Chapter 279: Rebirth in the Nineties: The Tyrant Flower, Chapter 280: Human World Smoke and Fire

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

"I just didn't expect you could still push that inverted donkey." Chai Mi said with a smile: "I thought you'd be completely exhausted."

Song Qiushui said smugly: "Hey, who do you think I am? I'm Song Qiushui..."

Song Qiushui bragged for half an hour, the gist being that she was very impressive.

Listening to Song Qiushui brag, Chai Mi felt much better herself, and her body wasn't so tired: "Right right right, our Qiu Shui is the most impressive, awesome."

Song Qiushui was full of spirit; although she herself was exhausted to the point of dizziness, hearing Chai Mi praise her still made her feel good: "Oh, so-so. So-so... Don't keep praising me, I get proud easily. Just now my legs almost went soft and I almost dumped the cart... Later I figured if I couldn't hold on, this whole cart of goods would be ruined, and I'd have to pay a lot of money. For a little bit of money, I held on."

"We made money this time, I'll buy you a big goose to eat." Chai Mi coaxed Song Qiushui: "That place on our street raises several big geese, they look delicious just looking at them. I'll arrange a big meal for you, we'll have a meal of iron pot stewed goose."

"Is that stuff good to eat? I think pork ribs stewed with pig trotters is better."

"It's good. The longer it's stewed, the better it tastes."

The two rested for a while, and it was fully bright outside, estimated to be around six-thirty, so they stopped resting and hurried to get up and set off.

After walking another stretch of road, they finally reached the gas station; Chai Mi spent money to fill up the inverted donkey's gas tank, and only then did the two breathe a sigh of relief.

Afterward they rode the inverted donkey and continued on.

"Oh, riding in a vehicle is comfortable. From now on, you should also buy a small truck like Liu San's, with a canopy, protected from wind and rain, how great."

"I made money. I bought a freezer yesterday, my mom nagged me all night; if I buy another small truck, my mom will eat me alive."

"Sigh, I just don't have money. If I had money, I'd add twenty thousand for you..."

Chai Mi frowned: "Qiu Shui, can we not brag and not die? Say something reliable."

Song Qiushui hehe laughed: "I can add two hundred for you. Hehehe... I really don't have any more."

"Don't add anymore, if you add more your family will have to smash pots and sell iron."

The two chatted and laughed, and entered the industrial zone.

In the morning there weren't many people; the entrances of several factories inside were all quiet, with no movement and few people.

After walking another stretch inside, they only occasionally saw a few breakfast stalls.

Steamed buns, fried dough sticks, egg pancakes, and such.

There weren't many customers either.

Only when they got near the Chen Vinegar Factory and Zisha Factory did people gradually increase. Hawking voices rose and fell... completely disregarding the factory rule that workers weren't allowed out to eat.

There was a worker who said: "Hehe, I work the late shift, they don't dare to manage me when I get off in the morning; it's not noon, can the factory still control us?"

"Mm, the food in the cafeteria is really terrible to eat. Even dogs wouldn't eat it..."

"I see you haven't eaten little normally..."

"Are you fucking looking for trouble?"

Afterward several people even started fighting...

Chai Mi naturally had no time to watch them fight; she found a secluded spot, parked the inverted donkey, and she and Song Qiushui set up their stall together.

Since it was the first time setting up a stall here, the surrounding stalls all had customers, almost all workers from inside the factories, but Chai Mi's side was completely empty.

But Chai Mi wasn't in a hurry; this wasn't like a market.

A market is the kind where people come and go; even if selling food, no one would look at anyone with special eyes. As long as the price is reasonable, someone will buy.

But near the factories, it's definitely a different situation.

Many people eat at a stall perhaps for a long time, a year and a half or even longer; they have their own familiar stalls and eat what they want to eat.

Just like a restaurant, actually the nature is similar.

Chai Mi just happened to open on the first day, temporarily having no customers, which is normal.

"Give me a bowl of corn grits porridge; I've been on night shift all night, my head is buzzing, I can hardly find my bearings... also give me a bowl of wontons, hot..."

"Give me ten steamed buns, with pickled vegetable filling. Haven't eaten for several days; just right to take home for my daughter later..."

"Give me a pancake, no egg, no fried dough, no cilantro, right... no sauce..."

"Comrade, do you mean to buy one green onion? Are you fucking looking for trouble? I sell pancakes, not green onions..."

"The customer is God..."

"Fuck off, I believe in Tathagata..."

They were all a bunch of rough people; when they spoke, it was also rough talk.

The workers here generally had relatively high wages, reaching thirty to fifty in that range. First, because it's physical labor, the base wage isn't low; second, because most work twelve-hour shifts, working is especially tiring.

In the countryside, just finding work is not bad; most who come here are old masters with some skill, earning more is normal.

Of course, this is also considered one of the wealthiest places in the county; earning more than other places is normal.

At least, it's much, much more than in the countryside.

Country people, scratching food from the soil, just feeding themselves is already very difficult; prices are also absurdly low. Purchasing power is also very low...

The same thing, if in Sanjiacun, would be cheaper.

But once entering the county city, it would be much more expensive.

Chai Mi had come here to walk around before; the cornmeal porridge here is three yuan and five jiao a bowl. And when going to the market, the cornmeal porridge there is only one yuan and five jiao a bowl.

Still sold by the same person...

It's especially like certain high-end restaurants in later times; outside steamed buns are one yuan or five jiao each, but that restaurant in Northeast is twenty-one yuan...

Still pre-made steamed buns...

It's the same principle.

The same thing will have different prices depending on the place.

The people around also noticed Chai Mi's new stall: "Boss, how much for a bowl?"

"Six yuan for meat, four for vegetarian."

Hearing this, the people around suddenly felt the price was very fair. After all, those skinny dumplings without any filling still cost three fifty, these steaming hot dumplings are only six yuan, not expensive at all.

Conscience price.

Workers here earn a bit more, and it's physical labor, they also have to stay up late. When people are tired, they want to eat something good.

Especially on the Northeast side.

What is earning money for?

Most earning money is naturally for eating and drinking, showing off in front of others.

And this group of men doing heavy physical labor, they just want to earn a bit of money to eat something good.

Perhaps, this is their life.

"Give me a bowl." A big-headed worker said: "Any baijiu?"

"Yes, one yuan a cup, a two-liang cup." Chai Mi said with a smile.

"One cup."

The big-headed worker took the dumplings and wine, and sat at the small table set up nearby to eat.

Ate the first dumpling...

Delicious.

Ate the second dumpling...

Mother's taste.

Ate the third dumpling, the big-headed worker with the wine, tears came pouring down...

A loud howl: "Mother..."

This howl was too sudden, it stunned all the people eating around, they all looked toward the big-headed worker.

This big brother with tears brimming, grinning and crying: "Haven't eaten such delicious dumplings in many years, they're just as delicious as the ones my mother wrapped... I miss my mother, but my mother has been gone for over ten years... Mother, are you doing well over there?"

As he spoke, he actually ordered another bowl of dumplings, chopsticks placed on top, eating one bowl himself, looking at the other bowl, howling and crying.

Crying while saying the dumplings are delicious.

Seeing this big-headed big brother cry so genuinely, the people around all bought a bowl to taste...

Result...

In a short while, a whole group of people were crying.

All thought of their own elderly mothers...

Song Qiushui was also dumbfounded, a face of bewilderment quietly asking Chai Mi: "No... sisters, how much did you fucking pay to hire shills? This fucking twenty people eating, sixteen missing their mothers? One by one, all saying it's mother's taste, this is also..."

Not only bizarre, but a bit scary too.

"If you're hiring shills, tell me, I'll get my dad to come cry a few lines too..."

"Forget it, your grandma is still alive, how would your dad think of mother's taste?" Chai Mi rolled her eyes at Song Qiushui.

"My grandma has been bedridden for many years, she hasn't cooked in ages. Ah, wait, you really did hire shills?"

Chai Mi's face full of speechlessness: "Do I look like someone who hires shills?"

Chai Mi really didn't hire shills, these people ate and found it delicious, eating and eating they thought of mother's taste, she had no way to stop it either.

"Then they really haven't eaten any good pork." Song Qiushui curled her lip: "Eating a dumpling, I eat often, I didn't think of my mother, they sure..."

Chai Mi wasn't too surprised, her own wrapped dumplings are indeed a bit more delicious.

In her previous life, Chai Mi worked in a restaurant, wrapped dumplings, so her dumpling skins are especially thin.

People all say thin skin big filling dumplings are delicious, but the vast majority of people, when rolling dumpling skins, find it very hard to make the skins very very thin.

This is actually a very technical skill.

In this current era, restaurants aren't very widespread yet, although there are some small eateries or restaurants, most are state-run.

Their staple food is mostly steamed buns and rice, very few sell dumplings.

Even at the stalls in this industrial area, selling dumplings is unique.

Wrapping dumplings takes too much time and effort, making other food is much simpler, no threshold.

These workers mostly eat at the canteen, and their working hours are very long, even if they go home, they probably don't have that much time to wrap dumplings and such, so many people indeed haven't eaten dumplings for a long time.

Of course, Chai Mi's dumplings are indeed delicious.

"Truly too delicious, I fucking thought that person was a shill!"

"I also thought that guy was a shill at first, who hasn't eaten dumplings? Still fucking cried eating them, didn't expect they're really delicious enough to cry... wah wah wah... my mother died over thirty years ago, every New Year festival I miss my mother, I only know when I was little, my mother wrapped dumplings, chewed them crushed to feed me... but I grew up, my mother is gone... endured hardship raising me, got me a wife, helped my wife coax the kids, afterwards... exhausted, person gone... sigh..."

Speaking to the depths of emotion, everyone had tears in their eyes.

The surrounding stalls, people eating saw it, all came over, result you one bowl me one bowl, in less than ten minutes, Chai Mi's dumplings were sold out.

"Boss, a bowl of dumplings."

"Big brother, this really isn't available." Chai Mi spread her hands indicating her dumplings were truly gone.

"That won't do, why did they get to buy, I can't? How about you wrap a few more for me, I'll pay extra..."

"Big brother, extra money really doesn't work either, now there's only dumpling soup left..."

"Then give me a bowl of dumpling soup, I'll give you one yuan, how about it?"

"Okay."

In a short while, the dumpling soup was all sold too...

Chai Mi was also a bit surprised it sold this fast, actually she herself felt her wrapped dumplings although not bad, but not to the point of even the soup selling out...

Actually this might have a lot to do with the people eating.

These workers mostly ate at the factory canteen. Everyone was familiar with the canteen—it was big-pot rice, certainly not delicious, just edible.

Even bordering on barely edible.

These people really hadn't "eaten much pork"...

So suddenly switching from thin, watery food to delicious dumplings, being somewhat excited was normal.

Besides, generally speaking, those setting up stalls here were all amateurs; if they were real chefs from big restaurants, they wouldn't come out to set up stalls, right?

So these stall owners were mostly a mixed bunch; most just cooked at home, then thought they could earn some money and came out to set up stalls.

What they made certainly wasn't delicious—just home-style flavor.

If it were delicious, who would come here? They would surely choose a more stable chef's job, which would be better.

You have to know, in this era, freelance work couldn't compare to an iron rice bowl job.

An iron rice bowl job, once spoken of, was respectable.

Even if earning a little less, life was still sufficiently respectable.

Take Chai Youfu...

And workers at the bottom of society mostly just supported their families. Doing the most tiring physical labor, eating not-too-delicious canteen food, every day like a pig—having something to eat was already not bad.

So the food here, even if not too delicious, still had buyers.

After all, no matter how bad it tasted, could it be worse than the canteen?

Those canteen cooks, potatoes and Chinese cabbage every day.

The problem was they were too lazy to even wash the vegetables, simply rinsing them with water, then chopping and tossing them into the pot.

In the Northeast, most of the time they ate big-pot dishes.

That is, stewing radish, Chinese cabbage, potato, and cowpea together. Having some oil and meatiness was already not bad...

Having meat was only for New Year.

"Earned quite a lot today..." Song Qiushui was very happy on her way back.

Coming here, she had spent over an hour pushing the inverted donkey with great effort.

As a result, everything sold out in over ten minutes.

Faster than going to the market.

So Song Qiushui was especially happy: "Chai Mi, how much did you earn today? At this rate, I feel you'll become a rich woman before you know it."

Chai Mi hehed a laugh: "Earned quite a lot. I haven't calculated the specifics yet, but roughly it's over two hundred. Ai... if I'd known making money was this easy, I would've started doing business earlier... I was still foolishly arguing with those good-for-nothings at our home; what was the point of paying attention to them with that time, really."