The date on the red receipt, September 11, 2007, was clearly written, followed by the prominent characters "Two Hundred Yuan," which had not faded at all.
The elderly women invited by Luo Meihong to be guests could all read. In the past, Luo Meihong had bragged in the square dance group about how good her new daughter-in-law was to her, and how considerate her granddaughter was.
But what they saw today…
It seemed completely opposite to what Luo Meihong had said!
Seeing the receipt, Hu Min casually handed it to her mother. "Let the fox deal with her mother, the vicious have their match," she thought, letting her mother deal with Zhang Lili.
Upon seeing the two-hundred-yuan receipt, Luo Meihong understood everything. She was so angry that she straightened up instantly and began to tear at Zhang Lili's perm from that afternoon.
She didn't hold back her strength at all, pulling out a lock of hair, leaving a scalp the size of a fingernail exposed on her head.
"Mom, you misunderstand me! Sister, quick, come and persuade Mom!"
Zhang Lili, still unaware of her appearance, was still trying to explain.
The eldest aunt went to mediate but was slapped away by Luo Meihong, who had no reservations about her eldest daughter.
Hu Qian, who had always done as her mother said, saw Zhang Lili being beaten so badly. While saying "stop hitting," she seized the opportunity to pinch Luo Meihong a couple of times.
Seeing Luo Meihong's ferocity, the square dancing elderly women, fearing they might get involved, all slipped away.
Hu Min also decisively took Liu Chen's hand and left the private room. It wasn't that she didn't care about her mother, but her mother, when fighting, didn't distinguish between friend or foe; anyone who got close would be clawed.
Moreover, Zhang Lili and her elder sister wouldn't dare to truly fight with their mother. If their elder brother found out, they would be in for a rough time.
Along the way, Liu Chen looked down at the silver bracelet on her wrist. Everything today was incredibly coincidental, as if someone was helping from the shadows. Was the influence of "luck value +1" really that powerful?
However…
"Little Aunt."
"Mm?"
"Thank you." Thank you, in this life and the last.
"Silly girl. Hey, let's go, we're going for KFC!"
After eating their fill and changing clothes, Liu Chen arrived home just before 8:30 PM. Liu Fang was sitting in the living room, watching TV with a fan blowing.
Usually, when Liu Chen wasn't home, she would use the fan to save electricity.
Hearing the door open, Liu Fang turned her head towards the entrance and asked Liu Chen, who was changing her shoes, "Did you have fun today?"
Liu Chen pursed her lips, walked to the sofa, and took out her Nokia music phone from her cloth bag, handing it to Liu Fang.
"What's wrong? Did you break your phone?"
Liu Chen shook her head, sat down beside Liu Fang, and played an audio recording from inside.
It was the recording of Liu Chen's grandmother's words from that day.
Liu Fang's expression changed from initial confusion to a frown, and finally to shock as she looked at Liu Chen.
"Chenchen, you, does your grandmother always talk like that?"
"Mm."
"Why didn't you tell Mom?"
"I was afraid you would worry."
With those words, Liu Fang's tears began to flow silently.
For years, she knew what her ex-mother-in-law was like, yet she still believed that even a tiger wouldn't eat its cubs, and that her Chenchen was at least loved. Her daughter, with a gentle nature, was afraid of worrying her and bore it alone. Thinking about the treatment her daughter received during visits these past few years made Liu Fang feel worse than if she had known her younger sister had lied to her.
Liu Fang wiped away her tears and placed her hands on her daughter's shoulders.
"Chenchen, from today onwards, if you don't want to go to Grandma's house, you don't have to. You can also choose not to go to your father's house. Just, if anything makes you unhappy in the future, tell Mom. We two are a team, so Chenchen must always believe Mom, okay?"
Liu Chen buried her head in Liu Fang's embrace.
"A mother's love makes one strong," Liu Fang thought to herself, vowing to work hard to expand the frozen food business and make their lives better!
Perhaps with this new determination, the next morning Liu Chen clearly felt that her mother had changed in some way.
Upon arriving at the shop, Liu Fang sat beside Chenchen, holding a contract.
"Chenchen, next semester you'll be in your third year of high school, and you'll also be eighteen. Mom still wants to discuss this with you. I spoke with the hand-grabbed pancake manufacturer yesterday. Their proposal is that if we want exclusive agency, we need to sign a minimum sales contract."
Liu Chen nodded upon hearing this. After all, she had handled many such contracts in her previous life; this was a form of protection for the manufacturer.
"If the total sales over three consecutive months do not reach two hundred pieces, they have the right to terminate the exclusive agency. Do you think we should sign this contract? As you've seen while you were in the shop these past few days, our usual daily shipment is about a hundred pieces. It's been a bit better lately, around one hundred and twenty to three."
"Two hundred pieces in three months means at least seventy pieces a month, and three pieces a day to meet the minimum requirement."
Liu Chen listened to her mother while looking down at the contract in her hand.
Her first impression was that this manufacturer was likely a new, small factory, and the contract appeared somewhat unprofessional, with not much restraint on the distributor.
"Mom, did the manufacturer bring any materials?"
Liu Fang nodded and took out the manufacturer's promotional materials from a drawer. "I looked at them. Although this factory is new and a bit small, all the necessary procedures are complete."
Liu Chen smiled as she looked at the promotional materials in her hand.
This was her former employer from her previous life!
However, when she joined as a salesperson, her former employer's factory was already a thousand square meters, and the company had over four hundred employees.
Looking at the factory, less than a hundred square meters, on the brochure, Liu Chen almost burst out laughing. "Boss, I didn't expect you to have such a difficult time."
Upon closer inspection, she realized it was established only at the beginning of this year, and its main product was advertised as grilled sausages, which was correct. She remembered her former employer had become successful by producing OEM grilled sausages, and she couldn't recall anything about hand-grabbed pancakes.
"Mom, do you have the business card of that salesperson?"
"Yes, here it is!"
Liu Fang handed Liu Chen a simple business card.
Liu Chen saw the name on the card—Wang Dong.
What a coincidence! She was very familiar with this Wang Dong from her previous life. How could she not be? This was the owner of the factory himself!
Since the owner himself was negotiating, Liu Chen knew what to expect. It was likely that hand-grabbed pancakes hadn't taken off in her previous life. With her here this time, with a little push, she had managed to get them promoted in C City ahead of schedule.
"Mom, let's take a gamble. I think this manufacturer has a lot of sincerity. I think it's feasible! But Mom, you can try to lower the price. After all, we are promoting a brand new product, which carries a lot of risk."
Liu Fang nodded.
"I thought the same thing. Alright, then I'll schedule him to come sign the contract at noon."
At the same time, Liu Fang's phone rang.
"Hello? Really? Oh, of course! We have a long-standing relationship, after all!"
After hanging up, Liu Fang couldn't hide the smile on her face and sat down beside Liu Chen, who was memorizing words.
"Someone gave feedback on the hand-grabbed pancakes we sent out yesterday. They said that at our price of four yuan each, plus toppings it's ten yuan. They sold out as soon as they were displayed. They asked me how much one piece costs and said they would come to pick up the goods this afternoon."
Seeing her mother smiling brightly, Liu Chen quickly reminded her,
"Then remember to ask the manufacturer's representative to bring fifty pieces when he comes to sign the contract."
"Fifty pieces? Isn't that a bit much?"
"It's okay, we can negotiate payment terms with him. We can pay for one batch and then pay for the next batch when we order it." After all, her former employer's orders had followed this payment process, so Liu Chen was confident that Wang Dong would agree.
Over the next morning, Liu Fang received over a dozen calls, with everyone expressing their intention to come and place orders.
Liu Fang was all smiles the entire morning.