Chapter 24

“I thought it was a good idea! You think you’re smart, but your dad and I haven’t thought about it? Those food stalls are at the entrance of the stairs, so there are not many customers going up, and it’s not as convenient to attract customers as on the street! We can only do business with regular customers and rely on word of mouth!”

“More importantly, the rent is 8,000 yuan a year, and it’s free on the street. Do you think money comes from the wind? Your father and I used to have a hard time saving 8,000 yuan a year! You don’t make money, you don’t manage the household, you don’t know how expensive food and oil are, and you just encouraged your father to do this kind of thing, I’ll beat you to death!”

Si’s mother was already very angry.

A good business that used to make more than 10,000 yuan a month is about to be taken away, and I feel very angry.

Si Cheng gave the family bad advice, but his mother caught his mistake.

Just then, he said he wanted to beat her, so he grabbed the broom next to him and was about to hit her with it, but was stopped by Si’s father with one hand.

“Can you please stop?”

“Can I stop?” Si’s mother stiffened her neck, the veins on her neck throbbing non-stop, “Let us run a food stall? Those three food stalls have changed owners in the past few years we have been setting up stalls. She wants us to take over. Doesn’t she sincerely want us to fail? She doesn’t do anything for a year, but she still wants to give 8,000 yuan to the cinema! 8,000 yuan is enough for her to go through junior high school and have more. She doesn’t know that money is hard to earn. She just said it casually. I am the one who suffers and is tired.”

Seeing his mother like this, Si Cheng lowered his head and looked at his toes. After she finished speaking, Si Cheng spoke.

“Dad, I’ve noticed at the night snack stall that at least half of the people who eat at our house are your regular customers. If you take over the stall, you can also take these regular customers away. The boss of Xinxin Daily Chemicals is determined to drive you away, and he must have a trick up his sleeve. You don’t have to put up with that. If you take over the stall, you and mom won’t have to pull the cart anymore, which will be much easier. Besides, I have new dishes that can attract customers.”

Father Si’s eyes lit up: “Do you have new dishes?”

“Yes. Dad, give me two hundred dollars and I’ll go buy something. Let’s try it tonight. If it works, we can prepare the pan pai stall tomorrow.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“That’s fine. I’ll go upstairs and write the list.”

Mother Si was still somewhat resentful.

“How dare she think of opening a food stall? If she loses money and fails to keep the business of this night snack stall, I wonder how it will end. With so many mouths to feed in the family, she will just go hungry!”

Si Cheng went upstairs, wrote the shopping list, and went out with his father.

The menu prepared by Si Cheng was actually nothing new, it was hot pot and dry pot.

The night snack stall also serves hotpot, but the chicken soup hotpot made by Si’s mother and Third Aunt tastes average, just an ordinary winter hot dish.

Si Cheng’s focus is on making hot pot sauces, which is her unique recipe.

When he arrived at the vegetable market, Si Cheng bought one pound of beef, four pounds of beef brisket, two hens, a pig’s stomach, three pounds of small intestines, potatoes, quail eggs, bean curd sheets, bean skin, bean sprouts, cabbage, pig’s blood, onions, ginger, garlic, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, cooking wine, peanut butter, various aniseed, apples, pears, a garlic mortar and other items.

Worried that there wouldn’t be enough alcohol wax, I bought three more strips.

The hot pot they make uses alcohol wax, which is then replenished after burning out, so it is relatively safer than alcohol.

When he returned home with the things, Si’s mother knew that Si Cheng was going to make hotpot as soon as she saw it.

“I was wondering what you were going to do. We sell hot pot, but the feedback from customers is average. It’s made with native chicken, but not many people eat it!”

Si Cheng didn’t explain and just started working hard.

I plan to make red soup beef brisket hotpot and clear soup pork tripe and chicken hotpot.

Si’s mother knew how to make hotpot, so she helped Si Cheng.

Even though she disagreed, it was the decision made by Si’s father, so she had no choice but to keep grumbling and expressing her objections while working.

The third aunt was helping out and also wanted to learn.

Third Aunt and Si’s Mother have not received any training as chefs. When they set up stalls to do business, they rely on cooking home-cooked meals at home and watching others cook outside and then learning how to cook on their own.

Beef brisket hotpot and chicken soup hotpot are not difficult to make.

The key point is that Si Cheng cooks scallion oil, makes chili oil noodles, and hot pot sauce.

The steps for cooking chili powder in oil are a bit complicated. You just have to rely on your feeling as to what to put in and how much to put in.

Until the aroma filled the entire space, Si’s mother finally shut up when she looked at the chili noodles.

In addition, beef sauce and pork sauce were also made.

After tasting it, Grandpa Si said, “Let alone other things, this beef and pork sauce can be eaten with two bowls of rice. Maomao is amazing. Just for this sauce, he will come to our house to eat hot pot.”

Si Cheng also told his mother that they could add pig stomach and small intestines to the meat hotpot.

Add potatoes to the beef brisket hot pot.

The rest of the side dishes can be added by customers after they finish eating.

After Si Cheng made the chili noodles with oil, his father tasted it and went out to buy more ingredients.

After lunch, Si Cheng taught his mother and third aunt how to make mixed sauce and chili noodles with oil at home.

Their previous hotpot was simple in style, with just chicken and soup, and the only added ingredients were fried tofu, cabbage and bean sprouts.

There are very few to choose from.

Si Cheng taught three times in the afternoon. Only on the third time did the chili oil noodles and sauce made by Si’s mother taste acceptable.

The Third Aunt’s is a little bit worse, but the taste is not bad and it’s acceptable.

As expected, business was very good tonight. The three beef brisket hotpots and pork tripe and chicken hotpots prepared by Mr. Si were all sold out. A lot of side dishes alone were sold, and tonight’s revenue hit a new high, breaking the 1,000 yuan mark.

Looking at the thousand-yuan income, Si’s mother was even more reluctant to give up this night snack stall.

He even wanted to instigate Si’s father to have a fight with the boss of Xinxin Daily Chemicals and defeat their family.

If it was the young and energetic Father Si, he might really do this.

But he is older now, and since his daughter is doing well in school and her parents are in the city, he did not get excited and look for trouble with those who bullied him.

The relevant departments have obviously been bribed by the boss of Xinxin Daily Chemicals. He has no power or influence, and beating the other party up may be a way to vent his anger, but it will also destroy his family business and happy family that he has worked so hard to build up.

So, when the boss of Xinxin Daily Chemicals came to drive people away again, Si’s father used courtesy before force.

He has been setting up a stall here for six years and nothing like this has ever happened before.

He can move away. The boss of Xinxin Daily Chemicals should give him a few days to find a place to move. Also, if someone else sets up a stall here after he moves away, don’t blame him for being rude.

When doing business in the city, people tend to bully the weak and fear the strong.

The boss of Xinxin Daily Chemicals had not had good business before, so he did not say anything to drive people away because he knew that Si’s father had a bad temper and had beaten people before. He also had many brothers. His second and third sisters were in the city, and he also had a younger sister from the same clan, so they would not be bullied easily.

But in the past few months, seeing that his stall was doing good business, he was really jealous and just wanted to swallow up the money that this late-night snack stall could make.