Chapter 105: Chapter 105: There is a future
ƒreewebɳovel.comIt was past 8 o'clock in the evening. Foreman Lao Yang put down the work in his hands, walked to the centre of the room, clapped his hands and shouted, 'That's it for today!'
The harsh sound of the electric drill, the thumping of the sledgehammer on the wall, the hum of the cutting machine, the shrill sound of the chainsaw... Finally, it stopped. After tidying up a bit, the dozen or so people immediately dispersed.
Mei Yiliang, wearing a black helmet and a dirty camouflage uniform, with a layer of white dust and wood shavings on his face, presses his ear and shakes his head. The residents who have already moved in are most annoyed by this noise. They never see them in a good mood, but they work in this noise every day. Even if it's quiet now, their ears are still buzzing.
He bent down, unplugged the power cord of the chainsaw, and put it away in its case. This was one of the few valuable possessions of the renovation team.
Many people in the team had brought their wives and children to settle in the provincial capital. Although most of them also lived in the suburbs, they had to rush back home late at night, no matter how tired they were. Even a temporary home had a kind of magic that could soothe your tired body and mind.
Only he and five other teammates, either single or with family in their hometowns, live together on site.
He habitually takes out a cigarette, but after looking at the messy site, he shakes his head and laughs to himself, dusts himself off, goes to the tap to wash his face, and just goes out to buy groceries. The young worker, who is just back, enters with a cigarette, humming a tune, carrying several plastic bags, 'The food is back, let's eat!'
'Hey, hey, put out the cigarette!' He reminded the young man.
Several people set up a table on the ground with their hands and feet, put several dishes, that is, vegetables such as tofu, radish and eggplant, on it, and then carried the large electric rice cooker over. Several people squatted down and started eating.
This has been going on for a month or so, and he has already got used to it. He has also got a good grasp of the ropes of the renovation business.
Take the renovation team he is working with now. Foreman Lao Yang used to work for someone else, but then he started his own business. In fact, he doesn't even have a fixed team, he just knows some migrant workers who do renovations, and he goes to them when he gets work.
Usually, he sticks small advertisements and distributes business cards in newly built residential areas. It seems that he is also affiliated with a renovation company, and he also takes on work referred to him by them.
But he only takes on those kinds of jobs when he really has nothing else to do. The main thing is that the decoration company only makes the introduction, does everything themselves, but takes a big cut, leaving not much profit for him.
So he really admires his nephew's vision, there are really many opportunities in this industry! Right now in this residential area, there are five or six decoration teams working at the same time, and the situation is similar to his own.
However, the profit is quite good. After making discreet inquiries, Lao Yang said one drunken night that for a job like the one at hand, he wouldn't bother doing it unless there was a few thousand yuan in profit. If he's lucky, he'll get a job from a company or an organisation, which will be even more profitable, at least five figures.
His nephew has good taste!
It was after 9 pm, and the tired teammates fell asleep one after the other. Mei Yiliang cleaned the section against the wall, opened his own bedding roll and spread it out. He lay on it with his clothes on, not sleeping. He took out a roll of paper from his body, which was exactly the part about store decoration that Feng Yiping had given to Feng Zhenchang, and now it was all in his possession.
Mei Yiliang had been like Feng Zhenchang, quite unimpressed. Is it really necessary to make such a big deal of the decoration of a small noodle shop?
But after reading a few pages, he felt that his nephew's hard work had not been in vain. He didn't know what books his nephew had read at university over the summer or whom he had asked, but the things mentioned above, such as the choice and matching of colours, the arrangement of lighting, the division of space, the setting up of functional areas, etc., although he was exposed to these terms for the first time and didn't quite understand some of them, the approaches described above made a lot of sense.
So, he now takes it out and reads it whenever he has a spare moment. He can't say that he knows it all by heart, but at least he is familiar with the content.
However, nothing is ever that simple. With many things, it is only when you get down to doing them that you discover problems here and there. Now he is just waiting for the tenth lunar month. The appliance repair shop that had been agreed on for the storefront will have moved out by then, so he will get a team together to help his sister and brother-in-law with the renovations.
It would be best to go home and get his second brother to come over, and then find some skilled workers at the market, so that his team could start up in his sister's shop.
The first time, they would learn as they go, and if they could achieve the effect designed by their nephew, then they would be able to take on outside work without any problems.
Feng Zhenchang and Mei Qiuping are still riding their bikes around their territory all day. Last month, they helped settle in the four new families, especially Feng Zhenchang, who was very busy, riding Mei Yiliang's bike to run around from place to place. But now it's fine, the four families have all settled down and got the hang of it. Although business is mixed, it's better than at home.
They are also a bit more relaxed now than before, with their daughter helping out, the two of them can occasionally take a day off at home, and get the preparations they did at night done during the day, so they can get a bit more sleep every day.
However, they now have both good and bad news.
The good news is that with the help of Boss Cai, they finally found a suitable storefront. It is a two-storey building in a busy area next to the university town.
It turns out that it was previously owned by an elderly retired worker who ran an appliance repair business with a few apprentices. Now that he has heard that his son has made a fortune in the south and is going to take him there to enjoy his retirement, he plans to only work until the end of the lease.
The place is very popular, and Lao Cai only managed to secure it with the help of connections. They have visited it more than once and really like it! If they can open a noodle shop there, as long as the taste is passable and the prices are affordable, the business will definitely not be bad.
The worry is that the rent, renovations, and the purchase of some necessary kitchenware will cost at least 30,000 yuan, not including the tables, chairs, and stools. Lao Cai said that they can just take them from his factory and not pay for them this year.
But they have calculated that, including the few thousand yuan that their son has saved, they will only have less than 20,000 yuan, which is still one-third short!
Where can they find the money?
Feng Yuxuan is very dissatisfied with her brother for being so meddlesome. 'It's just a noodle shop, is it really necessary to make it so nice? If they just did a simple renovation, they would have almost enough money now.'
However, even if they hadn't read the things Feng Yiping had written before, now that they have, they of course want to do a good job if they are going to do it.
Not counting this small stall, this will be the first business with a facade for the couple, and like Feng Yiping, they actually take it very seriously.
'Why don't we go back and find the village credit union to see if we can borrow some, and then find Dad and ask the second and third oldest to think of a way to contribute some money, so that it won't be too bad,' the couple discussed.