I am chasing a rough man in the 80s
Chapter 353: The Original Brilliance of Fan Huang

Chapter 353: Chapter 353: The Original Brilliance of Fan Huang

As soon as Jiaojiao got off from school, she could smell the tantalizing aroma.

Without even dropping off her bag, she made a beeline for the kitchen.

"Sister-in-law, what is this?"

Jiaojiao stared at what Suizi was working on. Her sister-in-law seemed like a sorceress, conjuring spells over the unfamiliar kitchen utensils on the stove.

Suizi, wearing gloves, turned over the mold, and one by one, round and fragrant things fell into the plate.

"Egg castles, try one, but be careful, they’re hot."

Suizi squeezed her homemade tomato sauce on top of one.

"Made of eggs?" Jiaojiao picked one up, blew on it repeatedly, and then couldn’t wait to take a bite.

"Yummy!"

Made from whipped eggs mixed with batter and fried into egg castles, filled with a few pieces of onions and topped with sauce, they were delightfully chewy with a rich aroma.

Jiaojiao quickly ate three. Wang Cuihua tried one and agreed it was delicious.

"Such a simple method, yet the result is so delicious, unimaginable."

"The most delicious food often just needs a simple way of cooking. Let’s sell this. Even if we only sell for 2 hours a day, it won’t be tiring," Suizi calculated. With eggs costing 8 cents each, plus the batter, the cost would be 10 cents, selling for 25 cents each. One pot could yield 7, and each pot took only a few minutes.

If they sold a hundred a day, they could earn around 30 a day.

"The company gives me two hours of breastfeeding time every day. I’ll come back to replace you, and you can go out and sell. When it’s my break time, I’ll take over and let you rest. If we keep this up for two months, we should have enough money for furniture," stated Suizi clearly.

And with them moving to a new house soon, which was close to the night school, they could set up the stall for another half an hour in the evening. After night classes, students would be hungry and likely buy something to eat, earning them an additional income.

The moment she heard this, Wang Cuihua’s spirit was lifted. But hearing about setting up stall in front of the school made her a little uneasy.

"You and Tiegen are respectable people. Even if the beer factory goes under, he is still the deputy director of the factory. Would it not be laughable for a deputy director’s wife to be selling such things?"

She was willing to make money, but she was afraid it would dishonor her children.

"As Jingting put it, ’so what if they laugh at us? It won’t make them less likely to eat a piece of meat’. "

Suizi didn’t care much about this kind of face-saving. Her goal was simple - she wanted the whole family to enjoy meat every day.

Upon hearing the word ’meat’, Jiaojiao immediately perked up.

"Mom, eating meat is important."

Suizi had sent Jingting out to collect medicinal herbs. If he’d been home, he would have likely supported Suizi.

Having heard Suizi’s reasoning, Wang Cuihua also came to the conclusion that solving the problem of food and clothing was the most important. They all decided to take advantage of Suizi’s maternity leave and surplus of eggs from the post-natal month, to try setting up a stall.

With their two children still a few days shy of two months old, Suizi fed them and asked Wang Hui to look after them for two hours. She and Wang Cuihua then pushed the borrowed tricycle, which was loaded with a coal stove and the mold, and went straight to the market.

On reaching the market and setting up their stall, they quickly started attracting curious children. Parents asked for the price and considered the egg castles at 25 cents each too expensive.

A bowl of vegetable soup noodles only cost 30 cents, so these egg castles were definitely not cheap.

There were many spectators, but no one bought anything.

Suizi didn’t get discouraged. She cut the freshly cooked egg castles into pieces and handed them to passers-by using toothpicks.

If anyone asked, she would explain what was inside.

A man not too far away was watching the whole scene, his brows creased in thought.

In his eyes, Suizi’s behavior looked like she was compromising her dignity to make a living, which was far from respectable.

"Sir, it’s about time for your meeting, they’re waiting for you over there." The man’s secretary checked his watch.

The boss had been watching the push-and-pull between the mother and daughter-in-law for about twenty minutes.

In twenty minutes, Suizi only managed to hand out samples without selling any.

To the secretary, time was precious, and the boss’ action of watching these women seemed like a huge waste of resources.

"Buy all the food on her stall."

"All?!"

The secretary glanced at the plastic bucket full of eggs next to Wang Cuihua. With their little pot, how long would it take to cook all of them?

"All."

The secretary dared not disobey, so he went over reluctantly.

"Come back!"

"Have you changed your mind?"

"No, but first buy one that’s already made and give it to me. Then wait for her to sell all the ready-made ones. While waiting for her to make these, casually ask if she’s short on money or having any difficulties."

"..." The secretary was very upset.

So, the boss still wanted him to waste a lot of time waiting for these women to finish cooking all the eggs?

Unable to say no, he followed the boss’s orders.

Suizi thought her idea was very good, but it didn’t seem many people bought it. She began to wonder whether to reduce the price by 5 cents. Was her pricing too high?

"I’ll take one."

The appearance of this voice was like divine intervention to Suizi. She quickly lifted her head to show a professional smile, but froze when she saw the man’s face.

"You are——?"

The man in front of her wore glasses and spoke in Beijing accent, he looked familiar.

"My name is Meng Jun, I’m Secretary to Mr. Fan. We’ve met before." The man introduced himself.

Suizi remembered.

This man was an important aide of Fan Huang, the eldest son of the senior branch of the Fan family.

He had visited her house before, during the treatment of Fan Gao, and had left a deep impression on everyone in the Yu family.

"Why are you here?"

"Don’t be so formal. You can just call me Little Meng." Meng Jun responded politely, his gaze unintentionally drifted to where the boss had stood.

No one was there now, thank goodness.

If the boss heard that Suizi addressed him formally, he would have been unable to handle it.

"I was passing by on a business trip and smelled something delicious," explained Meng Jun.

"These are for you. No need for money. We are really grateful for your help last time." Suizi hastily wrapped a few egg castles and handed them to Meng Jun.

After she had given birth, Fan Huang had given her a lot of valuable supplements as a gift. It was only proper to reciprocate.

"No, no, no, please. I can’t accept that!" Meng Jun pulled out money, refusing the gift.

Wang Cuihua quickly pulled Suizi aside and smoothly took the money, all the while saying "That’s so embarrassing, haha".

Seeing that it was a ten-dollar bill, Wang Cuihua held it up against the sun to make sure it wasn’t counterfeit.

She didn’t have a good impression of anyone surnamed Fan and wasn’t intending to give any loose change.

Indeed, Meng Jun, with his vast experience with dealing with all sorts of people as the boss’s secretary, didn’t seem surprised by Wang Cuihua’s behavior.

"Director Chen, your family should be doing quite well, right? why—" Meng Jun hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Just a short time after giving birth, why are you paying such a price?"

"We’ve moved to a new house and need to get furniture. Us poor folks can’t compare to you rich and powerful folks who can buy everything with money, including life and death. We laboring people need to live on our own sweat to feel secure," Wang Cuihua retorted, her words implying criticism of the Fan family’s dealings with life and death.