In the hot weather, Boss He was also sweating profusely in his office. The power supply equipment in their building broke down, and it would take until the afternoon to be repaired at the earliest. He had already lost his temper once in the office.
They had no electricity here, but Baichuan over there was still being supplied with power. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] Let alone the freezers, even the fans and air conditioners hadn’t stopped!
The secretary ran an errand and mumbled:
“President He, I asked around, they said Baichuan has their own backup generator over there…”
Boss He got even angrier, angry at himself, and also angry at Baichuan.
What was going on with this Baichuan? Opening a supermarket, how could they even have a generator?!
Boss He couldn’t sit still in the office. His heart burning with anxiety, he simply got up and went to Baichuan Hypermarket to take a look.
When he went, many people were wandering inside Baichuan Hypermarket. Some were pushing small carts to shop, and some were just seeking the coolness, drinking a cup of mung bean soup inside and resting their feet.
Ever since its opening, the name “Baichuan” had become increasingly resounding. Not only were the goods complete and the fruits and vegetables fresh, but the most famous part was that they irregularly stocked some surrounding agricultural and sideline specialty foods. Some delicacies were local specialties only found over in Weishui and Yishan, and were transported there on the same day. It just depended on luck; you couldn’t always manage to grab them.
What was transported today was Ande Boneless Braised Chicken, with tender meat and crisp bones, its fragrance drifting for ten miles.
The boneless braised chicken was sold by the whole bird. They could help heat it up, or it could be taken away cold. Many people chose the cold option. Slicing half a braised chicken in the summer, paired with cold noodles, was appetizing and relieved the heat, making it just right to eat.
When Boss He went, the boneless braised chicken was already sold out.
The secretary whispered on the side: “President He, their stock preparation is not sufficient…”
Boss He didn’t say anything, and wandered over to other stalls.
The decoration of the He family’s hypermarket was extremely luxurious, with precious and expensive goods. But Baichuan Hypermarket wasn’t. If one had to point something out here, it would be cleanliness; a uniform white tiled floor, and the shelves were all large and uniformly arranged, looking spacious and atmospheric. But if you looked closely, it wasn’t hard to find that there was fineness within the coarseness. The operating area of each small stall was different, with many categories, but not many personnel.
Boss He walked a lap, and no one took the initiative to come up and ask. He couldn’t help but look for a staff member.
The staff member said: “Sir, what do you need?”
Boss He casually had him find something, held it in his hand, and asked with a seemingly unintentional smile:
“It looks so leisurely here. Are you the only one responsible for these few rows of shelves? When there are many people, won’t it be too busy?”
The staff member smiled and said: “No, everyone likes to wander and look by themselves. If there’s a real need, I just stand right in front here, they can see me as soon as they look up.”
Boss He nodded.
He walked and looked, stopping not far from a tofu stall.
That was a very ordinary tofu-selling stall, only a place of about two square meters in size, but the queue of people only increased and didn’t decrease. There were men, women, old, and young, and many people bought once and then lined up with bags for a second time. Besides the tofu they bought, they also held a large bag of white stuff in their hands, which looked quite substantial in weight.
The stall owner placed a small oil wok there. The wok was full of oil, and he was currently deep-frying meatballs to distribute to everyone for tasting, shouting at the top of his voice:
“Hot tofu, fresh tofu. Buy 2 catties of tofu and get one catty of bean dregs free. Take it back to steam buns or fry meatballs, delicious any way you cook it! Come take a look, have a taste!”
“These are all bean dregs ground in our own shop, made today, extra fresh!”
“These tofu dregs are treasures. They are rich in soybean fiber, eating them often can even lower cholesterol, and has a health-care effect on arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease!”
“Gain weight? [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] Bean dregs won’t make you gain weight. This thing is low in fat and low in calories, just right for little girls to eat!”
“The calcium content inside is also high, and it’s easy to digest and absorb, good for our elderly and children. Would you like some?”
……
The stall owner’s hand movements were nimble. In the time it took to shout, a small wok of bean dreg meatballs was quickly fried. Piercing them with toothpicks, he distributed them to the customers gathered around, smiling and saying:
“This wok is bean dreg meatballs. Vegetarian meatballs will be in the next wok, very soon, taste this first.”
The stall owner was enthusiastic, and the tasting meatballs were also fragrant. A small basin of bean dreg meatballs came out of the wok piping hot, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, handed whole to everyone.
The He family’s supermarket also had tastings, but the portions were extremely small. They wished they could cut a single biscuit into seven or eight pieces, crumbling it into dregs. Compared to the He family next door, Baichuan was simply too generous!
Two catties of tofu wasn’t expensive either, not to mention giving away one catty of bean dregs for free!
After tasting the meatballs, many people went to line up to buy a portion. The free bean dregs only cost 1 cent, the price of buying a plastic bag, but the quantity was limited and only given per person. Those who bought once couldn’t ask for it again, and this was also the reason why many old ladies pulled their family members over to line up for a second time; she couldn’t buy it, but didn’t her family members still have a quota?
Boss He watched for a while, had his secretary also line up to buy a portion, and even brought back two bean dreg meatballs for tasting.
The secretary respectfully handed them to the boss, but Boss He shook his head and said:
“You eat.”
The secretary took them and ate.
Boss He said: “I can’t eat this. In the past when I went down to the countryside as an educated youth to raise cattle and pigs, we always used these tofu dregs to feed the livestock.”
The secretary: “…”
Boss He looked at the bag of tofu dregs, and chuckled softly:
“At that time, having such a bag of tofu dregs was a treasure. You could only get a bit more during the busy farming season. I remember one year during the New Year, the villagers stir-fried it once, adding red chili peppers and slices of fat pork, it was truly fragrant… But back then, where would there be so much lard? Being able to eat a meal of it during the New Year was already pretty good.”
Boss He shifted his gaze away, feeling emotional in his heart.
When he was young, he had also suffered a period of poverty. When he was hungry, he hadn’t eaten any less tofu dregs. This thing was coarse, scratching the throat when eaten, and it couldn’t be stored for long. Leave it for a day or two and it would turn sour. The ones fed to livestock were also mostly fermented tofu dregs. He just smelled too much of it back when he went down to the countryside. Seeing it again made his stomach churn with acid, and later he slowly couldn’t eat this thing anymore.
Boss He said: “The fellow villagers are still smart. Do you know why they would ferment the tofu dregs before feeding them to livestock?”
The secretary didn’t know the reason, shook his head and said: “I don’t know.”
Boss He said: “Because this thing doesn’t keep.”
Fresh bean dregs are not easy to preserve, but leaving them there for nothing is also a kind of waste. Making them into non-staple food might not sell well, but now they had become a 1-cent “hot commodity”, with everyone scrambling to take a portion along. Now that life was better, every family was willing to put oil and fat when cooking. With such a small wok of oil, let alone frying bean dreg meatballs, frying anything would be delicious.
Just a small tofu stall could be done like this, the effort Baichuan spent in other areas didn’t even need to be mentioned. The way they did business, there were truly many clever ideas.
Boss He looked at the tofu stall, then looked at the other shelves around, and sighed:
“I underestimated them.”
Not far away, several people were sitting in the rest area eating.
Among them, a beautiful-looking boy picked with his chopsticks a few times. The cold noodles reached his mouth, but he paused, and suddenly said:
“Brother, look over there, is that Boss He from next door?”
Lei Dongchuan didn’t even raise his eyes, and said to him: “Who cares if it’s him, hurry up and eat. What did you promise me this morning? Who said they would eat two bowls of rice in one breath? You haven’t even finished half a bowl, playing tricks again.”
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