Ning Xin turned around and saw a small handkerchief bundle resting on the spot where Zhuang Wenxia had been sitting.
She walked over and opened it, revealing five yuan tucked inside.
Before she could say anything, Old Madam Ning gasped, “What is your Auntie Zhuang doing? How can she give so much money! Your brother said she already left one yuan earlier!”
Ning Xin also felt the amount was far too generous.
She put down the broom she was holding, tucked the handkerchief bundle into her pocket, and said, “Auntie Zhuang was taking the bus, maybe she hasn’t left yet. I’ll go return it to her.”
With that, she dashed outside.
But as luck would have it, the bus had come early that day.
By the time Ning Xin reached the stop, not only was Zhuang Wenxia nowhere to be seen, but Ning Yi and Xu Shaonian had also vanished without a trace.
She had no choice but to bring the money back home.
Hearing that she hadn’t found the woman, Old Madam Ning grew terribly anxious.
Five yuan!
Think of all the things that could buy!
How could the woman be so free with her money, just giving away such a large sum like that?
Ning Xin didn’t expect that two cups of tea and one meal would lead Zhuang Wenxia to leave six yuan in total.
But she wasn’t worried.
Instead, she reassured her grandmother, “Grandma, don’t worry. Auntie Zhuang will definitely come back in a day or two. Just think of her money like Auntie Wang’s, as prepaid tea money. From now on, when she comes, we just won’t charge her.”
The old lady asked in surprise, “How do you know she’ll come back?”
Ning Xin smiled and gave her grandmother a mysterious wink. “I can see the future!”
That one remark made the anxious Old Madam Ning burst into laughter.
She thought for a moment and then nodded in deep agreement. “That’s right. Our tea is so good, unless she lives very far away, she’ll definitely come back. When she does, we won’t charge her anymore!”
In fact, the tea was more than just good.
Both the herbal tea and the lotus stamen tea specially brewed for Zhuang Wenxia had a calming, mind-soothing effect. The latter, in particular, was highly effective for insomnia.
The greatest power of the spirit spring water was its ability to enhance the medicinal properties of herbs. Healthy people who drank it naturally felt better, but for those with underlying ailments, the effects were remarkable.
Setting everything else aside, Ning Xin was certain that Zhuang Wenxia would sleep soundly that night.
For someone suffering from insomnia, being able to sleep peacefully, what greater joy could there be?
Ning Xin felt that what her grandmother had just said was absolutely right. Unless she lived very far away, she would definitely come back.
A trip to and from the bus stop had already taken over half an hour.
Realizing that her brother and the others would be back soon with the items, Ning Xin no longer had time to mentally prepare her grandmother in advance.
Instead, she tugged at her anxiously and said, “Grandma, my brother and the others went to pick up some things for me. They’ll be back soon. Can you help me clear out that storage room first?”
The old lady allowed herself to be pulled along by her granddaughter, utterly confused.
She had no idea what her grandson had gone to fetch for her, or why such a large house couldn’t accommodate it, requiring the storage room instead.
But seeing how anxious her granddaughter was, she didn’t ask questions. She simply grabbed a rag and followed her out.
The Ning family’s storage room was located between the kitchen and the bathhouse. Ning Xin had never been inside before.
She opened the door and found it packed with cardboard boxes and wooden crates, almost completely covering the floor.
It was clearly too full to hold any tables or chairs.
She closed the door again and led her grandmother to the two adjoining rooms at the entrance.
When she opened the door, Ning Xin was momentarily surprised.
The rooms had been renovated.
From the information she had gathered over the past few days, Ning Xin knew that the Ning family hadn’t taken back this courtyard very long ago, at most six months.
Before that, this courtyard had been just like the one across the street, a small, shared compound housing several families. Since it was public property, naturally no one had taken good care of it. By the time it was returned, some of the rooms had fallen into terrible disrepair.
The two rooms where Ning Xin and Ning Yi slept had been freshly whitewashed. The tiles on the main house’s roof had also been partially replaced.
But as for the other rooms, though Ning Xin had never opened them, just looking at the peeling paint on the doors showed that Ning Chengwen hadn’t yet gotten around to renovating them.
These two rooms, however, were different. The walls had been repainted, the light bulbs replaced with brand-new, gleaming fluorescent tubes, and even the floors had clearly been freshly leveled with cement.
The rooms had been cleaned spotless as well. Apart from a thin layer of dust, they were bright and brand-new!
Standing in the room, Ning Xin was momentarily at a loss for words.
The old lady had already exclaimed in surprise, “Xiao Xin, did your father do all this? Why would he fix it up like this, was he planning to reopen the restaurant?”
Her grandmother’s words struck Ning Xin right in the heart.
She thought so too!
With no memories of her original self, Ning Xin had no idea what Ning Chengwen had truly been thinking before he passed.
But just looking at these two rooms was enough to prove that their thoughts had aligned perfectly.
Seeing all this, Ning Xin suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for her late father, along with a faint sense of resentment toward the author of this book.
How could they be so cruel?
Just to give the heroine an advantage, not only did they turn the Ning siblings into mindless cannon fodder, but they also squandered the lifelong efforts of the children’s father.
Wasn’t it enough to give them the house and the recipes? Why did the father have to renovate the restaurant before he died, too?
What gave the author the right? How could anyone be so entitled?
Since everyone was a character in this book, was the heroine the only one who mattered while everyone else was nothing more than a stepping stone, expected to sacrifice their property and even their lives for her?
The more Ning Xin thought about it, the angrier she became.
Before she knew it, a blazing fire of determination had ignited in her heart. She resolved to run this restaurant well, no matter what, and make it thrive!
Thanks to Ning Chengwen’s prior work, Ning Xin didn’t have to explain much to her grandmother. The old lady naturally accepted the fact that her granddaughter wanted to open a restaurant.
She even came to believe that Ning Xin had sold her job precisely to raise funds and carry on her father’s legacy. For a moment, she felt a complex mixture of emotions.
The way she looked at Ning Xin grew even more tender.
When Ning Yi returned and saw the condition of the rooms, he was equally shocked.
Because of his father’s sudden passing, Ning Yi hadn’t had a single peaceful day since returning to the city.
The weight on his mind had been immense. He simply hadn’t had the energy to open up all these empty rooms and take a look around.
So, like Ning Xin, he didn’t really know what was in the house and what wasn’t.
Xu Shaonian, unaware of the family’s personal history, surveyed the two rooms and then turned to Ning Xin. “Have you thought about how you’ll furnish these rooms? I wonder if the tables and chairs we bought today might not be enough.”
When Ning Xin had purchased those tables and chairs, she had no idea that Ning Chengwen had already taken care of the basic renovations. Her original plan had been to take things slowly, you couldn’t get fat in one bite.
But now, seeing these two spacious, well-arranged rooms with the middle wall already knocked through, she realized that what she had bought was indeed insufficient.
And it wasn’t just the tables and chairs that fell short.
After a moment’s thought, she decided to stick to her original approach. “We’ll add things gradually, no rush. We don’t have any experience anyway. It’s better to learn as we go.”
“That’s exactly right!” the old lady chimed in immediately.
If it had been her son reopening the restaurant, she wouldn’t have had any worries.
But her grandson and granddaughter, neither of them had any experience!
When their father had handed over the restaurant, Ning Yi had been just a tiny child, and Ning Xin hadn’t even been born yet.
How could those two children possibly know how to run a restaurant?
“We’ll take it slow, Xin’er. Don’t rush,” the old lady said, looking at her granddaughter with concern.
“I understand, Grandma. Don’t worry,” Ning Xin replied, taking the old lady’s hand and patting it reassuringly.
Hearing this, Xu Shaonian didn’t say anything more. After helping Ning Yi carry all the purchased items inside, he took his leave.
The three of them tidied up the rooms a bit, then went back inside.
Everyone was exhausted after the long day.
Earlier, running on adrenaline, no one had felt it. But now, exhaustion was catching up with each of them.
Ning Yi let out a yawn and was about to head to his room when Ning Xin grabbed his arm and pulled him into her room.
“What else is there?” Ning Yi asked, slumping into a chair as his eyelids began to droop.
Seeing her brother like this, Ning Xin felt a pang of sympathy.
She patted him on the knee and said, “Brother, quit your job at the coal yard.”
Ning Yi didn’t expect his sister to call him in for this.
He sat up a little straighter and asked, “What brought this on?”
By the time Ning Xin had transmigrated, Ning Yi was already working at the coal yard.
The reason was that he had given up his job for his sister.
Since she had taken over someone else’s body, whether she wanted to or not, Ning Xin had to bear this burden.
Choosing her words carefully, she said, “Brother, I was being unreasonable before. I was in a bad place emotionally back then.”
“It’s not your fault. I wanted to go.”
Hearing his sister say this, Ning Yi was deeply moved.
At the same time, his heart ached terribly.
He knew that Xiao Xin’s previous attitude toward him had been nothing more than misplaced anger, but he had never once resented her for it.
No one knew better than he did how deeply their sister had loved their father.
He had seen with his own eyes how devastating their father’s sudden death had been for her.
Now that she was saying these words, Ning Yi knew that his sister had forgiven him. Along with being moved, his heart was filled with a bittersweet ache.
“I found that job myself. It has nothing to do with you,” he said, not knowing what else to say, repeating the words over and over.
“Whether it has anything to do with me or not, Brother, quit that job. Let’s open the restaurant together.”
“But I don’t know how to cook. I wouldn’t be much help.”
“Who said that to run a restaurant you have to know how to cook? Besides, no business starts out booming from day one. I’ll do the cooking, and you can help me manage the front. We’ll learn together as we go,” Ning Xin urged patiently.
But to her surprise, Ning Yi shook his head firmly.
“I wouldn’t even know how to manage the front. You know I’m not good with words. Even if you have the confidence to leave the shop to me, I don’t have the confidence to do it well.”
He patted his sister on the shoulder and added, “Besides, didn’t you just say you’d start by selling herbal tea? That doesn’t need that many people. You and Grandma worked pretty well together today, didn’t you?”
Ning Xin didn’t expect her brother to be so stubborn.
Was he really determined to keep hauling coal?
It was exhausting, dirty, and had no future. Did he not believe she could make money, or was he just too proud to be her assistant?
At that thought, Ning Xin couldn’t help but glare at him.
Ning Yi had always been a little intimidated by his sister, not exactly afraid of her, but because ever since they were kids, when she decided to be unreasonable, he never knew what to do with her.
So when he saw her glare, he almost instinctively rushed to explain his plan.
“Don’t be mad. I promise I won’t keep hauling coal. I was actually going to tell you, I talked it over with Shaonian today. I’m going to quit tomorrow. After that, I’ll work with him. We’ll team up.”