Chapter 190: Chapter 189 Buying a House and Getting Married (Part 1)
Shi Yang stopped halfway through his sentence, paused, as if he remembered something, and suddenly changed the topic, saying, "But you’re not wrong, you’re only in the second year of high school and already ranked tenth in the city. You work hard, but others do too, what if you drop to twentieth in the next exam?"
Zhao Meimei opened her mouth, a bit at a loss for words for a moment.
Shi Yang asked, "By the way, do you like the pink bedding set or the light blue one?"
Zhao Meimei: "Light blue."
Shi Yang softly replied, "Then let’s go with light blue."
Zhao Meimei had a hard time keeping up with his train of thought.
Shi Yang spoke as if to her, or perhaps to himself, "I’ll handle this matter. You should rest early."
Zhao Meimei held the disconnected phone, still not understanding what Shi Yang was talking about.
After the final exams, the winter holiday officially began.
The Naughty Castle amusement park run by Shi Yang was the first indoor themed playground in the city. When it opened, Shi Yang specially hired many temporary workers to distribute flyers, coupons, and massive advertising outside the city’s primary schools.
In a short time, word spread rapidly among the children, and by the grand opening, due to the massive crowd, for safety reasons, entrance was limited to timed sessions with a fee. Even so, many children couldn’t get in to play, leaving happily but walking away tearfully.
During the Golden Week holiday, Shi Yang made a handsome profit and gave each employee of the Naughty Castle an extra 200 yuan bonus, slipping Liu Xiue a 1000 yuan red envelope on the side.
Liu Xiue adamantly refused, but Shi Yang, with a serious face, took on the air of a boss: "It’s the bonus that everyone gets. You’re the floor manager of our Naughty Castle. Your salary and benefits must be better than others; it’s what you deserve."
Shi Yang gave Liu Xiue a lecture, essentially conveying that the boss gives you money because you performed outstandingly, and you should rightfully accept it. This is the management style of any unit or enterprise.
Shi Yang had been leading the company for a long time and had a knack for addressing employees’ concerns, so much so that Liu Xiue became completely brainwashed, letting go of all her worries and feeling delighted with her well-earned and warm bonus.
Now that the winter holiday had arrived, the Naughty Castle saw another peak period, keeping Liu Xiue so busy every day that she was racing around. Cleaning tasks not caught up the previous night had to be postponed to the next morning.
When the waitstaff arrived early, Liu Xiue had to go over early as well to supervise and arrange their work. Occasionally, if she got up late, she couldn’t even make breakfast. After a while, Zhao Meimei became a regular at the restaurants below the apartment complex, familiar with which dishes were delicious and which noodles were tasty.
With Liu Xiue managing, Shi Yang didn’t have to concern himself with the Naughty Castle other than going to the bank every afternoon before it closed to deposit the day’s earnings.
On the installation project side, in the first few months, Wang Tianyu called almost daily, either to complain to Shi Yang about Li Shuren’s greed and the time-consuming and laborious setup due to high toy sales affecting aesthetics, or to gripe about some workers quitting.
Shi Yang understood that Wang Tianyu, suddenly shouldering responsibilities and dealing with the sly Li Shuren, must have faced many challenges. So, he made regular visits to the provincial city to offer comfort and strategic advice.
Over time, influenced by Shi Yang, the young fox, Wang Tianyu became more savvy, mastering various tactics to the point where Li Shuren started complaining to Shi Yang every day.
Regarding Li Shuren, Shi Yang paid less attention, considering a monthly visit to the provincial city to check up on things as pretty good.
With things going smoothly in the provincial city and Qu Chaozong holding down the fort at home, Shi Yang didn’t bother to inquire, with Qu Chaozong chasing after him for account reporting, willingly handing over toy sales and renovation funds, and even carrying the cash to the bank himself to deposit it for Shi Yang. If he didn’t bring it up, Shi Yang never asked.
Qu Chaozong was so frustrated he could almost grind his teeth into dust. Several times, he ran to the company to argue with Shi Yang: "Are you even the boss! Too lazy to collect money, do you call this acting like a person!"
Shi Yang replied leisurely, "You’re my buddy; how could I not trust you!"
Qu Chaozong, infuriated, cursed: "Get lost! Even if I am your brother, you can’t just stab me in the ribs!"
Shi Yang’s response was to toss the accounting books for the towns and villages under Third Brother’s management over to him: "From now on, you should also help check Third Brother’s accounts."
Qu Chaozong was almost so angry he could’ve toppled over: "You’re dumping all the work on me, trying to make yourself a hands-off boss, huh! I’m telling you, no way!"
Shi Yang, crossing his legs, continued to browse the flyers in his hand without lifting an eyelid: "Who said I’m a hands-off boss? I’m just temporarily stepping aside, leaving company affairs to you for the time being."
Qu Chaozong’s eyes were nearly popping out of their sockets as he glared at him: "Why should I manage it? What are you going to do!"
Shi Yang gave a slight smile and cast a smug glance at Qu Chaozong: "I’m going to buy a house and get married. You’re my buddy, right? It’s time for a brother to help out!"
Qu Chaozong rolled his eyes at him: "Get lost! When did you get a fiancée? Why don’t I know about this!"
Shi Yang said earnestly, "How could you not know? You were the one who set me up with her in the first place!"
Qu Chaozong immediately put on a look of disdain and glared at Shi Yang: "Stop using Meimei as a shield!"
Shi Yang sighed: "I confessed to you, but if you don’t believe me, there’s nothing I can do."
Qu Chaozong dramatically waved his arms: "I’d have to be crazy to believe you! Are you really going to buy a house?"
Shi Yang beckoned to him: "Come over, help me pick."
Qu Chaozong walked over, plopped onto Shi Yang’s office desk, picked up the real estate brochure in his hand, and paused upon seeing the neighborhood address: "Why are you thinking of buying a school district house?"
Shi Yang chuckled: "I told you I’m buying a house to get married."
Qu Chaozong automatically ignored the secondary meaning in Shi Yang’s words as nonsense, taking only what he perceived as the primary meaning, saying, "You’re something else, planning to buy a house here just for Meimei’s convenience in going to school."
Shi Yang explained: "Meimei is only in the second year of high school, still two years till graduation. Once the house is renovated, we can live there. If we don’t want to later, it’s easy to resell a school district house, like house flipping."
Qu Chaozong patted Shi Yang on the shoulder and said with a sigh, "Shi Yang, Meimei might as well be your biological daughter. If you ask me, you’re more like her father than Uncle Zhao."