A Young Woman's Heart

Chapter 86 Other People and Other Things

Inside the Silver Maiden Burger & Fried Chicken shop.

As more and more people learned about this commercial street, it became increasingly lively.

The supporting facilities are all under construction, and everything is thriving.

As the only fried chicken shop here, it is made in China, so the price is much cheaper than other places like KFC or McDonald's. Even parents in the countryside will give in to their children's pleas and agree to take them here for a meal.

At least this meal made them feel it was a good deal, and some might come again next time. After all, it was only twice as expensive as a regular fast food restaurant. But in other restaurants, even if you paid three or four times, or even four or five times, the price of a fast food meal, you probably wouldn't be able to get a full meal.

At eight o'clock in the morning, the place has just opened. People usually don't eat greasy food so early in the morning, but by noon, it gets busier.

And they'll be busy until the evening.

In the afternoon, quite a few people will also come here to have a snack.

The two sisters, Mo Zhuyou and Mo Xiaoxiao, were busy preparing ingredients in the kitchen, hoping to make things easier when there were more people later.

"Looks like the shop can make quite a bit of money this summer." Duanmu Bi happily calculated the accounts. "If every day is like the previous few days, we can probably make a net profit of 20,000 yuan this month!"

"That's a lot!" Mo Zhuyou exclaimed in surprise. "If you earn 20,000 every month, wouldn't that be 240,000 a year? You could become a millionaire in five years..."

“But such good business doesn’t happen every day,” Mo Xiaoxiao said with a light laugh.

"Yes, if it were that good, I'd give you all a monthly salary of two thousand yuan—each person!"

"Wow, I hope business will be this good in August..."

Actually, the two of them worked different hours during school and during holidays. During summer vacation, they were basically in the store every day, so they earned more money.

Duanmu Bi's so-called salary of two thousand yuan per person refers to the full-time situation.

This is certainly a great goal to strive for, which fills Mo Zhuyou with enthusiasm.

She thought that if she received a salary of two thousand yuan, even if she gave one thousand five hundred to her sister to save, she would still have five hundred yuan to buy all sorts of things she wanted.

The things she likes aren't expensive; 500 yuan is enough to buy a lot.

However, although there are more people on the commercial street, it is still the suburbs after all, and it is basically impossible to have such good business every day.

A net profit of 10,000 yuan in August is still acceptable, but 20,000 yuan is only theoretical.

"Oh, Xiao Ji, you're here?" Duanmu Bi, who was keeping accounts, looked up and waved to Duanmu Ji, who had just entered the store. "Are you here to help out today too?"

"Can I skip helping today?" Duanmu Ji was clearly tired from the busy past few days. "I'll do my homework today."

"Well, well, then you can write it. Just make sure it's not noisy."

"I don't care," Duanmu Ji said expressionlessly, walking to the table in the far corner and sitting down. Unless there was absolutely no other place to sit, he wouldn't use that table.

When business is slow, if Mo Zhuyou wants to take a nap, she will move a few chairs behind the table and lie down, using the table to hide herself.

"By the way, have Xiaoxiao and Youyou finished their summer homework?"

"My sister wrote a lot, and I'm exhausted when I get home. I don't have any time to do my homework at all." Mo Zhuyou yawned again. She is quite particular about her sleep. Recently, the shop has been busy, and when she gets home late, all she wants to do is sleep and doesn't want to do anything else.

Actually, when you think about it carefully, my older sister is more capable. After all, she still has to clean the house, feed the rabbits, and spend another hour or two quickly doing some summer homework. She also has to get up early in the morning to do laundry and so on...

As a result, she only gets four or five hours of sleep a day.

Mo Zhuyou, who usually gets about seven hours of sleep a day, actually looked more tired than her.

Anyone who didn't know better would think that the younger sister, not the older sister, usually does all the housework!

“You can bring your homework over. You can do it when the shop isn’t so busy!” Duanmu Bi said, twirling the pen in her hand.

"Sister, do it... then let me copy it when you're done..."

"It's better to do it yourself."

"Eh—? All I want to do in my free time is sleep—" Mo Zhuyou said coquettishly.

"If you get really sleepy, let Xiao Ji take over," Duanmu Bi said considerately, calling out to Duanmu Ji, "Xiao Ji, is that alright?"

"I understand," Duanmu Ji replied indifferently, neither showing reluctance nor liking.

……

"Gao Yuan, Gao Yuan," Gao Yuan's mother called softly.

Even at home, Gao Yuan's parents still call him by his full name. Thinking about it carefully, it seems that he didn't have a nickname since he was a child. Instead, his friends gave him many nicknames, but most of them were related to words like "fatty".

Inside the villa, Gao Yuan lazily picked at his ear, then got up and opened the door: "What's wrong, Mom?"

"I brought you some fruit," his mother said, glancing into his room. "Playing video games again?"

"Yes."

"Have you finished your homework?"

"I wrote it, I wrote it," Gao Yuan lied.

"It's obvious that it wasn't written."

"You actually wrote it?"

"Come on, I know you too well." The mother had a look on her face that said, "I can read your mind." "You'll be studying abroad after the second year of high school. I won't force you to study other subjects, but you need to study English well."

"I know... I did okay in English for the final exams this semester."

"You're only doing so much better than you used to be," his mother said irritably, handing him the fruit plate. "Can't you try a little harder?"

"Oh dear, there are just too many things to do. I've already done my best."

"Then spend the time you would spend playing games on studying."

"Mom, I study hard so I can play games! What's the point of living if there's no entertainment?" Gao Yuan sighed helplessly. "I'm not a tool; I have my own hobbies too!"

"What's the point of playing games? It's a waste of time."

"What's the point of Dad gambling, especially when he loses so much money?"

"This is an unspoken rule in business."

"Tch..." Gao Yuan curled her lip, "Alright, alright, I'm closing the door!"

"Your piano tutor will be here this afternoon, and you'll have an English tutor tonight. Plan your time carefully and don't overdo it."

"I know, I know—" Gao Yuan closed the door, ran back to the comfortable chair in front of his desk, leaned back, comfortably crossed his legs, and continued playing the game.

……

"I'll stop doing this in the middle of the month." In the children's palace, Tian Tingchan sat on a bench during lunch break. A delicate bento box was on her lap, and Zhou Yong was holding a box next to her—it was a gift from her.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Zhou Yong squinted one eye and forcefully opened the tightly closed lunchbox lid. "Are you tired?"

"It's alright." Tian Tingchan slowly opened the lid and placed it in the empty space to the side.

Although it had rained earlier, the sun has now come out and is shining on the ground again. The ground is almost dry, and I estimate that in a little while, all traces of the rain this morning will be completely wiped away.

Several children with backpacks walked by. Some were going home after finishing their morning classes, while others were planning to go out to buy something to eat.

The main reason Tian Tingchan prepared the lunchboxes was that the food at the Children's Palace was really expensive, and it consisted mostly of snacks, which weren't very filling.

A little girl with enviable hair volume and four braids walked by, giggling as she said to her friend, "Look, those two older brothers and sisters are dating!"

"Are they uncle and sister?" another little girl corrected.

"No, then it should be Uncle and Aunt."

"But the 'auntie' looks very young, shouldn't she be the 'older sister'?"

"Maybe it's my uncle and sister."

Zhou Yong touched his chin. Recently, his beard had become increasingly dark and grew rapidly, making him easily mistaken for an uncle.

"Oh—am I that old?"

"...It's alright." Tian Tingchan lowered her head and chuckled, "Why don't you shave?"

"Ah, I wanted to shave, but my dad said I'm too young, and shaving will only make my beard thicker and coarser later..."

"Ah."

"So I was told to shave at least once a month. How was I supposed to know my beard would grow so fast?"

"That means you're in good health and your testosterone levels are high enough." Tian Tingchan used a small spoon to evenly scoop half a spoonful of rice and half a spoonful of vegetables, brought them to her mouth, and then ate them in three or four bites.

In contrast, Zhou Yong would eat a mouthful of rice followed by a mouthful of vegetables, and each mouthful was quite large. Sometimes he wasn't so particular, perhaps eating three mouthfuls of vegetables before eating a mouthful of rice. If he was worried about not having enough vegetables, he would quickly shovel in a couple more mouthfuls of rice.

Sometimes food and rice will "leak" out of my mouth, but it's okay, it just falls into the lunchbox and I can just eat it again...

It all comes out of your own mouth, so there's no question of whether it's disgusting or not.

"Oh right, I haven't said yet. Why? Since it's almost over, why not just hold on until the end of the month?"

"I need to focus on my studies."

"Oh, I almost forgot, you're still a university student! And you just changed your major, so you definitely have a lot of new things to learn."

"Well, so I plan to dedicate the last two weeks to studying."

"That works too. I'll resign around that time as well."

"You don't look like you're going to study," Tian Tingchan teased.

"Ah, mainly, I feel like I can't keep going on alone. Also, I really do feel tired. I should use the last two weeks of summer vacation to enjoy myself. If I make money but can't enjoy it, then what's the point of making money?" Zhou Yong said confidently, raising his eyebrows and asking, "Right?"

"Perhaps."

"Oh...right, by the way, if I have any questions I don't understand, can I come to your house and ask you? Ahem!" Zhou Yong coughed awkwardly twice, wanting to take back what he had just said, but what's said is said, like water spilled. "Uh, never mind, you must be very busy with your studies."

“Of course.” Tian Tingchan turned her head and smiled. At this moment, she was being shone by a beam of light at an angle, making even her eyelashes look golden.

……

Chapter 87 Infiltrating the Principal's Office

Thursday, June 2000, 8.

Mo Xueyao parted ways with Li Wanyan at the school gate.