Zhang Shufen drinks twice a day, eats meat everyday, and is surrounded by filial children and harmonious daughters in law, living the life that all the old women in Zhou Village envy.
But she also has her troubles.
Her youngest son was born the year her husband sacrificed his life, and she named him Weiguo (meaning "defending the country") so that her children would remember why their father died.
Zhou Weiguo was smart from a young age, good at sports, and always brought home a stack of awards from school sports competitions. Many young girls liked him, and his school bag was often filled with childish love letters.
At eighteen, he enlisted in the army. The award certificates turned into commendations and congratulatory notices for meritorious service, participating in rescue operations and winning competitions, almost every year. He rose through the ranks to become a unit commander, the same rank as his father had held.
Most of his army allowance was sent back home, and she saved it.
Then, that year, a telegram arrived from the town, and when she saw him again, he had lost an arm and was limping.
The county leaders all came, and the villagers lined the streets to welcome the war hero back home; people from miles around came to see him.
This scene made her feel somewhat disoriented; it was just as lively when her husband returned home that year.
She wanted to cry, but in the end, she smiled.
Her son was a hero, just like his father, but this time, her son came back alive.
The organization valued him highly and wanted to arrange a job for him, and the monthly disability allowance was also provided.
But they couldn't persuade Zhou Weiguo, that stubborn man, who said he didn't want to be a burden to the country and wanted to go home and farm.
Four years passed in a flash.
He actually managed to cultivate the small vegetable plot at home with just one hand, and the vegetables grew even better than those of other families.
For the past two years, they had arranged blind dates for him, but when the girls came to see him, they saw his missing arm, his limp, and the frightening scar on his face, and the fact that he didn't have a proper job, so they immediately ran away.
Zhou Weiguo became the subject of private jokes among the villagers, who said he was stubborn, refused to take a government position, and was a fool and an idiot.
At thirty four, he was considered an old single man in the countryside.
The old woman was worried; she had tried everything, both gentle persuasion and harsh words, and the organization that visited him every year during the holidays also tried to convince him, but nothing worked.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Yan actually managed to persuade him today.
"I never realized before, this kid is quite eloquent." the old woman muttered to herself, but her face was full of relief.
Before Zhou Momo was born, Zhou Yan was the youngest among the grandchildren. When he was little, his mother and father were busy, so he liked to come to her place to eat.
If Zhou Weiguo really went to work, she didn't care whether he became an official or not; as long as he could go out and live a meaningful life, she would be content.
Besides, if he found a girl who liked him after starting work, she wouldn't have to worry anymore.
Zhou Yan and Zhou Weiguo chatted at the door for a while. He briefly described the future world, packaging it as knowledge he had read in books, which made Zhou Weiguo's eyes light up.
"A man should not live a life of mediocrity, what difference like rotten wood or withered grass?" Zhou Weiguo slapped the persimmon tree hard, his gaze resolute. "Okay, I'll go to the personnel bureau tomorrow."
At that moment, Zhou Yan saw the shadow of that eighteen years old boy in him again.
No, he had become even more mature.
"Then I'll go with Uncle tomorrow, I'll pick you up." Zhou Yan said, standing up.
"No need, I'll just borrow a bicycle and go myself." Zhou Weiguo also stood up, smiling and patting his shoulder: "If I need someone to accompany me for such a small matter, then what else can I do? You just take care of the restaurant. May be I'll even come to your restaurant eat."
"Alright." Zhou Yan nodded, took a stack of banknotes from his pocket, and handed them to Zhou Weiguo: "Uncle, this is the hundred yuan I borrowed from you before. I'm returning it to you."
Zhou Weiguo smiled and took the money, putting it in his pocket without counting it. He looked at him and said, "Come to me if you need money. I'll keep this money for you."
"Then I won't be polite." Zhou Yan also smiled.
Zhou Yan sat for a while longer, then said he had something to do and needed to go back to the restaurant.
"Aren't you going to stay for dinner? I was going to kill a chicken for tonight's meal." the old lady said, coming out of the chicken coop with a large, glossy-feathered rooster in her hand.
"I need to go back and work on the new menu. We'll eat it next time." Zhou Yan said with a smile.
"Alright." the old woman threw the rooster back into the chicken coop and went into the main room, coming out with half a sack of oranges.
"Here, this is the list of spices and bones you'll need for making the braising liquid. Come and get me when you're ready." the old woman handed a piece of paper to Zhou Yan. It was filled with a list of various spices and their quantities, more than twenty different kinds.
"Okay." Zhou Yan carefully folded the paper and put it in his pocket, taking the oranges. "I'll come and get you when I'm ready."
"Go ahead, let Momo play here. Wei Guo will take her home after dinner." the old woman said with a smile.
"Okay." Zhou Yan replied, and rode off on his bicycle.
He went home first.
Comrade Old Zhou was in the yard bending embroidery needles to make fishhooks. He looked up at Zhou Yan and then at the doorway. "Where's Momo?"
"She's at Grandma's place. Uncle will bring her back after dinner."
Zhou Yan leaned closer, watching him carefully heat the needle until it was red hot before bending it. Two finished products were already on the ground, along with several broken needles.
"Old man, aren't you afraid my mom will scold you when she sees this? You've bent all the needles in the box." Zhou Yan chuckled. He wouldn't dare do something like this, knowing his mother would scold him.
"Scold me? She wouldn't dare." Old Man Zhou continued bending the needles, unconcerned. "This box is a new one I bought; she doesn't know about it."
"Where's my mom?" Zhou Yan looked around; the main room was quiet.
Their house was a single-story house, surrounded by a small courtyard enclosed by a fence. The ground was paved with stones that Old Man Zhou had collected from the river. A grapevine was planted by the door, and its leaves were already starting to fall.
There was one main room, two bedrooms, and a latrine in the corner. The walls were made of rammed earth, full of mottled marks, but everything was neatly tidied, and there wasn't a single dead leaf in the courtyard.
"She went next door to play mahjong for a penny a game. She only gets one day off a week, so she needs to relax." Zhou Miao replied.
"Alright, then I'll head back to the shop." Zhou Yan said, placing the oranges on the stool and turning to leave.
"Aren't you eating dinner at home tonight?"
"I'm not eating here. I plan to start selling braised and stir-fried dishes next week. I'm going back today to finalize the menu and get everything ready. I'll be incredibly busy tomorrow." Zhou Yan replied and left immediately.
"Stir-fried dishes? Braised dishes?" Comrade Old Zhou looked up, but Zhou Yan had already ridden away on his bicycle.
On the way back, Zhou Yan's mind was completely occupied with how to price the dishes.
A serving of braised beef with bamboo shoots requires three taels of beef. Beef costs one yuan and fifty cents per jin, and that's the cost price his father gave him.
Braised pork ribs and minced beef with double peppers also require three taels of meat. The cost of pork ribs is even higher, at one yuan and eighty cents per jin.
For one dish, the cost of the meat alone is between forty five and fifty four cents.
Adding in the cost of vegetables, oil, seasonings, firewood, wear and tear on various utensils, labor, etc., another twenty or thirty cents need to be added.
Roughly calculated, the cost of braised beef and minced beef with double peppers is about sixty five cents, and braised pork ribs would be around seventy five cents.
The price of crucian carp is 45 cents per jin (approximately 500 grams). One serving of crucian carp with perilla leaves requires two crucian carp weighing about eight ounces each. Cooking the fish uses oil and seasonings, which cost about 30 cents, bringing the total cost to about one yuan.
Zhou Yan thought of the restaurant's original menu: Garlic Pork Slices 35 cents, Salted Braised Pork 45 cents, Twice-Cooked Pork 60 cents, Dongpo Pork Knuckle 1 yuan 20 cents...
It's no wonder that Comrade Little Zhou ran the restaurant into the ground.
This menu was clearly modeled after the factory canteen's prices.
It seems harmless, but it's full of pitfalls.
The factory canteen's purchasing department could get the best and freshest ingredients from the supply and marketing cooperative, and the prices were nearly half off with ration coupons.
The canteen could get pork belly for one yuan per jin, while Zhou Yan would have to pay 1.8 yuan or even 2 yuan.
Moreover, the factory canteen also issued meal tickets to the workers, and the prices were already cheaper than state-owned and private restaurants.
If you insist on comparing prices with the factory canteen, or even making it cheaper, you'd be crazy not to lose money.
Braised beef with dried bamboo shoots and minced beef with double peppers are priced at one yuan per serving, and braised pork ribs are one yuan and twenty cents per serving.
The dish of crucian carp with perilla leaves is complicated to prepare, and also have to consider the spoilage of the crucian carp, so it's priced at two yuan per serving.
There are no cucumbers this season, otherwise, cucumber dish could also be added to the menu to make up the numbers.
These prices are one third more expensive than the factory canteen's stir-fried dishes; for example, the factory canteen's braised crucian carp is one yuan and fifty cents per serving.
There's no way around it, Zhou Yan needs to make money running a restaurant; there has to be a profit margin.
Moreover, if cheap prices could retain customers, then little Zhou wouldn't have been sitting alone in an empty restaurant everyday before.
Taste is the premium value of a dish, and it's what customers recognize.
Zhou Yan was quite confident about this.
The college students from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute had generated a lot of buzz for Zhou Erwa Restaurant, and Zhou Yan estimated that many workers would come tomorrow to see what magic this little restaurant possessed.
He certainly couldn't miss out on this massive influx of customers.
Moreover, during this time, many customers had been urging him to quickly add stir-fried and braised dishes to the menu, even if it was just a few noodle toppings to start with, as some people genuinely didn't like eating noodles.
He had just learned how to make crucian carp with perilla leaves, and adding the cross-legged beef, he would have four dishes and one soup on the menu.
His target group was the core customers of the factory canteen's stir-fried dishes.
He was highly motivated to steal customers from the factory canteen.
He would start tomorrow!
Zhou Yan rode his bicycle back to the restaurant and found someone standing at the door.
"Uncle Lin, why are you standing here?" Zhou Yan braked and looked at Lin Zhiqiang with some surprise.
"I thought you weren't here." Lin Zhiqiang said, smiling at Zhou Yan. "Little Zhou, I'm planning to treat some people to a meal at your restaurant tomorrow. Besides noodles, do you have any other signature dishes?"
...