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Chapter 473: Chapter 463: Whose Little Foodie Is This?
The money was divided, and seeing the sum before them, Li Xianglian and her husband Liu Jianjun were still somewhat apprehensive; they had never seen so much money in half a lifetime of hard work back in their hometown.
"Yunfang, this is still too much. Your brother-in-law and I haven’t done much, and we’ve been eating and living here for free. How about you just give me three hundred, and you and Liguo can split the rest?" Li Xianglian, eyeing the heap of money before her with desire and excitement, knew that with this money, they could pay off all their debts back home and still have a surplus. But she didn’t feel justified in taking it; she had contributed nothing and, after selling goods for just a few days, receiving such a large share made her uneasy about spending it comfortably.
"Elder sister, haven’t we already agreed on this? What’s yours is yours. We’re partners in this, and you and your husband have done a lot in this time, braving the cold and exhaustion to sell goods every day. If we’re talking about the effort put in, I think you’re actually losing out," Shen Yunfang pressed Li Xianglian’s hand, not allowing her to refuse.
"No, no, it’s nothing," Li Xianglian said hurriedly, waving her hands. Even if they had to sell in the cold without a stove to warm them and only thin clothes on their backs, the prospect of making money would spur her on to go through hell or high water. Their family was suffocating under the burden of external debts.
Elder sister, to you it might seem like nothing, but to us, it’s a big deal. If you and your brother-in-law hadn’t come to help, do you think any of us would have been cut out for braving the cold to sell goods? I certainly wouldn’t make it," Mu Huazhen joined in persuading her. "If we go by what you’re saying, my husband and I didn’t contribute much either, just ran some errands, but it wasn’t as tough as what you did. I wouldn’t feel right taking this money either."
"No, that’s not what I mean," Li Xianglian, seeing Mu Huazhen about to return the money, became anxious. That wasn’t her intention at all; she wasn’t that ignorant. Although Ma Liguo and his wife hadn’t helped sell goods a single day, they had been working behind the scenes. The reason they could sell goods so peacefully, without anyone causing trouble, owed much to this couple. Yunfang had told her this more than once and she understood.
"Alright, alright, no more pushing it back and forth. All of us have worked very hard to make this business work, to earn so much money, it’s all due to our collective effort, nobody should be modest now. Here, let me put away the money for each of you." Shen Yunfang took out the military bags that had originally held the money, and packed away the earnings for the Ma Family and elder sister’s family. "This is our first partnership, and it’s been a success. I hope we can continue this in the future, making money steadily."
"Sure, Yunfang, whenever you need help, just send word to elder sister. Even if your brother-in-law can’t come, I will surely be there to help you," Li Xianglian promised.
The money was finally allocated, and the discussion turned to what should be done with the leftover Spring Festival couplets in the storeroom.
Originally, they had printed a thousand copies for each design, with over a hundred designs, that was more than a hundred thousand copies. In the past twenty-something days, through wholesale and retail, they had sold most of them, and still over twenty thousand copies were piled up in the storeroom.
"That’s not really urgent. We have space here, and as long as we seal them properly, we can sell them again next year. However, those with the Year of the Monkey won’t be good anymore," Shen Yunfang noted.
Luckily, both in retail and wholesale, the couplets specific to the Year of the Monkey had been more popular than the generic ones, so relatively speaking, there weren’t many Monkey year couplets left, probably less than two thousand.
"So what should we do? There seem to be quite a lot of those left," Li Xianglian became anxious. If these couldn’t be sold next year, wouldn’t their money have been wasted?
"There’s nothing we can do about that. Next year isn’t the Year of the Monkey anymore, who would buy couplets for the Monkey year then? So tomorrow, during the New Year, if you, Brother Ma, have any relatives, friends or important connections, you should quickly take some of these couplets to give as gifts, otherwise it’d be a waste," Shen Yunfang said, her mindset healthy. Actually, even if all the remaining couplets were wasted, it wouldn’t matter much; they had already made a good profit, principal and interest included. n𝚘vp𝚞𝚋.com
"Alright, I do have a few colleagues and neighbors to visit, and these gifts are ready-made. In fact, I’ll be saving money," Ma Liguo said, also having this intention.
As it was already very late, and tomorrow was New Year’s Eve, after Ma Liguo took some couplets for gifting, everyone went back to their homes. As for the couplets left in the storeroom, they would have to be sorted out after the New Year’s celebrations.
The next morning, after Shen Yunfang got up, she started cleaning inside and outside. These days she had been preoccupied with selling Spring Festival couplets, and the household cleaning had been neglected during the festivities. She hadn’t even had time to shop for New Year’s goods and had Mu Huazhen help her with the purchases.
After judging that the cleaning was mostly done, Shen Yunfang entered the children’s room and called the two kids to get up.
"Babies, are you awake?" Shen Yunfang lay between her children, cuddling one and hugging another as if it had been a long time since she had been so close to them.
"Mom, didn’t you say we don’t need to go to Aunt’s house today?" Pangpang rubbed his eyes, looking bewildered, and pouted his little mouth for a kiss on his mother’s face.
"Right, we don’t need to go today, but today is the New Year, and early birds get their New Year’s money," Shen Yunfang replied as she kissed her son back, while Manman was still fast asleep, completely undisturbed by her mother’s antics.
"Wow, Mom, I’m already up, I want my New Year’s money," Pangpang said, raising his little hand in a cute, expectant manner.
"Good, my Dabao is so well-behaved, Mom will definitely give Dabao a big red envelope," Shen Yunfang said affectionately, hugging her son and giving him a big kiss.
Pangpang’s face was squeezed out of shape by his mother’s hug, but he still remembered to ask for blessings for his sister, "And don’t forget my sister and Taxue."
Hearing its name called by its young master, Taxue whined and circled anxiously under the bed, not daring to jump on it.
"Okay, everyone gets one, everyone does."
Shen Yunfang took out two red envelopes from her pocket, handing one to Pangpang and tucking the other under Manman’s pillow. For that little sleepyhead, she would have to wait until she woke up herself to see it.
As for Taxue’s red envelope, since it wouldn’t be spending any money, she would wrap up a piece of meat for it later as a gesture.
"Thank you, Mom," Pangpang said, his little eyes beaming with joy as he clambered down from the bed. He then scurried over to the desk, pulled open a drawer, and took out a piggy bank.
It was a gift from his mother last year for him and his sister, and he’d been feeding it all his pocket money throughout the year, believing it would soon be full.
Carefully, Pangpang opened the red envelope and slipped the two one-yuan bills into the piggy bank’s slot.
Taxue barked happily twice, and Pangpang hastily turned back and gestured "shh" with his hand, "Taxue, don’t bark, sister is still sleeping, you’ll wake her."
Shen Yunfang watched, smiling, as her children and Taxue played. After a while, seeing no sign of her daughter waking up, she got up to leave to make breakfast for the children, "Pangpang, go brush your teeth and wash your face in a bit. Mom is going to make breakfast. What would you like to eat in the morning?"
"Mom--I’m awake," Manman struggled to open her groggy eyes at the mention of breakfast and looked towards her mother heading to the door, "I want to eat steamed dumplings."
Shen Yunfang paused, wondering which family’s little foodie this could be.
