Lin Lan took the money and returned to the kitchen to work.

Lin Changyou looked at Lin Guozhu. "When are you going to report to your new unit?"

Lin Guozhu said, "I was originally going to wait until I got back from Shilian, but since you and Mom are staying in East Market for a few more days, I’ll go to my unit tomorrow."

Lin Changyou nodded. "Work is more important. Home will still be there; you can go anytime."

He felt a great sense of relief. After his son left the army, he was assigned a job in East Market. He would no longer have to spend his days toiling in the fields.

In the kitchen, Wu Shufen looked at Lin Lan. "Little Lan, your brother has state household registration now. The prospects I was looking at before aren’t suitable anymore. Could you ask Xiuyun and Little Man to see if they know any suitable girls to introduce to your brother?"

Hearing this, Lin Lan asked, "Does Third Brother have any requirements?"

Wu Shufen shook her head. "I asked your third brother, and he said he’s not in a hurry. But he’s already twenty-seven this year! If he doesn’t find someone soon, I’m worried he’ll be a bachelor forever."

Lin Lan looked at her. "Didn’t he find a girlfriend in the army?"

Wu Shufen recalled her conversation with her son. "I asked him, but he didn’t answer and just gave me his subsidy payment."

After hearing that, Lin Lan suspected Lin Guozhu might already have a girlfriend. "I think you should ask him again if he found someone in the army. Then I’ll ask Xiuyun and the others to help."

Wu Shufen nodded. "Alright. It’s not too late to ask them after we get a clear answer from him."

「The next morning.」 Lin Guozhu went to report to his new unit, and Lin Lan went to the brewery.

The brewery was on the edge of West City. As she walked toward it against the wind, she could smell the rich aroma of soy sauce from a distance.

When Lin Lan arrived at the factory gate, she saw the yard was filled with large earthenware jars, basking in the sun. Workers were stirring the contents with long poles.

Lin Lan started to walk inside, but the old man at the gate stopped her. "Comrade, what are you here to buy?"

Lin Lan smiled. "Sir, I wanted to ask if private business owners can buy wholesale here to resell?"

The old man shook his head and pointed to a two-story building south of the drying yard. "I’m not sure. You should go ask the sales department."

"Thank you, sir." After thanking him, Lin Lan headed toward the building to the south.

When she reached the building, she found the sales department. Inside, two men were sitting across from each other at a desk, speaking in low voices.

Lin Lan knocked on the door. A balding, middle-aged man looked up at her. "Who are you looking for?"

Lin Lan smiled and walked in. "Comrade, I’m a private business owner who sells seasonings in the East Market. I’m here to ask about something."

"A private business owner?" The other middle-aged man in the office, who had a square-shaped face, turned to look at Lin Lan. "Go on, what is it?"

Lin Lan said, "I’d like to buy some bean paste, soy sauce, and vinegar wholesale to sell."

The balding man looked at the man with the square face. "Director Sun, we only supply to the supply and marketing co-ops and workplace canteens. We’ve never had a private business owner come to us for wholesale before. What do you think we should do?"

Director Sun glanced at Lin Lan. "Comrade, you can go home for now. We’ll have a meeting to discuss it and give you an answer tomorrow." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Lin Lan hadn’t expected that a ready customer would require a meeting. ’Business comes knocking and they still need a meeting to discuss it,’ she thought. She had no choice but to say, "Thank you for your trouble. I’ll come back tomorrow."

As she left, she glanced over at a worker lifting an iron wok that was being used as a lid on a large jar. The jar was filled with reddish-brown soy sauce, with some star anise floating on top. The eastern side seemed to be where they made the bean paste.

She looked at the large and small jars in the sun-drenched yard, inhaling the rich, savory aroma. She thought about the future, about how state-owned breweries like this one would disappear from public life within a few years. ’It’s precisely this kind of rigid management and marketing that will cause them to be swept away by the tide of the times,’ she mused.

After leaving the brewery, Lin Lan went to check on her shop in the East Market. She saw Lin Changyou helping customers by bagging their spices, while Xiang Qun was busy weighing things out for them. ’Once Dad leaves, I’ll have to find another person,’ she thought. ’The shop needs two people to work in shifts.’

When Lin Changyou saw Lin Lan arrive, he said to her, "I saw Xiuyun bring a couple over to look at the shop. Someone also asked if our other shop is for rent."

Lin Lan smiled and nodded. "Dad, a shop in this location will have no trouble finding a tenant."

Lin Changyou sighed with emotion. "You’re right. I never thought so many people would come out to open shops as soon as the policies were relaxed."

Lin Lan looked at him and said in a low voice, "That’s why I urged you all to come out and earn money and build up some capital while business is good these next few years. Later, when more people come out looking for work, it won’t be too late for us to go back."

Lin Changyou nodded repeatedly. "I told your third brother about it. He said you were right and even praised you for having good foresight."

"Hmph!" Lin Lan gave him a dissatisfied look. "You’re playing favorites. You don’t believe it when I say it, but you believe it when Third Brother says it."

Lin Changyou chuckled. "Guoqiang used to always say I favored you, and now you’re saying I favor your third brother."

"No, I’m not!" Lin Lan laughed, got on her bike, and rode to the pastry shop in the south of the city. Yang Lirong was already waiting there.

The moment Yang Lirong saw Lin Lan, she said, "Lin Lan, look, our third sister and eldest sister have both opened shops. You have to help me, your second sister!"

Lin Lan frowned slightly and looked at her. "Second Sister, Zhixue and Zhilin rented stalls in West City and East Market, and their business is doing well. Why don’t you rent a stall to sell tofu?"

Yang Liqun nodded in agreement. "That’s right. Zhixue and the others took even more stock today than before!"

Yang Lirong’s face fell. "I was originally thinking that since Liying and Liqun are both in the south of the city, I’d have your second brother-in-law find someone to get a stall in the north. I don’t know what he did, but by the time the market opened yesterday, he still hadn’t rented one."

"Yesterday, I passed through the East Market and saw your father there. He said the two shops next door also belong to them. So I was thinking... I was hoping you could help me ask if they’re planning to use those shops?"

The last time she came to ask for Lin Lan’s help buying a shop, Lin Lan had refused. When she went back and told Yu Hui, he said Lin Lan was still angry that they hadn’t helped her in the past. Now that she was making money, she looked down on their family. So, he went to a friend in town to ask if there were any shops for sale on the street.

Not long after, Yu Hui’s friend said he’d found a place for them on Vegetable Market Street in the north of the city. He claimed the owner was selling because someone in the family was seriously ill and they urgently needed money for medical treatment.

Yu Hui’s friend took them to see it. They were both very satisfied with the shop’s location and price. After negotiating, the two parties agreed on the sale, and they decided to pay.

The owner said the hospital was waiting for the money, so he would leave the property deed with them as collateral. He asked them to pay the majority of the price upfront, and they would go to the housing management office the next day to transfer the title.

The next day, the couple waited for half the day at the entrance of the housing management office, but the owner never showed up. Yu Hui took the property deed inside to ask, and the staff told him it was an old, voided deed that was no longer in use.

Yu Hui went to his friend to help find the owner, but the two of them searched all over East Market and couldn’t find him.

Yu Hui confronted his friend, but the friend claimed he had only acted as a go-between. He said he didn’t know the man was a scammer and that their transaction had nothing to do with him.

The family searched every hospital in East Market, big and small. They waited every day at the shop in the north of the city for the owner, but it was as if he had vanished into thin air. They couldn’t find a trace of him.

With the market about to open, they had run around to several other markets but failed to rent a stall. Thinking about how Lin Lan’s family had bought a shop in the East Market that was just sitting there locked up and unused, she decided to ask Lin Lan to lend them the shop for a few months to tide them over.