Lin Chuxia greeted him enthusiastically, “Brother Li, please come in. How come you’re passing by here today?”
She led him to a quiet corner off to the side, wiped the table and chairs again, and then waved for Chen Chunhua to bring over some food.
“Don’t fuss over me, I’ve already eaten. I saw that the store had just opened, so I came in to check it out.”
Hearing this, Lin Chuxia asked Chen Chunhua to bring over a pot of tea.
The new store opened today, and she hadn’t revealed the news to anyone.
In life, there’s no need to overly connect with too many people. You can know a lot of people, but it’s best to keep the relationships “semi-acquainted.”
The most comfortable relationships between people are those where you simply know each other, appreciate each other, and maintain a distance.
Brother Li was someone she had actively approached in the past, and he was an important person on her path forward. The more that was the case, the less she could afford to overuse their relationship.
Of course, it was another matter if he took the initiative to come.
Li Jian looked around the store and admired the woman from the bottom of his heart, “I really didn’t expect you to open another store like this so quickly. I see the store across from the food factory is losing business to you. You’ve got guts to compete with the food factory.”
Lin Chuxia poured him a glass of water, “Brother Li, you’re making fun of me again. I don’t have that capability. It’s just that I happened to fancy this storefront, and it happened to be near the food factory’s store.”
Li Jian accepted the water with a smile, but said nothing. He just listened to her words.
“I see the business in the store isn’t bad. To have so many people on the opening day, the customers won’t be few in the future.”
“Then I’ll take that as Brother Li’s blessing,” Lin Chuxia courteously replied, “How have you been lately, Brother Li? The vegetable station isn’t busy now, is it?”
Now that it was early winter, there wasn’t much left in the fields except cabbage and radishes.
“It’s been okay. This year, the vegetable station has stored a large batch of winter reserve cabbages, and now we’re waiting to ship these out before the Spring Festival. Previous sales were good, and I hope it won’t let me down this time. I really admire you, though; you act immediately without hesitation, unlike me who looks before leaping.”
“My situation is different from Brother Li’s. My store has nothing; if it fails, I’ll just lose some money. But for Brother Li, it’s the hope of the whole vegetable station,” and his own future.
Lin Chuxia didn’t explicitly state the latter part of the sentence; those who understood would understand.
“But Brother Li needn’t worry too much. The market is just transforming, and everyone is crossing the river by feeling the stones. Even if we fail, the sky won’t fall. We fear stagnation due to hesitation more than failure, right? Besides, even if we make a mistake, it’s still an experience. We eat our fill with the last bite, but it’s definitely not just because of that last bite.”
Li Jian suddenly understood, and it seemed as if the heavy stones weighing on his heart these past days were instantly lifted.
Heaven knows how much psychological pressure the storage of hundreds of thousands of pounds of cabbage at the vegetable station had put on him.
Picking up his teacup, he clinked it with Lin Chuxia’s, “I still have to say, young lady, sitting down and chatting with you really clears my mind.”
Lin Chuxia picked up her tea and drank it in one go, “That’s because Brother Li respects me.”
Broad-mindedness and vision are but the experiences of her lifetime.
In anything, if you do it with the possibility of failure in mind, you may succeed. If you don’t do it out of fear, then you’re left with nothing.
…………
A busy day, and even with ample preparation for the opening, the Bun Shop sold out and closed early.
Lin Chuxia gathered the staff in the new shop; today the new shop officially opened, and their own store had officially divided the work.
Sun Lanlan was appointed as the manager of the Bun Shop’s main branch.
Although she had been in charge at the main store, she never had the title of store manager.
The main store’s staff allocation: Granny Sun, Cai Jun, Sun Bingnan.
Qin Han takes on the role of the new store’s manager, with staff assigned: Zhang Guilan, Qin Wu, Zhou Hongmei, Chen Chunhua.
Su Wensong is in charge of the cooked food department, holding a position equivalent to the store manager, with assigned employees: Pang Yongli, Ma Yingzi, Jia Liang, Hou Xiaobao.
Lin Chuxia oversees all the stores as the general manager.
With these titles and formal allocations, their stores have also gotten on the right track.
Everyone clapped excitedly, especially the longstanding employees who watched the shop grow step by step, their faces filled with smiles and hope.
Chen Chunhua and Ma Yingzi sat together, applauding and whispering, “Yingzi, why do you think the boss wouldn’t let me join your team? I was referred by you, I thought I’d be working with you.”
Underneath Lin Chuxia’s inspiring speech, Ma Yingzi replied nonchalantly, “The boss… oh, I mean, the manager must have her reasons for this arrangement, and besides, the work at my place is dirty; it’s nicer to work in the bun shop.”
“I wouldn’t mind the dirt and the hard work if it meant I could work with you. Look at the people in this bun shop—either they’re the manager’s brother and sister-in-law, or her little uncle’s siblings. I’m the only outsider. Working here, I’ll probably end up being bullied to death.”
Ma Yingzi finally glanced at her and disagreed, “Why would you think that? The manager and the Qin Family are easy to get along with, how could they possibly bully an outsider like you? Just focus on your work and don’t worry too much.”
During this time, Yingzi often interacted with Qin Han and his wife, who were both pleasant and easy to speak with.
Chen Chunhua pouted her lips but said no more.
The meeting was short. After Lin Chuxia assigned everyone their tasks and offered some words of encouragement, she let everyone leave work.
After Jia Liang, Hou Xiaobao, and others had left, they came over.
“Manager!”
They spent the day with Su Wensong, first loading up at the chicken farm, then visiting the butcher shop, and finally joining everyone in the courtyard to prepare the cooked food.
Even though it was a hectic day, it was fulfilling, a complete change from their previous street loitering.
Su Wensong had told them that their salary for this month was 30 yuan, and it would rise to 40 yuan once they became permanent employees next month; if they did well, there would even be a bonus, which was more than the average worker’s wage.
The private business they used to work for only paid them 25 yuan.
It really mattered who you worked for.
Lin Chuxia noticed the change in their spirit from that morning to now and could tell they were quite satisfied with their current jobs.
“What is it?” she asked.
Hou Xiaobao sheepishly began, “We were working in the courtyard today and heard there’s staff housing available. I was wondering if I could stay there?”
He knew that it was currently Sun Bingnan and Sun Lanlan, siblings who were staying there, and that one room in the dormitory could house up to four people.
Lin Chuxia nodded in understanding.
That morning Jia Liang had mentioned that Hou Xiaobao was the youngest at home. After his parents passed away when he was young, his brothers kicked him out of the house under the pretext that he was up to no good, when in reality they just wanted to keep his share of the family estate to themselves.
He didn’t want to burn bridges with his brothers, and besides, it didn’t make much difference to him where he lived alone. Over the years, he had been hoboing around, sleeping one night here, another there, with Jia Liang or other friends.
Now that they had given up that lifestyle, he stuck with Jia Liang.
It’s never too comfortable to always live in someone else’s home, Lin Chuxia pondered for a moment, “Staying there might not be quite possible…”