I don’t know if it was because she had done good deeds and accrued virtue, but just a few days after graduating from Gong Mingxia’s cooking school, on the eve of the Spring Festival in 2001, she found out she was 40 days pregnant. Approaching her 34th year, she was going to be a mom again.
The entire Cao Family was very happy, including Xiao Xiao and Cao Yang. Cao Yang was in his second year of high school and Xiao Xiao was in the second grade of elementary school. Both were going to be the older siblings of the baby. How could they not be happy?
Then there was the year-end bonus, which had reached 380,000 yuan. She took 180,000 yuan to finish paying off the remaining debt for the Mingxiu Hope Primary School and used it for the school’s renovations.
By doing this, she had d one million yuan for the mountain area’s hope primary school. In that era, one million yuan could at least build a five-story Hope Primary School, including subsequent renovation costs. As for some internal improvements to the teaching buildings, they relied on local educational institutions.
Since at that time, the Project Hope was continuously improving, her one-time donation of more than one million yuan qualified her to name the school whatever she wanted.
The remaining 200,000 yuan was used for the facade renovation of her building, as she was pregnant, hence the supervision of the construction was handed over to Cao Yuan, while she only needed to provide the designs.
At the end of 2000, her private property was left with 40,000 yuan, due to her donations reaching 24,000 yuan for ten students this year.
Cao Yuan’s salary and the new housing mortgage, along with living expenses, and the rent from the old house hadn’t allowed for savings to be set aside, used to pay for the family’s daily expenses. After all, she had attended cooking school for a year this year!
In March 2001, according to her own skill level, she registered for the Intermediate Chef Level examination. One month later, the results were released, and she passed smoothly.
Gong Mingxia was very happy. She was already satisfied with obtaining the intermediate qualification. As a female chef, reaching this level had already proven her strength, and she had no plans to continue climbing higher.
Because in the future, the chances for her to show off her skills would be rare—as raising children was the proper affair, and the kitchen fumes were not suitable for women to endure.
She could completely be her own boss, so taking the exam was just to put a perfect end to her early learning, to prove that she herself had the capability. This would ensure future chefs couldn’t take advantage of her ignorance. That was enough.
In June 2001, a dividend of 280,000 yuan was credited, and Gong Mingxia took out 200,000 yuan to pay off the mortgage on the new house, with the remaining 80,000 yuan used for renovation of the new house.
Thus, their family was debt-free and light, and the restaurant’s renovation was in its final stages.
Since becoming pregnant, her daily tasks included outlining, picking up her daughter, doing household chores, and cooking.
Cao Yuan spent all his spare time supervising the renovation of the restaurant. Under his supervision, the quality of the renovation was very good, also saving money to the greatest extent; after all, the restaurant couldn’t do without air conditioning and all the necessary kitchen facilities, so even spending 200,000 yuan wasn’t quite enough.
In the end, they were short of fifty thousand yuan, and it was the Old Lady who took out all her savings, which moved Gong Mingxia deeply.
The Old Lady said with a smile, "This money is just lent to you temporarily. When you’ve made money, you can pay me back."
"Mom, listen to you, I definitely won’t default on the debt. Your granddaughter will be watching!"
The Old Lady hoped for another little cotton-padded jacket, so she had always been looking forward to Mingxia having a baby girl.
By August, Xiao Xiao’s fast food restaurant renovation was completed. The tables, chairs, benches, and all necessary kitchen facilities were put in place. The 250,000 yuan spent on renovations was not in vain, making the overall appearance much more upscale. Latest content published on novel⦿fire.net