CHAPTER 204: CHAPTER 204: THIS IS WHAT I OWE HER

Crispy to eat, plus every potato chip is evenly coated with barbecue sauce, one skewer is simply not enough!

Niu Tiantian and her coworker ate a grilled fish, thirty kebabs, ten spicy shrimp, along with two bowls of herbal tea and mung bean soup provided by Lin Xiang as a friendly gesture.

By the end, Niu Tiantian and her coworker had to support each other.

"Lin Xiang, could you calculate... *hic*... how much it all costs."

Lin Xiang was busy grilling fish and replied without looking up, "This meal is on me, no charge."

"That won’t do!" Niu Tiantian insisted, "I’m here to support your business, not to take advantage of you."

She mumbled to herself while calculating, considering the grilled fish at two cents, thirty kebabs plus ten shrimps at four cents, and two bowls of herbal tea with two bowls of mung bean soup at one cent, totaling eight cents.

Niu Tiantian pulled out a dollar for Lin Xiang, "Grill me another fish, I want to take it home for my parents to try."

"Okay, I won’t add chili."

Niu Tiantian’s mother doesn’t eat chili, and Lin Xiang always remembered that.

Niu Tiantian insisted on paying, Lin Xiang declined several times, but eventually accepted. Besides the grilled fish, she also made twenty extra kebabs, ten with chili and ten without, "Take these kebabs home for your parents to taste too."

Niu Tiantian grinned widely, "Thank you, Lin Xiang, I’ll come again tomorrow!"

On the way home, her coworker questioned, "A dollar is your daily wage, aren’t you bothered by spending it all?"

*Hic*—" Niu Tiantian let out a long, satisfied burp, "Why be bothered? Sure, the money is spent, but now it’s converted into food in my stomach, it wasn’t wasted, right?"

Mr. Niu and Mrs. Niu were fairly open-minded. Although Niu Tiantian earned about thirty dollars a month, they only asked her to contribute twenty dollars for family expenses, leaving the rest as her pocket money.

They saved that family contribution to eventually use as her dowry.

Niu Tiantian wasn’t someone who spent money freely. She had already saved quite a bit in her own little stash, so spending a dollar wasn’t a big deal. Besides, from her perspective, being able to help Lin Xiang was already satisfying.

"I don’t understand your reasoning. Their business is booming, they don’t really need your few cents."

Niu Tiantian shook her head, looking all confident, "You don’t get it."

Her job was actually given to her by Lin Xiang.

Although her family paid for the job, nowadays every factory job is tightly filled, and without Lin Xiang giving up her position, she wouldn’t have had a job.

As for Lin Xiang, if she hadn’t given up the job, she wouldn’t need to be running a barbecue stall after finishing school exams.

So, Niu Tiantian felt somewhat obligated to repay Lin Xiang.

But Lin Xiang had no idea about her feelings.

At the barbecue stall, Aunt Ge noticed Lin Xiang’s hands were almost smoking from the speed, but the cooler at her feet hadn’t been opened.

Worried that the popsicles might melt if left too long, Aunt Ge decided to help Lin Xiang by calling out.

"We have popsicles here, anyone want some?"

Hearing there were popsicles, quite a few people came over.

Aunt Ge hadn’t previously asked Lin Xiang how much she planned to sell them for, but she overheard her discussing with Fifth Uncle Dong Sheng in the afternoon, so she directly called out the price as four cents each.

"Auntie, the popsicle factory sells them for only three cents each, and you’re making a penny profit just like that, isn’t that a bit pricey?"

"The popsicle factory closes after five in the afternoon, we bought them ahead of time, stored them in the cooler, and faced the risk of them melting, these are all costs! If you think it’s too pricey, you’re welcome not to buy them or go to the factory to get them!"

Customer: "..."

They would love to buy cheap ones from the factory, but they needed the factory to be open!

The goods were limited; switching the time and location meant a price increase was inevitable. Even though they complained about the price, plenty still paid to buy them.

A hundred and fifty popsicles, in just over an hour, nearly all were sold.

With only four or five left in the box, Aunt Ge knew Lin Xiang wanted to observe the melting rate of the popsicles, so she dared not sell any more.

Not only were popsicles selling fast, but today’s drink stall business also did much better than yesterday. Thanks to added ice cubes, the drinks were cooler and perfect for pairing with the spicy delicious barbecue.

Since yesterday, all three types of drinks sold out before nine, Aunt Ge intentionally prepared more today, only to find they still sold out early.

Those who came late couldn’t get grilled fish or drinks, and could only suggest to Lin Xiang to prepare more for tomorrow, which Lin Xiang happily agreed to.

By the time the three of them packed up and got home, they were exhausted.

Mrs. Lin didn’t bother asking Lin Xiang to count the day’s earnings; she just took a simple bath and fell right into a deep sleep.

Lin Xiang, as usual, slept until late the next morning.

Aunt Ge and Mrs. Lin were busy as always, and after Lin Xiang grabbed a quick breakfast in the kitchen, she joined Mrs. Lin in prepping the evening’s ingredients.

"Fifth Uncle and I have got most of it ready, you don’t need to help, just go rest a bit more."

"No worries, I’ve slept enough." Lin Xiang yawned and was just about to start on the vegetables when Mrs. Lin said, "Since you’re up, go count yesterday’s income and see how much we made."

Income was the only thing motivating Mrs. Lin to work tirelessly from morning till night in the heat.

Lin Xiang nodded, "Okay, I’ll go do that."

Returning to her room, Lin Xiang noticed the cooler at the corner of her desk for the first time.

Seeing the cooler, she suddenly remembered they bought popsicles yesterday, "Oh no, they’ve probably all melted into water!"

"Haven’t woken up yet? Aunt Ge sold your popsicles yesterday, leaving just a few inside. Open it up and see if they’ve melted," Mrs. Lin brought a bowl of herbal tea over, "Aunt Ge set this bowl aside just for you, it has no sugar. Drink it before you count."

Lin Xiang absentmindedly responded and opened the cooler, finding the popsicles indeed melted into water.

"By the way, at around six this morning, when I moved the cooler to your room, I glanced inside. They were about halfway melted."

They had bought the popsicles around three in the afternoon yesterday, lasting till about six in the morning today, already over ten hours.

Being nighttime meant cooler temperatures, possibly slowing the melting process a bit, but for them to hold six or seven hours before melting seemed quite achievable.