From-DIDIDA Novels
912 Little Corn Courtyard
No one knew when Old Madam Fan would be able to get the money. They all had their families to take care of. If they did not go out to earn money, did they want their family members to starve to death?
Even though everyone else had given up, Old Madam Fan did not give up. She waited bitterly in the snowy cold weather for Li Gui to appear. However, after staying outside for too long, Old Madam Fan’s body could not take it anymore, She caught a cold and had to go home to recuperate.
There were many people who went to work in Qiao Mei’s “little corn courtyard” every day. At first, most people were unwilling to do it, but when they saw how those who worked had benefited from it, more and more people decided to take part.
“Hey, do you know that Old Madam Fan has fallen ill?” Sun Juan said to everyone as she plucked the corn kernels.
“That’s nothing interesting. I’m having a hard time. I live next door to them and Old Madam Fan snores so loudly every day that I can’t sleep!” Zhou Shuang said with dark circles under her eyes.
When Sun Juan saw how haggard Zhou Shuang looked, she laughed loudly and said, “She must be snoring even louder now that she’s sick. She’s already as fat as a pig, but now she’s caught a cold, her nose is definitely blocked as well. Just thinking about it makes me feel terrible for you!”
“You can still laugh!” Zhou Shuang pretended to be angry and threw a handful of corn kernels at Sun Juan.
“Xiao Shuang, if the situation is too bad, you can go to the community group to report it. You can’t go through this every day,” Feng Hong said as she looked at Zhou Shuang with heartache.
Zhou Shuang was the youngest in their group of housewives. Her husband worked overseas all year round and could be considered to be earning a good wage. However, Zhou Shuang had just given birth half a year ago and the expenses at home were high. She also needed to recuperate. If her rest was disrupted like this every day, she would definitely fall sick over time.
“Sigh… I’d like to do that, but don’t you all know Old Madam Fan’s temper? My husband works overseas all year round and I don’t have much hope. I better just bear with it. My child is still young and I’m scared that Old Madam Fan will do something to my child,” she said helplessly.
Based on the kind of person Old Madam Fan was, what Zhou Shuang said was also not something impossible. Back then, when Sun Juan’s daughter was humiliated by Su Liang and ended up committing suicide, they could not do anything to Old Madam Fan. If they did not have any evidence to put Old Madam Fan in jail for a few years, they would not dare to provoke the old woman.
Everyone did their work in silence for a while before Sun Juan asked again, “Is Sister Li still going out to sell her goods nowadays? Since Old Madam Fan is unable to go out, she should be able to do that.”
“I must say that Sister Li and her daughter are really good at doing business. Even if you give me this business, I won’t be able to do it,” Zhou Shuang said enviously.
Everyone knew very well that Qiao Mei and Li Gui have very powerful backers. Otherwise, they would not be able to sell popcorn and seeds so blatantly. They heard that on the day of the incident, Old Madam Fan had asked the people from the cinema’s duty room to come and judge the situation. In the end, the people in charge sent Old Madam Fan to the police station for a few days and Li Gui ended up fine.
In the future, they might be able to ask Qiao Mei’s family for help. Their children might be able to benefit when it was time for them to look for jobs. Everyone just wanted to build a good relationship with Qiao Mei and did not dare to think about anything else!
Qiao Mei also made sure she gave them some benefits. They only needed to work in the morning every day. Moreover, Qiao Mei had promised them that when their children started school in the future, they could schedule to work at the same time as when the children were at school. They could choose to work at any time and she would pay them as long as they worked.
This kind of benefit was something that housewives like them did not even dare to dream about. For each day that they worked, each of them would be able to pluck at least 60 pounds worth of corn kernels. That amounted to three dollars a day!
There was flexibility in the work hours and the amount of work done, they could discuss any issues with the boss and the salary was higher than what they could get anywhere else.
People were all fighting to be able to do this job, so no one would say anything bad about Qiao Mei. Nowadays, if anyone said anything bad about Qiao Mei and Li Gui, they would be the first to step out and disagree!
“Do you think we can learn how to make popcorn from Sister Li?” Sun Juan’s sister, Sun Jiao, muttered softly.
Sun Juan was so frightened that she quickly covered Sun Jiao’s mouth. Was a salary of 90 dollars a month still not enough for her? If she had known that her sister was so stupid, she would not have let her work here.
“Shut up! If you want to work, then do your work. If not, then get lost!” Sun Juan said in exasperation.