Lin Lan picked up a piece and said to Lin Yuezhen and the others, "Everyone, try some and see how it tastes."

Tong Xinglan picked up a piece and took a big bite. "Mmm, this is delicious! It’s so flaky and soft, and perfectly sweet."

Wu Shufen nodded in agreement. "We should send some to Grandma when we have a chance. It’s soft and sweet—the elderly love things like this."

"Okay," Lin Lan said to Qiaohui. "Go get a few bags. Take this sachima to Xiuyun at the police station and ask her to bring it to our great-aunt."

"Right!" Qiaohui went to the wing-room, grabbed the bags, packed the sachima, and headed for the police station.

Lin Lan said to Lin Yuezhen, "Sis, we need to make extra pastries over the next few days and stock up. When the food market opens, our store needs to offer a wider variety."

Lin Yuezhen nodded and signed, "We have pumpkin cakes, kidney bean rolls, pea cakes, orchid beans, and mung bean cakes. Now we’ve added two more types. Is that still not enough?"

"It’s not enough. Let’s add egg yolk pastries and nougat," Lin Lan said, looking at Lin Yuezhen. "Sis, the recipe for the egg yolk pastries is similar to the one for egg yolk mooncakes. We’re low on eggs, so we’ll just make a small batch for now. Once Li Wu delivers more, we can start mass-producing them."

Lin Yuezhen nodded firmly, while Qiaohui and Tong Xinglan readily agreed.

Lin Lan told Tong Xinglan to soak the glutinous rice in a bucket. The next day, it would need to be steamed, spread out on a cooling mat to air-dry, and only then could they make puffed rice candy.

She had been keeping an eye on Tong Xinglan for two days. ’Other than not being as down-to-earth or hardworking as Qiaohui, I haven’t noticed any other major flaws.’

The next day, Li Guizhi and her husband delivered the malt sugar, along with some fried potatoes for Lin Lan to sample. Lin Lan gave her a few pointers on things to watch out for.

After the couple went back, remade the potatoes, and had Lin Lan approve them, they started gathering their equipment to set up a stall and sell fried potatoes near the glass factory.

In the blink of an eye, it was late January and early February. Business at the clothing store had slowed compared to its grand opening because of stock shortages. The last tape recorder at the general store was also sold, and with its inventory depleted, its business also declined.

Brother Yong and Zhigang moved their things from the market back to the Li family’s house, getting ready to set up a meat stall in the food market. As for the storefront Li Xiangyang had bought inside the market, since regulations currently prevented private businesses from expanding too much, they could only wait for a suitable tenant to rent it out.

The black market space behind the clothing factory had to be left vacant for now. They would wait until next year to properly plan its purpose, and only renovate it once they had a solid plan.

The Wang Zhixue brothers found two stalls, one in the East City Food Market and one in the North City Food Market, to sell Lin Lan’s pastries and their family’s soy products.

Yang Liqun and Liying also moved their beans and stone mill to the South City Food Market.

Lin Lan was so busy directing Yang Zhigang and the others that she barely had a moment’s rest. First, they moved half of the pastry ingredients to the South City shop, installed the machinery, and then transferred the bulk spices and fermented bean curd from the apartment above the general store to the East City shop.

The spice shop was registered under Lin Changyou’s name. They had asked Dongzi to help them get the sole proprietorship license. The shop was named Lin’s Specialty Grocery Store.

Lin Lan, along with Wu Shufen and the others, sorted the bulk spices, arranged them neatly by category, and marked all the prices.

Wu Shufen and her husband stepped outside, admiring the tidy shop. They were both grinning from ear to ear.

Lin Changyou suddenly thought of something. He looked at his wife and said in a low voice, "Dear, Little Lan is short-staffed here!"

He had seen with his own eyes over the past few days how some products had already sold out, with customers even paying deposits to place orders. Lin Lan had also told him about their profit margins, which had deeply shaken him.

He finally understood why people used to say that you could toil in the fields your whole life and barely make ends meet, while the truly wealthy were the ones who opened shops and ran businesses.

’As long as a businessperson seizes the right opportunity and picks the right venture, the money they make in one year is more than you could ever make from a lifetime of tilling the soil.’

Wu Shufen looked at him. "You’re right. Little Lan and Xiangyang can only have two business licenses registered under their names, and each shop is limited to two employees. What are we going to do?"

Lin Lan came to the doorway. "Dad, we’ll definitely need to hire someone to sell the bulk spices and local products. I was going to post a recruitment notice, but Xiuyun said she has a candidate in mind and told me to hold off for now."

"Also, about what I mentioned the other day, I think you should go back and discuss it with Big Brother and the others. Once the household responsibility system is implemented in your village, you should come to East Market and open a restaurant or some other business. As for Little Jun’s schooling, Xiangyang said he would ask Brother Xu Ming for help."

Lin Changyou looked at her. "I’ve been thinking about it too these last few days. Running a business really is the way to get rich. I’m just worried about what will happen to the land we’re allocated after the household responsibility system is in place. And what about the pig farm back home?"

"You can hire people to farm the land. As for the pig farm," Lin Lan paused to think, "it’s not too late to figure that out after the new system is in place."

Wu Shufen said, "Exactly! We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. From what I can see, the household responsibility system won’t reach Shilian for another two years at the earliest. Isn’t a year long enough for us to come up with a solution?"

After hearing that, Lin Changyou made up his mind. "Alright, I’ll listen to you. I’ll go back and talk it over with your brother and the others."

Lin Lan smiled and nodded. "Mom, Dad, until we find someone, could you help watch the shop for the next couple of days? I need to be at the pastry shop." 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Of course," Wu Shufen said. "You take Qiaohui and the others back to the other shop and get busy. We’ll watch things here."

Lin Lan nodded and led Qiaohui and the other two back to the South City pastry shop.

Yang Liying came out of her shop and said to Lin Lan, "Little Lan, I’m planning to sell tofu and tofu pudding at the entrance of my shop, and tofu pudding with rice inside. Could you talk to Zhigang and ask him to set aside some fatty intestines and pig’s blood for me? I’ll sell them alongside my other things."

Lin Lan agreed readily. "What day do you need them? I’ll have Zhigang save them for you."

Yang Liying pointed to the craftsman building a new stove inside her shop. "I only thought of it last night. How about the day after tomorrow? I’ll have Dehai go find Zhigang at his stall then."

Lin Lan nodded and went back into her own shop.

The market was officially opening tomorrow, but even after several busy days, they hadn’t managed to build up much of a stock of pastries.

She took stock of their inventory. They had sixty jin each of orchid beans and nougat, and a little under twenty jin of puffed rice candy. There were over fifty jin of sachima, but only seventy or eighty pieces each of the pea cakes, mung bean cakes, and egg yolk pastries. The pumpkin cakes and kidney bean rolls had to be made fresh, as they had no stock of them at all.

Lin Lan said to Lin Yuezhen, "Sis, you and Xinglan make the pea cakes and mung bean cakes. We’ll have to make the kidney bean rolls at home and bring them over to the shop later."

Lin Yuezhen nodded and went with Tong Xinglan to boil the peas.

Lin Lan and Qiaohui filled a baking tray with peanuts, placed it in the oven, and set the temperature. Once the timer went off, they took the peanuts out, crushed them with a rolling pin, and set them aside.

They poured white sesame seeds into a wok, toasting them until golden brown before spreading them evenly on a baking tray.

Next, they heated the dried glutinous rice in a wok, then poured it into pre-heated river sand and stir-fried it over high heat until the rice popped. They then removed the mixture from the wok, sifted out the sand, and mixed the resulting puffed rice with the crushed peanuts.

They poured the puffed rice and peanut mixture into a wok of prepared syrup, stirring to combine. Then, they poured the sticky mixture onto the sesame-covered baking tray, pressing it flat while it was still hot. Finally, they cut it into small squares before it cooled, and just like that, the crispy, delicious puffed rice candy was ready.