Chapter 39

A crowd gathered in front of Jiang Liyun’s stall, and she suddenly recalled some events from her past life.

Around the early 2000s, KFC opened in their town. At that time, everyone in town wanted to taste it. Her ungrateful son, upon hearing about it at school, insisted on going.

Being paralysed and with Feng Yi unable to spare time, they couldn’t take him to the town. So, they gave him a hundred yuan to go with his classmates.

She also wanted to taste the fried chicken at that time and hoped he would bring some back for her. However, he spent the entire hundred yuan and brought nothing back.

Later, a restaurant imitating KFC appeared in town, and that was when she first tasted fried chicken.

She distinctly remembered the cheapest burger at that shop being eight yuan, around 2002. It was quite expensive for her at the time. Surprisingly, before she passed away, the prices for fried chicken burgers had become cheaper.

Some burger joints even had promotions, selling two burgers for ten yuan.

Thinking about it, in the 90s, bottled cola was sold for two yuan, and even after two or three decades, the price didn’t change much.

Jiang Liyun prepared six chickens, but they sold out early. She thought adding two more chickens tomorrow would be fine.

Fried chicken was a trendy item, and young couples in love were willing to spend money on it. Also, people from rural areas coming to town for shopping were happy to buy.

In her previous life, when a local burger joint opened in their town, everyone was eager to buy from there. Couples on dates would go to the burger joint.

Selling more was okay, but human energy is limited.

If she had a storefront, she could hire someone to help and sell more, but currently, she doesn’t have the money to rent a storefront.

Around 5 p.m., Jiang Liyun closed the stall and walked back with Feng Yi.

The cart had a metal frame, and it was okay to grip in the summer, but it would be too cold in the winter. Feng Yi wore gloves he used when making pan-fried dumplings.

Jiang Liyun took a glance and felt the need to buy a tricycle as soon as possible.

Pulling the cart is slow, taking forty minutes for a round trip to the town. Currently, they make two trips a day, totalling one hundred and sixty minutes, equivalent to two and a half hours.

It’s too much time wasted, and the cart belongs to someone else. A tricycle would at least save half of the time.

Before, they only set up the stall in the morning and returned home by 10 a.m., not affecting Uncle Jiang’s use of the cart. However, now they also borrowed it in the afternoon…

Although Uncle Jiang said they could use it freely, they couldn’t really occupy it indefinitely.

When Jiang Liyun and the others arrived home, dinner was already prepared, and Jiang Lihai was waiting at the doorstep.

Seeing them, Jiang Lihai exclaimed, “Finally, you’re back! I’m starving!”

The Jiang family usually had dinner quite early, but these days, they had to wait for them, so dinner was delayed until after dark.

Jiang Liyun said, “Brother, Mum, Dad, you go ahead and eat. Leave a bit for me and Feng Yi; otherwise, it will be too late for us.”

“Let’s eat together; it’s lively.” Wu Xiaochun’s voice trailed off.

Jiang Lihai added, “Yes, let’s eat together.”

During dinner, Jiang Lihai kept talking about his new house, how good it was, and the details he learned about designing the kitchen countertops.

Jiang Liyun wasn’t interested in these things, but Feng Yi chatted happily with him, and Jiang’s lame couple listened attentively.

They all looked forward to the new house.

Previously, their family felt a bit stagnant. While others in the village worked hard to improve their lives, they had nothing.

Jiang Liyun felt that Jiang Lihai’s infrequent visits home and the tense atmosphere were related. Now that he willingly came back, he seemed lively and spirited.

The next morning, when Jiang Liyun woke up, Jiang Lihai was already up.

He had to go to work today and didn’t accompany them to the town, but he helped pack some dumplings.

“Brother, when you go to the factory later, don’t forget to bring some braised chicken offal,” Jiang Liyun reminded.

Jiang Lihai asked her, “Liyun, can I give some braised chicken feet to Chunlin? She likes chicken feet.”

“Sure, brother, you can arrange it yourself,” Jiang Liyun replied.

In the future, they wouldn’t be short of chicken offal or chicken feet to eat, and Jiang Liyun didn’t mind Jiang Lihai giving them away.

Jiang Liyun even pondered about selling chicken feet and offal in town in a couple of days, just to give it a try.

She could only make the simplest braised dishes, just boiling with some star anise, bay leaves, and cinnamon.

These braised dishes she made wouldn’t compete with others’, but if she sold them cheaper, she should still be able to sell them.

It meant adding more things to do.

Well, Chinese New Year was less than three months away; she could endure a bit more hardship! After the New Year, she wanted to rent a storefront and open a shop.

Now, even when it rained, they had to go to town, enduring the wind, sun, and rain without respite. It was truly exhausting.

Fortunately, there hadn’t been heavy rain during this period.

After Jiang Liyun and the others left, Jiang Lihai took the braised chicken offal and chicken feet to the commune.

He didn’t rush to the brick and tile factory; instead, he went to the He family first.

Jiang Liyun bought six chickens yesterday, totalling twelve chicken feet, which he brought with him.

When he arrived, the He family was having breakfast and were quite happy to see him, inviting him to join them.

Recently, Jiang Lihai had seen a lot and wasn’t intimidated when facing the He family; he even talked a lot about life in big cities.

The He family had never been to a big city and listened with great admiration.

As Jiang Lihai talked, he mentioned Jiang Liyun selling fried chicken in town.

Mr. He said, “We also raise chickens. In about ten days, they’ll be fully grown. If your sister needs chickens, she can buy them from us.”

They also raised some white-feather chickens, and the prices had been a bit low recently.

If Jiang Liyun needed them, it would be good to sell them to her.

“I’ll tell my sister,” Jiang Lihai said.

After leaving the He family, Jiang Lihai went to the brick and tile factory. He didn’t know how to tell his coworkers about the chicken offal, so he found Sun Jinshan.

“Your sister’s chicken offal? Her fried chicken is so delicious; her braised chicken offal must be good too!” Sun Jinshan held the bag of chicken offal and said to his coworkers, “Jiang Lihai brought us some delicious food. We’ll have an extra dish for lunch today!”

Everyone immediately gathered around, and Sun Jinshan continued, “That kid Feng Yi is really lucky. His girlfriend is really good at making money. Recently, besides selling dumplings, they’ve started selling fried chicken. Have you heard? It’s that foreign-style fried chicken sold at the kindergarten gate. I bought some yesterday, and it was really delicious.”

While Sun Jinshan was chatting with these people, Jiang Lihai sat besides him, listening with relish and a bit of envy.

If only he could talk like Sun Jinshan!

Jiang Liyun didn’t know that Sun Jinshan was promoting her. That day, as usual, she sold dumplings and then heard from customers that the Yang family had started selling dumplings at the junior high school gate.

That place was actually a good location for selling breakfast, as many junior high school students didn’t eat breakfast at home, and their parents would give them fifty cents to buy something outside.

There was also a fertiliser plant near the junior high school.

As long as the Yang family didn’t cause trouble in front of her, it was fine. Jiang Liyun quickly scooped up the dumplings and sold them to the customers.

She had prepared quite a lot of dumplings today, so if they sold out, she could earn thirty more!