◎Heavy breathing while speaking◎
Wei Xuan had not expected that the fourth store would be delayed for more than three years. Now that it can finally be opened, Wei Xuan is more enthusiastic than anyone else.
That day, after sending her children to school, she prepared the braised meat and moved it to the store. Then she found three pieces of paper and wrote a recruitment advertisement and posted it on the doors of the three stores, one for each store, and told Wang Xiaomei and the others that if anyone came in to ask, they should come to the store to see her at 3 pm.
After posting the recruitment advertisement, Wei Xuan brought cleaning supplies and came to the fourth store.
The walls here were newly painted three years ago and still look quite white. The shelves are also ready. As long as she cleans it up and waits for her to recruit a suitable employee, she can stock the goods and open for business.
It was easy to keep an empty house clean. Twenty minutes later, Wei Xuan went home satisfied looking at the house that looked as clean as new.
She had just locked her car downstairs and was about to go upstairs when she saw people going in and out carrying things.
At first she didn't think much of it, thinking that maybe someone was moving, until she reached the sixth floor and realized that the family moving was actually the one across from her.
Opposite her house lived a gentle old couple. Although Wei Xuan was not too close to them, they would give each other some delicious food whenever they made it at home, so they had some friendship.
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When she saw that they were moving, Wei Xuan stood at the door and did not go into the house. She planned to wait for someone to come out and ask about the situation. Why were they moving out of the blue?
As a result, the old couple didn't see it, but a young woman came out of the house. She was dressed very fashionably, wearing a bright red dress and curly hair. When she saw Wei Xuan, she was stunned for a moment, then quickly smiled widely.
She walked a few steps closer and asked, "You live next door, right? My name is Fang Jing, I just moved here today, and my house is a mess right now. Once I've cleaned it up, I'd like you to come over and play."
Wei Xuan also smiled and greeted her: "My last name is Wei, and my given name is Xuan. I live across the street. I am familiar with this area. If you need anything, you can knock on the door and ask me. By the way, I want to ask who originally lived here?"
Fang Jing said with a smile: "They were just picked up by their son. We just bought this house yesterday, but we were in a hurry to move."
Wei Xuan thought to herself, no wonder she didn’t hear the old couple next door mention moving when she met them a few days ago, it turned out that they just sold the house yesterday.
It happened suddenly today, and she thought something had happened. Now she knows that he is fine.
Wei Xuan wasn't very familiar with Fang Jing, so it wasn't appropriate for her to ask for details. She simply exchanged a few polite words and then opened the door and went inside.
When she finished her meal and took a nap and went out again, the door opposite had been closed, and Wei Xuan didn't know whether there was anyone in the room.
I hurried into the store, and there were already three people sitting there waiting to apply for a job.
Two of them were a little older, around forty years old, and the other one was a girl who looked like she was only in her teens.
Wei Xuan was a little hesitant, wondering if she could manage a store at such a young age.
Although selling things seems simple, this is not the kind of supermarket in later generations where prices are clearly marked and bargaining is not allowed. Most of the people who come to buy vegetables are elderly people or housewives, and they will bargain very hard, sometimes even haggling with you for a long time just for an onion.
It’s not that Wei Xuan wants to judge people by appearance, but the girl is indeed a little thin-skinned, and she might not be able to resist if she encounters such bargaining.
Perhaps seeing Wei Xuan's doubts, the girl quickly spoke up to assure her: "Boss, I'm very strong and I'm not afraid of hardship. I really need this job. Please give me a chance."
As soon as she said this, the other two women were unwilling to do so. Who doesn't need this job? They also need a salary of fifty yuan a month, okay?
That's right, after three years, the store's wages have increased again. For example, the salary of three old employees including Wang Xiaomei is now 55 yuan a month, and for this recruitment, Wei Xuan wrote a salary of 50 yuan. After they have worked for a month and become familiar with the job, she will give them a raise at her discretion.
Otherwise, if their salary is the same as Wang Xiaomei and others right from the start, they will definitely be dissatisfied.
Now is not the time to talk about this. Although she only has one store now, there are only three people applying for the job, which is really not a lot. She thought there would be at least five or six people coming.
If possible, she could actually let all three of them stay.
Four stores require one employee, and one employee will be kept as a backup. After the four stores are opened, she will open the fifth or even sixth store.
She is also planning to expand her braised meat business, and she will have to hire someone at Siheyuan to be responsible for this.
So she said, there is really no need to compete among these three people. Those who are capable can all intern in the store for a few days first, and those who pass can all stay.
After hearing her say this, the three of them felt a little more relaxed.
But what does it mean to be qualified?
"As long as you can remember the prices of all the products in the store and keep every account clearly without making any mistakes, you can handle customers well when they come. That's all."
So that’s it. It sounds quite simple.
Wei Xuan didn't care what they were thinking. She just told Wang Xiaomei, "There are exactly three of us. I'll take one from each of the three stores. I'll take the one you want and the remaining two."
Wang Xiaomei looked at the three of them and finally decided to keep the youngest one.
All right, "Then the remaining two people can follow me."
Wei Xuan took them to two other stores and handed them over to Lin Fengxia and Wang Cuiying respectively, instructing them to teach them well. Wei Xuan then left them alone. It was past five o'clock and she had to go pick up her daughters from school.
It was her daughter's first day of elementary school. Wei Xuan was afraid that she would not be able to adapt, so she arrived at the door early and waited for her.
After school, the children lined up at the door waiting to be picked up by their parents. As soon as Yuanyuan arrived at the door, she saw her mother.
Wei Xuan also saw her. She walked up to the teacher and talked to him for a few words, then took her daughter out.
Yuanyuan held her mother's hand and chattered about what happened at school today.
Wei Xuan occasionally responded to her, and when she finished, Wei Xuan asked her: "What do you want to eat tonight? Mom will make it for you."
Yuanyuan tilted her head and thought for a long time before saying, "Mom, I want to eat bean curd dumplings."
Bean curd dregs? This really stumped Wei Xuan. She didn't understand why her daughter suddenly thought of this. Wei Xuan asked her, "Did your school make this at noon?"
"No, it's my deskmate. She said her family often eats bean curd dregs. I've never eaten it. Mom, I want to eat it."
She really wants to do something that comes to her mind, but where can she get the bean dregs?
Wei Xuan didn't want to disappoint her daughter, so she said, "Let's eat steamed spareribs tonight and bean curd dregs tomorrow, okay?"
Okay, she also likes to eat spare ribs. Thinking of the aroma of spare ribs, Yuanyuan swallowed her saliva and agreed to her mother's suggestion.
When they arrived downstairs of her home, Wei Xuan parked the tricycle, took her daughter out of the truck, locked the tricycle, and took Yuanyuan upstairs.
The mother and daughter were talking for a while when they reached the sixth floor. Just as they opened the door and were about to go in, the door opposite also opened. Fang Jing came out with a plate of glutinous rice balls and said to Wei Xuan, "You're back." Then she saw Yuanyuan standing next to Wei Xuan and said exaggeratedly, "This is your daughter, she's so pretty. Come to your aunt's house when you have time."
Wei Xuan touched her daughter's hair and said, "This is Aunt Fang who just moved in. Hurry and call her back."
"Hello, Aunt Fang."
Fang Jing has a son, but she likes well-behaved daughters, especially cute ones like Yuanyuan. She happily replied, "Okay, okay, you too." Then she said to Wei Xuan, "I really envy you for having such a pretty daughter. She's not like that naughty boy at home. Oh, by the way, we're moving today, and I made glutinous rice balls specially. This plate is for your family. Take it back and try my cooking. Don't despise it if it's not good."
"How could that be?" Wei Xuan took it and said, "I won't be polite then. Just consider it as a token of good fortune. I'll return the plate to you later."
"No hurry," Fang Jing waved her hand, "I won't hinder you anymore, just go in."
"Okay, see you later."
After the door was closed, Yuanyuan asked Wei Xuan curiously, "Have Grandpa Zhang and Grandma Yang moved away?"
"Yes, they moved away. Are you reluctant to leave them?"
Yuanyuan thought for a moment and said, "I said before that I would bring Grandpa Zhang some steamed elm seeds from my grandmother's house, but I haven't had time to give it to him yet."
Wei Xuan paused with her hand holding the plate and looked at her: "When did you go to your grandmother's house to eat steamed elm seeds?"
"It was last time when I went to grandma's house with my dad."
Oh, Wei Xuan remembered that on the day Jiang Che had a holiday in April, she received a call from her hometown saying that the loquats planted by her eldest brother were ready to be harvested.
Because it was the first year, Jiang Che contacted Fang Zhiyuan and decided to go down with him to have a look. As a result, Yuanyuan heard about this and insisted on going with her father, saying that she wanted to go to play with her brothers and sisters at her grandmother's house. Jiang Che took her along for fear that she would make trouble.
Wei Xuan didn't expect that she still remembered it even though it was such a long time ago.
She had no choice but to comfort him: "Grandpa Zhang moved in with his son, which is a good thing. If you want to live separately from your parents, would you be willing?"
"I don't want to." Yuanyuan shook her head like a rattle. It was obvious that she was really afraid of being separated from her parents. This reminded Wei Xuan of the situation when she was four years old and was asked to move to the next room to sleep alone.
Wei Xuan and Jiang Che took turns sleeping on the floor next to her and accompanied her for more than half a month before she slowly got used to sleeping alone.
"So, you should be happy for Grandpa Zhang and his family to move away and reunite with their children, right?"
Section 65
The round little head couldn’t quite understand these complicated emotions, but her mother wouldn’t lie to her, so she nodded happily.
Because she is happiest every time she can sleep in the same bed with her parents, but unfortunately her parents rarely agree to let her sleep with them.
Thinking of this, Yuanyuan blinked her eyes, followed Wei Xuan into the kitchen, and tilted her head to look at Wei Xuan flatteringly: "Mom, can I sleep with you tonight?"
The kitchen was small to begin with, and when Yuanyuan came in, Wei Xuan was afraid of stepping on her when she turned around.
Seeing her circling around her, Wei Xuan had no choice but to agree: "Okay, you'll sleep with us tonight. Go out quickly, mom is going to cook."
"Yeah, Mom is the best. I'll go to the door and wait for Dad to come back and tell him the good news." After saying that, she ran out in her slippers.
After finally sending her daughter away, Wei Xuan took out a kitchen knife and started chopping the ribs.
When dinner was almost ready, Wei Xuan heard Jiang Che opening the door and coming back.
Then, Yuanyuan’s voice was heard calling “Dad”.
"Hey, girl," Jiang Che closed the door, picked her up and asked, "Did you make new friends at school today?"
"Yes," and then Yuanyuan began to count on her fingers to tell her father how many new friends she had made and what their names were.
As she was talking, Yuanyuan remembered that she had not yet told her father that her mother agreed to let her sleep with them at night.
Then she put down her finger and shared the good news with her father with a smile. She asked her father, "Are you very happy?"
"Happy, Dad must be happy,"
Um?
"What did your mother promise you?" His daughter changed the subject so quickly that Jiang Che was unable to react for a moment.
"Mom said I can sleep in the big bed with you tonight, and you just agreed, Dad."
What did I agree to? Jiang Che felt very wronged, but seeing the child smiling so brightly, he didn't want to spoil her fun.
I could only nod stiffly: "Okay, but only tonight. You are a big kid now, you can't sleep with mom and dad every day."
"Okay." Yuanyuan was not greedy at all and agreed decisively.
"Okay, go and have fun by yourself." Jiang Che patted her back and put her down.
After his daughter ran away, he walked to the kitchen door, leaned against the door frame, and stared at Wei Xuan with resentment.
Wei Xuan heard the conversation between the father and daughter clearly in the kitchen. Now seeing Jiang Che looking at her with this look, she also looks innocent, okay?
"You know your daughter's ability to keep you company. You just couldn't resist. Didn't you agree?"
After thinking it through, Jiang Che coughed twice and changed the subject: "Do you want me to help you?"
"No need." Wei Xuan pointed casually and said, "Return the plate to the other side."
Jiang Che picked up the plate and asked, "Uncle Zhang is delivering something again?"
"No, there's a new neighbor across the street."
Huh? Jiang Che stopped turning around and said, "When did it happen? How come I don't know about it?"
"It was just this morning. Don't talk about you. I also saw that Uncle Zhang and his family had moved out. It's time to eat. Go return the dishes first and we'll talk when you come back."
So Jiang Che took the plate and knocked on the door opposite. This time, it was not Fang Jing who opened the door, but her husband Hong Zhen.
Upon learning that Jiang Che was coming from the opposite side to deliver dishes, Hong Zhen politely asked Jiang Che to come in and sit down.
"No, dinner is ready at home. Maybe next time. Are you afraid that you won't have a chance if you live across the street?"
After hearing what he said, Hong Zhen did not force him. He just said that they were all neighbors and they should visit each other more often in the future.
"It should be. As the saying goes, a distant relative is not as good as a close neighbor. Being neighbors is also a kind of fate. Brother Hong, I will go back first. The children are waiting for me at home. We can talk later when we have time."
"Okay, let's go back."
When Jiang Che got home, he told Wei Xuan that the man next door was too enthusiastic.
Wei Xuan smiled and said, "The hostess is almost the same, very polite."
Anyway, based on the few times they met, Wei Xuan had a good impression of Fang Jing, who was a straightforward person.
Neighbors see each other every day. If you really meet a weirdo, it would be very unbearable. Fortunately, her family is lucky. The two neighbors in front and behind are good.
Yuanyuan was particularly enthusiastic about taking a bath today. As soon as she put down her dishes, she went into the house to get her sleeping clothes and pants and asked Wei Xuan to help her take a bath.
Wei Xuan held her back and said, "Wait a little longer. You just finished eating, take a break before washing." She glanced at the time and said, "Wait half an hour, then go wash at 7:10."
Okay.
Wei Xuan tapped her pouting lips and said, "You are impatient. I don't know who you resemble."
Hearing this, Jiang Che glanced at his wife obscurely.
Wei Xuan felt it, rolled her eyes at him and ignored him.
Half an hour passed quickly, and Yuanyuan was finally taken to a bath by her mother as she wished and then carried back to their room.
When Jiang Che came into the house after taking a shower, he saw his daughter rolling around in the bathroom.
When Yuanyuan saw her father coming in, she quickly waved to him, "Dad, come here quickly," and then pointed to a place and said to him, "I've saved a seat for you."
"Hey, here it comes." Jiang Che wiped his hair vigorously twice, put the towel in his hand on the back of the chair, and lay down on the bed.
Wei Xuan saw that his hair was not dry yet, so she quickly reached out and pulled him: "Hurry up and sit up. Dry it before you go to sleep. Don't soak the bed."
Jiang Che sat up with the help of his wife and complained in a low voice: "My hair is short. It looks wet, but it's actually dry."
Seeing that Wei Xuan didn't believe him, he leaned forward again and emphasized, "Really? If you don't believe me, try touching it."
"I won't touch it." Wei Xuan pushed his head away: "I can see it with my eyes."
As a result, the two of them made Yuanyuan, who was sleeping between them, laugh out loud.
Being laughed at by his daughter, Jiang Che pretended to tickle her: "You little heartless girl, you dare to laugh at your father, right? Are you still laughing?"
"Mom, help me." Yuanyuan was a very ticklish girl. Before Jiang Che even touched her, she was already laughing so hard that she went straight into Wei Xuan's arms.
"Okay, stop teasing her. You'll make her vomit from laughing if you do."
Since his wife had spoken, Jiang Che had no choice but to withdraw his hand, sit back down and lean against the head of the bed, smiling and saying to his daughter, "I'll let you go this time."
"Dad is a bad guy."
"Okay, go to bed quickly, or daddy will come to tickle you again later." As she said this, Wei Xuan signaled with her eyes that Jiang Che should stop bothering her.
For a moment, everyone stopped talking and the room became quiet.
Yuanyuan touched herself left and right, turned over several times, and soon fell asleep.
After she fell asleep, Wei Xuan carefully moved her to the innermost part, then put the quilt on her stomach to make sure she would not catch a cold, then turned around and spoke to Jiang Che in a low voice.
"We've hired some people, and the fourth store will be open soon. Have you figured out a way to make the braised meat I mentioned to you before?"
Jiang Che reached out and put his arm around Wei Xuan's shoulders. "You know about Wu Ge. We haven't been in touch much in the past few years. Whether it's because of Zhong Yulan or because we opened our own shop and stopped selling braised meat to him, it's a fact that our relationship has become distant. I thought about it and decided that instead of going to him to get the meat and having to do him a favor, I might as well find another channel myself."
Pork is not easy to get, but it is not as scarce as it was a few years ago. If you go to the countryside, you should be able to find small private pig farms.
Jiang Che had always been the one who was in charge of these matters outside. Since he said so, Wei Xuan believed that he knew his limits.
No matter where she gets the goods from, as long as she can make her braised meat business successful, it's fine.
Braised meat makes more money and is much easier than selling grain. In the previous three and a half years, the three stores only made less than 40,000 yuan from selling grain, but to braise meat, you only need to spend less than an hour every morning to prepare the marinade and cook it. In more than three years, just one store made nearly 10,000 yuan.
Even though this ten thousand or forty thousand may seem like less than the profit from stewing meat, that’s because there is only so much meat.
Every day, people who buy her braised meat have to try their luck, it is not always possible to buy it. She roughly calculated that as long as the raw materials are sufficient, the income from the braised meat of the store will not be less than that from selling grain, and it may even be more.
More importantly, they had a ready-made store. As long as they could get the meat and put up a stove in front of the store, they could make twice as much money as usual. She was stupid to let go of this money that was essentially free money.
But some things are like this, easier said than done.
By the time Wei Xuan opened her fourth store, she still hadn't found a source of meat for Jiang Che.
That day, Jiang Che came back and asked Wei Xuan for a few hundred yuan. He only said that he might not come back to sleep that night and left in a hurry. He didn't even have time to explain where he was going.
So where did Jiang Che go? He followed Cheng Shao to his hometown in the countryside.
Cheng Shao is still doing the grain business in recent years, but the difference from before is that in addition to grain, he also deals in other things. After all, he will deal in anything that can make money.
Sometimes the things he bought would be sent to Jiang Che's store for consignment, so the two of them had always been in touch over the years.
Knowing that he was familiar with the countryside near Beijing City, Jiang Che told him about the search for pork this time and asked him to help keep an eye out.
Just today, Cheng Shao found Jiang Che and told him that he had found a private pig farm run by five brothers in the village next to his hometown, and he wanted to take Jiang Che to have a look.
The two rode for an hour and a half, and finally found the destination when it was almost dark.
In front of a shabby courtyard, Cheng Shao parked the car and asked Jiang Che to wait there while he went to check out the situation first.
The courtyard door was made of wood, so Cheng Shao walked over and knocked twice, fearing that no one inside could hear him. After a long while, there was a noise in the courtyard, and a man's voice came out and asked, "Who is it?"
"I, Cheng Shao from the next village, agreed to come buy pork today."
Perhaps this sentence worked, and soon the door was opened from the inside, and a burly man walked out.
Cheng Shao quickly introduced: "We came from Beijing to sell pork. We want to see your pig farm. Is it convenient?"
The man frowned and said in a rough voice with a bit of caution: "Our meat is all good meat, you will know it at a glance." What he meant was that there was no need to visit the pig farm.
Cheng Shao realized that he had misunderstood, so he explained, "We don't doubt that your pigs are bad, it's just that we want a large quantity, and we want to go to the pig farm to check out the specifications."
"How old?"
Cheng Shao turned his head to look at Jiang Che. Seeing this, Jiang Che stepped forward and said, "I'm in the braised meat business, so I'm quite picky about the parts of pork, such as pig's trotters, pig's heads, pig's ears, pig's tails, and pig's internal organs. If you kill four pigs a day, I can buy them all for you."
Jiang Che's generosity really frightened the man in front of him. Their pig farm had only been opened for a short time. Let alone four pigs, it would be good enough if they could kill one a day.
Seeing that he remained silent for a long time, Jiang Che changed the subject and said, "Of course, if you can't kill so many pigs a day, you can use the front legs and buttocks of the pig as a substitute."
He said this with such a heavy breath that the man choked on his words. He stammered for a long time before looking at him and saying, "Wait, I'll go change my clothes and take you there."
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