Chapter 360 - "I am on you and Rugui's side." (1)
Wen Rugui’s ears were still burning a little when he returned from the cloth drying yard.
He had another colorful dream last night and noticed that he had soiled his blanket a little by the morning.
He dreamt that he was pinned down by her on the floor and his pants were……
He was very surprised when he woke up. How could he be so shameless?
He could never let Tong Xuelu knew that he was having dreams like that. She would for certain think of him an old hooligan otherwise.
Wen Rugui, however, felt lucky right now. He was glad that he had splashed water onto his blanket before bringing it out to be dried. It would otherwise had been very embarrassing.
He was half way to the drying yard when he ran into Jiao Yunshi.
Wen Rugui walked straight passed her.
Jiao Yunshi was taken aback a little but then she stopped him. “Please wait a minute, Comrade Wan.”
It was then when Wen Rugui had stopped and looked at her with a small frown. “And you are……?”
Jiao Yunshi wasn’t sure what to make of that. “I am Jiao Yunshi. Oh right, Comrade Wan, my dad said there is something that he wants to talk to you about and would like you to meet him at his office.”
“Okay. I will head right over.”
Wen Rugui took off after he had said that.
Looking at his back, Jiao Yunshi felt calmed.
She had been attending school lately.
As the oldest in her class, many felt odd that she would attend grade school at her “advanced” age.
Attending school was a great feeling. She felt very fulfilling every day, swimming in the sea of knowledge. She no longer felt insecure about herself liked she used to, always worried that she wasn’t good enough for the other person.
All the more she was glad that she had never uttered a word about her feelings back then.
***
The spice packets sold very well since their launch. Many restaurants came to buy them from Tong Xuelu.
They could sell 20 ~ 30 of them on a bad day and over 100 on a good one.
Could a restaurant use that many spice packets?
Of course not.
Private trading was banned at this day and age but, with demand, there would be supply. There was no way to squash them altogether.
Why else would black markets pop out left and right.
After these restaurants had purchased these spice packets, they didn’t necessary use them all in the restaurants. Some might have been purchased for friends and families and others were used as gifts.
There might even be channels to sell them out of town.
That, however, did not concern Tong Xuelu. All she needed was the money to keep flowing in.
The end of the month came fast and Tong Xuelu went over to the Commerce Department to report her progress.
Many greeted her proactively when she arrived at the conf room this time.
“Manager Tong, when will you start selling beef meatballs and fish balls?”
“I know. Many of our patrons expressed that malatang is not the same without beef meatballs!”
“You know what the strangest thing is? Our chef can make fish balls as well, but somehow the taste was just a little off.”
Many agreed after the person said that.
Many chefs know how to make beef meatballs and fish balls but the taste was just not the same. They were unable to reproduce that sponge texture.
A middle-aged man remained silent while the others talked.
He suddenly chimed in after that, “Even if you use the exact same ingredients, the final product would taste fairly different when made by different chefs. Have you forgotten that Manager Tong is also a Top Level Chef.”
The others nodded at that comment and agreed that that made a lot of sense.
Tong Xuelu looked over at the middle-aged man. He was around 34~35 years of age, skinny and gentlemanly looking.
His lips curved upward a little when he saw Tong Xuelu looking over at him and nodded at her in a friendly manner.
Tong Xuelu, too, nodded back at him.
The upper management arrived a little while later.