“Leo, let’s go.”
Kay and Leo didn’t continue to engage with Parker Jace; they came to the Yellow River Hotel, splashed down 1,000 dollars, and didn’t even drink a sip of water.
“Why did the guests leave?”
“They haven’t even ordered a dish yet…”
“Shh, I think they came to pick a fight.”
“Does Parker Jace know those two?”
Parker Jace didn’t have a good reputation; he had lowered his stance in front of Whitaker Scarlett, but he was quite proud when interacting with colleagues. There were even waitresses in the hotel who tried to be friendly with him, but he didn’t take any of them seriously.
Parker Jace’s high standards hurt the self-esteem of the women around him, and Caroline’s attitude was even more embarrassing.
Seeing Parker Jace suffer, everyone felt a bit of schadenfreude.
Some thought Kay and Leo were too harsh and stepped forward to comfort Parker Jace, “are you okay?”
Parker Jace felt utterly humiliated and pushed away those who cared for him. “…I’m fine. I need to take a leave; there’s something at home.”
Parker Jace ran away.
Everyone looked at the money left on the table; it was meant for Parker Jace, but he wouldn’t take it.
“What kind of people come to our hotel to show off?”
“They can show off because that money is probably more than Parker Jace’s annual salary, right?”
The one who took the tip had already counted the money in his hands; 15 big unity bills made 150 dollars. If a stack was 1,000, then the remaining money on the table was 850? Parker Jace’s monthly salary was 70 dollars, and his annual salary was only 840 dollars! It was indeed more than Parker Jace’s annual salary!
Parker Jace didn’t take the money, and no one dared to touch it on the table. It was the manager who found it inappropriate and had someone collect the money first:
“Let’s wait until Jace comes back to hand it over to him.”
Everyone was puzzled; two wealthy guests came early in the morning to “send money” to Parker Jace, and it made Parker Jace so angry that the hotel staff was curious to the extreme.
Parker Jace was just angry.
He hadn’t done anything wrong by liking Whitaker Scarlett, but he had gotten used to being a mama’s boy, always going home to solve problems with his mother—who knew Caroline would say one thing to his face and another behind his back? She claimed to help Whitaker Scarlett find a job, but then turned around and insulted her. Parker Jace felt miserable that Whitaker Scarlett had found a partner, and he suspected it was his mother who had sabotaged things, scaring Scarlett away from the Yellow River Hotel, prompting her to quickly find a partner.
What exactly did his mother say to Scarlett?
Even if she ruined his chances, why wouldn’t Scarlett even meet him anymore? How could she still go up and insult her!
Kay and Leo came to the Yellow River Hotel early in the morning, clearly to vent their anger for Scarlett. Parker Jace, who was so proud, was struck down by Kay’s arrogance and superiority. How would the hotel staff view him from now on? Did he still have the face to work here?
Angry, Parker Jace stormed to his mother’s workplace, but Caroline had several meetings to attend today.
Parker Jace calmed down a bit and didn’t cause a scene at Caroline’s workplace; instead, he sulked back home. After Caroline finished her meetings, she heard that her son Parker Jace had come by, which puzzled her. Wasn’t he supposed to be at work? The procurement job had a relatively flexible schedule, and Parker Jace rarely visited her workplace. If he came, it must have been for something important. Why didn’t he leave a word before leaving?
Caroline got off work early in the afternoon and returned home to find Parker Jace lying on the sofa, his pillow covering his head.
Hearing footsteps, Parker Jace lifted the pillow and jumped up, his face flushed, looking at his mother as if she were an enemy:
“Mom, did you go find trouble with Scarlett!”
Caroline’s heart skipped a beat.
She had lost face yesterday and certainly wouldn’t let it go easily. As a small leader at her unit, she naturally knew other friends and would definitely want to get back at Whitaker Scarlett for what happened yesterday—Whitaker Scarlett wanted to be self-employed, so she could casually ask a few friends to check on her. Even if Whitaker Scarlett’s business didn’t die, it would surely suffer!
The spring breeze of reform and opening up swept across the land, and the entire country’s economy was shifting in a positive direction. The distribution of land to households had increased the yield of various agricultural products, giving farmers extra money to supply cities with more goods… Destroying the reform and opening up would be like reversing history, but the model of reform and opening up was still in exploration.
The difference between self-employed individuals and speculative profiteers was not obvious.
With a monthly salary of a few dozen dollars, a train ticket to Sablewick would cost half of that. The high transportation costs directly stifled “speculative profiteering” in its cradle. Whitaker Scarlett delivering yellow eels to the hotel could be seen as farmers selling their own produce, still within the realm of selling agricultural products. She openly set up a stall on the street, which, in Caroline’s eyes, was “speculative profiteering”!
