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Chapter 760: Chapter 750: Love to Fuss Around When Rich
After spending two days shopping with Wang Dan and Li Xianglian, all the necessary items had been bought, and Shen Yunfang had also missed two days of work. In the evening, Zhang Chunwang had called to ask her when she would be coming to work. He had finished the accounting for the year, and Chinese New Year was fast approaching, with the employees still waiting for this month’s bonus. Of course, without the boss there, even if he had the money all divided up, he wouldn’t dare distribute it.
So, Shen Yunfang prepared to go to work on the twenty-eighth day of the year; it wouldn’t do to delay the employees’ eagerly anticipated bonuses until after the New Year. As the boss, she had to consider her employees, taking home her own earnings while ensuring her staff could also enjoy a prosperous and abundant New Year.
Early in the morning, Shen Yunfang got up to make breakfast. By the time Wang Dan and his wife came over from Li Xianghe’s place, the meal was already underway.
"Wow, why are we eating so early today?" Wang Dan felt a bit awkward inside. Doesn’t every household wait for all the guests to arrive before starting the meal? How could his younger sister-in-law be so informal? They hadn’t even arrived, and the others had already begun eating.
"It’s not early; we’ve been up for over an hour," said Li Xianglian without a second thought. She was straightforward and didn’t pick up on the underlying tone in Wang Dan’s words.
"Exactly, big sister-in-law, you and big brother should come earlier next time. The kids were so hungry waiting for you they were about to cry. During the New Year’s celebration, you really can’t do this," Shen Yunfang caught the reluctance in Wang Dan’s words, but she wouldn’t indulge such behavior. Being a guest didn’t mean everyone in the world had to cater to you.
"Oh, come on, look at what you’re saying, sister-in-law, exaggerating much? The past couple of days we’ve been eating at this time too, and I haven’t heard anyone complain about being hungry. Is it Shuanzi who’s been whining? That child just loves to make a fuss. I’ve told you, you can’t indulge kids like that or they won’t turn out well when they grow up." Wang Dan’s mouth could be sharp, but knowing his sister-in-law was protective of her children, he dared not speak ill of the two kids from the second brother’s family, so he could only bring up the ones from the eldest sister’s family.
Liu Jianjun didn’t usually bother with petty squabbles with the old ladies, but hearing someone berate his son right off the bat bothered him. Yet, considering it was his uncle’s home, he had to keep his cool and barely managed a smile as he looked at Erdan, "Erdan, did you hear that? Your mom says we shouldn’t spoil you anymore, eating whenever you want. It won’t be good for you when you grow up."
Erdan’s cheeks puffed up with annoyance, "Mom, you’re the one who got up late, so why blame others?"
Wang Dan hadn’t expected her criticism to be directed at her own son Erdan instead of Shuanzi, and although the words were out, they couldn’t be taken back so easily. Besides, at home, she tended to scold the children whenever she felt like it, and a wrongful reprimand didn’t really matter to her. Yet being openly contradicted by her brother-in-law was somewhat embarrassing, and inwardly she blamed her headstrong son for not helping her save face.
"Exactly. We need to hurry up and eat. We’re going to work with second aunt later," Sandan chimed in, egging things on.
Wang Dan adjusted her expression, plastering on a smile as if nothing had happened, and made her way to her son’s side, squeezing in a place for herself, "Second auntie’s going to work? It’s almost New Year’s, why is she still working so hard? And you kids, you don’t need to go bustling about when second auntie goes to work. You wouldn’t want to cause her any trouble."
"We’re not causing any trouble. We even helped pick persimmons and cucumbers for others," Sandan finally had a good deed to his name and was definitely not going to let his mom disparage it.
"What? Picking persimmons and cucumbers at this time? Are you feverish?" Wang Dan reached out to feel her son’s forehead, thinking he was spouting nonsense.
Feeling slighted, Sandan dodged his mother’s hand, protesting, "I’m not! Second auntie’s farm has lots of greenhouses, full of fresh vegetables—there’s plenty."
"Greenhouses? What greenhouses?" Wang Dan was somewhat confused.
Liu Jianjun and his wife were also unclear and looked to Shen Yunfang for answers.
Shen Yunfang knew the news had spread, and the farm could no longer be kept secret. She openly explained to both families about her leasing land to build greenhouses.
Liu Jianjun and his wife knew about the matter; they just hadn’t seen the greenhouse themselves.
Shen Yunfang had introduced them to the idea of growing fresh vegetables in a greenhouse.
"What, you’re saying, just to eat fresh vegetables in winter, you built a house, laid a heating kang, burned that damn expensive coal, filled the kang with soil and planted vegetables, are you out of your mind?" Wang Dan was quite shocked and didn’t bother to hold back, blurting out exactly what was on her mind.
Shen Yunfang pondered her sister-in-law’s words with discontent and realized that, roughly speaking, what she said was indeed accurate—the vegetable greenhouse was essentially what she had described.
Li Hongxing nudged his wife under the table, and it was then that Wang Dan realized what she had just said. She chuckled awkwardly, like a hen whose throat was gripped, and said, "Oh my, don’t listen to my nonsense, I don’t even know what I’m saying." After saying that, she secretly wiped away non-existent sweat.
Shen Yunfang decided not to dwell on it anymore; if her mind was sick, so be it. With money in hand, no one could stop her from doing as she pleased. It’s said, a rolling stone gathers no moss, but the more she stirred things up, the wealthier she got.
After everyone finished eating, except for Li Hongjun who had to go to work, everyone else wanted to follow along to the farm. The kids hadn’t had enough fun yet, and the adults mainly wanted to see the place for themselves.
Shen Yunfang had no objections, so the group heading to the farm was even larger this time.
Approaching the farm, they saw Zhang Chunwang waiting at the entrance from a distance; seeing the group, he ran over.
"Sister-in-law, you’ve finally come. Everyone’s been eagerly waiting for you," Zhang Chunwang said. This was no lie, as everyone knew that payday only happened when the sister-in-law was there; for the past few days, they had been looking forward to her coming to the office.
"Here I am, don’t worry, there won’t be any delays," Shen Yunfang said rather grumpily. "These are our relatives, visiting the farm for the first time. See who’s free to give them a tour." She had work to do and had to make sure these people were taken care of.
"Alright, no problem, I’ll find someone right away," Zhang Chunwang replied and dashed into the building.
"Let’s not freeze out here; come on, let’s warm up in my office first," Shen Yunfang said, leading the four to her office.
"Yunfang, didn’t you say you just rented some land, how come there’s a building here too?" Wang Dan’s eyes didn’t miss a beat as she cast them on the house in front of her, thinking to herself that renting land surely didn’t come with a building as a bonus.
"There are quite a few people working here, and since it’s quite far from the city center, I took a piece of land here to construct a dormitory building. This is it; my office is on the first floor," Shen Yunfang said as she opened the door of the office, signaling they had arrived.
Wang Dan and the others gasped—all impressed by their sister-in-law’s capabilities, realizing that not only had she rented land, but she’d also managed to build such a large building.
In the eyes of rural folks, land isn’t that precious because they deal with it all year round. Renting land is just a matter of a small sum of money, and though not insignificant, it’s still within their reach. Yet, building such a large structure was beyond what they could imagine.
They toiled in the fields for half their lives just to be able to renovate their old homes back in their village. If a family could afford to build a few additional tiled houses, they would be considered a top-notch family back in their hometown. The idea of constructing a small two-story building was audacious enough, let alone a multistory building like the one in front of them.
