After the disaster

With rice, Qiu Cheng decided to eat rice at noon this day. When cooking, he thought of the long-lost aroma of rice, so he couldn't help scooping cup after cup of rice into the rice cooker, thinking, anyway, he and Ah It’s usually quite edible, and it’s okay to cook a little more. If you can’t finish it, you can still cook rice at night.

After washing the rice, soak it first, and then carefully control the ratio of rice to water. It has been too long since I have cooked rice. Qiu Cheng is worried that if he accidentally makes a pot of raw rice, it will be too wasteful. .

After plugging in the rice cooker, Qiu Cheng started to cook. First, he fried a plate of alfalfa. The alfalfa was picked from a wooden basket in 1505, because the alfalfa in that house was particularly fat and tender because it grew near the water.

Ah Chang squatted in the small restaurant outside with a spoon to scrape the potato skins. With a stainless steel spoon, a large piece of potato skins came off, and a smooth potato could be scraped out in a few strokes.Qiu Cheng chopped a few dried chilies, patted a few cloves of garlic, cut these potatoes into thin shreds, and fried a large plate of hot and sour potato shreds.

While the two were still cooking, the tempting aroma of rice wafted from the rice cooker, making their mouths water.

It was finally time to eat, and there were two dishes on the coffee table. Qiu Cheng and Ah Chang each held a bowl of rice, and took a mouthful of rice with chopsticks. Before they had moved much, they both added a second bowl.

"Is it delicious?" Qiu Cheng ate three big bowls and finally stopped his chopsticks.

"Hmm." Ah Chang replied vaguely, holding a rice cooker liner in his hand, eating vigorously, the two plates on the table were empty, and he poured the last leftovers and vegetable soup into the pot Bibimbap.

Seeing that he liked it so much, Qiu Cheng got up and went to the small restaurant outside, opened a rice bag leaning against the wall, and poured some rice from it into the rice bucket in their kitchen.

"Qiu Cheng." Ah Chang called him in the living room.

"Why?" Qiu Cheng asked.

"Are you still eating?" Ah Chang asked him.

"I'm full, you can eat." Qiu Cheng said with a smile.

In the afternoon, Qiu Cheng was standing on the terrace of his home, holding a handful of broken jade in his hand, refining it bit by bit, but his gaze was cast on a piece of wasteland not far away.

Shen Dingjun's wasteland reclamation team has arrived and is in full swing to reclaim wasteland by the Xinnan River.

Qiu Cheng saw that they were not only interested in planting. Several people were pulling barbed wire fences around a field that had just been sorted out by the river. The thick barbed wire fences were more than two meters high. While digging a canal, Qiu Cheng guessed that they were planning to raise ducks.

These days, Shen Dingjun has never been here again, nor has he caused any trouble for him, but Qiu Cheng has to be vigilant.

At around three o'clock in the afternoon, Qiu Cheng took Ah Chang out to rent a car. It was still the same car rental company, and he still rented a pickup truck.

At four o'clock in the morning the next day, they still got up at that time as usual. Qiu Cheng didn't meditate. He moved all the things to be sold that day into the car, and drove the pickup truck out of the Jiayuan community.

Neither of them had the habit of eating at this time in the morning, so they went on the road on an empty stomach that day, but they brought some buns. Today's breakfast and lunch will be settled in the provincial capital, and they can come back for dinner.

Before dawn, Xinnan City was quiet, and the entire main road was empty, only their car, Qiu Cheng held the steering wheel, not daring to relax his vigilance, relying on his current reaction is much more sensitive than ordinary people, he drove the car It was very fast, getting on and off the highway, until it entered the urban area of ​​the provincial capital, and then slowly slowed down.

"Fried dough sticks! Selling fried dough sticks!" Passing by the bridgehead last time, the stall selling fried dough sticks was still there, and it was still the same few people from last time, who were yelling loudly early in the morning, regardless of whether they would disturb the surrounding residents.

"I want two deep-fried dough sticks and two cups of soy milk." Qiu Cheng parked the car on the open space beside the bridge, planning to take a short rest, eat a deep-fried dough stick and drink a cup of soy milk.Although their family has oil and noodles now, Qiu Cheng has never made fried dough sticks because he was worried about spoiling things, so he never started to make fried dough sticks.

"Okay, two fried dough sticks and two cups of soy milk, a total of [-]." Soon someone brought them soy milk fried dough sticks.

"The price has increased?" Qiu Cheng was speechless.

"No way, if you don't increase the price, you will lose money." The young man said.

"A fried dough stick costing 500 yuan is still a loss?" Qiu Cheng shook his head and started counting the money for him helplessly.

"Brother, you don't know yet, do you?" The deep-fried dough stick seller leaned in front of the car window with a mysterious face, and said to Qiu Cheng in a low voice: "Inside information, the country will issue new currency in a few months. The exchange ratio of the set of banknotes is one to one thousand, tsk tsk, so calculated, our fritters are only [-] cents a piece, don’t you think?”

"That's how it works." Qiu Cheng handed him the money, and said, "Then my previous month's salary was only more than three yuan?"

"Hey, it's good to have more than three yuan. I haven't earned the salary of more than three yuan. When the X virus broke out, I went directly from school to the temporary base. I don't have a skill until now, so I have to work with others. Selling fried dough sticks." The boy counted the money, laughed a few times, and then stood on the side of the road to greet the business.

"Eat buns." Ah Chang Qiu Cheng handed him a bun immediately after paying the money. At this time, he had already eaten it himself. One bite of the bun, one bite of deep-fried dough sticks, and one bite of soy milk, it was a joy to eat.

"Give me something stuffed with tofu." Qiu Cheng said after taking a bite of the fritters.

Hearing this, Ah Chang put his nose into the fresh-keeping box and sniffed it, and quickly picked out two stuffed tofu for Qiu Cheng.After the two finished their breakfast in the car, they started the car again and headed to the railway station in their provincial capital.

It didn't take long, and the provincial capital seemed to be more lively than when they came back last time.

Qiu Cheng knew that this was due to traffic factors. Although their provincial capital is not a particularly developed big city, the roads and railways are also accessible from north to south. Transfer here.

They still went to the same place last time. Qiu Cheng held the steering wheel and drove slowly along that street. When he found a vacant space, he parked the car and came down to set up a stall.

He came all the way, but he didn't see the stall owner who sold the jars last time. He didn't know if he went home because the things were sold out.

"Spicy cabbage! Peanuts! Rice!" After setting up the stall, Qiu Chengcheng began to sell it.

"How do you sell this rice?" Someone asked soon.

"Nine catties of cornmeal." Qiu Cheng came back to the provincial capital, and also paid attention to the price of rice. Rice is much more expensive than white flour. Basically, it ranges from eight catties of cornmeal to ten catties of cornmeal, depending on the quality of the rice. Prices vary slightly from store to store.

Of course, the quality of their rice is undeniable, but since it is a stall on the side of the road, there is no need for a high price of ten catties of cornmeal.

"What kind of rice is this? Where did it come from?"

"It's produced in the south, this year's new rice." Qiu Cheng said and tied a hanging plastic bag on the back of the car. These plastic bags were bought from a night market a few days ago. It is said that they were just produced this year. Safer than the old stuff from five years ago.

"It's only been a few months, and there are new rice to eat?" The guest didn't believe it.

"It's indeed new rice." Qiu Cheng smiled, and he could tell that the customer wanted to bargain.

"I can't tell if it's new rice." The customer grabbed a handful of rice and looked at it, and said, "How about eight catties of cornmeal? I want a few catties."

"Not for sale, why don't you come in and have a look at the spicy cabbage, eight taels of cornmeal per catty." Qiu Cheng directly refused.

"I'll talk about that later, let's talk about the rice first..."

While the two of them were bargaining, many customers had already come to the stall, some of them set up stalls nearby. I had eaten the spicy cabbage from Qiu Cheng's family last time and thought it tasted good. Come and buy again.

As for those customers who wanted to buy rice, they wanted to bargain at first, but no matter what they said, Qiu Chengcheng showed no signs of letting go, so he had to give up in the end, either gritted his teeth and bought it, or left with regret.

"Brother, are you here again? Weigh two catties of spicy cabbage for me." When Qiu Cheng was busy, an angry voice sounded beside him.

"Okay." Qiu Cheng glanced at the person who came, and remembered that he was the boss Bai who occupied this area.

Apparently most of the other customers also knew him, and when they saw him coming, no one argued with him about who came first, and quietly waited for Boss Bai to take his things and leave.

"Yo, this rice is pretty good, how do you sell it?" Boss Bai refused to fulfill the wishes of these people, took the spicy cabbage, and noticed the rice on the stall again.

"Nine catties of corn flour." Qiu Cheng said.

"Let me take a look." Boss Bai grabbed a handful of rice and looked at it carefully, nodded and said, "Yes, I want all of these, you wait here, I'll go back and get the cornmeal."

As soon as Boss Bai opened his mouth, he wrapped up the rest of the rice. The few who were planning to buy rice just now but had not had time to start, felt a little dissatisfied in their hearts, but no one made a sound, and there was no need to argue with Bai about this Boss on.

Of course, there are also those who are unwilling to give up.

"Hey, hey, anyway, before the scale is over, you can secretly give me a few catties, and I'll give you ten catties of cornmeal." Seeing that Boss Bai had left, someone started digging around the corner of his wall secretly, with their index fingers crossed, Put a "ten" to Qiu Cheng, the rice at this stall is really good, he is willing to buy it if it is more expensive than other places.

"Drink!" At this time, Boss Bai turned his head not far away, saw the situation, and immediately stomped his feet and shouted: "What are you doing! Hey, I'm talking about you!"

"Hey, it's okay, I'm not going to buy it, I'm not going to buy it." Seeing that he was caught straight, the man stepped back quickly, turned around again, turned his back to Boss Bai, and took out a A business card was sneakily slipped to Qiu Cheng: "Boss, when will you come over next time? Here, here is my business card. Next time you have such good rice, you can contact me. The price can be negotiated."

"Hey! Is it over yet?" Boss Bai rolled up his sleeves, making a gesture to come over.

"Let's go, just go." Seeing that he was coming, the man ran away in fright. With his physique, he was no match for Boss Bai at all, and he would only suffer losses in a fight.

"Hey, Hanako, come here." At this time, Boss Bai finally saw one of his younger brothers, called him over, and ordered, "Go back and bring me a bag of cornmeal."

"Understood, brother." The younger brother got the order and ran away in a hurry.

"Did you know that guy just now?" Boss Bai went back to Qiu Cheng's stall, and kindly helped him to register the cashier. With this Buddha standing here, other customers gave up their thoughts of bargaining, An Jing Jing bought her own share, and the bird left quietly.

"I don't know you." Qiu Cheng said.

"Hey, I didn't say you, buddy, if you want to do business in our provincial capital, you don't know a few people." Boss Bai patted Qiu Cheng's shoulder nicely, and gave him eyes without changing his expression. Yao: "That guy's surname is Huang just now, and he's notoriously dishonest in our area. Today, I told you that one catty of rice will give you ten catties of cornmeal. When you send the things to him one day, he will pick and choose again." Four bargain with you, maybe even fool you with inferior cornmeal, you say, is it boring to deal with this kind of person?"

"It's boring." Qiu Cheng nodded in agreement, and didn't tell him that the person's surname was not Huang at all, but his surname was Zhao, which was printed on his business card.

After a while, the young man called Hanako by Boss Bai came over carrying a bag of cornmeal. Don't look at this young man, and his body doesn't look very strong. He trotted over carrying a bag of cornmeal, but he didn't Why do you see him panting and sweating.

When Qiu Cheng weighed the rice and cornmeal, Hanako rubbed the spicy cabbage beside their boss to eat, and the boss Bai was not too angry, chewing the sour, crunchy and spicy cabbage stalks in his mouth, and vaguely taught him a lesson. He: "you can just eat a few slices, my daughter hasn't tasted it yet."

After Qiu Cheng weighed the weight, he brought the rice and the remaining cornmeal in front of Boss Bai. Boss Bai waved his hand and told Hanako to take the things back first, but he himself refused to leave.

"Brother, your stuff is pretty good, where did you get it from?" Boss Bai asked Qiu Chengdao.

"There are a few friends who are in the transportation business. When they drive by somewhere, they see something good, so they pick it up." Qiu Cheng said.

"Oh, so that's how it is. I just said that your sales seem a bit complicated." Boss Bai nodded, and then asked Qiu Cheng, "Where are you from?"

"Xinnan City." On this issue, Qiu Cheng didn't lie to him. He had an intuition that he would have to deal with this boss Bai in the future. If he told an obvious lie now, it would definitely be no good for him to find out later.

"I'm familiar with Xinnan City. I have a few friends who hang out there. Does Guihuang know? My dear buddies, if you encounter any problems in the future, you can go to him and report my name. There is no one who will not help " Boss Bai said boldly.

"Thank you, Brother Bai." Boss Bai seemed to be older than Qiu Cheng, so it wouldn't be shameful to call him Brother Bai.

"Well, you can set up a stall here. If there is anyone who is not good-looking looking for you, you can go to the alley over there and shout. There is a chess and card room over there. When my brothers are free They all rest there."

Boss Bai pointed to an alley not far away, which happened to be the direction where Huazi brought out the cornmeal just now and then brought the rice and the remaining cornmeal back.

"Well, Brother Bai." Qiu Cheng immediately asked, "Do you know where I can buy piglets?"

"Piglets? Are you planning to raise pigs?" Boss Bai raised his eyebrows.

"Yes." Qiu Cheng nodded.

"You can't buy piglets, but if you want, you can make an appointment with me." Boss Bai took out a receipt book from his pocket as he said, and said to Qiu Cheng while writing: "I think you are too, buddy." If you're an honest person, you don't need much deposit, but you have to pay me ten catties of cornmeal for the headless piglet, by the way, how many piglets do you plan to ask for?"

"Five heads." Qiu Cheng didn't know what expression to put on his face now.

"Five heads? Yes, usually the goods will arrive in a week. When do you plan to come and pick them up?" Boss Bai asked without raising his head as he scribbled on his notebook.

"Half a month." Qiu Cheng replied.

"Half a month? I have plenty of time, and I can ask someone to arrange it slowly." Boss Bai wrote the receipt, tore up the customer link, and handed it to Qiu Cheng: "When the time comes, you can pick up the goods based on this note. You can say hello in the room, and someone will lead you there. A piglet is worth [-] to [-] catties of cornmeal. Our people need to negotiate the price with the farm depending on the situation. In the end, you have to pay another [-]% of the service fee. Why? So, do you have any comments?"

"No objection." Qiu Cheng found that these clauses were written clearly on the receipt given to him by Boss Bai. His style was different from that of Boss Bai's men. His handwriting was a bit immature, but the writing was more correct and easy to recognize.

"Okay, you just wait to pick up the goods, do you want anything else?"

"I plan to buy some more soybeans." Qiu Cheng said smoothly.Soybean is not as important to him as the matter of piglets, but to Wang Chengliang and his family, this matter is very important.

"Soybeans, we have them in the grain store, and now the soybeans on the market cost a catty... I've hit it off with you, and I'll give you a preferential price..."

"Do you still have a food store?" Qiu Cheng was really speechless by the salesman's appearance of this black and absurd brother.

"Hey! Otherwise, you think I'm just a protection fee? Is that money enough to support a few brothers? It's just a side job, just do it casually and increase your income."

Boss Bai said, "Shua Shua" wrote another note to Qiu Cheng: "When you close the stall in a while, take this note. Whether I'm here or not, they will give you a discounted price."