Director Yang's thoughts were written all over his face, he was almost saying them out loud.
Qiao Baozhu couldn't help but turn her head and look at her father. The father and daughter's eyes met and they smiled knowingly.
"Xiao Mingzi has no employer to support him, so he can't make any money during his apprenticeship. He has to keep selling cigarettes, otherwise his whole family will have to starve."
"Don't think I'm doing well now. I've only been a regular employee for a month or so. My master is so capable, but he couldn't help me get a permanent job. I'm even less capable of supporting Xiao Mingzi."
Qiao Changhai made it clear that he would not keep Yang Ming hanging by empty promises.
Director Yang nodded repeatedly. She had been working in the street for so long that she had already found out Qiao Changhai's background clearly.
"It is a great honor to be able to learn the craft from Master Qiao. We can't expect to work or not. Anyway, I have the skills to rely on, so I won't starve to death."
Qiao Baozhu nodded repeatedly. As expected of the director, she saw everything clearly.
"Actually, you don't have to be too pessimistic. I have an idea that will allow you to learn more skills and earn more money."
Director Yang's eyes lit up, and she was extremely happy. She knew that her visit to the Qiao family was not in vain, because a family that could catch a spy was definitely not an ordinary person.
"Sister, if you have any good ideas, tell me quickly."
Qiao Baozhu pursed her lips and smiled, and asked Director Yang instead.
"Director Yang, I see that there are private noodle shops, steamed bun shops, and rice noodle shops on many streets. Don't we have any shops for rent or sale here?"
Director Yang frowned and said, "Sister, do you mean to open a repair shop? A watch repairman needs a table to work. This kind of shop is only the size of a palm and it's hard to find."
Qiao Baozhu nodded: "Ten square meters is best. It can accommodate two tables, one for repairing watches and the other for selling cigarettes."
Director Yang was stunned: "Selling cigarettes?"
The brother and sister looked at each other, and Yang Ming became excited as if he had been electrocuted.
"This is a great idea! I can open a shop with my master. I can sell cigarettes and he can repair watches. How great is that?"
Director Yang was not so optimistic. He said solemnly, "But Master Qiao has a formal job and works six days a week. Besides, will the company allow him to do private work?"
After hearing what his sister said, Yang Ming instantly became dispirited and shrank into a small ball.
"Before I became a regular employee, I planned to open a watch repair shop. Unfortunately, plans can't change quickly. I'm now a level 6 worker. Xiao Mingzi hasn't started learning yet. In a year or so, he will be able to repair simple home appliances and open a repair shop."
Yang Ming pricked up his ears, but didn't understand what the master meant.
Qiao Baozhu smiled and said, "As long as my dad is not the owner of a repair shop, it doesn't count as private work."
"Who's the boss then?"
Qiao Baozhu pointed at herself and said, "As for me, I opened a repair shop. I asked Yang Ming to do the work. If Yang Ming doesn't know how to do something, it wouldn't be against the rules for my dad to give him some guidance."
Director Yang clapped his hands and laughed: "That's right, the chef in the restaurant has to go home and cook after work, right?"
"I am a coward and I thought wrong."
Director Yang laughed for a while, then his mood became depressed again. He sighed and said, "I've also thought about opening a shop. I'm a couple, one sells cigarettes and the other sells roasted sweet potatoes. With someone to look after the other, we can also earn a little extra money."
"It's a pity that the shops registered on the street are all bigger than each other, and the rent is high. We can't afford it."
When Qiao Baozhu saw that there were indeed suitable shops registered on the street, she hurriedly inquired about them.
"There are three suitable shops. One is the former distribution point of the state-owned bakery, one is the flour room, and the other is the small Western-style building left by the Japanese."
"Except for the small western-style building that had been left unused for many years and was a bad debt, the bakery and flour room were both vacated this year."
Qiao Baozhu knew the bakery's storefront. It had a very advantageous location, right at the exit of the vegetable market.
This bakery only sells one type of bread, a square loaf weighing two pounds. It has been the same for more than ten years, and they never introduce new products. The waiters are not very friendly either.
The land in front of the door is low-lying, and water accumulates when it rains, turning it into a stinking ditch in the summer.
The bread sold in the bakery was unoriginal, the surrounding environment was smelly and there were many flies, so gradually no customers came.
Occasionally, when Qiao Baozhu passed by a bakery, she would miss the solid old-fashioned loaf of bread weighing two pounds.
"The bakery shop is not very good. It's dark inside, cold in the winter and hot in the summer."
Qiao Changhai guessed what his daughter was thinking and cheered up to help her check.
"Director Yang, the powder room you are talking about is not the one in front of my house, right?"
Qiao Changhai couldn't believe it: "That flour mill's business was pretty good, why did it suddenly close down?"
Director Yang sighed regretfully.
"Mr. Hou from the powder room went to a relative's house in the countryside for a wedding banquet and drank himself to death! His young wife couldn't support the powder room by herself, so she wanted to rent out the two rooms facing the street, and she and her two children lived in the backyard."
Qiao Baozhu had never been to the powder room that Director Yang mentioned, and couldn't help but look at Qiao Changhai.
Qiao Changhai nodded at her and asked Director Yang, "The two rooms in her house are good. They are enough for any business and are easy to rent."
Director Yang smiled bitterly and said, "Twenty yuan a month, who would dare to rent at this price?"
"20 yuan? Why didn't she just rob it?"
Qiao Changhai was shocked. He thought the rent for the powder room was expensive, but he didn't expect it to be so expensive.
The noodle room is where vermicelli is processed. Sweet potato vermicelli, potato vermicelli, and mung bean vermicelli can all be made.
In those days, you need food coupons to buy vermicelli. You can get about half a pound of vermicelli coupons every month. For the locals, half a pound of vermicelli is not enough for a meal.
So most people would bring raw materials to the flour mill, such as 20 kilograms of potatoes for one kilogram of vermicelli. Usually 20 kilograms of potatoes can produce about one kilogram and three taels of potato flour, and the flour mill would keep the remainder as processing fee.
The flour mill only allows processing, not retail. After working hard for a month, the money earned by Lao Hou is only enough for food and drink.
Now that Old Hou is dead, his wife can no longer do all the work in the flour mill, so she wants to rely on the rent to support the children.
It’s just that 20 yuan was too high, which scared everyone away.
"If it's ten or eight dollars, I'll rent it. I can modify the house and use half for selling goods and the other half for living. That's pretty good."
"Unfortunately, Lao Hou's wife said that if the price is less than 20 yuan, she would rather leave the house empty than rent it out."
Director Yang couldn't help but smile coldly when he thought of the rejection he had received from Old Hou's wife.
"I'll just wait and see who can rent such a small shabby house for 20 yuan."
Just now I praised the powder room's location, surroundings, and size of the house.
Now it has become a small shabby house.
Women's hearts are like the sea's needle.
"She insists on asking for such a high rent. Maybe she has a reason. Girl, why don't we go and have a look tomorrow?"
Qiao Changhai's words were full of hints, and Qiao Baozhu started laughing.
"Okay, I'm not interested in the cheap ones, but I'd like to see the excitement of such ridiculously expensive shops."
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