To the north of Xinling City is an industrial area with more than 20 factories built since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Among them, the Nanjiang Diesel Engine Factory, which is close to Qinshan Lake, has the largest scale, with more than 2,000 workers, including family members, and 6,000 or 7,000 people living in several new workers' villages on both sides of Qinshan Road.

At the beginning of the reform, state-owned enterprises were still the units with the highest status and income in society. Being a worker in a state-owned enterprise is one of the most enviable professions. However, within the same enterprise, the situation of each household is different. The one Feng Xiaochen brought Feng Lingyu to visit is one of the few households in the household resident of the diesel engine manufacturer.

"Sister, I'm here."

When he knocked on the door, facing a girl who came to open the door, Feng Xiaochen called him affectionately.

This girl is twenty-seven or eight years old. She has a slim figure and a pretty face. She has a thick braid on her head, which makes people easily think of the poem "Wait for your hair to reach your waist". She is wearing a blue cloth work clothes from a diesel engine factory. The color is a bit white, but the pulp is washed clean and you can vaguely smell the fragrance of sunshine. When she first opened the door, there was a bit of haze on her face, but when she saw Feng Xiaochen standing at the door, the haze immediately turned into a warm spring breeze. She was busy inviting the two into the house, and asked repeatedly:

"Xiaochen, why are you here? Don't you have to go to work today? This is your brother, I think about it, is it Feng Lingyu? I have seen him in your photo, but he was still young at that time..."

"Ling Yu, this is Sister Chen. When I was in the educated youth site, Sister Chen treated me better than my own sister."

Feng Xiaochen took Feng Lingyu into the door, sat down on the bamboo chair in the living room, and introduced his brother solemnly.

When Feng Xiaochen graduated from junior high school, he was less than 14 years old. According to the policy regulations, he was directly arranged to be an educated youth in a place called Qingdong County in Nanjiang Province. His grandfather Feng Weiren was still a reactionary academic authority at that time and was monitored for labor. His father Feng Li taught in the countryside and was a stinky old ninth person with no status. In addition, he was too young and could not beat others even when fighting, so he was bullied at the educated youth site.

The girl in front of him was named Chen Shuhan, who was eight or nine years older than Feng Xiaochen. At that time, she was a veteran at the educated youth spot. Because the only ones in the entire educated youth spot came from Xinling, the provincial capital, she regarded the new Feng Xiaochen as her younger brother and protected him everywhere. When someone bullied Feng Xiaochen, Chen Shuhan would storm at the other side like a lioness protecting her chicks. The educated youth was in a difficult life, and Chen Shuhan often left the delicious food brought from home to Feng Xiaochen for food. When Feng Xiaochen first arrived in the countryside, he could not do any farm work. Chen Shuhan taught him the same thing and often helped him complete those tasks that he could not complete.

After the movement, the educated youth site was cancelled, and millions of educated youth returned to the city. Chen Shuhan and Feng Xiaochen returned to Xinling together. However, the two of them had very different situations after they returned.

Because Feng Weiren was implemented, the Feng family suddenly turned over. Feng Li was transferred back to Xinling to work and joined the No. 2 Middle School, which is still famous. Feng Xiaochen also took advantage of his grandfather's light to enter the Metallurgical Hall. Although he was just a temporary worker, he had a job.

Chen Shuhan is different. Her father died of illness the previous year, and her eldest brother replaced him in the factory and was formally established. The temporary worker positions arranged for the children of employees in the factory have been occupied by the younger brother. She came back late and there was no quota for her. She could only be unemployed at home like many other educated youths returning to the city.

The two younger brothers got married one after another. In order to make up for the "forty-eight-legged" furniture that was popular in society, the family had exhausted some of their savings and owed a lot of money from the factory mutual aid association. The two new families had a lot of infrastructure to do, and the appliances such as "three transfers and one press" were not fully equipped, so it was impossible for both younger brothers to pay their wages to their family. As for repaying debts and supporting their sister, it could only fall on Chen Shuhan's mother's shoulders alone.

A younger brother was about to arrive at the dormitory in the factory and moved out with his sister-in-law. Another younger brother and sister-in-law occupied Chen Shuhan's room at home, so Chen Shuhan could only live in the same room with his mother Luo Xiulan. The younger sister-in-law who lived at home was pregnant and was thinking about giving it to the old man to take care of her after the child was born. She was quite dissatisfied with the space occupied by her elder sister-in-law at home. She was always talking and said that her elder sister was not young and had become an old girl. It was really not possible. She found a man who had divorced or had a wife and got married quickly, so that she could not avoid being upset... no, she could save her mother-in-law from having a single thing in her heart, right?

Feng Xiaochen had already heard that Chen Shuhan had an unforgettable emotional experience. After that, she seemed to be heartbroken and indifferent to many suitors, so she was still alone until this age. Feng Xiaochen was also very clear about the situation after Chen Shuhan returned to the city. Although he was not an ambitious young man, he still had a conscience. He always had gratitude to this elder sister who once took care of him like a real sister, and he could even say that he was a real mother.

Now Feng Xiaochen has inherited the body of the previous Feng Xiaochen and some of his feelings. When he saw Chen Shuhan, Feng Xiaochen couldn't help but feel a surge of warmth. In the past, he had limited abilities and lacked self-protection, so how could he help Chen Shuhan? Now he has been reborn and has become a newcomer. Before he went to the capital, he decided to help his predecessor but he had a wish.

"Xiaochen, why are you here? Are you working in the Metallurgy Hall? By the way, why don't you...well, I'll pour you some water..."

Chen Shuhan instinctively wanted to invite the Feng brothers to have dinner at home, but the words were heard and swallowed them back. Now she has no income and she is just eating for free at home, so she is not qualified to invite guests to dinner. If she is just her and her mother at home, she can barely make the decision, but the complacent little sister-in-law will not tolerate her generous behavior. If she sees the Feng brothers eating at home, she might drive them out with a gun and a stick.

Feng Xiaochen has two life experiences, and he can't hear what Chen Shuhan didn't say, and he can't see the melancholy that passed through Chen Shuhan's eyes. He waved his hand and said, "Sister, don't be busy. I'll bring Xiaoyu here today, because I have something to talk to you. Let's say so, I want to ask you to do me a favor."

"Help? What can I do for you?" Chen Shuhan asked in surprise, then sat down on the chair next to him and waited for Feng Xiaochen to speak.

"I got a self-employed license and wanted Xiaoyu to open a small restaurant. Can you come and help me?" Feng Xiaochen said straightforwardly.

To be a self-employed person, you can't do it by just having a casual face. You also need to apply for something called "self-employed license". Although the country expressed its desire to support the development of self-employed persons, it still reserved in terms of license issuance, and is worried that the blooming everywhere will bring unpredictable consequences. Luo Xiangfei invited Feng Xiaochen to work in the capital and asked him if he had any worries to help solve them. The only request made by Feng Xiaochen was to ask Luo Xiangfei to help him get a self-employed license so that his younger brother Feng Lingyu could open a business legally.

A license is of course very difficult for people who have no way of access, but for Luo Xiangfei, it is just a sentence. Feng Xiaochen used big principles and small principles to convince his family, and then took Feng Li and Feng Lingyu to the omnipotent "relevant units" to obtain the self-employed license. The opening of the store was officially started.

According to Feng Xiaochen's plan, Feng Lingyu will start from the catering industry and open a small restaurant as the foundation for his business. As for how to develop in the future, Feng Xiaochen did not tell his parents, but revealed it to his younger brother a little bit, which made Feng Lingyu excited and wanted to start the implementation immediately.

In those days, there were still very few individual restaurants, while state-owned restaurants had the reputation of being "hard to enter, ugly faces, and hard to eat" and were respected. If you open an individual restaurant, as long as you have a good service attitude and taste good, it is basically a business that is stable and profitable.

Feng Li and He Xuezhen both have some common sense of life and know that opening a restaurant is a good deal. However, Feng Lingyu gave up the opportunity to replace him at the Metallurgical Hall and became a self-employed person. This bold suggestion was not approved by Feng Li and his wife. After a complex and fierce ideological struggle, the couple finally accepted a compromise, that is, Feng Lingyu still went to the Metallurgical Hall to work as a temporary worker and opened the store in the name of He Xuezhen. Feng Lingyu used his spare time to manage and accumulate experience. If the policies in the future are stable and the restaurant can really make money, then consider Feng Lingyu's resignation. As for the daily operation of the restaurant, someone else needs to be hired to take care of it.

This plan is different from Feng Xiaochen's original idea, but the deviation is not far from that. In fact, Feng Xiaochen planned to introduce a partner from the beginning because he knew that his younger brother Feng Lingyu neither knew how to cook, nor had business experience, and at such a young age, he could not handle complex interpersonal relationships. His idea was that Feng Lingyu would be the chairman and financial director, and then hire someone to be a professional manager. The person in his mind was Chen Shuhan.

When he was in the educated youth site, Feng Xiaochen knew that Chen Shuhan was proficient in cooking and had the life experience of being an educated youth, which was enough to do such a thing. What is even more rare is that Chen Shuhan is kind-hearted and upright in character, and is definitely a "Chinese partner" who is hard to find with a lantern.

Feng Li and his wife are not unfamiliar with the name Chen Shuhan. They know that she had taken care of Feng Xiaochen and was Feng Xiaochen's benefactor. From the situation told by Feng Xiaochen in the past, Feng Li and his wife also had a good impression of this girl. Feng Xiaochen accepted his parents' plan to let Feng Lingyu be a temporary worker in the Metallurgical Hall and take into account the small restaurant. He proposed to ask Chen Shuhan to be responsible for the daily life of the restaurant, which led to this visit from the Feng brothers.
Chapter completed!