"What! You want money for this? Give me my money back! If you don't, I'll have the police arrest you!" Luo Meihong snarled at Zheng Hugong, baring her teeth.
Zheng Hugong, unfazed, calmly sat on a chair and picked up an apple to peel.
Seeing this, Luo Meihong snorted, "You think a mere apple will change my mind? Dream on! Get Zhang Lili to come over here!"
Zheng Hugong remained silent, finished peeling the apple, and ate it bite by bite.
Luo Meihong was stunned. In her world, things never happened like this. When she got angry, everyone around her would placate her. She considered herself the Empress Dowager of her household.
"Get out! Get out of here! I don't need your care! Give me my money back!" Luo Meihong thrashed her arms on the bed, trying to hit Zheng Hugong, but failed every time.
Zheng Hugong then took out a banana, peeled it, and ate it bite by bite.
After Luo Meihong had been shouting for a long time, she finally attracted the head nurse.
"What's all the shouting? This is a hospital, not your home! If you keep shouting, I'll have your family arrange your discharge! You'll be responsible for any problems!"
At these words, Luo Meihong deflated. Although she was difficult, she had an instinctive fear of doctors. In her eyes, everyone working in a hospital was a doctor.
Silence returned to the ward. Luo Meihong could only endure the pungent smell with a contorted face. She planned to wait until evening when her eldest daughter would come to take over, and then call her son!
---
After a busy morning, Liu Chen didn't even have time to go to the restroom. During a brief ten-minute break, he managed to call Wang Dong on the landline and ask him to deliver a hundred packs of scallion pancakes.
On the other end, Wang Dong sounded excited. After confirming that the hundred packs of scallion pancakes delivered yesterday were almost sold out, he immediately agreed to load another hundred packs and assured they would be delivered before noon.
Hanging up, Liu Chen glanced at his lottery tickets, which had accumulated to nearly two hundred. A smile never left his lips upon seeing the number.
Customers were strange; they always bought in clusters. Today, Liu Jie Frozen Goods not only sold a hundred packs of scallion pancakes but also sold products that usually moved slowly.
The business continued non-stop until a little past eleven in the morning. The small cold storage, which had been packed full that morning, now looked somewhat empty as Liu Chen stood outside.
Liu Fang did a quick tour of the cold storage, mentally noting what needed restocking. She emerged with a smile and said, "When business is good, you forget to restock. Chenchen, quickly call Wang Dong and ask him to bring some more goods. Li Jie, let's go and get the dumplings and glutinous rice balls ready!"
Liu Chen, however, remembered the cold storage he had inquired about yesterday. He beckoned his mother over and whispered, "I asked about renting cold storage yesterday. There's a ground-floor unit, a separate entrance, a hundred square meters, costing forty-eight thousand for six months."
"Forty-eight thousand for a cold storage unit? That's so expensive!"
"The cold storage next to our back parking lot, forty-eight thousand for six months. I think we should rent it!"
"Why would we rent that? The cold storage in our shop is enough. Renting an extra one will cost a lot more!" Liu Fang's first reaction was refusal. After all, another cold storage meant another fixed expense, and her profit last month wasn't even eight thousand yuan.
"After paying Li Jie's salary last month, we made about five thousand in total. We can't afford a forty-eight thousand half-year cold storage. If we rent it, we'll be losing money every day."
Liu Chen was not worried. He opened a drawer, revealing nearly twenty thousand yuan, mostly in red hundred-yuan bills.
"Mom, look. This is the money from this morning. I guarantee that by next week, when the first batch of scallion pancake masters start taking apprentices, the volume of our scallion pancakes won't just triple, it will at least double. That means we'll be shipping two hundred packs a day. And with two hundred packs of pancakes, what about the accompanying chicken strips, pork tenderloin, and bacon? So, by next week, we'll be moving four to five hundred packs a day. Our current small cold storage can barely fit two hundred, so we must rent!"
"Four, four to five hundred packs? That means selling forty to fifty thousand a day?" Liu Fang's tongue was almost tied as she spoke.
Liu Chen nodded vigorously. "So, Mom, not only do we need to rent it, but we need to rent a big one. We can't let the cold storage limit our growth. I've already spoken to someone. It's the buxom warehouse keeper next to the back cold storage. Just tell her that your daughter inquired yesterday."
Liu Fang nodded dazedly and, along with Li Jie, pushed forty packs of goods onto the truck in the back parking lot. Liu Chen stayed to mind the shop alone, not worried. She wasn't a seventeen-year-old girl; what could go wrong while watching a shop?
---
A teenage girl sitting in a shop, with over ten thousand yuan in the drawer, was an opportunity that some would covet. At least, that's how Liu Juan saw it when she rushed over.
She had failed to flee a few days ago, and when Chao Ge discovered she had swindled him, he kept a close watch on her, saying that since the shop was no longer hers, she would work to repay the debt. He didn't expect her to repay the principal and interest of two million, but at least the principal had to be returned!
Fearing she would run again, Chao Ge didn't let her do anything else. He made her a housekeeper for his family, paying her nothing. He claimed it was a thousand yuan a month, and she could leave once she had worked off the principal. After only two days, Liu Juan was thoroughly scolded by Chao Ge's mother, who complained about her poor housekeeping, bad cooking, and late trash disposal.
Liu Juan, who had always been proud, didn't excel academically in school but was exceptionally beautiful. Marrying a wholesale seafood dealer turned her into a wealthy wife. She was the first among her relatives to own a car and the first to live in a high-rise. However, in the past few days, she had been treated as if she were trash, and she couldn't bear it any longer.
She had planned to work as a housekeeper for a few months, figure out where the old woman kept her money, steal it, and then run away to work in a factory in a southern county. But just now, when the old woman argued with her, she gave Liu Juan a slight push. Liu Juan fell backward and lay on the ground without moving.
Liu Juan checked her breathing and, feeling none, was terrified. She quickly ran out. After leaving, she remembered that she couldn't escape without money. Only then did she think of asking Liu Fang to borrow some money to flee south. Now, seeing Liu Chen, the child, minding the shop alone, Liu Juan had a new idea.