Rebirth: I Am Not the Movie Queen This Time-Chapter 51 Bai Zhixi’s Transformation

Wan Chuchu, as always, studied hard and then spent the weekends learning two hours of self-defense with An Lian. Whenever she had time, she would help Bai Zhixi deliver pickles.

Nowadays, because their home was close to the market, those restaurants visiting the market for supplies often made a detour to their home, buying the pickles they needed as well.

In addition to these restaurants, gradually, some people came to know about the delicious Bai’s Pickles, and some individuals would drop by to buy a jin or two.

As a result, their pickle business started to do even better than before.

Every night when Bai Zhixi tallied up accounts, she would beam with a smile at Wan Chuchu and say, "It’s a good thing you found this bungalow; the location is convenient for customers to come buy pickles. If we were still at the glass factory compound, I can’t imagine customers coming to our house to buy pickles."

They also rented out their house at the Glass Factory Family Quarters for one thousand yuan a year, which exactly offset the rent here.

Inside the glass factory compound, with a bunch of laid-off workers around, who could predict what envious words they could say or what actions they might take, potentially causing a raft of trivial problems.

As the ancient saying goes, it’s not the lack of wealth that’s the problem, it’s the uneven distribution of it.

Watching Bai Zhixi handle fifty or sixty dollars in her hands, Wan Chuchu felt it was somewhat amusing and said, "People who don’t know better would think you’ve made tens of thousands, or even millions, listening to you. Just a few tens of dollars, and you’re this satisfied?"

"Isn’t that a lot?" Bai Zhixi rolled her eyes at her daughter, "This is much better than when I was fixing shoes for people. It’s even more than what I earned before I was laid off from the glass factory, and this is money earned just sitting at home."

Bai Zhixi was a person easily contented. Even though she had a lot of work to do at home every day, seeing her like this, Wan Chuchu thought Bai Zhixi was the best mother in the world.

Seeing that more and more individuals were coming to buy in small quantities, Chuchu suggested to Bai Zhixi that they could order a batch of glass jars, similar to canned food jars, to pack the pickles. This would be convenient and hygienic, and the profit from selling a jar could be higher than selling pickles in bulk by the jin.

Initially, Bai Zhixi disliked the idea because of the cost of the glass jars and did not adopt her daughter’s suggestion. However, a few days later, while Chuchu was at home having a meal, she asked, "What size of glass jar do you think is suitable for packing pickles?"

Thinking about the various beautiful glass-packed pickles she saw in supermarkets in her past life, Wan Chuchu sketched out two or three good-looking shapes.

Most importantly, she created a label reflecting the widely popular Lao Gan Ma, printing Bai Zhixi’s portrait on it.

Bai Zhixi was initially embarrassed to have her portrait on it, but after Wan Chuchu explained the concepts of branding and advertising effect for half a day, Bai Zhixi agreed to it with a smile.

Taking advantage of an off day, Wan Chuchu and Bai Zhixi ran to a printing factory and a glass factory. They had ten thousand stickers made for Bai’s Pickles and ordered one thousand small glass jars at the glass factory.

Since Bai Zhixi was originally a laid-off worker from the glass factory, the order for the glass jars went smoothly. After negotiating between 1.5 to 1 cent a jar with the old factory manager, Bai Zhixi haggled till they agreed on 1.3 cents per jar.

When Bai Zhixi personally filled the first jar of pickles, closed the lid, and stuck the label on, she couldn’t help but turn it over and over, completely satisfied with how it looked.

She said to her daughter, "It really does look better in a jar, but I don’t know if people will buy it."

Wan Chuchu lightly said, "If it were up to me, I’d rather spend a little more to buy one in a glass jar."

"That’s you. You young people don’t take money seriously." Bai Zhixi did not agree with her daughter’s view. If it were up to her, she’d rather split ten dollars in half to spend it. However, she didn’t prevent her from thinking that the glass jars looked better.

Wan Chu’er came up with another idea for her, suggesting she take a few bottles to the nearby grocery store to sell on consignment, offering the store twenty cents for every bottle sold, or simply wholesale them directly to the store.

Bai Zhixi thought it was a good idea and said to her daughter, "You don’t have to worry about this. You just focus on studying. Aren’t midterms coming up this week? Do well on your exams, and I’ll handle the business."

Seeing that her mother wasn’t timid at all, Wan Chu’er left the task to Bai Zhixi, feeling that the recent training had made her mother more assertive and able to speak out.

With only three days left until the midterms—grades that would be compared across the whole grade—Wan Chu’er was also curious to find out her level at Wutong Middle School so she could gauge what level of university she could aim for in the college entrance exam and how far she was from the first university in Beijing.

Midterms arrived amidst Wan Chu’er’s intense revision. Unlike previous monthly exams, this time, the exams were taken at individual desks, proctored by teachers from other grades.

To Wan Chu’er, all these differences were insignificant. She calmly completed the tests and meticulously checked her answers over and over.

In just two days, the midterms were over. The next day was Saturday and, because other grades needed to use the classrooms for their exams, the 11th grade was given a day off.

Upon her daughter’s return, Bai Zhixi, after seeing off the customers who came to buy pickles, hurried to Wan Chu’er’s side and asked with concern, "How did it go? Was there anything you couldn’t answer?"

She did not know how Wan Chu’er had performed in the last monthly exam because Wan Chu’er felt she did poorly and hadn’t told her.

Bai Zhixi had witnessed just how hard her daughter had worked in the past two months; waking up before dawn to recite texts, turning off the lights only after midnight, and plastering the room with sticky notes covered in knowledge points, even reciting facts while helping with chores.

So, she was very eager to know how her daughter had done on her exams, hoping Wan Chu’er’s hard work would yield good results.

After taking a sip of water, Wan Chu’er said with a smile, "I think it went okay; I answered all the questions."

Bai Zhixi let out a sigh of relief; if all the questions had been answered, it meant that Chuchu had ideas for all the problems. She didn’t probe any further, not wanting to add pressure, and just said warmly, "You’ve worked so hard for so long. Today, I’ll make you a delicious meal to reward you."

"Sounds great, thanks, Mom. I want to eat the braised pork you make," Wan Chu’er requested unabashedly.

"Got it," Bai Zhixi’s smile grew even brighter.

While Bai Zhixi was cooking, another customer came to buy pickles, so Wan Chu’er went out to serve them.

After seeing the customer off, Wan Chu’er noticed an old tricycle that had appeared in the yard.

"Mom, where did the tricycle in our yard come from?"

Bai Zhixi laughed, "I bought it. It’s second-hand and not expensive, just US$ 150. This way, when I’m out delivering goods, I can carry more and save me multiple trips. Plus, we can sell it when we’re done with it and not lose anything."

Wan Chu’er walked around the tricycle, which wasn’t very new but had all the necessary parts.

She hadn’t expected Bai Zhixi to actually spend money on a tricycle; it seemed that the recent business had been good, and her confidence had grown.

This was a positive sign, and Wan Chu’er was happy to see Bai Zhixi becoming more open and hoped to see even more smiles on her mother’s face.