Starting Out as a Barbecue Street Vendor

In his previous life, Zhang Xuan became the kind of person he least wanted to be. The barbecue shop his father had opened on Xijing Square had arrived just as Xijing was undergoing its most rapid development. A new district sprang up, three university campuses were established, and even the Xiyan Mountains became a popular spot for photos and check-ins after dark. The shop became famous across the country. Unfortunately, he transferred the shop to someone else and went to Jincheng to make a living. He was gone for several years. His father passed away while he was away. Years of smoke and fumes had damaged his lungs, and Zhang Xuan hadn’t been there to care for him. Within a few years, Zhang Xuan was laid off too. He returned to Xijing with the little money he’d saved, but Xijing was no longer the city he had left. He still had his skills, but he could never gain a firm foothold in the square he had personally let slip away. Li Yunxin. She had failed the civil service exams, but married him when he was at his lowest. The couple squeezed into a small barbecue shop, working from dawn until late at night. On countless nights after closing, she leaned against his shoulder and gazed at the darkness beyond the shop’s rolling shutter. “I wonder when our little shop will open branches all over the country.” Every time, he said, “Soon.” But in the end, it was just empty words. He had wanted to leave the mountains, only to return unwillingly. He had wanted to seize his opportunities early, only to miss them by a mile. He had wanted to fulfill his promise of taking the business nationwide, but there was nothing he could do. He was reborn, back in the year he had just graduated.