Chapter 407: The Young Man Who Can Bend and Stretch

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Because Li Ye was holding a shareholders' meeting today, Li Yue didn't come back, and naturally no one was around to cook.

So after the group had sat in meeting for hours, pumped themselves up, and drunk half a bellyful of tea, they all felt ravenous.

"Let's go—find something to eat."

After the group stepped out and got into the car, they finally started thinking about where to eat.

Li Ye said: "Let's go to Chen's Noodle Shop. It's this late—no point going to a state-run canteen and upsetting the staff."

"Hey, Xiao Ye, now that you mention it, I think this kind of place will be the first to get crushed by private eateries—who wants to eat a meal full of bottled-up anger?"

Li Ye nodded: "True, but you can't blame the staff entirely for their bad temper—if you want them to work late, you've got to offer incentives."

Today's restaurant staff simply can't imagine how, decades from now, street food cooks will stay awake until 3 a. ., eyes burning, just to serve one table without losing their temper.

Look at Chen Jinhua—she works from dawn till dusk, smiling at every customer, and her little noodle shop has gone from one stall to three in just over a year.

Why? Because the money she earns is hers.

But when Jin Peng's car pulled up outside Chen's Noodle Shop at Dongzhimen, Chen Jinhua was already yelling at someone.

"You said just yesterday, and the day before, and several days ago—you'd only set up your stall in front of my place for one day! I felt sorry for you, you're so young, but why are you blocking my door again? We're both selling noodles and food—how am I supposed to run my business if you block my entrance?"

"I'm selling today and leaving tomorrow. Otherwise my soybean paste will spoil—I don't have a fridge like you do. Besides, I'm twenty meters away from your shop, I'm not blocking your door."

"My fridge was bought on loan! Even twenty meters away, you're cutting into my business—how am I supposed to pay back my debt?"

Li Ye and Jin Peng got out of the car and saw a stall set up right outside Chen's Noodle Shop, with large brush-written characters on a sign: "Soybean Paste Noodles."

The stall was small—only four tiny tables—but spotlessly clean; the vendor wore a hat and mask, ensuring not a single hair or spit touched the food.

Six customers were already seated at the stall, laughing and watching Chen Jinhua argue with the young vendor.

Chen Jinhua was clearly furious—face flushed, neck red, shouting nonstop, as if any more anger and she'd start cursing the man's female relatives.

But the young vendor just kept repeating the same line: "I've already set up my stall today. I'll move tomorrow. I'm twenty meters from your shop—I'm not blocking your door."

Yet this one stubborn phrase left Chen Jinhua seething with no way to respond.

"That vendor's not playing fair. Sure, he's twenty meters from Chen Jinhua's door, but it's precisely that twenty meters that's sneaky and cunning."

"If he'd blocked the entrance outright, regular customers would feel too guilty to skip Chen Jinhua's place."

Hao Jian, who'd started out in small trade, immediately saw through it: the stall was just leeching off Chen's Noodle Shop's foot traffic.

Regular customers coming to Chen Jinhua's would see the soybean paste noodles outside and think about switching flavors.

But if the stall were directly blocking the entrance, those same customers, familiar with Chen Jinhua, would feel too awkward to eat the street vendor's food.

Li Ye stared at the young vendor and felt he looked familiar, but the man's hat brim was low and his mask large—he couldn't place him right away.

Still, his behavior left Li Ye speechless.

In his past life, Li Ye had once scrolled through a video of some "inspiring girl."

She was a very young girl who'd just arrived in the capital with no job. She noticed balloon-selling was profitable, so she invested her last thousand yuan into it.

But she had no sales experience and didn't know where to sell—she couldn't even move a few balloons a day.

So she came up with a plan: she followed an old man who'd been selling balloons for years. Wherever he went, she went. Whatever he shouted, she shouted. "You're on that side of the street, I'm on this side—we each earn our own living. How much I sell has nothing to do with you."

Later, the girl proudly called it her first bucket of gold and a precious life lesson: when you have no experience, learn from others'.

Hmm, the word "learn" was used perfectly.

I wonder how the old man, whose business she stole, felt about it?

Maybe he had a wife at home waiting for him to send money back to pay for his grandson's tutoring and buy him snacks.

But his years of sales experience had been freely "learned" by the little girl across the street.

This kind of thing depends entirely on whose side you're on. If you stand with the young, you can claim you're brilliant, sensing opportunity in a harsh environment.

But if you stand with the old man, you'd probably just mutter "mlgb, no honor."

Jin Peng and the others, of course, stood with Chen Jinhua.

"I didn't even know about this. Old Song used to help Chen Auntie, but lately I don't know where he's disappeared to—now some outsider dares to bully our fellow villagers? Fuck."

Jin Peng rolled up his sleeves and marched toward the young vendor's stall; Li Dayong, Wang Qiang, Li Ye, and Hao Jian followed closely behind.

They'd known Jiang Xiaoyan since their days at the Second Grain Store—Li Dayong had studied with her, and Jin Peng and Wang Qiang had regularly brought meat and vegetables to her because she cooked for their group.

Now that Jiang Xiaoyan's mother was being bullied, could they stand by?

But just as Li Ye and the others approached, about to launch a classic "gangster-upset-table" scene, Chen Jinhua turned and saw them.

"Hey hey, what are you doing here? Don't bother, don't bother—I'm just talking to him, he's leaving tomorrow. Come on, come on, let's go to my noodle shop."

Chen Jinhua pulled and dragged with all her strength, finally dragging Jin Peng and the others back into her shop.

Inside the shop, Li Ye saw Chen Jinhua's husband, Jiang Yougui.

Jiang Yougui sat gloomily by the kitchen door; seeing Li Ye and the others arrive, he quickly stood up and greeted them with a forced smile.

Li Ye smiled: "Uncle, we haven't eaten yet—serve us a few bowls of noodles."

Jiang Yougui hurriedly replied: "Ah ah, I'll get right on it—ten minutes max."

Jin Peng watched Jiang Yougui disappear into the kitchen and couldn't help sneering.

In his view, with someone setting up a stall right outside the door, this man should've grabbed a cleaver and gone out to reason with him—not left his wife to fight alone. He was a spineless coward.

Chen Jinhua brought over several cold dishes and whispered: "When he first set up his stall, Xiao Yan's father went out and beat him up, smashed his pots and pans, and then the police came and we had to pay him eighty yuan!"

Jin Peng blinked, angry: "Why pay him? How far has this bullying gone?"

Chen Jinhua whispered: "That kid's a local—his relatives are connected everywhere. More importantly, he doesn't fight back—he just squats on the ground like a coward."

"Xiao Yan's father couldn't hit him, so he smashed the stall—and then they accused us of damaging his property."

"Damn, this guy's a modern-day Han Xin!"

"Hahaha!"

Hao Jian couldn't help cracking a joke, and everyone burst out laughing.

But after the laughter, they had to solve this.

Jin Peng took charge: "Leave it to me. Tomorrow I'll call a few friends—I won't make it hard on him, just drive him away."

Jin Peng was well-connected and good at making friends—he could surely find someone in the local police station.

But Chen Jinhua said: "No need, no need. Xiao Yan said we shouldn't use power to crush him—we should compete."

Jin Peng frowned: "Compete? How?"

Chen Jinhua blushed slightly: "Xiao Yan said since he set up his stall right in front of our shop, we'll set up one right across from him."

"But I think… that's a pyrrhic victory. So I just tried to reason with him to make him leave—but now it looks like that won't work."

A few minutes later, Jiang Yougui nervously brought out the noodles.

Li Ye looked—and it was soybean paste noodles. He tasted it—surprisingly good.

Clearly, they were preparing to compete: Chen's Noodle Shop's traditional specialties were braised meats and lamb soup noodles.

Just as Li Ye and the others finished eating, several tricycles pulled up outside.

Li Ye and the others went to look—and saw Jiang Xiaoyan, drenched in sweat, pedaling a tricycle, accompanied by several other tricycle drivers, hauling multiple loads of supplies.

Li Ye laughed: "Xiao Yan, you brought all this stuff—why didn't you ask Peng Ge to lend you a car? Now you're a boss, and you're being distant with your brothers?"

Jiang Xiaoyan blushed: "It was just a small thing—I didn't want to embarrass you guys… but you found out anyway."

"Embarrass us? What nonsense," Li Ye said. "Just tell us how to set it up—we'll help you today. Pay us in noodles."

"Hahaha!"

Jiang Xiaoyan smiled, no longer shy, and joined Li Ye and the others to unload the tricycles right beside the vendor's stall—barely three meters away.

It was a brand-new stall—clean, attractive, with several large sunshades.

Most importantly, a colorful sign:

One bowl: 4 jiao. Free broth refills. Three bowls, get a free side dish.

Jiang Yougui, gritting his teeth, brought out a large food box from the shop, filled with over a dozen kinds of braised meats and side dishes, and laid them all out on their new stall.

This instantly overshadowed the young vendor's stall—he only had soybean paste noodles, no side dishes.

Three bowls, one free side dish—once customers talked among themselves, they'd naturally get a variety of flavors.

But preparing so many side dishes meant huge risk—if they didn't sell, they'd lose money.

For small businesses, losing money was deadly—just a few days of losses and the whole operation would collapse.

So before Jiang Xiaoyan's stall was even fully set up, the masked young vendor began packing up.

Jiang Yougui was furious: "Why are you leaving so soon? Now our new stall is useless!"

Jiang Xiaoyan said: "Dad, this stall isn't useless. Today he leaves, tomorrow someone else might come. Besides, our other two shops might face the same problem.

And we can even take this setup to the night market—just hire two more people if we need to."

"My daughter's smart—college wasn't wasted."

As Jiang Yougui said this, the young vendor packing up stiffened noticeably.

A flash went through Li Ye's mind—he suddenly remembered who he was.

Lu Gang—the Peking University student expelled last summer.

Watching Lu Gang load his things onto a handcart and pull away silently, Li Ye couldn't help shaking his head.

Even the cleverest people find it hard to recover once they take one wrong step.

But to Li Ye, Lu Gang was just… Lu Gang.

He turned to Hao Jian: "What did you learn from Xiao Yan's situation?"

Hao Jian shook his head blankly: "Boss, what's your point now?"

Li Ye said: "When you get back, launch a new brand—specifically designed to counter price wars. If someone sets up a stall right in front of you, do exactly what Xiao Yan did—crush them."

(End of Chapter)