Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 124

Father Jiang knew that if his wife found out, she would definitely explode, so he didn’t dare to tell her when he got home. He originally thought that the old man was just talking and didn’t realize he would act so quickly. Not long after he mentioned it, the old man had already handed over his work.

He said, “The old man has been in poor health for the past two years and said he can’t work anymore. If you ask me, it would be better for him to resign. It would save us the worry of him being alone in the mountains every day.”

“He can’t do it anymore? Is patrolling so tiring? It’s just walking back and forth! Who can’t walk every day? If he doesn’t want to do something that can earn a thousand yuan a year, why doesn’t he just go to the airport? He wouldn’t feel embarrassed begging for food. Just tell him not to come back dirty and smelly, expecting me to wash his clothes.” Mother Jiang’s eyes were red with anger. “Don’t come to me then. If he feels sorry for his granddaughter, well, let his granddaughter take care of him when the time comes. I won’t take care of him.”

In fact, both in the past and in the present, Father Jiang and Mother Jiang had never really provided for Grandpa Jiang in his old age.

Grandpa Jiang had always lived alone in the mountains. In his previous life, he passed away suddenly. In recent years, at most, Father Jiang sent some rice to the mountain. Most of the time, Grandpa Jiang came down the mountain himself with rice and grain, even vegetables that he grew himself.

Grandpa Jiang couldn’t bear to part with the vegetables he grew, as well as sour beans pickled with lemon and snail meat sauce. He loaded them all onto the cart. If he took those vegetables to Wucheng, he could still sell them for a few yuans.

On the contrary, it was Grandpa Jiang’s salary over the years that had been subsidizing his younger son’s family.

Grandpa Jiang believed that he did not owe anything to his younger son and his family. It was this confidence, knowing he had never relied on others, that allowed him to handle his job matters without seeking the opinions of his two sons and daughter-in-law. He directly asked them if they wanted the job. When they didn’t want it, he gave it to his brother, pulled the cart himself, and went to Wucheng.

His eldest granddaughter had already rented the shop. If it didn’t open, she would have to pay the rent in vain. This made Grandpa Jiang very anxious.

Jiang Ning really didn’t expect that Grandpa Jiang, who was supposed to come at the end of the year, would suddenly show up in Wucheng and meet Wang Yong.

Since Grandpa Jiang had been to Wucheng before, he knew the location of No. 1 High School and the location of the shop. After getting off the minibus, he unloaded his trolley from the top of the minibus, pulled the trolley’s contents himself, got on the cart, and headed towards the shop step by step.

From a distance, before reaching the shop, he saw people shouting something noisily on the other side of the shop, and there were crowds of people outside.

He pulled the trolley and approached the shop in confusion, but when he got to the door, he didn’t dare to go in.

People were watching the commotion at the door and wanted to squeeze in to buy clothes. Because there were too many people, they could only stay on the outside. They saw an old man in shabby clothes standing at the door holding a trolley and thought he was a beggar. They said to him, “If you want food, go somewhere else. The business here is so good that you can’t get in. Come here to ask for food at night; they close at five o’clock. The owner of the shop sells a lot of clothes at that time, so it’s better if you come then to ask for food.”

Grandpa Jiang smiled when he heard that and said, “I’m not here to beg for food.”

Although Shuibu Town was affiliated with Wucheng, they had their own dialects. While the dialects of the two sides were different, they were both from the same place, so they could understand each other. From Grandpa Jiang’s accent, you could tell he was from Shuibu Town. The woman asked, “Are you from Shuibu Town?”

Grandpa Jiang, with an arched back, nodded with a smile, “Yes.”

“Oh, I recognized your accent right away. The Shuibu Town dialect is different from the Wu dialect in other parts of the city. My eldest niece-in-law is from Shuibu Town.”

This woman was quite enthusiastic, so Grandpa Jiang couldn’t help asking her what was going on in the shop and why there were so many people.

When the woman heard that someone still didn’t know the gossip, she immediately began to tell Grandpa Jiang enthusiastically, “Oh, you don’t know this, do you? Just listen to what this loudspeaker says first.”

Grandpa Jiang had long recognized his granddaughter’s voice coming from the loudspeaker. He heard his eldest granddaughter shouting in the same standard Mandarin as on the radio, “Jiangnan Garment Factory, Jiangnan Garment Factory, closed down. Bastard He, the factory director. Bastard He, the factory director, ran away with a young married employee.”

The aunt who was talking to him clapped her hands excitedly, “I heard that the owner of this shop is from Jiangnan Garment Factory. The director of their factory is not a good person. He got together with a young lady and was caught on the spot. He was fined three thousand yuan. They went abroad and shut down a good garment factory. He must have done something evil.”

Grandpa Jiang was stunned for a moment, then nodded and asked, “What does that have to do with this shop?”

“Of course, it matters,” the aunt raised her brows, stared, and became more animated. “The owner of this shop is a worker from that garment factory. It’s pitiful to say, but all the money in the factory was taken away by that bastard, Director He. Now, what can the workers do if they don’t get their wages? They can only use clothes from the garment factory as compensation. The original price of the clothes was more than 100, 200, even 300 yuan, and now they’re selling them for 29, 39 yuan. Cheap clothes of good quality, so everyone came here to buy them. Look at how many people there are!” The aunt gave a disgusted look, saying, “Not even a ghost could be seen on the street before, but now, look, it’s so crowded I couldn’t even squeeze in. I was afraid the shop would close down, so I hurried over to buy a couple of pieces of clothing for my family to wear during the Chinese New Year.”

Grandpa Jiang was overwhelmed by the large amount of information from this aunt.

What kind of garment factory worker was this? Wasn’t this his eldest granddaughter’s shop? He was afraid he had made a mistake, so he wanted to turn around and leave. But although the sound from the loudspeaker was a little distorted, he was sure this was his eldest granddaughter’s voice. He could faintly hear her from inside the shop, saying, “Don’t squeeze in, pick them one by one. No bargaining, they are all sold at a loss, without a penny of profit.” 

If the factory couldn’t pay wages, how could there be such cheap prices?

“Boss, this size is no longer available. Is it possible to go up one size? One size up? Two sizes up? Boss, is there any size that children can wear?”