In the Years When I Was a Father

Chapter 27: The Partial Dad (7)

By the time the father and son finished preparing everything they needed for the next day, it was nearly ten o’clock. After a quick wash-up, they went straight to bed — they needed to recharge if they were going to last in this long-term battle.

It wasn’t until Saturday at noon, when the students went home for the weekend, that Qi Sheng and Qi Xiangdong finally got a chance to rest properly.

Seeing his eldest son looking a bit worn out, Qi Sheng said, “Tired, huh? Tonight, I’ll take you two out for a proper meal!”

Qi Xiangdong nodded. He’d been busy every day kneading dough, washing ingredients, running back and forth nonstop—it really was getting exhausting. Especially during mealtimes, when the crowd of customers around them was so dense that they barely had a moment to catch their breath. But when he thought about how much they’d earned over the past few days, the fatigue didn’t seem like a big deal. Fortunately, with students off today and tomorrow, they could finally rest.

Qi Xiangnan only had two morning classes that day. After school, he went home and washed the clothes for his father and brother. He’d dropped by a couple of days ago and knew how hard they were working, so he would occasionally come over to help with the housework.

When Qi Sheng came home, he saw his younger son had already washed the vegetables and was planning to cook for them. Qi Sheng said, “Just make something simple—tonight I’ll take you both out to eat!”

With a rare break in their schedule, Qi Sheng and Qi Xiangdong lay down for a nap after lunch. Qi Xiangnan, after clearing the table, sat off to the side to study. Medical school had a packed and challenging curriculum—he found it tough even with his abilities. Since he couldn’t help his father sell food, the only thing he could do was study even harder.

Two hours later, when Qi Sheng woke up, he saw his younger son sitting on a stool, deeply focused on his textbook. Qi Sheng walked over and sat beside him, glancing over his son’s materials. He had a general idea of how things were going, but still asked, “How is it? Are you keeping up with the coursework?”

Qi Xiangnan had become more talkative around his father lately and began sharing amusing stories from the first week of classes. Since they were at the end of their freshman year, their military training had been scheduled for the last month, so classes had started immediately. The fully packed schedule had left many students overwhelmed at first, but university students these days were highly motivated and valued their education. Even with pressure, very few skipped class.

Qi Sheng felt reassured about his younger son’s discipline. When he saw that Qi Xiangdong had woken up due to their conversation, he nudged him and said, “If you’re up, get dressed. Let’s go catch a movie, and then I’ll take you out to dinner.” Qi Xiangdong perked up immediately. After a good nap, he felt refreshed. He washed his face, even shaved, and changed into clean clothes before declaring himself ready.

Qi Sheng couldn’t help twitching his mouth in amusement at his son’s vanity. Looking at his two tall, strapping sons, he felt a sense of pride.

His eldest resembled him—more rugged, with thick eyebrows and bold features. When he wasn’t acting foolish, he actually looked quite decent. The younger one took after his mother, his first wife, who had been fair-skinned and beautiful. Now, with his clean and neat appearance, and the brightness returning to his features, he could easily pass for a “little fresh meat” idol in the 21st century.

He took his two sons to a nearby cinema, chose a promising Hong Kong film, and bought three bottles of soda before heading into the screening room.

Films that could make it to theaters in this era generally had solid reputations. Though the cinematography quality felt a bit outdated due to technical limitations, the content was engaging enough to keep Qi Sheng thoroughly entertained.

His two sons were completely absorbed in the movie. Glancing around, Qi Sheng noticed most of the audience consisted of young people around twenty years old. Someone his age coming to a movie theater was considered quite “fashionable” by current standards.

Qi Sheng didn’t mind. As he observed a few young men trying to impress the girls beside them, he suddenly understood why his eldest son had been so excited—how could he forget? Movie theaters were the top dating spots for couples nowadays!

By the end of the movie, Qi Xiangdong had already found a new dream goddess. Watching his son getting ready to buy a few posters, Qi Sheng said helplessly, “Let’s eat first. You can come back and buy them afterward.”

The three of them went to a decent nearby restaurant. They ordered several hearty dishes and a few bottles of beer, enjoying a satisfying meal together.

On the way home, Qi Sheng couldn’t help sighing when he saw his eldest son dash off again to buy those posters.

The next morning, Qi Xiangnan stayed home to study while Qi Xiangdong wandered off somewhere. With nothing urgent to do, Qi Sheng strolled around the neighborhood, thinking about future plans, and only returned home around noon.

After lunch and a bit of rest, he took his two sons to the nearby wholesale market and bought another round of flour and ingredients.

From then on, most of their weeks followed a similar rhythm. Saturday afternoon and evening, along with Sunday morning, were their rest periods. The rest of the week was spent in constant hustle—but that hustle meant good business and better profits!

In the blink of an eye, three months had passed. One day, Qi Sheng and Qi Xiangdong arrived at their usual stall location, just like always. But as Qi Sheng looked around, he noticed someone watching him stealthily. Following the gaze, he saw it—there was now another roujiamo stall in the area!

Qi Sheng didn’t pay it much mind. The amount they sold each day wasn’t at full capacity anyway. Even with another stall selling the same thing, it would at most just slow their sales down a bit.

Qi Xiangdong, on the other hand, followed his father’s gaze and noticed the similar cart and setup. He couldn’t help the flames of anger flaring in his eyes.

“Dad, look at them!”

“What about them? Look, there are a bunch of people selling steamed buns too.”

Though Qi Xiangdong felt uncomfortable, seeing his father so calm made him reconsider. Like his dad said, meat-filled flatbread wasn’t their exclusive creation—why shouldn’t others be allowed to sell it?

Luckily, their flavor had already won people over. His dad had improved the recipe quite a bit lately. Even with a new competitor, their business hadn’t taken a huge hit. If sales were slow, they’d just prepare a bit less to avoid waste.

But after a while, when Qi Xiangdong got a little sulky over their reduced output, Qi Sheng comforted him, saying, “Selling food is like this—once something becomes popular, competitors are bound to show up. Even if they can’t fully replicate our flavor, copying 60-70% and adding their own twist can create something unique.”

“But Dad, what’s the use of saying all this when we’re still forced to sell less!” Even though they’d only gone from 600-700 portions a day down to about 500, Qi Xiangdong was still unhappy. He even wished he could come up with some tricks to drive the other vendor away.

Seeing his son losing his drive at work, Qi Sheng tried to ease his mind: “I’m saying this to make you realize that you can’t just cling to one ‘hen that lays golden eggs.’ Think about it—even if we work ourselves to death, we can only sell about 700 portions a day. We’ve already hit the ceiling. It’s time to look for new opportunities.”

“Dad, do you have something in mind?” Qi Xiangdong, who’d matured a lot recently, was immediately curious.

Qi Sheng had already made up his mind to train his eldest son. The younger one would become a doctor someday and wouldn’t have time to manage a business. Qi Sheng planned to leave most of the investment returns to his younger son, while teaching the older one how to make money—ensuring he wouldn’t mind that more of the inheritance went to his brother.

Instead of answering directly, Qi Sheng asked, “You’ve been in the capital for a few months now. Got any ideas?”

Qi Xiangdong thought hard for a while before hesitantly saying, “Dad, didn’t you say something about opening a restaurant before? But from what I’ve seen, opening a small restaurant doesn’t necessarily earn more than what we make now. And if the food doesn’t suit local tastes, there’s a risk.”

Qi Sheng acknowledged that his son had a point and asked, “Anything else?”

“Uh… I can’t think of much right now. But I have been thinking about doing something in the drinks business. Dad, you wouldn’t believe how much alcohol those little bars go through every day—and the soft drinks in cinemas? They sell like crazy! Just one bottle of tasteless water can cost as much as our flatbread! If we could get into that line of work, we’d make way more than selling one sandwich at a time.”

Qi Sheng was pleased that his son’s outings had at least sparked some business ideas. “That’s a bit of a stretch right now, but it’s not impossible in the future.”

Not pushing his son too hard, Qi Sheng continued, “I’m thinking of taking over that small shop across from the school gate. We could start selling marinated snacks, meat-filled flatbread, and fried chicken cutlets.”

That shop had previously been a tiny clinic, but the doctor had recently vacated it. Qi Sheng had been eyeing it ever since. He planned to build the marinated snacks into a chain. The flatbread and fried chicken would draw the students in, and once they tasted the marinated items, they’d be hooked. With heavy student traffic in the area, once they took some home for their families to try, he was confident repeat business would follow.

Besides, his marinated snack recipe was a real specialty—not something that could be easily copied like the flatbread.

Qi Xiangdong’s eyes lit up. He’d eaten plenty of his dad’s marinated dishes and knew how good they were. Why hadn’t he thought of that?

No longer brooding over their drop in sales, he quickened his pace as he kneaded the dough, eagerly asking his dad about the details.

“No rush. That store isn’t very big. It’s too cramped for a proper restaurant and doesn’t make much sense for a general shop either, so there aren’t many people interested. I talked to the landlord a couple days ago—he was still on the fence. We’ll wait a few more days. If he doesn’t come back to us, I’ll go talk to him again.”

Qi Xiangdong hadn’t expected his dad to already have such a clear plan and couldn’t help but feel excited. They were about to have their very own shop!

Unexpectedly, the landlord came to them the very next day. But since the shop was in a prime location, he didn’t want to sign a long-term lease. In the end, they only got a one-year contract. Qi Xiangdong frowned as he looked it over. “Dad, what if business takes off and the landlord raises the rent?”

Qi Sheng reassured him, “Don’t worry. One year is plenty. Once our marinated dishes gain a reputation, we can open up branches elsewhere. No need to stay tied to just this spot.”

Qi Xiangdong looked at his dad, who talked about opening branches like it was child’s play: “…”

His dad really did think way further ahead than he did!