Time-Travel: The Tragic Cannon Fodder Female Supporting Character Makes a Comeback

CHAPTER 127: The 1980s Villain’s Biological Mother (20)

　　The next morning.

　　Mu Shuhui took the two children back to the market to buy some smaller items.

　　The market had only just opened, so there weren’t many people around yet.

　　She picked out a selection of hats, scarves, belts, and other accessories.

　　She inspected everything on the spot, then packed it all into a burlap sack and carried it herself. The smaller items didn’t take up much space anyway, and she could simply put everything into her space once they got back to the inn.

　　She finished shopping in less than an hour. Seeing the crowd starting to grow, she took the children back to the inn.

　　But when they reached the entrance, they ran into Xu Meng.

　　He seemed to have been waiting for quite a while. When he saw them coming back, he scratched his head and stepped forward.

　　“Comrade Mu, it’s not very safe to go out with two children. Are you planning to buy more things today? I can keep an eye on the children for you. I won’t charge you.”

　　Mu Shuhui was a little surprised. After all, they had only known each other for a day. She politely shook her head and declined.

　　“Thank you, Comrade Xu, but I’ve already bought everything I needed. We’re planning to head home today.”

　　Xu Meng looked a little disappointed, but he still smiled. “It’s better to head home early. It’s not safe to be out with two children. I’m not busy today, so I can take you to the train station.”

　　Seeing that she might refuse again, he quickly added, “My big sister asked me to take you there.”

　　Hearing that it was Sister Xu’s request, and knowing she might need to work with her again in the future, Mu Shuhui didn’t object. She simply thanked him.

　　Xu Meng escorted the mother and her two children to the train station, helping them buy their tickets and get settled.

　　He might have been a big, burly man, but he was surprisingly attentive and careful.

　　……

　　Back in the capital.

　　The children had started school, and while she waited for her shipment to arrive, Mu Shuhui immediately started looking for a suitable storefront.

　　She wasn’t about to endure the wind and rain of running a street stall.

　　Renting a shop would give her a proper place to work. She could sell clothes when business was busy, sit and read books or newspapers when things were quiet, and hire someone to help run the shop so she wouldn’t have to work herself too hard.

　　Mu Shuhui specifically looked for places with lots of young people, such as areas near movie theaters or factories.

　　After spending the whole morning looking around, she had her eye on two shops.

　　The one near the movie theater was for rent only, at 50 yuan a month. It was about a twenty-minute walk from her home.

　　The other shop was available for both rent and purchase. It had a great location right at an intersection, with a food factory and a textile factory on either side of the roads. There were plenty of young women working at the factories, and residential buildings for factory families nearby, so there was a decent amount of foot traffic.

　　Mu Shuhui was planning to sell women’s clothing in the first place. The factory girls earned their own wages, so they had money of their own to spend and probably wouldn’t be short on spending power.

　　The location wasn’t as good as the one near the movie theater, but it was much closer to Mu Shuhui’s apartment, only a ten-minute walk away.

　　The monthly rent was 38 yuan. Behind the main storefront was a smaller room that could be used as living quarters. The whole place was over 60 square meters, and the landlord was asking 10,000 yuan to sell it.

　　Ten thousand yuan could buy an entire courtyard house, so most people preferred renting storefronts instead. That was why this place had remained unsold for so long.

　　Rather than renting a storefront, Mu Shuhui felt it would be more sensible to buy one and keep it as an asset. Once a tenant’s business started doing well, some landlords might decide not to renew the lease and run a business there themselves. Things like that happened all the time.

　　So Mu Shuhui gave up on the first storefront and went straight to negotiate with the landlord of the second one.

　　It turned out the landlords were an elderly couple with graying hair. The reason they were asking such a high price was because they had a granddaughter with asthma. Every year, they spent a considerable amount on her medication and hospital stays.

　　Every winter, the girl had to stay in bed. Her health grew weaker with each passing year, and with the weather getting colder, the couple didn’t want her to suffer through another winter. They hoped to save enough money to move somewhere warmer and settle down there.

　　But the two shabby rooms they lived in weren’t worth much. The storefront was the only property they had that was worth anything, so they had deliberately set the asking price high, leaving themselves some room to negotiate.

　　Before Mu Shuhui could even make an offer, the elderly couple immediately lowered the price by 1,000 yuan. They were willing to sell it for 9,000 yuan, tearfully explaining how difficult life had been for their family of three.

　　Their son and daughter-in-law had died young, leaving them with only their sick granddaughter. The elderly couple were getting on in years, but they were still doing everything they could to protect the child.

　　Mu Shuhui looked at the little girl lying on the bed. She seemed to be around fourteen or fifteen. Her little face was painfully thin, her cheeks pale, and when she smiled, there was a faint, fragile look about her.

　　“Our girl is such a good child. When she was eight, a neighbor’s child fell into the river. She was so small, but she somehow managed to carry the child out and save them. She ended up swallowing a lot of water and developed a fever. Later, it turned into asthma. Sadly, good people don’t always get good things in return…”

　　The old grandmother hugged her granddaughter and broke down in tears, while the grandfather also wiped his eyes, visibly moved.

　　After hearing this, Mu Shuhui spoke up. “All right. I’ll buy the storefront.”

　　The elderly couple immediately burst into tears of relief. The grandmother hurriedly urged her husband, “Old man, go get the property deed. Let’s go to the housing bureau and transfer it right away.”

　　The old man hesitated for a moment before pointing at their two small single-story houses.

　　“Miss, we’re getting old. Once we move away, we probably won’t ever come back. How about you buy these two houses along with the storefront? We can make it an even 10,000 yuan. What do you think?”

　　Although the two houses looked run-down, they covered nearly 100 square meters in total. An extra 1,000 yuan seemed reasonable enough, and Mu Shuhui could simply keep them as an investment.

　　Mu Shuhui agreed. “All right.”

　　……

　　10,000 yuan bought her a storefront and two small houses.

　　The clothing shipment would take about four days to arrive.

　　Once Mu Shuhui got the keys, she hired workers that afternoon to renovate the storefront.

　　They whitewashed the entire interior, laid new tile flooring, and removed the old wooden doors and windows with their peeling paint. In their place, they installed large glass windows that gave the shop a much more impressive look. The door was made with a thick wooden panel reinforced with aluminum alloy. Once everything was painted a light color, the whole shop instantly had a much nicer atmosphere.

　　Since she was going to be selling clothes, Mu Shuhui went to a department store and picked out a batch of good-quality light fixtures. They cost almost as much as the interior renovation itself, but the lighting gave the shop exactly the right atmosphere.

　　She also had workers make clothing racks in various lengths and ordered a batch of wooden hangers. The wooden ones looked and felt much more substantial, giving the shop a more polished, upscale feel.

　　Labor was cheap at the time, and Mu Shuhui had asked for the work to be completed within three days, so there were seven or eight workers on the job. The 60-square-meter space didn’t take long to finish since there wasn’t much major construction involved. They completed everything in just two days.

　　After inspecting the work and confirming everything was up to standard, Mu Shuhui paid the workers and left the shop open to air out for another two days. By then, there was barely any smell left.

　　The goods arrived on the fifth day. Mu Shuhui hired someone to haul them back from the market and help unload everything into the shop.

　　The small storefront was instantly piled high with packages, each one labeled with the season and number of pieces inside.

　　Mu Shuhui first unpacked the summer clothes. The downside of buying clothes so cheaply was that they came bundled together in huge quantities, so everything was wrinkled and crumpled when she pulled it out.

　　There was no way she could hang them up like that, so Mu Shuhui asked a nearby seamstress to help iron them. The summer clothes were very thin, so she paid thirty cents per piece.

　　The seamstress was a middle-aged woman named Auntie Zhang. She couldn’t stop smiling and was more than happy to take the job.

　　Business wasn’t exactly booming for seamstresses these days either. Sometimes she wouldn’t get a single customer all day. Ironing clothes was easy work, and at thirty cents a piece, ten pieces meant three yuan. It was a pretty good deal.

　　Mu Shuhui brought her two bundles of clothes, 150 pieces in total. Auntie Zhang could barely believe it. One hundred and fifty pieces meant forty-five yuan!

　　Worried that she wouldn’t be able to finish them all in time, Auntie Zhang went home and called her daughter-in-law and younger daughter over to help.

　　She even borrowed irons from another household. The three of them each took an iron, and by that afternoon, they had finished the whole batch.

　　Mu Shuhui came over to pay them, and when she carried the clothes back to the shop, Auntie Zhang’s daughter-in-law and younger daughter readily helped carry them over.

　　When they saw Mu Shuhui getting ready to hang the clothes on the racks, the two women immediately pitched in, chatting as they worked.

　　“Your clothes are really pretty, and the quality is so good too. I just wonder if they’re expensive and whether we can afford them.”

　　Mu Shuhui smiled. “They’re not too bad. They’re cheaper than the ones at the department stores, so everyone should be able to afford them. If you two want to buy something, I’ll give you a discount today.”

　　“That’s wonderful! Thank you so much.”

　　The two women became even more enthusiastic. They picked out clothes while helping hang them up, and before long, the three of them had the whole shop neatly arranged.

　　Mu Shuhui found both women pleasant and warm-hearted, so she asked if they had jobs.

　　Auntie Zhang’s daughter-in-law was named Wang Qin. She was thirty-five, tall and slim with short hair, and had an easygoing personality.

　　Her son was twelve and still in school, while her husband worked at a factory. She usually helped her mother-in-law look after the tailor shop and took care of various odd jobs.

　　Auntie Zhang’s younger daughter was named Zhang Hong. She was eighteen, small and slender, with naturally curly hair that looked quite fashionable. She was also sweet-talking and quick-witted.

　　Jobs were hard to find these days, so she sold hair ties outside the movie theater. She could make around ten yuan a month.

　　Seeing that both women seemed like decent people, Mu Shuhui asked if they would be willing to work with her at her new shop.

　　The two were overjoyed. What girl wouldn’t love getting to spend all day surrounded by pretty clothes while earning a salary?

　　They both nodded eagerly. “We’ll do whatever you need. We’re not afraid of hard work, and we’re willing to learn anything.”

　　Neither of them had expected to stumble into such a good opportunity, and they were clearly thrilled as they talked.

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