Chapter 5: Little Yangzhi's Dark Future
Chapter 5: Little Yangzhi's Dark Future
"Big sister, one river fish with sauce, one braised spareribs, a random stir-fried vegetable, and a tofu and crucian carp soup. That's all, let's order these for now."
Xu Mingyuan threw down the menu.
"Our portions are big, you two can't finish all of this."
The proprietress glanced at the two half-grown children and said.
"It's okay. If you can't finish it, just pack it up and take it away." Xu Mingyuan replied casually.
This small restaurant run by a couple was a place I often ate when I was in school. I would order something from there whenever I wanted to cook for myself. But then I went to college and I never had the chance again.
"Okay then, the ribs are a little slow, you have to wait a little longer."
When the proprietress heard him say this, she tore off the menu and sent it to the kitchen.
The two of them were sitting in a corner and couldn't watch TV, so Xu Mingyuan picked up the magazine on the wine box and poured himself a glass of water.
Seeing Xiao Yangzhi stealing glances at him from time to time, as if wanting to say something but not daring to, Xu Mingyuan said, "Would you like a drink?"
"Don't drink."
Yang Zhi shook his head repeatedly.
"Just say whatever you want to say, little girl, be generous."
Xu Mingyuan frowned. If the old man saw him hesitating like this, he would have kicked him.
It was because Xiao Yangzhi was a little girl, otherwise Xu Mingyuan would have had to beat her up.
Seeing Xu Mingyuan speak first to break the silence, Yang Zhi mustered up the courage to say, "Brother, there are too many dishes..."
"That's it."
Xu Mingyuan threw the menu in front of her.
Now Yang Zhi stopped talking completely, lowered his head and began to think about life.
It feels strangely dark...
Although Xu Mingyuan was old enough to eat, the portions of food in the small restaurant were large, and even after he ate so much, most of the food was left over.
I don’t know if Yang Zhi was not hungry or what, but she didn’t move her chopsticks much and just ate up all the rice in the bowl.
In 03, small roadside restaurants were still very cheap. Four dishes, three of which were meat, cost only about yuan, and half of that was the price of the ribs.
Xu Mingyuan threw down the money and walked out of the restaurant. After walking a few steps, he remembered that he had not seen his little follower. He waited there for a while and saw Xiao Yangzhi following him silently with a few convenient bags.
I thought the way home would be spent in silence, but suddenly Yang Zhi spoke.
"elder brother."
"Oh, what's the matter?"
"We are out of money..."
Yang Zhi held it in for a long time before finally saying this sentence. Then, it was like a valve was opened and tears started to fall down. She couldn't even hold back the sound of sobbing.
"The money is in my pocket, how could I not know that I have no money? You are worried about nothing, I will take you to beg for food if you have no money. Okay, okay, hold back your tears."
“Hehe, wuwuwu…”
Thinking that this little money could barely last for three days, and thinking about the bleak life in the future, Yang Zhi couldn't hold back her tears.
"Damn it, can I let you starve to death?"
Xu Mingyuan was speechless.
Her biological father is gone, her biological mother ran away, and only Xu Jun treated her well, yet he was sent to prison.
A natural nemesis, with the word "miserable" written on his forehead.
After returning home crying, Xiao Yangzhi packed up the food she had brought back and secretly ran back to her bedroom to wipe her tears.
The plan written on the table was still there. Xu Mingyuan crumpled it up and threw it into the trash can.
Ideas that cannot be realized at the moment are useless; we must eventually face reality.
Xu Mingyuan is a very smart person. When he was in college, he only received money from his family in the first semester. Later, he earned all his living expenses and tuition fees by himself.
He has worked as a groceries seller on the street. If the boss of the school's bidding had not protested, Xu Mingyuan would have monopolized the cigarettes and snacks in several dormitory buildings.
Later, taking advantage of the school's opportunity to encourage college students to start their own businesses, Xu Mingyuan opened a milk tea shop on campus. Although he returned the business to the contractor after graduation, he still made a lot of money.
Whether he has money in his pocket or not, Xu Mingyuan will never starve to death. If he were in his twenties and looked more stable, he would dare to buy a suit to cheat for investment.
But there is no other way now, I have to get the money for food.
When I saw the clock showed two o'clock, I felt that Xiao Yangzhi's emotions should have stabilized, so I went over and knocked on the door.
"What are you doing? Open the door." After waiting for a while, Yang Zhi opened the door, lowered his head with red eyes.
"Where's your schoolbag?"
Xu Mingyuan looked around and asked.
"Here it is."
Yang Zhi picked up the schoolbag from the desk and handed it to him.
Xu Mingyuan didn't answer, but just said: "Put out the things in the bag and take you out."
"Brother, what are you doing?"
"Hurry up, what are you talking about?"
Xu Mingyuan urged and left.
After Yang Zhi had packed up, Xu Mingyuan took her out and headed straight for the bus station.
It was scorching hot outside at the end of July. If Yang Zhi hadn't been crying and was annoying, Xu Mingyuan really wouldn't have wanted to suffer this.
There are many buses from Nanxi to Jiangcheng, most of which pass by the market in Jinxiu District. He spent 20 yuan to buy two tickets at the ticket office and took her on the bus.
After stuffing a bottle of iced soda into Yang Zhi's pocket, Xu Mingyuan said to her, "Remember to call me when you get to the market. I'll take a nap first."
After saying this, Xu Mingyuan leaned back in his chair and tried to fall asleep. He didn't sleep well last night, and when the afternoon sun shone on him, he immediately felt sleepy.
"Oh."
Yang Zhi, who originally wanted to ask something, had to nod and suppressed the uneasy feeling in his heart.
After an unknown amount of time, Xu Mingyuan heard someone shout, "We've arrived at Jiangcheng Market!"
After opening my eyes, I found that Xiao Yangzhi was frowning and had fallen asleep leaning against the car window.
It seems that she didn't sleep well last night. After all, she is not as carefree as Xu Mingyuan.
"Is there anyone else getting off the bus?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" Xu Mingyuan replied quickly, and then pushed Yang Zhi and said, "We're already at the station, why don't you get up? You can't even do this little thing I asked you to do, do you want to come to Jiangcheng for a trip?"
Yang Zhi rubbed her eyes sleepily, and seeing that Xu Mingyuan was about to get off the bus, she quickly picked up her bag and followed him.
"Brother, what are we doing here?"
Although Xu Mingyuan didn't like her asking questions, Yang Zhi couldn't help but ask.
"What else can you do in the market? Go find a straw and stick it on your head. Have you learned the lesson about sticking a straw to sell a poem?"
"what?"
Yang Zhi stood there in a daze, not daring to move forward.
"What? Let's go! Are you really stupid or just pretending to be stupid? Do you think you can sell it with your stupid look?"
Xu Mingyuan sighed in his heart. This silly kid is so miserable, how come he doesn’t have any survival skills?
"I'm not stupid. Uncle Xu never mentioned your grades when he was out..."
Naturally, Yang Zhi didn't dare to say this out loud. She didn't dare to walk too far away from Xu Mingyuan, nor did she dare to walk too close. She just followed Xu Mingyuan silently at a distance of three meters behind him.
"Brother, how much do you sell this bead for?"
Xu Mingyuan found a store selling beads and greeted the owner.
"Five bucks a bunch."
The boss looked up and saw a young man leading a little girl, then turned his head back to watch TV.
"Tell me the wholesale price. I don't buy strings, just beads. Buy in bulk."
"Hey." The boss sat up. He thought it was a student who came to the market to pick up bargains. Since it was wholesale, he started to quote prices: "Crystal beads are 20 yuan per pound, sandalwood beads are one yuan for three, and small ones are one yuan for five."
"It's just glass beads and mahogany stuff, it's not that expensive."
Xu Mingyuan saw through the nature of this thing at a glance. There was a strong smell of peach wood in the room, which must be a trick to fool ghosts.
"This is the price in the market. If you don't buy more, I won't sell it to you." The boss replied casually.
"Okay, weigh one pound of glass beads of each color, and I'll pick some wooden beads, and you can give me some red strings to string the beads."
Xu Mingyuan was too lazy to negotiate the price of ten or eight yuan with him, and asked Xiao Yangzhi to put the money into her bag.
Yang Zhi watched Xu Mingyuan give the money away and felt like she was about to collapse.
Now they have less than 100 yuan left in their pockets. How can they survive for three days? They will run out of food tomorrow...
(End of this chapter)