Stepmother Reborn: Dad, my mom hasn't hit me for three days

The next day, Ergou followed Li Jianguo to the brewery. Zhang Xiuhua and Zhuzhu were bored at home, so they went along too.

"Let's eat lunch in the county town. We don't have to come back to cook."

Ergou had no objection, "It's a good opportunity to go around our county. I went around here a lot when I was in high school."

Arriving at the brewery, Ergou checked the accounts with the accountant. Li Jianguo usually didn't stay here. It was a good time to build good relations with the higher-ups as the year was approaching. As long as the higher-ups didn't cause trouble, the factory could operate as usual.

Zhang Xiuhua was strolling around the county. Her favorite place to go shopping is in the mall, where she can compare the differences between the two places.

Zhuzhu was originally in her father's office, but there was no one there. She felt bored, so she followed them over.

Zhuzhu walked in and looked around, "Why are there so few customers here?"

She remembered that when she came here last year, business was pretty good. Especially now that it was the end of the year, it was the time for every household to buy new clothes for the New Year. How could it be so quiet?

Zhang Xiuhua looked at the styles of these clothes and found that they were still imported from state-owned garment factories. No wonder the business was so bad!

Manager Xu was strolling around on the first floor. When he saw Zhang Xiuhua, he thought she looked familiar. After a long while, he finally remembered, "Aren't you the older sister who rented a stall from me before?"

Zhang Xiuhua didn't expect that he recognized her. She was a little flattered and nodded with a smile, "Yes!"

"Where are you working?" Manager Xu saw that she was well dressed and thought that she was doing well. Her clothing stall had done good business before. If she was still doing this business, he could bring her over. Any profit was better than making losses all the time.

Zhang Xiuhua smiled and said, "I work at the train station, taking over my husband's job. He is now the director of the brewery."

Manager Xu suddenly realized, "So it's the factory director's wife. I'm so sorry!"

Zhang Xiuhua kept saying "I don't deserve it". She looked around and said, "It's Chinese New Year, why doesn't this mall have some new clothes? The styles in the south are especially beautiful."

Since we can't get clothes from southern brands, we can import some clothes from unknown brands. As long as the styles are good and the prices are cheap, there will definitely be many customers.

"Don't mention it. Shipping from the south is so expensive." Manager Xu sighed, "These old brands are unwilling to improve. There's nothing I can do."

The mall is just an intermediary, and the brand is unwilling to adapt, so he can only worry.

"Are southern brands unwilling to come here?" Zhang Xiuhua asked tentatively.

"It's too far. It's not convenient to transport it here, and it's cold in the north. Northerners can't wear southern clothing styles. They don't want to come." Manager Xu had looked for them a long time ago, but was rejected without exception.

Zhang Xiuhua chatted with Manager Xu for a few minutes and then left.

Zhuzhu whispered to Zhang Xiuhua, "Manager Xu looks much older than before. He used to have thick hair, but now his hairline has moved back two or three centimeters, and he's almost bald in the front."

Zhang Xiuhua patted her on the back and said, "We are outside, so don't say anything. These are all his subordinates. If he hears about it, he will say you are ill-mannered."

Zhuzhu stuck out her tongue, "Okay, I won't say any more."

After strolling around outside and finding nothing interesting to see, the two returned to the brewery. It was the busiest time of the year, and the workers were busy.

Zhang Xiuhua greeted them one by one and went to the office.

Ergou is still checking the accounts. He doesn't like unclear accounts, and it would be very troublesome to retrieve the data.

"We have already booked a restaurant. Let's go eat first. We've been busy all morning. It's time to rest our brains." Zhang Xiuhua patted Ergou's shoulder.

Er Gou flipped through the account book without even raising his head, "Where's my godfather?"

"Don't worry about him, he's out to get connections. It's the end of the year and our factory is the busiest, we can't let anything go wrong." Zhang Xiuhua asked the accountant to call everyone else to come over to eat together.

The accountant nodded and went out.

When they arrived at the restaurant, the others sat at one table, and Zhang Xiuhua and three others sat at another.

Zhang Xiuhua talked about the poor business of the mall. "I'm not saying this in hindsight. I thought this mall wouldn't last long. The clothes there are so ugly and the quality is not good. Who would buy them? It's not as good as the pedestrian street across the street."

Ergou hadn't been there yet, but he knew which mall his godmother was talking about. "Really? Is it going to be sold soon?"

Zhang Xiuhua didn't ask, but she guessed that it would have to be sold soon.

Ergou showed a look of regret on his face. "What a pity that location. It's in the center of our county. It's the busiest area. I heard that many people go there for a walk at night."

Zhang Xiuhua nodded. The flow of people was indeed very busy. Before she knew it, she had walked to the sugar factory. The small shop here had been demolished. Suddenly, her eyes lit up, "I think opening a supermarket will definitely do good business. What do you think?"

Ergou was slightly stunned. There are already supermarkets in the south. The literal meaning is "supermarket". It is similar to a canteen, but there are more goods and self-service shopping.

Ergou touched his chin and said, "Sure! For a two-story house, the price shouldn't be too high."

When Zhuzhu heard that her mother wanted to open a supermarket again, she first focused on one question, "Do we have enough money to buy it?"

Zhang Xiuhua had already thought about it, "Yes, the brewery is going to distribute dividends. With a net profit of one million, your father and I can get at least six hundred thousand."

Ergou thought they could give it a try, "He can still hold on now, when he can't hold on anymore, we'll go buy him out!"

After eating and drinking, I returned to the factory and Li Jianguo had already returned.

He finished his meal with his leader and drank a bottle of beer, but he didn't get drunk considering his alcohol tolerance.

But he would feel sleepy at noon, so he squinted in the office for a while. When he saw Zhang Xiuhua coming back, he perked up and asked, "When are you two going back?"

Zhang Xiuhua did not answer his question, but told him about her plan to buy a supermarket.

Li Jianguo was a little sleepy at first, but when he heard this, he was immediately startled, "Supermarket? Why do you have such an idea?"

"I think the location is great. In fact, the convenience store we opened is almost the same as a supermarket." Zhang Xiuhua felt that this was a rare opportunity.

"Of course, we can. But who will manage it?" Li Jianguo couldn't handle two things by himself. The small shop next to him was too small, so he could just hire two salesmen. But the supermarket was so big, and there were so many things. It couldn't be managed by just the salesmen.

Zhang Xiuhua sighed and thought of a line: What is most lacking in the 21st century is talent! Especially management talent.

She thought for a moment and said, "I think Manager Xu is not bad. He can manage well. We can recruit him."

"Him?" Li Jianguo was not very reassured. "Don't you always dislike leaders of state-owned enterprises?"

"Not all of them are just sitting there doing nothing! Some of them are capable of doing real work." Zhang Xiuhua thought that they would provide the capital and Manager Xu would be responsible for management. "We will give him dividends when the time comes. We will send a cashier and an accountant."

Her idea came to her so quickly that Li Jianguo couldn't decide for a moment, "Let me think about it."

Zhang Xiuhua was not in a hurry. "Okay! You take your time to think about it. Zhuzhu and I will go home first. I think Jilin and the others should be back by now!"

She and Zhuzhu took the bus home first, and when they arrived in town, they took a tricycle that was specially responsible for picking them up.

There were no tricycles to take people home before, and Zhang Xiuhua didn't want to walk, so it was fine to spend some money and take a tricycle.

The only downside is that the road is too bumpy. If it were all paved with cement, she could get home in one nap.

Zhuzhu found it funny and said, "How much will that cost? There are still many roads in our town that have not been paved with cement." Zhuzhu thought her mother's idea was too good to be true.

Zhang Xiuhua sighed, "It's just a dream."

Before she was reborn, the village was not very good. It seemed that there was no hope for her in fifteen years.

The two returned home and jumped off the tricycle. Aunt Wang Er saw her coming back and said with a smile, "Your Ji Lin is back!"

Zhang Xiuhua nodded, but the door was still locked and the luggage was piled at the door. "Where are the people?"

"Your sister-in-law took them home because she was afraid they would go hungry." Aunt Wang explained.

Zhang Xiuhua chatted with her for a few minutes, then went home, opened the door, and carried her luggage into the house.

Not long after, Jilin and Tong Shuyu came back. They had eaten and drunk their fill at the old man's house before returning.

Jilin scratched his head, "I think grandma can already walk a long way."

"Yes, it's much better than before." Zhang Xiuhua asked her, "Hasn't Hongxia come back yet?"

"No. I heard from Auntie that Hongwen has to work overtime and won't be back for the New Year this year. Sister Hongxia didn't call either, so I don't know if she will come back this year."

Zhang Xiuhua sighed.

Tong Shuyu urged Jilin, "Didn't you bring back gifts? Let Aunt Zhang and Zhuzhu have a taste."

Ji Lin was stunned for a moment before he reacted and quickly took out persimmon cakes from his bag.

Zhang Xiuhua hadn't eaten persimmon cakes for a long time. Persimmon trees don't grow in the north, so the frozen persimmons here are shipped from other cities. Moreover, the persimmons here are hard persimmons, so this kind of persimmon cake is usually made with hanging persimmons.

The color of this persimmon cake is also beautiful, like a small light bulb. It is half-dried in the sun, and the color changes from orange-red to reddish brown. The skin is covered with a little white icing, and you can faintly see the attractive luster inside. Take a bite, the skin is soft and flexible, and the inside is sweet, sticky and smooth. You can smell the mellow fruity aroma at the tip of your nose, which makes people want to taste it again.