Chapter 103 New Job
The Santana 2000 stopped in the middle of Jianguo Road. I saw a small bookstore in a row of shops on the roadside. There was a sign on it, saying "Xunwei Bookstore". Zheng Jianye parked the car and turned around and said to me enthusiastically : "Brother Tang, this is the small bookstore I opened. It has a very small storefront. Haha! Let's go down and take a look!"
As he spoke, he pushed the door open and went down first, followed by Zhao Yanjin and I. Zheng Jianye walked to the door of the bookstore first and called out, "Xiao Min, I found someone for you. Do you like them?"
I followed her to the door of the bookstore and saw a sleepy young woman behind a cash register near the glass door. She looked up at Zheng Jianye and then glanced at me. I saw that she was about 26 or 27 years old and her appearance was not bad. However, there were several golden spots on her body, which made her look like she loved to dress up. She then smiled and greeted Zhao Yanjin who was following behind me: "Hey! Xiao Zhao, you are here too?"
Zhao Yanjin smiled and said, "Sister-in-law! Your old Zheng said that you find it too tiring to run the store, and you must find a successor. As soon as I heard that, I immediately found one for you. This guy used to be my colleague, he is a very honest person, his name is Tang Qian, and Old Zheng was also very satisfied with him. What do you think, sister-in-law?"
The young woman came out from behind the cashier counter, tapped Zheng Jianye lightly, and said with a slight frown: "Are you gossiping again?" Then, without waiting for him to speak, she looked me up and down again.
I didn't know whether to call her sister-in-law or boss lady, because Lao Zhao and I were friends, but Zheng Jianye was not. Considering that she would be my employer, I still called her: "Hello, big sister, my name is Tang Qian! Tang for Tang Dynasty, Qian for relocation."
The young woman smiled and said, "You call me elder sister? Am I older than you?"
I was stunned for a moment, not knowing how to answer. The young woman turned around and said to her husband, "Okay, let's go with him! Don't we trust Xiao Zhao? This Xiao Tang is quite honest, I have no objection."
Zheng Jianye laughed and said, "Now you are relieved. Of course, I have no objection!" He called Zhao Yanjin and me outside the store and started to talk about the specific work: "Lao Zhao, Brother Tang, since my wife has no objection, then it's settled. I am usually very busy with work and hardly take care of the store. My wife likes to play and she can't sit still in the store, so I will ask Brother Tang to run this store in the future. In fact, running a store is not very complicated. It's just collecting money and paying attention to whether anyone steals books. My wife will slowly teach you some specific details."
Lao Zhao said, "Don't worry about learning these things. Lao Tangren is not stupid. But since we have decided to hire him, we should be clear about the accounts between brothers. You have to decide how much his salary should be. You can't let my friend down, right?"
Zheng Jianye said, "That's right! But this small shop doesn't make much money a month. I can't afford to pay too high a salary, but if it's too low, it will be embarrassing for you, Old Zhao. How about this, I'll give you 800 yuan a month for the first two months, and I'll increase it a little bit depending on the situation after a while. What do you think?"
When Lao Zhao heard this, he was unhappy and said, "Eight hundred yuan? That's a little less. It's not even enough for one person to eat. How can you support your family? Lao Zheng, you can't be so stingy!"
I think such a small bookstore really can't make much money in a year. I have to pay rent and taxes, and it's not realistic to give me a salary of one or two thousand. And I can't work here for too long. I just want to have a place to do something before I find a suitable new job, so as not to waste my time.
So I reached out and pulled Zhao Yanjin, and said to Zheng Jianye: "No problem, then when can I come to work?" When Zheng Jianye heard that I agreed, he said happily: "Now! My wife has been tired of doing this for a long time, the sooner you take over, the better. Wait a minute, I will go and explain it to her."
He turned around and ran back into the store. Zhao Yanjin said, "Look, Old Tang, I told you the salary wouldn't be very high, didn't I? But I didn't expect it to be this low. Are you willing to do this?"
I smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. I'm not interested in this. I'm willing to open a bookstore when you said it's a bookstore. It's a good opportunity to read more books and enrich myself during this free time. I don't care about the salary."
Zhao Yanjin shook his head and sighed, "That's true, but we still have to live our lives. What good can eight hundred yuan a month do?"
I turned around and said, "Although the money is small, I still want to thank you for helping me when I was in trouble. By the way, I still have to pay you back two thousand yuan." I took out my wallet from my pocket and prepared to count the money to return it to him.
Zhao Yanjin quickly reached out his hand to stop me, and said seriously: "Hey! Are you being polite? I don't need the money right now, and I know you don't have much savings. The salary here is so low, you should keep it for yourself. When you really have enough money, it won't be too late to return it to me."
I thought about it. Once I pay back the 2,000 yuan, I really won't have much money left. Xu Shu said she would return the 1,800 yuan her sister cheated me of, but she didn't do anything later. I'm afraid she has forgotten it all. My current job only pays 800 yuan a month, and I have to pay for my family's monthly water, electricity, gas, telephone, property management fees and other miscellaneous expenses. It's really not enough. Lao Zhao and I have a close relationship, so there's no need for me to pretend to be rich and be polite to him.
So I took back the wallet and said, "Okay! Since you're not in a hurry to use it, I'll return it to you later!"
At this time, Zheng Jianye came out of the bookstore again and said to me, "Brother Tang, my wife said that you can learn from her now. Go in! I have to go to work soon and don't have time to talk to you more. Anyway, my wife will teach you everything. Is that it?"
I nodded and agreed. Zheng Jianye then said to Zhao Yanjin, "Old Zhao, are you leaving yet? Do you want me to take you there?"
Zhao Yanjin said, "Okay, I'm going to work too." After that, he turned around and gave me a few more instructions, then got in the car and left with Zheng Jianye.
Watching Santana leave quickly, I turned back and walked into the bookstore. Zheng Jianye's wife greeted me warmly, and I started to work formally.
From my observation, this Xunwei Bookstore is indeed very small. The store is rectangular. Except for the store door, the three sides are bookshelves filled with all kinds of books. However, although it is small, it has everything. The books on the bookshelf are arranged in order, divided into political and economic categories, reference books, novels, biographies, etc. There are also two long tables in the middle of the store, which are filled with various discounted books. One side says 10 yuan per book, and the other side says 5 yuan per book. It seems that these are very old books that no one buys and are being sold at a reduced price.
During the conversation with the lady boss, I learned that her surname was Zhuang, her given name was Min, and she was from H Province like her husband. Since her husband was transferred to B City for work two years ago, she followed him. She herself had no job, and bought this store from someone else three months ago to run a small business. However, she said that she was very active and could not stay in the store, so she had to hire someone to help look after the store.
The job of running a store is really simple. It means collecting money after customers have selected their items. There is a computer behind the cashier counter that can access the Internet, but it is a dial-up connection and the speed is extremely slow. The main function is to manage books. Every time a book is sold, it must be registered and cleared on the computer. After reading it two or three times, I basically knew how to operate it.
The boss lady told me some details, such as the restaurant opens at 8am and closes at 8pm. If I want to eat, I can call a few restaurants to order takeout, but I have to pay for it myself. For example, where is the power supply, where is the light switch, where is the toilet...
Half a day passed quickly. I made a rough estimate and found that the bookstore's business was not very good. I only sold about ten books in an afternoon. The proprietress Zhuang Min was not only active, but also very talkative and liked to ask questions. In half a day, she asked me all my personal questions, such as my age, date of birth, zodiac sign, where I live, whether I have a girlfriend, what school I graduated from, what major I studied, where I worked before, why I quit, etc. She also took the initiative to tell me her own age, zodiac sign, hobbies, etc., and I couldn't help but listen. In a short time, she became familiar with me. Although she was one year younger than me, she kept calling me "Xiao Tang! Xiao Tang!". Since she was the proprietress and my employer, I had no choice.
I didn't talk much, but I took to heart what the boss lady said. Soon I tried to handle a few transactions, which were very simple and without any mistakes. The boss lady saw it and smiled and said that it seemed that in half a day, she could safely hand over the entire store to me.
In the evening, I received a call from Hua Jingjing: "Tang Qian, I'm off work. Have you eaten yet? I'll come pick you up!"
I hurriedly took my phone and walked outside the store and said, "I'm still working. I'm afraid I don't have time to meet you. Let's talk about it another day."
"What? You're working? Who are you kidding? You were sleeping in this morning, and you found a job in the afternoon?"
"I'm not lying to you! I really just found this job today. A friend of mine recommended it to me. I'm still working now!"
"I don't believe it! What's the point of not allowing me to have dinner during work? Just tell me!"
"It's a bookstore. I help to look after the store and collect money!"
"Bookstore? You've been looking for this job for so long? Humph! I don't believe it! Where is your bookstore? Let me come and take a look."
"No! Please don't come and make trouble. The bookstore owner is here too. She will be unhappy if someone familiar comes to see me on my first day at work!"
"Oh! And you're a female boss? No! I have to come over to take a look. Tell me your address, or I'll go to your house and wait for you. Tell your parents that I'm their future daughter-in-law, and see how you explain it! Humph!"
I was so confused that I said anxiously, "Aunt, please let me go. I said I didn't lie to you. I really am working. What's the point of you coming over to take a look?"
"Why is it boring? I just want to buy some books to read. Can't I come over to take care of your business? Will you tell me? If you can't tell me, it proves that you are lying. If you lie to me, humph! Do you know what the consequences are?"
I found that since Hua Jingjing confessed her love to me, I could no longer win arguments with her. No matter what she did, she would always show her unreasonableness, and I couldn't deal with her with conventional tactics. Moreover, the fact that she liked me seemed to have become a reason for me to be in the wrong, and I couldn't be ruthless enough to fight her like before.
I had no choice but to say, "If you really don't believe me, then come and see. The address is Jianguo Road..." I turned around to look at the house number and continued, "No. 1,428. The store is called Xunwei Bookstore. But I have to tell you, don't mess with me when you come. It's better to pretend that you don't know me. If I lose my job because of you, I won't forgive you."
"Ha! Just your crappy job? Is that necessary?"
"Now that we've come to this, you can decide for yourself!" I immediately put my phone away and walked back to the store. I happened to see the lady boss ordering takeout on the phone. When she saw me come in, she asked me, "Xiao Tang, do you want fried rice? Or rice with toppings?"
I said, "Let's make fried rice!"
The boss lady immediately ordered two servings of Yangzhou fried rice, while I went to tidy up the bookshelf that was messed up by the customers. Fifteen minutes later, the takeaway arrived. I wanted to pay first, but the boss lady stopped me and said, "Xiao Tang, today is your first day at work, this meal is on me."
I was about to decline, but I heard someone snort at the door, then walked past me and entered the bookstore. This voice was so familiar to me, I turned around and saw that it was Hua Jingjing. She had a serious face and pretended to look through the bookshelves without even looking at me.
I also pretended not to know her, sat down seriously and started eating my fried rice.
After the boss's wife paid for the meal, she kept glancing at Hua Jingjing while we ate together, and then whispered to me, "Xiao Tang, look at that woman. The coat she's wearing is Versace. I've seen it in fashion magazines. I'm afraid it must have cost several thousand dollars. Wow! I'm so envious!"
Of course I knew that the clothes Hua Jingjing was wearing wouldn't be cheap, so I didn't even turn my head and said, "Really? I don't know much about clothes, so I can't tell."
The lady boss said, "And this woman is very pretty and well dressed. She must be the mistress of some big boss. Alas! It's good to be young and pretty these days! You can be supported by rich men, eat well, dress well and don't have to work. It's really enviable. If I were as pretty as her, would I have to work so hard selling books here?"
I held back my laughter and didn't dare to reply to the boss lady's words, fearing that Hua Jingjing would hear and make trouble. I just buried my head in eating my Yangzhou fried rice. Not long after, a stack of books was placed in front of the cash register. Hua Jingjing stood next to me and said to the boss lady with a smile: "Boss lady, how much is it?"
