Chapter 87: Food Factory

Lai Bocheng complained, but in the end, he bought five pan-fried buns, ten fried dumplings, and a bowl of vermicelli soup at Liyun Dumpling Shop. He sat inside, devouring the food.

At his age, he could eat more than half-grown men.

Some adults who came to the dumpling shop would only buy five dumplings, secretly reluctant to spend more. However, Lai Bocheng had no shortage of money.

“Mum, give me four dumplings, four pan-fried buns, and another bowl of salty soy milk,” Jiang Liyun told Wu Xiaochun.

Wu Xiaochun immediately helped her with the dumplings and buns, then instructed Feng Qiu Feng to prepare the soy milk.

“Sis!” Jiang Liyu emerged from behind Wu Xiaochun, wanting to talk to Jiang Liyun.

Jiang Liyu had transferred to the town a year ago.

Over the past two years, Wu Xiaochun and Jiang Qiaozi have been helping Jiang Liyun run the shop. They worked diligently, never embezzling or stealing money. Jiang Liyun gradually increased their wages, and now they receive a total of five hundred yuan per month.

When Jiang Lihai was building his house, he owed some money to the brick and tile factory. As a longtime employee there, they didn’t rush him to settle the accounts. However, in 1988, he gradually paid off the debt and married He Chunlin at the end of that year.

Now, Jiang Lihai’s children are all born.

He Chunlin didn’t work; she stayed home, taking care of the children. Jiang Qiaozi’s couple moved to the town, looking after the dumpling shop and taking care of Jiang Liyu while Jiang Liyun managed the shop.

With ample money and Jiang Liyun’s oversight, Jiang Liyu’s dressing was no worse than the kids in the town.

She was a pretty girl, not excelling in academics, but not at the bottom either. She wasn’t unpleasant, made a few good friends after transferring, and hadn’t suffered any grievances.

She had already finished fifth grade and would smoothly enter sixth grade in the second half of the year, proceeding to the town’s junior high.

In July, both junior high and elementary school students were on summer vacation. Jiang Liyu spent her days accompanying Jiang Qiaozi’s couple at the dumpling shop.

She ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner here, played outside during the day, did homework in the shop, and occasionally helped Jiang Qiaozi’s couple.

At the moment, she held a book in her hands, likely what she was reading a moment ago.

“Xiaoyu, did Mum take her medicine on time?” Jiang Liyun asked her younger sister.

“I took it!” Jiang Liyu replied.

Wu Xiaochun wasn’t in the best of health.

After Jiang Liyun’s rebirth, thanks to the good food at home, Wu Xiaochun’s physical condition improved significantly. Though there seemed to be no illness, Jiang Liyun still took her for a checkup.

She had some gynaecological issues, not too severe, but they significantly affected her quality of life.

Additionally, she suffered from severe uterine fibroids.

Due to Wu Xiaochun’s age, the doctor performed surgery to remove her uterus. After that, her health improved, but Jiang Liyun remained concerned. Not long ago, she heard about a good traditional Chinese medicine doctor and took Wu Xiaochun for a consultation.

The old Chinese medicine doctor prescribed some tonics, and Wu Xiaochun was currently taking them.

“Liyun, here’s your soy milk,” Feng Qiufeng said, bringing the soy milk over.

Jiang Liyun doesn’t really like youtiao (fried dough sticks) in salty soy milk, so Feng Qiufeng didn’t include them for Jiang Liyun.

Two years later, Feng Qiufeng has become a strong, chubby person.

Jiang Liyun once advised her to take care of her health and eat less, but coming from a time of scarcity, she can’t control her appetite.

Feng Qiufeng can’t eat less.

Thinking about how she used to be well-off in her past life, Jiang Liyun doesn’t care anymore; she just makes Feng Qiufeng find time to check her blood pressure.

Feng Qiufeng did listen to this.

There was a time when she didn’t want to live anymore, but now it’s different.

Life is too good now; she wants to live long!

You should know that this year, Jiang Fenlan passed the entrance exam for their local medical school, and she can work in a hospital as soon as she graduates!

Working in a hospital is so good!

Before, Feng Qiufeng didn’t really care about her children’s grades, but seeing Jiang Liyun attach importance to them, she paid a little more attention. But since her daughter got into medical school and knows that after graduating, she can definitely work in a hospital… She realised the value of education.

This summer vacation, she gave Jiang Fenlan some money to take Jiang Anshu to the workers’ club reading room to study, and when the store was empty at noon, they would come to the store to study.

Their home situation is such that the two children can’t study well at home.

Feng Qiufeng now wants Jiang Anshu to also take the entrance exam for vocational school, so he can fix things in the future.

After having breakfast at the fried dumpling shop, Jiang Liyun went to the food factory in the town.

Although she didn’t buy the production line that couldn’t be used abroad, the operation of the food factory is still not very good.

Just these past few years, many enterprises have been undergoing reforms and seeking new developments, like the chemical fertiliser factory in town, which has undergone a shareholding reform.

The food factory is not large in scale and is not easy to reform, so Jiang Liyun ended up buying it.

It can’t be said that she bought it with her own money; it should be said that it was bought by “Red Star Breeding Farm.”.

Now the food factory is being reorganized. The soda that used to be produced is no longer being made, and many of the original employees have been laid off, but ice cream is still being made.

Logistics are not as good at this time; most of the ice cream eaten in various places is locally made, and ice cream from outside is rare and expensive.

If the food factory doesn’t produce ice cream, people in Jiucun Town won’t be able to eat much ice cream.

And the profit margin for ice cream is quite high.

When Jiang Liyun arrived at the food factory, the workers were making ice cream.

The method is quite old-fashioned: first boil a pot of water, then add mung beans and sugar cooked in a pressure cooker, stir well, and pour into a wooden box with many squares.

Then insert a wooden stick into each square, put the wooden box into the cold storage, and it won’t take long to freeze.

After the wooden box is taken out of the cold storage, it is placed in a water tank to slightly thaw the ice cream so that it can be removed.

Once the ice cream is removed, it is wrapped in special packaging paper and can be sold directly to ice cream vendors, or it can be returned to the cold storage to freeze and be sold tomorrow.

Generally speaking, these ice creams won’t last until tomorrow; they’ll be snapped up by small vendors today.

Nowadays, people have some money in their hands and are very willing to spend a few cents to buy ice cream in the summer. The ice cream from the food factory has always been in high demand.

At this moment, Sun Jinshan is squatting on the ground, eating ice cream.

There are two kinds of ice cream from the food factory; one is made of mung beans, and the other is made of red beans, and he’s eating the red bean one.

“Where did you get this ice cream?” Jiang Liyun asked.

“I bought it from the ice cream vendor!” Sun Jinshan showed Jiang Liyun the packaging paper in his hand.

Before, the employees of the food factory would eat ice cream while making it.

In response to this, Jiang Liyun set strict rules that employees must wear masks while making ice cream, and for any reason, whether it’s because the ice cream is broken or for other reasons, they cannot eat ice cream during the process.

Sun Jinshan is a leader in the factory, but he is no exception.

“You have so many rules. I’m selling ice cream myself, and I have to buy ice cream from outside to eat,” Sun Jinshan complained.

Jiang Liyun couldn’t be bothered with him.

She set these rules for the good of the factory, and Sun Jinshan knows that, otherwise, he wouldn’t buy ice cream to eat.

He’s just complaining, and this kind of complaint doesn’t need to be addressed.

Sun Jinshan did indeed just complain, and then he complained about something else: “Jiang Liyun, can you talk to your sister? As soon as I get my salary and bonus, she wants it all; I can’t live like this!”

“That’s my sister; I can’t control her,” Jiang Liyun said.

Sun Jinshan said, “How can she be like this? I want to buy a car! Why doesn’t she let me buy one?”

Sun Jinshan has been married to Jiang Liping for more than two years, and they have a daughter together.

Jiang Liping is quite good at coaxing people, and she has put all her effort into Sun Jinshan, so she has a hold over him.

She’s afraid that after Sun Jinshan has money, he will gamble or spend it on other women, so every time Sun Jinshan gets his salary or bonus, she coaxes him to give it all to her.

Some of this money she spends on improving her and Sun Jinshan’s lives, and the rest… She likes to compare herself to Jiang Liyun. Seeing Jiang Liyun buying land and building a house in town, she immediately bought a piece of land and built a house in town.

Her house is better decorated than Jiang Liyun’s; at least she didn’t miss out on things like air conditioning.

The bonus Sun Jinshan gets is already less than Jiang Liyun’s, and these days, things like air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines are not cheap. Even installing a telephone at home costs several thousand… so he doesn’t have much money left.

“She even wants to buy another piece of land and build another house. Is that necessary? We already have a house in the countryside, and now we have one in town too.” Sun Jinshan complained.

Jiang Liyun ignored Sun Jinshan’s words.

The money is given to Jiang Liping by Sun Jinshan; it’s their couple’s business, so why should she interfere?

And although Jiang Liping also likes to spend money, her spending direction is indeed a bit better than Sun Jinshan’s.

The car that Sun Jinshan is yearning for is not cheap; it’s enough to buy several houses in town!

As for these houses, keeping them for the future, with several floors in each building, the annual rent is easily a hundred thousand. The annual rent alone could buy a Santana car.

And don’t be fooled by Sun Jinshan complaining in front of her; in front of outsiders, he doesn’t say such things.

Sure enough, when someone came to buy ice cream and chatted with Sun Jinshan, he said, “When you earn money, you can also build a house in town.”

“It’s more convenient to live in town.”

“Now, when you enter my house, you have to change shoes; it’s really clean.”

“This summer, it’s impossible to live without air conditioning.”

…

Jiang Liyun felt that the person chatting with Sun Jinshan must be cursing him in their hearts.

Outside, they’re making ice cream, and inside, they’re renovating.

In the future, a portion of the white-feathered chickens will be directly pickled here and then frozen. When this pickled frozen chicken enters her shop, it can be immediately turned into fried chicken.

In those hamburger shops and the like, the taste of the food they produce is the same for each shop because of the same production process, and she will do the same.

After bragging a bit, Sun Jinshan followed inside and said, “Jiang Liyun, isn’t Feng Yi about to take the college entrance exam? Do you think he can get into university?”

Jiang Liyun said, “The teacher said he has a great chance.”

“Really amazing.” Sun Jinshan took a deep breath.

He used to think that Feng Yi couldn’t compare to him, but unexpectedly, Feng Yi could actually get into university.

That’s university… In the future, Feng Yi will be different from them.

Jiang Liyun smiled. “He is indeed impressive.”

“During this period, you should treat him to some good food. I heard studying is very hard,” Sun Jinshan added.

There was no need for Sun Jinshan to remind her; Jiang Liyun changed the topic to “Regarding the company’s management, have you learned enough? I’m going to Shanghai after Feng Yi’s college entrance exam, and I’ll need you to look after things here.”

“I definitely have no problem!” Sun Jinshan assured Jiang Liyun.

Jiang Liyun was not entirely convinced, but she had already let Jiang Lihai resign from the brick and tile factory to come here and watch over Sun Jinshan.

Stimulated by Feng Yi, Jiang Lihai took an accounting certificate.

Although it was just the most basic entry-level certificate, it was barely enough, and Jiang Liyun planned to let him work in the factory.

She didn’t really like family-owned businesses, but honestly, at the beginning of establishing the enterprise, using familiar people was reassuring.

When she establishes her own business in the big city in the future, she’ll have to attract talents from various fields!

It wasn’t until noon that Jiang Liyun returned home.

By the time she arrived, Feng Yi had already cooked a meal using an electric rice cooker, steaming minced meat and eggs on top.

“Sister Liyun, you’re back? I’ll stir-fry some eggplants, and then we can eat,” Feng Yi said.

“I’ll stir-fry; you focus on studying.” Jiang Liyun stopped him.

For the past two years, she actually didn’t stop Feng Yi from doing chores. But now, with the college entrance exam approaching, since Feng Yi wants to study, she’ll let him.

Thinking about this, Jiang Liyun switched to speaking in English with Feng Yi.

After two years of studying, her English was no longer mute.

In order to help Feng Yi learn English well, there was a period of time when she spoke only in English with him.

Now, let’s continue!