Chapter 89
After the middleman agreed on a betrothal gift of 8,888, Ni Hao's family was reluctant but still endured it.
The normal wedding gift in the compound ranges from two thousand to five thousand. The gift of eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight is higher than normal, but it is still within the acceptable range for the Ni family.
Who called this one and made him recognize Cui Panpan?
The two families started planning the wedding, deciding to hold the engagement in November and get married in June. This year, Cui Panpan spent the Chinese New Year at Ni Hao's home.
Ni Hao knew that he had caused trouble for his family, but he really liked Cui Panpan. He had never liked anyone so much in his life. So even though he knew that Cui Panpan's family was not so reasonable, Ni Hao still tried his best to meet the requirements of Cui Panpan's family.
Therefore, after the two families agreed to the marriage, Ni Hao was no longer as depressed as before, but smiled like a fool every day.
Wang Mengmei also came here at that time. Seeing her apprentice like this, she also laughed: "It's really like a barometer. Just by looking at your face, I can tell whether things between you and Cui Panpan are going well."
Ni Hao scratched his head embarrassedly and went to the kitchen to fry meatballs.
Xue Ling sat at the counter with her head down, not turning the page for a long time.
Ni Hao was really going to get married, and she no longer had the chance to express her previous thoughts.
Xue Ling was in a state of confusion. She couldn't concentrate on reading the accounting entries in the book.
"Boss, I'll go and rush to get the dishes we ordered. I'll be back soon."
Xue Ling didn't want to stay in the restaurant, so she found an excuse and went out.
Not long after she left, the curtain of the store was lifted.
"Oh, you're pretty busy right now."
Wang Mengmei came out wiping her hands, and when she saw the person coming, the corners of her mouth drooped.
"Sister Zheng, you're here, what would you like to eat?"
The visitor was the landlord of this place, his surname was Zheng, he was not very old, about fifty years old, tall and fat, with dark skin, and two thin and long eyebrows with the ends raised high. His eyes rolled around as soon as he came in.
"Give me some pig's trotters, please. We have visitors today, and I think your pig's trotters are the best. And some stir-fried choy sum, but I want the choy sum to be a little tender."
Wang Mengmei tightened her grip on the invoice. Then she suppressed her anger and politely wrote the invoice: "Look at what you said, Sister Zheng, if you think I'm doing a good job, come here often. Given our relationship, I will definitely give you the cost price and will never let you lose."
As he said that, he tore off the list and called Ni Hao in the back kitchen: "Haozi, stew some pig's trotters for my sister, and some choy sum!"
Ni Hao was frying meatballs. Hearing this, he responded, "Master, I forgot to put the pig's trotters in the pot today. Ask Sister Zheng if she can wait. I'll stew it now. It will only take three hours."
Wang Mengmei pretended to be angry: "Look, I told you so many times, how can you be so forgetful at your young age? Luckily it's only noon now, we can still make it. If you do this during the prime of the day, will we still be able to do business?"
Ni Hao apologized repeatedly, and Wang Mengmei also said something nice to the sullen Zheng: "It's really unfortunate today. How about changing the dish for you? How about roasted eggplant? I fried a whole eggplant in pork fat. It's a new dish. I guarantee you've never seen it before."
Sister Zheng felt a little uncomfortable, but she was just here to eat for free, so she just nodded vaguely: "Okay, okay."
Wang Mengmei returned to the kitchen and quickly cooked an eggplant dragon and a dish of stir-fried choy sum. She cut the eggplant into pieces, coated it with flour, spun it in a frying pan, and then poured a spoonful of thick red tomato sauce over it. It looked very tempting.
The choy sum is picked very tender and fried until it is shiny with oil.
Both dishes were packed in lunch boxes. Sister Zheng didn't even look at them. She took them and said directly, "Then Cheng Xiaomei, I'm going back first."
Not even a word.
Ni Hao poked his head out from the waiter's mouth and said, "Master, she always comes like this, are we just going to give it to her for free?"
Sister Zheng started coming frequently after Wang Mengmei renovated her house. She didn't come often in the year before that. She didn't come when Wang Mengmei's store was robbed. After all, the things stolen were not hers, and the thieves couldn't steal anything from her house with four walls.
On the contrary, during the time when Wang Mengmei's house was stolen and renovated, Sister Zheng was afraid that Wang Mengmei would stop renting it and would come after her for rent, so she avoided people and never showed up once.
She came when Wang Mengmei reopened the shop.
After looking the place over and over, he couldn't find any problems. He also noticed that Wang Mengmei had more customers than before the theft, so he began to ask her indirectly how much money she could earn in a day.
Xue Ling was smart and on the same page with Wang Mengmei, so no matter how Sister Zheng asked, she would just laugh it off.
Seeing that she couldn't find out the answer, Sister Zheng just stood there in the market and stared at it intently. What she saw was so amazing that she felt burning in her heart.
How can a small restaurant with a not-so-good location have such a large flow of customers?
Sister Zheng went home dazed, thinking that Wang Mengmei's shop could earn at least three to five thousand a month.
Her rent is only eight hundred!
It was a loss, a loss. Sister Zheng regretted it deeply and felt that she had suffered a great loss and Wang Mengmei had gotten a great bargain.
Feeling mentally unbalanced, Sister Zheng tossed and turned at home for several days and couldn't sleep well, always thinking that her rent was too low.
Eight hundred! What can eight hundred do?
Wang Mengmei occupies such a good position and she earns thousands a month!
Sister Zheng told the man about her regrets: "If I had known earlier, I shouldn't have said 800 at the beginning of the year, I should have said 1,000... 1,500!"
Fifteen thousand, Wang Mengmei can still make a net profit of nearly two thousand.
This is all a bargain for her.
Sister Zheng was so regretful that she couldn't sleep. Her husband was annoyed by her and decided to give her some advice.
"If you think we've lost money, then keep raising the price."
Sister Zheng: "It's easy for you to say that. We just raised the price from 500 to 800 during the Chinese New Year. If it goes up again, aren't you afraid that she will be upset?"
Speaking of this, old memories were stirred up again. Sister Zheng complained that her parents-in-law were not spiritual enough: "At that time, their vision was so narrow. They only wanted the one house they allocated to us! If they had three or two more, our life would be so beautiful now!"
One house costs eight hundred, and three houses cost two thousand four hundred. The family doesn't have to do anything and lives a very comfortable life.
Sister Zheng has said this at least eight hundred times. Her husband irritably covered his ears with a pillow and said, "If you are really angry, just go to her store and settle the bill! We are the landlord, how can she really ask us for money?"
Sister Zheng thought about it and thought that this was a good idea.
The rent won't go up anytime soon, so we might as well take advantage of it.
So starting from May and June, Sister Zheng came to the restaurant to eat every few days.
At first, I only ordered a bowl of clay pot noodles, or a plate of cold skin with cold vegetables. Wang Mengmei didn't take the small amount of money seriously, and didn't charge me once or twice.
Gradually, Sister Zheng started ordering food.
There were three kinds of delicacies, mixed chicken rack, and halved pig's head and face, each one had its own explanation.
"Someone's coming home," "My daughter's back home," "My husband's in the hospital," "I'm sick"...
Wang Mengmei had already seen through Sister Zheng's trick by this time and tried to directly report the amount, but Sister Zheng blocked her with just one sentence.
"What a coincidence! I forgot to bring money today. Xiaomei, please put the money on my account first, and I will deduct the money directly when you pay the rent later."
How could Wang Mengmei not see her intention? Deduct it from the rent? When the time came to pay, she would pay whatever she said.
But there was no way to make Wang Mengmei break up with her. She was the landlord, and she was three points lower than the other.
Unless you are really determined to move out, you have no choice but to endure it.
Some special guests in the store also pay on account, for example, people from several nearby units, who all pay on account when they dine, and at the end of the month, Wang Mengmei takes the IOUs to the units to settle the bill.
There are also a few regular customers of the family home, the kind who come more than ten times a month. Sometimes they don't bring any money, but you have to let them pay the bill.
Since there was such a precedent in the store, Wang Mengmei couldn't use it to shut up.
In the end, you can only suffer the consequences yourself.
When Ni Hao asked her, she was also furious.
Originally, her rent was the highest among all the businesses on this street. The rents of the houses next to her were as high as 400 or 500 a month. But hers was only 800 a month!
It’s not that Wang Mengmei hasn’t thought about moving to the side of the street, it’s just that there are no vacant shops on this street now.
So in the end I could only eat a dumb loss of 800 yuan.
But now, eight hundred was not enough to satisfy the landlord. She came here again and again, and the bill was at least one hundred yuan a month.
This means that Wang Mengmei has to pay 900 yuan in rent per month!
This is simply too much!
Wang Mengmei felt more and more upset the more she thought about it, so she simply told Ni Hao: "If she comes again, we will move! Move by the end of the year!"
The reason why I am not moving now is because the rent has been paid until the end of the year.
Wang Mengmei: "Please help me keep an eye out and find a good place first!"
She won't serve anymore!
Ni Hao responded quickly: "I'll ask my mother to help you. My family is also looking for a shop recently."
Ni Hao's family is no longer satisfied with just setting up a stall. After discussing, the family decided to take the opportunity of buying a house for Ni Hao to look for a suitable storefront. It would be best to open a store so that the woman in the family doesn't have to be chased by the urban management.
Wang Mengmei: "Okay, I'll see your mother later and tell her my request."
Ni Hao's mother came to the store that night. After understanding Wang Mengmei's request, she patted her chest and guaranteed that she would be able to find a good seat.
"In fact, you should have moved a long time ago. You should also go to the east. Now the city has built a commercial street in the east. People say that there are colorful lights and fountains at night."
Ni Hao's mother couldn't help but sigh: "Our place used to be so lively, everyone came to the cotton spinning factory. Even the vegetable and fruit sellers knew that they were a penny more expensive here. But now when I come back late from the east to here, I feel that the farther I go, the fewer people there are."
After the cotton spinning mill went bankrupt, a large number of people left. Those who had enough money sold their houses and moved to other places, while those who lacked money could not find jobs here and moved to the south.
The state-owned factories that were once glamorous and bustling are now becoming increasingly desolate. There are fewer and fewer young people.
Ni Hao's mother: "With your skills, you can take root in the busiest place!"
These words gave Wang Mengmei, who was still nervous, great confidence. After Sister Zheng came to her house again, she made up her mind.
move!
After deciding to move the store, Wang Mengmei began to look for stores everywhere. Lin Hui of course supported her and also helped her build connections with several stores.
But after Wang Mengmei watched it, she was satisfied with everything, but she didn't dare to do it.
The houses that Lin Hui found for her were all several hundred square meters in size, and the rent alone was four to five thousand a month!
Wang Mengmei didn't dare to take such a big step: "Sister Lin, you know the situation in my family..."
People who have been poor will all be so cautious because they have no safety net and can afford to make money but cannot afford to lose money.
Wang Mengmei could only apologize and said: "I still want to find a small store, 30 to 40 square meters will do."
Take it one step at a time.
Lin Huilue hesitated for a moment and finally said nothing.
She actually wanted to invest in Wang Mengmei's restaurant. After all, she had eaten out many times, and after tasting Wang Mengmei's cooking, she felt that although her cooking was not as good as the chefs in five-star hotels, it was also above average in the city, and there was no problem in running a restaurant of several hundred square meters.
only……
Lin Hui looked at the account book in her hand and gave up the idea of investing.
She has always known that Kong Guorong had someone else outside.
After being married for so many years, she no longer cared about the man's loyalty, but the money and children in the family. She controlled the money and kept the children from going astray. Lin Hui didn't care about anything else.
However, Kong Guorong seemed to be really concerned this time. Not only did he go home less frequently in the past six months, he also ignored the children and now he even started to tamper with the account books.
Lin Hui made a rough calculation and found that Kong Guorong had taken out at least 50,000 yuan, not including his personal savings.
Lin Hui sneered. She had long been extremely disappointed with Kong Guorong and did not have much hope for him.
But she used to think that Kong Guorong had a bottom line that he would not cross, and that was the interests of the family and the children.
But now Kong Guorong slapped her in the face, proving to her that there is no bottom line in marriage. After betrayal, what often follows is the consensus of abandoning marriage.
Lin Hui stroked the thing in her hand, finally made up her mind, and made a phone call.
"Hello, my husband is on a business trip and is staying at your hotel. He drank too much tonight, and I want you to go up and check on him to make sure nothing happens to him."
"My name is Kong Guorong. My room number is 301."
"It's not 301, it's 408, right? OK, thank you."
After hanging up the phone, Lin Hui dialed 110.
"Hello, I want to report that someone is soliciting prostitution in Room 408 of the Comet Hotel."
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