Chương 19: Hiring Someone

Recruiting a Personal Hot Pot Dish. Hot pot wasn't a rare dish on the Zhou family's table. Unsold offal was usually made into hot pot, and any leftover hot pot was taken home to be consumed. But today's hot pot seemed a little different. Thinly sliced tenderloin, blanched just until cooked through, was served alongside curled tripe and translucent beef tendon, all garnished in the clear broth. Each person was also given a small dipping sauce of dried chili peppers.

"It smells so good, but it's not quite the same as what I make," Zhao Tieying wondered. She'd made hot pot many times, learning the dish from her mother-in-law since marrying into the Zhou family, but her soup never tasted as good as Zhou Yan's.

"Try the soup first," Zhou Yan said, ladling a bowl of soup for each person. Zhao Tieying took a sip of soup with a ladle, her eyes lighting up instantly. Her eyebrows arched, and she patted Zhou Miao's shoulder.

"You're lying through your teeth! This is way better than mine! It's practically the same!"

"To me, it's about the same. Yours is just as delicious," Zhou Miao said with an innocent smile.

"Fine, you wouldn't understand," Zhao Tieying rolled her eyes, but a smile involuntarily crept onto her lips. She took two more sips of soup and nodded repeatedly.

"It's even better than Zhou Jie's soup! It's so fresh, and the flavor is just right." Zhou Momo remained silent, only focusing on drinking her soup, puffing out her cheeks and sipping it slowly. After finishing the bowl, a light sweat broke out on her forehead, and she felt warm all over, the fatigue from working fading considerably.

"Glug." Zhou Momo had already set her sights on the meat in the pot, swallowed hard, her little hands itching to grab it, and looked towards Zhou Yan.

"Here, have some meat." Zhou Yan smiled and handed her a piece of beef.

"Mmm!" The little one opened her mouth and took it in one bite. The meat was soft and had a faint milky aroma! The meat was so delicious! She loved meat the most!

"So delicious, more meat!" After swallowing the meat in her mouth, Zhou Momo said in a childish voice. The three adults laughed when they heard this. Zhou Yan directly gave her a bowl of meat, the small bowl piled high, with beef and offal, so that she could eat a little of everything.

"So tender!" Zhao Tieying picked up a piece of beef and tasted it, looking shocked. How could beef be cooked so fresh and tender? She had been cooking beef for more than 20 years, and for the first time, she had self-doubt.

"This chili powder smells so good!" Zhou Miao took a bite of tripe and praised it repeatedly: "The tripe is so crispy..." Zhou Miao had eaten hot pot since he was a child, from his mother's to his wife's, but if he had to say which was the best, it was the one his son made.

The first broth was so delicious it made his eyebrows fly away; the tripe was crisp and refreshing, the beef slices were large, thin, and tender, the beef tendon was stewed until very soft and glutinous, and the cabbage was crisp, tender, and sweet. Served with a spicy dipping sauce, it completely overturned his understanding of hot pot. Zhou Yan went to bring out the rice he had cooked beforehand.

A bowl of rice and a pot of braised beef were devoured by the family of four, not even a single piece of cabbage was left.

"Your hot pot is so delicious! Those girls at the textile factory will definitely love it. I think selling hot pot is a good idea!" Zhao Tieying said confidently. Her previous doubts had completely disappeared.

"I think so too!" Zhou Miao chimed in, "After drinking this soup and sweating it out, I felt much better. It really does have healing properties. If we advertised this, even more people would eat it."

" The meat is delicious!" Zhou Momo added.

"That's good. I'll find someone to build the stove this afternoon. Once the preparations are done in the next couple of days, we can start selling hot pot immediately," Zhou Yan said with a smile. This hot pot of braised beef exceeded his expectations as well; the soup was fresh and the meat tender, and the dipping sauce was spicy and delicious.

"Okay, whatever you say," Zhao Tieying and Zhou Miao nodded in unison. Zhou Yan had become increasingly reliable these past few days, making people feel at ease. Old Zhou was escorted upstairs to rest by Aunt Zhao. Zhou Yan was clearing the dishes when someone came to the door and knocked: "Comrade Zhou Yan, I'm here to collect the rent." The person was a pretty young woman, wearing a white shirt and black trousers, with short hair, black leather shoes, and a brown leather bag. She looked very capable.

Wang Wei, the accountant in the textile factory's finance department, was twenty years old and responsible for collecting rent from the shops under the textile factory's name. She would come to collect rent on the 20th of each month.

"Okay, come in," Zhou Yan replied with a smile, going behind the counter to get the money. She was practically a landlady.

"Fifteen in total, please count it." Zhou Yan handed a stack of money to Wang Wei, including one ten-yuan note and the rest were all one-yuan bills.

"Okay." Wang Wei took the money and counted it, carefully checking the ten-yuan note before putting it in her bag. She wrote a receipt, tore off a page, and handed it to Zhou Yan. Then, she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled, saying, "I heard you switched to selling noodles, business is booming." Zhou Yan was tall and handsome, quite popular with the young women and wives at the textile factory.

Wang Wei had come to collect rent three times and chatted with him a few times; the girl was efficient and had left a good impression on him.

"It's alright, I managed to pay the rent." Zhou Yan put away the receipt and sighed, "If only the factory could lower the rent a bit."

"I can't make that decision." Wang Wei smiled and offered him another suggestion, "Didn't you save Deputy Factory Director Lin's niece? Why don't you talk to him? Maybe he can really lower it for you."

"How can I bother him with such a small matter?" Zhou Yan shook his head decisively. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. If he could consistently sell a hundred bowls of noodles a day, fifteen yuan a month in rent wouldn't be high at all. Besides, he was about to start selling braised beef, so there was still room for his turnover to increase. He just hoped the factory wouldn't raise the rent for him then.

"Okay, then I'll go collect rent from the next tenant. I'll try your noodles next time." Wang Wei said with a smile, then slung her bag over her shoulder and went out.

"Take care." Zhou Yan said, continuing to collect the bowls.

"I'll wash the bowls, you go about your business." Zhao Tieying came downstairs and took the bowls from his hands. Zhou Yan did have important business to attend to, so he first counted his money. Of the 100 bowls of noodles he prepared today, 18 bowls remained unsold. After deducting the cost of ingredients, he had a surplus of 31. 9 yuan. He had saved 74. 2 yuan over the past few days, and after paying the rent, he had 91. 1 yuan left.

Zhou Yan went out to find a bricklayer, arranging for him to build a stove the next day. He also contacted suppliers for the necessary materials, such as bricks, and asked Zhou Jie to help him order a large cast iron pot with a one-meter diameter. The pot alone cost him 50 yuan, and it was only through Zhou Jie's connections and by giving him two packs of Yuxi cigarettes that he was able to buy it. In those days of scarcity, many things couldn't be bought with money alone.

Otherwise, he would have wanted an even larger pot to put at the entrance—it would have been more eye-catching than a signboard. (The latest novels are first published on 69shu. com!) The labor and materials will cost about twenty yuan. Just setting up a stove will cost seventy yuan. Money is hard to earn, but it's so easy to spend. However, Zhou Yan wasn't worried. Zhou Erwa's noodle restaurant had already gained a reputation at the textile factory, with its word-of-mouth rising rapidly.

Meanwhile, his biggest competitor was currently in jail. Selling a hundred bowls of noodles a day would bring in 60 yuan in revenue. After accounting for the costs of firewood, seasonings, and other expenses, he could make nearly half the profit. That would earn him eight or nine hundred yuan a month. In this way, he could pay off all his debts in two months, including the five hundred yuan owed to his parents.

Selling noodles was the foundation; once the reputation of his braised beef was established, he would earn even more. However, just selling noodles was already keeping him and Aunt Zhao extremely busy. Adding a soup pot would mean they definitely wouldn't be able to manage unless the system granted them the ability to create clones.... For dinner, they reheated the leftover beef bone soup from lunch and ate it with the remaining offal. The family still enjoyed it immensely.

Old Zhou, who had slept all afternoon, was back to his peak condition and repeatedly praised Zhou Yan's soup pot for its remarkable medicinal effects, even better than taking medicine.

"I'm planning to hire someone," Zhou Yan said.

"Hiring someone?" Zhao Tieying and Zhou Miao both looked at him with some surprise.

"That's another expense. The monthly salary will be at least ten yuan, right?" Zhao Tieying pondered.

"How about I do more work?"

"Mom, you've already done enough. I plan to hand over the soup pot cooking to you next, so I need to hire someone to serve the dishes, clear the tables, and wash the dishes. Otherwise, we definitely won't be able to handle it." Zhou Yan said with a smile, "We need to make sure we cook well and quickly so that the customers are satisfied. If business is good, the labor costs will be covered, and we can even earn more."

"I think Zhou Yan makes sense on that point." Zhou Miao nodded in agreement.

"Okay, then let's hire someone!" Zhao Tieying nodded, then thought for a moment and said, "How about we ask Zhou Fei's wife to help? She's strong, quick, and doesn't have to worry too much about the two kids who are in school. She's also reliable."

"Sure! Let's have my sister-in-law try. If she can do it, it'll definitely be better than hiring someone else." Zhou Yan nodded. Zhou Fei is her uncle's son, the eldest among their cousins, and Zhou Hai's older brother. He currently helps his father slaughter cattle. His wife, Zhao Hong, is from the same village as his mother. It was Comrade Zhao Tieying who introduced them; they have two sons, the older one in junior high and the younger one in elementary school this year. They still face some financial pressure.

Zhou Yan has a good impression of his sister-in-law; she's gentle and a capable worker.

"I'll go talk to her tonight and ask how much you plan to pay her a month," Zhao Tieying asked, looking at Zhou Yan. Zhou Yan thought for a moment and said, "Twenty yuan a month, is that reasonable?"

"That's good," Zhao Tieying nodded.

"That's a high salary. Even waiters in state-run restaurants only earn twenty-odd yuan a month; those are places you practically have to fight tooth and nail to get into."

"Then it's settled," Zhou Yan decided. Twenty yuan a month is indeed a high salary in a rural town, but it's within Zhou Yan's budget. He's more concerned about staff stability and whether she has any ulterior motives. Besides, his sister-in-law was family. When Xiao Zhou opened his restaurant, they had lent him eighty yuan to help him open it; that was no small sum for them.... The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Xiao Zhou went out early to buy groceries.

When he returned to the restaurant with Zhao Tieying, a figure was already standing at the door, taking two steps forward and smiling as she said, "Fourth Aunt, Zhou Yan, you're back."

"Zhao Hong, why are you here so early? Didn't you sleep last night?" Zhao Tieying teased.