My Darling, My Dearest
Chapter 435 I'll Help You Ask

The dinner was mainly a reward for Gary's good performance, so they chose to eat at one of his favorite restaurants. A moment later, they finally saw the waiter approaching with their pizza and steak. The food smelled heavenly! Gary's face lit up when the waiter finished serving their food. He took the fork and knife, as he sat there eagerly wanting to dig in. Even his feet were swaying back and forth because of the excitement.

Rachel, on the other hand, was not as enthusiastic as him. After taking a few bites of the steak and the pizza, she felt full. Her stomach could no longer take any more of the food, so she set down the knife and fork at the table. Reaching for the napkin, she carefully wiped the side of her mouth. She was not aware that Jimmy was watching her. He asked with concern, "Don't you like it?"

She shook her head as she answered, "I like it. But I'm already full."

"Do you want some fried rice or something else? We can order dessert if you want to," Jimmy asked her as he was raising his hand to signal to the waiter to come over.

Rachel quickly shook her head to decline politely. "I'm full, but thanks for offering." Even as she turned his offer down, Jimmy smiled at her and insisted, "Don't worry about my wallet. I still have money for this meal."

In the past, Rachel helped him deal with his wife's grand, and that was why she was well aware of his financial condition.

His business went bankrupt and he owed a lot of money.

Even though he casually offered to pay for the food, Rachel knew that it was the man's ego that drove him to do so.

She denied with a kind smile, "If I'm not full, I won't be so polite."

Trying to divert the conversation, she asked, "Oh, that's right. I remember that you discontinued your business. What are you up to nowadays?"

Thankfully, he caught on and dropped their previous topic. "I'm running an electric appliance store with a friend. It can barely support my living."

He also put his knife and fork down as he took a sip of his lemonade. The cool and pungent taste of the drink moistened his throat. He wiped his mouth and continued, "Currently, the goods are very expensive. It also doesn't help that the customers are wise shoppers. They prefer to compare prices in different stores or shop online, so we can't raise our price offers. After deducting the rent and other expenses, we can only barely maintain it." "Is the bidding very expensive?" Rachel frowned. Although she was not good at doing business, hearing this from Jimmy made her curious. She had never been in touch with any business operation.

However, she often heard from the nurses at her previous department that greedy businessmen often sold overpriced products. Some of them bid offers that originally amounted a couple of dollars and priced it for hundreds.

She was wondering if electric appliances were an exception to that.

Jimmy smiled bitterly. "Our business is just at the beginning stage. We can only replace the following dealers to purchase the goods. When the goods come out of the factory, they have already dealt with many people. The price has increased several times as it jumps from one deal to another. How cheap can it be when the items are sold to us? To put it bluntly, we are just the goods porters."

Although he explained it thoroughly, Rachel was still a little confused. She did understand a little about the business, but a lot of questions lingered in her head. "Can't you replace the factory to purchase goods on your own? That way, the price should be lower."

Jimmy shrugged. "We want to. But which factory is willing to cooperate with such a small shop like ours? We don't have a lot to buy and order. I guess they won't even notice us." Rachel nodded sympathetically.

Although she had never ventured too much about businesses, she had stayed with Jack for a long time. She often heard him on the phone that their order amounts seemed to be in eight figures. In Jimmy's case, the business didn't have such strength.

On the other hand, Gary was unaware of the serious conversation they were having. He was still happily chomping on some of the pizza when he eyed the untouched spaghetti from Rachel's plate. He instantly perked up and asked, "Aunt Rachel, are you full now? Can I have the spaghetti on your plate, please?"

Unable to say no to the cuteness, Rachel beamed and said, "Of course, I don't want to waste food."

She grabbed a fork and transferred the spaghetti to Gary's plate. While she was emptying her plate, she suddenly remembered someone. She turned to Jimmy and said with uncertainty, "I seem to know a person who specialized in making electric appliances. Do you need my help to ask?"

Upon hearing that, Jimmy lightened up. He was ecstatic and excited that someone might be able to help their business. However, his shoulder fell a few seconds later. He scratched between his eyebrows as he shyly asked, "Won't it bother you too much?" "No, I'd love to help you," she answered with a genuine smile.

She went back on checking Gary and noticed that there was some ketchup on his cheek. Grabbing a piece of tissue, she carefully wiped it clean for him.

As she stared at the little boy, a lot of important things passed through her mind. Perhaps it was because of her previous pregnancy that made her heart swell with emotions. She knew how important a family was for a child's growth.

If she hadn't known Jimmy and Gary, she wouldn't have cared to meddle in his business. She realized that it was fate that led them together. With this in mind, she could only hope to do her best to help them. She smiled at him and said, "But don't be happy too early. After all, I'm not sure if I can succeed or not." They continued to chat until Gary finished his meal.

When she came out of the restaurant, she grabbed her purse and took her phone out. Checking the time on her phone, a missed call notification from Julie popped out. She decided not to call back since she was already heading home.

Julie usually stayed locked up in her room to take a rest, but when Rachel got home, she was still sitting on the sofa. The uncertainty in her face was so evident that Rachel immediately caught it. She vaguely guessed and asked in a low voice, "Did Jack come back?"

Slowly, Julie nodded. "Yes, but he went out again." She licked her lips and reached for her bag. After hesitating for a while, she finally asked, "Miss Shen, who did you have dinner with tonight? Mr. Fu asked me to call you, but you didn't answer. He was very angry."

"Just a friend," she answered timidly.

Glancing around the room, Rachel found that the glass bottle she bought two days ago was gone. She heaved a breath before asking calmly, "Was he so angry that he smashed my bottle?"

"It was an accident." Julie was afraid that Rachel would be angry too, so she tried to clean up Jack's mess and hoped it would go unnoticed.

Whatever Rachel was feeling, she didn't let it show. Instead, she smiled faintly. The glass bottle was not that precious. One night, she was taking a walk after dinner when she came across a peddler on the roadside. She bought a glass bottle along with some ocean balls from the peddler.

She didn't throw the ocean balls into the glass bottle all at once. Rather, she threw one each day.

It would serve as her countdown. When she finished throwing all the ocean balls in the bottle, it would be time for her to leave. What she didn't expect was Jack breaking the bottle before she even threw all of the ocean balls in.

Julie followed her to the door of the bedroom. The woman was contemplating if she would tell her that Jack had taken a suitcase with him when he left.

While she was pondering silently, Rachel turned to her as she took her coat off. "Julie, I'm going to bed. If it's not something important, let's talk about it tomorrow, okay?"

As she lay in her bed, desperately trying to get some rest, Jack continued to bother her mind. After a few hours of staring at the ceiling, she finally decided not to care. No matter how important that was, she didn't want to know anymore.

On the other hand, Scarlett was recently living her life prosperously.

She had long been wanting to resign, but she couldn't make her decision because of financial instability. Now that Jack was on her side, she immediately submitted a resignation letter to her boss. Now, she could sleep peacefully every night without worrying for the next day. Her lifestyle involved a routine of pampering herself, going out to shop with her friends, and buying expensive clothes and luxurious jewelry.

It was different from her life in the past. She would always count the money left in her bank card. She would always check the price tag of things she wanted to buy, only to put it back on the shelf because she couldn't afford it. But now, she no longer needed to look at the price of whatever she put her hands on. She would just grab anything she liked and throw them at the shop assistants for checkout.

In the past, she envied her friends who could buy whatever they wanted during their payday. Her salary had always been dedicated to support the family and to pay off their debts. Now, all of these no longer bothered her.

Scarlett was slowly getting accustomed to this kind of life, but she still felt uneasy. Her midnight thoughts always bothered her, fearing that Jack would suddenly kick her away. After all, she had been with him for so long, but he hadn't even touched her.

At that moment, the doorbell rang. Kailey came over to her house for a visit. She opened the fridge to scout for food. She took out a bottle of drink as if it was her own house. After gulping down a big sip, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Glancing around the house, she blurted enviously, "Scarlett, you are so lucky. You live so carefree that you don't need to do anything every day. All you need to do is wake up and spend money."

"It's okay. It also gets boring to only spend money," Scarlett said deliberately and smoothed her hair on her shoulder. Her tone was smug and bored at the same time. With her back towards Scarlett, Kailey pursed her lips in slight annoyance. When she turned around and faced her, she plastered an envious and flattering smile. The look on her cousin's face made Scarlett very happy.

A pile of shopping bags at the vestibule caught Kailey's attention. She took out a new dress from one of the bags and provokingly swayed it in front of her. "Scarlett, the material of your dress is very comfortable to touch. Something as good as this should not be cheap, right?"

"It's okay. This dress is only a little more than five thousand dollars," Scarlett replied indifferently. She acted as if the dress cost her nothing.

Kailey was shocked. With her mouth agape, she could have been able to swallow two whole eggs. She was thinking, even with her previous work in the hotel, it would take her two months' salary to buy a dress like this.

Folding the dress carefully, she put it back into the bag. Then, she walked towards Scarlett with a knowing smile. Smoothing down her clothes, Kailey sat down slowly next to her cousin and gently tapped her. Her mouth twitched in a playful smile as she asked, "Scarlett, you must be tired after shopping all day. Let me give you a massage. Is it comfortable? Is the pressure okay?" She began massaging her cousin's shoulder like an expert masseur.

"Not bad," Scarlett hummed in approval. She didn't refuse the pampering. Instead, she sat in a different position and asked Kailey to help her massage the other side of her body. She seemed to quite enjoy it. Kailey puckered her lips and threw a disgusted face. Of course, Scarlett couldn't see it because she was facing the opposite direction. In a split second, she feigned a smile and asked, "Scarlett, you are so rich now. You must have a lot of free money, right?"

Scarlett halted. "What's wrong?"

At the mention of money, she immediately tensed. Her expression turned serious. She stopped Kailey's massage and motioned for her to sit down.

Author's note

Goose BBSS

Translator: Scarlett5555