Back to the 1970s: Building My Fortune Through Time Trading

Chapter 168: Zhang Dongmei’s New Boyfriend

Zhang Dongmei thought about the suffering she endured last night and wished she could tear Su Xiaoxiao apart.

She froze all night and didn’t even catch a glimpse of the secret braised food recipe.

The most infuriating thing was that Su Xiaoxiao still managed to bring the pre-ordered braised food for everyone today. Where exactly did she make it?

Zhang Dongmei was so angry her teeth itched, but suddenly her gaze fell on Chen Dashan beside her, and her spine straightened instantly.

What’s one little braised food recipe anyway? Her date was a wealthy businessman from Hong Kong, and he had money to spare.

The most important thing was that the man had fallen for her at first sight.

Thinking of this made Zhang Dongmei even more proud.

She walked up warmly, holding the man’s arm in front of the three of them.

Su Xiaoxiao didn’t want to engage with her, so she pulled Zhang Yulan and Qin Shuang, preparing to leave, but Zhang Dongmei wasn’t going to let them go that easily.

Just kidding, how could she let go of such a good opportunity to show off?

Zhang Dongmei immediately shook her heavy gold bracelet on her wrist, raised her chin, and looked at Su Xiaoxiao with a smug expression: "Have you ever seen such a thick gold bracelet? This was just gifted to me by my partner."

"Oh right, I forgot to introduce you, this is my partner Chen Dashan, a wealthy businessman from Hong Kong."

The man called Chen Dashan immediately cleared his throat and said, "Hello, I’m Chen Dashan, I’m in the jewelry business. Are you Dongmei’s friends? If any of you want to purchase jewelry, feel free to contact me for a discount."

Is this guy really from Hong Kong? Why does his accent sound like he’s from the Northeastern region?

Looking at his appearance again, his body ratio was fifty-fifty, he had a golden watch on his wrist and a large gold chain around his neck.

When he opened his mouth, there were two big gold teeth, gleaming under the sunlight.

That... is hard to evaluate.

"We can’t afford jewelry, but thank you for your kind offer, Mr. Chen."

"Uh, it’s almost time for work, we need to get back. We’ll chat later, okay?"

"Goodbye!"

The three of them quickly walked away arm in arm.

Zhang Dongmei watched their backs leaving and gritted her molars until they made a "creaking" sound.

She hadn’t finished showing off, why were they in such a hurry? Normally they don’t seem so eager to get to work.

She turned her head and saw Chen Dashan still staring at the direction the three were leaving, suddenly feeling a surge of anger: "What are you looking at? They’ve left, what are you still looking at?"

Chen Dashan sheepishly retracted his gaze: "Are those two young colleagues of yours single?"

Zhang Dongmei shot a dagger-like glance: "What, you’ve just started dating me and now you’ve got your eye on someone else?"

"How could that be? I was just asking. You’re the only one in my heart."

"Hmph, you better be sensible. Alright, I have to go to work. Remember to pick me up after."

Zhang Dongmei waved at him and left.

Su Xiaoxiao and the other two returned to the department store, with five minutes to go until the afternoon opening time, but none of the usual early birds were at the counter.

She felt perplexed, what was going on?

As she was wondering, she saw Huang Mei clutching her stomach as she rushed over: "Do any of you three have any tissues?"

Su Xiaoxiao quickly pulled out the tissue from her pocket and handed it to her.

"Thank you."

Just after thanking them, Huang Mei’s face changed, and she clutched her stomach and ran out.

"What’s wrong with her?"

Su Xiaoxiao was puzzled and then saw several sales clerks clutching their stomachs and running out.

A few minutes later, Huang Mei returned, looking pale.

Seeing her like this, Su Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but ask, "Sister Huang, what happened to you all? Why are you all clutching your stomachs and running out?"

Huang Mei then noticed that the three of them seemed perfectly fine.

"Did you three not eat at the canteen today?"

Su Xiaoxiao nodded: "We ate out."

"Luckily, you didn’t eat at the canteen. We started having stomach issues right after eating... Oh no, I need to go again."

Before she finished speaking, Huang Mei clutched her stomach and hurried out again.

When Xu Cuilan came to open the door, she found that the area behind the counter was deserted and couldn’t help but frown: "Where is everyone? What are they doing? It’s nearly time to open and no one is at their post."

"Manager Xu, everyone who ate at the canteen has stomach issues and they’re lining up for the bathroom."

Su Xiaoxiao quickly explained, and Qin Shuang and Zhang Yulan nodded in agreement.

"Right, none of us ate at the canteen, so we’re fine."

The canteen had only opened on its first day and already had such a massive problem. Was the person in charge planning to quit?

Xu Cuilan was so mad she nearly dropped the enamel mug in her hand.

She turned to Su Xiaoxiao: "Xiaoxiao, I’m going to find the canteen’s responsible person. Check on everyone to see if everything’s okay before opening for business."

Su Xiaoxiao was currently serving as the acting department head, so she was the best person to handle this situation.

"Alright, Manager Xu."

Su Xiaoxiao nodded, glanced around, and noticed that only seven or eight people were left at their posts in each section.

A few people were returning one by one and seemed to be looking much better.

She thought about it and reassigned a few clerks who hadn’t eaten at the canteen to handle the food, clothing, and general merchandise sections temporarily.

The clerks who weren’t feeling too well were assigned to rotate watching over the other sections.

These few sections usually had the most traffic, while the others were relatively quiet.

This setup would basically ensure normal operations in the afternoon.

She let out a sigh of relief and went to open the department store’s doors.

Thankfully, there weren’t too many customers in the afternoon, so they somehow managed to cope.

Once the rush was over, Xu Cuilan finally came over with a grim face.

Just a look at her expression made it clear there was definitely a problem at the canteen.

"Xiaoxiao, come over here."

Xu Cuilan gave her a glance, then turned and gestured for her to follow.

The two of them went to Xu Cuilan’s office and as soon as they entered, Xu Cuilan slammed her hand on the table in anger: "They actually served rotten vegetable leaves and lymph meat from the market; it’s outrageous!"

Her face was livid as she looked up at Su Xiaoxiao: "Xiaoxiao, at the moment it’s just the two of us who know about this incident, so I hope you can keep this confidential. Let’s go to City Hall after work to report it to Director Song."

"Alright, Manager Xu."

Su Xiaoxiao left the office and just as she returned to the counter, Zhang Dongmei came over gloatingly: "What’s wrong? Did Manager Xu scold you for a poor performance? Seriously, what makes a newbie like you qualified to be the acting department head?"

Su Xiaoxiao didn’t want to bother with her: "You have plenty of free time?"

Zhang Dongmei pouted: "There are no customers right now, can’t I catch my breath?"

As she spoke, she stuffed the gold bracelet on her wrist into Su Xiaoxiao’s hand: "You must never have seen such a large gold bracelet. Here, have a look and educate yourself."

Just when Su Xiaoxiao was about to return the bracelet, she suddenly noticed that the weight of the gold bracelet seemed a bit off.