a long time before replying.
"Rice noodles and fried rice are sold by the state-run restaurants up front. If people come for lunch, they'll likely choose the state-run ones instead of our small shop. Mom knows how to make Northern dumplings and noodles, right? Let's make those at noon, and a few small dishes as well. The town's population is small, so there won't be too much business. After a few days, we can go to the market to see if there are any old tables and chairs for sale."
Lin Wan discovered that there was a military district nearby as another consumer group because she noticed that many relatives visiting from the military district would stay in this town and rent a small courtyard for a while.
"Alright," water dumplings and noodles were taught to Liang Hongmei by the old chef in the brigade, and they tasted great.
Their business was getting better day by day, and now, just selling pancakes alone could bring in seven or eight yuan a day. Recently, she and Mom went around the street and found an old furniture store.
Fortunately, they came across tables used in restaurants, not large and square. Only the chairs needed to be matched separately.
Four tables cost over three yuan, and the chairs matched were tall wooden stools, requiring twenty of them, costing over two yuan. After paying the money, the owner directly delivered them to their home.
On market days, Lin Wan looked after the stall while Liang Hongmei went to the street to buy some cooking tools, such as bowls, chopsticks, and plates.
After these purchases, the money they earned in the past few days was half-spent, making Liang Hongmei quite distressed.
In the evening, Liang Hongmei couldn't bear to use electricity, so she lit a kerosene lamp. The mother and daughter lay in bed, thinking about the restaurant's name and then setting the menu.
"Mom, let's call it Mrs Lin's Dumpling House." Lin Wan thought of over a dozen names but kept coming back to the one that felt most down-to-earth.
"Alright, alright, as you wish. People just need to know what we're selling." Liang Hongmei couldn't read, but over the years, the kids going to school meant she occasionally learned a few simple words.
Now things were different; they were doing business, they had to learn to keep accounts and read menus.
These days, Lin Wan would teach her one or two words every day.
Having her memorize multiplication tables.
"Now that the weather is hot, let's make two or three cold dishes, and when selling pancakes in the morning, cook some rice porridge and millet porridge. At noon, we make dumplings and lo mein."
"Mom, what filling are we using for the dumplings?"
"Let's use chive egg and pork fillings." Although there's pork, most of the fillings are vegetarian. At this time, meat sells best.
The next day, Lin Wan went to the carpenter uncle's house, having him carve a shop sign, borrowed a brush from the neighbor, and bought some red paper to write the menu on before posting it inside the shop.
Mrs Lin's Dumpling House opened just like that, simply and modestly.
The mother and daughter chose the market day to open.
They specifically set off firecrackers during busy times.
"The small shop is opening today; for the first three days, anyone dining in the shop will receive one free dish. Also, for the first three days, all dishes in the shop are at a 20% discount, and eating a serving of pork dumplings only costs fifty cents." Lin Wan shouted at the top of her voice.
"Additionally, egg pancakes are twenty-five cents each today, wrapped pancakes with vegetable fillings are fifteen cents each, and the porridge now includes rice pumpkin porridge and cornmeal porridge, with each bowl costing two cents."
This shout indeed attracted some people to come in.
In the morning, most would eat pancakes and porridge, busy until after nine o'clock, when Liang Hongmei went to the backyard kitchen to start making dumplings, leaving Lin Wan alone outside to both make pancakes and collect the bowls.
After ten o'clock, it got quieter. Lin Wan hurriedly took the dishes to the backyard by the water well to clean them.
Then helped Mom in making dumplings.
For convenience, Lin Wan set up a stove in the kitchen, using the big pot to cook dumplings and the stove to cook noodles.