They signed a three-year contract with the landlord. The landlord wanted rent to be paid once a year for the entire year and Shu Yan’s plan to pay shell out the first year’s rent for Shu Li, that way it would be less stress on her. Shu Li adamantly refused to accept that. She spent a long time to convince the landlord to let her pay once a quarter. It cost her 2,300 yuan including 500-yuan deposit.
“Do I need to give anything to Lao Hu? Is a case of cigarette enough?” Shu Li was not aware that Lao Hu charged referral fee for his work.
“Don’t worry about it. We are friends. I will take him out to lunch on a later date.” Shu Yan decided against telling her about it. She could cover that for her.
This storefront was a noodle shop before and its business was mediocre. Shu Yan had no idea what was going through the original owners’ mind. How much business did they expect opening up a noodle shop next to a grade school? The walls were a little bit dirty and need a fresh coat of paint.
“I know someone in the remodeling business. I’ll have him send someone over shortly. All you need is a fresh coat of paint and have a couple carpenters build you a couple shelves and you will be good to go,” suggested Shu Yan after she had taken a look around the place.
In the back was the kitchen. For certain that Shu Li would have no use of it. They could just separate it with a wooden board and they would be able to cook in the back. They could use the other compartment as storage.
Chen Fei came after just one phone call and immediately promised to help. With Chen Fei’s help, they could get started right away and he only charged for the labor for the workers and cost of materials. It cost barely anything. Shu Yan still had her cash register from her old undergarment shop sitting in a storage with no use for it. She had someone brought it over.
“Do you want to have a couple of tables here? Students can sit here and read,” said Lin Hui when she swung by on her way to picking up her child.
“Nah. It’s not senior high school students. Grade school kids won’t have the patience to sit around.” Shu Yan shook her head. All they were selling were some extra reading material, notebooks, pens and pencils, etc.
“That’s true too.” Seeing Shu Li coming down from upstairs, Lin Hui smiled and greeted her. “Hi Second Sister. I am Lin Hui, a friend of Shu Yan’s. You can just call me Xiao Hui.”
“Hi.” Shu Yan’s mandarin pronunciation was not very good. She had tried very hard learning from Shu Yan in the last few days but still have a bit of an accent. “Pardon me, I don’t even have a chair here.”
“It’s fine. I sit all day long. It will be good for me to stand for a bit.” Lin Hui looked around. “This place is nice.”
“Your shop is truly nice. I heard you are making good money.” Zhang Huaxiu had told Shu Yan that Lin Hui’s shop was bringing in low ten thousand a month for very minimum work and management. How wonderful was that?
Lin Hui smiled and didn’t comment on that. They chitchatted for a bit longer and it was time for her to go pick her child up. She said that she would buy her stationaries there in the future.
“Your friend seems nice,” said Shu Li all of a sudden.
“She’s alright. I have a good friend here. Now we run a company together. I’ll introduce her to you later.” Shu Yan was ordinary friends with Lin Hui and Wu Xiuyue. They never opened themselves up to Shu Yan; nor did Shu Yan, them.
The second floor was the where the original owners lived. They had taken away with them their clothes and beddings but left behind the bed and the closets. All they need were a good wipe down.
Shu Yan brought over beddings and blankets. “I have too many at home and I am running out of spaces to put them.”
Nobody has too many blankets. Shu Li knew that Shu Yan was trying to help her out. She didn’t call her out but smiled and said, “Thank you.”
