With Wu Guangkun guarding the warehouse, Wu Jun was freed up. He once again took his pickup truck, loaded with rice, to expand his market.
After driving around everywhere for the past few days, Wu Jun’s driving skills had become much more adept than when he started, and his work efficiency had improved along with it.
While out scouting the market, Wu Jun would call and direct Wang Qidong to make deliveries after receiving an order, handling both tasks without neglecting either.
Over the course of the day, he visited over twenty restaurants and gave away more than a dozen bags of rice. He faced several rejections and even ran into a few managers who wouldn’t take the rice if it was free.
A little after 6:00 PM, Wu Jun and Wang Qidong met up at the warehouse. They picked up Wu Guangkun and drove to a restaurant on the small commercial street for a good meal.
The restaurants here were small, with just a few tables inside. For now, these small eateries were outside of Wu Jun’s business scope.
After dinner, they all went their separate ways. Wu Jun secretly slipped back to the warehouse to recall Little Red into the game before driving back to the small supermarket.
It was already 8:00 PM when he got back to the supermarket. There were no customers in the store, and Xu Fei was sitting on her small stool, spacing out.
"Wu Jun, you’re back! You must be exhausted, right?" Seeing Wu Jun walk in, Xu Fei instantly perked up and rose to greet him. "Wang Qidong came by to buy cigarettes earlier. He said the warehouse delivered almost 300 bags of rice today. That’s so much better than the supermarket."
"How was business at the supermarket today?" Wu Jun asked as he entered, grabbing a bottle of mineral water from the cooler by the door. He twisted the cap off and took a couple of big gulps.
Xu Fei’s expression fell. "The supermarket only sold 42 bags. That’s not even a fraction of what the warehouse did."
Wu Jun turned and saw the unhappiness on Xu Fei’s face. He smiled and comforted her, "That’s already very good. With these sales numbers, any other supermarket owner would be too excited to sleep."
With the supermarket’s business declining, Xu Fei was more anxious than Wu Jun, the actual owner. Wu Jun had hired her at a high salary, but after just a few busy days, things had quieted down. She felt like the work she was doing didn’t justify her pay.
Xu Fei said with a serious expression, "Wu Jun, business here isn’t as good as before. Maybe my salary..."
Before Xu Fei could finish, Wu Jun said, "Your salary needs another raise."
"No, no, Wu Jun, I meant, is my salary too high?" Xu Fei, thinking Wu Jun had misunderstood her, explained anxiously.
"I think it’s too low." Since Xu Fei started working at the store, Wu Jun spent less and less time there. She held the fort all by herself, cooking for him and even doing his laundry. She did more work than a nanny, and with more care. He genuinely felt her salary was far too low.
"Wu Jun..." Xu Fei looked anxious, but inwardly she was deeply touched. She had wanted to suggest a pay cut, but now her salary was going up instead.
"There’s no need to discuss this further. It’s settled," Wu Jun said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "This is the first time I’ve met someone who’s unhappy about getting a raise."
Wu Jun had seen Xu Fei’s performance since she started and had long been thinking of giving her a raise. Since she brought up the topic of her salary today, he took the opportunity to tell her.
The matter of the raise was settled. When Xu Fei tried to bring up her salary again, Wu Jun skillfully dodged the topic.
At nine o’clock, Xu Fei finished cleaning the supermarket and came out after washing her hands in the restroom.
"Wu Jun, I..." Xu Fei walked over to the checkout counter and looked at Wu Jun sitting in the boss’s chair behind it, hesitating to speak.
"What’s wrong?" Wu Jun turned to look at her. "There’s no need to talk about the salary anymore. It’s getting late. You should go upstairs and sleep."
"No, it’s not about my salary," Xu Fei said. "Wu Jun, I’d like to ask for some time off tomorrow morning, if it’s not busy."
"Time off for what? Do you need me to go with you?" Wu Jun was puzzled. This was the first time Xu Fei had asked for leave. He had encouraged her to go out more before, but she never did.
"No, I can go by myself." Xu Fei quickly waved her hands. "I want to go rent an apartment. I’ve been living at my aunt’s house for a while now. My job is stable, so it’s not really appropriate for me to keep staying there."
The moment Wu Jun heard this, he understood the situation.
He had been to Xu Minli’s home several times. It was a small apartment—a two-bedroom, one-living-room, one-bathroom unit of about 70 square meters.
Xu Minli’s family of three was already a bit cramped in there. Adding Xu Fei made it four people living in that small unit, which was certainly inconvenient in many ways.
Even though it was her own aunt’s home, staying for a long time could become uncomfortable.
Wu Jun asked, "Have you told your aunt you plan to move out?"
"Not yet. I’ll tell my aunt after I’ve found a place and paid for it," Xu Fei said with a helpless expression. "If I tell her beforehand, she’ll definitely say no."
Wu Jun deeply agreed. Knowing Xu Minli, she would probably make her husband sleep at his company dormitory before she’d let her niece move out.
"Your aunt is probably worried about you, a young woman renting a place on your own, right?" Wu Jun stood up from his chair. "Xu Fei, I don’t really approve of you moving out either. You leave early and come back late every day. That commute... it’s just too worrying."
"But..." Xu Fei looked conflicted.
"How about this? You can move in here," Wu Jun said, pointing to the room where the daily necessities were stored. "I’ll set up a bed in that room, and you can sleep in my room. You can lock the door at night. If you’re still not comfortable with that, you can stay in the supermarket, and I’ll go rent a place."
"How could I do that? No, no, absolutely not." Xu Fei shook her head vigorously. ’If I move in and make Wu Jun move out, isn’t that like a cuckoo taking over a magpie’s nest?’
"I think it’s a great idea." Suddenly, a voice came from the doorway. Xu Minli had entered the small supermarket and said with a smile.
"Auntie..."
"Just off work, Sis?"
Wu Jun and Xu Fei greeted Xu Minli at the same time.
"I was listening at the door for a little while." Xu Minli stopped in front of Xu Fei. "Feifei, your aunt has noticed these past few days. You’ve been walking on eggshells at home, so constrained. You don’t even dare to make any big movements when you get up in the morning, afraid of making the slightest noise. It’s really been too hard on you."
Xu Fei felt very embarrassed that her aunt had heard everything she’d just said. She blushed and said, "That’s not it, Auntie. It’s not as serious as you’re making it sound."
"Your aunt isn’t so old that she’s deaf and blind yet. I’ve seen it all." Xu Minli took Xu Fei’s hand, her face full of sympathy. "If you want to move out and rent a place, I won’t agree. I’d be too worried. But if you move in here with Wu Jun, I have no objections. He’s an honest and reliable person. With him right here, you two can look out for each other. I’d be a thousand, no, ten thousand percent at ease."
When Xu Minli first introduced Xu Fei to work at the store, she had hoped that sparks might fly between them after spending some time together. She was extremely fond of Wu Jun, who was from her hometown. If she had a daughter of her own, she would have done anything to snag him as a son-in-law. Unfortunately, she only had a son.
’If he can’t be my son-in-law, being my nephew-in-law would be great too.’ Her niece definitely wouldn’t be getting a bad deal marrying Wu Jun. Now that a rare opportunity to set them up had appeared, she was naturally going to push for it with all her might.
"But... that would cause so much trouble for Wu Jun," Xu Fei said, her face turning red all the way to the roots of her ears upon hearing her aunt’s words.
"It’s no trouble. What’s so troublesome about it?" Wu Jun hadn’t thought that far ahead and chimed in, "It’s just a matter of setting up a bed."