(I was so sleepy, I was dozing off while writing this. I've made some revisions, please refresh the page before reading, thank you!)
Xia Lijuan ran outside to call Caijiang Village Fast Food Restaurant. He's father answered the phone, and she complained to him that He Wenhua was being lazy and not getting up to sell breakfast.
(A "phone booth" was a shop where people made phone calls before cell phones became widespread.)
"Is that so? Wenhua is always diligent, how could he be lazy?" Mr. He was very surprised. "Is he sick?"
“I’m not sick, I’m perfectly fine,” Xia Lijuan said. “Yesterday I made a mistake about the delivery time, and he blamed me. We had a fight, and he hasn’t spoken to me since. Because of this, we’ve stopped doing business. There are only the two of us in the shop. I’m so busy every day that I’m completely overwhelmed. Isn’t it normal to make a mistake? I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“It’s normal to make mistakes. If you forget this time, just don’t forget next time. It’s not a big deal. It’s normal to encounter problems in business. We can’t let our own people panic.” Mr. He advised. “Have Wenhua call me back, and I’ll talk to him.”
"Okay, thank you, Uncle. I'll have him call you back in a bit."
After hanging up the phone, He Wenlin said to her father, "I don't think it's necessarily my older brother's problem."
Even if He Wenhua has problems, He Wenlin feels that her sister-in-law has bigger problems.
It wasn't that she had a biased view of family, but rather that He Wenlin simply felt that Xia Lijuan was lacking in something.
"Lijuan is too domineering. Sometimes being too domineering is not a good thing."
Mr. He also felt that it was most likely not his nephew's problem, as he had watched him grow up and knew him to some extent.
Xia Lijuan did not tell He Wenhua that his father had asked him to call back, but she did mention it to the owner of the internet cafe.
The chat room is right across from their fast food restaurant.
Around 8 o'clock, when He Wenhua got up to buy a pack of cigarettes, the proprietress of the phone booth told him that his uncle wanted him to return the call.
He Wenhua thought his father had something important to discuss with him.
"Wenhua, what's going on between you and Lijuan?"
He Wenhua asked in surprise, "She called you?"
“What happened? She said she misremembered the factory’s closing time yesterday and delivered the meal too early.” Mr. He said earnestly, “It’s no use arguing about it. Just try to make amends and be more careful in the future. Linlin has encountered this situation before, and it’s nothing to worry about. Arguing will only hurt your relationship.”
"Uncle, what did she say to you?" He Wenhua said firmly, "She definitely didn't say anything good about me!"
"What exactly is going on?"
"After I found out yesterday that the food had been delivered early, I immediately remade it. There wasn't enough time to remake the dishes, so I asked her to tell the customers who bought fast food to compensate them with a serving of fried noodles or fried rice. But she was incredibly stingy and told them to make do."
After I told the customer that I would compensate her with a fried rice or fried noodles today as an apology, she got furious, turned around and left, saying that she owned the shop and that she was in charge, blaming me for giving her fried noodles. She said she hadn't spent a single penny to open the shop, and yet she had the nerve to call herself her owner. She hadn't even gone to sell late-night snacks yesterday.
He Wenhua was also very angry when he talked about these things.
"This was our mistake. If we were buying a boxed lunch and it was the same price, but they gave us a cold one, we wouldn't be happy either. And they have the nerve to blame me."
“Your shop has only been open for a week or so, and you’re already having conflicts. You have decades ahead of you,” Mr. He said. “Lijuan is indeed a bit too domineering. If you’ve married someone like her, either you have to give in to her, or she has to give in to you. If the two of you don’t talk to each other, what will you do in the future? Will you stop doing business? You didn’t go to sell breakfast today? Are you being stubborn?”
"No, I'm just too tired, really tired, I can't get up."
After selling late-night snacks, I still have to wash and clean up my room and take care of my personal hygiene. By the time I'm done, it's already past midnight.
He gets up at six in the morning to prepare to sell breakfast. After selling breakfast, he still has to wash and chop, cook, and serve food. He's really too busy to get up today.
"I've only been running this shop for a short time, and all my old pants are already too small to wear."
“This job is very tiring. If you really can’t get up, you can stop doing breakfast business and just do lunch, afternoon and late-night snacks. Anyway, your breakfast business isn’t doing well.”
"That's what I think too."
"Don't argue, you two. Discuss things together. I'm hanging up now. I'm taking Linlin to the food factory. Call us if you need anything."
Today is Saturday, and He Wenlin is off school; she's going to visit the food factory.
Even after hanging up the phone, He Wenhua was still angry.
He Wenhua returned to the fast food restaurant, and Xia Lijuan had bought groceries and was already washing, chopping, and preparing the side dishes.
The two looked at each other, but neither spoke.
Xia Lijuan was even angrier. She thought that if she called He's father, he would act as a peacemaker and persuade He Wenhua to be more magnanimous and back down.
But He Wenhua is still not saying anything and is still giving her the cold shoulder!
Was it that He Wenhua didn't want to back down, or that his uncle didn't try to persuade him?
Xia Lijuan was furious, feeling that the He family members were all bullying her.
At 9:45, Xia Lijuan went to the factory to pick up the order in a huff.
Because I promised to deliver fried noodles or fried rice to those customers yesterday, the order amount for lunch today wasn't much; the two factories combined only received 140 yuan.
To produce a product that sells for 200 yuan when the sales volume is only 140 yuan, just thinking about it makes my heart ache.
He Wenhua had already made his statement, so Xia Lijuan's heartache was useless.
...
He Wenlin heard the details of what happened from her father.
I immediately felt like, "I knew it!"
"I never imagined that my brother and sister-in-law had such different ideas. I'm afraid they'll have a lot to argue about in the future," He Wenlin sighed.
Xia Lijuan was not actually He Wenhua's wife in his previous life, but He Wenhua did bring her over for a New Year in his previous life. However, after the New Year, the two went to Dongguan and soon after, they reportedly separated.
Yuan Ya, the eldest sister-in-law in the previous life, was actually the grandniece of the fifth uncle in the village. He Wenhua met her through the matchmaking of the fifth uncle.
Yuan Ya is actually a pretty good sister-in-law. After marrying her older brother He Wenhua, she had a son and managed the household and other affairs quite well.
Because there is no mother-in-law, the sister-in-law does not work and takes care of the child alone. The brother works in a factory, and he keeps a little money for living expenses and gives the rest to his sister-in-law. They are not very rich, but they live comfortably. The couple has never quarreled.
With my rebirth, I have unknowingly changed the course of many things in this life.
She still wanted Yuan Ya to be her sister-in-law, but she didn't know whether she should interfere and try to sabotage her brother's relationship with Xia Lijuan.
Sigh~
He Wenlin sighed deeply.
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