Chapter 85 Your Darkness
Zhang Yunqi didn't know what Chu Jian wanted so much money for.

In 92, 300 yuan was not a small amount of money for a student.

But he didn't ask.

He paid 300 yuan to Chu Jian.

As a friend, when you first meet this kind of well-behaved girl, you don't have to worry that she will do anything bad with the money. But precisely because she is a sensible girl with her own ideas, her recent unusual behavior seems a bit abnormal.

Zhang Yunqi didn't think much about it as he had other things on hand.

One is a handheld game business, and the other is a plan to open a restaurant.

Now the handheld game machine business has been reopened. Zhang Yunqi asked his eldest sister to visit the dozens of retailers that were acquired last year, delivering a fruit basket to each of them to wish them a happy old age and keep in touch with them, and also to confirm the delivery quantity.

This time he bought another batch of handheld computers from Shenglong Electronics for 40,000 yuan. But he felt that this business could not last long.

As usual, Wang Guibing invested 15 yuan and was responsible for purchasing. According to the investment ratio, he accounted for % of the dividends.

The eldest sister Zhang Qiulan used to receive a salary, but now she is responsible for the sales, customer service and delivery of handheld mobile phones. She is basically busy from morning to night every day, which is quite hard work. Zhang Yunqi also gave her 5% dividends.

Last year, Zhang Yunqi earned 6 yuan, spent 5 yuan on buying a house, and spent 3 yuan on purchasing goods this time. After adding on the New Year's goods and other miscellaneous expenses, he had about 5 yuan left in his pocket. This money was more than enough to open a restaurant.

In order to decide what kind of store to open.

In the next three days, Zhang Yunqi invited Wang Xiaokai, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Yang Wei and others to eat at the small restaurants and noodle shops outside the school that they had long been tired of. He consulted their opinions while thinking about it on his own.

Finally he came to a conclusion.

Opening a restaurant doesn't work, but opening a noodle shop is a good option.

First of all, the question of who will cook when opening a restaurant is a difficult one. My mother’s cooking skills are good, but they are not up to the standard of a chef. In the early stages of development, it is not cost-effective to hire a chef for a small restaurant targeting students. However, ordinary chefs do not have sophisticated skills and cannot create unique dishes, so it is definitely not attractive.

As for opening a noodle shop, it is relatively easy for my eldest brother and mother to get started. In the early stage, they don't need to hire a chef. They just need to have a distinctive flagship product, just like a braised noodle shop sells braised noodles or a cross-bridge rice noodle shop sells cross-bridge rice noodles.

The most important thing is, if you really open a noodle shop, you don’t have to think about what your main product is. It’s ready-made and set in stone. In the future, it will be the famous Qifengdu fish noodles that everyone in Jiangchuan City knows!
Qifengdu fish powder is a famous snack in Jiangchuan City, southern Hunan Province. It belongs to the Hunan cuisine. Its birthplace is in the ancient town of Qifengdu in Jiangchuan City. There is an old saying that has been passed down for thousands of years: "Travel thousands of miles, tens of thousands of miles, and you will never leave Qifengdu!"

This old saying not only talks about the good location of Qifengdu, but also praises its unique traditional snack - Qifengdu fish powder.

In Zhang Yunqi's impression, Qifengdu fish meal became popular in the mid-90s. At that time, many people from Qifengdu went to Jiangchuan City to sell fish meal and started their own businesses. Later, Qifengdu fish meal became more and more famous in Jiangchuan and many surrounding counties and cities.

By 2018, when he was reborn, almost eight out of ten noodle shops in the streets and alleys of Jiangchuan City were selling Qifengdu fish noodles. In short, it was extremely famous, equivalent to the status of Yunnan rice noodles in the hearts of Kunming people. It was the first choice food for breakfast and midnight snacks for Jiangchuan people.

In the past, Zhang Yunqi would go back to his hometown Yunxi Village during the Spring Festival every year. When passing through Jiangchuan City, he would stop the car to eat a bowl of authentic Qifengdu fish noodles. Sometimes he would cook a bowl of fish noodles himself to satisfy his craving. For a Jiangchuan native like him who studies and works hard away from home, when talking about Qifengdu fish noodles, he would subconsciously smack his lips, swallow his saliva, and taste the delicious taste of the strong fish aroma and spicy flavor in his heart.

At present, Qifengdu fish noodles have not become a popular breakfast food in Jiangchuan City, and Zhang Yunqi has never seen such a noodle shop in the city. The market prospects are good, and it is a stable way to make money. The most important thing is that in the early stage of opening a noodle shop, there is no need to recruit people, so it is more difficult and tiring, and the technical content is relatively low, which is suitable for eldest brother Zhang Yunfeng and mother.

After repeated consideration, Zhang Yunqi felt that this approach was feasible, so he called his eldest brother Zhang Yunfeng and asked him to take care of the family affairs and come to the city as soon as possible.

After finishing all this, Zhang Yunqi returned to school to continue his studies.

He has been silently paying attention to this girl ever since she first asked him to borrow money.

This girl is very outstanding. Although she doesn't have an outstanding appearance, her inner qualities are impeccable. She is kind and quiet. Her family conditions may not be very good, but she is self-reliant and has remained untainted by the world. She looks rather cold and difficult to approach, but she respects her teachers and is eager to help her classmates. Her academic performance is impeccable. In an ordinary class, she beat the test takers in the science and technology classes and key classes and made it into the top ten in the school, which is proof of this.

From a friend's perspective, Zhang Yunqi doesn't want such an outstanding girl to be affected by some external factors and affect her original intention and what she wants to do.

It's just that this quiet girl has a pride and stubbornness deep in her heart that is difficult for ordinary people to understand. She never reveals her difficulties to anyone, including Zhang Yunqi.

Zhang Yunqi has noticed many times that her recent behavior is a bit abnormal, and she is not paying attention in class. He asked Chujian several times if she was okay, but Chujian always smiled at him and said she was fine.

One morning after history class, Zhang Yunqi was basking in the sun in the corridor. Yu Xiaorui, his good daughter whom he had just met, came back from the toilet and passed by him, so he called out to her.

Yu Xiaorui turned her head and asked with a smile: "What's the matter?"

Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "I want to ask you about Chu Jian. Now she doesn't come to class every night. Do you know if she went home or did something else?"

Yu Xiaorui glanced at Zhang Yunqi for a few times and replied, "I don't know about this. She didn't tell me. But, Zhang Yunqi, I can tell you something else. Chu Jian's family is in a difficult situation. They can't even pay the tuition for this semester. The teacher has talked to her several times."

Zhang Yunqi was stunned for a moment and asked, "Anything else?"

Yu Xiaorui stared at Zhang Yunqi with a smile in her eyes: "No, Chu Jian rarely talks to me about her personal affairs, but logically speaking, you should know her better than me."

Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "It's almost time for class. I'll go back to the classroom."

Yu Xiaorui stared at Zhang Yunqi's back, her eyes flickering with some profound meaning.

After the last self-study class, Zhang Yunqi watched Chu Jian in front of him leave the classroom with his schoolbag. After a while, he stood up and followed him.

When he arrived at the school gate, he saw Chu Jian leaving the school on foot without taking the bus, so he pushed his bicycle and followed her from a distance, arriving at the east side of Xinjiekou not far away.

Although Xinjiekou has the word "New" in its name, the environment is very poor. The old cement road is badly damaged, with dirt exposed. Passing vehicles raise dust, and the air is filled with the smell of particles. On both sides of the road are various small restaurants, motorcycle repair shops and other convenience stores. It is a completely suburban landscape.

Zhang Yunqi followed Chu Jian from a distance and saw her walk into a small restaurant. There was no sign on the door of the restaurant. It was not very big, with only four or five tables. A sturdy woman was standing at the door soliciting passers-by. She should be the proprietress. She had a face full of flesh, dark eye shadow, and newly tattooed eyebrows that were like two long black bugs lying on her triangular eyes. It was obvious at first glance that she was not a good person.

After about three or four minutes, Chu Jian came out.

She had changed out of her school uniform and was wearing a grey jacket that looked like something a boy might have worn. It was rather large and ill-fitting, and it also looked a bit old and shabby, like some work clothes thrown away by a car repair shop.

Under the command of the strong woman, Chu Jian first wiped all the tables in the restaurant, then swept and mopped the floor. Finally, she gritted her teeth and laboriously moved a large basin of rice bowls full of slop and came to the open space beside the door of the small restaurant. She put down the basin, wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, then squatted on the ground and began to wash the dishes.

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(End of this chapter)