Seventies Sweetheart: From Breakup to Billionaire-Chapter 231: Buffet

Mrs. Lin’s face immediately drooped, "Going to set up a stall again? And at noon? It’s going to be so hot!" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"But selling lunchboxes near the construction site makes much more money than selling barbecue."

"Mom, don’t you want to make more money?"

As she spoke, Lin Xiang took out a property deed from her shoulder bag, "This is the surprise I want to tell you today."

Lin Xiang showed Mrs. Lin the property deed for the house at the West Gate.

"This house is near the West Gate of Huaqing University; it’s in great condition. We just need to add some furniture, and we’ll have a place to live. Plus, Mom, since we have a house now, you can register your residency in Beijing, and you can become a Beijing resident. Aren’t you happy?"

"Why would I register my residency in Beijing?" Mrs. Lin didn’t understand the importance of a Beijing residency. For someone of her age, even though Beijing is great and prosperous, she still prefers her original home.

However, she turned over the property deed several times, "Is this what you bought? Do we have a home in Beijing?"

"Girl, you’re not joking with me, are you!"

"Do I look like I’m joking? But Mom, houses in Beijing aren’t cheap. I spent all my money buying this house, so we need to earn money quickly. Otherwise, even if we have a house in Beijing, we won’t be able to get anywhere!"

With a house in sight as motivation, Mrs. Lin was now full of vigor. Upon hearing Lin Xiang say this, she quickly nodded in agreement, "Alright, let’s sell lunchboxes at the construction site entrance. Girl, Mom will listen to you!"

Lin Xiang pressed on the other two property deeds inside her shoulder bag.

She wasn’t planning on telling Mrs. Lin yet that she had bought three houses at once; it would be too overwhelming for Mrs. Lin.

Once she received the admission notice, registered at the university, and was ready to open the store, she would tell Mrs. Lin about the house at the East Gate.

Seeing the mother and daughter were already planning their business, Lin Yun said quietly, "Is there anything you need my help with?"

"You’re still injured. Just take care of yourself, and don’t worry about us."

Lin Yun: were they here to take care of him or to earn money in Beijing?

Lin Xiang, with her strong ability to act, rented the house by that afternoon and, with some money and the landlord’s help, arranged a simple small cart.

The house was rented because the hostel didn’t have a cafeteria, and she couldn’t cook there, while the rented house had a large yard and was close to the construction site.

In the morning, after visiting Lin Yun at the hospital, Mrs. Lin stayed with him in the ward for a while, and Lin Xiang went to the market to buy vegetables, then returned to the rented place to prepare the lunchboxes for sale at noon.

Beijing, well-deserving of its status as the capital, had far more variety of goods for sale compared to Mianyang Town, though prices also reflected typical big city characteristics.

After buying a sufficient amount of vegetables, Lin Xiang returned to the rented courtyard and started cooking.

She had the landlord set up two large stoves in the yard, one for steaming rice.

She steamed a mix of rice and sorghum in a one-to-one ratio to create a blend of rice.

The other stove was used for cooking.

Lin Xiang’s plan was to sell self-service fast food, charged per person, with free refills on rice after choosing from the dishes freely.

She cooked four dishes in total, three meat and one vegetarian: tomato and egg, cucumber with pork, stir-fried green beans, and stewed mixed vegetables.

When she’d started the stew, Mrs. Lin arrived based on the address Lin Xiang had given her.

"You’ve prepared everything?" Seeing the large buckets filled to the brim, Mrs. Lin was shocked, "Didn’t we agree that I’d come to help?"

"Beijing, apart from the high cost of living, has everything else good. They sell ready-made aluminum buckets at the market, so I just bought a few."

Even if we stop selling lunchboxes later, we can still move to the East Gate, and they could be used when we open the store.

Mrs. Lin opened the lids one by one to take a look, "Girl, each of these buckets must weigh over ten pounds, right? Can we sell them all?"

"Mom, you have to trust me."

Lin Xiang hasn’t failed at anything yet, so Mrs. Lin didn’t think much else, and together they loaded the aluminum buckets onto the cart. Once the stew was ready, the mother and daughter wheeled the cart over to the construction site entrance.

They arrived just ten minutes before noon. Lin Xiang calmly took out a loudspeaker and pressed the switch; her voice echoed around the construction site.

"Fast food, fast food, self-service fast food, only fifty cents per person, eat to your heart’s content with four dishes."

"Fast food, fast food, self-service fast food..."

Mrs. Lin hadn’t asked Lin Xiang about the price beforehand and was shocked at the loudspeaker announcing fifty cents per person, "Setting such a high price, what if no one comes to eat? It’s so hot now, if we can’t sell them, they’ll spoil!"

"Mom, Beijing isn’t like our small place. Salaries here are higher, so the cost of living is higher too. Just buying these vegetables cost quite a bit! Spread over each person, it’s at least forty cents, especially after factoring in my labor, the cost of renting the house, and setting up things, we can’t make much profit."

"True enough, living a day in the hostel isn’t cheap either."

Mrs. Lin couldn’t help but sigh, "I used to think life in the city was good, but everything costs money here, and if we can’t earn enough, we might not survive in Beijing."

After waiting for a while, three workers came straight over.

"Can we really eat until we’re full at your place?"

Lin Xiang took out a large bowl, "Each person pays fifty cents, and after finishing a bowl of rice, you can add half a bowl for free. Dishes can be endlessly refilled, as long as it’s not wasted, you can eat as much as you want."

Lin Xiang then opened the lids of the aluminum buckets one by one so that they could see what’s inside clearly.

"Can you eat every dish or just choose one?" The person asking stared fixedly at the bucket holding the stew.

They hadn’t seen this dish before, but with both meat and vegetables, it looked delicious.

"You can eat all of them; it’s up to you how much you can eat."

"Give me a serving!"

"I’ll have a serving too!"

Mrs. Lin didn’t expect business to come so quickly; before she knew it, they’d earned one and a half yuan.

In Mianyang Town, a bowl of spicy noodles costs one cent, a skewer is one cent, and grilled fish is only two cents per piece; it usually takes longer to make one and a half yuan.

With these three to start, the next arrivals didn’t ask much. They paid Mrs. Lin and lined up to get food.

Lin Xiang had prepared enough bowls but only two sets of tables and chairs, so newcomers didn’t have a place to sit. Nobody minded, though—they just found a shady corner, squatted down, and started eating, mouths full of oil as they ate voraciously without saying many words.