After taking off from the airport and being picked up by the chauffeur, Shu Li was a little shocked. She knew that her sister was wealthy now and doing well for herself but she didn’t know that Shu Yan has her own chauffeur. She was shocked again when they arrived at Nanfu Mansion.
“You live here?” The house was too pretty. Better than all the other ones in City Xi. Shu Li felt that if Shu Jianyang was going to build houses, he should build something like this.
“Yes, I bought a house here. It’s a bit on the small side but it will do for tonight.”
Sure, whatever you say.
They followed Shu Yan up the elevator and saw that the inside was very clean once the door opened. The mother and her children were too intimidated to even walk inside.
“Boss lady is back?” Aunty came out of the kitchen. She knew that Shu Li and the kids would be over and had been preparing lunch. She smiled at them and said, “Lunch will be ready soon. Get settled in then come eat.”
Shu Yan gave everyone a pair of slippers and brought them to the bathroom. They had already learned how to use the sink at the airport and Shu Yan didn’t need to go over that with them again. They would worry about showering that night.
Shu Li carefully tugged at Shu Yan’s hand and asked in a low voice, “Who is that?”
“Oh, a domestic help that I have hired. She is the one who takes care of the cooking and cleaning around here. You can call her Aunty just like I do.” Shu Yan had Aunty cleaned up JingJing’s room for Shu Li and Niuniu. She thought about having Pingan shared the room with Tianbao but worried that he would be scared on the first night so she had three layers of blankets put on the floor to be his bed. His “bed” was very soft and warm.
Shu Li gasped. She had no idea what Shu Yan did but having her own company, chauffeur, and domestic help made her sound mightier than Shu Jianyang.
It didn’t matter what Shu Yan do or how much money she had. It had nothing to do with her. Shu Li wanted to look for a place to stay the very next day. It was awkward not living in one’s own house and the kids were reserved too. They needed their own place even if it was a subpar place.
“Don’t worry about looking for a place. You can stay at my other house for now and rent your own place in the area after you have opened up your shop. Right now you don’t even know where your shop will be located.”
That made sense. They would just have to work again if they found a place that was too far away from her shop.
Mainly Shu Yan’s other place would be free and they could grow their own vegetables and save some money. Shu Li only had 18,000 yuan on her. Pingan wasn’t the healthiest and Niuniu needed to go to school. Any penny saved would help.
School matters was easy to take care of. JingJing and Tianbao didn’t attend school here so Niuniu could take their spots. As for Pingan, Shu Yan thought it would be best for him to hold off school for a year and focus on his health. He could return to school after he got better.
From Shu Yan’s perspective, there was nothing seriously wrong with Pingan. He was just born weak and also not getting enough nutrients at home.
They took him to a doctor at the No. 4 Hospital and he had confirmed Shu Yan’s speculation. He was weak and needed time to get better.
“I have included ginseng in his medicine list. It’s a bit on the expensive side and he will need to have it for at least a year. You need to be prepared for that.” The doctor paused a little and said, “If that is a problem, I can switch to a different prescription. It will also be effective, but will take a little bit longer.”
Shu Li clenched her fist and looked over at Pingan. “No, go ahead. I will go with the more expensive one. As long as he can recover, money is not a problem.”
“Mom, we can skip it?” Pingan said quickly when he saw that his mother was unhappy. “Let’s go with the cheaper one. I’m used to drinking herbal soup already. It will just take a few years. We don’t need to waste money.”
Tears welled up in Shu Li’s eyes. “Hush. You don’t get used to drinking herbal soups. Once you have recovered, you won’t need to have it again.”
As they had included expensive medicines in the prescription, that would cost around 1,000 yuan a month. 1,000 yuan in 1993 was not a small amount. Shu Li was a bit pale when she paid for it. She thought she could use the money to open up a shop and could bypass asking Shu Yan for a loan if she could help it. The faceslapping sure came quickly.
With Lao Hu’s help, they quickly found a decent storefront that was close to the school. It was a spacious place. Two rooms together came out to be almost 90 square meters. It was 2 and a half floors. The attic was for storage and the second floor was where the landlord used to stay. Now that their child had gone to a university that was out of town, the two also decided to rent the place out and move with their child.
“Isn’t 600 yuan for rent a bit high?” Shu Li had never done business before and was intimidated immediately by the rent amount. 600 yuan a month. Lu Qingwei only made 400 yuan a month. How much did she need to sell every month to pay for rent? And that didn’t even include the cost of utilities. Shu Yan also mentioned hiring a salesperson. Shu Li couldn’t even begin to think about her monthly expenses.
“Don’t worry. Trust me,” said Shu Yan with a smile.
