Ye Cheng

Ye Cheng's family is not close to the children in the village, and Lu Mingyuan and Ye Ping hardly interacted with the children in the village before entering elementary school. They have their own things to do every day, unlike the big fat and the fat and the fat. I do a little work at home, and spend the rest of the time outside, so I naturally need more partners.

Like this summer, the children of other families only need to worry about their summer homework at most, but Ye Cheng has to start worrying about the sale of those jars of salted duck eggs.In the past, most of the salted duck eggs in their family depended on Lu Mingyuan setting up an extra basket on the side when he set up a stall, and he might be able to sell some of them in a day. Sometimes Cai Jinzhi would also get some salted duck eggs to sell in the town, but the quantity It's also quite limited, because their town itself is so big, and their spending power is just that, and there are still duck farmers like Chen San in the town.

Duck eggs must be sold in the city, but the children had no idea where to go, and Cai Jinzhi and Qian Shouwan rarely left the village, so they couldn't give much advice.

Originally, I wanted to go to City C where Ye Cheng once stayed, but then I thought again, City C is too far away, and the travel fare is too expensive. Even if I can find kind travelers who are willing to take their two children, the journey will be too time-consuming. After growing up, the salted duck eggs they can bring each time are limited, and the summer vacation is only two months. After two months, Ye Cheng will start school, and Lu Mingyuan will also start the first grade.

The summer business in the small town is relatively light. When the weather is hot, everyone doesn't like to go out. Unlike big cities, everyone has to go to work, and they have to go out if they don't go out.With fewer people going out, the shoe repair business will naturally be bleak, so this time Lu Mingyuan took a break from the stall and went out to sell duck eggs with Ye Cheng, but Ye Ping couldn't leave. Not happy, but had to stay.

After an informal small family meeting, several people decided to go to the county town to try their luck the next day. If it sells well, they will not go far. If the business is not good, they will consider going to a distant place.

They didn't delay for a day. Ye Cheng had an exam the day before, and went to the county town to sell salted duck eggs the day after. The bus from their town to the county town cost [-] yuan. The conductor saw that they were children, so he asked them to buy half the fare , Eight yuan for two people.After arriving at the county seat, I got off the car directly at the entrance of the vegetable market. Ye Cheng was carrying a large bucket of raw salted duck eggs, which were still sticky with yellow mud, and Lu Mingyuan was carrying a large basket of cooked salted duck eggs. The two of them were standing at the entrance of the vegetable market. laid out.

At that time, there was no such thing as urban management, and there were too many stalls at the entrance of the vegetable market. The main thing was to see which store you were in front of, and it would be fine if the other party didn’t rush.Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan's stall was placed in front of a store that sold pots and stoves. Between the store and the road, there was a sycamore tree, which was old and tall and strong.

The two tried their best to set up the stall against the tree, so as not to block other people's storefronts, and the shopkeeper didn't come out to say anything, so the stall just stood like this.

"How do you sell these duck eggs?" After a while, a middle-aged woman in clean clothes came to ask the price. The woman in her early fifties had fair skin and a well-proportioned figure, which was not at all the same as the women in their village.

"Liu Mao." Ye Cheng was very happy that business came so soon.

"Do you buy your own from wholesale?" the man asked again.

"My own, the ducks raised in the stream, the coarse grains I feed, and the melons and fruits grown by myself." Lu Mingyuan said, although his expression was not in place, his words were still orderly and very targeted.

"Help me get five, and try it first."

"Raw or cooked?" Ye Cheng pulled a plastic bag from the bamboo basket.

"It's all born."

Most of the people who go out to buy vegetables in the morning are older women, and there are also men, relatively few. There are also cafeterias or restaurants in some units who come out to buy vegetables on tricycles. It's much better, everyone is willing to do their business, but in terms of price, some discounts should be given.

Ye Cheng's business is still good, and there will always be people who buy it one after another. This time they brought out a total of more than 200 salted duck eggs, and it didn't take long for them to sell less than half of them.There was also a tricycle rider who came to ask the price, Ye Cheng said [-] cents, and the other party asked [-] cents if it was for sale, Ye Cheng shook his head, and he left without looking back.

After all, his duck eggs are not for nothing. Ducks can't lay eggs for nothing. Not to mention the coarse grains and water plants that are usually fed. It took a month to marinate, and I bought several large water tanks at home. After doing the math, their initial investment is not too small.

And Ye Cheng remembers that the tuition fee for the first half of his first grade was only 32, and the second half was already 55. If it costs 23 yuan each semester in the future, Ye Cheng thinks his family's passbook can still afford them. After all, they will work hard to make money after they go to school.However, according to the algorithm of nearly doubling every semester, Ye Cheng has not learned such a deep arithmetic and cannot calculate the specific number, but he knows that the money must be a lot, so he saves more now. Each duck egg earns a dime more, and the difference is also very large.

Relatively speaking, raw duck eggs sell better than cooked duck eggs, perhaps because they choose to sell duck eggs in the vegetable market, and they buy them mostly for side dishes. Raw duck eggs are more flexible than cooked duck eggs, whether they are steamed meat or Making zongzi and boiled duck eggs are not suitable.

More than 200 duck eggs are not sold very often, and there are not too many customers. The business is not very prosperous, but before noon, Ye Cheng and the others have sold out all the duck eggs, and the two of them are not in a hurry to go back. They are near the vegetable market. After walking around, since duck eggs can be sold in the county town, and basically only one person is needed to sell duck eggs, the two of them want to set up a shoe repair stall. After all, this is a county town, and the business should not be too bleak.

But where to put this stall is indeed a big problem. They sell duck eggs in two baskets at the door of their shop. The other party may not be too disgusted, but if they set up a shoe repair stall, they may be kicked out. .This vegetable market is considered to be in a relatively good location in the county, and the rent of the store is also high. If you don't do so much business every day, you will easily lose money.

Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan walked around, and finally found that there was still some open space next to a public toilet near the vegetable market. This public toilet was charged, guarded by an old couple, and the washing was fairly clean, so Not much smell.But the couple were not easy to talk to. When they heard that Ye Cheng and the others were going to set up a shoe repair booth, they just shook their heads and let them go without any intention of discussing it.

"Let's go, let's go, you can't set up a stall here, you are not the first to ask, if you can't, then you can't."

"We will pay the rent." Lu Mingyuan felt that this was the crux of the problem.

"This place is not rented, you can go to other places to have a look."

"Our stall is very small, and it will be placed on the side, so as not to block the road." Ye Cheng has never been to other places, and he saw such a suitable place next to the vegetable market.

"Hey, why are you like this, kid? You can't do it anymore." The old woman was not at all polite, and closed the small glass door with a snap.

"Hey, are you guys going to set up a stall?" Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan were about to leave when a man's voice suddenly appeared beside him. He turned his head and saw a tall, thin man in his 30s, with a bridge on the bridge of his nose. Wearing a pair of glasses, he looks gentle and refreshing.

"Yes." Ye Cheng felt that this person might be able to tell him something useful. After all, he was not familiar with the county town, but the man in front of him must be familiar.

"What are you selling? Salted duck eggs?" There was still yellow mud in the bucket in Lu Mingyuan's hand, which was not difficult to identify.

"No, we fix shoes."

"So it's the two of you. I've heard that there are two children in our county who can repair shoes. Hey, if you don't have a place to put them, go to my house. The front door is empty." The man suddenly became interested and spoke. His attitude is also much warmer than before.

"Where's your home?"

"It's just ahead, just turn a corner. It's not too far away. It's good to set up a shoe repair stand. Come on, I'll take you to see the way. You can just set up the stand some other day." The man said. Lifting his feet and walking ahead, Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan followed behind.

Usually a vegetable market has several exits, like the vegetable market in Ye Cheng's county, there are four exits, this man's house is one of the four, it is a narrow alley, and the flow of people is still There are quite a lot of them. Most of the stores in the alley sell groceries and daily necessities, such as pots, pans, underwear and socks.

The buildings in this alley are relatively old, and most of them only have two or three floors. This man's house only has two floors. The part of the downstairs near the alley is used by him as a studio, and there is a kitchen inside.He said that he was an art teacher in a middle school, and he would enroll in a summer class during the summer vacation, and take care of the students. It would not matter if he set up a stand in front of him. After a while, he got excited, and asked Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan to act as models for him. It's rent.

At that time, Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan didn't even know what painting was all about. They just felt that the things in this house were a bit strange. When they entered the door, they saw a table covered with cloth, and they said that the shop was not suitable, because it One end of the piece of cloth was nailed to the wall, and the other end hung down and was spread on the table. I picked two oranges, an apple and a few bananas, and there were a few dates scattered outside the plate.

There is also a shelf against the wall, which looks very solid. There are all kinds of weird things on it, including white skulls and heads of various shapes. There is a wooden window.Ye Cheng has seen this kind of thing before. There is only one courtyard in their village that has this kind of window. It is carved with various patterns from a whole piece of wood, hollowed out and transparent.People in the village said that the yard used to be lived by the landlord, but after the landlord was hit, those things were almost destroyed. Even if the carved windows like this are not completely smashed, the patterns have to be chiseled out with a knife. look.

Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan looked here and there, and felt that everything was very fresh. The man was not annoyed, and sat with a smile on his face, holding a brush and painting, until a woman came out of the back room.

"A Cong, it's time to eat."

"coming."

"Hey, who are these two children?"

"The two of them will set up a stall in front of our house in the future, repairing shoes."

"Shoe repair! Such a young child is really sensible early, come here, don't leave, I will eat at the aunt's house at noon." The woman was not very enthusiastic, but her words and actions were all clear. With a generous face, one can tell that she is a woman from a good family.

"No, thank you, aunt, we're going back now." Ye Cheng also woke up from the new gadgets in this room, and hastily declined.

Ah Cong's mother tried to persuade her again, but in the end Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan walked out of that house. Now that the place to set up the stall has been decided, they'd better find a house nearby and rent it out, and commute by car every day In the county and their village, not to mention time-consuming and labor-intensive, the fare is quite expensive.

A bowl of noodles in the county town cost RMB [-]. Ye Cheng and the others also ate a bowl of noodles in C City last year, so they didn't think it was too expensive.In fact, except for tuition fees, the prices of other things have not increased much, and food and other things are still the same as before. I heard that building a house is much more expensive than before, but this has basically no effect on Ye Cheng and his family.

After eating the noodles, the two wandered around the vegetable market. Finding a house was much easier than finding a place to set up a stall. They only had to go to those low-rise houses, search all the way and ask, and quickly found a suitable place. , is a single-story brick house, red bricks and black tiles, without any decoration, but the place is quite spacious, and the house is also paved with cement.

I heard that in the past, I rented a family that made cooked food. I don’t know where I learned the technology. The cooked food probably had some bad things added to it. After a few days in the vegetable market, the food was spoiled. Several people.The family came to ask for compensation, and the family ran away overnight, and all the things left behind were taken away.

"You two live alone?" The landlord frowned when he saw that the two children were renting a room.

"There are adults." Ye Cheng replied vaguely.

"The adults who are renting the house need to come here. As far as you two are concerned, I can't bear the responsibility if something goes wrong at that time."

"Your Excellency is busy, let's come and take a look first."

"Then you have to look at it. Anyway, I rent this house cheaply, 1000 yuan a year. You go back and talk to your family to see if it's okay."

"We'll just rent it for two months." Beyond the two months, it's useless for them to ask for this house.

"Two months? That would cost two hundred a month." The landlord quoted the price casually.

"One hundred and five elements?" After all, the house is so big, and it's not too far from the vegetable market. Ye Cheng thinks it's okay. If the landlord insists on two hundred, he might rent it after considering it.

"One hundred and fifty is one hundred and fifty, but I have to let your adults come over. I definitely can't rent it to you two children." Unexpectedly, the landlord was surprisingly easy-going, and agreed immediately. Ye Cheng and He made an appointment to come over to pay the rent tomorrow, and then waited for the bus on the side of the main road. There were not many cars from the county town to their town, but they were lucky today and didn't wait long.

When she went back and told her family about this matter, Luo Yueling praised Ye Cheng's ability, and it was something that adults might not be able to do, but the two of them went out for a day and it was all smooth.

Ye Cheng is mainly worried about Ye Ping staying at home alone. In his eyes, boys and girls are different. No matter how hard boys beat, they will only fall harder and harder, but girls should be taken good care of. It's a pity. His sister did not accept his favor.

"You two go out as soon as you go out. I will take care of the ducks by myself."

"But, you don't even know how to cook." Ye Cheng has been cooking for most of the year, and Ye Ping will help pick an onion and peel a garlic at most.

"Don't worry, she won't starve to death." Lu Mingyuan couldn't see him wanting to hold his sister in his hands.

"Why don't you let Lu Mingyuan stay, and I'll sell duck eggs." Ye Ping grinned. Her two front teeth are now fully grown, but a tooth next to the front teeth has fallen out again, which is still a leak.

"Hmph, that's impossible!" Lu Mingyuan was full of confidence.

"That won't work, Lu Mingyuan is better at repairing shoes than me now." Ye Cheng said matter-of-factly.

"Did you hear that? You should obediently raise ducks at home." Lu Mingyuan was proud.

"What's wrong with raising ducks, don't eat duck eggs if you have the ability."

"Let's go pick some bergamot and cook soup tonight." Seeing that the two of them talked more and more vigorously, Ye Cheng began to change the subject. It's fine for these two people to argue a few words, just because they are afraid that they will blush. , It's not fun to quarrel.

"Brother, there are too many loofahs in our house. Grandma said that we can save them to make loofah pulp." Ye Ping hurried up to behave herself.

"There are a lot of gourds, let's save a few for water ladles." Lu Mingyuan was not far behind.

"Why do you need so many ladles?"

"Where do you not want a ladle at home? Feed the ducks, scoop water, scoop coarse grains, and even water the ground." According to him, it is best to have one in every place, and take it when you need it. Running inside and outside the house.

"Well, Ye Ping, it's time to drive the ducks out, right?" Seeing that the two were about to face each other again, Ye Cheng had no choice but to send one of them away first, and this was the only trick that worked.