Starting a new chapter in life

Chapter 149 Renovation Company Profits

Jing Yan frowned: "Military marriages are not easy to get divorced, are they?"

Cui Hongru sighed: "It's really hard to get a divorce. That company commander doesn't have any problems with his private life. At most, he doesn't care about his wife. He sends most of his monthly allowance home, except for a little for himself. It just goes to his mother, and his wife doesn't get a single penny."

The reason she was able to come here this time, it's said, is because a bachelor in the village took pity on his wife and gave her the travel expenses. The implication was that if he couldn't appease his wife this time, and they divorced, she might marry that bachelor, since he was the one who showed her kindness during her most difficult time.

"Has the military released the results of their handling of the matter?" Jing Yan asked.

He Jiaoxu continued, "Not yet. The military has already sent an investigation team to investigate. If it is true that the mother-in-law mistreated the daughter-in-law and the company commander knew about the situation but did nothing, then the marriage can be dissolved. If the investigation results are not that serious, then the marriage cannot be dissolved, after all, military marriages are protected."

"Where does that woman live now? Did she go back to her hometown too?" Zhou Jie asked, turning her head.

“She’s currently staying at the military guesthouse. She didn’t want to live with her husband, so the logistics department arranged for her to stay there for free. She eats at the military canteen, and the cost of her meals is deducted from the company commander’s allowance,” He Jiaoxu continued.

Zhou Jie sighed: "If we really get divorced this time, that company commander's military career should be over."

He Zhicheng curled his lip: "At his age, he's only a company commander. He'll have to retire in two or three years anyway. This incident just brings forward his retirement. It might affect his job assignment after he retires."

"If we had previously wanted him to be a police officer at the local police station, he might be transferred to a local state-owned factory as a security captain. His rank might not necessarily be lower, but his future prospects definitely won't be as good as before."

Zhou Jie snorted, "Serves him right, he doesn't love his wife."

He Jiaoxu shook his head: "It's not that simple. Many mountain villages are mainly managed by families, and the local police can't intervene. If this village is also like that, then the mistress being mistreated can be easily dismissed as a domestic matter."

They protect each other, and even the local government can't completely intervene. Ultimately, this is due to backwardness, and the country's laws and regulations in this area are not yet perfect.

This woman is relatively lucky; at least her husband is in the military, and the military has some say in marital relationships. However, even if they eventually divorce, this woman and her family may find it difficult to establish themselves in the local area. At best, they'll have to relocate; at worst, they'll face oppression and bullying from the villagers. It remains to be seen what their final choice will be.

"This world is too unfair to women, but I believe that as long as women can earn their own money and support themselves in the future, they will eventually be able to break free from men's control. After all, economic strength is the standard for standing up for oneself," Jing Yan sighed.

This house is spacious with many rooms, accommodating only eleven people of all ages. There's plenty of room for everyone. He Chaoli hadn't seen his parents for over half a year. He wouldn't say he missed them that much when they weren't around, but now that they were here, he wanted to tell them everything that had happened during that time.

He talked about his academic achievements, his friends, and some funny stories with his friends, which made He Zhicheng and Zhou Jie very happy. They praised him repeatedly. The child, who was praised by his parents, finally couldn't resist the sleepiness and fell into a deep sleep.

After confirming that the child was sound asleep, Zhou Jie looked around He Chaoli's room and said, "Sister-in-law is really good to our child. I asked Sister Wang about their daily meals today, and they are much more abundant than ours. Look, Xiaoli seems to have grown taller and fatter in just half a year."

She's become much more outgoing. The classmates and friends she talked about today seem more numerous than the friends she made in the eight years she spent at home. It seems I really don't know how to raise a child. Jingyan is also a first-time mom, yet she's far more competent than me. Zhicheng, I feel like a complete failure.

He Zhicheng, sitting on the other side of He Chaoli, saw his wife's low spirits and could only go around to Zhou Jie, take her hand, and comfort her: "Don't be so sad. You have to understand that the child's education is not just your responsibility, it's mine too."

When Xiaoli was with us, he was introverted and shy, which was partly my fault. His transformation around his younger siblings is remarkable; I think it's not just their personalities that influenced him, but also his younger brother's influence.

My former boss once told me that all his children have their own careers and achievements, which is because he and his wife set a good example. Parents are the most important teachers for their children.

We, as his parents, are not qualified teachers, but fortunately, his younger brother and sister-in-law are excellent teachers. Xiao Li's personality flaws are being addressed, and I believe he will definitely be a very outstanding child in the future.

Zhou Jie patted him and said reproachfully, "I don't expect him to be outstanding. I'll be content as long as he can live a peaceful and smooth life."

He Zhicheng nodded in agreement: "Okay, as long as everything goes smoothly and peacefully, that's fine. It's perfect, we won't be parents, and now that family planning is in effect, we, as a couple, will respond to the national call and refrain from having a second child."

From now on, let's just live our own lives well. As for Xiaoli, let Zhijun and his wife worry about her. We can relax and be hands-off managers."

Zhou Jie shook her head helplessly: "Aren't you afraid that the child will resent you in the future? His own parents don't take care of him, but instead make his uncle and aunt worry about him. What if he's not close to us in the future?"

"We haven't mistreated him. As for spending time with him, it's entirely up to his own wishes. If you don't believe me, ask him yourself tomorrow whether he'd rather be with us now or stay here."

I believe he will not hesitate for a moment. As for whether we are close or not, children will eventually fly away when they grow up, whether they fly away sooner or later. As long as the two of us stay together, that's enough. Our children and grandchildren will have their own blessings, so don't worry about it." He Zhijun hugged her and advised.

Zhou Jie had no choice but to accept it. After all, she had given the child away herself, and she couldn't ask for too much else. As long as the child was happy, everything was worth it.

The couple tucked He Chaoli in, turned off the light, and quietly left. They moved into An'an's room next to He Chaoli's. An'an was still young, and he and Zhizhi were currently sharing a room with their grandmother. This room was temporarily empty, so it was perfect for them to stay there.

He Jiaoxu and his wife lived in Zhizhi's room on the second floor, so they didn't need to stay in the study yet, since the bed in the study was a single bed and not as spacious as the double bed in the bedroom.

With plenty of help at home, they've been eating breakfast at home these past few days. Afterwards, those who want to go out can go, and those who don't want to can help tidy up the yard. The yards of both the house and the shop are quite large, and Sister Wang and Grandma used to work very hard tending to them.

With more manpower available, all the ripe vegetables were harvested. Sister Wang made pickled cowpeas, which can be stored all winter. Any leftover chili peppers were also pickled.

The last things left over were cucumbers and tomatoes, since these were on the shop's menu and the two courtyards couldn't keep up with demand. Occasionally, they had to go to the market or the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some to make up the difference.

However, people are stronger than humans, and after two days of harvesting and tending, there were very few seedlings left in the once bountiful yard. Sister Wang even suggested that the seedlings be pulled out before winter.

Next time, we'll plant more cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. We can plant fewer leafy greens, green beans, and eggplants, as long as we can supply enough for our own consumption.

Jingyan also thought it made sense. This year, she planted two kinds of green beans. She preferred the kind of oil beans from her hometown, which are delicious when stewed. She planted some cowpeas because she saw that everyone here was planting them. Sure enough, her family couldn't finish them all. These things grow so fast. Next year, planting two or three will be enough.

Seeing that her family was large during the holiday, Jingyan asked the four employees at the store if any of them wanted to take a break. Unfortunately, no one was willing to rest.

They all said that they weren't tired from working every day, and that resting at home was never peaceful, so they might as well come and make money. Since no one wanted to rest, Jingyan naturally didn't force them. It was a good opportunity for her to have some free time and catch her breath.

Unfortunately, before she could even catch her breath, Yuan Xiaoling and her husband came to the shop looking for her on the island. Jingyan assumed they had some trouble and that it wasn't convenient to talk in the shop, so she took them home.

"Xiaoling, Brother Liu, is there anything I can help you with?" Jingyan poured them some water, handed it to them, and asked casually.

Yuan Xiaoling took the water glass and placed it on the coffee table. She pulled Jingyan to sit down and said mysteriously, "Jingyan, guess how much our decoration company's revenue has been in the past four months?"

Seeing her expression, Jingyan perked up: "It looks like you made a profit, otherwise you wouldn't be smiling so brightly."

Yuan Xiaoling smiled and nodded, then leaned closer to her with an air of humility and whispered, "We've taken on ten shop renovation contracts in the last four months, all-inclusive, and we just finished them before the National Day holiday."

After deducting costs, the net profit is eight thousand yuan. Jingyan, do you know, this is the first time in my life I've received such a large sum of money. We've come here to give you this dividend.

He then handed over a bag: "Here's two thousand eight hundred yuan, your share of the profits."

He Jiaoxu and Cui Hongru were at home. They saw someone coming but didn't come over. Instead, Grandma sat down and listened. She was shocked to learn that they had so much money in just a few months. Even though she was used to having money before, she was still quite surprised.

After all, she wasn't too optimistic about them when they first said they wanted to do this job. She only didn't stop them because Jingyan was willing. But seeing a return on investment so quickly was really unexpected.

Jingyan hesitated for a moment and didn't accept. "Sister Yuan, I think if none of us are in a hurry to use the money, we can hold off on splitting it for now. But if there are many people looking to work for you right now, I suggest you expand the number of workers."

Of course, it would be best to have skilled workers, but if not, finding some hardworking and willing-to-do people will do. We need people to help out, to do manual labor, and we don't need to support them indefinitely.

Once we've agreed on a daily wage and payment schedule when we get work, we can bring in more people if we need more manpower than our current staff.

Brother Liu and his four partners are all veterans. Each of them is in the lead team. If they're on a good run, they can take five orders at a time. If not, three orders are fine too. It's still faster than us making money one order at a time.

Yuan Xiaoling and Liu Qiang exchanged a glance and smiled: "That's what I told Brother Qiang before, but he's stubborn. He thinks that since you invested so much money, you have to send it over first when you get a return."

As for expanding, we were thinking of waiting until after the New Year to discuss it. But since we've come to the same conclusion, we should act sooner rather than later. You wouldn't believe it, thanks to our successful deal with the cargo ship, several businesses on Changxing Island that were planning to open shops have approached us wanting us to handle their renovations.

After making inquiries, they found that the cost of bringing building materials to the island was too high. Others only provided labor and earned a living from their skills; they had to prepare all the materials themselves, which proved difficult for many.

The renovation of your shop was quite noisy, so they found my shop through inquiries. I couldn't schedule the construction time, since they were planning to open after the Chinese New Year.

But now that we have this money, we can hire a few workers, and with the payment for materials, we can take on three or four orders at a time. Before the New Year, we can get at least seven or eight orders, and if the payments come in quickly, it could even be thirteen or fourteen. Then our year-end bonuses will be enough for everyone to have a prosperous New Year.

Jingyan was also happy: "Since we don't lack work, we need to hurry up and build our reputation, otherwise others will come and steal our business, and that would be a pity."

"Sister Yuan, as long as you can get work, if you're short on working capital, come to me. I've saved up some over the past few months, which I can give you for temporary use."

Yuan Xiaoling was satisfied to receive the definite news, so she didn't linger. After lunch, she left the island, intending to quickly negotiate the work schedules with some skilled craftsmen she knew, and take on the jobs she had previously been hesitant to accept. Making money was the priority; as for rest, she was full of energy when she was making money and could work non-stop without any problem. Why would she need to rest?

Watching the couple leave with their bags full of energy, Grandma sighed, "These two kids are really hardworking. They'll definitely amount to something in the future. I have to say, Jingyan, you're so lucky to know such reliable people."

He Zhijun joked with a smile: "Grandma, why don't you say she's bold, daring to meddle in everything, and not afraid of losing her investments?"

Grandma glared at him: "Money can be earned back. If you don't try when you have the chance, you might regret it later. If you try, you'll know where you went wrong, and you'll succeed sooner or later. Besides, even if we lose the money we invested, it won't kill us. What's wrong with taking a gamble?"

See, isn't this a success? In business, without courage and vision, you're destined to go nowhere. Your older brother and sister-in-law aren't suited for business; they don't have your guts.”

He Zhicheng and Zhou Jie brought in the vegetables they had picked from outside. Hearing only the last sentence, Zhicheng asked curiously, "Grandma, what are you talking about—courage?"