Chapter 645 - 628: Seeking a Fight
Ma Lili was at work when she got a call from Mother Ma, asking her to come home. Business in the department store had declined significantly, and with the new leadership setting strict rules, Ma Lili didn’t dare leave as freely as before.
"Mom, what’s going on?"
Mother Ma didn’t say what it was about, just insisted she come back.
Ma Lili got the hint: "Mom, I’m at work now! We have rules here, we can’t leave unless it’s something really important, otherwise we’ll get fined. A colleague of mine got fined thirty yuan last month."
Of course, her colleague’s husband could earn money, so losing thirty yuan didn’t matter. Her husband worked in a restaurant doing odd jobs; not only was it tiring, but the pay was also low, and the household expenses still depended on her salary. Although they had some savings, raising a child was expensive, and every penny counted.
"Then come by after work!"
Ma Lili knew it wouldn’t be anything good, but she went home after work anyway. Only then did she find out that Yan Fang lost four thousand yuan gambling, and now the creditor was at the door, threatening to chop off his hands and feet if he didn’t pay up.
Big Sister Ma asked Ma Lili to lend them money, saying she had already gathered nineteen hundred, still short of two thousand two hundred.
Ma Lili wouldn’t lend the money, she said, "Big Sister, when you guys bought a house for Jixiang, I chipped in over two thousand, and later when you said you wanted to start a business, I lent a thousand." "I don’t have money, Ah Dong and I can hardly scrape together enough for a small shop."
The man she later found was named Wang Dong, an honest man. She figured their son was growing and expenses were rising. Relying only on their modest salaries wasn’t sustainable, so she wanted to open a small store to sell some specialty goods. Nowadays, people have money to spend, and it can be profitable.