Chapter 164: Burning the Boats

Chapter 164: Chapter 164: Burning the Boats

"Don’t worry, Mom, they can’t get close to me." Gu Nuan Nuan nodded. ’I recognize that man from just now. In my past life, he was a notorious character, I think his name was Han something-Bing. I also saw the way he was looking at Mom just now. It looks like he’s got his sights set on her. Heh, a toad lusting after a swan’s flesh, truly. It’s fine if he doesn’t try anything, but if he makes a move, I’ll teach him a lesson he’ll never forget.’

Hearing her daughter’s confident reply, Zhang Minzhen finally felt relieved. A short while later, the two arrived at the new house under construction. Seeing Zhang Minzhen and Gu Nuan Nuan arrive pushing the flatbed cart, Zhang Dazhuang stopped what he was doing and called out loudly to the group, "Everyone, take a break! The food’s here!" Then he came over to greet them. The others also stopped their work and came over, a flurry of hands helping to unload the wooden buckets from the cart.

After that, Zhang Minzhen and Gu Nuan Nuan weren’t needed. Seeing that it was meat buns again today, everyone grew visibly excited. They began to orderly grab their bowls and chopsticks one by one, helping themselves to a bowl of dough-drop soup. Then they took their meat buns and steamed buns from the wooden buckets and found a spot to eat, either alone or in pairs.

The number of meat buns and steamed buns for each person was fixed. This wasn’t the first time they had eaten like this, so everyone was familiar with how many they should take and consciously didn’t grab extra. Unlike the buns, the dough-drop soup was unlimited. After everyone had their first bowl, there wasn’t enough left for everyone to get another full one, so refills were first-come, first-served for another full or half bowl.

There was no distinction between the family’s food and everyone else’s. So, only after all the workers had taken a bowl of dough-drop soup did the four of them—Zhang Dazhuang, Zhang Wei Qiang, Zhang Minzhen, and Gu Nuan Nuan—go to get their own food and find a place to sit and eat.

While they were eating, Zhang Minzhen eagerly described the blueprint Gu Nuan Nuan had laid out to Zhang Dazhuang and Zhang Wei Qiang. The two men involuntarily paused mid-bite of their meat buns as they listened. When she finished, their eyes snapped in unison to Gu Nuan Nuan.

Zhang Wei Qiang gave her a big thumbs-up. "Incredible! What can your uncle even say to praise you?"

"Go ahead and praise me, Uncle. As long as it sounds nice, I’ll take it all. I’m never one to turn down a good compliment." Gu Nuan Nuan’s look of mock anticipation made everyone chuckle.

"You could stand to be a little more modest," Zhang Minzhen chided with a laugh. "Don’t you know that pride makes a person regress?"

"Grandpa, look! Instead of praising me, Mom is lecturing me." Gu Nuan Nuan made a face, turning to Zhang Dazhuang to "quietly" tattle on her. This left Zhang Minzhen exasperated. "How is that a lecture?" Zhang Dazhuang chuckled and lowered his voice, "Your mom just says that, but deep down, you have no idea how proud she really is."

Zhang Wei Qiang burst out laughing. "Exactly! Your mom tells you to be modest, but in her heart, she’s probably bursting with pride for having such a smart and capable daughter. Besides, it’s fine if our Nuannuan is a little proud. I mean, look at her—you can’t help it when you’ve got a brain that works so well. An idea she came up with in a flash is something other people might not think of in their entire lives."

Gu Nuan Nuan snickered as she watched her mother’s helpless expression, finding it very amusing. As expected, she earned an eye-roll from her mom in return.

Zhang Wei Qiang turned to Zhang Dazhuang again, his tone serious. "Dad, if Nuannuan’s idea about franchising can work, this business of ours could really be something big. I think it’s worth giving it our all. But if we do, our previous plans might not be suitable anymore." He mulled it over for a moment. "I say we put a hold on building my new house. For now, let’s just move the entire family to Lihua Village and focus all our time and manpower here. And let’s not start with a street stall. I say we rent a storefront in town directly. It doesn’t have to be big. We can prepare the fish and make the buns here every day, then send them to the shop in town to sell."

This was his way of burning the boats.

"Move everyone to Lihua Village...? What about the land back home, and all the crops in the fields?"

After the initial excitement from hearing his granddaughter’s grand vision, Zhang Dazhuang had started to think it was just a child’s naive fantasy, something not so easily achieved. But now that he saw his eldest son was serious, he hesitated. Although he had high hopes that the Fish Spring would bring income to the family—enough to agree to his son taking an unpaid leave of absence to help—he felt it was too risky when it came to actually halting the house construction and abandoning their farmland.

’If we keep farming, then even if the meat bun business can’t support so many mouths, at least we’ll have grain as a safety net and won’t have to worry about going hungry, right?’

He turned these thoughts over in his mind a few times. It still felt too risky. Finally, he shook his head. "Why don’t we discuss how we can manage both? The children are on vacation now, but what about your two kids’ schooling when classes start again?"

"If you have an idea, you have to be bold and go all out. How will you know if it works if you don’t even try? A person who’s scared of this and that, always hesitating, will never accomplish anything." Zhang Wei Qiang couldn’t help but use the words of his old drill instructor to persuade Zhang Dazhuang. "Dad, don’t you have faith in the meat buns with Nuannuan’s filling? Didn’t my little sister think she could run a stall all by herself, support the two of them, and pay for Nuannuan’s education just by selling these buns? And now that there are so many of us, we’re going to be afraid?"

"Isn’t having more people exactly why I’m afraid?" Zhang Dazhuang muttered. "How many people are there in this town? Are they all going to eat meat buns every day, and only from our family?"

"That’s why our business can’t be limited to just the town," Zhang Wei Qiang couldn’t help but smile. "Dad, didn’t Nuannuan just talk about developing franchises, and you thought it was a good idea? Actually, in my opinion, it doesn’t even matter if the franchise thing doesn’t work out. If it falls through, we’ll just wait until we’ve earned a bit more money and then slowly expand, opening stores in the city, then the provincial capital. There are more people in the city, and even more in the capital. The entire Alliance is huge! Think of how many cities there are... As long as we’re making money, we can keep opening new branches and sell our meat buns all over the country. In the end, it’ll probably be hard *not* to make money."

’Gu Nuan Nuan’s idea had really shaken him. It made him suddenly realize how narrow his own perspective had been, thinking that opening a single shop in town was the peak. As for the franchise model, setting such harsh conditions—basically having others open a shop to sell meat buns for you, and even pay you a franchise fee on top of that—he had to admit, he also felt it was a bit of a pipe dream. But it sparked another idea: at worst, they could just modify the plan. They could develop slowly on their own, putting up the capital to hire people to open shops. That wouldn’t be a bad way to make a fortune either—’