Chapter 102: Feng Yi’s Grandfather 1/2

Shao Chengdong and Lu Haijun spent the New Year in Shanghai without returning to their hometown. However, some of the female workers in Jiang Liyun’s shop want to go home.

After being away for a year, they wish to visit their families.

Unfortunately, the winter break is the peak business season, and the shop is short-staffed.

Some parents, who usually hesitate to spend money on treats for their children, are willing to indulge during the New Year.

For the people in their country, the New Year is truly significant.

In northern cities where it’s snowy and cold, with the tradition of stockpiling New Year’s ingredients, local restaurants thrive. However, this is the south.

In an era without refrigerators, southerners don’t stockpile too much food at home.

If the salted meat isn’t salty enough, it can mould!

The winter break in the south is undoubtedly a lucrative time for the catering industry.

During this period, housing in Shanghai is tight, and locals not only come to the shop to eat themselves but also host friends and family.

For people living two or three decades later, hosting friends and family during the New Year has nothing to do with a hamburger and fried chicken shop.

During the New Year, inviting relatives for a meal involves ordering a table of chicken, duck, fish, meat, or seafood at a hotel or restaurant and gathering around to enjoy. Who would invite guests to eat fried chicken?

But this is the 1990s.

People were even having wedding banquets at KFC!

If you could have a wedding at KFC, you could certainly host friends and family at Charles’s Hamburger Shop.

Jiang Liyun planned to make a big profit during the New Year. Upon learning that some students at Feng Yi’s school hadn’t gone home, she sent Feng Yi back and recruited some willing students as part-time help.

While big hotels struggled without their chefs, unable to serve customers, it was different in her shop.

The food in her shop follows a production process carefully outlined in the “Operations Manual.” Anyone who reads it and tries making the dishes can do it.

Above the square iron pan for frying chicken, there are notes indicating how long to fry chicken fillets and chicken legs.

University students wouldn’t make mistakes.

Hiring university students as part-timers was more reliable for her than recruiting illiterate people born in the ’80s and ’90s.

With enough staff, Jiang Liyun enjoyed a wonderful life, with a combined daily turnover of fifteen thousand for the two shops.

Such high turnover represented her daily nett income, reaching almost $5,000!

Five thousand a day, for nearly a month during the winter break, she could earn around one hundred and fifty thousand!

This was in the early 1990s!

In the next two years, she could use this money to buy several more houses in Pudong, and with determination, she could even buy entire buildings.

In twenty years, she could easily have a nett worth in the hundreds of millions or even billions by investing in real estate.

With so many properties, even if the catering industry struggled in thirty years, what would it matter? She had rental income!

“The future is promising, but the present is extremely challenging. With a high customer flow in the store and various miscellaneous tasks to handle, Jiang Liyun is constantly busy, working from early morning until late at night. Due to the intense workload, she barely has time to call home.

She and Feng Yi, each managing a store, collaborate and earn money together. Jiang Liyun hasn’t had much time to call home or send letters, and the only photo she sent after the one with Feng Yi was received by her parents in Jiucun Town.

Jiang Lamei and her husband, receiving a letter for the first time, feel it’s a novelty and carefully examine the enclosed photo. The coloured and sealed photo shows Jiang Liyun and Feng Yi smiling at the camera, looking handsome and beautiful.

“Looks really good!” Wu Xiaochun can’t help but comment. Even Jiang Lamei’s husband, with a silly smile, agrees that the people in the photo look good.

“Li Yun looks so beautiful; the big city really suits her. She looks almost like a celebrity now!” Gu Lan praises continuously. Even Feng Qiufeng smiles and comments a bit.

Although Jiang Lamei is not one to boast, she doesn’t share much with her parents about her business in Shanghai. They know she sells fried chicken, but they are unaware of how well her business is doing.

As for Sun Jinshan, he knows that Jiang Liyun uses a lot of raw materials every day, but he is also aware of the high rent and much higher wages in Shanghai, as mentioned by Jiang Liyun. He assumes she earns a decent amount but thinks it’s probably just one or two thousand a month.

He likes to brag about himself but refrains from boasting about others, especially not wanting Jiang Liping to know how capable Jiang Liyun actually is. Hence, he never talks about Jiang Liyun’s achievements.

Because of this, the Jiang family thinks Jiang Liyun, in Shanghai, is earning at most ten thousand a month. The villagers also assume that her chicken-selling business is similar to the Liyun Dumpling Shop in the town, making a decent income.

When they learn that Jiang Liyun won’t even come back for the Chinese New Year, some villagers even speculate that she must not be doing well outside.

Of course, these thoughts are mainly driven by jealousy. Believing that Jiang Liyun is not doing well outside makes them feel more comfortable than acknowledging her success.

In the Feng family, whenever Feng Lao mentions Jiang Liyun, there is never a kind word.

“Jiang Liyun doesn’t even come back for the New Year; she must not be making money outside.”

“Feng Yi goes to Shanghai, and she shamelessly follows. She’s probably afraid Feng Yi will leave.”

“He’s just an average university graduate; who knows what they’re so proud of?”

“Feng Yi is just a greedy wolf; when he succeeds, he’ll definitely leave Jiang Liyun, and the Jiang family won’t benefit.”

Feng Yi is indeed a college student! A college student!

Not to mention that the state provides subsidies for college education, but graduates can also become cadres!

If they had a good relationship with Feng Yi, they could definitely benefit. For instance, Feng Wenbing, who can’t find a job, could ask Feng Yi for help in arranging employment.

But their relationship with Feng Yi is too poor.

Although they say Feng Yi is a greedy wolf, deep down, they know it’s not true.

Considering what they’ve done to Feng Yi, it’s already magnanimous of him not to retaliate.

They dare not confront Feng Yi directly, so they can only talk behind his back, hoping Feng Yi and Jiang Liyun won’t have a good life together.

As the Feng family discusses Feng Yi, in Shanghai, a plane lands, and an elderly man, about sixty or seventy years old, disembarks.

This man is named Zhou Zhongcheng.

Zhou Zhongcheng is seventy years old this year, born in 1921, and his life experiences are nothing short of legendary.

His ancestors were in the silk business, and his family was wealthy.

During his era, the country was in turmoil, and he dedicated himself to serving the country. At a young age, he went abroad to study, then returned to work for the government.

Because of his proficiency in several foreign languages, he was assigned to work in a foreign embassy, becoming a staff member.

Later, when his colleagues brought a large amount of property to Taiwan, he happened to be abroad.

He wasn’t a prominent figure and couldn’t arrange for his wife and children properly, so he asked his friend to take his wife and children away.

Unfortunately, the situation was too chaotic at the time, and his wife and children died in the turmoil.

When Zhou Zhongcheng learned of this news, he cried bitterly.

His marriage was arranged by his parents. Due to his frequent work overseas, their relationship wasn’t deep.

But his son was different.

Although he didn’t spend much time with the child, he still had high hopes for him.

During his time abroad, he wrote countless letters to his child.

When the child died, he was deeply saddened.

But life goes on. Later, he married his friend’s sister and had two sons and a daughter. His eldest son is now thirty-nine years old.

For many years, he missed his hometown but couldn’t return.

At first, he was tormented by guilt and often dreamed that his parents were calling him unfilial.

Later, he shifted his focus to business and established factories overseas, becoming increasingly busy. Over time, he stopped longing for home.

Later on, as his children married and the family grew, his homesickness gradually eased.

In 1987, he was finally able to return to the mainland to visit!

He was ecstatic and wanted to go back to his hometown right away, but his wife fell ill suddenly, and his company had a pile of matters to attend to. He couldn’t leave temporarily.

In the end, Zhou Zhongcheng let his eldest son go in his place.

His eldest son brought back many photos for him to see.

The house of his family had changed beyond recognition. Initially turned into a primary school, later inhabited by educated youth, now it has become a place for village gatherings, with a small shop opened.

Seeing those photos and hearing from his son that the people in his hometown didn’t like him, Zhou Zhongcheng gave up on the idea of going back.

He left home at a young age, and besides his parents, wife, and children, he wasn’t very familiar with the other people in his hometown. Plus, after so many years, the people in his hometown had changed.

He heard that when some people returned to their hometowns and revealed their identities, they were pestered by the locals for money, unable to get away…

But after more than three years, Zhou Zhongcheng finally returned.

Starting in 1987, the stock market on the island began to soar, leading to a three-year bull market. However, in 1990, a stock market crash occurred.