"I'll pay you. I won't let you work for nothing!" Zhang Yu knew her request was a bit excessive, so she quickly added.
She really had no other choice. Years ago, she and her classmates had been sent abroad to study. To make the most of her time, she had always just cobbled meals together out of foreign fast food.
After a long while, she grew immensely homesick for domestic food. Eating a single home-cooked meal made her feel like the happiest person alive and gave her a fresh burst of energy.
When she finally returned home, she could eat everyday dishes all the time, but the dynamic shifted—now, simply encountering truly delicious food gave her that drive.
To the point that now, even with a formal job, whenever she hit a design bottleneck, she needed to eat something extraordinary to find inspiration.
Yet in all of Linhai City, there were very few delicacies that could spark her inspiration.
Sheng Xia's iced congee tasted exceptionally good, and after finishing it at noon, her design state had clearly improved. So what she told Sheng Xia really wasn't an excuse; she genuinely needed to eat the iced congee to find design inspiration.
Now, hearing Sheng Xia ask her to help inquire about a job, she worried that once Sheng Xia started working, she would stop making the iced congee. Although she felt a bit shameless, she still wanted to try.
After all, finding a culinary delight that could inspire her after eating it was truly not easy.
Yet as soon as she finished speaking, she saw Sheng Xia shake her head, and the hope in her eyes instantly shattered. "I'm sorry, I was being presumptuous."
She assumed Sheng Xia was refusing to make her iced congee in the future.
"I'm asking about the job for my parents, not me." Seeing that Zhang Yu had misunderstood, Sheng Xia smiled and explained.
"Ah? Not you?" Zhang Yu hadn't expected such a surprise. "Then you'll still be running your stall in the future?"
"I'll be selling iced congee at the back gate for the whole month." Sheng Xia nodded.
"That's wonderful! Then I'm coming to eat every day!" Zhang Yu was overjoyed. The culinary magic that inspired her was right at her doorstep, and she could eat as much as she wanted. She was simply the happiest girl in the world.
"Um..." Once her excitement subsided, Zhang Yu abruptly snapped back to reality. "Sheng Xia, did you say you're asking about a job for your parents?"
"How old are you?" Zhang Yu figured Sheng Xia had to be at least twenty, which meant her parents must be quite old.
"I'm 25, my mom is 43, and my dad is 45." Noticing how long it took for the realization to hit, Sheng Xia chuckled. "They haven't reached retirement age yet."
The current mandated retirement age was 50 for female employees, 55 for female cadres, and a uniform 60 for men.
Sheng Xia's parents were still quite a few years away from retirement age.
"That's true..." Hearing Sheng Xia's explanation, Zhang Yu also came to her senses. At her and Sheng Xia's age, their parents indeed hadn't reached retirement age yet.
But she had only ever seen parents scrambling to secure jobs for their children; this was the first time she had ever seen a child securing a job for her parents while she herself struck out as an individual vendor running a small street stall.
It was... like a bolt of lightning cutting its own path, completely refreshing and opening up new ways of thinking.
"Yeah, so when you're asking around, it's best to look for the kind of dead-end job with no real future prospects. It doesn't need to be anything too good," Sheng Xia added.
They were all going to be laid off in the future anyway. She had already started doing business to make money—just last month she had earned 86 yuan, and the system had even rewarded her with a small courtyard.
So her mom and dad didn't need to earn a fortune; having something to occupy their time was enough.
"As long as it fits your criteria, money is no object," Sheng Xia added. Right now, she had a little over 600 yuan from her divorce settlement, plus the 86 yuan she made last month. Buying a job with no future prospects would definitely be enough.
"Alright." Hearing Sheng Xia's request, Zhang Yu agreed readily.
Even though any official urban job was fiercely contested in the city, good jobs with promising futures were undoubtedly the most popular.
The kind of dead-end job Sheng Xia was looking for would surely have very few competitors.
Zhang Yu figured that maybe soon, their factory would be welcoming a slightly older new employee.
After finishing her conversation with Zhang Yu, Sheng Xia left the Textile Factory, wheeled her food cart to a secluded spot to stash it in her system backpack, and then rode her bicycle toward Yonghe Road.
Yonghe Road was located on the east side of Linhai City, winding along the coastline. The paved coastal road was beautifully built, lined with cherry blossom trees. Since it was now midsummer, the cherry blossoms had already fallen, leaving behind a lush expanse of green.
The No. 96 Yonghe Road Courtyard rewarded to Sheng Xia by the system was situated at the southernmost tip of Yonghe Road.
From the outside, it featured a black iron gate, with a sign reading "No. 96 Yonghe Road" hanging on the stone pillar beside it.
Sheng Xia took the key from her system backpack, unlocked the gate, and pushed it open, revealing a completely different world hidden inside.
Directly inside the main gate was a brick-paved open space meant for parking. Right beside this parking area stood a four-story detached villa with a red roof and pale yellow walls.
Two stories were above ground, and two more were recessed below ground. Next to the parking lot was an open-air staircase leading downward. Walking down revealed a small garden at the back of the villa, complete with a winding pebble path and a small pond featuring a wooden bridge and a pavilion.
Perhaps because it had been unoccupied for a long time after being renovated, the courtyard was covered in fallen leaves and dust.
After inspecting the exterior of the villa, Sheng Xia walked back up the parking lot stairs. Directly facing the parking area was the main entrance of the villa, which she unlocked with her key.
Stepping inside, she found a spacious living room and kitchen. Moving further in revealed two separate bedrooms. The second floor housed two large bedrooms and a sizable walk-in closet.
The lower two levels also had windows; the lowest level was a wine cellar, while the level above it held numerous bookshelves, likely serving as a study, along with two servant rooms.
The entire villa was spacious and bright. Although it had been uninhabited for a long time, had accumulated plenty of dust, and stood empty with all movable furniture removed, one could still make out the exquisite patterns on the walls, full of rustic charm and the traces of time.
"Not bad, though heating might be a bit of a hassle. I'll stay here for now!" After inspecting the entire place, Sheng Xia was quite satisfied with the small courtyard. After all, being a property on Yonghe Road, both its interior design and surrounding environment were top-tier.
It simply suffered from the common drawback of villas: heating was rather troublesome.
Of course, city homes nowadays relied on individual coal stoves for heating anyway, but eventually, urban residences would all have central heating, whereas the villas on Yonghe Road could not.
After all, as historical heritage buildings, no one would dare tamper with them to install central heating.
She was bound to buy more property in the future anyway, and when winter came, she could simply move to a heated home—it wasn't a big deal.
Having finished her tour of the courtyard, the hour was no longer early, so Sheng Xia locked the door, rode her bicycle home, and brought her busy yet fulfilling day to a close.
Little did she know, on that exact same day, crowds of weeping women had shown up bright and early at the entrance of the State-run Restaurant, only to find it empty.
"Damei, where is Sheng Xia? Why didn't she come today?" An acquaintance of Yang Damei came over to ask.
Yang Damei, who was married and wore her hair in a bun, wore a look of utter bewilderment. She never expected that Sheng Xia, who had shown up to run her stall every single day without fail, hadn't shown up at all. "Maybe she's taking a day off?"