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Chapter 23: Chapter 23: Spotting Business Opportunities
Tong Yao cheerfully replied, "It doesn’t matter who’s the boss, as long as I’m free to spend the money."
After saying that, she deliberately glanced at Si Chen.
The shop owner chuckled, "You really didn’t need to say that, seeing how you’ve been shopping for half a day and your man hasn’t complained about the price once."
Having seen many couples come to shop, it was typically the men who were in charge of decision-making. But with this couple, it was clear that the woman was in charge. What worry could there be about their future not being prosperous?
It was only after the shopkeeper’s reminder that Tong Yao noticed this. Si Chen, having grown up in poverty, should have been more cautious with money. But he seemed not to care, never mentioning the price, and apparently wouldn’t object even if she decided to buy out the entire store.
Anyone might think that he came from a household with a few million in savings to have such confidence and composure.
After looking around for a while, Tong Yao eventually bought a collapsible small table and two stools. Learning that they were staying in the hospital family housing, the shop owner offered to deliver the items as he was going to visit a friend in the hospital. Upon hearing this, Tong Yao was immediately delighted.
After leaving the store, the two headed to the vegetable market. The market was unsanitary, with strange odors lingering around, and swarmed with flies and mosquitoes. Stray dogs roamed nearby, occasionally foraging for food in the garbage.
Tong Yao bought a few vegetables and then walked over to a butcher’s stall. Seeing the well-marbled pork, she decided to buy some pork belly for lunch. Coincidentally, there was an old man with a pet dog named Xiaohua, who was also buying meat.
Xiaohua started barking as soon as they reached the stall, and its owner chuckled, "Stop barking, we’ll buy some meat and have a feast at noontime."
The butcher, a chubby man, casually waved his fly swatter while listening to the old man’s words and chuckled, "It’s just being greedy because it can smell the meat."
Tong Yao, seeing Xiaohua barking away, pulled Si Chen and walked away.
"Aren’t we buying meat?" Si Chen arched his brow in question.
Tong Yao looked back at Xiaohua, who was still barking, and took Si Chen to another butcher’s stall, "We’ll buy from this one."
Xiaohua had been barking nonstop. Others couldn’t understand it, but Tong Yao could. Xiaohua was trying to prevent the old man from buying the meat, claiming that the stall sold meat from diseased pigs. Even though Tong Yao could understand what animals were saying, she didn’t have any evidence to prove that there was a problem with the meat. She couldn’t act self-righteously.
Si Chen thought she was avoiding the noisy dog and didn’t ask anything more. The two bought about one pound of pork belly from the stall across the street and then prepared to head back.
To help Tong Yao get more familiar with Li City, Si Chen led her on another route back, which passed by a school. Usually, during school dismissal time, the road was crowded with people, and there were residential areas nearby, so most people took the previous route.
The two soon arrived at the entrance of Li City No. 1 Middle School. Maybe because it was Sunday and the school was on holiday, the school gate was deserted with not a single person around. Looking at the school gate, an idea for a business opportunity suddenly popped into Tong Yao’s head.
Seeing her staring at the school gate, Si Chen casually explained, "This is Li City No. 1 Middle School, with over a thousand students from kindergarten to high school."
"Over a thousand students?" Tong Yao’s eyes lit up. So many students—if she set up a snack stall at the entrance, she would undoubtedly make a fortune.
City students were different from country students. The students here had pocket money to spend. Even if only a small portion of them spent one cent at her place, she could make a profit of two to three hundred cents a month.
The more Tong Yao calculated, the happier she felt. Seeing her excitement, however, Si Chen was slightly puzzled. He couldn’t figure out why seeing a school would make her so happy.
Tong Yao had no intention of telling him. She had only known Si Chen for two days and didn’t fully understand his temperament yet. What if Si Chen thought selling snacks at a stand was embarrassing? Then wouldn’t her business be suppressed before it even started?
She decided to wait until the business was thriving before discussing it. By then, even if he thought it was embarrassing to run a stall, he wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation of money. Who would turn against money these days?
All the way, Tong Yao’s eyes were always squinted, unable to hide her happiness. Although Si Chen wasn’t sure why she was so happy, seeing her cheerful mood made him feel better as well.
When they arrived at the family housing building, Tong Yao went to the restroom, telling Si Chen to go upstairs first. However, just as she arrived at the restroom door, she ran into Chen Yanmei. Both were stunned for a moment. Chen Yanmei stared at Tong Yao for a while before asking with a smile, "Young lady, you’re Meiyu’s friend, aren’t you?"
Tong Yao was not happy, remembering that Chen Yanmei had spoken ill of her behind her back the previous day. Knowing that Chen Yanmei had mistaken her for someone else, she didn’t clarify, simply passing by her without acknowledging her and walking straight away.
Chen Yanmei muttered in disdain, "What’s the use of being beautiful if you don’t have any manners? Such a pretty face wasted."
Passing by Dr. Liu’s house next door, Tong Yao finally understood why Chen Yanmei had mistaken her. It was Sunday, and Dr. Liu’s wife was off duty and had invited several friends to their apartment, which was a one-bedroom flat. Several people were sitting in the living room. 𝓃𝓸𝓋𝓅𝓊𝒷.𝓬𝓸𝓂
The people in the living room also noticed Tong Yao. Even though they only saw her side profile, they could tell she was a beauty. One of the men, wearing glasses and looking neat, asked curiously, "Teacher Li, who’s the doctor living next door to you? Their daughter is quite stunning."
Tong Yao looked young and delicate, just graduated from university and had a baby face, which made her seem like a high school student. The man naturally assumed Tong Yao was the daughter of the doctor living on the second floor.
"Mr. Wang, are you interested in her?" a teacher named Zhu laughed and teased.
"What are you talking about? I’m already twenty-five and she’s just a high school student. How could I, as a teacher, do such a thing?" Mr. Wang frowned unhappily. Mr. Zhu was a Grade 1 Chinese teacher and he was a math teacher. They both taught the same class and had a somewhat strained relationship due to disagreements over the scheduling of the classes. Although they didn’t have overt disputes, their casual conversations often included hidden barbs.
Teacher Zhu laughed it off, "I was just joking, why are you getting so worked up?"
"Mr. Wang, you’ve really mistaken this time," said Li Meiyu, bringing out some tea leaves and adding a pinch to each of their tea cups. "Her man is a surgeon at the hospital. They’ve only been married for half a month. She’s a young wife, not a high school student."
Mr. Wang’s face took on a surprised look, "I thought she was still a high school student. She looks so young."
Li Meiyu quipped, "Being a surgeon is a prestigious job in the countryside, and families with daughters would be willing to pay a dowry to have him as a son-in-law." She implied that Tong Yao, likely just of age, had been pushed into marriage by her family to seize the opportunity of being with Si Chen and lead a better life in the city.
