911 Designing a New Machine
These were things that Li Gui had never even dared to dream about. In fact, she had close to 3,000 dollars in savings now. This money was meant for Qiao Mei after she gave birth. Having a pair of twins would definitely incur a lot of expenses. What if that guy with the surname He did not send the money over on time and Qiao Mei ran out of money?
If Xia Zhe was still out on a mission and was unable to rush back, she would be too embarrassed to ask the Xia family for help. Qiao Qiang also would not go and look for those heartless children from the Liang family to ask for money even if he was in trouble. It was better to prepare more money for Qiao Mei. She was not afraid of any problems that could be solved with money. The matter of buying a house could wait until she had more money in the future.
Although Li Gui knew that the Xia family treated Qiao Mei very well, Qiao Mei was still her own daughter after all. She must make her plans carefully and not be muddle-headed and hesitant if anything should happen. When a woman gave birth, it was like making a trip to the gates of hell. Every second was like a struggle for life with the King of Hell. She was really afraid that something would happen to Qiao Mei.
“Qiao Mei, how did you get that machine? Tell me where you bought it as I want to buy two more. This way, I can make more popcorn every day,” Li Gui said.
Qiao Mei had even wondered if she would be able to get an automated popcorn machine. It was really too tiring to make popcorn manually. The popcorn machine would probably take another 20 odd years to be born, so there was definitely no hope for it now.
However, she had heard from Qiao Qiang that there was an old grandpa living nearby who was a grade-8 welder. His son was even a senior engineer! If she could make improvements to the small pot that she was using currently, it could also increase their production. Two days ago, Qiao Qiang brought Qiao Mei to their house to visit them and she told the old grandpa her ideas. That old grandpa admired Qiao Mei very much and did not charge her a single cent for the design!
The old grandpa had never met a girl who was so interested in technical stuff and had so many ideas. He himself actually had a son and a daughter.
The old grandpa and his wife were both famous technicians in the factory. They had hoped to pass on their skills to the next generation and that their pair of children could inherit their skills. However, they did not expect their daughter to have no interest at all. He had always felt a sense of regret over this.
Now that he met Qiao Mei and she was smart and could speak so well, it would be a good choice for his wife to pass on her technical skills to Qiao Mei.
“Let’s use those small pots first. I already asked elder sister to go and get more but they have already sold out. There’s no more stock now,” Qiao Mei said.
“It’s fine. Then I’ll just use what we have first. I made 90 pounds today and I’ve almost used up all the corn at home!” Li Gui said proudly.
They would always have more corn than they needed. Qiao Mei had already stocked up a huge amount of corn in the other courtyard house that she bought and it was all corn kernels. She did not use her energy to make the corn kernels fall out by themselves. She had found some women who had free time to help her do it.
She paid them 5 cents for each pound of corn kernels produced. They liked to gather and chit chat and it made no difference to them whether they chatted on the streets or in Qiao Mei’s courtyard. Moreover, they would be able to earn money while chatting, so of course they were more than willing to do it.
Li Gui made popcorn at home every day. Even if the neighbors could not see the process, they could smell the sweet fragrance. Everyone’s eyes were on them.
Qiao Mei was also worried that the neighbors living around them would be envious of them for making money and file a report against them. If that happened, it would make it even more difficult for them to get along with the neighbors. She still wanted the family to live here for the rest of their lives! She could not let this affect the harmony among the neighbors.
All human beings had feelings. If one could help everyone else improve their lives, no one will want to harm one behind one’s back.
Old Madam Fan had already been released from the police station yesterday. It was said that she had suffered a little when locked up. It was not easy to have to stay there for two days during the cold winter, yet it did not seem to be a big deal for her. After she came out, she went to the entrance of the cinema to look for Li Gui and even asked her relatives to go along with her. She told her relatives that as long as Li Gui paid for the medical expenses of her two sons, they would also get a share.
Old Madam Fan lied to these relatives and inflated the amount, deceiving all of them. Otherwise, if there was no money to be made, who would want to waste time going with her?
In the beginning, there were still people who believed what Old Madam Fan said. As time passed, Old Madam Fan’s credibility became worse and worse. Everyone went home and stopped going along with Old Madam Fan’s antics.
