Wang Peng's home.

In the living room, Wang Peng was sorting through the housewarming gifts he had received.

Chen Xiaojing gave him a Hero brand iridium fountain pen, and Du Lei gave him two bottles of Hero brand ink.

Li Mengjiao gave her a folder and a thick diary, both with the Monkey King on the cover.

Her pencil case is also decorated with Sun Wukong (the Monkey King), because she loves Journey to the West.

Chen Qingshu presented two new books: a high school mathematics Olympiad yearbook and analysis of test questions from Hua Luogeng Mathematics School.

"Goodness, you really live up to your name, always sending books," Wang Peng complained.

At this moment, my second uncle arrived in an oxcart, which was loaded with three bags of rice, each weighing 100 jin (50 kg).

The rice purchased at a unit price of 0.3 yuan has been used up, and the unit price of this 300 jin of rice is 1.7 yuan.

The father and son carried the rice bag into the main room.

"Dapeng, your aunt and I know that fried rice is no longer profitable."

“We’ve discussed it. Starting today, you can just give us 150 yuan a month.”

"You can only raise our wages when rice drops to one yuan."

Li Guixi lit a cigarette and said.

Voluntarily reduce wages.

The elderly couple earned 200 yuan a month delivering food.

"No need for that." Wang Peng felt a warmth in his heart and smiled. "The profits are indeed not as high as before, but I can still afford to pay salaries."

"It's settled then." Li Guixi patted his nephew on the shoulder and drove the oxcart home.

Wang Peng was moved.

Heaven didn't completely destroy him; it gave him both wonderful parents and an "extraordinary" maternal uncle.

"Pengdi, let me reduce my salary to 150 as well," Li Fang said sincerely.

"Don't make things worse." Wang Peng said, both amused and exasperated. "Yours is already two hundred, do you want me to increase it to two hundred and fifty?"

"Pah, that sounds awful." Li Fang rolled her eyes. "Seriously, haven't you found a suitable business yet?"

“I already have some ideas, I’ll refine them a bit more,” Wang Peng said.

He used a fountain pen to fill the inkwell, placed the diary on the math olympiad table, and opened the diary to write his business plan.

First, invest in Li Longfei's video arcade.

We must secure the rights to purchase videotapes and arrange for my second uncle and aunt to work at the video arcade.

This was difficult. Li Longfei understood the importance of procurement authority but was only willing to relinquish personnel control, leading to significant disagreements between the two sides.

Second, try to sell your fried rice business at a high price.

A few days ago, Xue Jianchang came to Wang Peng's door again, offering 2,000 yuan to buy the fried rice cart, but Wang Peng wanted 5,000 yuan.

Third, find a more suitable business as soon as possible, and then do business with your cousin.

Earn the funds to invest in the video arcade and build the house as soon as possible.

All three goals are quite difficult; we can only take it one step at a time. You can't get fat in one bite.

On the third day, the weather suddenly turned cold.

The temperature dropped directly to seven or eight degrees Celsius, and the students all put on cotton-padded coats.

Wang Peng immediately rode his bicycle to the People's Armed Forces Department and bought two military green overcoats.

I gave one to my cousin and wore one myself, which barely kept me warm.

That night, Wang Peng was awakened by a coughing sound.

He was dazed for a couple of seconds, then quickly turned on the light. "Sister Fang, do you have a cold?"

"No, cough... cough..."

Li Fang coughed so badly she couldn't speak.

Wang Peng threw off the covers and got out of bed. As soon as he left the bed, he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave and hurriedly put on his military overcoat.

The house was like an ice cave. The homeroom teacher was right; this kind of old house was not good at resisting the cold.

He ran to his cousin's bedside, reached out and touched her forehead; her temperature was normal.

"Pengdi, go to sleep," Li Fang whispered. "It's just a minor cold; you'll be fine after a good night's sleep."

"Don't say anything." Wang Peng turned around and went back to the bedroom, taking one of his blankets to cover her.

If you have a cold but no fever, as long as you sweat it out, you'll feel much better the next day.

He made another bowl of brown sugar water and went out to the kitchen to get a spoon.

A cold wind blew in, and suddenly the wind picked up. The wind howled, like the wailing of ghosts and wolves.

Back inside, I fed my cousin some sugar water with a spoon, saying, "I'll ride my bike to the pharmacy later and get you some cold medicine."

"No!" Li Fang shook her head. "It's the middle of the night, the pharmacies are already closed. Don't catch a cold."

"I'm sorry, Sister Fang, I'm so sorry for making you suffer because of me."

"I'll find you a girls' dormitory tomorrow. You can stay there for now, and we'll come back when the weather gets warmer."

Wang Peng felt uneasy.

"Nonsense. If I'm not home, who will steam rice for you? You can't manage it all by yourself."

"Besides, I can eat meat and earn two hundred yuan a month by following you, so I don't feel like I'm suffering."

Li Fang smiled, a genuine smile from the heart.

Hearing him say that, Wang Peng felt even worse.

If we're going to build a house, we must do it as soon as possible. If that's not possible, we should build three single-story houses as a temporary measure.

He made a silent vow.

"Dapeng,"

"Xiao Fang!"

"Dapeng..."

Wang Peng vaguely heard someone shouting outside.

He helped his cousin sit up, gave her the bowl of sweet soup, and walked to the window to listen carefully.

It sounds like my second uncle's voice.

It was pitch black outside, and I couldn't see anything.

He hurriedly opened the door, "Second Uncle? Is that you? Second Uncle!"

"It's me! Your aunt asked me to bring you blankets!"

The sound blew into Wang Peng's ears on the wind.

"Your second uncle is here. Stay in bed and don't get up. It's very cold."

He ran to the bedroom to get a flashlight, hurriedly came to the yard, opened the wooden gate, and let his second uncle in.

My second uncle tied the big yellow ox to the old locust tree and carried three cotton quilts into the house.

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