Back in the front room, she shook her head at Zong Jia.

Zong Jia understood her meaning. He exchanged a few pleasantries with the middle-aged woman and then said he was leaving.

The middle-aged woman's expression instantly changed. "Xiao Zong, isn't this inappropriate? I've been waiting for you for over half an hour, and you come here and say you're not renting it out after not even looking at anything? You have to give me an explanation!"

Zong Jiayu smiled and explained to her, "Auntie, we need to look at several storefronts before we rent them. Please let us consider it."

"Stop talking nonsense! It's obvious that you suddenly said you wanted to leave as soon as this little brat came in. What, you're a grown man and you're letting her make the decisions?" The middle-aged woman's loud voice was so loud it hurt people's ears.

Jiang Xiaoli was too lazy to waste words with her and turned to leave, but the middle-aged woman grabbed her arm.

"You little brat, you're not leaving until you give me a straight answer!"

She gripped Jiang Xiaoli's arm tightly, causing it to ache. "Ouch!"

Zong Jia immediately stepped forward, pried her hands off, and shielded her behind him. He said sternly, "Auntie, you didn't need to hit me, did you?"

Jiang Xiaoli pushed him aside. "You want a reason, right? Fine, I'll give you one. First of all, the wall material in your house is absorbent, so this pickled vegetable smell won't go away anytime soon! This will affect our business!"

Secondly, the water and electricity for this house are shared, so they can't be accounted for separately. I don't want to argue with you about this later!

Finally, you're asking for 350 yuan for a house like this? Why don't you just rob someone?!

The middle-aged woman was stunned for a few seconds, not expecting that she could actually come up with so many reasons why she didn't want to rent her house.

Coming to her senses, she became furious and embarrassed. "All this talk is just about how expensive it is! If you don't have money, why are you even renting a place? You young people think you can start a business? Bah!"

Zong Jiayu stopped the girl who wanted to argue with her, saying, "Let's go, don't bother with her. Her world is only about the 350 yuan monthly rent. We are different from her."

Jiang Xiaoli's fighting spirit was instantly extinguished. She was pulled out of the store and poked Zong Jiayu's arm, "You have a sharp tongue too, don't you?"

"It's alright, I just told the truth."

After saying that, he got on his bike and drove away with Jiang Xiaoli on the back, while the middle-aged woman's roar could still be heard behind them.

"Hahahahaha," she roared, but the two of them laughed heartily in the night.

After dropping her off at home, Zong Jia parked the car and said, "This place was recommended to me by someone else. I've only been to see the location once. Next time, I'll make sure I know the details beforehand before taking you there."

She handed him an apple, and Jiang Xiaoli smiled and winked, "It's okay, isn't this a pleasant surprise and quite interesting?"

Seeing that she was in a good mood, Zong Jia tossed and caught the apple in his hand, "Hehe, okay, I'll go first then. Tomorrow I'll take Pumpkin to Uncle Zhang to sign the rental contract, and the day after tomorrow I'll take you to see other shops."

"Okay, bye-bye!" Jiang Xiaoli waved to him.

Zong Jia smiled at her, then called out to Li Guizhi in the main room, "Godmother, I'm leaving!"

Li Guizhi came out to see him off, then returned to the main room and asked, "Xiao Li, how did it go with your shop look?"

Jiang Xiaoli took a bite of her apple. "It's alright. I looked at two and ordered one."

“That’s good. Then you’ll have to hurry up and recruit people. I recruited two today, and they’ll start work tomorrow,” Li Guizhi shared.

"Who did they hire? Or are they one of our neighbors?"

Li Guizhi nodded, "Yes, I asked Yang Hui to help me find out if anyone around here wanted to find some work. This afternoon, four or five people came at once, and I picked two who looked straightforward."

Jiang Xiaoli threw the apple core into the trash can. "Mom, you're becoming more and more capable! Your name must be on the list of future female entrepreneurs!"

Li Guizhi smiled and spread the account book in front of her. "Today's share of the spicy strips is over 13,000 yuan. If I deposit the money tomorrow, we'll almost have enough for the house payment. When do you want me to give the money to your Uncle Xiao?"

"So fast?" she asked, somewhat surprised.

Looking at the figures in the ledger, the daily profit of the family's wholesale business has now risen to about 1,600 yuan, and the amount of seasoning packets purchased from Dafu has increased to 300 per day, with a daily net profit of about 3,700 yuan.

More than five thousand yuan a day—in her previous life, this daily income was comparable to the monthly salary of some office workers.

She closed the ledger with satisfaction. "Mom, Uncle Xiao isn't in such a hurry. I've calculated that if we give back all the money we have to Uncle Xiao, we'll have nothing left. We'll give the money back to Brother Dafu when he comes to deliver his share next time."

Li Guizhi agreed, "That works too. It won't make a difference if we wait a few days. The next bill is due the day after tomorrow, which is Sunday. We might as well invite their whole family over for dinner then."

"Okay, I'll talk to Xiaoyu about it tomorrow."

The next morning, she met Xiao Muyu at school and told her that she would invite her family of three to dinner on Sunday.

"Is there some good news?" Xiao Muyu asked curiously.

Jiang Xiaoli nodded solemnly, "Yes, yes, great news!"

Her feigned mystery piqued Xiao Muyu's curiosity. She pestered her all day, but Jiang Xiaoli kept it a secret, insisting that she would find out on Sunday.

She was so angry that she stormed off after school at noon.

Holding back his anger, Xiao Muyu didn't speak to her for two days.

She finally couldn't hold back anymore after school on Saturday afternoon.

She called out to Jiang Xiaoli, "Just tell me, what's wrong? Do you need me to prepare a gift?"

Jiang Xiaoli was in a hurry to go to see the storefront with Zong Jiayu. "You'll know when you come tomorrow. No need to prepare a gift! I have something to do, so I'll leave first. Come over after 5 pm tomorrow. I won't be home if you come too early!"

Watching her run away, Xiao Muyu puffed out her cheeks and stomped her foot.

After leaving the school gate, Jiang Xiaoli saw a group of people gathered outside the small shop at the school gate. She was a little curious but didn't pay attention and rode her bike home directly.

Soon a bicycle caught up from behind. "Little Pear, didn't you see me? Why are you running?"

She turned her head and saw Zong Jia riding a bike alongside her. "Where did you come from?"

Zong Jia gripped the handlebars with one hand and pointed behind him with the other, saying, "I was just outside the small shop near your school gate."

Jiang Xiaoli rolled her eyes. "So that was you? Didn't you notice that there was a group of people gathered over there? They were blocking the way completely, how was I supposed to see anything!"

After saying that, she realized, "Those people weren't watching you, were they?"

Zong Jia shrugged. "I don't know."

She thought it was very likely, "Don't go near our school gate next time, you'll attract too much attention!"

After returning home, Jiang Xiaoli put down her schoolbag, greeted Li Guizhi, and rode her bicycle together to the store that Zong Jia had his eye on.