"Ah?" Shen Huanxi frowned. She didn't even know that stamps now had a fixed market price.

She sighed when she saw that their stall still had a lot of special tickets for the 10th National Congress of the Chinese Trade Union.

"My husband's legs were injured and he needed a lot of money for treatment. I had no other options, so I was anxious to sell these stamps."

"Oh, so that's the case. No wonder you were so anxious to sell the stamps before. I thought you were impatient, but it turns out that your family is short of money. Girl, how about this, if you are in urgent need of money, you can sell them to me for thirty cents each, how about that?" asked the young man.

Shen Huanxi thought, the market price of the stamp was one dollar, and she just sold it for 40 cents, but this young man actually wanted to buy it from her for thirty cents. What a ruthless businessman.

But she nodded anyway.

"Okay, if you buy more, I'll sell them to you for 30 cents each."

"How many do you have? Do you have a hundred? I want a hundred from you." The young man happily took out three big reunion tickets and handed them to Shen Huanxi.

Shen Huanxi took the money and nodded.

There are tens of thousands of these special tickets, with a deposit of more than 3,000 yuan. Not to mention a hundred, she has more if the young man wants them.

She carefully counted out 104 stamps and handed them to the young man.

"Can you count them and see if there are enough?"

"Okay, let me count." The young man counted and found that there were four more tickets, but he didn't tell Shen Huanxi, "That's enough, exactly one hundred. How about this, I see you're having a hard time, I'll buy another two hundred tickets from you."

"Okay." Shen Huanxi counted out another two hundred stamps and sold them to the young man.

The current market price of this special stamp is one dollar a piece. After knowing that she was selling it so cheaply, several people who were also selling stamps at their stalls came over to buy from her.

Shen Huanxi treated it as a wholesale business. He brought out 2,000 stamps today and sold more than half of them immediately. Most of them were sold to stamp speculators, and there were almost no individual customers.

Shen Huanxi knew that this was how the stamp market would develop when it reached a certain stage. People who wanted to collect stamps didn't need to have too many stamps on hand. One or two of each type would be enough. If she wanted to wait for these people to use up the stamps she had hoarded, she would have to wait a long time.

It would be better to sell them to stamp speculators at a slightly lower price.

Of course, when Shen Huanxi was hoarding the special stamps of the 10th National Congress of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, many people had already become aware of stamp collecting. Now, ordinary people have a lot of these stamps in stock. Even if she wants to sell them to people who speculate in stamps, it will take some time.

Shen Huanxi knew that these stamps would not rot if she kept them, but would become more valuable as time went by. However, she was also aware that many stamps were no longer in demand and might not be sold even at a high price. It was not as easy to start the stamp business now as it was when she first started.

Shen Huanxi sold more than 2,000 stamps and earned more than 600 yuan, and then it suddenly started to rain.

She didn't want to get the rest of her stamps wet, so she put the stamps on her back and rode her bike home. Fortunately, the rain was not heavy enough to wet her stamps.

When she was just a few steps away from Xiao's house, she saw a woman standing at the door of the house, talking to Zhang Guifen.

"Auntie, I'm sorry that I have delayed giving you the rent for the past two months until now." The woman said as she took out some money from her pocket and handed it to Zhang Guifen.

Shen Huanxi saw a big reunion note, as well as some Mao and Minute notes, a thick stack.

"It's okay, it's okay. Besides, the month isn't over yet. Since you want to cancel the lease, you don't have to pay the full rent for this month. Just give me half." Zhang Guifen said as she took the big Tuanjie out of the pile of money and returned it to the woman.

The woman pushed back.

"Auntie, you don't have to be like this. I'm moving out suddenly, so I have to pay the rent. I've rented your shop for two years. The rents of other shops around here have been increasing, but yours has never increased. I'm very grateful to you, and I'd feel bad if you didn't pay the full rent this month."

"Oh, what's the big deal? I'm not raising the rent just for convenience. I find it troublesome to have to sign new contracts with tenants changing all the time. I'm grateful that you can rent for two consecutive years. How about this, let's both make a concession. If you don't want this big deal, I'll give you five dollars back. Don't refuse it anymore."

After Zhang Guifen finished speaking, she started to count the money. In that huge pile of RMB, except for the big reunion note, the rest were scattered small-denomination bills. She counted for a long time before she finally collected a lot of bills and put together five yuan, which she handed over to the woman.

Seeing that Zhang Guifen had said so much, the woman could no longer refuse. She took the five yuan and said a few words to Zhang Guifen before leaving.

When the woman passed by Shen Huanxi, Shen Huanxi couldn't help but take a look at her.

Wasn't this the mother of "Junjun" whom she met at the school gate during the parents' meeting that day? The woman with half her face burned and disfigured?

"Huanxi is back. How were the stamp sales today?" Zhang Guifen also saw Shen Huanxi.

"It's okay. That woman just now..."

"Alas, she is such a poor person. It is not easy for her to raise her son alone. She accidentally ruined her appearance when she opened a breakfast shop a few years ago, and she has become the horrible look she has now. I felt sorry for her, so I have not raised her rent in recent years. I never thought that her family had an accident recently, and her business was not doing well, so she had to return to her hometown."

"Ah..." Shen Huanxi was a little surprised. If Junjun's mother went back to her hometown, what would happen to her son? Her son was still studying at Taoyuan Experimental Primary School.

"What's wrong, Huanxi, do you know her?" Zhang Guifen asked.

Shen Huanxi shook his head.

"I don't know her. I just saw her at school on the day of the parents' meeting. By the way, Mom, can I discuss something with you?"

"Well, you say."

"Hasn't your current shop been vacated? Have you found a new tenant?"

"Oh, Junjun's mom just came to cancel the lease today. How can I find a new tenant so quickly?"

"Really?" Shen Huanxi was surprised. "Then mother, can you rent this shop to me?"

"Yes, what are you talking about? If you wanted the shop, you should have told me earlier and I would have given it to you. The shop belongs to our family, and it is not right for family members to collect rent from each other. I am your mother-in-law, so I will not collect rent from you. You can use the shop as you like."

"That won't work. If I use your shop, you will lose money..."

"What's wrong with earning less money? I'm an old woman, and I only have one son and one daughter-in-law. My money will be left to you after I die. I can't even spend all the rent now, so it's enough.

Anyway, you can use the shop if you want to, and don’t talk about renting it. Otherwise, if it gets out, people will say something about me and our family. I don’t want people to say that there is discord in our family. That’s so frustrating.”

"Okay, mom, thank you. I'll take the shop, but you can't say anything about life or death anymore. By the way, what did Junjun's mom rent the shop for?"

"She just uses it to sell some homemade side dishes. She's just a good cook. But don't worry, she cleaned the shop thoroughly before she moved out. She also kept a cat in the shop, so there are no mice or anything. If you want to use the shop to do business, you can use it."

"Okay, mom."

…

The next day was Sunday, and Shen Huanxi didn't have to go to work, so he went to Zhang Guifen's shop with her.

Zhang Guifen was right. Junjun's mother had indeed cleaned the shop thoroughly. All the shelves, tables and chairs were moved away, leaving only an empty, dust-free shop.

The shop is not very big, less than 30 square meters, but it is enough for Shen Huanxi.

Shen Huanxi is also a man of action. She asked Carpenter Li to come and measure the space that day and help her find a container of suitable size.

Next to Zhang Guifen's shop was a picture hanging shop. Shen Huanxi took Carpenter Li and several of his apprentices to do the measurements. When they were making the requirements, the owner of the picture hanging shop would come over from time to time to take a look.

The proprietress was a woman in her early thirties, slightly plump, with a round and fair complexion. She wore a long woolen coat with a large fur collar, and her waist-length hair was curled into corn curls.

The paintings on the walls at this time were mainly traditional Chinese paintings, both freehand and meticulous. Oil paintings, watercolors, and gouache were not very popular yet, and celebrity posters had not yet become popular. Therefore, art shops still looked very elegant and classical.

However, the proprietress's dress has nothing to do with elegance and classicism; instead, she looks more like the wife of a nouveau riche.

When the proprietress saw that Shen Huanxi was the only one left in the store, she came over to say hello.

"Hello, this shop belongs to your mother-in-law, right? Your mother-in-law told me about it."

"Yeah." Shen Huanxi nodded. She was still looking at this store. She had ordered a batch of shelves from Carpenter Li, but she still wanted to see how to arrange them, so she was a little absent-minded when dealing with the proprietress of the store next door.

However, the proprietress walked into Shen Huanxi's store on her own.

"My name is Wang Mudan, and I work at the art shop next door. We'll be doing business together in the future, so let's get to know each other."

"Hello, my name is Shen Huanxi."

"What kind of business are you going to do? I asked your mother-in-law, and she said she didn't know." Wang Mudan asked.

"I still don't know what kind of business I want to start now, so let's just keep this shop for now." Shen Huanxi said somewhat embarrassedly.

"Oh, so that's how it is. That's right. Your man can't make money now. Relying on the rent from the shop is not a long-term solution. You still have to make some money to feel secure.

The times are developing very fast now. You don’t know that in the past, you could buy a piece of clothing for one dollar, but now those nice-looking clothes cost thousands of dollars. Look at this one on me. My father spent fifteen thousand dollars to buy it for me.

"Yeah, it's quite expensive." Shen Huanxi said as he looked at Wang Mudan's coat, whose fur collar was almost bigger than the hem. Shen Huanxi couldn't see what was good about it except that it looked expensive.

"I'm going to buy some additional things from the carpenter. We'll talk when we have time." Shen Huanxi said as he locked the shop door.

"Do you want me to take you there? I drive a car, which is much faster than your bike."

"No, thank you. My car is not locked and it's not safe to park here." Shen Huanxi said and declined Wang Mudan's kindness.

When Shen Huanxi went to Carpenter Li's place, he found Zhang Guifen was also there. After asking her the reason, he learned that Zhang Guifen happened to pass by here and came over to help when she knew that Carpenter Li was about to start helping Shen Huanxi choose shelves.

"Glad to have you here. Are these the shelves you picked out? What are you going to put on them? I saw that you picked out the sturdiest ones, but I was afraid that you were going to put something very heavy, so I asked Lao Li to reinforce some for you."

"Thank you, Mom. But there's no need to reinforce it. I trust Uncle Li." Shen Huanxi said with a smile.

She also knew that Zhang Guifen had good intentions, and suddenly thought of Wang Mudan.

"By the way, Mom, are you familiar with the painting seller next door?"

"As for her, I see her often. She's quite talkative. Her husband does business in the provincial capital, and she was bored at home, so she opened that painting shop. You can get to know her. You'll be doing business next to each other in the future, so there's no harm in building a good relationship with her," said Zhang Guifen.

Shen Huanxi nodded. Wang Mudan did seem like a very approachable person.

Carpenter Li had already selected the shelves. Shen Huanxi paid the money and asked them to move them to the store in the afternoon. She and Zhang Guifen went home to have dinner first.

When we got home, several children had already returned from the Children's Palace and were drinking sea buckthorn juice made by Shen Huanxi in the yard.

These days, these kids have become obsessed with sea buckthorn juice and say it tastes better than Coca-Cola and soy milk.

"Mom, how is your store going?" Changan asked. Little Cotton-padded Jacket is Little Cotton-padded Jacket, and she just cares about mom.

"The shelves will be moved over this afternoon. You can take a look when you have time."

"Then congratulations, Mom, you now have your own store!"

"Congratulations, Mom! Mom is so amazing, she will definitely make a fortune!"

"I wish you all the best, Mom!"

"I wish mom to make a lot of money!"

The four children drank sea buckthorn juice, their lips were as sweet as honey, and each one spoke more pleasantly than the other.

Shen Huanxi is not a superstitious person, but people who do business all like to have good luck. Everyone would be happy to hear such blessings, including her.

"Okay, drink less. Don't be too hungry. I'll go cook for you."

…

When I went to the store in the afternoon, Carpenter Li and his apprentices had already moved all of Shen Huanxi's shelves and piled them at the door of the store.

Shen Huanxi used the key to open the door and asked them to move the shelves in one by one and put them in place.

They were busy here when Wang Mudan suddenly came over.

"Mudan, what can I do for you?" Shen Huanxi saw that she came uninvited again, and saw that Master Li was moving shelves in his shop with his apprentice. He was afraid that Wang Mudan might be accidentally hurt, so he asked.

Being so friendly isn't necessarily the right thing to do. She always felt that Wang Mudan had something to talk to her about today.