Chapter 5 The 1st Income
Chapter 5 The First Payment
Li Changle and he carried the bamboo basket into the store and began to weigh it. "The rice fish is 45 jin, a pair of large flower dragon fish is 8 jin, and the sea bass is 7 jin."
Chen Dong picked up the abacus and fiddled with it. "Big fish 160, big flower dragon 105, sea bass 1, a total of 4."
Then he handed him the list and said, "You can do the math too!"
Li Changle took the bill and looked at it and said, "Add a few more pieces, 268."
Chen Dong laughed awkwardly and said, "A Le, the price I offered is already very high. If I increase the price any more, I will lose money." He felt a little strange. Wang Mazi always said that he was a fool. He even helped count the money after being sold. Why was he so smart when he came to me?
Li Changle smiled and patted him, "268. If you send it, I will send it too. I will send good stuff to your house in the future." That's pretty smooth!
Chen Dong hesitated for a moment, thinking that he could make a profit of several dozen yuan by reselling the goods from him, "Okay, you can't raise the price like this next time!"
"I have an idea!" Li Changle responded, but what he was thinking in his heart was, let's talk about it next time!
Chen Dong counted the money and handed it to him. After counting it, Li Changle went into the shop to hide the money under the complicated looks of several women. He came out to greet Chen Dong, then strode towards the hospital carrying the backpack.
As I walked, I was thinking in my mind that I should first pay the hospital bills, and then go to ask Dr. Lin about my father's condition and whether there was any specific medicine to treat snake venom.
Then I'll go see my dad, go home and wait for the tide to go out, then pry oysters open and go home to look for pearls.
He also thought about his previous life. During those few months after his father had the accident, he was in a daze all day and didn't care about anything. He didn't know how much medical expenses his father spent on hospitalization, and he didn't even know how Anan paid the share that his family should have paid.
Thinking about it now makes me blush. A grown man either relies on his parents or his wife. No wonder the villagers laughed at An Nan behind her back, saying that she had raised a gigolo who only knew how to eat for free...
Before I knew it, I arrived at the hospital. I went to the payment counter to pay all the fees, asked where Dr. Lin saw patients, and then walked towards the outpatient department.
When he arrived at the clinic, there happened to be no one seeing a patient. He put down his backpack and handed the list to him after entering. "Doctor Lin, the hospitalization fee has been paid in full. Has the snake venom in my father been cured?"
Doctor Lin took the list and looked at it. Then he realized who he was asking about. "The barefoot doctor in your village did a good job. He removed some of the poisonous blood from the patient. After the treatment, the damage caused by the snake venom to his body should not be serious."
Li Changle thought of his father in his previous life. After leaving the hospital, he even had difficulty walking. "Doctor Lin, do you have any special medicine for the five-step snake, like a serum or something like that? As long as it can remove the poison from my father's body, I am not afraid to spend money."
"I used snake serum on him last night, but due to the special nature of this snake venom, if the family has the conditions, it can be used for another three days, but it will cost more every day."
"Okay, Dr. Lin, please give my father more medicine. I'll go pay the bill right away." Li Changle said without hesitation.
"You don't have to pay for now. Once your prepaid fee is used up, we will notify you to pay."
"Okay." Li Changle turned around and wanted to give him two swordfish, but another patient came. He had no choice but to thank him gratefully and leave the clinic. Thinking that his father's condition was not as serious as in his previous life, he felt much more relieved.
He came out of the clinic and walked towards the inpatient department. Two young women carrying bamboo baskets who were wandering around the registration area hurriedly ran towards him when they saw him.
The round-faced woman with short hair asked worriedly, "Ah Le, we rushed here as soon as we heard the news. Is Dad's injury serious?"
Li Changle was stunned for a moment before he recognized the two people. The woman with shoulder-length hair and a round face was his eldest sister-in-law Wang Meifang, and the woman with a slightly square face and two braids was his second sister-in-law Zhou Yuzhen.
Li Changle repeated what Dr. Lin said to the two of them, "I asked the doctor to use the medicine for another three days. I have already paid off the money I owe. When Dad comes back, we will calculate it according to the hospital's bill and split the bill."
Of the two sisters-in-law, the eldest is thrifty and knows how to manage her life. She often complains in private about her parents favoring the third sister, but even when her parents are sick and in pain, she has never treated them unfairly.
The second sister-in-law is the type who says, "If I don't take advantage of you, you don't take advantage of me either." Therefore, the one who dislikes him the most in the family is also the second sister-in-law!
Li Changle used to hate her the most, the kind who wouldn't even say hello when they met her on the street.
I lived half my life in the previous life before I understood that a prodigal son who does nothing but mess around every day, relying either on his parents or his wife, just taking advantage of others, how many people would like him?
Seeing that Father Li was fine, Mrs. Li Da and Mrs. Li Er felt relieved. "That's good. Take us to see Dad first."
"It's in the inpatient department at the back." Li Changle led the two of them to the back.
Mrs. Li saw him carrying a basket and a net bag, and asked, "Ah Le, are you going to fish in the sea?"
"Well! I found a big rice fish and a pair of big flower dragons... I kept the green croaker, mackerel and conger eel and didn't sell them."
Li Changle thought that even if he didn't say anything, several women selling fish in the same village would spread the news of his fish selling, so he told the two of them everything.
Mrs. Li didn't believe him and thought he was bragging. "Ah Le, you really got some big rice fish and big flower dragons, and you sold them for so much money? You're not cheating us, are you?"
Mrs. Li Ersao didn't say anything, but the expression on her face was very obvious, she was bragging without thinking!
Seeing that the two did not believe him, Li Changle had no choice but to take down the backpack and put it on the flower bed. "See! I still lied to you. If I hadn't found a great deal, how would I have the money to pay for the hospital bills?"
"It's not that I don't trust you!" Mrs. Li explained awkwardly, looking at the mackerel in the basket with great heartache, "Ah Le, listen to me, just leave a few worthless green mackerels to take home and eat!"
As she spoke, she flipped open the fish gills and took a look. "Such fresh sea eels can be sold for at least three or four cents a pound, and Spanish mackerel can be sold for two or three cents a pound. Anan works hard at home weaving nets all day and only earns a few cents. Ten pounds of fish can be sold for several dollars. I will help you sell them later."
If you have never suffered hardship, you don’t know how important money is.
Li Changle picked up the backpack and said, "No need, sister-in-law. The sea eel will be used to nourish Dad, and we will keep the mackerel and green shrimp for ourselves."
Normally, when our family catches fish and shrimp from the sea, we only bring home the worthless ones like mantis shrimp and sand crabs to eat. We sell the ones like swordfish that can be sold for a few cents per pound.
At first glance, mackerel and green mackerel look somewhat similar, and both are good raw materials for making dried fish, but the quality of their meat is far inferior.
The meat of the green croaker is rough and has a strong fishy smell. The swordfish tastes much better than it, especially the fish tail, which is known as "Pomflake mouth, swordfish tail".
After hearing this, Li Ersao felt that this was the brother-in-law she knew. As long as it was edible, he would eat it no matter how expensive it was.
On second thought, he felt that he had become much better than before. At least he did not sell the gold to Wang Mazi as if it were rice straw, and he knew how to shoulder his own responsibilities.
Mrs. Li thought that it would be a good idea to leave the conger eel for her father-in-law to nourish his body, but as for the swordfish, even though she could also eat it at home, she still had to talk to her mother-in-law about it later. She couldn't let A Le take the food worth a few dollars back to eat.
Thanks to friends 2023...2236, 2017...2306, and Tongtou Yitou for their support! Thank you!
(End of this chapter)