Although there was air conditioning in the living room, there was none in the kitchen, so cooking during the sumr was still tough work.
"Si Si, these dishes you’ve made taste amazing! They’re so much better than what you get at restaurants. Do you cook often at ho?" Yi Anguo asked, pleasantly surprised after tasting several of the dishes.
"My family runs a restaurant and my dad’s a chef. I help him out when I have free ti, and after watching him so much, I picked up a few things," Li Sisi said with a smile.
"Oh! No wonder your cooking is so delicious. You have a chef for a father, so it all makes sense. This is a family skill passed down from a young age!" Yi Anguo said, nodding. "Whoever marries you is going to be a very lucky man."
Li Sisi smiled shyly and lowered her head to eat.
"Sister Si Si! Your food is so yummy, way better than my dad’s!" Yi Xinyi exclaid, her mouth greasy from the delicious food.
"Really? If you like it, then eat more. Tell what dishes you like or want to try, and Sister Si Si will make them for you." As she spoke, Li Sisi put down her bowl and chopsticks, took out a napkin, and gently wiped the oil from the corners of Yi Xinyi’s mouth.
"Sister Si Si! Will you cook for every day from now on? I don’t like my dad’s cooking. It doesn’t taste good," Yi Xinyi said innocently.
Yi Anguo’s face flushed red with embarrassnt. He felt like his precious daughter had just turned on him; just a mont ago she had told him she liked his cooking the best, and now she had sold him out.
"Of course! As long as Xin Yi likes it, Sister Si Si will cook delicious food for you every day, okay?" Li Sisi said with a smile. "But you must listen to your dad. If you misbehave, Sister Si Si won’t cook for you anymore."
"Okay! I’ll be very good. I’ll listen to my dad," Yi Xinyi mumbled, her words muffled as she continued to devour her food.
"Your family runs a restaurant, so your circumstances must be pretty good. Why did you decide to get a sumr job instead of going ho for the break?" Yi Anguo asked curiously.
"I have one more year until graduation, so I wanted to get so experience. I’m studying Business Administration, and I plan to stay and build my career in Shenzhen after I graduate."
After the al, Li Sisi diligently cleaned up, washing the dishes, scrubbing the pots, and tidying the kitchen.
He couldn’t help but think of that woman. She always made him wash the dishes, cook, buy groceries, and take care of their child. She would only do it herself if he was absolutely unavailable.
The next day, seventeen apartnts were rented out during the dayti, two fewer than the day before. In the evening, Yi Anguo specifically asked Su ili and Wang Bing to work overti, but they only managed to rent out another six apartnts. In total, twenty-three apartnts were rented out that day. This brought the three-day total to fifty-eight apartnts, an average of nearly twenty per day.
Everyone was satisfied with the apartnts, but many simply couldn’t afford the rent. It wasn’t that they thought it was overpriced; it was genuinely beyond their ans. Still, there were many people looking to rent in Shenzhen, so even if so found the price too high, more than twenty apartnts were still rented out each day. After all, circumstances permitting, everyone hopes to live a little more comfortably in a better environnt.
Apartnts in the urban villages were cheaper, but a small studio of only ten to twenty square ters cost five to six hundred yuan a month. The environnt was poor, let alone the decor. As for furniture, there was practically none besides a cheap, hard-plank bed. Moreover, there was no security. You could go to work and co back to find your ho had been broken into, the lock picked, without you even knowing. An apartnt complex was different; it was much safer and had a far better environnt.
The days passed, and soon a month had gone by. A total of 591 apartnts had been rented out. So days saw twenty or thirty apartnts rented, while on other days, only a dozen or so were taken.
This month, he needed to make a mortgage paynt of over 2.6 million yuan to the bank, but the rent he had collected was less than 1.7 million yuan, resulting in a deficit of nearly one million yuan.
Even Li Sisi was growing anxious. Who could bear losing a million yuan a month?
But Yi Anguo himself wasn’t too worried. In fact, things were going better than he had anticipated. If he could rent out a few hundred more apartnts in the second month, they would all be occupied in two months at most. As long as all the apartnts were rented out, he couldn’t possibly lose money. A temporary loss of over a million in the first month wasn’t a big deal. He had never expected to rent out all one thousand apartnts within a month. He had originally thought it would be great if he could get them all rented out within half a year. In fact, even renting them all out within a year would have been acceptable. Renting out more than half in just one month was a huge relief, making him feel at ease.
A month had passed, and Li Sisi’s school term was about to begin. Yi Anguo gave her 5,000 yuan. After all, she hadn’t just been an employee; she had also cooked for him, taken care of his child, and done housework.
Aside from not sharing a bed with him, she treated him better than his ex-wife ever did! Giving her 5,000 yuan was nothing! If she could stay for the long term, even 10,000 yuan a month wouldn’t be too much. It was a pity she still had to study. There was no way she could stay with him long-term!
Li Sisi initially refused the money, as she had only been helping him out of gratitude. But Yi Anguo insisted, and she eventually had no choice but to accept it.
Yi Anguo thought it over and decided it would be best to hire a nanny. His daughter was about to start kindergarten, and as she got older, it was sotis inconvenient for him, as a father, to take care of her alone. Hiring a nanny to look after her would be much more convenient.
Strictly speaking, he had no money at the mont and was deep in debt. However, the cost of a nanny was manageable. Compared to the debt he owed, this amount was just a drop in the ocean. But the nanny would be taking care of his daughter, so her character was crucial. It had to be soone he could trust completely.
Yi Anguo’s parents had already passed away. If they were still around, he wouldn’t have to worry. He could just bring them over to help with the child. Who could be more trustworthy than one’s own parents?
Suddenly, Yi Anguo rembered his older sister’s eldest daughter, his niece Fu Huanhuan. She had just graduated from a vocational teacher’s college and was currently unemployed at ho. She was a great candidate. When his father had passed away, it was his niece who had looked after his daughter. His daughter was familiar with her and liked her a lot. Even now, she could still rember her sister, Huan Huan.
Yi Anguo called his older sister; luckily, her family had a telephone installed.
"Big Sis! Are you busy at ho right now?" Yi Anguo asked with a laugh after the call connected.
"When are we ever not busy in the countryside? If you want to work, there’s always work to be found," his sister replied, also laughing. "Why the sudden call? Is sothing wrong?"
"Big Sis, can’t I call you just because? I was just calling to see how you’re all doing. Is that not allowed?" Yi Anguo said with a helpless sigh.
"Of course, you can! Why wouldn’t it be allowed?" his sister chuckled. "It’s the sa old story here. Endless work every day, but never any money to show for it.
"Your brother-in-law is following others to harvest peanuts in the countryside now. He cos back very late at night. He can make fifty to sixty yuan a day, sotis over a hundred. If it rains, he just has to stay ho and rest."
"That’s not bad! That’s quite a good earning," Yi Anguo said. "More than many of the migrant workers make."
"It is good," his sister said. "It’s just not a year-round job. If only there was work like that all year, that would be great."
"What about Huan Huan? She’s finished her studies now, right? What is she up to these days?" Yi Anguo asked.
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