Chapter 85: Chapter 85: Deciding to rent a shop
During the meal, Lao Cai kept using the communal chopsticks to pick Feng Yiping this and that. The eldest and second eldest of the Cai family both felt that it was not right. Dad was being too polite to Yiliang's nephew!
After lunch, Feng Yiping had to go back. Lao Cai said, 'You should go back too, so your parents don't worry. Da Lei, give Yiping a ride home.'
'No need, I'll take the bus, it's very convenient.'
'It's fine, my motorcycle is fast,' said Cai Lei, finishing his rice in two mouthfuls, and coming over to give a big hand, 'Let's go.'
Cai Lao escorted Feng Yiping to the door, 'Come over and visit whenever you have time, make yourself at home. I've taken to heart what you said, I'll find someone to look into it right away.'
'Then I thank you in advance!'
Cai Lei, looking very proud, pulled up to the door on a red motorcycle, handed Feng Yiping a helmet with a visor, waited until he was on the back seat, and then revved the engine, sending them speeding off with a "boom".
Feng Yiping really didn't understand motorcycles. By the time he started getting paid, most cities had banned them, so he really didn't feel anything about them. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
So, all he knew was that the one Cai Lei was riding was a Honda. He recognised the brand. Later, he couldn't buy Honda generators old or new.
He didn't know that at this time, this Honda 90 would cost tens of thousands of yuan. Riding it on the road was still quite a thing.
Cai Lei had been waiting for him to ask all the way, and when they were waiting at the traffic lights, he deliberately asked Feng Yiping, 'Do you have motorcycles there?'
Feng Yiping completely failed to appreciate his desire to show off, and said matter-of-factly, "Yes, we do," and then there was no more to it.
Well, Cai Lei was also too embarrassed to show off himself, but after all, he was a little frustrated, so after dropping Feng Yiping off at the university town, he said goodbye and roared back to the furniture factory.
During the lunch break, Lao Cai called Cai Hong into his office. He wanted to give Feng Yiping something to show his appreciation, but he didn't know what the younger generation liked these days, nor did he know what Feng Yiping needed, so he asked Cai Hong for advice.
Without asking why, Cai Hong first asked Lao Cai how much he wanted to spend, 'A few hundred yuan, a bit more is fine.'
Even Cai Hong was a little jealous. A few hundred yuan would allow her to buy two nice outfits.
'Then let's get him a bicycle. Yiliang said that Feng Yiping will live away from home after the semester starts and won't be boarding at school, so he needs a bicycle. The ones sold in the county town are probably all the same old clunker, so get him one of those mountain bikes that a lot of students ride nowadays. Four or five hundred yuan should be enough.'
'Okay, let's get him a mountain bike. You buy it and deliver it to him.'
'Dad, there's something else I want to discuss with you. Yiliang says he doesn't want to work in the factory anymore, he wants to go into renovation with someone else. Do you think that's a good idea?'
'Renovation?' Lao Cai lit a cigarette. 'Why would he want to do that?'
He wasn't opposed to Cai Hong and Mei Yiliang getting married, but he wasn't really happy with Mei Yiliang's current situation. But there was nothing else he could do in the factory, and there were still two sons, so he couldn't do anything.
Cai Hong repeated what Mei Yiliang had said, almost exactly the same words as Feng Yiping had told Mei Yiliang.
After listening, Lao Cai pondered for a long time, 'That's not a bad idea. It's a promising business. What do you think?'
Cai Hong was a little embarrassed, "I think Yiliang is right. We need to find a way to make some money." As for what to do with the money once it's earned, she certainly wasn't going to say.
'Haha, yes, with his current situation, Yiliang can't ask me for money either. Then I'll support you both. I'll ask someone to find him a renovation team to follow.'
'Thanks, Dad!'
'Haha, why do I feel that in this matter, his nephew also has a hand in it?' Lao Cai asked Rainbow with a smile.
Rainbow didn't know for sure, and Yiliang was always too embarrassed to say in front of her, 'This idea is from my nephew.'
'Maybe, Yiping was here yesterday, and this morning Yiliang came to talk to me about it,' Cai Hong said.
It was a hot day, and there were far fewer chestnut buyers, so in order to buy more, they had to go to more places.
Feng Yiping walked along the shade outside the wall of the Polytechnic University, and saw Feng Zhenchang, who was wearing a straw hat, pedalling his bicycle with his head bowed, and Mei Qiuping bent over pushing behind him. He hurried over.
'I'm back,' Feng Zhenchang said, stopping. He wiped the sweat from his face with a towel, took the water Mei Qiuping handed him and gulped down a few mouthfuls.
'Have you had lunch?' Mei Qiuping asked him.
'Yes, Cai's eldest son gave me a lift back on his motorbike. What about you? Have you eaten yet?' Feng Yiping walked over to the other side and helped push the cart.
'Yes, we had the buns left over from this morning.'
Feng Yiping looked at the sweat stains on his parents' clothes and their sunburnt faces under their straw hats, and his determination to rent a shop front was strengthened.
After going back, regardless of whether it was face-saving or not, he would copy something and turn it into money.
Feng Yiping certainly had a number of goods in his belly that could be turned into money, but what prevented him from turning them into money was also himself.
Without going into intellectual property rights and so on, he considers himself a person with a bottom line. Even if it means plagiarising some of the future works of others, if he is not forced to, he doesn't really want to do it.
This is just one reason. More deeply, he is also a somewhat proud person. He thinks to himself that he can make money on his own, and then he did, so he is a bit disdainful of doing those things.
But time is running out. Due to his age, many of his ideas are now useless. It would have been fine to wait and see, but now, after personally experiencing the hardships of his parents, he has put all those doubts behind him.
He even criticises himself, 'Am I being a bit pretentious?'
They stopped in the shade outside the entrance to the University of Finance and Economics. 'I asked Boss Cai to help us find a shop.'
Feng Yiping had wanted to wait to tell them, worried that his parents, and especially Mei Qiuping, would worry about the rent if they knew.
But when he told them, they didn't react as he expected. Mei Qiuping just said, 'My boy, why didn't you discuss such an important matter with us first? If you needed help, we should have gone to your brother-in-law's master. How could he have taken it seriously if you, a child, had asked him?'
'Oh,' Feng Yiping was a little surprised. It seemed that his parents had already considered renting a storefront. 'In the morning, I had a conversation with Boss Cai, and then I mentioned it to him. Who knew he would agree, and even said he would help us find a place where people live above the store below.'
'That's really good, but anyway, we still have to go and mention it to him once, so that he doesn't think we're rude,' Mei Qiuping said.
'Yes, yes, so you go and pay him a visit in a couple of days!'
Feng Zhenchang said, 'Your mother and I have discussed this, and if we save up some money, we can rent a shop, and then things will be different from now on, and the income will be more stable.'
Mei Qiuping then said, 'With a storefront, you can still do business as usual. With the current setup, you can make an average of tens of dollars a day. Who would have thought that such a good thing would happen?'
'Yes, that's fine. Then we'll look for a suitable place in the university town area ourselves. It would be best if there's a suitable place here. We can bring your sister here too, so that she can look after the store when she's not busy. You two can still push the cart around like you do now, and you can earn money on both sides.' Feng Yiping first agreed with his mother.
Renting a shop also has something to do with my sister. My sister was too young when she went out to work, and no one was looking after her, so she didn't care about the family's hardships and just looked after herself, always comparing herself to others. She still wanted to be around her parents so they could keep an eye on her.
'Yes, yes, let's bring Yuxuan here too, then we can rest assured,' said Mei Qiuping. 'It's just that the money is definitely not enough.'
'That's fine, just find a way. This year is much better than last year, isn't it? If it really doesn't work out, go back and take out some more loans. It'll be fine.' Feng Zhenchang was now much more confident when it came to money.