"Some of it I can understand, some of it I can't!" Li Sisi said, a little shyly.
"Haha! Then you'll have to learn quickly. Otherwise, when you come to our hometown later, it'll be a bit troublesome if you can't speak our dialect," Yi Anguo's third sister said with a laugh.
"It's okay. When people know you don't understand, they'll speak Mandarin to you. Actually, our dialect isn't too different from Mandarin, it's just that the pronunciation varies a bit," his third brother-in-law hurriedly added.
Listening to them, Li Sisi felt even more shy and embarrassed.
She could, of course, discern the underlying meaning in their words and couldn't help but sneak a glance at Yi Anguo. Through over a month of interacting with Yi Anguo and his daughter, Li Sisi had already developed a crush on him. She also liked Yi Xinyi very much, but she knew that Yi Anguo had recently suffered an emotional trauma. He probably hadn't recovered and wasn't ready to accept a new relationship yet.
His brother-in-law continued, "We can also understand you folks from Sichuan and Chongqing! Really, once you listen for a while and get used to it, it all sounds the same."
Yi Anguo said, "The whole country is promoting Mandarin now. In the future, children might not even speak their local dialects anymore."
"Take Xin Yi, for example. She was born and raised away from our hometown and will go to school away from there, too. Without anyone speaking our dialect to her, she naturally won't learn to speak it."
"As long as one can speak Mandarin, it's fine. There's no need to specially learn any particular dialect."
Since his third sister and brother-in-law had decided to stay and give it a try, Yi Anguo was naturally very welcoming.
From then on, he was no longer fighting and struggling on his own. He at least had his third sister, his brother-in-law, and their daughter, Fu Huanhuan, by his side. If anything happened, at least he would have family nearby to care for him.
「The next day」
Yi Anguo helped find a renovation crew to start working on the shop. The ceiling and flooring were already done, so they only needed to install some fruit shelves, a job that would take two days at most.
When he had a free moment, Yi Anguo went to the brokerage firm and opened a stock trading account. He checked the daily K-line chart for Guojiu shares and saw that the stock price hadn't hit its lowest point yet, so there was no rush to buy. It should be soon, though, as it was already mid-September.
Half the month had passed without him realizing it. By now, he had rented out over eight hundred apartments, leaving just over one hundred and seventy. If all went well, they should all be rented out by the end of the month.
After that, it would just be a matter of collecting rent every month. As for tenants terminating their leases early, there wouldn't be many. When someone moved out, a new tenant would move in, creating a healthy cycle. The monthly vacancy rate would be a few dozen apartments at most. As the landlord, however, he was unlikely to lose much money, because the contract stipulated that tenants who did not stay for at least half a year were in breach and would forfeit their security deposit.
The rental agreement was for one year, and the contract also specified that the rent could not be increased within that year. After a year, any adjustments would depend on the market, but the rent increase would not exceed ten percent.
Brand new renovation, appliances, and furniture. Who would rent to someone for only one or two months? No landlord would. This was all made clear before signing the lease. Even if a tenant had to leave early for a special reason, it would have to be discussed and decided on a case-by-case basis. If the circumstances were truly special, Yi Anguo wouldn't insist on keeping the two-month security deposit. Of course, he couldn't possibly tell the tenants this beforehand. Otherwise, whenever they wanted to move out, they could just make up a random excuse to get away with it. After all, who doesn't know how to play the sympathy card?
The shop was renovated quickly. Yi Anguo accompanied his brother-in-law to the fruit market to stock up, teaching him firsthand what to look out for.
The first lesson, naturally, was bargaining. The second was inspecting the fruit quality. Many fruit boxes, when opened, would have a top layer of large, shiny fruit, while the layer below was small and unsightly. Some even contained rotten pieces. Moreover, it was essential to randomly check several boxes, not just one. Every box inspected had to be weighed to see if the weight varied significantly. One couldn't just take the wholesaler's word for it.
Many fruits were sold by the box, not weighed individually. A discrepancy of about one jin was normal; any more than that was not.
Another thing to check was the cardboard box itself. Some boxes had cement added inside, making them weigh six or seven, or even seven or eight jin. Other boxes were normal, with nothing added, weighing perhaps only one jin. Whether the box was heavy or light wasn't important. What mattered was subtracting the box's weight to get the net weight of the fruit, then calculating the actual cost to know your numbers.
Whenever sourcing goods, you always had to shop around and compare prices. Once you became a regular and got to know a wholesaler, they usually wouldn't try to cheat you. When you went to buy from them, they would almost always give you their real rock-bottom price. After all, they knew you were a regular customer who bought in large quantities every day. They wouldn't risk losing a major client over petty gains. So, while ensuring their own profit, they would definitely offer you the most favorable price.
After purchasing the goods, the next step was finding a truck for transport, which also had its own tricks. Some truck drivers were lazy, unwilling to help with the lifting and loading, and charged high prices. Other drivers were easy to work with and diligent; they would help you load the goods and offer a very reasonable rate. In business, every penny counts. Saving ten yuan on transport was still a win.
Of course, a fruit store couldn't only sell fruit. Given the size of the shop, other items like candy, biscuits, sachima, egg-yolk pastries, jelly, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and other snacks also had to be sold. In addition, they could sell beverages, beer, mineral water, ice cream, cigarettes, and betel nuts. Anything that could be sold and make a profit couldn't be ignored. A single item might not earn much in a day, but all together, it would add up to a considerable sum.
Once the fruit was brought back to the store, it wasn't just casually placed on the shelves. It had to be sorted by grade. Even for apples or crystal pears from the same box, the large, perfect, unblemished ones were sold at a high price. The average-looking ones were sold a bit cheaper, and the ones with poor appearance or flaws were sold off at a discount. Basically, every type of fruit had to be sorted into two or three grades. Different grades meant different prices. The better the grade, the higher the price and the greater the profit. The poor-quality fruit had to be sold, even at a loss.
Some fruits, like apples, needed to be wiped with a damp cloth to make them look prettier and fresher on display.
As the fresh fruit was being unloaded at the storefront, it immediately attracted a crowd. People came over to ask for prices and began picking out what they wanted. Quite a few of them were Yi Anguo's tenants, who greeted him from time to time. The shop was located right at the entrance of the residential complex, with other complexes nearby, on what was a relatively bustling and busy street with no shortage of foot traffic.
So, even before its official opening, business had already started. And it was quite good. Dozens of customers came one after another, leaving his third sister and brother-in-law flustered.
Luckily, Yi Anguo was experienced. When people asked for prices, he quoted them, while his sister handled the scale and the money. She weighed the items on the electronic scale, entered the unit price, and the scale automatically displayed the total cost.
"Twelve yuan and twenty cents!" his third sister told a customer after weighing their selection.