Chapter 243 Store Opening
Sun Qing stayed in Fucheng and worked for half a month, and the Ye family fleet finally opened as scheduled.
When the store opened, the mosquitoes outside had already undergone three pest control operations. In addition, the weather was dry today and the sun was shining 24 hours a day. The mosquitoes that prefer shade to sunlight all hid away, and there were basically no traces of mosquitoes on the empty streets.
After receiving the news that the store was open, Xia Xiaoman put the eggs in place and went out wearing a mask. Although there were not many mosquitoes outside, there were many people infected with malaria, so it was safer to wear a mask.
When we arrived at Ye's shop, there was already a circle of people standing near the shop, all of them were curious and wanted to go in to see what was going on.
Sun Qing and Liu Mengmeng enthusiastically introduced the Ye family shop at the door of the shop and greeted customers to come in. Xia Xiaoman did not rush over to greet them. She stood aside and looked inside the shop and then looked at the floor outside the shop.
The grey floor in front of the store was dyed dark red by some liquid, and there were many knife marks and dents on the door.
The shelves in the store are neatly arranged and the floor is relatively clean. However, from the dark red color in the gaps between the tiles and the lines on the wall, it can be seen that a fierce fight took place in the store before it opened.
Liu Mengmeng had sharp eyes and spotted Xia Xiaoman in the crowd at a glance. She walked over and teased with a smile, "Why don't you come in when your distinguished guest comes? Do you think our place is too small?"
Xia Xiaoman smiled and said, "I see you guys are busy." Then she looked at the crowd and said, "It's the first day of opening the store, business is good!"
"It's okay! The store we opened in Yancheng is even more popular than this one. People came to place orders before it even opened." After saying that, Liu Mengmeng saw a woman with a gold ring on her hand. She didn't even bother to greet Xia Xiaoman and hurried over to introduce the things in the store to the customer.
Sun Qing received several gang leaders she knew. Only after these leaders had decided on the goods they were satisfied with and left did she have time to look for Xia Xiaoman.
Xia Xiaoman was browsing the store with great interest. The store was not big, only about 200 square meters. There was a transparent box on each shelf, which was locked to the shelf with an iron chain. If you liked the goods in the box, you could talk to the clerk and negotiate the price. After agreeing on the price, you could go to the front desk to make the transaction.
The front desk is a small room with only a square window. The clerk tells the cashier what items need to be exchanged, and after receiving the items that the customer wants to exchange, the cashier will take the items the customer needs out of the window.
The store has taken every possible measure to prevent others from stealing goods and also prevent others from spying on how much supplies are in the store.
"How is it? My store is pretty good, right?"
When Xia Xiaoman heard Sun Qing's voice, she smiled and said, "It's pretty good, with a wide variety of items." She was not complimenting, the store did have a wide variety of items.
Daily necessities, from small items like needles and thread to large items like quilts, even sanitary napkins and toilet paper, were all available. Medicines were also available, with Chinese herbal medicines and Western medicines placed on one side and the other. However, she found that many Western medicines were relatively rare and very expensive, and most people could not afford them.
Of course, the most popular ones are local specialties, such as Yuancheng's seafood, Yancheng's coal, and Wudu's condiments and peppers.
"It's not easy for you to run this store!" Xia Xiaoman asked meaningfully.
Sun Qing curled the corners of her lips, "It's not easy. But I have so many brothers under me, even if it's not easy, I have to keep going."
Before the store opened, she and Liu Mengmeng released a fake opening date. Sure enough, the night before the fake date, a large group of people surrounded the store and wanted to rob it.
The gang broke into the shop and saw that it was empty, and they knew they had been cheated. Now it was not so easy for them to leave.
Sun Qing and Liu Mengmeng deliberately released a piece of false news just to get rid of this group of people, otherwise they would not be able to open a store with peace of mind in the future.
That night, blood flowed inside and outside the store, and Sun Qing specially asked someone to send away the nearby security guards. When the security guards patrolled the street again, the bodies on the ground had already been carried away by them.
So even though they may have a stable income from running a shop, they are actually still living on the edge of a knife. If they are not careful, they may end up dead without a burial place.
Sun Qing chatted with Xia Xiaoman for a while, and then was called away by her business partner who had exchanged rabbit skins for her. Xia Xiaoman went shopping alone and bought two mechanical watches.
She doesn't have a watch, so she has to use an alarm clock every time she wants to check the time. It's OK at home, but it's not very convenient when she's outside. Mechanical watches have a certain error, but the error is not too big, so she only needs to check the approximate time.
Sun Qing and Liu Mengmeng were busy entertaining important clients. After Xia Xiaoman finished buying the gifts, she saw that they were busy, so she handed the gifts prepared for Ye Xiaojie and her daughter to a subordinate who often followed Sun Qing, and then went back.
On the way back, I met Fu Baiwei who was going to the Ye family shop. When passing by, Fu Baiwei whispered an apology and left in a hurry.
Xia Xiaoman thought she was hallucinating and looked back at Fu Baiwei. What are you sorry for? Are you apologizing for standing by and watching last time? Then this apology is a little too late.
…
Sun Qing waited until the situation in the store stabilized before leaving, leaving Liu Mengmeng to manage the store. On the day she left, Xia Xiaoman happened to be called to apply for a new ID card, so the two did not meet.
The process of applying for a new ID card was the same as what Sun Qing had said, requiring fingerprints, blood, and facial recognition. There were many people coming to apply for a new ID card, and Xia Xiaoman was in the middle of the line, surrounded by strangers.
Maybe it was because of the good weather recently, everything was on track, the planting area was expanded, and the underground city was dug in an orderly manner. Most people could find a job to support their families, and these strangers did not have the dead feeling of living in the sewers during the extreme cold.
The new ID card was the same as the previous one except that it had an extra chip. Xia Xiaoman got the new ID card and went straight home.
Suddenly, a white light flashed before my eyes, followed by a loud bang, and lightning struck under the clear sky.
Xia Xiaoman looked up at the clear sky and saw a dark cloud slowly floating in the distance, with white light flashing from time to time in the cloud.
"Fuck, it's going to rain again! I just washed some thick clothes and put them out to dry!"
"With such dark clouds, it's probably going to rain heavily. Forget it, I'll come back another day to get my ID card!"
Pedestrians on the road were looking at the dark clouds in the sky and muttering to themselves, some were worried that there would be another south wind after the rain, while others were thankful that there was enough rain and that after the rain stopped, many green wild vegetables would grow on the mountains.
Xia Xiaoman looked at the dark clouds approaching the horizon and, like everyone else, thought it was going to rain heavily, so he quickly ran home.
[I'm a bit busy today, there will be two more chapters later! ]
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