Seventeen Baozi Workshop

  Then they sat for a while at Qian Xiangzi's home and the father and son said their goodbyes.

  The old man sent Li Wei back home, didn't even enter his daughter's house, got on the car and went back home. Before leaving, he told Li Wei to discuss with her grandma when she gets back, he is considering quitting.

  Li Wei also encouraged her grandfather: "Grandpa, with your vigorous and powerful momentum, you will definitely succeed."

  She saw her grandfather off and as soon as she entered the house, her mother asked her: "Where's your grandfather? Why didn't he come in?"

  "I'm home."

  "Your grandfather is looking for you to go out and do something."

  "Didn't do anything, just accompanied him to Qian Xiazi's house for a bit, and played with Xiazi's daughter for a while."

  "Other people's daughters are already grown up, what are you doing playing with this little kid? And my dad is really something, not minding that you're a nuisance, always bringing you along, truly an intergenerational relationship, recognizing this old saying."

  Li Wei felt that her mother was jealous, before she got married, her mother was the favorite of her grandfather. Especially when she was a child, she was taken everywhere with him.

  The next day, Li Wei took her children to school as usual, and their teacher, Meng, also returned to class.

  According to Li Wei's observation, his spirit was somewhat depressed, and he didn't know what had happened at home.

  Li Wei was thinking in her free time. If her grandfather were to make buns, where would he do it? At her grandmother's house, the location is not ideal. That place is not as economically developed as our town. There are not as many schools concentrated in our town...

  Until lunch break. Really couldn't hold it in anymore. Reminded Li Lin a few words and borrowed the bicycle to go find her grandfather. Entered the winery canteen small house and took a look. Her grandfather was sitting on the kang, smoking. The mood wasn't quite right. Walked over quietly: "Grandfather, how did yesterday's thing turn out? Did my grandmother agree?"

  The old man glanced at Li Wei and drooped his eyebrows: "Alas, your grandma said not to let me do it. Afraid of losing face."

  It's no wonder she's just like her mother. She's exactly the same as her mom.

  "Grandpa, what can be done? I really want to make buns and earn more money."

  "Well. I had a fight with your grandma. It's meaningless to live like this for the rest of my life. Whatever. Let's just try it."

  "Yes, Grandfather, how many times can one take a gamble in life? If not now, when? What are your plans? Have you chosen a location? How much capital do we have? How will the market be positioned? What scale did you initially plan to start with?"

  Li Wei asked a string of questions, and the old man was really overwhelmed. He didn't know so much, and he had just struggled to get past the threshold of whether or not to do it. Originally, he hadn't taken his little granddaughter too seriously, but now that he listened to Li Wei's words, she seemed quite professional, making him feel like she seemed quite cultured. He couldn't help but ask: "Little girl, who did you hear all this from? You seem to understand it pretty well?"

  "Hey, Grandpa, just listen to the radio and read the newspaper more often. Knowledge is wealth, we must keep up with the times and grasp the pulse of the era. Otherwise, how can we move with the times? The current situation is that the country allows a part of people to get rich first, we should strive to be among this group, which is also responding to the country's call and playing a leading role."

  Anyway, it's just trying to make her small business look better.

  "It's been worth going to school after all." The old man felt that it sounded quite familiar.

  Li Wei almost laughed out loud, Grandpa you're overpraising me, I'm only at a primary school first grade level now.

  "Grandpa, I think this way: now our funding and equipment conditions are limited, and we just started out with little experience, so we can try small-scale operations first. Once we accumulate some capital and experience, we can expand the scale later. Who knows, maybe by then my grandma and mom will change their minds too, especially my mom - if she joins you in doing this, wouldn't that be great? And there's also my older and younger uncles and aunts, so many idle laborers, organizing them together would make it a family affair. Many people working together is a powerful force, isn't it better to work hard like this than just relying on farming? It's not easy to get rich that way..."

  Li Wei's mouth was dry and she took a sip of water before continuing. Finally, she asked her grandfather for a pen and paper, which were usually used to calculate the cost of vegetables with another worker in the cafeteria. Her grandfather could recognize a few big characters.

  The two of them first took stock of the resources they had on hand. There were two people, one old and one young. Specifically, Li Wei was in charge of the land, she was responsible for the overall situation, her grandfather was in charge of production, and the specifics would be studied later, she had to go back and think carefully.

  "As for the money, Li Wei looked up at her grandfather, and the old man was a bit embarrassed to take a sip of water: 'Hehe, girl, I guess it's not much money. If not, I'll go borrow some. I only have less than 20 yuan here, and my salary has all been given to your grandma, hehe.'"

  Alas, Li Wei once again lamented the importance of private savings.

  "Never mind, don't borrow from Grandpa. I have 25 yuan and you have 10 yuan, and another 10 yuan for you to keep for cigarettes. Let's just use this money for now and start with a small amount first. After making some money later, we can talk about it again. Who knows how long we can do this? We also need to hurry up, or else others will follow suit soon."

  As for the equipment, considering that we're short on funds, let's just do it at Li Wei's place. Anyway, her mom doesn't dare to control her grandfather, and being far away from grandma means being far away from danger.

  The two of them finally agreed that the old man would go to Li Wei's house in the evening. He had already told the factory that he was quitting today, and the person they found would come over in the afternoon. Anyway, there was still one person left in the cafeteria, as long as he handed things over clearly, it would be fine.

  Li Wei happily returned to school.

  Li Wei deliberately observed the twins and Luo Er, and fortunately, they were calm today and didn't fight. However, Wu Feng reported that Luo Er was causing trouble when they played jump rope, and Li Wei sighed in her heart. This Luo Er is always getting into mischief, isn't he tired? You say you're always provoking girls, what's wrong with you? Are you going to be a ladies' man when you grow up? It seems that in the future, I'll have to keep Li Lin away from him, but looking at your brother, he's so cool, always hanging out with older kids from other classes, like a big shot.

  However, on the way home from school in the evening, Li Wei found trouble. Luo Da and his little brothers were blocking her in the alley, with Luo Er standing beside them, accompanied by a group of hooligans.

  Seeing this momentum, Li Wei was delighted and walked up: "Luo Jianhua, what's going on?"

  Luo Da still had that expression: "You beat up Lao Er again yesterday, I've got to thrash you today."

  So direct! Li Wei has never met a nemesis in two lifetimes, and this lifetime just started, and... Life is really wonderful, haha.

  Li Wei glanced at the twins and Wu Feng, who were walking back from school together: "Are you guys scared? If you're scared, then leave first." Little rascals, I need to test them a bit. This little nanny can't just slack off all the time; let's see if they're loyal when it counts.

  Er Pangzi and Wu Feng looked a bit scared, but they didn't move; Li Lianhui stared at Luo Er with wide eyes, this was his heavyweight opponent who had once played chess against him. What made Li Wei feel relieved was Li Lin, who didn't know if she was afraid or not, but loudly shouted at the Luo brothers: "Luo Jianzhong, sneaking behind to tattle is a despicable behavior, let's not be harmonious anymore; Luo Jianhua, if you dare to hit us, I'll go tell the teacher and make you drop out of school!"

  Good boy, losing a battle but not losing an army, fearless in the face of danger, with a strong sense of justice and willing to die for it.

  But Li Wei felt that this phrase was so familiar, as if it were the special phrase she used when playing with her twin siblings, and unexpectedly her sister had such a promising future.

  Li Wei was delighted with the children's performance, good, good, it wasn't a waste to nurture them. Before she could finish her sentimental thoughts, Luo Da had already rushed up, and his fist was about to land on Li Wei's body. Li Wei was so scared that she hastily hugged Luo Da tightly, ah, it seemed like her women's self-defense techniques weren't working at this moment.

  There's a saying that goes like this: in front of absolute strength, all tricks and schemes are useless.

  Li Wei hugged Luo Da and wouldn't let go, shouting at her subordinates: "Quickly help me hold him down!"

  Li Wei is not afraid because she relies on the crowd, Luo Da you little kid can have how much ability, we go up together and don't knock you down.

  Just then, the seven kids were in a heap, Li Wei was afraid someone would get hurt and was just thinking of telling Li Lin to go shout for help when she suddenly felt herself relax, a thunder-like voice sounded above her head: "What are you doing?"

  Only to see Old Master Cheng holding Luo Da in one hand and Li Lianhui in the other, descending from the sky like a savior. The two being held were the most ferocious in the chaos, with Luo Er being even more brutal.

  "What's going on?" the old man asked with a dark face.

  Li Wei patted the dirt off her body and pulled at her disheveled clothes. The others also got up, except for being a bit dirty and messy, they were fine. However, Luo Da and Luo Er's faces seemed to have scratch marks on them. Only then did Li Wei speak to her grandfather: "It's nothing, Grandfather, it was just an internal conflict among the people. One of them got hit by me, and the other one took revenge for his brother, that's all."

  "Ah." The old man glanced at Luo Da, pinched his arm and leg: "Your body is not bad, but you're not allowed to bully my granddaughter in the future. If you do, I won't agree with it. Did you hear me?"

  Luo Da was put down by his grandfather and walked away with Luo Er, a hint of stubbornness in his eyes.

  The rest of the things were much simpler, and Grandpa bought flour, meat, and all the necessary materials that day. These were also familiar to him from his days in the winery canteen, and they were all quite cheap, being an old customer and all. Li Wei discussed it with her grandfather, and that night they mixed twenty kilograms of flour, chopped up the vegetables and meat, and Li Wei used the remaining bone broth to adjust the filling ingredients, releasing a fragrant aroma.

  Cheng Min coldly watched from the side, didn't say anything, but after all, it was his own father, so he lent a hand.

  The next day, Li Wei went to school as usual, but she had agreed with her grandfather that the box for selling buns should be marked "Beijing Buns", and when the time came, she would also help sell buns. She also gave some detailed instructions on clothing and other items, which made her somewhat annoyed grandfather promise to do as she said, only then did she feel at ease going to school.

  With the addition of adults, things that used to be a headache for Li Wei, such as transporting tools and so on, were easily resolved. At noon, Grandpa, dressed in all white, delivered the buns to school early. After class, Li Wei took some buns for the twins and helped Grandpa sell them on the side. With the foundation laid by the crowd from the previous days, although there were many more buns this time, they sold quickly, taking only over ten minutes, leaving Grandpa and his son busy and sweating.

  Victorious in their endeavor, the old man pushed his cart away with a hearty laugh. He's off to buy materials for tomorrow's work. Now that they're short on funds, all they can do is buy and sell every day.

  The old man and Li Wei did this for a month, and it was already winter.

  It was a Sunday, the sky was gloomy, and occasionally drifted with snowflakes. Li Wei and Old Master didn't sell buns today, they directly sat on the hot kang to settle accounts. Li Wei first took stock of the inventory materials, counted the cash after accounting, and deducted the initial investment of 35 yuan, making a total profit of 246 yuan in one month.

  The old man knew he was making a lot of money every day, but he didn't think it was this much. Usually, Li Wei was in charge of the cash, and he hadn't counted it carefully, so he was quite surprised. Even his daughter Cheng Min, who had been staying at home since winter and hadn't gone to work, was shocked. She herself had only made less than 400 yuan in a year, but her father had made so much money in just a few days, and still had the leisure to practice boxing in the courtyard every day, which made her think deeply.

  Actually, Li Wei was intentionally showing off in front of her mother, trying to stimulate her and change her way of thinking. After all, it's still up to her mother to make their family rich and prosperous, and she knew her mother had the potential for this.

  The old couple discussed it and decided to give Grandpa 50 yuan to take home first, and Grandma would be in a cold war with Grandpa this month. The old man didn't stay at Li Wei's house less often, so they'd better coax Grandma first.

  Considering that Grandpa has already started paying wages, Li Wei certainly can't lose out, so she also opened 30 yuan, and each of the twins got 1 yuan as pocket money. Li Lin stretched her neck to look at the pile of money, looking a bit unhappy. The remaining amount, plus the initial investment of 35 yuan, was less than 200 yuan, which wasn't too little. Not only could they save some flour and buy more cabbage, but with the cold weather, they could also buy more meat, so that sometimes they wouldn't be unable to buy it. At the same time, Li Wei suggested that since school would have winter break in less than a month, they could go to the market to sell things then. They should make some more mantou (steamed buns) which are convenient to carry and store, especially before Chinese New Year, they should make more mantou, dou sha bao (red bean paste buns), etc., for the Spring Festival economy. The old man didn't want to fall behind either, planning to find a few more people to help with work and selling things. The production workshop wasn't big enough, so they had to quickly build another one...

  Li Wei and her grandfather's booming business finally moved Mother Cheng Min. Anyway, winter was also idle, so let's help Dad with his work, besides, we didn't help less often, the next day they started working together with Dad. Completely liberating Li Wei, she also began to let her comfortably step onto the long-awaited road of prosperity.

  It's worth mentioning that during the period when Grandpa was staying at Li Wei's house, Li Wei had picked up Luo Er twice again. Luo Da didn't care, but he would often hang around Li Wei's house for no reason. At first, Li Wei thought he wanted to take revenge and was very cautious, but later she slowly discovered that it wasn't the case. Every time Grandpa practiced boxing in front of Li Lianhui to amuse the child, Luo Da's originally dark and shiny eyes would shine with an even more greedy and thieving light.

  Li Wei thought about it with her younger brother Li Lianhui's situation and understood. The excitement was caused by the movie "Shaolin Temple" shown in school during this year's National Day, as well as the TV series "The Legend of the Condor Hero" recently broadcast on TV. On the streets and in school, you could hear and see boys punching and kicking while dubbing, sweating!

  Every boy has a heroic dream.