Chapter 394: Mom, What Are You Doing Here?

“This Mingri Group Cafeteria has two floors in total, and it’s really spacious. Even if everyone from all the companies comes here to eat at lunchtime, it’s still more than enough room.”

“And all the drinks in the fridges around here are free. You can help yourself during meals, just don’t waste anything.”

“………”

As Li Shen walked, he introduced the cafeteria’s layout and amenities.

“Sister Hong, what’s on the menu for tonight?”

Halfway through the walk, he spotted Dong Hong at the serving counter, switching out an old menu for a new one. Smiling, he greeted her casually.

Back when he worked at the Clothing Factory, he often came to the cafeteria, especially during the time they were selling boxed lunches.

Dong Hong had been in charge of planning the daily menus, so they were fairly familiar with each other. He’d even gone on a business trip with her and Yang Dahai to accompany President Chen.

So whenever he dropped by the cafeteria, they’d usually exchange a few words.

“Hmm, tonight we have…”

Dong Hong turned around at the sound of his voice, ready to respond, but the words caught in her throat the moment she saw the figure behind Li Shen.

Her eyes locked onto someone standing just behind him.

“What’s wrong, Sister Hong?”

Li Shen noticed something was off in her expression and asked cautiously.

But before Dong Hong could answer, a voice suddenly called out from behind.

“Mom? What are you doing here?”

Mom?

What mom?

The voice clearly belonged to either Liu Weiwei or Yang Yaoyao.

Li Shen was puzzled for a moment, but then it hit him. His expression slowly turned strange.

He shifted slightly to the side and looked behind him at Yang Yaoyao and Liu Weiwei, then glanced back at Dong Hong.

He saw Yang Yaoyao and Dong Hong staring directly at each other.

No way…

Li Shen opened his mouth, stunned. Did he really just recruit Sister Hong’s daughter into the company?

What kind of coincidence was this?

“Mom? What are you doing here?”

Yang Yaoyao finally snapped out of it, staring at her mother in confusion.

Wasn’t her mom working at the cafeteria in the Clothing Factory?

“I work here. What are you doing here? Didn’t you say you were going to sign a contract with a company today?”

Dong Hong looked at her daughter, equally surprised, though more than anything, she was shocked.

She knew her daughter was returning to Jiangcheng today to sign with an company. She had even planned to cook something nice after work. Never in a million years did she expect to run into her here.

“I’m here to sign the contract. But I thought you worked at the Clothing Factory cafeteria. Why are you…”

Halfway through her sentence, Yang Yaoyao suddenly had a flash of realization.

Mingri Group. Mingri Group Cafeteria.

Now she understood why this place had felt so familiar. Her mom had mentioned it once before, but she hadn’t paid much attention at the time.

Now that she thought about it…

Yang Yaoyao suddenly considered a possibility.

The company she had just joined might be the same one her mom had wanted her to work at.

Well, maybe not the exact same company, but part of the same group.

Dong Hong listened to her daughter’s words and gradually caught on. She turned to look at Li Shen, then turned back to her daughter with a face full of delight.

“So the company you joined is Boring Short Video?”

She had been with the company since before Mingri Group was even officially established.

As the company grew and eventually became Mingri Group, she had kept track of the companies under its umbrella. Of course, she only knew the names—she didn’t really understand what each one did.

But there was one thing she did know: any company under President Chen was a good company.

“Yes.”

Yang Yaoyao took a deep breath and nodded.

Li Shen glanced around, finally piecing everything together. After a moment of thought, he spoke up.

“Alright, I’ve got some things to take care of back at the office. I’ll leave you two to catch up.”

With that, he turned and walked away.

It was a family reunion, after all. There was no reason for him to stick around. Besides, he had already shown them around the cafeteria—his job here was done.

After Li Shen left, Dong Hong led Yang Yaoyao and Liu Weiwei to a table in the cafeteria and sat down.

After a brief conversation, everything was finally cleared up.

“I told you President Chen’s company was a great place to work, but you didn’t believe me. Do you believe me now?”

Dong Hong beamed at Yang Yaoyao, clearly thrilled that her daughter had ended up working for President Chen’s group.

“But last time, wasn’t he just the owner of a clothing factory? How did it turn into a whole group?”

Yang Yaoyao still found it a bit unbelievable. She clearly remembered visiting the Clothing Factory before. From its layout and scale, it had seemed like a perfectly ordinary mid-sized operation—nothing too big or too small.

The only thing that stood out was that the employee benefits were way better than other factories.

But other than that, there hadn’t been anything particularly special.

But what she never expected was that in just about a year, that modest little Clothing Factory had transformed into the Mingri Group.

It was almost unbelievable.

Even with the facts laid out in front of her, she still found it hard to wrap her head around.

“President Chen is young and capable. Turning a Clothing Factory into the Mingri Group isn’t all that surprising. Besides, you’ve been to that Clothing Factory before, right? It’s changed a lot. President Chen has now leased the entire Industrial Park where it’s located. The whole area is currently under reconstruction.”

“Once the Clothing Factory is rebuilt, it’s going to be a massive operation.”

As she spoke, Dong Hong gestured in the air to show the scale.

The entire Industrial Park now belonged to the Clothing Factory!

Listening to her mother, Yang Yaoyao recalled her last visit to the Clothing Factory and tried to remember the size of that Industrial Park.

She hadn’t walked through it at the time, but she was sure it spanned at least tens of thousands of square meters.

Even setting aside the cost of renting such a large space, just rebuilding a Clothing Factory of that size would be an enormous expense.

That naturally made her think of the 24-floor fitness and entertainment center, and the luxurious employee cafeteria.

As for President Chen, whom she had yet to meet, she now had only one impression of him: extravagant.

After a while,

She finally snapped out of her thoughts and suddenly realized she hadn’t introduced her friend yet.

She quickly spoke up.

“Mom, let me introduce you. This is my roommate, Liu Weiwei. We started work together today.”

“Weiwei, this is my mom.”

Upon hearing that, Liu Weiwei quickly greeted her.

“Hello, Auntie!”

“Hello! So you’re Weiwei? Yaoyao talks about you all the time. Now that you’re in Jiangcheng, just treat this place like home. Whatever you want to eat tonight, Auntie will buy the ingredients and cook for you.”

Dong Hong smiled warmly at Liu Weiwei as she spoke.

“Auntie, you really don’t have to go to all that trouble. Just something simple is fine.”

“How could that do? Since you won’t say, I’ll just decide for myself. Alright, I need to get back to work. Can’t chat with you girls too long.”

“……”

After chatting for a bit longer, Dong Hong glanced at the time and hurried off toward the kitchen.

It was time to start prepping for dinner, and she couldn’t afford to waste too much time.

Once Dong Hong had left,

Yang Yaoyao and Liu Weiwei also left the cafeteria.

“Yaoyao, I looked it up. Changbai Scenic Garden does have rental units. There’s one that’s over 80 square meters, a two-bedroom with nice furnishings. It’s fully renovated, so we can move in with just our luggage.”

On the way,

Liu Weiwei looked at the rental app on her phone and spoke slowly.

“Sounds good. Let’s contact the agent and go take a look. If everything checks out, we’ll rent it.”

Yang Yaoyao nodded.