Xia Baozhu slept for a day and a night after returning home, only to wake up when her stomach started growling with hunger.
When she opened her eyes, the room was completely dark. She thought she was still on that large dormitory bed, unable to sleep well because of her worry about fleas.
Thinking of fleas, Xia Baozhu immediately jumped up. Only when her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she realized it was her own room did she breathe a sigh of relief and fall heavily onto the bed.
It's finally out.
This trip changed her obsession with cleanliness quite a bit; at least she can now tolerate going a week without showering, changing clothes, or washing her hair.
She didn't want to travel far because she was afraid she wouldn't be able to change clothes or take a shower on the train, and that there would be long queues for the toilet, which would be dirty and have a terrible stench.
She has a sensitive stomach and is particularly sensitive to foul smells.
She's quite mentally resilient to have stayed inside for so long without going crazy.
She glanced at the time; it was 4:10 a.m. Xia Baozhu pulled the blanket tighter around herself, closed her eyes, and went back to sleep.
As for those messy things, let's talk about them after she's recovered.
Sun Xingyan left without warning, but left Xia Baozhu a letter and a savings account with 100,000 yuan.
The letter stated that the 100,000 yuan was his investment money, and that if Xia Baozhu wanted to open a shop in the provincial capital, 100,000 yuan would be enough. The password was on the back of the letter.
He also had several good friends in the provincial capital, and Sun Xingyan wrote down their names, home addresses, and phone numbers.
Finally, Sun Xingyan wrote a sentence, "Wait for me to come back," which surprised Xia Baozhu.
Sun Xingyan's attitude towards her was always that of an ordinary friend; he never showed any sign that he liked her.
Moreover, Sun Xingyan had quite a few female friends. She had met two women who frequently visited him; they were pretty and seemed to come from good families.
Although Sun Xingyan did not do anything that would be misunderstood, she thought he would choose one of the two.
Xia Baozhu never felt that she was inferior to others, but she wasn't much better either.
By choosing her, Sun Xingyan was choosing a path of long-term struggle against his family.
If she had children, she wouldn't want them to marry a divorced man. Those childhood sweethearts and lovely junior schoolmates were so pure and innocent—how wonderful!
Xia Baozhu felt she was sighing more often lately. She put away the letter, along with the bankbook.
Although she still believed in her heart that she was still that carefree unmarried young woman, reality did not change according to her will.
Like Chen Shanlou, who said he liked her while using these things to suppress her and make her realize her own status.
Based on this alone, she would never marry Chen Shanlou. He looked down on her and didn't respect her. Even if she married him, all she would get was daily verbal humiliation. Knowing the outcome would be bad, why would she seek out suffering?
Taking shortcuts comes at a price, and the shortcut of Chenshan Tower is not worth sacrificing her future happiness.
And then there's Tang Zonglang. He used to stalk her, so he must have heard about her divorce and lost interest after that. That's good; he doesn't cause her any trouble.
The small house in the backyard was built, only the inside was painted. Xia Baozhu bought two iron-framed beds, and Zheng Zhenhao brought his bedding and moved in.
"Xiao Hao, I bought you some celebrity posters. You can put them on the wall." San Gou sat on Zheng Zhenhao's bed; the posters were his gift.
"Thank you, brother."
Zheng Zhenhao sends most of his salary home and saves the rest for himself. He is reluctant to spend money on himself and wears his clothes and shoes until they are worn out.
As the two brothers were talking, Qi Mufei and Li Dapao came in carrying bedding.
Because of their practice of knife skills, the two of them actually became closer than the people in their village during this time.
"You guys are planning to stay here too?" San Gou stood up. "Did Sister Xia agree?"
"Yes, Sister Xia agreed. Now that it's warmer, we plan to continue selling tonight."
“You’re keeping Xiao Hao from resting. He gets up at three o’clock to work.” San Gou complained.
“Brother, I want to go with them. Anyway, the other cars aren’t needed at night,” Zheng Zhenhao said.
"What? Xiao Hao, why are you working so hard? Didn't Sister Xia give you a raise again? Isn't that enough?"
"I want to buy a house in the city."
Zheng Zhenhao did the math: his salary is 400 yuan a month, which is 4,800 yuan a year.
But he has to give half of it to his family every month because they also need to build a house. He can only save 2,400 yuan, and it would take at least seven or eight years to buy a house.
He's young now and doesn't feel tired getting up early every day, so he wants to continue working after work by pushing the food cart.
He can earn three yuan a day, which is 90 yuan a month, equivalent to a temporary worker's monthly salary. He doesn't give this money to his family, and he has an extra thousand yuan in savings every year.
When San Gou heard his cousin's plan, he was dumbfounded: "You, you're not planning to go back to your hometown?"
“I can’t earn more than a few hundred yuan a year if I go back, so I’m not going back. Once I buy a house here, I’ll bring my parents over.”
"Doesn't my second uncle raise chickens at home?"
"They're all small-scale operations; they don't dare raise too many at once for fear of chicken plague."
"Okay, you guys keep up the good work! But don't stay up too late, or it'll be a problem if you can't sell them all. Be careful with the quantity when you're making them."
Inspired by his cousin's positive attitude, San Gou also felt the urge to continue setting up his stall at night.
"Don't worry, bro. Now that the weather's warmer, more people are out at night, so it should sell very well."
"If you're too tired, don't push yourself. Your daytime wages are more important, you know?"
Xia Baozhu expressed her support for some employees who wanted to continue setting up stalls at night, and she specifically emphasized food safety and hygiene.
Two more food trucks were made, so now each person has one. When traveling, people still travel in pairs so they can look out for each other.
After the last vandalism incident, Xia Baozhu's shop became quite famous in the city. Seeing their food carts, even petty thugs wouldn't dare to take anything for free.
Even when Li Dapao and his gang set up their stall at night, as long as they mentioned the name of their fried chicken shop, anyone who wanted to cause trouble would have to think twice about how many legs they had to fight.
Xia Baozhu deposited two thousand yuan into Sun Xingyan's savings account; this was the money she needed to repay.
She plans to pay back 2,000 yuan each month for the remaining 20,000 yuan, and it will be paid off in ten months.
She bought a sewing machine and altered the clothes that Sun Xingyan had bought for her to fit her perfectly.
While making the changes, Xia Baozhu suddenly decided that in this season of spring blossoms, she should also dress up a bit.
Xia Baozhu went to the department store and bought more than a dozen pieces of good fabric. She used her professional skills to make several sets of business suits in different colors.
She went to the hair salon and got a trendy perm with big waves. Perming damages hair, but compared to pleasing herself, this damage is nothing. It will be fine when her hair grows out.
Xia Baozhu also bought a beautiful light green women's bicycle. Her previous bicycle was old and ugly, so she simply put it in the backyard, so anyone who needed it could just say so.
At least her current outfits are presentable; her previous dowdy looks were an eyesore, although the main reason was that she didn't have the money and couldn't afford to dress up.
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