The next morning, Li Xu took out two fish from the space, put them in a sack, and walked all the way to the purchasing department of the supply and marketing cooperative.

Seeing the dark-faced man at the gate, Li Xu walked over with a smile, handed him a cigarette, and called out, "Uncle."

The dark-faced man was stunned for a moment, then looked at Li Xu's face before reacting, "It's you, kid. You threw a cigarette at me a few days ago, turned around and ran away, and you didn't come back even when I called you."

"Hey, uncle, it's just a few cigarettes. I was trying to quit smoking a few days ago, and since we seem to get along well, I thought I'd ask you to help me share some of the burden."

"Are those a few cigarettes? That's a pack of cigarettes. Besides, aren't you trying to quit smoking? What's going on?" The black-faced man said as he glanced at the cigarette handed to him by Li Xu.

Li Xu also responded with a playful smile, "Isn't this just like failing to quit smoking?"

"That's perfect. I've smoked a few of your cigarettes and I won't give them back to you. I'll give you the money for the cigarettes and the bills." As he spoke, the black-faced man took out some money and bills from his pocket.

Li Xu took one look and thought, this is not going to work. He hurriedly put the cigarette in his pocket, grabbed the man's arm with his free hand, and said, "Uncle, aren't you slapping me in the face? I gave it to you in the first place, how can I take your money?"

The black-faced man insisted on counting out the money and a cigarette ticket and stuffing them into Li Xu's pocket.

There was no way. Li Xu was not as strong as him, not to mention that he was holding something with one hand. How could he possibly block it?

Li Xu tried several times to take out the money and give it to the man, but failed.

Then I thought again, since he doesn't want it for free, I'll take another approach.

"Uncle, how about this? I've also used my cigarettes, and what's left isn't worth that much money. I won't return the extra money to you. Just consider it as the money you paid for these two fish." As he said that, Li Xu opened the sack in his hand, took out two fish from it and handed them to him.

After seeing the two fish, the man looked at Li Xu quietly.

Li Xu was so frightened by this that he said, "Last time you gave me cigarettes, and this time you want to give me fish. What exactly do you want to do? If you don't explain clearly today, I will arrest you and interrogate you."

Hearing this, Li Xucai was really a little panicked. He didn't expect that this man would not accept anything and even wanted to interrogate him.

So he hurriedly said, "No, uncle, actually I just wanted to ask if the purchasing department's fleet is hiring, but I was afraid you wouldn't tell me, so I wanted to give you something."

"Is that the reason?" the man said in disbelief.

Li Xu replied with a bitter face, "That's why I didn't get into high school. I've been staying at home for the past few months and haven't found a job, so I wanted to ask if there's any job openings."

Hearing this, the man took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. For a moment, the atmosphere at the scene was extremely silent.

Seeing the man smoking without saying anything, Li Xu was terrified, fearing that he would be arrested and interrogated.

The man finished a cigarette before speaking, "You can go."

Hearing this, Li Xuru was pardoned.

He turned around and walked a few steps, then seemed to remember something. He turned back and put the fish in front of the man in his astonished eyes, shouted "Here you go." Then he ran away.

The man looked at Li Xu running away, and a smile unconsciously appeared on his face.

Li Xu ran for a distance and stopped. Seeing that no one was chasing him, he relaxed.

At this time, I felt my legs go weak, so I found a shady place on the side of the road to sit down and rest.

While resting, I sighed, thinking that I was almost in trouble. I didn't expect that he would not even accept the gift.

In fact, Li Xu was still inexperienced. Who would dare to accept something given by a stranger for no reason?

Li Xu finally recovered after resting for a while and walked straight back home.

......

Two days later, today is the last day of September. I opened my eyes in the morning and did my daily check-in.

"Ding, congratulations on winning 8 kilograms of eggs."

"?"

Li Xu felt that he might still be dreaming, but the egg in the space told him that this was real.

After counting, I found that the eggs were relatively small. There were 72 eggs in total.

After being surprised, Li Xu was delighted. Now he could eat more eggs. These days, the family only made two eggs, which were shared among a few people to taste. Even this was a rare treat.

Eggs are now a nutritious product. When someone is sick and needs nutrition, they rely on eggs. However, eggs are also very difficult to buy at this time.

Li Xu got up happily, and when he saw that Li Chen was not in the room, he took out 20 eggs and took them to the kitchen.

Sun Xiu was also surprised when he saw it, "Where did you get so many eggs?"

"I went to the black market last night and happened to see someone selling eggs, so I bought some.

Mom, boil a few eggs this morning and share one for everyone."

Sun Xiu said unhappily, "What eggs? Didn't we just eat them two days ago?"

"Mom, we only had two eggs that day, and everyone tried them and they were gone. Today we have so many, so you can eat more to replenish your body. Anyway, I still have to go to the black market, and who knows when I will come across someone selling eggs again."

After hearing this, Sun Xiu didn't say anything, but took out 8 eggs and put them aside, and put the rest away.

"You, you, they all benefited from you this time."

"This is not thanks to me. If mom wasn't so generous, we wouldn't be able to eat it in the morning, right?" Li Xu kept saying good things when he saw that the boiled eggs for the morning were available.

There's no other way. We all live together as a family, so even if I want to eat alone, I can't.

Although today's breakfast was still simple, the presence of a boiled egg for each person greatly enhanced the meal, making it seem as if even the normally inedible cornmeal porridge had become delicious.

Everyone peeled the eggs carefully, and tasted them slowly in small bites. After eating, they kept savoring the taste of the eggs.

Seeing that everyone went out in high spirits, Li Xu went to the purchasing department of the supply and marketing cooperative to find the black-faced man, Uncle Xu.

Since he was scared into revealing his purpose that day, Li Xu came over twice more. Each time, he just gave him a cigarette and chatted with him.

Both of them tacitly agreed not to mention what happened that day, and the black-faced man did not mention the two fish.

The two of them got along quite well. The black-faced man didn't tell Li Xu his name, and asked Li Xu to just call him Uncle Xu.

From the conversation, I learned that Uncle Xu used to be a soldier. Later, he retired and returned to his hometown, Tang County, and was assigned here. He has worked here for quite a long time.

Having nothing to do at home today, Li Xu ran over to chat with Uncle Xu again.

When he arrived at the place, he greeted everyone but before he could say a word, Uncle Xu's words shocked Li Xu.

"Hey boy, the Purchasing Department's car team is going to recruit some apprentices in a few days. Are you interested?"