"Do you want to expand your business?" Han Zhao continued.
"I want to, but I can't do it now. I don't have that much money and energy." Chu Ye answered honestly.
The business was built step by step. It took her half a year to stabilize the situation. She will definitely expand and develop in the future, but she is alone now and will not be able to take care of her if she expands rashly.
"I have nothing to do anyway, so I'll just treat it as an investment for you." Han Zhao smiled, very casually.
"I promised Old Man Li not to gamble on horse racing anymore, but I still need to find something to do." The top of the fishing rod suddenly fell into the water. After waiting for three seconds, Han Zhao decisively stopped the rod, and a fat carp emerged from the water like a crescent moon. It jumped into the air, struggled hard, and was finally firmly clamped by a pair of big hands.
"Tsk, Chu Ye, the fish here are quite stupid." Even though Han Zhao said this, his hands kept moving, gently pulling out the fishhook, and throwing the fish into the fish pond.
Chu Ye gave him a roll of eyes and remained silent.
Han Zhao stopped, packed up the things and put them in the reserve room. When he came out again, he looked calm and said, "If you are going to expand your business, you should make plans in advance. When the time comes, I will pay for it and you will work hard. We will make profits later." Pay me back and the dividend will still be 20%.”
Then, without waiting for Chu Ye to answer, he walked away quickly, while Chu Ye looked at the water and fell into deep thought.
I do have the idea of expanding my business. At present, the stall's business has stabilized, but many problems have gradually been exposed - the fish species sold are only single, and only old customers come to buy, and it cannot attract new customers.
At present, the two fish ponds are properly arranged, but they only have enough for me to sell this year. When the summer and autumn seasons, this batch of fish and crabs mature, I have to buy new seedlings and wait for another year to harvest. This is too slow. , if we contract a few more fish ponds, these problems can be easily solved.
It's just that in this way, she is somewhat incapacitated, and she must focus on one place, so she must recruit someone to help her stabilize the other end, and the person she recruits must be trustworthy.
She thought of Pan'er and Xiaoya.
She did what she said, and she rode a tricycle around the neighborhood in the afternoon. When she looked at Zhonghan Zhao's fish pond, she found that there were several abandoned fish ponds nearby, but they were quite old, so it would take a lot of work to clean them up. She didn't think much more about it. Now that we want to expand our business, we still need to choose more carefully.
Three days later, after choosing a new location, she came to see Han Zhao. He was a local, and it would be much easier for him to intercede. The second step was to borrow money to start cleaning up the new fish pond.
When spring came, Chu Ye's new fish pond was also tidied up. The stall was not too busy during this period, and she could take care of it by herself. Originally, she wanted to tell Pan'er and Xiaoya about it immediately, but then she thought of the two Everyone comes from out of town and works in the factory with food and lodging included. After coming to her place, they can't live without a place to live. Even if they don't come, she will need to hire people to expand her business. It’s also important to think about where to live for your employees.
So she suppressed the impulse in her heart, borrowed another sum of money from Han Zhao, hired people to build two bungalows behind her small house, and then painted them and decorated them with furniture. Before she knew it, another two months had passed.
It is now May, summer is approaching, and there are more and more customers in front of the stall. Chu Ye is gradually feeling tired. In addition, the neighborhood has not been peaceful recently.
The specifics have to start from last week - that day she closed the stall and went to the vegetable market to buy vegetables. She overheard the stall owners chatting among themselves and talked about someone collecting protection money recently. Chu Ye kept an eye on it and understood. What happened.
It turns out that a few days ago, four gangsters appeared on this street. At first they just squatted at the intersection, holding cigarettes in their mouths and watching the people coming and going. After observing for two days, they may have discovered that the folk customs in this area are simple, so they started He walked into the vegetable market blatantly and arrogantly collected protection money.
In the beginning, no one was willing to give them free money, and they knew in their hearts that once this kind of thing started, they might have to pay every month in the future. The people here earned hard money selling vegetables every day, and they couldn't afford to protect them. Living in the same family, where can I have extra money to give to others?
It's just that the gangster was too cunning. After two days of squatting, they had already figured out which stalls had the most traffic, so they started setting up stalls in the morning. The four of them appeared in front of the stalls with their hands behind their backs, all wearing black short sleeves and black pants. , wherever you stop, the stalls are covered tightly. In this way, no customers dare to come over to buy things. Even if someone dares to come over, the four people roll their eyes and say, "Wait a minute." You can buy it after we finish it”
But the four of them didn't buy anything at all. The stall owner could only watch anxiously as his dishes were put away from morning to night. No one bought them until they were wilted. He couldn't make a penny by standing there for two days. Come on, the stall owner couldn't hold on any longer. After asking them how much they wanted, he quickly took out the money and sent them away.
A hole was opened in the originally united vegetable market. No one wanted to experience the feeling of not being able to sell anything for a day. It happened that they didn't want much, so they all chose to give people money and treat them like beggars.
Occasionally, there were tough stall owners who wanted to compete with each other when the four people blocked the stall. Unexpectedly, these four people only talked but did not do anything. The four people said something to each other, and the angry stall owner thought: As soon as he hit someone, one of the gangsters lay on the ground, covered his head and said he had a headache and wanted to go to the hospital for a check-up.
The stall owner angrily called the police, but when he arrived at the police station and asked both parties what had happened, the gangster said that he had just stood in front of the stall for a while, thinking about buying something, and was pushed by the stall owner.
When the brawny stall owner heard these shameless remarks, he was so angry that he cursed and directly said that these four people were collecting protection money. However, after the police interrogated them, they didn't know what the gangsters had done and they only received a verbal education. If there is no result, the only thing left to ask is to ask them to pay back the money they collected.
After this experience, everyone paid the money honestly and just prayed that they would not charge more and more in the future.
After hearing these things, Chu Ye was mentally prepared. In their seafood market, many people gradually learned about this matter. They originally wanted to unite with the outside world, but after asking about those who were stubborn and refused to pay the protection fee, After I got off the field, I became much more honest.
So on a sunny morning, four gangsters in black appeared at the entrance of the seafood market. They first looked around, then walked straight to the first stall and asked for protection money.
This stall owner is an honest middle-aged man. His daily wish is to sell more fish to save more money for his family. He also has two children in school at home. He doesn't want to cause trouble, so he handed over the money as soon as possible. .
Then the second, the third... When it was Chu Ye's turn, she lowered her eyes and handed over the money she had prepared.
"Tsk! It's so boring. No one resisted." One of the gangsters didn't bother to say anything, thinking that there would be people here clamoring to integrate them into the police station! The results are so honest.
"No way, my brother has such a good reputation that everyone in this area is scared hahahahaha." Another echoed, with a sharp tone and a smile that sounded like a duck quacking. "But do we have such a good-looking woman here?" The person who collected the money seemed to be the leader here. While collecting the money, he glanced at Chu Ye more, and then his eyes seemed to be glued to the person.
"Hey, she does look good, beauty. What's your name? How old are you?" said a gangster.
"Chu Ye, you're twenty-two." She replied calmly, hoping to send these people away quickly.
"Hey! Brother Peng, this woman is a bit older." said the gangster who spoke like a duck.
"It's okay! You're so good-looking, your age doesn't matter!" The person who answered was the one who collected the money, the so-called Brother Peng.
Chu Ye lowered his head and said nothing, feeling as sick as if he had swallowed a fly. However, the man thought that Chu Ye was shy and was just praising himself.
Seeing that Chu Ye didn't respond, the man wasn't annoyed and talked for a while before leaving.
I originally thought that the matter would just go away, but I didn’t expect that the next day, the man named Brother Peng would be waiting in front of the stall early, waiting for Chu Ye to arrive and diligently come over. Even though Chu Ye obstructed him in every possible way, this man still wanted to help. Move things.
When the stall was cleared, the man did not leave. He leaned in front of the stall and stared at Chu Ye in a daze. A long time passed like this, but no one dared to come here to buy fish.
Chu Ye finally couldn't help but clenched his fist, gritted his teeth and asked what this person wanted to do, and then got three words saying "I want to chase you."
When Chu Ye heard this, she rolled her eyes. She laughed angrily. Suddenly, she thought of Han Zhao.
So she told Brother Peng that she would bring the remaining three brothers over tomorrow and she wanted to give them a surprise. Under Brother Peng's intoxicated eyes, she closed the stall and knocked on Han Zhao's door.
After everything was explained in detail, Han Zhao's brows were so furrowed that they could kill a fly, and he asked the four people in detail about their appearance.
"I seem to know the four people you mentioned." Han Zhao spoke quietly after listening.
"Ah?" Chu Ye was stunned for a moment, then showed disgust on his face, "I'm not telling you, Han Zhao, the quality of this friend you know is too low."
"What are you shouting for? I'm older than you, and you still owe me money. Call me Brother Han!" Han Zhao smacked his lips and waved his hands nonchalantly, "And they are not worthy of being my friends. You bring the four of them over tomorrow. I teach them a lesson.”
"Okay." With these words, Chu Ye felt relieved.
The next morning, when Chu Ye came to the stall, he saw three people standing there, all dressed in black. And Brother Peng, had changed into white short-sleeved clothes today and had his hair tidied up.
Chu Ye silently removed his eyes, and after putting everything away with the help of a few people, he asked the stall owner on the left to help him look after it for a while, while he led the four of them to the town.
Ten minutes later, after three gentle knocks at the door of Han Zhao's house, Chu Ye lowered his head and waited patiently.
"Brother Peng, why do I think this house looks familiar?" A gangster asked uneasily.
Another one also answered, "That's right, I feel like I've been here before."
Chu Ye was silent, just as the four of them racked their brains to think about whether they had been here before.
With a click, the door opened, and Han Zhao came into view wearing a floral shirt. He was taller than everyone in front of him, long and strong, and very oppressive.
Chu Ye silently took a step back, and when the four gangsters saw the people in front of them clearly, they were scared to death.
"Han...Han...Brother Han!" The four of them couldn't help but retreat and hugged each other.
"I'm sorry, Brother Han! We didn't know you lived here, let's leave right now!" They wanted to run, but Han Zhao "tsk" them, and they were like voice-activated toys with their feet nailed to the ground and did not dare to move.
"Come in, I have something to tell you." Han Zhao opened the door, and the four of them did not dare to disobey. They were all as honest as quails, and Chu Ye was amazed at the sight.
When she was closing the door, she glanced inside. The four of them huddled in the corner after entering the room, looking as pitiful as when she was a teacher looking at the students in the class who didn't do their homework.
She shook her head and went downstairs, knowing that this matter would be resolved properly.
(End of chapter)