Chapter 118: The Grand Bathhouse of Shisheng

  "I've been hesitant these days, letting me do Zhang Qi's job, I won't do it, I don't want to lose that person, others don't want him and throw him at me, I'm not picking up trash. However... this bathhouse job still has some risks, this job is contracted, must give a sum of money to the university every year, what if I operate poorly and end up in debt? It's no wonder mother and son think alike, Qiu Ma and Qiu Feng have the same thoughts, it can also be seen that the son resembles his mother."

  Fang Haibo heard Qiu Ma say this, and his first reaction was to look at Qiu Ye, wanting to see what the child would say.

  Others at the table followed Fang Haibo's gaze to Qiu Ye, who felt that he had to save the situation. He put down his chopsticks, sat up straight and seriously asked: "Mom, how much does it cost to contract a year?"

  "A thousand a year, I heard that if you sign up, it's for five years. You don't know, your dad went to ask around the other day, and the people who run the bathhouse all said it's not profitable. Your dad and I were hesitant, thinking that they wouldn't cheat us, but if it was profitable, would we have a chance?" Mrs. Qiu sighed again as she spoke, thinking that this job wasn't even as good as her old tofu-making job.

  Qiu Ye wasn't worried after hearing her mother's words. She knew what the old bathhouse was like and what it was like after renovation, at least twice as big as before. In the past, the university would give out bathing tickets to its employees, and everyone would use the tickets to take baths. The person in charge of the bathhouse could collect the tickets every day, so if he couldn't feel that he was making money, it would be strange.

  "Mom, don't listen to what others say, we should look at our own situation."

  "I think if the contract fee is one thousand per year, it's really not expensive. Think about it, how many students and family members are there in our university? There must be at least 7 or 8 thousand people. Even if we charge only one yuan for each bath, and each person takes a bath once a week, wouldn't we make 700-800 yuan per week? That's even if some people are too stingy to pay. If they take a bath every two weeks, wouldn't we still make 300-400 yuan? And let's say more than half of the people don't take baths in our university, but go somewhere else instead. Wouldn't we still make around 100-200 yuan per week? How much would that be in a month? In a year?" Qiu Ye was counting on her fingers to calculate the numbers for her parents, and she really thought this was a surefire way to make money.

  Several adults had never thought of calculating like this, but thinking carefully, the child's calculation is actually correct. Looking at it this way, this job is really a good one.

  "Principal Zhang told me that the teacher's college bathhouse expansion is complete, and the conditions are now very good. After opening, the ticket price will be set at 20 cents, and hot water will be supplied from the boiler room in the back. The school will cover all utilities, and we'll just take care of operations, then pay the contract fee. Although Principal Zhang didn't explicitly say it, his intention was also to let our family consider taking over the bathhouse." Old Qi continued, recounting what Principal Zhang had said at the time.

  "We should consider this carefully, Principal Zhang is actually not bad." Fang Haibo rarely had contact with Principal Zhang, but he had heard about his character. He was a good leader, much better than Vice-Principal Zhao.

  "If I choose this job, our family can earn at least 10,000 yuan a year, right?" Qiu's mother calculated the annual income and was surprised that it wasn't less than selling tofu.

  "That's a lot of money." Zhao Shuyan also said beside him, all of which are higher than the salaries of two people in their family.

  "It's just that, mom, the number I mentioned earlier was a conservative estimate. Think about it, there are so many villages around our university. The people living there need to take baths too, and even if they don't do it frequently, taking one bath a month is still not a small amount of money. And mom, think about it, running a bathhouse is much easier than making tofu. You don't have to get up early, no one takes baths at the crack of dawn, so if you take on this job, all you need to do is open the door at 9 or 10 am every day. It's just that you might be working late into the night, maybe until 8 or 9 pm before you can come back home. But after the students go on summer break, you can give yourself a proper break too, opening the bathhouse only in the afternoons, or even just every other day."

  The students of the teachers' college usually go to take baths at noon or in the evening, while the teachers and their families go in the morning and afternoon. So, during the winter and summer vacations when the students are away, the bathhouse is open every other day.

  "That's not possible, it's not tiring, no need to rest for nothing. Besides, every day there is a package fee following, how can you just stop? And closing late at night is fine, sleeping late is better than getting up early anyway. Eight or nine o'clock isn't considered late either." Qiu Ma didn't care about this at all, she wasn't afraid of hardship as long as she could make money.

  Then Qiu's father and mother exchanged a glance, understanding each other's decision. Qiu's father said: "Brother Fang, let Fengqin take over the task of managing the bathhouse, what do you think?" They had already made up their minds as a couple, but out of respect, they still asked Fang Haibo for his opinion.

  "Let's do it, as Xiao Ye said, this job has more prospects than working in a grain store. As the saying goes, 'a tree is transplanted to survive, and a person is transplanted to thrive.' If Fengqin changes jobs, who knows, maybe it'll be even better in the future." Fang Haibo also completely agreed.

  Zhao Shuyan saw that everyone had finished discussing the serious matters, so she hurriedly said: "Alright, we've finished discussing the serious matters. Let's hurry up and eat. This table of dishes is going to get cold. You're all talking with such tension, it's affecting the kids' appetites. Xiaofeng, come and have some more."

  Qiu Feng thought things were settled, although he didn't express any opinions, but he was obedient to everything, now that there's a result, he can eat with peace of mind.

  Actually, Qiu Feng's heart was not as calm as he appeared on the surface. He was no longer young and understood what his parents said. He knew that his family's life had almost been ruined by his grandmother and Third Uncle's family. When they first arrived, they had beaten up his sister in their own home, and Qiu Feng had already harbored a deep resentment towards them in his heart. Now, after hearing his parents' words, the disgust in his heart grew even stronger. He just didn't say anything, but he knew everything.

  Qiu's mother finally had a smile on her face, and the gloom that had been accumulating in her heart for many days seemed to have dissipated. Looking at the table full of food, she also regained her appetite.

  Qiu's father gave his daughter-in-law a piece of food and joked, "You eat more, nourish yourself well, you are the pillar of our family, if you collapse, who will make money for our family?"

  Everyone laughed at what he said.

  The next day, Qiu's father and mother went to Principal Zhang's place to retrieve the contract. Fang Haibo and Qiu's father studied it in the study room for a whole morning, confirmed there were no issues, and signed the contract that afternoon.

  The five-year contract period, the contract fee is paid once a year. Principal Zhang also asked them to hurry up and collect the money, striving to open the bathhouse before the end of the year. Although the students of the Normal University are now on holiday, the staff and their families are still there, they also need to take baths, especially with the Chinese New Year approaching in more than ten days, everyone wants to go out to welcome the new year and get a good start.

  Qiu's family also hopes to open for business as soon as possible, especially during the Chinese New Year. In previous years, they would go to the bathhouse to take a bath during the holiday, knowing that this is when there are the most people and delaying a day means losing a day's worth of money. So after signing the contract, several members of the Qiu family got busy.

  Qiu Ye Shi made an on-the-spot investigation and found that the renovation of the bathhouse was not bad, much larger than before. The door is a double-layered two-leaf glass door, entering the house is a large hall, directly in front is a small ticket-selling house, not very big, only about 20 square meters. The wall between the small house and the large hall has half of it as glass windows, with a sliding part in the middle, which was designed for convenient ticket sales.

  Inside the small house, there is a large room with at least 200-300 square meters. In the middle of the room, five large water tanks are lined up in parallel to store hot water, cold water and warm water. Behind this room, there is a small door that leads to the backyard of the bathhouse, which is not very big and is enclosed by iron wire mesh.

  On both sides of the hall, there are a women's bathhouse and a men's bathhouse. Qiu Ye visited both bathhouses and found that inside, apart from showerheads and stone pedestals, there was nothing else. This way, it is impossible to open for business, as people who come to take baths have nowhere to put their clothes. It's not possible to go in wearing clothes to bathe, right? So Qiu Ye went home and drew a design plan for the bathhouse. The changing room inside the bathhouse should have lockers on all four sides for people to store their clothes and shoes, and in the middle, there should be four long benches for people to sit on while putting on their clothes.

  Her design drawings and concepts were approved by Qiu's parents, so the whole family took action. Fang Haibo was in charge of finding a carpenter to make cabinets, Qiu's father went to buy locks, made number plates, and also had to find a bricklayer to build a small house next to the water tank behind the bathroom, which was where the Qiu family washed themselves, this was Qiu Ye's special request, she also secretly asked Fang Haibo to make her a large wooden bathtub, so that she could enjoy herself in the future.

  Qiu's mother and Zhao Shuyan took the two children to thoroughly clean the bathroom with brooms and brushes. Qiu Ye even used red paint to write large "male" and "female" characters on the walls of the hall, so that people can distinguish which side is the men's bath and which side is the women's bath. If someone goes wrong, it would be embarrassing.

  However, Qiu Feng raised another question: what if the person taking a bath doesn't recognize characters? This didn't stump Qiu Ye, who took out some red paint and drew a beautiful woman in a skirt next to the "female" character and a man with a pipe next to the "male" character. She said, "Now it's fine, as long as the person isn't blind, they definitely won't get it wrong."

  On the fifth day, all the necessary furniture was in place. Qiu's father brought a broken table from the logistics department of the Normal University and put it in the small house, placing the lockbox and nameplate on it. Although the table was broken, its drawers were intact, making it perfect for storing money. After some discussion, they decided to start with this setup and fix the unsatisfactory parts during the Chinese New Year break. So, on the sixth day of signing the contract, Qiu's father bought two strings of firecrackers and set them off at 10 am in front of the bathhouse door with a loud crackling sound.

  "The Normal University Swimming Pool" has finally reopened.