The Comeback of the Cannon-Fodder Supporting Actress

Chapter 924: Chapter 902: Top Student in the 1980s 30

After Anning started school, Xiao Yuan gave her the exchanged money.

The three small goldfish Xiao Yuan exchanged brought nearly US$ 30,000. Of course, he couldn’t take all the money to school for Anning; he left some at home and only brought a small portion with him.

Xiao Yuan gave Anning US$ 5,000, and Anning took it casually. Holding that much money didn’t make her nervous at all. She even joked with Xiao Yuan: ”Now that we have money, you can buy whatever you want, spend freely, buy freely.”

This lavish attitude made Xiao Yuan laugh heartily: ”Wasn’t it when you pretended to be a queen that you built a garden for me and let me pick from the rarest treasures in the world? Now I can only pretend to be rich with just US$ 30,000?”

”Miss, I’m a millionaire now.”

Anning patted her chest: ”Do you know what a millionaire is?”

Xiao Yuan clasped his hands: ”Alright then, I’ll rely on you, my lady, for the good food and drink in the future.”

”No problem, no problem.”

Anning continued to banter.

The two chatted for a while before returning to their respective classrooms.

The days passed by, November ended and started December. As December came in, the county suddenly seemed more crowded.

Many people from surrounding villages and towns came to the market to buy things because the New Year was approaching, and everyone had to prepare for the festivities.

Besides preparing for the New Year, people also needed to buy new clothes. After all, having worked hard all year, you need to dress sharply during the New Year.

During this period, Xiao Yuan also wrote a medium-length novel and a short story. He submitted these two pieces to different literary magazines, both of which were accepted.

This time, Xiao Yuan’s manuscript fee was a bit more, with both articles fetching about 200 yuan in total.

Using these stories, he made Xiao Heizi very happy, and then went to discuss skipping a grade with the head teacher.

Xiao Yuan and Anning both had plans for the future. They couldn’t always stay under their parents’ watchful eyes, as it would be inconvenient to do anything they wanted.

This required one person to be a bit independent to prepare some things in advance.

Since Xiao Yuan was older than Anning, he needed to pave the road first.

Although Xiao Yuan was reluctant to leave Anning, he had to do so.

The head teacher initially disagreed with Xiao Yuan skipping grades, but later agreed after he scored full marks, except for Chinese, on the eighth-grade exams.

Besides the matter of skipping grades, during this period, Xiao Yuan also got Xiao Heizi to gather loans and funds to buy the rented house.

The house they rented wasn’t far from the steel factory, quite close to the suburban area. It was a very ordinary bungalow, with four main rooms and three side rooms on either side, plus a small courtyard. The property price wasn’t high at that time, and they bought it for just a few thousand yuan.

More than half of this money was saved by Xiao Baohu and his wife, along with Xiao Yuan’s manuscript fees and Xiao Heizi’s savings. They didn’t borrow much actually.

After buying the house, Xiao Yuan saw December approaching and planned to generate some income for the family.

He figured that with many New Year visits and being guests, people needed to bring some snacks. So, Xiao Yuan planned for Xiao Heizi and Sister Xu to bake cakes at home.

He couldn’t afford an electric oven, so he set up a large earthen stove himself.

Then he bought flour, eggs, and sugar, experimenting at home first. After adjusting the recipe, he baked two batches of egg cakes.

To be fair, the cakes Xiao Yuan baked were quite good, at least better tasting than those sold in department stores and also looked prettier.

Xiao Yuan also asked Zhang Heping to help him find a printing factory to customize a batch of special, delicate paper boxes for packaging.

Besides cakes, he also made a few other pastries that looked appealing and tasted even better.

After making these pastries, he sent some to Zhang Heping’s house and left some for his own nieces and nephews to eat.

During the experiments, Xiao Heizi and Xu Dan both learned how to make them, and even Xiangling, who came to help, picked it up.

Then, in December, the family started making cakes. Once done, they set up stalls outside to sell them, or sought each large factory to promote them.

Zhang Heping also helped find pathways, as the cotton mill and steel factory both needed to distribute New Year’s benefits. Both factories ordered quite a few cakes, along with several other factories in the county and stray orders.

Because Xiao Yuan’s cakes were delicious, beautifully packaged, and who wouldn’t want to bring some tasteful gifts when visiting? So, once launched, they immediately became a big hit.

Xiao Heizi, Xu Dan, and Xiangling were busier than ever.

The three worked from morning until night, not even wanting to rest at night.

This December, the Xiao Family made quite a lot of money.

Keep in mind, with the improved packaging, the price was naturally much prettier, and the profit wasn’t low.

Xiao Yuan adjusted the recipe, so the cakes cost about as much as those sold in department stores but tasted better and looked nicer, sold at a much higher price.

Over this month, the Xiao Family almost went crazy making money, not only repaying the borrowed money for the house but also saving a decent amount.

Xiangling helped out all month, and Sister Xu didn’t treat her shabby, giving her a fair share of the money.

With money in hand, Xiao Heizi got bold, taking advantage of the New Year to allow the family kids to shop generously for holiday goods.

The three of them even planned to continue making cakes in January, even if sales might not be as good as December, they figured it would still sell quite well.

Throughout this cake-making month, the Ping family was never short of snacks.

Whenever Xiangling came home, she’d bring some less visually appealing snacks; they’d keep the unsold ones for the family to eat.

After a month, the whole family almost got tired of eating snacks.

Especially Zhang Heping, he gained quite a bit of weight.

Whenever he arrived at the factory, others would joke with him: ”Director Zhang, what have you been eating every day? How did you gain weight so quickly, like you’re inflating.”

Zhang Heping’s face darkened instantly, thinking to himself, ”You’re the balloon, what do you mean like inflating? I’m lean, I’m handsome.”

He grumbled internally but said nothing, and others laughed even louder seeing his dark expression.

Not only did Zhang Heping gain weight, Anning also gained some weight.

Previously, Anning was too thin, almost looking unhealthy, which wasn’t pleasant. After over a month of eating cakes and drinking milk, plus eating meat now and then, she did gain quite a bit.

Her face became a bit fleshier, and she grew a bit taller, making her look particularly cute and pretty.

Anyway, around the steel factory’s dormitory children of similar age to Anning loved to play with her. Especially the little boys, they would follow her around all day, and whenever Anning stepped out, a trail of kids would follow. This scene almost became a hallmark of the steel factory.

With money in hand, Xiangling became bolder.

She considered making new clothes for Secretary An and Zhang Heping for the New Year, and also wanted to make a red outfit for Anning to wear during it.

However, she found herself pressed for time and couldn’t make them.

Xiangling then thought of the tailoring shops in the county.

During this time, shops specializing in custom clothing in the county were also busy; it was New Year, and naturally people wanted to wear new clothes.

Nowadays, buying clothes in department stores was still rare, with most people opting to have them custom-made, so tailoring shops received especially many orders around the New Year.

Taking the money, Xiangling looked for a tailor’s shop with a large scale that made quality clothes; she wanted to queue up to make a custom order as soon as possible.

After wandering around, she discovered a particularly large shop.

This shop wasn’t in the center of the county, but in a rather peripheral area. It had about ten storefronts just for its facade, and its decoration was better than other shops. It had large glass windows, allowing those outside to see the clothes samples displayed inside and the busy tailors at work.

Xiangling looked from outside for a while before going in.

She first checked the samples inside, thinking this shop made clothes of truly good quality and decided to place her order here. Just when she was about to ask for the owner, she heard a man’s voice, ”Dali, have you finished making the Red coat? You need to hurry up...”

Xiangling found the voice familiar, and when she looked over, she couldn’t help but smile.