Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 129

Grandpa Jiang was born and raised by the river, where wild lotus roots grew abundantly along the riverbanks. He could tell at a glance which part of the white lotus body these slices came from. He ate the lotus root slices with disgust, saying they were all “little lotus root waste”.

The chef in the cafeteria was skilled at cooking. The fried lotus root slices were crispy and tender, dotted with a bit of spicy millet. Just looking at them whetted the appetite.

Jiang Ning ate them with gusto. There were so many lotus root slices for only 2 meal tickets. If it wasn’t cheap, they wouldn’t serve such a large quantity. In Jiang Ning’s opinion, as long as there were no issues with food hygiene, it didn’t matter which part of the lotus root she ate.

Grandpa Jiang only ate the rice and didn’t touch the lotus root slices. He pushed the dish toward Jiang Ning, pretending to be disgusted, “I won’t eat this stuff, you take it.”

Jiang Ning directly stretched out her rice bowl in front of Grandpa Jiang, saying, “I’ll take some. The sisters who serve food in the cafeteria all like me. They always serve me plenty.”

Grandpa Jiang was happy to hear this. He felt that his granddaughter was so good that no one could dislike her.

Then he thought of Mother Jiang, and his smile faded. He sighed quietly in his heart.

“You’re growing taller. You need to eat more meat to grow taller. Alas, you don’t have any meat on your body.” 

In his eyes, his granddaughter would always be thin. After she went to college, she had gained some weight, but every time Grandpa saw her come home, he would still feel distressed and say, “You’ve lost weight. Didn’t you eat well?”

He was reluctant to eat the longan, red dates, and other foods his children bought for him, saving them for when Jiang Ning came back so she could take them to school, worried she wouldn’t eat well there. Those had even become wormy and stale because they had been kept for too long.

Jiang Ning made two portions of braised pork to prevent Grandpa Jiang from insisting she eat all the meat. While eating, she said, “I’m tired of eating too much meat. I can’t eat it anymore. Grandpa, you eat it.”

For the first time, Grandpa Jiang heard someone say they could get tired of eating meat. For a moment, he thought that people’s lives were really getting better. His granddaughter might actually be tired of eating meat.

He didn’t refuse his granddaughter’s kindness and took a few pieces to eat.

The chef’s skills in the cafeteria were indeed excellent. The braised pork was fatty but not greasy, and the sour aroma of the pickled vegetables was just right.

After eating a few pieces, Grandpa Jiang stopped and, seeing that Jiang Ning also refused to eat more, said helplessly, “Then take it back and give it to your second brother.”

Jiang Bai only found out that Grandpa Jiang had come to Wucheng when Jiang Ning handed him the pottery bowl filled with braised pork.

Why did Grandpa come to Wucheng? Did he stop patrolling the mountains?

They had been patrolling the mountains with Grandpa Jiang since they were young. They grew up in the mountains, so in Jiang Bai’s mind, Grandpa Jiang had always been tied to mountain patrols. At that time, he hadn’t considered that Grandpa Jiang was getting older and was no longer suited for the mountain patrol work.

Jiang Ning explained to Jiang Bai why Grandpa Jiang had stopped patrolling the mountains. Jiang Bai had actually thought about the issue. He wanted to start working as soon as possible to make money so that Grandpa could retire early.

Unfortunately, after Jiang Bai graduated from high school in his previous life, he went to work as an apprentice in someone else’s auto repair shop. He wanted to learn the trade from the master, but after working for several years, his hands and ears were cracked from the winter cold, and his master didn’t teach him much.

Jiang Bai himself was interested in that kind of work and had some basic understanding. Over time, even if his master didn’t teach him, he would occasionally pick things up and gradually figure them out on his own. Later, he also became a master, started earning a salary, and slowly learned more after working for several years.

After saving up funds, he finally opened his own auto repair shop.

But when he finally got through it, Jiang Ning had already graduated from college, yet Grandpa Jiang was gone.

Jiang Bai also came to Jiang Ning’s shop in the evening.

Only then did Jiang Bai realize that Jiang Ning had actually opened a shop there and had bought so many clothes. He turned to Jiang Ning in surprise and asked, “Where did you get the money?”

Jiang Ning answered innocently, “Magazine royalties.”

Grandpa Jiang had heard from Jiang Ning before that she would receive royalties if her essay was published in a magazine, so he didn’t think much of it after hearing their conversation.

Jiang Bai was shocked. Were the royalties really that high?

He asked her about the rent of the shop, and Jiang Ning showed the rental contract to Jiang Bai.

The contract was for three years, and the rent was seventy five yuan a month. Seeing such a high rent, Jiang Bai suddenly felt nervous. Seventy-five yuan was equivalent to half a month’s salary for many people.

He looked at the few clothes left in the shop. It was hard to imagine whether the sales of these clothes would be enough to cover the rent. He also doubted whether Grandpa Jiang knew how to do business and sell things.

Grandpa Jiang didn’t seem like someone who could do business.

Grandpa Jiang was very dissatisfied with his grandson’s disdain for his business and said, “What’s the problem? If someone comes to buy, I’ll just sell the clothes to them. I’ve sold more than twenty pieces today.”

Grandpa Jiang proudly took out all the money from the day’s sales and handed it to Jiang Ning.

That was the first time Jiang Bai had ever seen so much money.

After hearing what Grandpa Jiang said, Jiang Bai, who had only sold loaches and eels, thought that they could only earn one or two yuan per piece of clothing. But they had earned more than twenty yuan by selling more than twenty pieces in a day. Calculating that way, Jiang Bai was shocked by the potential monthly profit.

He looked at the street with some suspicion, where there was finally some enthusiasm because students were out of the school, and then he noticed that Grandpa Jiang’s shop door was half-closed, despite the increase in foot traffic.

He didn’t open the door when the street finally had more people, but closed it instead. During the day, he opened the door when there was hardly anyone on the street. Despite this, he managed to sell more than twenty pieces a day. It sounded unbelievable.

Was this some kind of fantasy?