Chapter 9

Su Wan lifted the lid, and the aroma immediately attracted other workers heading to the factory, quickly drawing a crowd around her.

Seeing people gathering, Su Wan wasn’t stingy—she gave everyone a piece to try.

The stewed pork offal had long lost any unpleasant odor. Instead, it gave off a rich fragrance, and the taste was exceptionally good.

“Eighty cents per jin, right?” the woman who first came over quickly said, “Young lady, give me three jin to start.”

“Sure!”

Su Wan promptly scooped out the meat, even poured in some of the broth, and quickly weighed out three jin for the woman. She also gave her two extra pieces of pork lung and two ladles of broth.

“I’ll take two jin!”

“I want one jin!”

“I want five jin—give me more broth!”

At that time, eating meat was truly difficult. But for these factory workers, eighty cents per jin wasn’t expensive at all.

In the factory, the base salary was about fifty yuan. In Guangdong Province, where there was plenty of work, during good production months, workers could earn eighty to ninety yuan at minimum, with most making over a hundred, and skilled workers earning one to two hundred. Meat coupons were limited, and black market prices were high, so buying cooked stewed meat was very cost-effective—especially since Su Wan’s stewed meat tasted so good.

At just eighty cents a jin, they could easily afford it.

There were three large factories here with over 30,000 employees in total—Su Wan’s stewed meat simply wasn’t enough to meet demand. In less than half an hour, it was completely sold out.

Su Wan stuffed all the money into a black bag. She didn’t know the exact time now, but the start times for the three factories were staggered by about an hour and a half.

By the time others found out, the meat was already sold out.

Those who didn’t get any asked, “Will you be selling again tomorrow?”

“I will. I’ll be here again in the morning,” Su Wan replied.

With everything sold out, Su Wan was in an exceptionally good mood.

As she assured the others, she was also considering whether to buy more ingredients to sell.

The stainless steel bucket Wang Bin had bought her had wheels. Now exhausted, she simply dragged it behind her. She planned to buy more stewing spices and rock sugar, and even get two more stainless steel buckets—since the factory schedules were staggered, she could sell for a full hour and a half.

Guangdong was one of the first regions to undergo economic reforms, so it wasn’t hard to buy rock sugar and spices.

She didn’t even use the bag of change she carried with her—today’s shopping money came from the original stash. She bought a new stainless steel bucket, which was three cents more expensive than the one Wang Bin got her. She also spent eight yuan on spices, soy sauce, and rock sugar, and bought some rice wine. Once she had everything, she returned to her usual selling spot.

It was nearly three hours later when Wang Bin and the others arrived.

Su Wan smiled at them and pulled four packs of cigarettes from her pocket, handing out two packs to each of the men.

“Thank you both for helping out so much recently. The stewed meat sold out, but I saved a bowl at home for each of you. Come by and pick it up later!”

“Thanks, sister-in-law!”

Wang Bin expressed his gratitude but still said as he took the cigarettes, “Sister-in-law, next time don’t buy cigarettes. They’re expensive.”

Da Qianmen brand cigarettes cost 35 cents per pack, and they felt guilty accepting them.

Su Wan smiled and said, “Just this once. Comrade Wang Bin, did you buy the pork offal today?”

“You asked me to buy a full set of pork offal and see if there was any pork head. I got 80 jin of offal—it cost 8.5 yuan. You asked me to get pork blood, so I bought 20 jin for 50 cents. The pork head weighed 21 jin and cost 6 yuan. Altogether it came to 15 yuan.”

Once Wang Bin finished listing everything, Su Wan handed him another five yuan, “Please get me the same stuff tomorrow. Thank you again!”

“Sister-in-law, don’t be so polite. Let’s get back quickly!”

They loaded everything into the back of the vehicle, and the car soon drove off toward the military base.

Back home, after giving Wang Bin his bowl of stewed meat, the first thing Su Wan did was shut the door—and start counting money.

It was all small change: a few cents to one yuan each. She counted it twice to be sure.

Eighty-seven yuan and thirty cents.

After deducting the cost, she had made at least seventy yuan in profit.

Su Wan was so excited she could barely speak. Her fighting spirit was instantly ignited. She placed the one- and five-yuan bills into a box, quickly cooked a simple lunch, and got back to work.

She didn’t even rest at noon—she immediately started washing meat.

A whole pork head shocked the neighbor women in the courtyard. They wondered what had happened to the Chen household that they’d bought such a huge pork head.

But they didn’t have a good relationship with her and didn’t come over.

Su Wan didn’t care what they thought. From noon until nearly 9 p.m., she was washing meat. She ate something quickly and continued stewing meat through the night.

The next morning, Wang Bin and Xu Weiguo helped her load two big barrels onto the cart and headed back to town.

At the same spot, Su Wan didn’t even need to advertise. Thanks to the previous day’s good reputation, a huge crowd gathered right away.

The women said one after another:

“Xiao Su, your stewed offal is so delicious. My husband told me to buy a few more jin today.”

“Yes! My grandson had two bowls of rice with it yesterday—I’m getting an extra jin today too.”

“Give me five jin.”

“I want more today too—three jin for me.”

“Don’t rush, everyone,” Su Wan said with a smile. “Today’s batch also includes stewed pork head meat. It tastes just as good as regular pork.”

Everyone trusted Su Wan’s cooking.

The crowd was so dense that even the nearby security guards came over several times just to sniff the air—it smelled that good.

This time, it took nearly 50 minutes, and the two big barrels of stewed meat were completely sold out.

The cloth bag she made last night was bulging—it was full of cash.

The security guards looked at her enviously and said with a smile, “You’ve got a good business going here.”

“Thanks for letting me set up here,” Su Wan said. “I’ve prepared a portion for both of you—hope you don’t mind. Just reheat it and it’s ready to eat.”

She had noticed the same two security guards on duty as yesterday and guessed they were the morning shift.

The guards looked a bit embarrassed, “Oh, you don’t need to…”

“Don’t be shy—it’s nothing expensive. I’ll still be setting up here in the future, so I’ll need your help keeping an eye out.”

The two security guards understood her message. They weighed the meat in their hands—it was at least three jin with broth.

“Don’t worry, we’ll watch your back.”

With their assurance, Su Wan felt much more at ease.

She waited at the factory gate for three hours until Wang Bin and the others came and took her back to the base.

After they helped her unload the pork offal, pork head, and blood at her door, she again gave them a bowl of stewed meat before closing the door to count her money.

With two big barrels sold, she made 128 yuan and 60 cents in profit. Su Wan felt incredibly encouraged.

In just two days, she’d made over 200 yuan. Even after subtracting costs, she had made a solid profit.

From then on, she made money every day. Twenty days flew by.

That day, she was counting money in her room when suddenly—

Knock knock knock…

The sound startled Su Wan, who had just finished counting her earnings. She called out, “Just a moment.”

When she opened the door, Chen Yuan was standing outside—he had been gone for twenty-two days. His eyes were filled with suspicion.

He asked, “Why did you buy so much pork offal and pork head?”