Chapter 239 - 204: An Assembly Line, You Really Think Highly of Me

Chapter 239: Chapter 204: An Assembly Line, You Really Think Highly of Me

August 31, 2012.

As promised, Han Yuanping showed up at the entrance of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant with the equipment Xu An had ordered and a team of installers. After some pleasantries, he asked curiously, "You’re in the boxed lunch business, so why do you need a vacuum sealer? Don’t tell me you’re planning to vacuum-seal boxed lunches to sell them?"

"Hahaha, Uncle Han, business at the Hai City Machinery Equipment Exhibition must have been good. You’ve probably been too busy to keep up with the Hai City news!" Xu An joked before explaining, "I opened a new shop over by the Silver Star Office Building that specializes in braised dishes. This machine is for packaging them!"

"Whoa! Boss Xu, you’re really doing well for yourself, expanding into a new field so quickly!"

The two then exchanged some more business flattery. As they chatted, Han Yuanping seemed to remember something. He turned, went back to his car, and pulled out a brand-new product brochure for Xu An.

"These are our company’s newest products. Boss Xu, take a look. If you need anything, just give me a call, and I’ll get it delivered to you as fast as possible!"

Hearing there were new products, Xu An immediately took the brochure and began flipping through it right then and there.

The brochure featured new equipment specifically for meat processing, capable of slicing, shredding, dicing, and grinding. Beyond that, the rest of the pages were dedicated to just one thing—assembly lines!

Yes, assembly lines. And not just one!

There was a fruit and vegetable line that handled everything from loading and washing to peeling, a second rinse, and ingredient prep. There was also an all-in-one noodle processing line for adding flour, mixing dough, kneading, proofing, shaping, and cooking...

One line in particular, called the "Cooked Food Portioning" line, captured all of Xu An’s attention. Washed ingredients would enter a high-pressure steam cooker. A high-speed cutter would then process them into bite-sized pieces before they moved to a cooling zone. Once cooled, they were transported to the next station to be portioned out by weight. From there, they would proceed orderly into a vacuum sealer for initial packaging, followed by a pouch-packing machine for the outer layer. And just like that, a fully packaged cooked food product was fresh off the line!

Looking at this assembly line, Xu An wasn’t thinking about boxed lunches, but about Xu’s Braised Shop, which had become an instant hit right after opening!

But one glance at the minimum price on the page made Xu An’s heart sink. The price was high enough to buy that two-story furniture showroom outright. ’Uncle Han really thinks highly of me, showing me such a high-end and expensive product.’

The food vacuum sealer was a finished product, already assembled and calibrated at the factory. The installers first inspected the equipment. After confirming there were no issues with the assembly, they plugged it in. They then bagged a whole, raw pig’s trotter that Xu An had prepared, placed it in the vacuum chamber, and pressed the start button.

Through the transparent lid, he could clearly see the air vanish from the bag. The plastic shrink-wrapped tightly around the pig’s trotter, conforming perfectly to every crevice between its toes, leaving no gaps at all.

A BEEP BEEP BEEP alert sounded, and the machine let out a HISS from its base, expelling a puff of slightly warm air.

An installer stepped forward, removed the vacuum-sealed ingredient, and inspected it carefully. Finding no issues, he handed it to Xu An.

As Xu An examined the package, Han Yuanping chimed in with an explanation. "This is a multi-purpose packaging machine. Besides vacuum sealing, it can also handle regular sealing. It works for dry goods, wet items, powders, even oils. You have to be especially careful with meat and cooked food, though—the shelf life is only ten days. After that, or if the package starts leaking or inflating, it’s no longer safe to eat..."

After giving Xu An the instructions, Uncle Han and the installers returned to their car and headed to their next stop. Their participation in the Hai City Machinery Equipment Exhibition had been a huge success. Thanks to Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant serving as a real-world case study, sales of small, automated kitchen appliances were 1.5 times higher than at other trade shows. The results were remarkably significant!

Otherwise, Han Yuanping wouldn’t have made a personal trip just for one small vacuum sealer, regardless of his friendship with Xu An.

The vacuum sealer was installed, and he’d seen what it could do. Now, there were several things to take care of. First, he had to contact Uncle Dongliang’s friend to apply for a packaged food permit.

Second, he needed to ask the designer, Chengzi, to modify the logo. The main change was swapping "Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant" at the bottom for "Xu’s Braised Shop," with no other alterations needed.

Third, he had to contact a factory to produce the outer packaging bags for the vacuum-sealed products, which had to feature the "Xu’s Braised Shop" logo.

Fourth, once the previous steps were done, he would have Tang Wen start generating some online buzz. If the public response was strong, he would seize the opportunity and launch the vacuum-sealed Xu’s Braised Shop products onto the market.

...

After a busy day, by four in the afternoon, Xu An had finally completed the first two tasks. He sent the modified logo to the factory to begin production on the packaging, and with that, his work for the day was more or less done.

「In Zhang Dezhen’s rented room.」

Today, the 1,268 pounds of braised dishes prepared by Xu’s Braised Shop had sold out, as usual. Although they sold out a little later than the past three days, business was still wrapped up before nine o’clock. After cleaning the insulated containers, he didn’t get back to his rented room until almost ten at night.

He was truly exhausted. On the way back, he’d zoned out for a second and nearly took a nasty fall. Thankfully, his body reacted in time, and he only ended up stumbling a few steps. But he was also truly happy. The more he cooked and the more they sold, the bigger his share of the profits.

He was incredibly glad he had chosen the profit-sharing model; otherwise, he’d be kicking himself right now. With their current sales, he would have earned the twenty-thousand-yuan buyout in just a little over three months!

He opened the door, closed it, tossed his phone on the bed, grabbed a change of clothes, and took a quick, cold shower. Then, he settled back comfortably against the headboard.

He picked up his phone, about to check the "Hai City Hometown Friends" group chat, when he noticed two missed calls. The caller ID read: Wife!

Zhang Dezhen’s heart leaped into his throat. ’Is something wrong with our child? Or is Mom feeling unwell again?!’

Without a second thought, Zhang Dezhen dialed her number. The phone only rang once before she picked up. She had clearly been waiting right by the phone, which made his already heavy heart sink even further.

"Honey, what is it? Did something happen at home?" Zhang Dezhen’s voice was quick and anxious, firing off a string of questions before his wife could answer. "Do we have enough money? How much do you have? If you’re short, I can ask my boss for an advance. Payday is on the third, just three or four days away, so it should be no problem. Don’t panic..."

As Zhang Dezhen paused to take a breath, his wife finally found an opening to cut through his torrent of words. "What on earth are you talking about?" she said, her voice tinged with fond exasperation. "Everything at home is fine!"

Hearing that nothing was wrong, Zhang Dezhen breathed a sigh of relief. "Then why’d you call twice in a row?" he asked, confused. "Was it our kid? Do they miss me?"

"No..."

Zhang Dezhen’s wife then explained from the beginning why she had called.

Apparently, around seven o’clock that evening, after dinner, two of his wife’s younger brother’s close friends from their hometown had come looking for her. They immediately asked if Zhang Dezhen had opened a braised food shop in Hai City and was looking for helpers, telling her he wanted them to come work for him.

Zhang Dezhen was completely baffled. ’When did I open a braised food shop in Hai City? When did I go back home to recruit people? This has to be a scam.’

"That’s what I thought, too," she said. "But when I asked a few more questions, they said my brother was the one who told them. He even showed them photos of the storefront, said it was being renovated, and that it would open in about a week."

"Did you save the photos? Send them to me."

"I didn’t, but I got their contact information. I’ll call them in a bit and ask them to send the photos to me."

"Okay."

After hanging up, Zhang Dezhen’s mind was a mess. Him opening a shop and recruiting? His brother-in-law taking pictures to find people...?

’My brother-in-law? My brother-in-law!’

’When he first arrived, he kept pushing me to take out money and open my own shop. After I refused and ignored him, he ran off to find a job. He said he found one after two days and moved out. Could he be the one behind this? He opened a braised food shop? Where would he get the money?!’

He didn’t have to wait long. His wife sent him seven images: three of a storefront, two of braised dishes, and two screenshots.

The screenshots showed a conversation between his brother-in-law and the two friends. The gist of it was that he’d found a boss who valued his braising skills and was funding him to open a shop. The shop was now short-staffed, and he wanted them to come help for a salary that wasn’t half bad—twenty-eight hundred yuan a month.

In the screenshot, his brother-in-law had sent two photos. Zhang Dezhen zoomed in as far as he could, just barely making out their content. It was a clip from a local Hai City news report about the grand opening of Xu’s Braised Shop, and he himself was standing right at the entrance...

’That photo must be why they thought I was the one who opened the shop and needed help,’ he realized. ’That’s why they went to ask my wife about it.’

He replied to his wife, telling her to let the two young men know that this had nothing to do with him and that they should think it over carefully before making any decisions. After that, Zhang Dezhen forwarded all the photos to Xu An.

’Boss, someone here in Hai City has their eye on us. They’re preparing to open a braised food shop, and the chef they hired is from my hometown!’

After receiving the images, Xu An looked through all seven of them carefully. He finally zoomed in on one of the photos of the braised dishes, focusing on the paper placed under the plate. It was a flyer, and the name of the shop was clearly visible—Golden Dragon Braised Shop.

Looking at the photo of the shop’s exterior, it seemed more and more familiar to Xu An. ’Isn’t this the same shop on Qianjin Street I was asking the agent about yesterday?!’

’So, does this shop belong to that squinty-eyed middle-aged man? Then who was that hostile young guy with him? Could he be the braising chef from Zhang Dezhen’s hometown that he mentioned?’

Thinking back carefully, Xu An was surprised to realize that while Zhang Dezhen and the young man didn’t look alike, they shared certain regional features and gave off a very similar vibe.

"Golden Dragon... Golden Dragon... why does that name sound so familiar?" Xu An narrowed his eyes, thinking. A flood of images, useful and useless, flashed through his mind. The final image settled on the scene outside the Zijing Academy construction site. Right next to the Xu’s Fast Food stall had been—the Golden Dragon Fast Food Restaurant!

’Could it be the same one?’