Chapter 95
At the man's request, Sister Zheng reluctantly came to Wang Mengmei to settle the bill.
It wasn't noticeable when I ate for free before, but it hurt when I paid the bill. Sister Zheng looked at the last 300 yuan on the bill and felt heartbroken.
Three hundred yuan! They cook and eat for themselves, and three hundred yuan can last them for three months!
Sister Zheng felt very uncomfortable and took out more than 300 yuan from her pocket. No matter how reluctant she was, she had to pay the money. Compared with the 300 yuan rent that Wang Mengmei paid every month, this amount was just a small amount.
Sister Zheng paid the bill and forced a smile.
"Xiaomei, the bill is settled, so we should talk about the rent."
Sister Zheng didn't dare to ask for a half-price increase now, and just honestly asked Wang Mengmei if she could accept an increase of one or two hundred.
"I don't want to ask you for more money for this. The prices of everything have increased dramatically this year..."
Even the price of summer popsicles has increased from 10 cents to 20 cents. Sister Zheng said aggrievedly: "My family really only relies on this to make a living."
The factory closed down, and they have four or five people in their family, and their children still need to go to school. If the rent is low throughout the year, the family's quality of life will be reduced.
Wang Mengmei didn't say anything final, she just said she would think about it again.
Sister Zheng no longer dared to offend Wang Mengmei, and went home looking back every few steps.
When she got home in the evening, Wang Mengmei discussed moving the store with Jian Feng.
"I was so angry a few days ago that I thought about quitting here. But now that she has settled the bill, I can't make up my mind anymore..."
Moving to another part of the city is full of unknowns, and I don’t know what will happen. What if the business of the store is not good?
What if I lose money?
What if...
Wang Mengmei counted on her fingers: "Jane Li still has two and a half years left. Once I move out, it won't be as convenient for her to eat out as it is now. She'll have to spend at least ten or twenty minutes more on the road after get off work, and she won't be able to keep her regular customers. Buying groceries won't be that convenient either..."
No matter how you look at it, it's an extremely risky thing.
Jian Feng turned over and faced his wife: "But didn't you say before that business wasn't that good this year?"
The closure of the cotton textile factory brought about a series of chain reactions. The first was a decrease in customer flow. Many people left, including regular customers. The second was a decline in the average customer spending. Wang Mengmei did some calculations before and found that the average spending of customers who came back after the Chinese New Year this year was not as high as last year.
Take the summer evenings, for example. It’s clearly the peak season, but most people come here to order a few bottles of wine, a plate of edamame and peanuts, and one or two plates of pork head or cold vegetables. They drink with these dishes until closing time at midnight. Some even bring their own drinks, occupy a table, and order a plate of fried peanuts.
Of course Wang Mengmei would not chase anyone away. She was doing business for people around her. If her reputation was slightly bad, it would be difficult to maintain the business.
However, after a summer, Wang Mengmei calculated the money she had earned and found that she had several hundred less than last summer.
Jian Feng: "If you are unsure, don't give them a definite answer yet. Let's look around and move if we find a suitable place."
The nature of Jian Feng's job requires him to run all over the city. After running around a lot, he naturally noticed that the city's layout was different.
In the past, the city was developing vigorously towards the west, but now many commercial streets and schools are moving eastward.
"This year alone, several more restaurants have opened on Xiuyun Street in the east."
Xiuyun Street is a well-known commercial street, right next to Taocheng's most central clothing wholesale city and not far from the train station. The daily passenger flow is astonishing.
Jian Feng: "I deliver goods to the noodle shop on Xiuyun Street, and I deliver every two days."
What does "two-day free delivery" mean? That means we can sell at least 300 bowls a day.
Wang Mengmei took a breath of cool air. As someone who is in the same business as her, they could figure out the price with just a quick calculation. If they earned one yuan for a bowl of noodles, three hundred bowls would be three hundred yuan. At the end of a month, that would be at least ten thousand yuan.
“…Can you sell that much?”
Jian Feng: "That store is open all day and all night long. The whole family stays in the store. It's right opposite the train station."
With both the commercial street and the railway station at its doorstep, the business is naturally booming.
Wang Mengmei's heart was overwhelmed by Jian Feng's words, and the balance tilted to the other side again.
"Then let's wait and see."
*****
After more than a month of school, Jian Li is very satisfied with her new high school. Although the provincial experimental school also values grades, it does not blindly impose pressure on daily study.
In a short period of time, all the classmates became familiar with each other and everyone had their own nicknames.
Jian Li's small club is no exception.
Lin Shuyao is "Sister Lin". Although Lin Shuyao has a boyfriend, everyone in the class sighed after meeting Lin Shuyao's boyfriend.
Lin Shuyao's boyfriend is not in the same group, but he also has his own nickname, "That Guy"...
All the male students in Class 1 gnashed their teeth: That guy must have used some tricks to catch her!
They had nothing to say about Lin Daiyu looking for Jia Baoyu, but they could not tolerate the fact that Lin Daiyu was actually with Wu Song.
That guy isn't even from the key class, he's just a sports student from the ordinary class!
The male classmates wanted to pry open Lin Daiyu's eyes and tell her that men not only look at the face, but also the grades...
The nicknames of other people in the club are not much different.
Song Tao's presence all comes from his cartoonist brother, so his nickname is "XX Brother", which was later simplified to "Tao Brother".
Wu Feiran is "Mother Wu" because Wu Feiran eventually got the position of deputy monitor of the class, in charge of the class's logistics and class expenses.
Cheng Yu’s nickname is “Sleeping God”…
When she arrived at Jianli, her nickname was "class flower". But within three days, the boys in the class stripped Jianli of this title.
Jian Li: ...
The root of this is still from those who were promoted from the Cotton Mill Middle School to the Provincial Experimental School.
Among these people is an old acquaintance of Jian Li.
Liu Dajun.
Although Liu Dajun was a bad talker, he was still a good student, so Liu Xiangdong sent Liu Dajun to study in the provincial experimental school.
In the second week of school, Jian Li saw Liu Dajun in the military training team. When Liu Dajun saw her, he immediately pretended not to know her.
However, the first month after school is a time for "getting to know each other", and everyone knows who is from which school.
then……
Jian Li's "dark history" of swearing in various ways spread throughout the provincial laboratory.
It was really hard to imagine Jian Li scolding someone, so someone went to Jian Li to verify it, and Jian Li admitted it without saying anything.
The boyish aspirations of the group of male students, which were originally ready to move, were shattered in an instant.
Lin Daiyu found a Wu Song, and the class beauty’s mouth looked as if it was covered with honey.
There must be something wrong with this world.
…
In the second month of school, Jian Li felt that the new semester was not on the right track yet, but her homeroom teacher brought her "good news".
"We will hold the monthly exam next week. Students, please prepare well. There will be a parents' meeting after the exam."
Once the news comes down, all fantasies have to be put aside. The world is so big, but learning is still the most important.
Cheng Yu lay flat on his back: "I came in through the back door, and I can't escape being the last one."
She didn't care much, and since she couldn't resist, she decided to lie down and sleep.
Jian Li was nervous for a rare moment. Her grades in junior high school were still okay, but she had completely forgotten about high school.
Starting from scratch, she started at the same starting line as everyone around her.
Jian Li began to seize the time to study and even memorized English words in her dreams.
She memorized it like this for a few days, and when the monthly exam results came out, her efforts finally paid off.
On the third day after the monthly exam, the provincial laboratory posted a big red list.
Jian Li ranked 14th in the class and 41st in the grade.
Last year, there were forty-eight students from the Provincial Experimental School who were admitted to key universities, and Jian Li's score was just within the range.
Some are happy, while others are sad. The first monthly exam at the provincial experimental school was a big blow to some students whose grades were unstable.
It is an even bigger blow to students who used to have good grades.
Wu Feiran sighed: "When I was in junior high school, I was not among the top few, but I never fell out of the top 20 in my grade."
Now, in the first exam after school, she ranked 99th in the whole grade.
Song Tao happened to be next to Wu Feiran and ranked 100th.
The head teacher handed out the report cards in advance and asked those who fell out of the top 100 to go home and ask their parents to sign them.
It is foreseeable that by the time of the parents' meeting, falling out of the top 100 will be a prerequisite for the class teacher to communicate with the parents.
Jian Li read the big red list from beginning to end and saw some familiar names on it. Among the classmates who had been promoted from the cotton textile factory, only she and another boy were in the top 100.
Lin Shuyao transferred from another place and unexpectedly ranked twelfth in the whole grade.
After school that night, Cheng Yu slept through one class and asked Jian Li in a daze what place he had taken in the exam.
Jian Li: "…Ranked 320th in the grade."
Ranked last in the class.
Cheng Yu rolled up the paper nonchalantly and went back to sleep.
Next comes the parent-teacher conference. The provincial experiment parent-teacher conference is held on weekends, and both students and parents must be present.
Jian Li watched Cheng Yu enter the office and walk out after a while with a relaxed look on his face.
"Aren't your parents coming to participate?"
Cheng Yu was bored and lay on the table: "They are busy, flying around, who knows if they will come or not."
Jian Li didn't know what to say. From their daily interactions, she could tell that Cheng Yu's family was well off. In such a family, it was normal for the parents to be busy.
Jian Li also met a rich second-generation classmate in her previous life, and that classmate was her college roommate.
She was dressed in designer clothes at the beginning of the school year, and after just a few days of school, she insisted on following the drummer of a band. The counselor failed to persuade her, so she informed her parents. The rich second-generation classmate cried and blamed her parents for their well-dressed parents.
"You only care about money. Have you ever cared about me?"
"I don't want money at all, I just want love! If he loves me, I will go with him!"
The student eventually dropped out of school, and it was said that he followed the drummer for three months before returning home to inherit the family business.
Another roommate of Jian Li mocked, "She doesn't want money, but I do. What's the point of loving her? If you can give me a chance to be a rich second-generation, I'd rather cry in a BMW car every day!"
Jian Li also held the same idea at that time. She always felt that when rich people complained about their pain, it was just a kind of whining without any real reason.
But can human suffering really be divided into different levels?
As soon as the bell rang, Cheng Yu packed his bag and muttered, "I really hate eating green peppers."
But the aunt her parents hired cooked green peppers for her at every meal.
So annoying.
Jian Li: "Then... do you want to eat at my restaurant?"
Cheng Yu: “…Yes, yes, yes!”
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