Chapter 81: Setting Up a Stall at the Gate, Taking Turns to Sign Orders

At the entrance of the industrial park,

Li Shen pushed his lunchboxes just outside the gate but stopped inside the entrance. He waited there for the workers to get off work—he was the first vendor they’d pass by.

Of course, being allowed to sell lunchboxes inside the industrial park cost him a bit—he had bought a pack of cigarettes for the old security guard at the gate.

And only after promising it would be for just a few days was he allowed to set up inside.

He stuck an A4 sheet with prices written on it to the front of the cardboard box.

“Kid, what kind of meal is this? Selling it for 15 yuan a box?”

Before the workers even came out, the old security guard was the first to walk over.

Seeing it was the old man, Li Shen quickly pulled out a box of rice and a box of dishes from the cardboard and handed it over.

“Uncle, this is food from our cafeteria. You can try it.”

“Too expensive. I’m not eating that.”

The old man waved his hand and didn’t take the food.

“Uncle, come on, how could I charge you?”

“Just enjoy it. When workers come by, help me say a few good words.”

Without waiting for further refusal, Li Shen stuffed the box into the security guard’s hands.

The old man looked at the lunchbox and smiled happily.

“Alright, I know a bunch of those kids. I’ll spread the word for you.”

As he spoke, he opened the lunchbox.

When he saw the dishes inside, he was stunned.

Two dishes in one box.

One was braised pork, the other was soy-braised chicken chunks.

Not to mention the strong aroma, even the portion size was enough to surprise him.

That braised pork was clearly made with quality pork belly, well-balanced with lean and fat meat, and there were at least ten pieces.

Other vendors might also offer braised pork, but four or five pieces—mostly fatty, and much smaller—would already be considered generous.

The soy-braised chicken chunks were equally substantial.

Just this dish box alone was well worth the 15 yuan!

He picked up a piece of braised pork with his chopsticks and took a bite. It tasted even better than what restaurants served.

His appetite awakened, the old man quickly placed the dish box on a nearby stone step, sat down, opened the rice box, and started eating.

Not long after,

a noisy clamor could be heard in the distance. A crowd of people approached—clearly the factory workers were off shift.

Soon, a group passed by. Most glanced at him and kept walking.

But one curious guy came over to ask:

“Hey bro, what kind of dishes you got?”

Before Li Shen could reply, another voice cut in.

“Braised pork and soy-braised chicken. Look at the amount of meat and the portion—way more than what you get outside, and it tastes great. Fifteen yuan is not a loss at all.”

“Go ahead and buy. Would I, an old man, lie to you?”

It was the security guard, speaking while showing off his own lunchbox.

The worker saw it was the old man and didn’t hesitate.

“I’ll take one.”

Li Shen smiled but didn’t immediately hand over a box. Instead, he explained:

“We’ve got six different combos: braised pork, soy-braised chicken, fried pork strips, four-joy meatballs, sweet and sour pork, and shredded pork in Peking sauce. Each box has two random dishes—you won’t know which ones you’ll get.”

“Alright, just give me one. I’m sick of the stuff outside. Time for something new.”

The worker didn’t dilly-dally and slapped the cash into Li Shen’s hand.

Li Shen promptly handed over a box of rice and a dish box.

The guy sat down next to the security guard and started eating.

His box had sweet and sour pork and fried pork strips. Judging by how fast he was wolfing it down, it definitely suited his taste.

More and more people got off work.

With the security guard hyping the food next to him, in less than twenty minutes, all 32 dish boxes and 38 rice boxes were sold out.

By now, a whole row of people had settled on the stone steps next to Li Shen, all enjoying their meals.

Li Shen packed up the cardboard and pushed the cart back to the company cafeteria.

Out of 32 meals, after subtracting the one he gave the old man, he sold 31. Plus, 6 extra rice boxes at 1 yuan each.

Total revenue: 471 yuan.

That was just one meal.

If you added lunch, he could probably sell about 900 yuan worth a day.

As for breakfast? Forget it. It was just soy milk, fried dough sticks, buns, flatbreads—that kind of stuff didn’t sell as well and wasn’t worth the hassle.

But 900 a day was still great.

Going forward, he could save the cafeteria at least 20,000 yuan a month on procurement costs.

Thinking of that, Li Shen felt more grounded.

After being reassigned to procurement and logistics by Boss Chen, he’d been idle for a long time. He owed it to Boss Chen to start pulling his weight.

Even if 20,000 wasn’t a lot to someone like Boss Chen,This was just the first step.

He still wanted to do much more for Chen and for the company.

……

Time passed.

In the blink of an eye, half a month had gone by.

At the clothing factory office,

Chen Mo looked at the performance reports in front of him and rubbed his temples in frustration.

Another 200,000 yuan order.

Where did they keep coming from?!

Over the past two weeks, for some unknown reason, the three new hires in the sales department had been taking turns signing orders.

The orders weren’t huge—most were around 100,000 or so.

The biggest one was from Wu Yu: 300,000.

And today, another 200,000.

Individually they weren’t big, but they were stacking up fast.

Just Wu Yu alone had racked up over 700,000 in scattered orders.

The other two had a bit less, but combined, they had over 600,000.

All in all, over 1.3 million in total.

But these were supposed to be three inexperienced rookies.

How were they picking up orders so quickly?

One or two orders might be luck.

But this many? That couldn’t be chalked up to chance anymore.

The more Chen Mo thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. A chill crept down his spine.

Could this be another trick from that Old Sixth?

With that thought, he called out to Shen Rou:

“Shen Rou, go check if Wu Yu and the others are in the sales department. If they are, have them come to the office.”

“Okay, Mr. Chen.”

Shen Rou left the office.

Not long after,

Wu Yu came in with the two other new sales staff.

“Mr. Chen, you asked for me?”

Wu Yu looked a little nervous—this was his first time being summoned by the boss.

Chen Mo glanced at the three and smiled.

“No need to be nervous. Sit down.”

“I noticed you’ve been closing quite a few orders lately. Did you find some kind of connection?”