As soon as he arrived in the magical capital, Xiao Guoji realized that his position was in jeopardy before he could even sigh at the prosperity of the big city.
I don't know why, but Xiao Qian, who is only seven years old, is as familiar as a local and is more familiar with everything than him.
Renting a house, finding a place, buying things, almost everything was done under Xiao Qian's guidance.
In order to come to Shanghai, Xiao Guoji's family sold their house in Northeast China and borrowed money from relatives, barely scraping together a thousand yuan.
Don't think that this money is not much, think about it, it's only 1991.
Xiao Qian's family found a small house in a lane in Chuansha and rented it. It was about thirty square meters. There was no toilet, the kitchen was shared, and the water and electricity were taken care of by themselves.
It seems unbearable, but for them now, that's all it can do.
Xiao Qian firmly stopped Xiao Guoji's idea of renting a house in Puxi.
He clearly told Xiao Guoji that the future of the Magic City lies in Pudong, which has greater potential than Puxi.
Just look at the busy construction site here in Lujiazui and you will know that this will be the financial center of the country in the future. But people in this era, except for a very few, do not realize this.
Hearing that working on a construction site would earn him 20 yuan a day and provide him with meals, Xiao Guoji wanted to go there. Fortunately, Xiao Qian stopped him.
Xiao Guoji's eyes darkened, but he knew it all too well.
At the construction sites at this time, the workers basically came from several places. They were mainly from Anhui, Henan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Chongqing and other places. They formed groups and formed gangs, which was equivalent to monopolizing this industry.
I have never heard of people from the Northeast joining in at this time.
If Xiao Guoji rashly went to the construction site alone, he would definitely be bullied to death.
Besides, he invited his parents to come to Shanghai because he didn't want them to suffer any more hardships. Naturally, Xiao Qian didn't like a place like the construction site that was not exhausting but also shed skin.
After spending five hundred yuan and renting the house for half a year, Xiao Qian really burst into tears.
Five hundred yuan can rent a house in Chuansha for half a year. If you tell this in twenty years, you will definitely be sent to a mental hospital and locked up.
We won't rent the toilet to you.
With the remaining money, under the leadership of Xiao Qian, Xiao Guoji found someone to build an iron stove, bought pots and pans and other items, plus rice, noodles, meat and vegetables and other materials, leaving his pockets almost empty.
However, when she saw Xiao Guoji and his wife pushing a trolley and setting up a stall outside the busy construction site, Xiao Qian was filled with a sense of accomplishment.
It all started when Xiao Qian asked Xiao Guoji if he knew how to cook egg fried rice.
In her previous life, Xiao Qian studied and worked in the Magic City. Although she didn't have any big prospects, she was most familiar with the market here.
What did he miss the most when he was in school?
It is nothing more than the small stalls set up in the morning, noon and evening at the school entrance, selling all kinds of food, successfully attracting the attention of many students and passers-by.
Xiao Qian didn't like the food in the school cafeteria, and neither did most of the students.
To use a popular saying at the time: It was so difficult, there was actually food in the sand.
Although it is not that exaggerated, it can also be seen in the lack of water in the clear soup in the school cafeteria.
They are all young people in their twenties, an age where they absorb and digest quickly. If they want to be full just by relying on the food in the cafeteria, they will have to pay a lot of money.
On the contrary, the cheap and affordable doorway stalls have become the favorites of students.
Not to mention anything else, a bowl of egg fried rice for RMB 3.51 is enough to fill an entire foam bowl. In addition to rice, there are vegetables, ham sausages, and eggs, fried with soy sauce, although it doesn’t look very filling.
Clean, but tastes great.
For those who are occasionally extravagant, if they add some bacon, the meaning of life will instantly become clear.
That was two thousand years later. If you want to do this business now, egg fried rice will only be cheaper.
This is the business that Xiao Qian came up with for Xiao Guoji and his wife. It seems very inconspicuous, but it can really make money.
The stall owner Xiao Qian knew in her previous life, after selling egg fried rice in front of the university for three years, actually bought a house and shop in Shanghai and became a small business owner.
From this we can see what kind of profits this seemingly inconspicuous small business contains.
Thanks to this era without urban management, people like Xiao Guoji and Ai Milan, who have little culture and craftsmanship, can still have a place to survive on the streets.
"What's the point of this thing? Can it make money?"
The spring sunshine is not too strong yet, and it is even very comfortable to stand under the sun.
Just looking at Xiao Qian who was eating fried rice with eggs next to him, Xiao Guoji couldn't help but complain.
He regretted a little. It would have been better if he had not listened to his son. What could a six- or seven-year-old child know?
The stall has been set up for more than an hour, but there is no one there. In the end, you won’t even be able to earn the fare to go home, right?
While he was complaining, an old man walked over slowly. He was wearing dark blue work clothes, but he was very clean and did not look like a laborer on a construction site.
Xiao Qian knew this person, he was the gatekeeper of the construction site in front of him.
The old man came over and inspected the items on the stall with his shuttle on his back.
He saw the iron pot, the clean vegetables, the pickled mustard in the box, minced green onions, and thinly sliced bacon, and asked, "Where is Sa Chenguang?"
Xiao Guoji was confused, and Ai Lan was dumbfounded.
You two look at me and I look at you, like silly roe deers.
It is really difficult for two newcomers from the Northeast to understand the dialect of the city.
Not to mention the two of them, when Xiao Qian came here for the first time, she felt that what she needed to learn was not a dialect, but a foreign language that was more difficult than English.
So much so that he later left the Magic City and still had not learned it.
However, more than ten years of experience here have enabled him to understand the dialect of the magic city.
This is also a characteristic of many outsiders who later came to Shanghai. They didn’t need to deliberately learn it, but they could understand it.
Of course, if it’s from the islands around Magic City, then I’m sorry, but the locals won’t understand it either.
Seeing Xiao Guoji and Ai Milan in a daze, Xiao Qian said in time: "Uncle, we sell egg fried rice, do you want to try it?"
The old man is not bad. Although he is quite young, he still understands Mandarin, so he can communicate with him.
After listening to Xiao Qian's words, the old man thought about it for a while and then said: "Help me four or four."
Xiao Guoji continued to be confused, so Xiao Qian had no choice but to give orders.
"Dad, fry some egg fried rice for this uncle, and add more bacon."
Is this business coming to your doorstep?
Xiao Guoji was so excited that he quickly lit the fire and started working.
Although it was my first time to make fried rice in front of customers, luckily I was able to hold on and soon a bowl of freshly seasoned soy sauce and egg fried rice came out of the oven.
Xiao Qian took it and handed it to the old man himself.
"Uncle, your meal is ready."
The old man's hand went to his pocket.
"How much?"
Xiao Qian put on a sincere smile.
"Uncle, you are our first guest. This is fate, so you don't need any money."
The old man's face suddenly smiled and started talking, and he kept talking when he took the egg fried rice.
"How can we all be itchy?"
Then don't answer it!
The old man left with satisfaction, leaving only Xiao Guoji and Ai Milan furious.
One is holding a spatula, and the other is holding a green onion, which may fall on Xiao Qian in the next second.
"Prodigal child, why don't you want money? If you don't want money, aren't we losing money?"
Xiao Qian smiled lightly and just looked at the construction site which was still in full swing.
"Suffering a loss is a blessing, don't you know?"
Xiao Guoji didn't know, he just wanted to beat people up.
But an hour later, he was too busy to even wipe his sweat, so naturally he couldn't think of beating someone.
When they got home in the evening, the couple got together and counted the money.
"Ten yuan...twenty...one hundred and fifty...two hundred and one, we made two hundred and one in one day?"
Aimilan was so excited that she almost tore up all the money in her hand. Fortunately, she still knew the principle of keeping wealth secret, so she tried her best to suppress it.
Xiao Guoji was not much better. He kept rubbing his hands, feeling that he was no longer tired after a day's work.
"Oh, it's better to be in a big city. The people here are really rich. It's two hundred and eleven a day. If you work for a month, you won't have anything... Darling, how much is that?"
People who are not well-educated are like this, they can't even calculate accounts clearly.
Xiao Qian wanted to tell the couple, but after counting them on her fingers, the literary dog had to lower his head in shame.
In 1991, a job with a daily income of 200 yuan was unthinkable.
Xiao Qian also knew that today's situation was a special case. It was a favor returned by the old man who was the janitor at the construction site, and he exchanged it for a free bowl of egg fried rice with added ingredients.
The workers had long been unable to endure the large pot of rice with clear soup and water, so they took this opportunity to change their taste.
Once the novelty wears off, these hard-earned workers will return to rationality.
However, in such a large construction site, at least tens of thousands of people work here. Even if only a handful of people choose to eat egg fried rice every day, it is still a huge income for them.
Sure enough, not many people came to eat egg fried rice the next day, but they still sold more than 100 yuan.
In the following days, the daily income was basically stable at around 100 yuan. Although there was no craziness on the first day, for Xiao Guoji and Ai Lan, this was no longer something they dared to think about.
One hundred yuan a day is nearly three thousand yuan a month.
In this day and age, there are few such high-paying jobs across the country.
Seeing that her pockets were gradually bulging, and after a period of adaptation, the couple was able to feel at ease in the unfamiliar environment of the Magic City. Xiao Qian felt relieved and began to prepare to report to school.
But before going to school, he gave Xiao Guoji a new instruction.
"Dad, although you have been earning a good income from selling egg fried rice, if you want to make more, I suggest you learn how to spread pancakes and fruit."
