Now that she has rented her store front, she still has a lot on her plate. First, she'd need to look for a remodeling company to start on that. Then, she needed to figure out how to bring in merchandise, and she also needed to hire a salesperson. There were lots that still needed taking care of.
There's a lot that needed to be done to get the shop ready, and she still has the two children to take care of: picking up the kids, buying groceries, cooking, bathing her younger child. By the time the two children were in bed, it was already 8 PM. Then, she still needed to clean the house, do the laundry, bring inside the clothes that were hung up to dry and fold them. By the time she was done bathing, it was usually already 10 PM at night. She'd plop on the chair and was too tired to even complain.
Could she really start her own business with two children? Shu Yan started to question herself before she even got started.
Being distressed plus not being able to eat a lot at night, she was hungry all the time. Anything could be irritable to her. But she couldn't take it out on the kids, so she'd just have to keep those feelings to herself. Every moment like that, she wanted to cry. Her life was great in the past. She didn't have to lose weight; she didn't have to take care of children; she definitely didn't need to work so hard to make money. Why did she have to transmigrate over here and take over the original owner's life?
She took a deep breath. Life must go on. She couldn't be so negative about everything. She was five years younger after the transmigration and she had two children, without having to go through the pain of carrying them for 10 months and giving birth. The worst first three years of the kids' lives were also over. Plus, she had a lot of money to start her own business in the era when there were opportunities all over. She just has to suck it up for a few more years.
Once Ye Jingjing started junior high school and Tianbao was in third grade, things would be better. She just has to buy a few more houses and should be able to retire at 35 with plenty of money.
Sniffling, she went to bed with her stomach grumbling. She got up in the morning again to go buy breakfast, prepare lunch for Ye Jingjing, and take the children to school.
"Have you lost some weight, Shu Yan?" asked Lin Hui with a smile when she saw Shu Yan.
"Yeah, my weight has never gone down since I had Tianbao, so I wanted to lose some weight lately. Can you tell?" Shu Yan could feel it herself as well. The original owner's clothes were now much looser on her.
"You were never that fat. You take good care of your body." This was not like ten years ago when skinny was the standard for beauty. During this time, people found those who were a little filled out to be attractive.
Shu Yan shook her head. Emaciated was not pretty, but she was still too filled-out. With her height, 100 pounds would be a good weight.
"Never mind that for now. I seem to recall you've mentioned that you work at a textile factory? Do you know anyone in the clothing industry then?" Shu Yan held onto Lin Hui. She needed to utilize any connections that she has right now.
Lo and behold, Lin Hui worked in the finance department of a textile factory, and those from the clothing factory needed to go there for their payments, so she did know a few of them. She even knew the addresses of their factories. Hearing that Shu Yan wanted to open up her own clothing store, Lin Hui said enviously, "It's great to have a business of your own. You make more money that way and have more freedom. I have been wanting to do that for a while now, but my family wouldn't agree to it. Sigh!"
The common viewpoint of those in the country was that the iron bowl was the best, especially the ones from the older generation. In their eyes, a stable job was the most important thing of all. Naturally, they'd not agree to Lin Hui quitting her job.
"There's a few factories that work closely with us. I remember their addresses; let me write them down for you." Lin Hui grabbed a piece of paper from Wang Yitong's notebook and wrote down three addresses for her with a pencil. "There are a few more, but these three bosses were quite nice. Why don't you go and check them out first?"
"Thank you so much. If I have to go look for these myself, it'd be so much more work," said Shu Yan appreciatively.
Tomorrow was Saturday, but both children needed to go to the tutorial center. Tianbao's place provided lunch as well, almost like kindergarten on the weekend. Ye Jingjing's place didn't include lunch. Shu Yan talked to one of her teachers and offered to pay them $10 a month for lunches for her children. It's a fair price for lunches for 8 days.
After hearing Shu Yan's request, a few of the other parents who had to work overtime also made the same request, to her surprise. Partly because they were very busy, partly also because the weather was so hot, going back and forth was tiring for them and for the children. Better to let the kids have their meals at the tutorial center and also take their naps there. They could just come and pick them up after work.
Naturally, the teachers were okay with that. It wasn't much different cooking for one or for more, just a matter of cooking a little more rice and a couple more dishes. It wasn't even a lot of work for 8 days out of a month, and that's an additional $100 income. They accepted the request happily.
In this case, Shu Yan didn't have to worry too much about her children on the weekend and have more time to herself. Even so, Shu Yan still felt that she just didn't have enough time.
Take today for example, after taking the kids to the tutorial center, she needed to go check out the new house. The foreman said to have her go and sign off on it. Shu Yan also wanted the kitchen and patio to be half opened, so she needed to check on that in person. All in all, she needed to sign off on a lot of things before they could start work. She thought that would only take an hour or two, but it took her all the way to after 11 AM.
In the afternoon, she needed to go visit the addresses that Lin Hui had given to her the day before. She wanted to check out their clothing. If they were acceptable, she'd take some of them. All of the clothing factories were in the outskirts. Taxies already existed then, but they were also outrageously expensive.
After asking around, Shu Yan got onto a bus and the other passengers on the bus told her that the factories were just 2~3-minute walk from the bus stop. Shu Yan walked around in a circle but wasn't able to locate them. It was so hot that day, so Shu Yan walked into a convenient store, bought a popsicle, and asked the boss about the locations of the factories.
"Oh, this factory is right over there. From the bathroom walk toward your left side. When you see a Risheng Clothing shop, turn right and walk all the way down."
"Thank you." Shu Yan finished her popsicle, rinsed her mouth, and made sure everything was alright before she started walking toward the clothing factory again.
During this period of time, the factory district was very dirty. This was the middle of summer, and lots of flies could be seen hovering over piles of garbage. Shu Yan could even pick up the foul smell of piss. She tried to breath in as little as possible and finally, she was able to find the factory that Lin Hui had told her about.
"Hi, is this Hongsheng Clothing Factory?" asked Shu Yan politely at the old man guarding the door.
"Yes, what do you need?" The old man looked up at her and asked.
"I'd like to get some merchandise. Who do I need to talk to?" She learned from Lin Hui that this factory was privately-owned. She didn't think they'd turn her away.
And they didn't. As soon as the guard heard that she was there for merchandise, he took her straight to the factory owner with the utmost passion. That's right, the factory owner. It wasn't a very big factory after all and not a whole lot of different departments. Most of the stuff was done by themselves.
And, just like Lin Hui said, the owner looked very friendly and ardently gestured to Shu Yan to have a seat when he saw her.
"So you are looking for merchandise? You are opening your own clothing store?" The owner's last name was He. He handed Shu Yan a cup of tea and dived into the subject.
"Yes, I am getting ready to open up my own shop and wanted to check out some of the local factories. If the merchandise is good, I would buy directly from City Nan." Shu Yan didn't beat around the bush either.
Factory Owner He did not brag about how good his clothes were. Instead, he just took Shu Yan to his sample room. They have a lot, but not very many that Shu Yan liked. All she could say was there's a difference in taste. After all, Shu Yan's taste belonged to that of 20 years later. Everything from the 90s naturally looked very outdated to her. That being said, she couldn't buy merchandise based on what people would like 20 years from now either. Different time periods have different standards of what was considered pretty. Being too far ahead of one's time would just make one look odd in the eyes of the others. Shu Yan understood that well, so she didn't pick according to her own preference.
She found out which were the most stylish ones from Factory Owner He, and they were exactly the ones that she had her eyes on. It'd appear that her taste was fine even in this time period.
Particularly the few wind breakers that Factory Owner He had pointed out, there were totally '90s style. No wonder people always said fashion made comebacks from time to time; Shu Yan had finally experienced it firsthand.
"I am still remodeling the shop right now. It will take at least another month. Fall and winter clothes would be perfect timing then. Are these all your latest designs?" Shu Yan had already checked the box for the windbreaker, but that alone wouldn't be enough. She would need more clothes that go under the windbreaker.
"We have a lot of designs. I have 20 ~ 30 new designs. I can honestly tell you that we have the most out of all the factories in the area. But we have not yet made our final decisions yet. Maybe in another week or so. What say you come back in a week's time?" Owner He smiled.
"That works." Shu Yan nodded and gave Owner He the address of her shop. "Swing on by when you have a chance next time. You can let me know if you see any room for improvements."
She left her address with him so he'd know that she truly was the owner of a shop. She didn't want him to think that she was a spy from another factory.
Sure enough, Owner He was much more genuine after he had her shop address in hand. He walked Shu Yan to the front door and set a date with her to come back to check out more samples.
To someone like Owner He, 20~30 different designs were a lot already. But Shu Yan was going to open up a shop. She'd need at least 100 different designs.
It was getting late so she'd check out the other two factories the next day. When the remodeling was about to be completed, she'd need to visit the wholesale market in City Hang. It'd be more tiring at the beginning, but it'd get better.
When she finally got back to the tutorial center, Tianbao was the only one left. Shu Yan apologized to the teacher, embarrassed.
"There was traffic on the road. I am so sorry."
"It's alright. These things happen. Hurry up and go home. Tianbao must be hungry," said the teacher gently as he walked them out.
If Shu Yan was late to pick up Ye Tianbao, she was for sure late picking up Ye Jingjing as well. Shu Yan apologized to that teacher as well. She was a bit quiet on her way home. She has learned her lesson. She couldn't cut it so close going forward. It's difficult to predict how long she would be stuck in traffic.
"Mom, I can pick Tianbao up in the future. We can go home by ourselves," said Ye Jingjing to her mother. She knew that her mother had been very busy lately and still had to take care of the two of them. She wanted to help her out where she could.
"I'll be good too." Perhaps he, too, had seen Shu Yan being very busy lately, Ye Tianbao had been much more mature as of late.
When the children were naughty, they were a headache, and she had wished they'd grow up quickly. Now that they were so mature, Shu Yan felt sad. One was seven and the other one three. When they were too mature for their age, it was the fault of the adult.
"Don't worry about it. Mom misjudged the time today. It won't happen again." If this was still back in the village, it would have been fine. But in a big city like City Nan and the two kids were still so young, Shu Yan wouldn't feel comfortable to have them going to and from school by themselves. This was not where one should take any chances. It'd be too late to cry if something really happened to them.
Ye Jingjing helped with preparing the vegetables and even Ye Tianbao was helping on one side. Shu Yan smiled and quickly cooked the rice and dishes. It was already past 6 PM, and both of them have been starving.
Shu Yan didn't eat her diet amount tonight. It wasn't that she couldn't persist anymore but that she had been too busy lately. She needed some food to go on. If she fell ill, who'd take care of the two kids?
It had been a week since she had stopped eating dinner. Shu Yan felt that even the rice was sweet. But she still exercised her self-control and only had half a bowl of rice and some vegetables. Definitely couldn't have any meat.