Transmigration: Lady Chi Woos The Ice cold Professor Jun
Chapter 536: Little octopus

Chapter 536: Little octopus

Wen Yuesong knew that these young women who had come for the conference to listen to successful business women did not come here to listen to her talking about her life as a house wife so she went down to tackle why they were here.

"When the twins started kindergarten I suddenly found myself with a lot of time on my hands and I decided to go back to work. I bought a nice expensive suit because none of my old clothes fit anymore, I paired that suit with shoes and a bag which was similarly expensive and with so much enthusiasm attended interviews and sent out my resume confident that my education background and experience would be enough. But it was not because three months later, my expensive suit had an ink stain and the shoes were beginning to wear out. There was no job offer and I felt stupid for buying an expensive suit. My husband was a director in a beverage company at the time, his earnings were good and we were not desperate for money so I relaxed again and paused my job hunting. But life can be cruel because four months later, my husband died in a car accident leaving me a widow with three little boys to raise." She stopped talking briefly, smiled sadly and took a sip of water from a bottle which Rize offered her.

She toughened up and went on to say, "My need for a job was no longer optional but compulsory. We were renting, the children were in school, gas bills, water bills, electricity bills and all the other expenses were on me. I knew by now that getting into a company would be difficult so I decided to start a small business. I had never done that, it had never even crossed my mind before but when I thought about all the women I often spoke to in the market when I went shopping regularly I braved myself. If they could do it, so could I. I wanted to do something which in my head was elegant so my first business was a restaurant, and it failed spectacularly in two months. I lost eighty percent of my life savings and I had thirty thousand yuan left to my name. I cried myself to sleep every night for a week but each time I looked at my children I was reminded that I had no time to cry. Suddenly I admired all those women that worked in stalls and markets, at least they were successful at something. I approached an old woman who was friendliest to me in the fish market and asked her how much it cost to rent a shop, where she got her fish from and how much she earned monthly. As it turned out, she made more in a year that I used to as an office worker. I paid that old woman five thousand yuan to teach me the ropes of the business for a month. Every morning at five o’clock I would be at the docks with her, learning how to bargain and pick the best sea food. I stopped talking like an office worker and learned how to haggle like a market worker. My style of dressing changed, I did not visit a hair salon or paint my nails anymore, the expensive perfumes, bags and suits were useless so I sold them. Those things did not matter anymore because I was learning what would be my life line.

One month later, my education was done and I rented a shop and went to work in Chingshen seafood market.

It was hard in the beginning because I was a new face but I had a loud voice and I would shout to attract customers. I even dressed my youngest son as a little octopus often, played music and had him dance to promote our shop. My oldest sons would often join me after school to help out. They would do their homework in the market with me. I don’t know how but I made it to a year successfully, my children had stayed in school, we were not behind on rent and amenities in our house were working well. Suddenly an insurance company contacted me, my husband had an insurance policy and I was the sole beneficiary. I received three hundred ninety thousand yuan. For a minute I considered leaving the sea food market and maybe venture into opening a boutique or anything else which did not have people wrinkling their noses at me on the bus when I was on my way home. But when I looked at children’s report cards, all I could think about was making sure that they ended up in a better life with no struggles like the ones their mother was facing. Even though we were not pressed for money extremely but as family of four we were still poor, living hand to mouth after expenses were paid. Most of our clothes came from those second hand shops and hawkers. We ate so much seafood that my youngest son started to vomit at the sight of fish and squid. No matter our condition however, their good grades were consistent.

So one hundred sixty thousand yuan went into their education fund and I sent them to good schools and academies. Then the old woman that taught me the ropes came to me one day and told me her husband was selling their fishing ship. He had a buyer lined up but she liked me and she wanted to see if I was interested. The ship was old, it was priced at one hundred sixty thousand yuan. I had no idea about how to manage a fishing ship or anything related to it. But the old woman and her husband promised to teach me for just one month and also introduce me to their customers as long as I bought the ship. Guess what I did?"

In the beginning Wen Yuesong’s story seemed negligible but she held the attention of the conference attendees. As she spoke, they drew pictures of her life, laughed occasionally and followed along.

"I took a risk and said yes, sinking all the money I had left into that ship. I named it little octopus because my shop was named little octopus. Everyone knew there was a shop with a little boy in the Seafood market who danced and walked around in an octopus costume. That ship was the first of my ships, and I used it as a mortgage to get a second ship a year later. Those two ships got me two more and the cycle continued. Today, little octopus is a twenty three meter long commercial fishing vessel. The captain of that ship is the son of the elderly couple that taught me everything about the business. It took me seventeen years to go from an ordinary woman that sold fish to a big boss that owns ten large fishing vessels. I did this by taking risks and most importantly by developing a positive attitude towards all types of work whether it’s office work or manual labor like cleaning people’s houses. There is value in anything that puts food on your table honestly. Once upon a time I was the woman who sneered at the ordinary market woman when I was shopping and one day I admired that market woman because she was better than me. Then I turned into her and I am proud to say today that I sell fish for a living. No matter how much I have accomplished or how much money I have made, you will find me everyday at the little octopus shop in Chingshen seafood market selling my products. CEO Chi brought me here today for one reason only, to teach you about attitudes in business. It’s very important because your attitude will determine whether you succeed or not, be it at the workplace as an employee or your personal business. I have made sure that my three sons know all the essentials of a skilled seafood seller. They can operate the fishing ships perfectly whether it’s captaining one, building or fixing it. No matter how many degrees they earn or fancy careers they pursue they must understand and appreciate the business which raised them."

Chi Lian was the first to applaud loudly at this. Her children too would learn different skills to ensure that they survived in case of anything. The Chi family was the perfect example of struggles after falling from grace with nothing to fall back on.

"I actually moved with my third son little octopus today, would you like to see him?" Wen Yuesong asked the women.