âAh, she didnât need to.â When she heard that they were from Shu Yan, Mother Zhangâs tone changed immediately. âThey do fit perfectly, almost too perfect. He will outgrow them in a year. Can you switch them to a larger size?â asked Mother Zhang as she looked Zhang Chenghan up and down.
âMom, this is a gift. I feel bad asking that.â Wu Xiuyue, too, felt that they fit too well. But they were gifts, she didnât think she should be too picky about them.
The old lady sighed. âSheâs a business woman alright. She is so generous with her money. Donât blame me for my tone. I only want to be frugal for your benefit. Xiuxiu is about to get married. Sheâs a slow person who has her own luck. She has a house readied for her as soon as she gets married, and a 90 square meter one at that. Your dad and I no longer need to worry about her. But looking at you and Hanhan staying here, I feel bad as well. I just wish that you, too, can have your own place. Then your dad and I will truly have nothing else to worry about.â
âMom, I understand. I have been trying to save up as well, but... how long is this going to take?â Wu Xiuyue sat down, feeling distressed.
Mother Zhang sighed as well. âThe factory is doing worse and worse and who knows how much longer your dad and I will have a job. Itâll be quite difficult to buy a house on Huafengâs income alone. What say we start our own business too?â
Wu Xiuyue looked at Mother Zhang in surprise. She couldnât believe that she was hearing that from Mother Zhang.
In the mind of the elderlies, being in business was shameful. But as time pushed forward, more and more people went into business and some upper management had also quit their job and went into business as well. Along with news and propaganda from higher up, many others started to have a change of heart.
Seeing how much Shu Yan had made in her business wasnât the only reason that convinced Mother Zhang. More importantly, a son of one of her coworkers was a bum previously. He went over to City Yang a couple of years ago and came home driving a car a few days back. Her coworker became arrogant all of a sudden and bragged about it in front of her day in and day out. She even mentioned how she had proposed a marriage between their two children in the past and how Mother Zhang refused to let Xiuxiu marry her son and now her son was in high demand. Psst. She really needed to take a good look at her son. Her daughter didnât want to marry him at all. Not even now!
âStarting out own business is not a bad idea, but we will need capital and manpower.â Wu Xiuyue had been wanting to do that for a while now, but Zhang Huafeng didnât agree to it.
âYou donât need to worry about manpower. If you are really going to move forward with it, your dad and I can take an early retirement. You wonât need to worry about capital either. We wonât need any huge investment, just something on a small scale. We just donât know a lot about doing business.â Mother Zhang hesitated for a little while. âSay, what if we have Xiuxiu help us with our own clothing store? We wonât open one on West City Nan Road, we can open one on Fujian Street. That way we arenât competing with Shu Yan.â
âHave Xiuxiu help out?â Wu Xiuyue paused for a little, then shook her head. âI donât know about that. Back then Xiuxiu knew nothing and she was trained up all the way by Shu Yan. To have her quit right after she got the hang on it... Plus, didnât Xiuxiu say that Shu Yan intends to make her the shop manager one day? I donât think thatâs a good idea.ân/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
âI donât mean right away. It entails a lot to open up our own shop. Well, okay, we donât have to have a clothing store. You have any other ideas?â