How I Tamed My Wolfish Husband Back in 80s-Chapter 363 - 365: Questioning_1

Just two steps away, Li Jianguo sped towards them on his bicycle. Upon seeing Li Qiao, he got off and still addressed her as Third Sister, "What brings you here today?"

"Didn’t the factory end up with a lot of defective shoes? I brought a classmate to pick some out, thinking we might set up a street stall. The security guard wouldn’t let us in, claiming there’s a woman who shows up every day claiming to be Qin Jin’s significant other."

Li Jianguo said, "Don’t listen to his nonsense."

Li Qiao replied with a forced smile, "What he said is probably the truth."

Li Jianguo denied it again, then led Li Qiao into the factory, and said to the security guard, "This lady is the real wife of the factory manager. Make sure you recognize her. You can’t stop her next time."

The security guard was anxious, realizing she truly was the boss’s partner.

He hurriedly agreed.

Li Jianguo took Li Qiao and Ma Hongxiang into the factory and into the warehouse. "All the shoes in here failed the inspection. Pick out the good ones, and if you can’t carry them all, you can leave them in the factory manager’s office; the door is unlocked." He pointed out the location of Qin Jin’s office.

"Great, you go on with your work; we’ll pick them out ourselves."

"Okay." Li Jianguo left.

The two of them began choosing shoes.

Workers inside the factory got curious and came to check out Li Qiao and Ma Hongxiang.

"What’s your relationship with Deputy Director Li?" someone asked.

Li Qiao said, "I’m his sister."

"How come he looks so much older than you?"

Li Qiao was at a loss for words for a moment and then said, "We’re from the same village. He started calling me that after losing a bet to me."

Everybody laughed.

The workshop director called everyone back to work, and the crowd dispersed.

Li Qiao and Ma Hongxiang concentrated on picking out shoes. Some had slight damage to the leather, some had incorrect leather patterns, and some had flaws inside...

Fortunately, they could find matching pairs.

And they were soft enough not to interfere with wearing.

Li Qiao and Ma Hongxiang, having the same shoe size, picked out the ones that matched left and right and went over their choices again carefully.

In the end, they selected twenty-three pairs of shoes.

Ma Hongxiang asked, "The factory throws out so many shoes, can it still make a profit?"

Li Qiao replied, "Who would run a factory if it didn’t make money? Don’t worry, my man wouldn’t get involved in a losing business, and what you’re taking won’t affect his earnings." She packed the chosen shoes into shoe boxes and then into a sack.

She and Ma Hongxiang lifted it together.

As they were leaving the factory, they ran into Qin Jin head-on, and he immediately stopped her, "What are you carrying? What if you get tired?"

Li Qiao responded, "Oh, it’s not heavy. We’re planning to set up a street stall. Where’s a good place to do business?"

Qin Jin suggested, "On top of the city center’s skybridge, there are people all day long."

Ma Hongxiang decided to go on her own, "Li Qiao, you don’t need to come with me. I’ll go ahead, okay?"

In the cold weather, Li Qiao indeed didn’t want to be out in the wind, "Take care on the road, huh?"

"Will do."

"..."

Li Qiao watched Ma Hongxiang walk away, then entered the factory with Qin Jin. The security guard, nervous, feared Li Qiao might speak ill of him and took the initiative to greet her, but Li Qiao only smiled without a word. Soon, under everyone’s gossip-filled glances, she sat in Qin Jin’s office, running her hand over the leather chair, "This is quite comfortable; you really know how to enjoy yourself."

Qin Jin said, "Running around all day is exhausting; it’s only right to enjoy some comfort." He quickly changed the subject, "On the twentieth of the twelfth lunar month, I’m planning to treat the workers to a meal. Which restaurant do you think is best?"

Li Qiao suggested, "Spring Restaurant near our school has good food and it’s inexpensive. You can book the whole place that day, and maybe buy two TVs to reward the most diligent workers from each team who make the fewest mistakes."

Qin Jin liked the idea, "That’s a good plan."

Li Qiao added another question, "When are you planning to give them their holiday?"

"On the 28th of December, let’s head home on the 25th, and leave the rest to Li Jianguo and Liu Er."

"Isn’t Li Jianguo going back to his hometown with his partner to meet his parents?"

Qin Jin, "He said he’s not going anymore, worried that his own home is too shabby and would scare the girl away. He’s buying a house here, planning to bring his whole family over for the New Year."

The two chatted leisurely for a while.

Li Qiao felt sleepy.

Qin Jin immediately arranged for her to enter the rest room, she looked around, a room of five or six square meters, with a bed, a wardrobe, and a table.

There were also some daily necessities.

The quilt was folded neatly, and the bedsheet was clean and tidy.

The slippers were put away in the wardrobe, which contained two sets of clothes.

"You hardly ever tidy up at home all year round, if I don’t make the bed in the morning, when you go to sleep at night, it’s still the same mess. Who’s tidying up for you here?" she asked.

"I ask Li Jianguo to clean up. You don’t suspect I have a mistress, do you?"

"I never mentioned a woman. Look at you, confessing without being pressed."

Qin Jin, "....."

...

Li Qiao slept for a while and woke up at two o’clock in the afternoon.

Qin Jin took her to eat, and then sent her back to school.

The door to the dormitory wasn’t locked; Li Qiao pushed it open and saw Ma Hongxiang sitting at the desk under her bunk bed, with study materials in front of her.

"You’re back early."

Ma Hongxiang turned her head and smiled, "Yeah, I was so embarrassed to set up at first, it took me a long time just to take out the shoes, but as soon as I did, people came to ask for the price. The better-looking ones, I priced at two fifty, the lesser ones at two, and sold out in less than an hour. I made fifty yuan, and I sent the last pair back home with the cotton clothes before you came back."

As she spoke, she took out all the money she made, "Here, take this."

Li Qiao took twenty, "This is for the clothes, you don’t need to pay for the shoes. I asked the workshop director, and he said that there are usually seven or eight pairs of damaged shoes a day, sometimes up to a dozen or twenty pairs. The warehouse is cleared out once a month, so you could go pick some every week. I’ll accompany you if I have time, and then we can set up a stall together, and split the earnings."

Ma Hongxiang was tempted again but still declined; even though she wanted to earn more, she feared being seen by her classmates, which would be more embarrassing. Besides, she owed Li Qiao too much. "I’d feel guilty watching you freeze while trying to help me make money in the cold weather."

Li Qiao, "I’d be idle anyway, study on weekdays, set up a stall on the weekends, listening to the people around you talk about life, it’s interesting."

Ma Hongxiang laughed, "Looks like you’ve set up quite a few stalls." She indeed found the stallholders around her quite chatty.

If she didn’t go out, she wouldn’t know that the outside world had changed so much.

Li Qiao, "I helped set up a few times with my partner in the summer."

"Summer? Wasn’t trading not allowed then?"

"We did it sneakily at night markets. There’s a lot I haven’t told you, my partner was able to achieve so much in a short period because he had the experience. He started doing business stealthily when he was fifteen or sixteen and got cheated a few times because he trusted the wrong people. At the beginning of this year, he was swindled out of all his capital by an associate and was down for a long time," Li Qiao said.

Ma Hongxiang was emotionally stirred, realizing that Li Qiao had already gone through all this.

If Top Scholar didn’t mind setting up a stall and wasn’t ashamed, what did she, a nobody, have to fear?

Earning money on her own was nothing to be ashamed of.

If Xue Sufen and Lv Qian found out one day and mocked her, then let them.

She made up her mind.

She relaxed completely.

Her spirit revived, she smiled and said, "Alright, I’ll go pick some up next week."

"Sure!"

...