Chapter 4: Life as a Hawker
Chapter 4: Life as a Hawker
"Really?" Yang Wendong's sleepiness disappeared immediately and he quickly got up from the wooden bed.
I saw a bamboo tube placed in the corner, with half a mouse stuck at the front end, and its front head was stuck inside the bamboo tube.
Su Yiyi smiled and said, "It seems that you slept too soundly last night and didn't hear any sound."
"Yeah, let alone the sound of mice, even if a mosquito bit me, I wouldn't know it." Yang Wendong touched the mosquito bites on his hands and stomach.
He was so sleepy last night that he slept very soundly in such a harsh environment. Mosquitoes and rats were no problem at all in the face of the difficult survival.
Su Yiyi picked up the bamboo tube and said, "This rat is quite big. Should I throw it away?"
“Well, but we need to find a pond to wash it to remove the rat smell, otherwise we won’t be able to catch it next time.” Yang Wendong said.
The current water situation in Hong Kong is not as severe as the water shortage crisis in a few years. Although drinkable water is also more difficult to obtain, there are still some unclean ponds.
Su Yiyi nodded and said, "Okay."
At this moment, Guo Xiuyun also came to the door and happened to meet the two people who had just come out. She said, "Did you catch the mouse?"
"Well, this thing made by Brother Dong can really catch mice. Look, they're so fat." Su Yiyi said with a smile as she held up the mousetrap.
Guo Xiuyun took a look and said, "Throw it farther away later, otherwise someone might find it and eat it."
"Yeah." Su Yiyi nodded.
Yang Wendong didn't say anything. In fact, although the three of them had a very difficult life, they still had some survival ability. It wasn't very good, but they didn't go hungry often.
But there are still many people whose lives are much worse than theirs. Even if they don't starve to death, they live on the brink of life and death. These people don't care whether the rats are edible or not.
"Let's have breakfast. I bought some steamed buns." Guo Xiuyun still had a lot of things to do before getting up early in the morning to go to work, such as preparing breakfast for several people.
The steamed bun was very dry, so Yang Wendong ate it while drinking some water and eating some pickles.
In fact, this breakfast is considered pretty good in the dormitory, because the three of them all need to work during the day. Otherwise, for those who don’t have a job, basically two meals a day are enough, and there won’t be steamed buns.
After breakfast, Guo Xiuyun went to work again. She also worked in a textile factory. Although it was also very hard work, the income was still good.
Su Yiyi continued to embroider her own cloth. This job was not stable, but if the skills were high, the income was decent. Su Yiyi's embroidery skills were naturally not bad.
In the past, Yang Wendong did hard labor at the docks and warehouses and earned some income.
However, it is not possible to get rich through hard-earned money in any era. Being able to make ends meet and have a shabby place to live was already pretty good in Hong Kong in 1958.
After a while, Zhao Liming came over and also knew that the mousetrap caught a big mouse yesterday, so he asked: "Brother Dong, shall we make this bamboo tube again today?"
"Yes, anyway, no one is needed at the dock for the time being, so let's not go to the warehouse for now." Yang Wendong nodded.
Zhao Liming added: "Okay, let's make some bamboo tubes today and sell them tomorrow. I've already told my father about this and he supports us."
Yang Wendong said: "Well, that's good, let's try it for a few days."
After the two of them made up their minds, they took action immediately and went to the back mountain together. They brought back seven or eight bamboos that were one meter tall and started processing them at their doorstep.
Because relatively speaking, bamboo is much easier to carry than a ready-made mousetrap.
It was not until the evening that the two of them made 20 sets of mousetraps, but except for three of them, the others were not assembled because they would take up too much space if assembled, and it would be inconvenient to put them in the bamboo basket. "Okay, tomorrow, we'll set up a stall at the East Vegetable Market." Yang Wendong said, looking at some of the results on the ground.
The East Vegetable Market is a vegetable market near them, about two or three miles away. People in the dormitory basically go there to buy vegetables.
However, the main customers of this market are normal Hong Kong families with some purchasing power in the surrounding area. The purchasing power of these people may be ten times that of the squatters.
These Hong Kong citizens with normal residences are the customer group that Yang Wendong is interested in. They may care a lot about whether there are annoying rats, mosquitoes and the like in the environment where they live, and are willing to spend a little money for it.
The next morning, Yang Wendong got up very early. It was still dark and he didn't know what time it was, but he heard a rooster crowing in the distance.
Zhao Liming and I walked to the East Vegetable Market, where there were already a lot of people.
People who do business naturally have to get up early, and in an ordinary family, one person also has to get up early to buy groceries.
In today's Hong Kong, the main source of vegetables and meat is still the mainland. However, due to restrictions on domestic traffic and transportation, vegetables are often out of stock, which also leads to generally high prices.
"Let's set up a stall around here." Yang Wendong found a tree on the side of the road and placed the mousetrap with a dead mouse tied to it on the ground.
"What do you mean by this? Doesn't this count as setting up a stall?" Zhao Liming asked.
"Of course not. Who would buy a dead rat on the ground?" Yang Wendong shrugged.
Zhao Liming nodded and said, "Yes, then we should call for help here?"
"Yeah, about right." Yang Wendong nodded, then stared at the passers-by walking back and forth, and finally locked onto a middle-aged woman who was neither good nor badly dressed. He walked up to her and said, "Miss, this cheap bamboo mouse-catching tube is 100% effective in catching mice at home. Would you like to take a look?"
"Bamboo tube?" The middle-aged woman was in a good mood when she heard being called "Miss". She glanced at the bamboo tube in Yang Wendong's basket and asked, "Can this thing catch mice?"
"Yes, miss, look, the one on the ground is the one we caught. We just need to put some leftover food in the bamboo. This method is used to catch mice in many places on the mainland." Yang Wendong explained with a smile.
The middle-aged woman said, "But I have a mousetrap at home."
"Miss, the mousetrap is good, but after catching the mouse, you still have to take it out. Our bamboo tube is different. You see, if you loosen this side, the mouse will fall out." Yang Wendong demonstrated it.
Humans naturally hate mice, especially women. If given a choice, no one wants to come into contact with mice or insects.
"It looks good. How much is one?" asked the middle-aged woman.
Yang Wendong said: "5 cents each, very cheap."
"Well, it's cheap, but I still need to think about it." The middle-aged woman hesitated for a moment and left.
After she left, Zhao Liming complained, "After talking for so long, no one bought it. I thought it would be easy to sell?"
"It's not that easy. Doing business is always difficult." Yang Wendong didn't find it strange. It is always difficult to make money in any era.
At this moment, several young men with cigarette butts in their mouths came over, looked at Yang Wendong and Zhao Liming, and said, "Are you two new here?"
"Yes." Yang Wendong roughly knew who the other party was, so he answered.
"Okay, you are free to do small business here, but you have to pay taxes, 5 cents a day," said the young man, cigarette in his mouth.
(End of this chapter)