Shen Hongmei, who was busy calculating accounts, straightened up. When she recognized Shen Mingzhu, a look of surprise suddenly appeared on her face.

"Mingzhu, why is it you? When did you come back?"

"I came back to do something. I'll be leaving in the afternoon."

As she spoke, Shen Mingzhu looked around the guesthouse.

It is called a guesthouse, but it is actually a two-story red brick house with only five rooms in total. Except for one room which is occupied, the other four are empty.

Shen Hongmei helped her pick out the brightest room, and changed her bed sheets and quilt covers to clean ones, and quietly told her: "Usually, bed sheets and quilt covers are changed once a month."

Shen Mingzhu felt a chill in her heart, but she didn't forget to thank him.

This made Shen Hongmei laugh and say: "Why are you being so polite to me?"

After changing the bed sheets and quilt covers, Shen Hongmei diligently poured her some water.

Staring at the enamel cup that looked not very clean, Shen Mingzhu had no desire to drink.

"Mingzhu, you are amazing. You even opened your own factory."

Shen Hongmei dragged a chair and sat across from her, her face showing no disguising her envy and admiration, "When we were fifteen or sixteen, everyone in the village said you were the laziest and would never get married. Who would have thought that you would not only get married, but also marry into the city, and now you're a big boss. I told my former junior high school classmates about this, but they didn't believe it."

Shen Mingzhu smiled and said, "How about you, how have you been lately?"

When talking about her recent situation, Shen Hongmei's smile faded a lot, and her tone was quite sad and melancholy.

Shen Hongmei had a boyfriend when she was in junior high school. He was from her grandmother's family. They were childhood sweethearts. The boy's name was Ma Chao.

After graduating from junior high school, Ma Chao was admitted to high school and went to study in the city.

Studying in the city is expensive. In the past two years, Shen Hongmei has been using the money she earns from work to support Ma Chao.

It's a pity that her sincere devotion could not escape the curse of scholars being unfaithful. A month ago, Ma Chao broke up with Shen Hongmei on the grounds that he wanted to concentrate on preparing for the college entrance examination.

"...Actually, I already knew that he was dating the daughter of a school teacher. Someone told me about it last year. I thought he would not abandon me because of our old relationship. I gave him everything..."

When talking about the sad things, Shen Hongmei couldn't help but cover her face and cry.

Shen Mingzhu handed over her handkerchief, "Do you want him to regret it?"

Shen Hongmei raised her head, her face full of confusion.

"I'm still in need of an assistant. If you're willing to come work with me at the food factory, I'll give you a base salary of thirty-five, and I'll give you commissions based on your sales performance. I predict your monthly income won't be less than fifty. Of course, the prerequisite is that you can complete the work I assign you."

Shen Hongmei said tearfully, "But you can't let him regret this. His grades are pretty good, and he should be able to get into a technical secondary school. After graduation, he'll have a stable job, which is much better than me."

Shen Mingzhu sneered, "It's just a technical secondary school, nothing special. Come work for me and I'll guide you to get a college diploma, how about that?"

Shen Hongmei was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing, "Mingzhu, stop joking. When you were in school, your grades were not as good as mine."

"I have taken the self-taught exam and successfully passed four subjects. If nothing goes wrong, I will be able to get a self-taught undergraduate diploma from Fengcheng University in two years."

After realizing that she was serious, the smile on Shen Hongmei's face gradually turned into shock.

…

Upon learning that Shen Mingzhu would rather stay in town than come home, Qin Jinlian complained about it for the whole afternoon. After that, she took out the family's ancestral aluminum lunch box, put two yellow steamed buns in it, and added some vegetables.

Shen Chaobei looked at Qin Jinlian in confusion, "Mom, it's time to eat, what are you doing?"

"Eat yours. I'll send some to your little sister."

After saying that, he raised his foot and walked out.

"It will be so late when you get to town. I've already eaten..."

Hearing this, Shen Chaobei sat down and had lunch with Shen Jianguo.

The father and son talked about the food factory while eating. When they learned that the food factory would officially start operations next week, the wrinkles on Shen Jianguo's face immediately relaxed a little.

…

Shen Mingzhu had just laid down for a while when there was a knock on the door. She thought it was Shen Hongmei, but when she opened the door and found it was Qin Jinlian, she immediately became unhappy.

"Why are you here?"

Qin Jinlian walked into the room without paying attention, and looked around the house with her eyes rolling. "Why am I here, you little girl? I didn't even come back to take a look when I was at the doorstep. I really raised you in vain."

Shen Mingzhu had heard this so many times that she was too lazy to beat around the bush. "Go ahead, what's the matter?"

Qin Jinlian handed her the aluminum lunch box and said, "I brought you some food. It's the yellow steamed buns that you loved most when you were a child. They're made from the flour from the newly harvested corn this year. They're really delicious."

Shen Mingzhu didn't even look at him. Past experience told her that if someone showed too much attention for no reason, he was either a traitor or a thief.

"If you have something to say, just say it."

This work is organized and uploaded by Liujiu Book Bar~~

Qin Jinlian hesitated, "The village notified us to order seeds and fertilizers for next year next month. A lot of this year's corn seeds were eaten by rats. I discussed it with your father and we plan to mix pesticide powder into the corn seeds for next year. It will cost a lot of money in total."

Shen Mingzhu smiled and said, "Brother brought you and dad fifty dollars this time. Isn't that enough?"

Qin Jinlian looked embarrassed, "How do you know?"

Shen Mingzhu not only knew that Shen Chaobei brought fifty yuan to the old couple, but also knew that thirty of them were from Shen Xiangnan and the other twenty were from Shen Chaobei.

This was also the reason why she brought both brothers into the city.

The two brothers Shen Chaobei and Shen Xiangnan, one is stupid and submissive, the other is soft-hearted and has no opinion of his own. If they let Qin Jinlian, their trouble-making mother, go on like this, sooner or later they will have a quarrel, and she will have to clean up the mess then.

Now that both brothers have arrived in the city and are under her supervision, she has more helpers and can worry less.

Seeing that she could not gain any benefit, Qin Jinlian grumbled for a while and then left, not forgetting to take her lunch box with her.

…

In the afternoon, the three newly hired female workers arrived at the entrance of the guesthouse on time.

Shen Mingzhu took the three people back to the food factory and handed them over to Du Juan for settlement.

Shen Baolan was always keeping an eye on what was happening at the food factory. As soon as Shen Mingzhu brought the new workers into the factory, she got wind of the news and talked about it with her in-laws at the dinner table.

"…She has to support one worker. The wages, food and lodging, etc. cost her at least fifty or sixty yuan a month. Two of them just ran away, but she didn't learn her lesson and went back to her hometown to bring back three more. Her factory has been open for so long and still can't be reopened. I don't know what she's trying to do. She's wasting money for nothing…"

Zhou Shuhuan quickly finished the last bite of rice, left the table without saying goodbye, changed his shoes and went out.

Shen Baolan and the Zhou family were used to it. Zhou Shuhuan usually went out after dinner and did not return home until eleven or twelve o'clock in the evening.

After walking out of the apartment building, Zhou Shuhuan stood there for a while, and instead of walking towards the gate of the family compound, he went inside the compound.

After a while, Shen Baolan also hurried downstairs.

She was delivering the car keys to Zhou Shuhuan, but when she arrived at the carport, she didn't see Zhou Shuhuan, and the motorcycle was parked there safely.

Just as she was wondering, an acquaintance came into the carport and saw her standing in front of Zhou Shuhuan's motorcycle in a daze, so he asked: "Where is your Shuhuan? I saw him go to Building No. 5."

Building No. 5? Isn't that Shen Mingzhu's house?

Shen Baolan ran out of the carport and headed towards Building No. 5 angrily.

Second update