The Reborn Sidekick Rejected The Male Lead-Chapter 451: Extra Eight

Shen Manman had gone to visit this time, and they ate the New Year’s Eve dinner at Big Uncle Zhuang’s place.

The dinner on the first evening of the new year was at the home of her stepfather’s brother in Ten-miles Village.

On the second day, Zhuang Yan’s half-sister came to visit her maternal home.

Since they were her elder brother and sister-in-law, they had to host her properly.

Zhuang Yan’s half-sister, named Xia Yu, was twenty-five this year, and she really had good fortune.

Despite her father’s remarriage in her childhood, bringing her a stepmother and a brother,

her stepmother treated her well, and although her brother was a bit unreliable, he never bullied her.

After the elders in the family passed away one after another, it was Zhuang Yan who looked after her.

Even though Zhuang Yan was not fond of work, he made quite a good amount of money, so their family was never short of food.

It was just during the years that Zhuang Yan was in prison that the young girl suffered hardships and endured disdain for a few years.

Later, her aunt helped to arrange a marriage for her, with an ordinary family that was just poor.

But the young man was decent and treated her well.

After Zhuang Yan was released, he took him into the business for a few years, and the guy was willing to work hard.

They saved some money, and now the couple has opened a clothing store in the county town.

The goods were all supplied by Zhuang Yan, and they were quite profitable.

He was the eldest in the family, with one younger brother and a sister below him.

The younger brother was married, and the year before last, his elder brother found him a factory job in the county, all expenses paid by his elder brother.

The younger sister had just graduated from high school, and now, she was preparing to work in Shen Manman’s factory.

The whole family could now earn money, and their lives were getting better and better.

Seeing that his sister’s in-law’s family was doing well made Zhuang Yan feel at ease, for at least his sister wouldn’t be mistreated at her husband’s house.

Shen Manman and Zhuang Yan stayed in Ten-miles Village until the sixth day.

During this period, they also encountered Xia Lin.

Walking on the opposite side, the group of people pretended to be strangers, not speaking to each other.

However, it was the local leaders who, on the third day, came to visit the Qi family.

They learned that Xia Lin had opened a large factory down south and showered her with compliments.

A large factory would naturally require labor, and these rural folks in their county had plenty of time when it wasn’t the busy farming season.

Being able to bring job opportunities to the villagers, the leaders naturally had to treat her well.

By extension, Shen Manman’s factory also got a bit of exposure.

When they returned, Lu Jingqiu, while listening to her sister complaining, casually said, "How could she start her own business? Before she went in, she sold the factory to Old Wei. That $150,000 was her startup capital. She’s quite clever."

"She is clever, indeed, and has a lot of schemes. Hooking up with Mr. Qi, and I don’t know how she managed to bewitch him when their kids are all grown up. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

I saw that Xia Lin seems to be pregnant. The ages between the Qi brothers are so different, there must be many conflicting interests, and I guess their family life won’t be too peaceful either."

"That’s likely. Qi Anmin’s children are sensible; they must understand and probably hate Xia Lin, but it doesn’t concern us much. It’s best to stay away from such people as much as possible."

"I’m just afraid she’ll come back for revenge."

"She wouldn’t dare."

"Why not?"

Lu Jingqiu didn’t say why, but with the connections she had now, Xia Lin didn’t stand a chance.

Besides, she had finally made a comeback and naturally wouldn’t do something foolish like taking risks to scheme against them.

She couldn’t afford to take them on now.

And indeed, Lu Jingqiu turned out to be right.

Although Xia Lin had $150,000 as startup capital, things were still quite tight for her. If not for Qi Anmin’s help in mediating, she really couldn’t have taken over such a big factory.

The reason she fled to the south was, first, because Qi Anmin was there and, second, to stay away from Lu Jingqiu and Xue Jianian.

She found that whenever she came into contact with these two, she could never win against them, no matter how hard she tried.

Maybe this was karma, a cycle of cause and effect. In her previous life, she owed them, and in this life, she was destined to repay.

Having fortunately started over in this life, she wasn’t about to suffer again. She would focus on developing her business, letting bygones be bygones.

Shen Manman’s factory had received several newcomers who needed training.

She assigned Yiyi to take care of that.

Now, developing the business was crucial. After years of promotion, many people had become aware of this feminine hygiene product.

A large portion of the city’s population, especially young girls, were willing to buy it.

As times were advancing, they were also keeping up with the trends.

Therefore, in the past two years, the sales of sanitary pads were very good nationwide.

Moreover, it wasn’t just her factory; a new hygiene products factory had opened up in the south.

Competition had begun, so they had to focus not only on attracting business but also on maintaining quality, packaging, and brand effect.

Shen Manman started to get busy.

On the other side, Xue Jianian, accompanied by Xiao Hua, had registered a company in West City. They had given up on franchising restaurants and were now planning to open a large shopping mall there.

This plan had already been approved by Lu Jingqiu and Luo Xinyue.

They would start with one location and then move on to franchising.

While everyone was busy, her husband brought back some good news.

Today, the grandchildren had been taken out for a day of fun by their grandfather.

Lu Jingqiu looked at the time and prepared to go out and buy groceries.

However, Jiang Nanzhou suddenly came home and happily lifted her into his arms for a spin upon seeing her.

Lu Jingqiu, blushing, quickly glanced around, thankful that Grandpa and Aunt Zhang had gone out, "Hey, put me down quickly, aren’t you supposed to be working overtime?"

"I finished for today," he replied.

With that, Jiang Nanzhou carried Lu Jingqiu into the room, "No, no, not in broad daylight."

But Jiang Nanzhou wouldn’t listen and insisted on cuddling her for a while, enjoying a rare day just for the two of them.

He was so happy that he forgot himself.

"What’s going on? Why are you so happy today?" Lu Jingqiu lay breathlessly on the bed and asked.

Only then did Jiang Nanzhou smile and say, "My research was successful. The higher-ups are taking it very seriously and have asked me to attend a meeting."

Lu Jingqiu’s eyes shone as she said, "Honey, congratulations, are you going to be promoted?"

"Not sure, but there will definitely be a reward."

"Uh-huh, when are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow."

"Oh, how many days will it be?"

"Not sure, it depends on the next phase of the research. I have some ideas in this area that I would like to discuss with the leaders."

"So, does that mean you might be up for an award this time?"

Jiang Nanzhou laughed, "I should think so."

These words made Lu Jingqiu overjoyed. Her husband’s hard work over the years was finally paying off.

She prepared a full table of dishes that evening.

Jiang Nanzhou cautioned her not to get too excited too soon.

But Lu Jingqiu felt sure that her husband would succeed.

He would be accompanied by his two assistants on this trip.

They would travel by train.

In recent years, the couple hadn’t been apart much.

Even a few short days felt like a long time to her.

Sure enough, after just over a week, Lu Jingqiu received some great news from her husband.

There was even a possibility that he would become the youngest president of West City Research Institute next year.

The propulsion system he designed had been approved by Wei Jincheng, so Jiang Nanzhou needed to work in conjunction with their factory to supervise the first batch of production.

The factory that had previously produced military supplies was now turned into a military-industry factory.

The military supplies business had been transitioned to the garment factory, and the business was growing ever larger.