Chapter 59: The Road to Success

The evening glow in the west faded, and after seeing off the people in the yard, their work was not yet finished. Cao Dapeng and Chen Hong brought over the radishes and vegetables they had pulled from the fields. Cao Xiangnan used the newly bought scale to weigh them and paid Chen Hong the money on the spot.

Chen Hong received the money, and her mouth was so wide with a happy grin it almost split her face, and her steps seemed to float as she walked.

Night was approaching, and Cao Xiangnan and Qi Wanfeng were still in the yard washing vegetables, preparing to pickle them to make sauerkraut.

Having lived with his grandma in his previous life, Cao Xiangnan had seen her make all kinds of pickled vegetables since he was a child, and he naturally knew how to make these things. He had eaten these things a lot as a child, so he didn’t like them much after growing up, but the taste was far better than the pickles of this era.

They had pickles here too, but the taste was really not that good. Compared to his pickled vegetables from his previous life, they were completely different concepts. Originally, Cao Xiangnan planned to wait until it was warmer and there were more vegetables that were also cheaper. Then, they could go to the village to buy some vegetables to make pickled vegetables and then take them out to sell in the autumn, making a profit on the resale. The winter here was very cold, and there wasn’t much to eat at that time. In his memory, people here ate pickled vegetables and meat products in winter, but the taste wasn’t very good.

Now, it was just advanced. They had found a big client, and if they sold well, they would have a wide source of wealth in the future.

The sky gradually darkened. The day ended, and night arrived.

The oil lamp in the house flickered. After taking a bath, the three of them got into bed to sleep. They had to get up before dawn the next day to grind rice to make river noodles and then go to town to sell them. It wasn’t easy to earn a few coins.

“A-mu, A-mu…” The child called out to his A-mu in a soft, glutinous voice, acting spoiled with his A-mu.

“Yes, A-mu is here.” An’an, who hadn’t seen his A-mu all day, was very clingy to his A-mu tonight. Qi Wanfeng held the child in his arms, coaxing him to sleep. The child smelled the scent of his A-mu and soon fell into a deep sleep.

When he didn’t hear the child’s voice anymore and knew that he was asleep, Cao Xiangnan reached out to hug Qi Wanfeng’s waist and asked in his ear, “Are you tired?”

“Not tired,” Qi Wanfeng shook his head, his low voice very pleasant, and asked, “Are you tired, husband?”

“Tired.” Cao Xiangnan knew that Qi Wanfeng was also tired, but the person wouldn’t tell him even if he was tired. In the darkness, he stared at Qi Wanfeng’s eyes and couldn’t help but smile, saying with a smile in his voice, “Tired, but I’m also very happy when I’m tired.”

They were tired all day, and they both fell asleep shortly after lying down.

The small oil lamp flickered, and the stone mill in the small yard had already started turning, the gurgling rice milk falling into the bucket. The heat in the small kitchen was rising, and sheets of river noodles were being lifted from the steamer. The person next to him cut them into strips with quick strokes of the knife.

Everything was quickly prepared properly, and the river noodles were still being made in the kitchen. Cao Gang, driving the carriage, and Sun Bailian and Cao Dapeng went to Fenshui Town to set up the stall first. Cao Xiangnan stayed at home to steam the river noodles, as Qi Wanfeng couldn’t do so much alone.

There were a lot of river noodles to make today, so Cao Xiangnan had Cao Gang and the others go set up the stall first. Later, Cao Gang would drive the carriage back to bring the river noodles. He and Sun Ji would go together. They could send some of the river noodles to Yi Pin Zhai first, and the rest later. The restaurant would have more customers at noon, so there was no rush.

When Sun Ji came early in the morning, he also brought his A-die with him. Sun Ji had told him about this yesterday. They had ready-made sauce at home, so Cao Xiangnan scooped a portion of river noodles and gave them to Sun Ji’s A-die to taste.

“How’s the taste?” Cao Xiangnan asked, seeing the person take a bite.

Seeing the person nod, Cao Xiangnan knew that the taste wasn’t bad. His sauce mixed in was very fragrant. Sun Ji looked a lot like his A-die. Sun Fu was a man of few words. Cao Xiangnan told Sun Yanshan how to sell the river noodles, and he listened attentively.

Selling by carrying them around the villages couldn’t be like setting up a stall, so it had to be simple. Cao Xiangnan meant for Sun Fu to sell mixed noodles and plain river noodles. He could earn a few copper coins a day, and if he sold a lot, he would naturally earn more. When the sky was just beginning to brighten, Sun Fu carried the load and left Caojia Village to sell river noodles in other villages.

Now that they had a carriage, it was much more convenient for them to travel back and forth between the village and the town, and the time was also shortened. Cao Gang, who had gone to town, returned. The remaining river noodles were also made. After moving everything up, they got into the carriage and went to Fenshui Town.

“Manager Liu, here to deliver your goods.” The carriage stopped in front of Yi Pin Zhai’s door. As soon as Cao Xiangnan entered, he saw Manager Liu standing in front of the counter, greeting him with a smile, just like treating an old acquaintance.

Sun Ji carried the river noodles and followed him in. Manager Liu gestured to the waiter in the shop, and the clever waiter led the people to the kitchen.

“Come inside and have a cup of tea before you leave?” Manager Liu walked out from behind the counter. His attitude towards Cao Xiangnan had also changed a lot, and his long face also had a little smile.

From Manager Liu’s subtle changes, Cao Xiangnan could guess in his heart that Yi Pin Zhai’s business yesterday must have been good.

The two stood in the hall and chatted for a while. For his business to be better, Cao Xiangnan certainly hoped that Yi Pin Zhai’s business would be good too. He gave Manager Liu a few modern marketing methods. As for whether to use them or how to use them, it was up to Manager Liu. He believed that Manager Liu was a smart man.

“Manager, I’ll have to save the tea for another day. I have to rush back to the stall now, so I won’t stay any longer.” After Sun Ji came out, Cao Xiangnan politely declined Manager Liu’s kindness with a smile. He hadn’t been to the stall yet today and was worried.

“Okay, come again when you have time,” Manager Liu said, not keeping the other party any longer.

Cao Xiangnan and Sun Ji went out together. Cao Gang was sitting in the carriage outside waiting for them. They got into the carriage and left.

Manager Liu, standing behind, watched the people leave. He was still pondering the suggestions that Cao Xiangnan had given him just now. The more he thought about them, the more feasible they seemed. He clapped his hands and found someone below to arrange them.

He returned to the stall and saw that even in his absence, everything had been arranged in an orderly manner. Cao Xiangnan was relieved, thinking that even if he wasn’t here in the future, the stall could still operate normally.

He had Sun Ji go to other restaurants in town to promote their river noodles. With a modern person’s perspective, Cao Xiangnan was cultivating Sun Ji as a salesperson. In his previous life, he had studied and worked part-time to earn money. He had taken a part-time job handing out flyers and attracting customers on the street. If he cared about face, he really wouldn’t be able to attract a single customer and wouldn’t get a high commission. He was afraid that he wouldn’t even have money for food at that time, let alone continue going to school.

As a successful businessman, the first thing to do was to be shameless. If caring about face could fill your stomach, then you could just eat face. If Sun Ji couldn’t bring back even one deal, then it could only prove that there was a problem with the person. He thought he would have to reposition Sun Ji at that time.

“Xiangnan, I’m leaving.” Their eyes met. Sun Ji understood somewhat what Cao Xiangnan hoped of him. If he couldn’t do even such a thing well, he wouldn’t deserve to stand here.

“Brother Sun Ji, you can do it.” Cao Xiangnan reached out and patted Sun Ji’s shoulder forcefully, saying.

The person carrying the food box went to town to find restaurants to promote their river noodles. Many years later, Sun Ji still remembered that day. Today was their third day of setting up the stall. Cao Xiangnan, standing in front of the stall cooking river noodles, could quickly remember the faces of the people who had come to their stall to eat river noodles. He would introduce their stall’s food to new faces. He could also call out a title to familiar faces, asking familiarly, “Brother Zhang, what would you like?”

“The usual, a large bowl of soup river noodles, and wrap up half a catty for me to take away,” the man’s surname was Zhang, and he was burly. People in his trade called him Lao Zhang (Old Zhang).

“Okay, okay. Brother Wang, what about you? What would you like?”

“A large bowl of mixed river noodles.”

“Soup river noodles, large bowl.”

“Okay, okay, brothers, please sit over there. I’ll bring it over right away.” Cao Xiangnan would often hear someone’s title from the people next to him. He would add “brother” after the surname. Anyway, calling them “brother” was never wrong. His tone was friendly, and he used the word “brother” for everyone, getting all the titles right.

He would often add an extra tael or two for people who bought half a catty, always adding more and never less.

That’s how people bought things. If you went to a store and they shorted you on weight, you wouldn’t go there again. But if you always got a little more each time you bought something, then you would always go to that store in the future. So, even on their third day of opening, the stall’s business wasn’t bad. There were quite a few returning customers.

Cao Xiangnan’s goal was to turn all new customers into regular customers and regular customers into old customers.

Their stall’s business was good, and the pancake stall across the street had also had good business recently. People who came loved to buy a pancake to eat. There were usually few people here, and the business of the few stalls set up nearby was usually slow, but now everyone was getting better, so these stall owners also had good relationships with Cao Xiangnan’s people. They would greet each other when they met, and buying things from each other was also half-bought and half-given away, but there were also some who didn’t have good business, and there were always quite a few who were jealous.

After the time with the most customers at noon had passed, there were gradually fewer people coming to their stall to eat, and there wasn’t much left in the pot.

“Is everything sold out?” The pancake stall’s man came over to buy river noodles. Cao Xiangnan filled a large bowl full. “Almost, there’s only this much left,” he said.

“Your family’s business is really good.” The man’s tone was full of envy. “I’ll bring the bowl back to you later.”

“Okay,” Cao Xiangnan chuckled and said.

Before closing up, Sun Ji came back with orders from two small restaurants. As soon as he sat down, he drank a large bowl of water. He hadn’t even had a bowl of water all day in town. While Cao Xiangnan was muttering about how he wouldn’t even come back to eat something when he was hungry, he skillfully made a bowl of river noodles and brought it over, seeing the person eating heartily, “You’ve worked hard.”

Cao Xiangnan knew the difficulty in this. Not everyone was as lucky as he was, taking down Manager Liu as soon as he went to Yi Pin Zhai. But he had also been constantly rejected by others, constantly working hard. As long as he had that persistence, he would eventually succeed.

Sun Ji shook his head with a smile, lowered his head and took a large bite of the river noodles, saying, “There are still a few that I haven’t gone to. Two of the owners said they’d think about it. I’ll go take a look again tomorrow.”

Some restaurants had kicked him out as soon as he entered and asked if they wanted to buy river noodles. He had walked several in a row before meeting someone willing to listen to him. He was too embarrassed to come back empty-handed. After he closed two deals, he was afraid that the stall was closing up to go back, so he rushed back to avoid everyone waiting for him.

“Okay, come back to eat something if you’re tired from running around. Don’t be silly like you were today,” Cao Xiangnan nodded. Now it was they who were begging others to do business with them, but one day it would be others coming to their door begging him to do business.

Sun Ji grinned foolishly, nodding while smiling, and then lowered his head to eat the things in his bowl.