Soup pot is not a rare dish on the Zhou family's table.
Unsold beef offal usually ends up in soup pot, and any leftover soup pot is taken home for internal consumption.
But today's soup pot seemed a little different.
The thinly sliced sirloin was tender and pink, blanched until just cooked through. Curly tripe and translucent beef tendon adorned the clear pot, and each person also received a dried chili sauce.
"It smells so good! Why doesn't it taste like mine?" Zhao Tieying asked, puzzled. She'd made soup pot many times, having learned the dish from her mother in law since marrying into the Zhou family. But why was the soup she cooked not as fragrant as the one Zhou Yan cooked?
"Try the soup first." Zhou Yan spooned a bowlful of soup for each of them.
Zhao Tieying took a sip of the soup, her eyes suddenly lighting up, her brows raised, and she patted Zhou Miao's shoulder. "You're lying! This is so much better than mine! They're not exactly the same!"
"It tastes about the same for me. Yours is just as good." Zhou Miao said with an innocent smile.
"Forget it. You don't understand." Zhao Tieying rolled her eyes, but the corners of her mouth lifted unconsciously. She took two more sips of the soup and nodded repeatedly. "It's even better than Zhou Jie's soup pot. It's so fresh, and the flavors are just right."
Zhou Momo remained silent, simply sipping her soup with her head down, blowing air through her little mouth before sipping it in small sips.
After finishing a bowl of soup, a light sweat broke out on her forehead, and her whole body felt warm, much of the fatigue from working eased away.
"Gulp."
Zhou Momo had long had her eyes on the meat in the pot. She swallowed, her little hands itching to move, and looked towards Zhou Yan.
"Come on, I'll give you some meat." Zhou Yan smiled, picking up a piece of beef and handing it over.
"Ah wuu!"
The little girl opened her mouth and took it in one gulp.
The meat was soft and had a faint milky aroma!
The meat was so delicious!
She loved meat the most!
"It's so delicious! I want more meat!" Zhou Momo said coquettishly, swallowing the meat in her mouth.
The three adults laughed at her words.
Zhou Yan immediately gave her a bowl of meat, the small bowl piled high with beef and offal, letting her have a little of everything.
"So tender!" Zhao Tieying tasted a piece of beef, her face filled with astonishment.
How could beef be cooked so fresh and tender?
After over twenty years of cooking beef, she felt a surge of self-doubt for the first time.
"This chili are so fragrant!" Zhou Miao took a bite of the tripe and exclaimed, "The tripe is so crispy after boiling..."
Zhou Miao has been enjoying soup pot since he was a child, from his mother's to his wife's soup pot, but the best soup pot was still his son one.
The first batch of soup was so delicious it almost made his eyebrows drop. The tripe was crispy and delicious, the beef slices were large, thin, and soft, the beef tendon was perfectly tender, and the lotus root was crisp, tender, and sweet. Paired with the spicy dipping sauce, it completely changed his understanding of soup pots.
Zhou Yan went to bring out the pre-cooked rice.
A bowl of rice and a pot of Cross-legged Beef were devoured by the family of four, leaving not a single piece of lotus root white behind.
"This soup is so good! I'm sure the girls at the textile factory will love it. Selling soup pots in the restaurant is a good idea!" Zhao Tieying said confidently.
Her previous doubts had completely vanished.
"I think it's a good idea!" Zhou Miao agreed. "This soup made me sweat, and I feel much better. It really can heal. If spread the word, more people will eat it."
"The meat is delicious!" Zhou Momo added.
"That's great. I'll find someone to build a stove this afternoon. I'll finish the preparations in the next two days, and we can start selling soup pots right away." Zhou Yan said with a smile. This pot of Cross-legged Beef also exceeded his expectations. The broth was fresh and the meat was tender, and the dipping sauce was spicy and delicious.
"Okay, all up to you." Zhao Tieying and Zhou Miao nodded in unison.
Zhou Yan has been increasingly reliable these days, giving people a sense of security.
Old Zhou was escorted upstairs by Miss Zhao to rest. Zhou Yan was just clearing up the dishes when someone arrived and knocked on the door. "Comrade Zhou Yan, I'm here to collect the rent."
The visitor was a pretty girl in a white shirt and black pants, with short hair, black leather shoes, and a brown leather bag. She looked very capable.
Wang Wei, a 20 year old accountant in the textile factory's finance department, was responsible for collecting rent for the shops under textile factory. She would come to collect rent on the 20th of every month.
"Okay, come in." Zhou Yan said with a smile, then went behind the counter to get the money. This was like being half a landlord's wife.
"Fifteen in total. Count them." Zhou Yan handed Wang Wei a wad of bills: one large unity note and the rest all one yuan notes.
"Yes." Wang Wei took the money and counted it, then carefully examined the note. She put the money in her bag, wrote a receipt, tore off a page, and handed it to Zhou Yan. Then, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and said with a smile, "I heard you've switched to selling noodles, and business is booming."
Comrade Little Zhou was tall and handsome, quite popular among the young women and wives at the textile factory.
Wang Wei had come to collect rent three times and had a few conversations. She was efficient and had left a good impression for Comrade Little Zhou.
"It's okay, I can barely pay the rent." Zhou Yan put the receipt away and sighed, "It would be great if the factory could reduce the rent a little."
"I can't make the decision on this matter." Wang Wei smiled and offered him some advice: "Didn't you save Deputy Director Lin's niece? Why don't you talk to him? He might be able to get you a lower rent."
"It's such a small matter, why bother him?" Zhou Yan shook his head decisively.
If he could consistently sell a hundred bowls of noodles a day, fifteen yuan in rent wouldn't be that much. Besides, he'd soon be selling Cross-legged Beef, so his sales would still have room to grow. He hoped the factory wouldn't raise the rent then.
"Okay, then I'll go collect rent from the next shop. I'll come back to try your noodles next time." Wang Wei said with a smile, then slung her bag over her shoulder and headed out.
"Goodbye." Zhou Yan said, continuing to collect the bowls.
"I'll wash the dishes, you go do your thing." Zhao Tieying came down from upstairs and took the bowl from him.
Zhou Yan did have some important things to do, so he counted the money first.
Of the one hundred bowls of noodles he'd prepared today, eighteen remained unsold. After deducting the cost of the ingredients, he had a surplus of 31.9 yuan. He'd saved 74.2 yuan over the past few days, and after paying the rent, he had 91.1 yuan left.
Zhou Yan went out to find a bricklayer and arranged for him to build his stove the next day. He also contacted for materials like blue bricks and asked Zhou Jie to help him order a large, one meter diameter cast iron pot.
Just the pot cost him fifty yuan, and he was able to buy it only after Zhou Jie used his connections to help him and gave two packs of Yuxi.
In those days of scarcity, many things couldn't be purchased simply by money. Otherwise, he'd have liked to get a larger pot and stick it outside the door—it would have been eye-catching, more effective than a sign.
The labor and materials would have cost about twenty yuan.
The stove alone would have cost seventy yuan.
Money is hard to earn, but so easy to spend.
However, Zhou Yan wasn't worried. Zhou Erwa Restaurant's noodles had already gained popularity among the textile factory, and their reputation was rapidly rising. Meanwhile, their biggest competitor was currently in jail.
Selling a hundred bowls of noodles a day brings in 60 yuan in sales. After accounting for costs like firewood and seasoning, he can make nearly half that much profit.
That's eight or nine hundred yuan a month.
This way, he can pay off all his debts, including the five hundred yuan owed from his parents, in two months.
Selling noodles is the basic business, and once the reputation of the Cross-legged Beef spreads, the profit will be even greater.
However, just selling noodles keeps him and Miss Zhao busy as spinning tops. Adding a pot of soup to the mix, unless the system grants him the ability to clone himself, he's definitely not going to be able to handle it.
...
For dinner, the family reheated the leftover beef bone soup from lunch and enjoyed it with the remaining offal.
After a long afternoon nap, Comrade Zhou, feeling refreshed, repeatedly praised Zhou Yan's soup pot for its remarkable medicinal properties, which were even more effective than medication.
"I'm planning to hire someone." Zhou Yan said.
"Hire someone?" Zhao Tieying and Zhou Miao both looked at him in surprise.
"That's another expense. A monthly salary of at least ten yuan is a must, right?" Zhao Tieying pondered. "How about I work more?"
"Mom, you've done enough. I'm planning to hand over the soup pot to you, so I need to hire someone to serve, clear the tables, and wash the dishes. Otherwise, we'll be overwhelmed." Zhou Yan said with a smile, "We have to make sure everything is done well and quickly so our customers are satisfied. If business is good, the labor costs will be covered, and we can even earn more."
"I think what Zhou Yan said makes sense." Zhou Miao agreed, nodding.
"Okay, then let's hire someone!" Zhao Tieying nodded, then thought for a moment and said, "How about Zhou Fei's wife help? She's in good shape and nimble. She doesn't have to worry about the two kids' education, and she's a down to earth person."
"Okay! Then let my sister in law give it a try. If she's capable, she'd definitely be better than someone else." Zhou Yan nodded.
Zhou Fei was her uncle's son, the eldest of their cousins, Zhou Hai's older brother, and now worked with his father as a cattle butcher.
His wife, Zhao Hong, was from the same village as his mother. Comrade Zhao Tieying had been the matchmaker. They had two sons, the elder one already in junior high school, and the younger one was starting primary school this year. Life was still a bit stressful.
Zhou Yan had a good impression of his sister in law. She had a gentle personality and was a skilled worker.
"I'll go back to find her tonight and ask her, how much salary you plan to pay her per month?" Zhao Tieying looked at Zhou Yan.
Zhou Yan thought for a moment and said, "Twenty yuan per month, is that a good salary?"
"Okay." Zhao Tieying nodded. "That's a very high salary. Waiters in state owned restaurants only make around twenty yuan a month, and those are places you'd have to fight to get in."
"That's settled." Zhou Yan agreed.
Twenty yuan a month is indeed a high salary in a rural town, but it's within Zhou Yan's budget. He was more concerned with staff stability and the fact that the other party wouldn't have ulterior motives.
Besides, the eldest sister in law is family, after all. When little Zhou opened the restaurant, her family even lent him eighty yuan to start the business. That was a significant sum for their family.
…
At dawn the next day, Master Zhou went out early to buy groceries.
When he returned to the restaurant with Zhao Tieying, a figure was already standing at the door. She took two steps toward them and said with a smile, "Fourth Miss, Zhou Yan, you both are back."
"Zhao Hong, why are you here so early? Didn't you sleep last night?" Zhao Tieying joked.