Chapter 98: The man's waist is thin and tight, and his back is broad and strong...

Because banks at that time had not yet opened safe deposit boxes to the public, Shi Xiaoai could not keep the treasure box buried under the grapevine. So when she was renovating her house, she asked the master to help her make a secret compartment in the wall.

It's not a very sophisticated thing, it just uses an invisible door, and it is located in the innermost part of the house where outsiders will not easily notice it. It will be safer if you use it to store some valuable things.

She opened the box and pulled out a gold bar, shaking it in her hand.

The gold bars were heavy and shone faintly under the light.

Shi Xiaoai was weighing the gold bars in her hand, but she was counting the money at home in her mind.

She didn't have much money at the moment. After deducting the reserve fund that she had to keep, she could only embezzle two or three hundred yuan.

According to Cheng Yang, he still has about two or three years' salary left, probably more than a thousand yuan.

It should be no problem for the two of them to buy Courtyard No. 1 with their combined money, but the subsequent decoration would probably be a bit difficult.

Shi Xiaoai hadn't thought about how to decorate the house now. There was no need to do so without the money.

But at least some cleanup is needed. At least those old and dilapidated houses of different sizes should be demolished and renovated, right?

In addition, we have to reopen the door near the road and renovate the row of houses on this side, all of which costs money.

Her yard is so small, but it cost twelve thousand dollars to renovate it. Even if the yard is not big, a few hundred dollars will still be needed.

It seems that it is impossible to keep this gold bar.

Shi Xiaoai took out the 100-gram gold bar and put it aside, then put the others back in place and returned the box to its original place.

She plans to find time tomorrow to go to the bank to inquire about the market conditions.

At this time, the only formal channel for buying and selling gold and silver was the bank, so she didn't have to consider where to get the best value for money, which saved her the trouble.

However, Shi Xiaoai didn’t know the current gold price, nor did she know whether the money she could get from this gold bar would be enough.

She looked at the gold bar again, feeling a little conflicted.

Reason told her that money should be used as it should be, and it is not wrong as long as it is used for the right things.

But when it comes to emotions, she always feels that this thing belongs to her two children, and she should keep it well and hand it over to them intact one day in the future.

In short, Shi Xiaoai's heart is full of contradictions.

While working in the evening, Shi Xiaoai asked Cheng Lin: "Are you going out shopping tomorrow?"

Cheng Lin shook his head and said, "No, I bought a lot of vegetables today. We won't make steamed buns now, and we won't need too many vegetables. What we have at home is enough for tomorrow.

My brother told me before that the weather is not too hot now, so the things can be stored, so I can buy more at a time and go out to buy things every two days. "

Shi Xiaoai nodded, then said to him and Wang Xiaofeng, "I'll be out for a bit tomorrow morning, and you two can look after the stall. You don't have to go to school or the bus station if you're too busy."

"Sister-in-law, where are you going?" Cheng Lin asked.

"I'm going to your brother's school."

"Go to my brother's school?" Cheng Lin was very surprised.

After saying that, he immediately reacted: "Sister-in-law, are you going to tell him about the No. 1 Courtyard?"

Shi Xiaoai thought about it and replied, "I guess so."

What Yang Hui said had not yet been finalized. She had to tell Cheng Yang, but there was no need to mention it to Cheng Lin and the others for the time being.

When Cheng Lin heard that he was going to talk to his brother about the matter in Courtyard No. 1, his mood immediately became high.

He was still very confident in his elder brother's ability, and felt that as long as his brother took action, this matter would be impossible to solve!

He was listless before, but suddenly he became lively, with a smile on his face and more energy to work.

Not only him, but also Wang Xiaofeng's face had a smile back.

Shi Xiaoai saw it all but didn't say anything, she just told them some things to pay attention to for tomorrow.

He also brought in packets of ingredients for braised meat and stone steamed buns, and told them to remember to braise the meat for lunch if he came back late.

The next morning, Shi Xiaoai and others started business as usual.

Then they found that the situation on the other side was a little different from before.

The several men who had been standing in front of the tent were all gone, leaving only Shi Daxi.

He also followed Xiao Ai's example and moved out tables, chairs, benches and a table for stone buns, and then stood at the door to sell them.

Probably because of lack of manpower, their stall did not have steamed buns with vegetables today. But even so, collecting money and picking up steamed buns still made Shi Daxi a little busy.

He finally didn't have the energy to shout around with a tin horn like he had done in the previous two days.

Seeing the situation over there, Cheng Lin curled his lips and said, "Are you out of money? Are you reluctant to spend money on those lackeys?"

Shi Xiaoai was amused by him and laughed out loud, but she also felt that he was right.

I guess they really can't afford to hire anyone.

Everyone sells the same things, and the prices are transparent, so it's a really easy sell. With their buy-two-get-one-free promotional model, plus the massive price cuts and massive customer service, and the massive staffing, they're only lucky if they don't lose money. There's no way they can make any profit.

Shi Xiaoai looked over there again, feeling that Shi Xiaomei must have another trick up her sleeve, and they couldn't possibly leave Shi Daxi alone to take care of things.

But we still don’t know what their next move is.

But she couldn't care less at the moment, she wanted to find Cheng Yang.

Cheng Yang had agreed with her before that he would call home and give her the contact information after he settled in the school.

But after all, he had only been gone for one day, and the school might not have settled down completely yet.

But Shi Xiaoai really couldn't wait any longer.

If everything goes well, she will have to hand over the money to Yang Hui in seven days. She must now know how much money Cheng Yang has and how much money she needs to exchange for it.

Shi Xiaoai took the bus to Yunjing according to the route she had checked before.

It was a little after eight in the morning, and there were not many people going from the city to the countryside, so there were still seats on the bus.

Shi Xiaoai walked to the last row and sat quietly at the side.

The bus was running very slowly and the route was very circuitous. It took almost forty minutes before we finally left the city.

After leaving the city, more and more people got on the bus.

Most of these people are villagers who secretly take what they grew in their private plots in the morning or the eggs laid by their own chickens to the city to sell.

Many of them were carrying bamboo baskets and backpacks, and some were holding woven bags filled with things.

The car soon became full and even crowded.

Shi Xiaoai never knew that she suffered from motion sickness.

But maybe the air in the car was too stuffy, and the shock absorption of today's cars was not good enough, so she felt dizzy from sitting in the last row.

Later, I started to feel nauseous and my stomach was cramping and painful.

After driving for about another hour, the bus finally stopped at the Yunjing County Long-distance Bus Station.

Shi Xiaoai rushed out of the car as fast as she could, then ran behind a big tree and vomited out everything in her stomach. Only then did she feel a little better.

After spitting, Shi Xiaoai wiped her mouth and stood up straight.

Only then did I have the energy to look around.

This was a very remote bus station with a very small parking lot, not even as big as the parking lot in front of any supermarket in later generations.

There were only three buses parked in the entire parking lot at this time, and there were two red brick houses on the side, which should be their dispatching room.

Shi Xiaoai looked around and found that everyone in the car she had vomited in had left, and now there was not a single person in the entire parking lot.

Not to mention passengers, there wasn't even a driver or support staff.

She looked outside again and found that there was a dirt road outside the bus station. There were a few scattered houses as far as the eye could see, and the rest was just rice fields.

There were no other bus stops except where she was.

At this moment, the wind suddenly started to blow outside, and it was very strong and whistling.

There was yellow soil and grass stalks on the ground, and scraps of paper were blown by the wind and floated in the air.

The whole world became gray, empty and extremely strange.

Standing at the edge of the parking lot, Shi Xiaoai felt a little bit at a loss at this moment.

She didn't know the exact location of the Logistics Academy, and originally thought that she could just ask someone there and find out.

Now that's great, there's no one left to ask.

Shi Xiaoai stood there for a long time to calm down, then slowly walked towards the dispatch room.

Who knew that she had just walked forward a short distance when she saw a person running towards her from afar on the dirt road at the door.

The man was wearing a military uniform, was tall, and his figure looked so familiar.

She was in a trance for a moment and could hardly believe what she saw.

At this moment, the man had already run to a place not far from her, waved his hands vigorously at her, and shouted, "Xiao Ai!"

There was unconcealable excitement in his voice, and in this empty parking lot, listening to it actually made people feel extremely soothed.

At this moment, Shi Xiaoai felt her heart suddenly at ease.

She quickly went to greet the man and asked happily, "Why are you here?"

Cheng Yang strode up to her, took the schoolbag from her hand, and then said, "I called back and Xiaolin told me you were coming."

As he spoke, he reached out and touched Shi Xiaoai's face. Then he suddenly frowned and asked, "What's wrong? Why do you look so ugly?"

Shi Xiaoai shook her head and said, "It's okay. I was a little carsick just now, but I feel much better now."

Cheng Yang stared at her carefully, then said, "Wait, stand here and don't move. I'll be back soon."

As he said this, he motioned for her to stand aside and ran towards the dispatch room.

Shi Xiaoai didn't know what he was going to do, so she could only stand there and wait obediently.

Fortunately, Cheng Yang was not away for long. He came back soon with an enamel pot in his hand.

"Drink some hot water to warm your stomach first." He said as he handed over the enamel pot.

Afraid that Xiao Ai would be afraid, he explained, "I just washed myself clean and then took the water. Just bear with me and drink a few sips. I'll take you to eat something delicious when we get to school later."

Shi Xiaoai reached out to take the teacup, but because she had just vomited, her hand had no strength at all.

As soon as he took the teacup, he slipped and almost dropped the teacup and the water on the ground.

Cheng Yang quickly caught it.

He put his arm around Shi Xiaoai's waist, let her lean on him, then held the teacup to her mouth and fed her slowly, bit by bit.

Shi Xiaoai only felt that her body was soft at the moment, and she didn't dare to be arrogant anymore. She leaned obediently in Cheng Yang's arms, just like Mingxi Mingrui, letting him feed her.

After taking a few sips of hot water, her stomach, which had been wrinkled into a ball, finally relaxed a little. Shi Xiaoai felt that she finally felt a little better.

She then pushed the teacup aside with her hand, stood up straight and said, "I don't want to drink it anymore."

Cheng Yang stared at her again, and only after confirming that she was really feeling better did he return the teacup.

After a while, Cheng Yang came back again.

What Shi Xiaoai didn't expect was that he actually rode a bicycle when he came back this time!

"Whose bike are you riding? Who would actually lend you a bike?" she asked in shock.

Cheng Yang smiled and said, "I borrowed it from the technician in the dispatch room."

He explained.

"Why would they lend it to you?"

"I gave him my student ID card."

Shi Xiaoai didn't expect that such a method could be used!

But looking at the bicycle, she felt extremely happy.

Cheng Yang lifted his long legs and rode on the bike, then propped himself up with one foot and said to her, "Hurry up and get on."

Shi Xiaoai sat happily in the back seat and put her arms around Cheng Yang's waist.

The wind in early spring is quite cool, carrying dust that makes it hard to open your eyes.

Shi Xiaoai pressed her entire face against Cheng Yang's back, hugging his waist tightly.

She only felt the man's waist was thin and strong, and his back was broad and strong. Lying on him, she could not feel the wind at all, and was extremely warm.

It's like being in another world.

She lay on Cheng Yang's back and asked softly, "Are you okay running out like this? Will it delay your classes?"

According to her plan, she wanted to rush to the school to find him during the lunch break so as not to take up his class time.

Cheng Yang, pedaling his bicycle, replied, "It's okay. We haven't officially started school yet. Some students haven't registered in the past two days. We are currently organizing independent learning in each class, so it's very convenient for me to take leave."

Thinking about how panicked she was standing alone in the parking lot just now, Shi Xiaoai rarely showed her vulnerable side in front of a man.

She rubbed her face against Cheng Yang's back and whispered, "I was just worried, and then you came."

Her voice was soft and gentle, yet filled with undisguised happiness.

Cheng Yang was silent for a moment, then he freed one hand and patted her on the back, saying gently, "Stop talking for now, and don't swallow the sand. We'll be at school soon."

Shi Xiaoai lay on his back, nodded gently, then hugged his waist and stopped talking.

The dirt road was long and there were almost no pedestrians on it.

Because there are no tall buildings, the wind here is even more violent than in the city, whistling and stirring up yellow sand.

When Xiao Ai was lying on Cheng Yang's back, she could still feel the pain of the wind on her exposed neck.

The wind blew through her thin coat, and she felt a chill on her back.

But her heart was warm and a little sweet.

This sweet feeling lasted until they arrived at the gate of the Logistics Academy, and Cheng Yang stopped the car but it had not yet dissipated.