Chapter 367: Next door to us?
The night breeze was blowing gently. Jia Liang closed the shop and walked home under the moonlight.

Old Mrs. Jia hadn’t gone to bed yet. She was sewing shoe soles with the light on.

The weather is getting cold soon, and I have only made a pair of cotton shoes for my son.

My son is very capable now. He runs around every day and wears out his shoes.

As a leader, it is not convenient for me to wear old cotton shoes. The big leather shoes I bought do not seem to be as warm as the ones I make myself.

Seeing his mother doing this again, Jia Liang frowned slightly and reminded her, “Mom, don’t do it for me. I have clothes to wear. It’s hard on your eyes to do it at night.”

Old Lady Jia didn’t even raise her head. “It’s okay. I’m already familiar with this job. I can do it even without watching…hiss…”

Before he could finish his words, he raised his fingers as if he had received an electric shock, and when he looked at his fingertips, blood was already oozing out.

“You are such a startled child.”

Jia Liang: “…”

Can this blame be put on him?
“I’m going back to bed. You should go to bed early too.”

If you can’t afford to offend him, you can just hide.

Old Lady Jia spoke again, “Liangzi, what’s going on with your boss’s sister-in-law? I remember hearing you say a while ago that your boss’s sister-in-law is divorcing her husband. Is it the woman named Qin Juan?”

“Why are you asking this?” Jia Liang only mentioned this matter to the old lady.

Old Mrs. Jia put down her work and leaned forward. “I saw your boss Lin today. She brought her elder sister-in-law with her. She lives next door to us. Is she divorced?”

Jia Liang was surprised. “Next door to our house? Living here?”

He remembered that the two rooms in the yard next to theirs had been empty for a long time.

“Not yet. They should be here to look at the house. That means they should move in within the next two days. I think the girl is pretty and has a good face. What kind of family is not satisfied with marrying such a daughter-in-law?”

When talking about Qin Juan, Jia Liang’s mind was the scene where Qin Juan was tied up, pulled out from under the bed, and had no desire to live.

Such a scene was really shocking. Even though he had been in gangs and had fought, he never hit women.

Such a weak woman was beaten all over, and her hands and feet were tied and her mouth was gagged for fear that she would ask for help.

Jia Liang couldn’t imagine what Qin Juan would have suffered if they hadn’t gone.

Jia Liang couldn’t help it and told his mother about Qin Juan’s experience, including that her husband had someone else outside and was domestic violence against her.

Mrs. Jia’s fists stiffened when she heard this. “This is really too much. How could they have the heart to do that to such a good girl?”

“A kind person is often bullied, and a kind horse is often ridden. Qin Juan has a good temper and a weak character, so she was controlled by her husband’s family.”

Qin Juan worked in the bun shop these days, and Jia Liang got to know her better.

He has a really good temper.

When facing colleagues and customers, he is always smiling and in a good mood.

Once, a customer outside became impatient with the queue and got angry at the shop staff. The waitress selling buns was scolded to the point of crying. Qin Juan took over her position without saying a word and continued selling, comforting the customers while doing so.

It seems like he has no temper at all.

Jia Liang has a bad temper, especially when he was young, he would do anything he was not convinced of.

It was also during these two years of working with Lin Chuxia that he gradually controlled his temper.

Even so, he would often lose his temper when encountering something that made him angry. There was no employee in his store who was not afraid of him, and he would really scold them if they did something wrong. Therefore, Jia Liang could not understand Qin Juan’s good temper, but he felt that it was precious.

“Mom, Qin Juan will live next door from now on. Please take care of her. It’s not easy for a woman to live alone with a child. Please help her if you can.”

He was looking after the store, and everyone knew that she was the boss’s sister-in-law, so she couldn’t stand being wronged.

The people living around here are mixed, and they all have bad tempers.

“You don’t have to tell me that. For Boss Lin’s sake, I have to help take care of him.”

Jia Liang’s intention was not to do this for Lin Chuxia’s sake, he just felt that this woman had a hard time.

But he didn’t refute what his mother said. After all, it was right to take better care of her.

…………………………

After the eldest sister moved away, Lin Chuxia and Qin Yang returned to their small life of two people.

The weather is getting colder day by day. Lin Chuxia is afraid of the cold and is even more reluctant to go out in such weather.

Mrs. Fu’s voice came from outside, “In early summer, the company will bring cabbage in the afternoon, and the family compound will also bring a truckload. If your family wants to keep someone, you can stock up some cabbage when the time comes.”

“Oh, I see. Thank you, sister-in-law.”

Lin Chuxia poked her head out of the house and shouted to the next door.

There are quite a few people living in the family compound, and Qin Yang and his unit will take care of as many of them as they can.

A while ago, our unit was hauling coal and sent two more trucks to the staff quarters.

However, most people now use honeycomb coal. Most people cannot use coal blocks for burning boilers, mainly because they cannot afford it.
There are also a few households that have kept some coal blocks, which they can crush and make their own honeycomb coal.

Lin Chuxia and Qin Yang decided to keep two tons of coal. She didn’t like burning honeycomb coal because the smell was too strong and there was a risk of carbon monoxide poisoning if things went wrong.

The two discussed installing a radiator and then getting a small household boiler that could be used to boil water and heat the radiator, keeping the house warm.

When Qin Yang came back at noon, the two of them talked about this matter while eating.

Master Zhang, who runs the boiler in their unit, is an expert at installing radiators. Several families in the staff quarters asked him to install radiators.

Lin Chuxia took a piece of fatty meat from the bowl and gave it to Qin Yang. “The sales awareness of these state-owned enterprises is so backward. Can’t they provide installation services for free when selling stoves and radiators? No wonder these units can’t survive one by one. They don’t have any enterprising spirit. If they lag behind, they will be beaten. They have shouted slogans for so many years, but it’s all in vain.”

Qin Yang glanced at his wife and joked, “Do I have to install the things I sell to you? Do I have to send them to your home?”

Lin Chuxia nodded as a matter of course, “Yes, it’s a one-stop service.”

Qin Yang just smiled, knowing that his young wife was quite knowledgeable in the business field, but he also felt that this matter was a bit far-fetched.

One-stop service?

If you choose a little more when buying things, the salesperson in the department store will roll his eyes at you. They are not willing to take the items for you, so how can you ask them to deliver the items to you?

Lin Chuxia knew that he didn’t believe it, so she snorted, “Just wait, it will come true sooner or later.”

Some ideas are indeed deeply rooted and difficult to change, even for Qin Yang.

Lin Chuxia thought about it and realized that it has been less than 10 years since the reform and opening up, and the country’s real rapid development began after it joined the WTO in 2000.

Even she sometimes had an illusion that some things should be this way, but when she was really in that era, she found that the gears of history were not moving as fast as she had imagined, including the people’s thoughts and ideas at that time, which were still conservative and backward.

Just after finishing the meal, Master Zhang from the unit came.