The Lucky Heiress

Chapter 610: Chapter 535 Comrade Wang Xiulian’s Performance Time

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Jiang Feng was a person with a very good tolerance for alcohol.

He’d pass out after three cups, and once he was down, he’d sleep without wandering or yelling. In comparison to Mr. Jiang Jiankang, who liked to hold onto others and babble endless “chicken soup for the soul” when drunk, Jiang Feng was truly a model of drunken composure.

By the time Jiang Feng woke up, it was already past ten in the morning on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year.

He had slept for over 20 hours, not having eaten a single bite even before his long sleep, which led to his first feeling upon waking being dizziness, followed by hunger. He hardly felt his headache due to being so overwhelmed by the hunger pangs in his stomach.

Jiang Feng glanced at his clothes, which were still the ones he had worn before losing consciousness, carrying a strong scent of alcohol. Even he felt intoxicated by the smell.

New clothes prepared by Mrs. Wang Xiulian were at the head of the bed. Jiang Feng first took a hot shower in the bathroom and changed into fresh clothes before leisurely heading downstairs to find something to eat.

The people downstairs had heard him stirring while he showered and knew Jiang Feng was awake, so they weren’t surprised to see him come down.

“Son, there are some freshly made dumplings here. Do you want dad to cook you some?” asked Mr. Jiang Jiankang, holding a dumpling wrapper in hand.

“Yes, please make a lot, thanks, Dad,” replied Jiang Feng weakly.

The previous noon, with a resign-to-fate attitude, he took the initiative to toast his uncles before they could toast him. He poured shots of white liquor into his mouth generously as if he, Jiang Feng, were the reincarnation of the god of wine.

Then, Jiang Feng successfully passed out before he could finish toasting all his uncles.

It was due to his inexperience that he drank too fast and too much at once, leading to a more severe drunkenness than any he had experienced before, which is why he looked listless and depleted.

“Feng, come over here and help make some dumplings,” invited Wang Xiulian as she gestured for him to come over.

With Mr. Jiang Jiankang off to boil dumplings for Jiang Feng, his seat was naturally vacated, and Jiang Feng took the opportunity to sit in the warm chair his father had just left, beginning to make dumplings.

As he worked, Jiang Feng noticed something was a bit off about the scene.

How could Mrs. Wang Xiulian be sitting together with two of her brothers-in-law and their wives, making dumplings?

The scene was so harmonious it made him feel unaccustomed, and they weren’t just making dumplings together—Mrs. Wang Xiulian was even chatting with Jiang Feng’s two uncles.

Looking towards the sofa, Jiang Feng saw his cousin whom he recognized but couldn’t quite name nestled on the couch, playing with her phone, which made everything seem normal again.

“Sis, you look like you’ve lost a lot of weight. You must be too busy in Beiping—busy to the point of thinness, right?” Jiang Feng’s uncle said with concern.

Jiang Feng inspected Mrs. Wang Xiulian’s radiant and plump face closely, confirming that his uncle was bullshitting with his eyes wide open.

“Really?” Mrs. Wang Xiulian touched her face, “Maybe I have lost weight out of busyness. Beiping is not like small places like Z City. It’s the Capital. The restaurant is huge and there’s so much to manage—from the main hall to the kitchen staff of over a hundred. How could it not be busy? Every morning, I have to get up before dawn and I don’t get home until after midnight. Forget about losing weight, I feel that I’ve aged a lot and look quite haggard.”

Jiang Feng: ???

“Xiulian, don’t work yourself too hard. You’re not young anymore and your body can’t handle such strain,” Jiang Feng’s grandmother said with a concerned expression.

Wang Xiulian waved her hand and stopped making dumplings, sitting on a stool and beginning to boast: “Mom, it’s not too hard. Business has to be done by someone, no matter how busy it is. You don’t know how fierce the competition in Beiping’s catering industry is; there are many restaurants that have stayed open for over 100 years since the Qing dynasty without ever closing. There are old brands, new ones, and foreign restaurants of all kinds of cuisines. Our Taifeng is new and doesn’t have a solid foundation, so of course, we need to work harder.”

“So, is the business doing well?” Uncle asked curiously.

“Of course it is. Didn’t I show you the good reviews left for Feng just yesterday? Pages and pages of praise—I only picked out a small portion of them. If the business wasn’t good, would there be so many positive reviews?”

“Mom, Dad, you have no idea how bustling it was on the opening day; there were two tables just for reporters, and coverage was all over the place. Besides, if the business wasn’t good, would I be so busy every day? It’s driving me to worry!”

“Moreover, the staff at our restaurant, they all graduated from prestigious universities. The management positions in the main hall, every one of them has impressive academic credentials. The team leader is from Feng’s school, his senior sister. She comes from a good family, is pretty and has high educational qualifications. Only someone like her could be a team leader in our restaurant, right, Feng?” Wang Xiulian looked toward Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng nodded repeatedly: “Right, right, right, right, right. And she’s especially good at drawing.”

Graduated from the Fine Arts department, a master of ditching, once well-off but now on the rise, obsessed with beating up her younger brother and dating, a top talent of Taifeng Building.

“Before, we also had a guy in our restaurant with the surname Sun, who came from a family that runs a restaurant in Fujian. Later, he went back to take over the family business. He also graduated from a prestigious university—something ton, something ton…”

“Wharton,” Jiang Feng supplied.

“`

“That Wharton graduate, a world-renowned university!”

“Is he also a foreman?” Jiang Feng’s grandmother asked.

“Chef.”

Jiang Feng’s grandmother: ?

“Xiulian, with the business doing so well at your restaurant, you must have made quite a bit of money this year, right?” At this point, Jiang Feng’s Aunt Li Hong couldn’t even bother with jealousy anymore, she asked with envious eyes.

She was already calculating how much money to borrow from Wang Xiulian.

Aunt Li Hong had been harboring resentment for years, upset that Wang Xiulian and Jiang Jiankang had become aloof towards them after turning their fortunes around, failing to grab any benefits for herself. In Aunt Li Hong’s heart, Wang Xiulian and her husband should be truly grateful to her; she believed that without her loan to start their business, they would have never experienced their subsequent prosperity.

She had completely forgotten about the exorbitant interest she’d demanded for the loan and her demeanor after lending the money.

Mrs. Wang Xiulian, although boasting, was not brainless when doing so. She gave Li Hong a wary look and her expression immediately turned to one of sorrow.

“Make money? Our whole family is nearly driven to jump off the building and hang ourselves because of the debt!”

The other onlookers: ???

The sudden shift in Wang Xiulian’s topic left them struggling to keep up with her pace.

“What’s wrong with Xiulian? Didn’t you just say that business was going well? What happened?” Jiang Feng’s grandmother was clearly worried.

“Mom, you don’t know how expensive the house prices and cost of living are over there in Beiping. Just think about it, even though these past years I, Jiankang, and several of his brothers have done fairly well, we couldn’t possibly come up with enough money to buy the restaurant outright.”

“All that money was borrowed!”

“Over three hundred million!” Wang Xiulian sobbed, overwhelmed by the harsh reality.

Jiang Feng’s grandparents and two uncles were all shocked: “Over three hundred million?!”

“My dear Xiulian, how could you owe so much money? Who do you owe? Is it to the banks or to the state?” Jiang Feng’s grandmother, her face unable to hide her apprehension, asked.

“We owe it to a relative of the Jiang family. That elder is actually quite reasonable, still reasonable for the time being, but who knows about the future? Owing so much money, I lose sleep every night from the worry. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be working so hard. It’s not an amount you can repay in a few years; I’m afraid I might die before it’s all paid off,” Wang Xiulian said with a sad look on her face. “Mom, don’t think the restaurant is booming, but once you deduct staff wages, utility bills, and all other miscellaneous expenses, there’s hardly any profit left.”

Jiang Feng nodded vigorously at her side, yes, right, it’s only about a couple of ten million, tops.

“By the time we paid back the money at the end of this year, we didn’t even have enough left to buy a pig. When we got back home, we couldn’t even afford a pig; the children barely got to eat a few bites of pork during the New Year.” The more Wang Xiulian thought about not getting to eat her fill of pork this New Year, the more sorrowful she felt, “Sometimes, I even regret it. Why bother to go to Beiping to open a restaurant when we were already living comfortably?”

“But after all, it was Grandpa Feng’s lifelong wish. I might not be able to clear this debt even if I worked until my death. Maybe by the time Jiang Feng has a family and gets old, the debt could be paid off. Restaurants can be passed down like heirlooms, ensuring the Jiang family has something to leave for the next generation. Even though we have to sacrifice a bit, I think it’s worth it for the sake of the future generations,” she continued.

As she spoke, Mrs. Wang Xiulian let out a sigh, “Ah, there’s nothing to be done. Perhaps we’re just destined to toil, all for the children, you know.”

Jiang Feng’s grandparents, their hearts aching, started to quietly wipe their tears. Jiang Feng’s grandmother held Wang Xiulian’s hand, “Xiulian, don’t overwork yourself. You’ll break your parents’ hearts by going on like this.”

“Yeah, sister, you’re making your brother worry too!” Jiang Feng’s elder uncle’s tears were about to fall.

“The second brother is also worried!” Tears were already streaming down Jiang Feng’s second uncle’s face.

“If I don’t work hard, who will? Someone has to take on the hard work. Grandpa Feng said that among the younger generation of the Jiang family, only Feng has learned to be a chef, so the restaurant will definitely be his to take over. My extra hard work now means he will have to work less in the future,” she explained.

Speaking of which, Wang Xiulian touched the corners of her eyes where there were no tears, and stood up, “Let’s not talk about these depressing things during the New Year. I’m going to check on how Jiankang’s dumplings are coming along.”

Wang Xiulian turned around, dropped her facade; she was barely able to keep acting.

Mrs. Wang Xiulian’s acting skills were not yet at the level of crying on command.

Jiang Feng, having watched the whole performance: …

Just like my mom!