Chapter 16 — From Noodles to Glory

"It's not being polite, it's being serious. The group's senior level is discussing next year's brand investment plan, potentially handing over the vision of several other lines of business to your side. If we get all of it..." "About how big is it?" "About thirty million."Thirty million. I held the phone and stood in front of the office's ground-level window. The city outside spread out under the sunlight, the flow of cars was like a river, the flow of people was like weaving. The woman three years ago was locked in the kitchen, asked to cook ten dishes, her wound was still bleeding and no one asked... If she could see today. Maybe she won't be surprised. Because this path originally belonged to her. It's just been blocked for three years. Now, the obstacle has been cleared. Half a year later divorced. The annual revenue of Niem Bach factory exceeds twenty million. The team expanded to twelve people. Contracted customers cover four industries: consumer goods, technology, real estate, finance. Dao Vi printed out the half-year financial report and put it on my desk. "Look." I opened it. "Contracted amount twenty-three million. Cash collected sixteen million. Net profit... after deducting personnel and office expenses... eight million two hundred thousand." "Your personal dividends?" "A little more than five million." I folded the report. "The second half of the year phase two plus phase three of the Tri Vien global project still has a contract of eighteen million. Thuy Trach added another project. Complete visual design for the new building, three million. Plus a small fee..." "Revenue for the whole year exceeding forty million should be no problem." Dao Vi sat across from me, crossed her legs, smiling like a cat stealing a fish. "Miss To Niem, how much are you worth now?" "Stop counting nonsense." I smiled and shook my head. "To be honest..." She retracted her smile and looked at me seriously. "Are you considering raising capital? There are several organizations that have come to me and want to talk." "Not considering it for now." "Why?" "If the pace is too fast, it will be uncontrollable. I want to first maintain the quality of the core work. Niem Bach has come this far, relying not on scale, but on quality." "Okay. You are the boss, you decide." In the afternoon, I went to the kindergarten to pick up Dai Bao. At the school gate, I met an acquaintance. Zhou Han's mother, Liu Fang. She also came to pick up the children, not to pick up my child, but to pick up the neighbor's little nephew. When she saw me, she clearly froze. Today I'm wearing a camel coat and a thin cashmere scarf. The car I'm driving is a new one I got last month. Not a very expensive car, but clean and presentable. Absolutely not the daughter-in-law wearing old pajamas in her perception. “To… To Niem?” “Mom… Aunt Luu.” I changed the way I addressed myself. “Long time no see.” Her eyes moved from me to the car behind me, then back to my face. The expression was so complicated that I didn't know how to imagine it. "You... is this your car?" "Yes." "What... are you doing now?" "Opening your own small company. Designing." "Oh..." She was silent for a moment, her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, then she swallowed. Dai Bao ran out from the school gate. "Mom!" The child jumped into my arms, then saw Luu Phuong. "Grandma?" Luu Phuong's expression finally cracked. She squatted down and raised her hand to pat Dai Bao's head. Dai Bao backed up a bit behind me. "Mom, let's go." The child said in a low voice. Children's memory is better than adults think. I remember the grandmother who used to shout loudly at her mother in the house. I picked up Dai Bao. "Aunt Luu, I'll go first." "Wait..." Luu Phuong called me back. "To Niem, Chu Han... haven't been doing very well lately. The company demoted him, now he's just a regular employee. The salary isn't much, the pressure to borrow money is big..." "His business has nothing to do with me anymore." "But he's the children's father..." "He transferred every penny of his child support money.

Other things are not something I need to worry about." I hugged Dai Bao and got into the car. From the rearview mirror, I saw Luu Phuong standing in place, opening his mouth, looking like he wanted to say something but couldn't. There was a time when she pointed at my nose and said: "What can you do if you leave Chu Han?" Now she saw the answer. At the end of the year, the industry's annual awards ceremony. Niem Bach Studio, based on Tri Vien's global brand strategy project, won the "Best Brand Design Organization of the Year" award. The awards ceremony was held at the international convention center, and the attendees were all brand parties and people in charge of leading design companies in the industry. I wore a long black dress that hugged my body on stage to receive the award. When the lights shone on him, there was a long round of applause under the stage. "Thank you for the trust of Tri Vien Group, thank you for the dedication of each member of the team." I stood in front of the microphone, without reading a lengthy acceptance speech. "Niem Bach Workshop was established for eight years, and stopped for three years in the middle. I don't regret those three years of stopping, because those three years made me completely understand one thing." "Whoever made you stop, it wasn't because you weren't good enough. It's because you're so good that it scares them.”