"Boss, a large serving of stir-fried rice noodles, extra green onions and chili, and a glass of draft beer, please."
"Okay, just a moment."
Li Xu found a slightly cleaner table with no one around and sized up the people nearby.
It was the busiest time for food stalls, with lights just coming on in the early evening of midsummer. A few glasses of iced beer and a couple of cold appetizer platters could keep people chatting for an hour, so everyone around was dressed very coolly, some rough men even shirtless, talking animatedly.
The small town where Li Xu was, used to be known as a poor place. Despite being only over twenty kilometers from Xiangzhou, the provincial capital, it belonged to Liushui County. The main source of income for the locals, apart from farming, was growing vegetables for the residents of Xiangzhou.
The change came in 1999.
