CHAPTER 129: CHAPTER 129: POTATO NOODLES

"Mom, why are you crying?"

"You little brat!" Mrs. Lin poked Lin Xiang’s forehead with her hand: "Do you know how scared I was when Smartie Huang came looking for me last night? You tell me, how did you end up getting kidnapped? Luckily, the team leader called Director Chen, and the leadership found you, otherwise who knows what might’ve happened!"

"Mom only has one daughter like you, if something happened to you, what would mom do?"

Saying this, Mrs. Lin hugged Lin Xiang and started to cry loudly.

When Lin Xiang called to say she was safe, Mrs. Lin was relatively calm, but upon seeing her, all the worry and anxiety burst forth.

She couldn’t accept losing Lin Xiang.

Lin Xiang held her mother’s slightly rough waist, lightly patting her back, "See, I’m fine, Mom, I’m alright."

Mrs. Lin cried for a while before she calmed down, wiping her tears with the back of her hand, she asked Lin Xiang, "Be honest with mom, how did you just get kidnapped out of the blue? Did you secure a big order for the cotton spinning factory, making someone jealous?"

"How could that be? Mom, yesterday was really just an accident, it won’t happen again, don’t be scared. You haven’t had breakfast, have you? Are you hungry, I’ll make you something to eat, what do you want?"

Lin Xiang’s little quips diverted Mrs. Lin away from the topic, so she said, "The fish you made yesterday is still there, I saved a portion just for you. There are a couple of steamed buns in the cupboard, heat them up and have it with the fish, it’ll have to do for now."

"Alright. After I take my brother his lunch at noon, I’ll go and get some meat, and make you some rib soup for dinner."

"Right, how is Lin Yun doing?"

"He’s alright, but he still needs to stay in the hospital for a few days."

Mrs. Lin muttered, "Nothing ever makes one feel at ease these days! Have you paid the hospital fees yet? If you’re short on money, I have some here, take it first."

"Mom, my brother really did a great deed this time, the hospital fees are covered by the state, we won’t have to pay."

Mrs. Lin didn’t believe Lin Yun could do anything great, "Your brother, with his lazy nature, doing something great? Unless the sun rises from the west!"

Lin Xiang knew it was futile to try explaining anything to Mrs. Lin now, so she went straight to the kitchen.

She had two buns in the morning, so she wasn’t hungry, gave the food and steamed buns to Mrs. Lin, changed into clean clothes in her room, and started making noodles again.

Before making sweet potato noodles, she checked the potato noodles which were ready.

She yelled towards Mrs. Lin who was eating in the other room, "Mom, our potato noodles are ready?"

"Yes, yes, your Fifth Aunt tried quite a few methods yesterday and finally made it, try and see if it’s edible!"

It seemed fine but needed to be cooked to see if it would break easily and how it tasted.

Lin Xiang immediately took some potato noodles to boil.

After timing it, she took the potato noodles out from the pot, and about a third of it was broken into pieces.

She tasted a bite, the texture was less chewy, not as good as sweet potato noodles.

However, they were suitable for older folks and young kids with weaker teeth.

Lin Xiang thought, when setting up her stand tomorrow, she could add some other flavors.

Tomatoes were off-season vegetables, Chef Shen had some ways to get a few, but all were reserved for foreign guests back then, even if Lin Xiang wanted to spend a lot, she couldn’t buy them.

So the tomato flavor was ruled out, apart from spicy noodles, she thought of adding a bone broth flavor.

Coincidentally, the big bone she took from the state-run restaurant two days ago was still hanging on the beam, she climbed up, took it down, cleaned it well, and threw it into the pot to cook with various spices.

When Mrs. Lin finished eating and was washing dishes, she saw Lin Xiang busy when she entered the kitchen and asked, "How’s the potato noodle? Is it edible?"

"Yes, I’ll make the three-flavor broth today, so I can add a new flavor when we set up the stand in the coming days."

"Three flavors don’t sound as tasty as spicy noodles."

"But the customers are different."

Mrs. Lin didn’t quite understand, "Antibiotics cost only one dime per tablet, but many are reluctant to buy them even when sick. Yet, our spicy noodles sell for one dime a bowl so well?"

Every day selling seventy to eighty bowls!

If we had enough sweet potato noodles prepared, we could sell ninety or even a hundred bowls a day!

Lin Xiang explained patiently, "The situation now is different than before, you can tell by the fairs held everywhere. Moreover, our Li Hua Team is one of the poorest in the entire commune, and our commune is the poorest in Mianyang Town."

"Just because people in our commune aren’t well-off doesn’t mean others aren’t. Besides, those who come to the fair usually do so only half a month or a month at a time, so if you think about it, eating a bowl of spicy noodles for a dime once a month isn’t that difficult to accept?"

"That’s true, we used to be the poorest family in the whole team, with savings of only two bucks, now you’ve made us prosperous and we no longer worry about money."

Indeed, no worries, just the bonus from the cotton spinning factory alone was ten thousand. The food and paper factories also gave bonuses, though less than the cotton factory, were still a huge sum for ordinary people.

Lin Xiang is now a solid millionaire.

A millionaire before the reform and opening-up, such weight can be imagined!

But she understood the principle of not flaunting wealth, so she hadn’t told Mrs. Lin the truth either.

"Being in business, the more people eat, the more we earn. So don’t worry about whether anyone would spend the money to eat, we just need to make the food taste good and give generous portions, that’s what’s important."

Mrs. Lin knew Lin Xiang was smarter, so she didn’t interfere with her decisions, as long as it made money, it was fine.

"Then keep on cooking, I’ll go make sweet potato noodles."

Mrs. Lin had just sat down in the yard and hadn’t picked up any tools when they heard a knock on the door and Dong Sheng’s voice.

Mrs. Lin got up quickly to open the door and saw Dong Sheng at the door with red eyes, "Auntie, is Sister Niu home? Please ask her to come to my house now!"

"What’s going on? Dong Sheng, don’t worry, tell Auntie what’s happened!" Mrs. Lin turned around, shouting towards the kitchen, "Niu, forget about the soup for now, come out quickly!"