Food: Selling Boxed Meals at a Construction Site

The three straight days of handing out flyers had paid off. Orders from the Red Brick Creative Park shot up from just one or two at the beginning to fifty-two.

Xu Heping and Liang Dani were left to handle things at the Hai City Library, while Xu An took two people with him to deliver the orders at the Red Brick Creative Park.

The delivery riders weren’t keen on going to the Red Brick Creative Park because the order volume was too low.

After all, staying at the Hai City Library meant over seven hundred boxed meals, which averaged out to about eighty to a hundred per person.

But at the Red Brick Creative Park, there were only about fifty orders to be split between two people. The pros and cons were crystal clear.

In the end, it was Old Han who, along with his roommate, came with Xu An to the Red Brick Creative Park.

Old Han was a firm believer that following Xu An would be profitable. His roommate, however, was as simple-minded as ever and was easily convinced by him.

The fifty-plus boxed meals were delivered quickly. The roads inside the creative park were easy to navigate, and every company or studio had a huge sign that was visible from a distance.

It took half an hour to finish the deliveries, which was fast enough to get back to the Hai City Library for the last two waves. Their pay was barely on par with what they usually made.

The other piece of good news was that the order page Ye Ning had been commissioned to create was finished.

Xu An tested it on the computer. All the requested features were implemented perfectly.

After paying Ye Ning the final balance, his pockets were completely empty.

He uploaded the photos Wei had taken earlier, added names and simple descriptions, and the page layout was complete.

He opened QQ, went to his Qzone, and posted a status update.

’Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant now offers online ordering! The cutoff for orders is 8 a.m. daily. Website: xxxxxx’

It turned out a lot of people were slacking off at work.

Less than thirty seconds after he posted the update, the first comment appeared, followed by a second, and a third...

’Awesome, congrats, boss!’

’Just tried it. It’s so much more convenient than ordering through QQ or by phone.’

’Whoa, the ordering window is longer now!’

’...’

He exited Qzone and refreshed the back-end data. More than twenty people had already placed orders through the website.

’This is great. From now on, I can process most of the orders directly on the computer. The chance of missing one is way lower.’

「Xu Family Village.」

At three in the afternoon, after the hottest part of the day had passed, Aunt Hong changed into her work clothes and rode her electric scooter to the greenhouse area.

Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant had been buying more and more vegetables lately. In the beginning, they only purchased about eighty jin a day. But less than a week into their partnership, that amount had more than doubled. The daily demand was now up to 170 or 180 jin.

The daily yield from the greenhouses wasn’t consistent. Sometimes the most she could get was around a hundred jin, while other days she could harvest four or five hundred.

Before, she had to wait for a large batch to ripen before contacting a vegetable vendor to come and buy it all.

Now, with a stable daily output of 170 to 180 jin, Aunt Hong realized her own greenhouses were struggling to keep up with the demand!

Seeing this, Aunt Hong grew anxious. She decided to head to the greenhouses in the late afternoon to see how much she could supply for the next day.

She parked her electric scooter at the entrance of a greenhouse, pulled back the curtain, and went inside.

She walked through all three greenhouses, observing the growth of the vegetables. She finally came to a conclusion: she could still meet tomorrow’s demand.

There was a bit of a gap in the harvest right now, but it would be fine after the next couple of days.

Aunt Hong stood up from the fields. Just as she was about to head out, she noticed several people standing at the greenhouse entrance.

"Sister Hong, why haven’t you come to our meetings lately?" A small, thin middle-aged woman from the group strode into the greenhouse, walked up to Aunt Hong, and enthusiastically linked arms with her.

"Meetings? What meetings? I wasn’t notified!" Aunt Hong was completely baffled.

"About the partnership with Victory Supermarket! None of us could make up our minds, so we got together to discuss and analyze it."

’Ah! I’ve been so busy lately, leaving early and coming back late. And now that I have a steady partner, I completely forgot about that.’

"Oh my, I’ve been so busy lately, I really did forget all about it." Aunt Hong slapped her forehead.

The middle-aged woman holding Aunt Hong’s arm glanced around the greenhouse and asked in surprise, "Sister Hong, why is your greenhouse full of unripe produce? Did a vendor already come and collect everything?"

"No, no," Aunt Hong said, waving her hands in denial. She smiled and explained, "I found a restaurant to partner with, and I supply them with a fixed amount of vegetables every day. Business has been good for them lately, so they’ve picked my greenhouses clean."

As soon as she said this, everyone present felt a pang of jealousy.

They were all greenhouse farmers; they knew that supplying directly to hotels or supermarkets fetched a much higher price than selling to vendors.

"You’re really something, Sister Hong," the middle-aged woman said with an envious look. "Does this mean you’re not planning to work with Victory Supermarket anymore?"

"I’m still considering it." Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Aunt Hong chose to be vague. "There are still a few days left, right? Let’s wait and see. Who knows what things will look like in a few days?"

The middle-aged woman glanced at Aunt Hong, then at the vegetables in the greenhouse. She stood on her tiptoes and whispered in Aunt Hong’s ear, "Sister Hong, how much does that restaurant buy from you a day? Can you keep up with the supply?"

The meaning behind her words was blunt. Aunt Hong knew immediately what she was getting at. She was about to give a non-committal answer, but the words died on her lips.

’The current daily demand of 170 to 180 jin has pretty much picked my three greenhouses bare. And when I was delivering vegetables yesterday, I heard Anzi say he’s planning to expand and has already started promoting at the Red Brick Creative Park.’

’If Anzi really does expand, my three greenhouses won’t be enough to supply him.’

Aunt Hong’s gaze fell on the middle-aged woman holding her arm. Hu Juan had two greenhouses, with a daily yield of only seventy to eighty jin. Anzi’s restaurant should be able to take that on.

Thinking of this, Aunt Hong also lowered her voice and said, "I can’t make the decision on this. I’ll have to ask the restaurant owner."

Hu Juan was overjoyed to hear this. She knew Aunt Hong had essentially agreed and instantly tightened her grip on her arm.

「Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant.」

Xu An had just finished cleaning up the shop. He was about to head back to Xu Family Village with Granny Xu, Xu Kang, and Xu Le when he stepped out the door and saw people moving things out of the restaurant next door.

’What’s this? Are they renovating, or are they closing down?’

Xu An edged closer, standing behind the group to listen to their conversation.

"Brother Huang, are you really not going to run this place anymore?"

"I’m done. With the situation at the construction site across the street, I’m only getting forty or fifty customers a day. The money I make isn’t even enough to cover rent and utilities. I’m losing money every single day," Brother Huang said, grumbling.

"So what are you planning to do next?"

"Find a good spot and open another small restaurant. I’ve been doing this for so many years, I don’t know how to do anything else." Brother Huang paused for a moment. "Or maybe not a small restaurant. A little food stall would be nice. Whatever I earn, it’s all mine. I won’t be working for a landlord."

"That’s true. Owning a restaurant sounds nice, but you probably earn less than you would with a stall."

"..."

Various appliances were carried out of the shop one by one and loaded onto a vehicle, leaving the interior to slowly empty out.

Watching the scene unfold, Xu An couldn’t help but feel a little wistful.

’In my past life, these shops all stayed open safely until the demolition. How come in this life, one owner went to jail and another is going out of business? None of them can seem to make it.’

After a moment of reflection, Xu An got on his electric tricycle and headed back toward Xu Family Village with his family.