Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Salary is favorable

The area of ​​Qiuzhi Lane is full of courtyards of various sizes, with blue bricks, black tiles and horse-head walls, which are very charming.

Just beyond the alley is Zhijiang Road, the second busiest street in South City. The busiest is Gongren Road, where the hair perm masters are. Further south on Zhijiang Road is the Zhijiang River, the mother river of South City, which half embraces it.

Liu Mianmian stood at the entrance of the alley, looking at the bustling street in the sun.

There are few cars on the road, and most people ride bicycles or walk. Their clothes are mainly blue, cyan, black, white and gray. Occasionally, there are a few people wearing bright clothes, which makes them stand out.

For example, her.

There is a state-owned restaurant at the entrance of the alley. The windows are particularly large. On a table near the window, bowls filled with seasonings, pickled mustard and shredded seaweed are lined up. When someone comes over, the waiter in white work clothes scoops soy milk from the bucket and pours it over.

On the large white wall on the other side, there is a red slogan painted: "Save food, start with me."

Everything looks simple and full of age.

This feeling became even more obvious when I arrived at the police station and saw the police officers wearing olive green "83" style uniforms.

"The suspect's name is Zhu Yongqi. He said he's your neighbor and we're pretty familiar with each other. He went to Qiuzhi Lane to join in the fun and wanted to talk to you and congratulate you, but he didn't expect to be mistaken for a thief."

The police officer who received Liu Mianmian was about thirty years old, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, a square face, and a very righteous appearance. He looked Liu Mianmian over and asked, "Is what he said true?"

Liu Mianmian was surprised. "It's Zhu Yongqi! I do know him, we live in the same compound. But I'm not familiar with him. I was only recognized last year, so I'm not that familiar with the people in the compound."

She asked doubtfully, "Besides, it was so late at night. He came to congratulate me. Isn't he crazy?"

The police officer looked up at her and asked, "Were you the first to notice the suspicious person in the alley?"

Liu Mianmian nodded. "I was hungry and wanted to find something to eat. I heard a noise outside, so I curiously peeked through the crack in the door. I saw someone there. Their hair was probably shorter than mine." She gestured at their shoulders and continued, "They ran around the corner. I didn't think they were good people."

She then talked about the incident where thieves broke into the compound before the Lunar New Year: "I woke up in the morning to wash up and saw clothes scattered all over the hallway. It was a terrifying scene. It's better to believe it than not. My father-in-law and his men just went to the alley to check, but I didn't expect they would actually catch someone."

The police officer looked up at her again, frowned slightly, and asked thoughtfully, "You said that person has long hair?"

Liu Mianmian nodded and expressed her confusion sincerely: "That person shouldn't be Zhu Yongqi, so why was Zhu Yongqi the one they caught in the end?"

The police officer ignored her and quickly wrote down the transcript, handing it to her: "Take a look and sign if you have no problem."

After Liu Mianmian signed, the police waved and said, "You can go back now."

Liu Mianmian smiled and said, "Thank you, Public Security Comrade."

As I walked out of the office, I saw a young police officer walking towards me with someone. The person's face was bruised and swollen, and his facial features were a little deformed.

Liu Mianmian was just wondering why this person looked familiar. Before she could even think of anything, the other person rushed over and said, "Mianmian, you're finally here. Can you help me explain this to the police? Can I go home now?"

Oh, I see, he’s a scumbag.

Liu Mianmian took a big step back, with an exaggerated expression: "Ugly freak, who are you?"

"Zhu Yongqi, I am Zhu Yongqi!" Zhu Yongqi looked as if he had finally met his relatives after fleeing famine and begging for half a year.

Liu Mianmian stood there, looking up and down at the bruised and battered scumbag.

Hiss, it’s no wonder she didn’t recognize him at first. The Zhu Yongqi in the original owner’s memory could barely be considered a handsome guy, but the guy in front of her, it’s not unfair to call him ugly.

How miserable!

Give Uncle Wang a thumbs up.

She looked at Zhu Yongqi, her expression a mixture of surprise and helplessness. "So it's you, Brother Zhu. We're neighbors, so I called you Brother Zhu out of courtesy, but we're not that close. And you actually told the police that you were going to Qiuzhi Lane to look for me. That's a really outrageous lie, isn't it?"

Liu Mianmian didn't give Zhu Yongqi a chance to respond, and continued, "You, a grown man, come to me, a newly married young wife, late at night. You're not trying to congratulate me, you're clearly trying to throw dirty water on me!"

Sighing, she sincerely advised, "Brother Zhu, confess and you will be treated leniently, resist and you will be treated severely. If you really have something wrong, just tell the truth. If you have done nothing wrong, don't be afraid. I believe the police will definitely clear your name."

As Liu Mianmian kept talking, Zhu Yongqi's expression changed from confusion and shock to gradually distortion.

With a gloomy face, he gritted his teeth and asked back: "Liu Mianmian, are you going to burn the bridge after crossing it?! If you do this, don't blame me for being rude!"

Liu Mianmian looked at the police officer next to him: "Comrade, if he fails to slander, he will openly threaten."

The young police officer who had been watching the show silently was dragged into the fray. He glanced at the two men, pushed Zhu Yongqi, and shouted, "Behave yourself!"

Before being pushed into a nearby room by the police, Zhu Yongqi turned around and glared at Liu Mianmian. Liu Mianmian raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh, why are you glaring at me like that? As a person, you should have a conscience. I can't possibly help you lie."

People in South City speak softly and like to use interjections. This characteristic is especially evident in Aunt Liu. Liu Mianmian discovered that speaking in this tone at this time has a weird effect.

Looking at Zhu Yongqi's increasingly distorted and ugly face, you can tell that he is almost angry to death.

Ha ha!

After leaving the police station, Liu Mianmian wandered around for a while.

It is said that this is an era where even a pig can take off if it stands in the right place, but she only has ninety-eight yuan and twenty cents in her pocket now. It seems that this amount of money is not enough to do anything.

With less than 100 yuan in "deposits", Liu Mianmian, who lives in an unfamiliar era, feels very insecure. Zhu Yongqi, Shen Weizhou, are not important. The most important thing now is to make money!

After walking around, Liu Mianmian felt a little more confident and strolled back to Qiuzhi Lane.

"Oh my! There really was a thief last night!" Aunt Liu said as she washed vegetables. "There's a family in Mao'er Alley next door who also had a wedding yesterday. Oh, actually, it wasn't just theirs. Yesterday was a big day, and several families in our area were having weddings."

After a pause, Aunt Liu went back to the family in Maoer Hutong. "They had a banquet at home, in their own courtyard and borrowed one from the neighboring courtyard. They ate and drank until after nine o'clock. It was perfect timing, since we were catching thieves here, and they heard about it. Their bride is quite shrewd, so she ran inside to open the boxes and take some of her dowry."

Aunt Liu's tone gradually became exaggerated: "Guess what, all the gold and silver jewelry in the box is gone!"

Liu Mianmian, who was sitting there eating sunflower seeds, immediately cheered and exclaimed, "Oh my, that's a huge loss!"

"That's right! I heard that her parents accepted the betrothal gifts and didn't keep a single cent. They used all the money to buy gold and silver jewelry for her. Add to that the three golds and one silver given by her in-laws, it's really a lot!" Aunt Liu sighed.

According to the customs in Nancheng, if the man is well-off, the betrothal gift will include "three golds and one silver", namely a gold necklace, gold earrings, a gold ring and a silver bracelet. If the man is poor, it is a different story.

Before Liu Mianmian traveled through time, the price of physical gold had soared to over a thousand yuan per gram. Based on this price, the jewelry lost by the bride might be worth six figures.

Even fifty years later, it would be a huge loss, let alone now.

In the original book, the bride discovered that her jewelry was missing half a month later. Although she called the police immediately, too much time had passed and she herself couldn't figure out when the jewelry was lost, so naturally she couldn't find it back in the end.

Because of this incident, her in-laws were very upset with her, believing she hadn't taken good care of her belongings. Shortly thereafter, her brother-in-law was robbed on his way home from a night shift and stabbed three times. He was taken to the hospital but died. This incident had nothing to do with her, but her mother-in-law believed that it was because she had lost her jewelry and reported it to the police, which caused a huge uproar and exposed her wealth, that the robbers targeted her youngest son. This further intensified the family conflict.

The bride died in childbirth more than a year later.

Those gold and silver jewelry were hidden in a secret place by the thief, and later fell into the hands of the heroine of the original book, becoming the capital for her to make her first pot of gold.

Many years later, the heroine of the original book became a famous wealthy person in South City and sponsored poor students, including the daughter born by the bride after her difficult birth.

"I don't know if the police can find the things back. If they can't, this girl will have a hard time living in her husband's family in the future." Aunt Liu sighed.

Liu Mianmian's thoughts were interrupted. She thought to herself that she had already revealed important clues to the police, and she thought she should be able to get her things back this time... If not, she would go and provide some more clues in a few days.

She comforted Aunt Liu: "This is a small case. I believe the police will be able to solve it quickly."

With the friendship of chatting about gossip together, Aunt Liu's impression of Liu Mianmian has improved. Even when she was picking at the vegetables in the wooden basin while cracking melon seeds, sometimes complaining that this dish was not tender enough, sometimes complaining that this dish tasted a little bitter, Aunt Liu would smile and say, "I went too late today, and the best ones were already snatched up. I'll go earlier tomorrow, and I'm sure I can get the best ones."

Liu Mianmian touched her nose and said nothing more.

Why was he late in buying groceries? It was because he wanted to wait at the door and remind her to go to the police station.

No one else went home at noon, so only Liu Mianmian, Shen Weizhou, and Aunt Liu had lunch. Shen Weizhou stayed in the study room. Aunt Liu brought in some cooked noodles and came out feeling both relieved and worried. "Weizhou seems quite energetic today, but tinkering with all that stuff all day is really exhausting. Miss Liu, you don't know this, but Weizhou has been incredibly smart since he was a child..."

Aunt Liu cited a bunch of examples, how other children were still playing in the mud, but he could already read extremely profound books, how he always got first place in exams and never even second place, and how he didn't even finish the college entrance examination papers but still got into Tsinghua University... But Liu Mianmian thought of the four words "too much wisdom will lead to harm."

With Shen Weizhuo's configuration, he should be the yandere male protagonist in any other novel. Unfortunately, the original book is a period novel with a strong female protagonist, and Shen Weizhuo became a cannon fodder who died early.

After dinner, Liu Mianmian went back to her room and took a nap.

Shen Weizhuo never showed up, and she finally had 100% use of the bed. She slept so soundly.

After waking up, Liu Mianmian said something to Aunt Liu and went out again.

There are several villas on the south side of Zhijiang Road. One of them has an iron gate covered with ivy. Among the green leaves, a golden sign is visible: Zhijiang West Restaurant.

There was a blackboard hanging on the wall to the left of the gate. On the blackboard were a few lines of elegant handwriting, writing today's recommended dishes. There was a wavy line drawn casually below, and a line of small words under the wavy line: Recruiting pianists, part-time work is allowed, and the salary is excellent.

I heard that the owner of this restaurant is the second daughter of the Hong Kong businessman Lin family.

The Lin family invested in the construction of the Zhijiang Bridge and donated a library to Nancheng University, and they have a very good reputation in Nancheng.

Rumor has it - actually it was Aunt Liu who said it - that the second young lady had participated in a beauty pageant and won second place in Miss Hong Kong. She couldn't stand the Hong Kong paparazzi who made up stories all day long, so she preferred to stay in South City.

Even Miss Hong Kong and paparazzi know that the gossiping ability of the old ladies in Qiuzhi Lane should not be underestimated.

There were no customers in the restaurant at this time. The restaurant manager was a middle-aged man in his forties. He spoke Mandarin with a strange accent, but at least we could communicate.

After chatting for a few minutes, the manager asked Liu Mianmian to play live. Liu Mianmian played two passages casually. The manager looked surprised: "Miss Liu is so beautiful and plays the piano so well. It's so sharp!"

Then the two of them discussed their salary. "Work five hours a day, have one day off a week, and earn two hundred yuan a month. Miss Liu's salary is higher than most people in South City."

"I can't eat during mealtimes, and I have to play the piano for hours straight. This job is actually very hard!" Liu Mianmian shook her head. "I hope the monthly salary is no less than 380 yuan."

The manager was surprised and said, "Miss Liu, you are kidding, what's the average salary in Nancheng?"

Liu Mianmian smiled. "Ten years ago, playing the piano and eating Western food were considered petty-bourgeois sentiments and would be criticized. You can imagine how many people in Nancheng can play the piano? And most of these people have full-time jobs, either teaching at art colleges or working in art troupes or theater troupes. How would they have the time to play the piano for a restaurant?"

If the restaurant hadn't been unable to recruit anyone, why would it write "Part-time work available, salary preferred"?

The manager was speechless: "A pianist is not necessary, so we can choose not to hire one for now."

"That's right." Liu Mianmian smiled, "But that restaurant lacks the style that Miss Lin wants."

Seeing that the manager was choked and speechless for a long time, Liu Mianmian knew that she guessed right.

The manager was silent for a few seconds, then shook his head and laughed, "Ms. Liu, you don't look like someone from South City at all. No one in South City is as good at negotiating salaries as you are!"

"Manager Chen, thank you for the compliment!" Liu Mianmian smiled happily and extended her hand. "Well, happy cooperation?"