"If I say it's not good, you definitely won't believe me. Don't worry, in a few years when you're older, I'll take you to try working in a factory." If you still think working is good then, then we'll see.
"I don't want to work, I want to do business with Sister Xiaozhu." Xiao An smiled faintly.
"Working isn't a bad thing, but you should study more and not go to the factory to be a general worker. The salary is so low..." You won't make much money even if you work until you die. You might even get a terminal illness if you try to save every penny. It's really tough.
Another reason is that Lin Xiazhu is self-aware. She doesn't really have much talent for business. At most, she can sell ginseng, seize some opportunities to do small businesses to maintain a comfortable life. She doesn't have much of a future. Once she comes of age, she can just do whatever she wants.
"Actually, we can make quite a bit of money running a food stall. We can live well without having to work in a factory." Lin Chacha was only interested in it for a short time, but now she's lost interest in working for someone else.
Lin Xiaoxue, however, was preoccupied with the image of the heavily made-up woman. She felt that the woman was exactly what she longed for. But that was just her current thought. As she grew older and gained more understanding, she would realize that working in a factory was a helpless situation.
Many people go to town to buy New Year's goods at the end of the year. Even if it's not market day, many people still go to town to buy New Year's goods. Lin Xiazhu's snack stall is set up every day, and the number of steamed buns and dumplings has increased several times, resulting in a considerable income.
On the evening of the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, Lin Xiazhu was packing up her stall and preparing to go home when she suddenly heard a loud "boom".
Damn, people are fishing even in the dead of winter, aren't they afraid of freezing to death?
Anyway, she wasn't going. Rather than going into the water and freezing, she'd rather buy a few grass carp from the fishmonger.
As she pushed her food stall home on her cart, preparing to cook dinner, she heard a commotion outside. Someone was running and shouting, "Hurry, hurry, a fight has broken out at the bridge!"
"Why are you fighting?" someone asked.
"There are several people fighting over one fish, and his head is broken. Go check it out quickly, I'll come back and report." Then the man went back to watch the commotion.
When asked why he reported it, he said that the person who beat him and the person who was beaten had nothing to do with him. It was just that country folk love to join in the fun. There are too few entertainment options, so no matter if it's good or bad, they share it with people they know first, and then they can get together to discuss it and pass the time.
A while ago, a woman in town was caught having an affair by her husband. In a fit of rage, the man grabbed a knife and slashed his lover and his wife. Even the uncles who came to break up the fight were slashed several times in the process.
Four or five bloodied people were taken to the town hospital. The crowd of onlookers was so dense that it was impossible to see them. Some people even went home in the middle of the night and loudly publicized the incident.
Those who had already gone to bed heard the commotion, got up, dressed, and rushed to town to see what was going on. People from other villages also came by bicycle or on foot to watch. They were not dispersed until the early hours of the morning by officers from the local police station.
Lin Xiazhu never joined in these kinds of commotions. She disliked seeing blood and smelling it. In her previous life, she never joined in these kinds of commotions either, and she remained unmoved by the commotion outside as always.
"Sis, sis, it's terrible! Brother Yu and the others have been beaten up! One of his brothers is almost killed!" Lin Chacha suddenly rushed home to report the news.
Yu Ge and Lin Xiazhu became friends after a fight. Ever since the fish-stealing incident, he and his gang would occasionally hang around Lin Xiazhu's food stall. When they had money, the group would come to eat a bowl of meat noodles or wontons. When they didn't have money, they would come over and try to make conversation.
So Lin Xiazhu's family all knew those people, but they didn't interact much with each other and weren't close; they were just acquaintances.
"Oh, mind your own business, it has nothing to do with us." Lin Xiazhu didn't think much of Yu Ge and his friends. These half-grown boys, all with their hands and feet intact, didn't stay home and do farm work obediently, but instead ran around in groups.
They would run from one village to another, often stealing chickens, ducks, or geese from other people's homes, twisting their necks to kill them, and then finding a place to roast and eat them.
Whoever planted watermelons, plums, peaches, or other fruits, before they were even ripe, they were ruined by these people. They didn't do anything seriously wrong, but they kept stealing small things.
People dislike him and dogs hate him.
“I didn’t want to get involved, nor did I have the ability to. I just felt sorry for them. I heard that Brother Yu lost his father when he was young, his mother is mute, and his sister can’t speak either, she’s the mute girl.” Lin Chacha puffed out her cheeks, but her voice was not loud.
Thinking about the scene she had just witnessed, she felt distressed. "There were several children about the same age as Xiao An. Their families were poor, they had many children, and their parents didn't care about them."
"Why are you suddenly so compassionate? You're still a child yourself, how can you save those people?" You're already worried enough about supporting your own children, how can you have the energy to care for other people's children? There are so many pitiful people out there.
"Sister, what if they get beaten to death?" Lin Chacha asked, her eyes wide with fear.
"No way? Those people are so vicious?" Lin Xiazhu hesitated.
"I heard he's a local thug from the next town, a gang leader, with a scar on his face. He kicked and beat Yu Ge and the others, and some of them even hit him with boards." Lin Chacha habitually gestured as she spoke when she got excited.
It was actually a gang leader who got involved; this was no simple matter. Lin Xiazhu put down her work and said, "Let's go to the police station to report this."
Perhaps because it was the end of the year, no one was at the police station, so Lin Xiazhu had no choice but to take Lin Chacha to the bridge to check the situation.
"You little brat, you came to our town half a month ago and stole my watermelons. There are hardly any good ones left in the whole field, you've ruined them all."
The man who spoke was wearing a floral shirt, bell-bottoms, and a pager clipped to his waistband. He had slicked-back hair, a square face, and a scar about an inch long on his left cheek, which was rather creepy.
He was clearly a gangster. Brother Yu lay on the ground, his face covered in blood, glaring angrily at Scarface, showing no fear despite being beaten half to death.
Several of his henchmen were also beaten black and blue, one of them lying there motionless with blood all over his head, his fate unknown.
"They're just kids, you went too far, you almost killed them." A local resident couldn't stand it anymore and spoke up in protest.
"None of your mother's business! Say it again and I'll smash your face in blood, and beat up your family too!" Scarface looked fierce. He had brought seven or eight brothers with him today, and he wasn't afraid even though they weren't in his own town.
He was on good terms with the local bullies in Shanhe Town, and they all helped each other out. What was he afraid of? He would beat up anyone who dared to interfere.
Sure enough, after he yelled like that, no one bothered with it anymore. The main reason was that all of Yu Ge's kids came from good-for-nothing families. Some of them didn't have fathers or mothers, and two of them lived with their grandparents.
No one could stand up for them; even their own family members dared not step forward to fight, and outsiders were even less willing to get involved.
Scarface was satisfied with the crowd's reaction. He kicked the children on the ground a few more times. This bastard was extremely vicious and didn't even care if he killed someone.
"Stop! Stop fighting! If you keep fighting, someone will die. I've already called the police station. You'd better leave right now." Lin Xiazhu was afraid that if no one stopped him, Brother Yu would be crippled if he didn't die. But her conscience bothered her, and saving lives was the priority.
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