Back To The 80s-Chapter 369 - 379: Employee_1

Gu Xiaobei comforted, "Don’t overthink it, it’s not a watermelon issue, it’s just different people’s perspectives. Thankfully your mother-in-law is on our side now, so we don’t have to worry."

Bai Xiaolan blinked her eyes, heard Wen Xiuqing and Lu Songyuan still debating in the courtyard, and sighed, "I was scared that buying watermelons had caused trouble."

Gu Xiaobei laughed, "You’re overthinking it, let’s hurry up and make dinner." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

She sighed inwardly, life always has little interruptions, especially when it comes to feeding and educating children, there are different viewpoints but the intention is to do what’s best for the child. She remembered not to reprimand the child in front of her parents-in-law in the future.

The four veterans that Lu Zhanguo helped Gu Xiaobei find had all arrived in the last couple of days, they were soldiers from a troop in the town. Chen Zhao, Wang Wei, Sun Jiahe, Zhou Tiezhu. All aged around twenty-two or twenty-three,

Gu Xiaobei found Chen Zhao and Sun Jiahe to be quite affable, outgoing, and articulate, ideal for doing business. Wang Wei and Zhou Tiezhu, on the other hand, were more introverted but appeared honest giving off an inexplicable sense of trust.

After introducing the four, Lu Zhanguo added, "These four guys are pretty good at martial arts, they always train hard."

When Gu Xiaobei heard about their good skills, her heart warmed, guessing that when this man was picking people, he must have prioritized their ability to defend themselves, afraid they would be taken advantage of.

Chen Zhao laughed, "Sister-in-law, don’t worry, we can handle hard work, just give us the jobs."

Gu Xiaobei smiled, nodded in agreement, and led the men to their accommodation in the courtyard. She gave Chen Zhao twenty yuan to buy rice, flour, and so on, and reminded him to always bring back a receipt when purchasing anything.

After speaking, seeing Chen Zhao’s changed expression, she realized he misunderstood and quickly clarified, laughing, "When I ask you to bring back a receipt, it’s for accounting purposes. Since we’re a legitimate company, we can’t keep sloppy accounts. Everyone, including me, has to get a receipt from the seller when buying anything for the company to record in our books. Right now we only have five or six people, so it’s easy to keep track of, but what if we have more people in the future? So we need to form good habits."

Only then did Chen Zhao regain his cheerful expression, "Sister-in-law, I misunderstood."

Gu Xiaobei waved away the misunderstanding with a laugh, "No problem, if there’s anything you don’t understand in future, feel free to ask me. Don’t keep it to yourself."

Having given instructions, Lu Zhanguo took the four to eat at a restaurant, while Gu Xiaobei went to see Qin Li. It was time to start the store’s renovation work, and she reckoned that they had enough money for materials at the moment. After July, they should be able to collect money from the publishing house.

Upon hearing that they could finally start working, Qin Li was ecstatic, "Finally, I don’t have to stay at home all day, it was driving me crazy."

Gu Xiaobei looked at Qin Li sympathetically, "You’ll have to keep an eye on the store in the future." Gu Xiaobei didn’t mean to evade responsibility when she said this, she hoped that Qin Li would be so busy that she would forget about her heartache. Each time she saw that Qin Li’s smile wasn’t as bright as before and carried a hint of sorrow, she felt a pang in her heart.

Qin Li nodded, "Alright, I talked to my uncle yesterday, and he supports me. He gave me a thousand yuan, which I’ll use to buy a bicycle and whatever else the store needs."

Gu Xiaobei replied, "Good, remember to get a receipt whenever you buy anything. We’ll use it for bookkeeping." Not many places could issue an invoice now, so bringing back a piece of paper with details was already a good start.

Qin Li never doubted Gu Xiaobei’s words, and nodded, "Understood."

The two of them went to the store, where Gu Xiaobei bought a measuring tape, and along with Qin Li, measured the size of the shop to calculate what kind of shelves would be appropriate, how high and wide.

Since the shelves were for product display, they needed to be simple, elegant, and with a clean finish.

Having measured the space, Gu Xiaobei had a rough idea how to install the display counters and where to place the display shelves.

She then sat on the steps, with a notebook on her lap, and started sketching while discussing her ideas with Qin Li. When Qin Li understood all of it, she said, "You draw well, just as I had described. Draw it all out, and we’ll find a carpenter tomorrow to make counters."

Qin Li nodded, took the notebook, "I’ll draw it when I get back."

Only then did Gu Xiaobei realize she was hungry, her stomach grumbling loudly, and left with Qin Li to get something to eat.

They found a noodle shop, and Gu Xiaobei extravagantly ordered two beef noodles with extra meat, whispering to Qin Li, "Once we start making money, we can afford to get two extra servings of meat in our noodles."

Qin Li chuckled, "If Gun God heard that, he’d immediately buy you a whole sheep."

The two laughed cozily. As the noodles were served and Gu Xiaobei turned around to get vinegar from the next table, she saw Chen Dajun and Lu Ruixue also eating there. It put a damper on her appetite.

Lu Ruixue had spotted Gu Xiaobei as soon as she entered, her back facing the door, sitting there. She tried to leave with Chen Dajun, but he insisted on eating at the very place.

The past days had been miserable for Lu Ruixue. Whenever Chen Dajun had money, he would take her out for a good meal, but when he was broke, he would leave her to fend for herself. Several times, she went hungry and hanged around her family’s courtyard, but she was too afraid to go in and would return home crying.

She regretted her decision to leave Capital City and move to the provincial city more and more. Previously, at least in the Capital City, she had enough to eat. But now in the provincial city, she often starved. No matter how much she regretted, she never thought of finding a job to work.

Chen Dajun had also spotted Gu Xiaobei. Recalling how he had been inexplicably attacked by Bai Xiaolan on the road, he was a bit annoyed. But when he remembered how Lu Ruixue was thrown out by Lu Zhanguo in the middle of the night, he did not dare to confront Gu Xiaobei. If he dared to touch Gu Xiaobei, he would not only risk losing his life, but also his future. Contrarily, his own life was more important.

The next day, when Qin Li’s design was ready, Gu Xiaobei was extremely satisfied. They hurried off to find a carpenter.

Gu Xiaobei specified the dimensions and colors to the carpenter.

The carpenter found it strange, "Isn’t everyone using red these days? Why would you want white? It’s so inauspicious."

Something Gu Xiaobei hadn’t expected. Regaining her composure, she laughed and said, "I just like white, it’s clean and comfortable to look at."

The carpenter didn’t comment further and told them to return in a week.

Now that they had that task sorted, she could just wait for the goods from Lu Aiguo’s side.

Being able to buy such a large amount of stock on credit this time was thanks to Lu Aiguo’s help. No factory would be willing to ship such a large amount of goods to the Northwest for a company they were unfamiliar with.

With everyone’s help, Gu Xiaobei’s business had taken the first step of a long journey.

In her spare time, Gu Xiaobei began to discuss with Wen Xiuqing how they would celebrate the children’s birthday the day after tomorrow.

Wen Xiuqing laughed and said, "Make some delicious food at home and have the kids’ grab-week celebration."

Lu Songyuan was not satisfied, "Normally, if we were in the Capital City, we would have organized a lavish party. Here, we don’t know anyone, so we have to celebrate at home. It’s such a pity for my dear grandson."

Gu Xiaobei felt that celebrating at home was nice too, but she didn’t understand the grab-week tradition, "What do we need to prepare for the grab-week ceremony?"