After having a full meal, Xie Tingyu felt very happy.
However, Ye Qingshui was entangled. She calculated her meager "savings" and faced the wealthy Xie Tingyu.
She took out the snow frosting that Xie Tingyu had bought during the day and placed it on his desk.
"I don't have any money to give you, so I'll give this back to you."
Xie Tingyu seemed to have met such an honest person for the first time. It was hard to imagine that she would scheme to rely on him. Some time ago, she wanted to find a way to visit him at the educated youth center. He would turn around and blush. Now she doesn't even want his things?
This thought awakened quite quickly. However, Xie Tingyu felt a little complicated. He immediately thought, what is she thinking, why should he care?
Xie Tingyu put his hands behind his head and said lightly, "Just take it if I give it to you."
"Today's fried rice is quite delicious. From now on, this will be counted as my food allowance."
Xie Tingyu's taste is quite picky. It's not that he has never eaten delicious food. He has been to famous restaurants in Kyoto. The food cooked by Ye Qingshui is quite delicious and has a special flavor.
"Forget it." She touched her face, "I'll buy it for myself when I save enough money. You don't have to be so nice to me."
Ye Qingshui's skin is still easy to take care of. She inherited her mother's skin. In winter, she would whiten it by covering it up. There is really no need to waste skin care products. When she was 30 years old in her previous life, some people still said that she looked like a girl of 17 or 18. Her skin was soft and white, like a girl raised by beautiful mountains and rivers.
It looks so ugly now. It’s because I worked too hard in the summer and got sunburned.
Ye Qingshui lowered her head and looked at him sleeping on the floor. His messy black hair was no longer as neat and tidy as it was during the day, and was slightly damp from washing. His cotton collar was slightly open, reflecting the soft white moonlight. He looked a little unhappy.
Even though Ye Qingshui, who was old but pretending to be young, couldn't help but take a few more glances. Xie Tingyu was really good, although he was no longer her taste.
But Ye Qingshui couldn't help but think: If she had had the chance to give birth to that child, it would definitely be very good-looking.
That happened after Xie Tingyu finished his college entrance exam and had sex while drunk. Maybe he didn't even know about it. After so many years, Ye Qingshui still finds it hard to forget the cub who accompanied her for three months. If she had been more careful at that time, it would have come to see this world.
Xie Tingyu watched her put down the Xue Hua Frost, as if she didn't even glance at it, and he sneered.
“Is this good?”
"It's just to pay for your meal. Why do you think so much about it?"
Xie Tingyu looked at the little village girl's face with a slightly longing and dazed look, and was speechless.
Ye Qingshui nodded hard, patted his chest and said, "I didn't think much about it, but I don't like the feeling of owing money."
She was afraid that Xie Tingyu would stare at her with that strange look again, so she avoided him all day and felt unnatural. Ye Qingshui added, "Don't worry, I really won't rely on you anymore. I prefer men who are more masculine and manly now."
After Xie Tingyu finished listening, the expression on his face became more complicated.
Ye Qingshui thought of something and asked Xie Tingyu, "Can you lend me your rickshaw when you don't need it?"
A rickshaw is a bicycle, which was an important means of transportation in the underdeveloped era. As the only man in the brigade who owned a rickshaw, Xie Tingyu would attract envious glances every time he rode his rickshaw past the edge of the field.
Ye Qingshui had already thought about it. If she wanted to do a profitable business, she would have to go back and forth to the black market in the county every week. She definitely couldn't take a car, as it was too conspicuous. But if she walked every time, it would take a long time, and it would be difficult to explain to anyone she met on the way, and the freshness of the food would also be greatly reduced.
Xie Tingyu just said "hmm" and didn't delve into the reason.
Ye Qingshui couldn't help but narrowed his eyes.
…
Ye Qingshui went to bed early that night. When the time came, she got up on tiptoe and took out the beans that had just been dried in the summer from the jar. She steamed the red, yellow and green beans. The beans, which were full of steam, cracked a little and grew plump and white.
She began to knead the dough, and the soft, white and smooth dough was beaten back and forth in Ye Qingshui's hands. The soft dough was stretched ninety-nine and eighty-one times. The repeated stretching, pulling and beating maximized the strength and fragrance of the wheat.
This kind of noodles is chewy and the more you chew it, the more fragrant it becomes.
This was a skill she had practiced for thirty years. In less than ten minutes, Ye Qingshui had kneaded two kilograms of dough.
She deftly ground the steamed beans into powder with the skin, and put them in the steamer. Two pounds of flour absorbed moisture, and Ye Qingshui weighed it with her hand, and it was more than three pounds. She tore open one to taste it, and the dough kneaded with sugar was sweet and soft, with an attractive bean fragrance. The buns were very substantial, bigger than a man's fist.
Ye Qingshui wrapped them in clean white cloth and put them in a basket. This piece of cotton cloth was newly bought for her wedding. In the past, Ye Qingshui wanted to use it to make a beautiful skirt, but now Ye Qingshui only wanted to make money, so it was not a pity to use it to pack buns.
When picking up the buns, Ye Qingshui deliberately left a few as breakfast for the family. Although the ingredients of this kind of buns are a bit simple, the simpler the ingredients, the more it tests the skill of making them, and they are really fragrant.
Ye Qingshui walked carefully and got on Xie Tingyu's rickshaw. The morning dew wet her cloth shoes. She bit the only flashlight in the house and pedaled the rickshaw with clumsy hands and feet.
More than an hour later, Ye Qingshui arrived at the hidden black market alley near the state-owned restaurant. When she rode her rickshaw past the restaurant, she smelled the fragrant meat, and her dog nose also smelled the spices used in the meat. It was the smell of low-quality five-spice powder, and Ye Qingshui was a little disdainful, but her stomach, which had not seen oil for a long time, was already craving for meat.
Ye Qingshui had never come to the black market to sell things. In her previous life, when she was a poor girl in the mountains, she was particularly law-abiding and hated this kind of speculation. Now that she came to the black market, she was nervous and trembling.
She noticed that everyone's steps were light and fluttery, and the speculators occasionally glanced at the alley, and their things were packed up as if they were ready to run away at any time. This tense and cautious atmosphere infected Ye Qingshui.
She put the bun on the back seat of the bicycle, thought for a moment, and then smeared a handful of dust on her face.
Her action made the trader next to her burst out laughing.
"Don't worry, sister. The police won't be checking our street these days."
"What are you selling?" His eyes fell on Ye Qingshui's bulging package. Ye Qingshui took out the kettle to wash his hands, then slowly unwrapped the cotton cloth that was wrapped around the buns.
The businessman, who was originally worried about losing his business, suddenly felt relieved. He said cheerfully, "Big sister, do you see that over there? That's a state-owned restaurant. Even if your steamed buns are made to order, can they be better than the meat buns in state-owned restaurants?"
He was selling his own chicken and duck eggs, but there were more of them, a whole basket full. It looked a bit like "cutting off the tail of socialism".
Ye Qingshui didn't say anything. She took out a bun. It looked inconspicuous, but it smelled delicious. However, the fragrance could not spread too far, and not many people came to the alley to buy things.
The young trader must have been bored after sitting all night without anyone to talk to. He kept chattering and teaching Ye Qingshui without any reservation: "The buns look good, but what's the use? Can people still lack vegetarian buns? The meat buns at the state-owned restaurant are delicious, but they can't sell out."
Ye Qingshui looked up at the sky. It was already late and she couldn't leave for too long.
There was a textile factory not far from here, with a lot of workers. Most people who didn't have breakfast in the morning would rather go to the state-owned restaurant. Ye Qingshui thought about it and wrapped the buns with paper. She grabbed a smart-looking child and gave him the buns. She chattered with him.
The child's eyes were dark and bright, and he nodded suddenly.
Ye Qingshui reminded him: "Just focus on eating, don't say anything else."
The young businessman thought that Ye Qingshui was so frustrated that he was ready to pack up and go home, and he gave the buns away for free. He thought that women were not born to be business people, they were soft-hearted and thin-skinned, and they couldn't lose face or status, so how could they dare to earn this life-threatening money?
"After all, steamed buns are precious food. It's better to take them home and eat them yourself than to give them to others."
Ye Qingshui sat down and closed his eyes to rest, completely ignoring the chattering in his ears.
During the time when I closed my eyes to rest, people outside almost went to great lengths to find this bun.
The hurried passers-by on the street, the intellectuals rushing to eat at the state-owned restaurants, the workers going to work, and the housewives who just bought vegetables and meat from the store, could smell the sweet smell when they passed by this little boy. He ate the buns very happily and exaggeratedly.
Each of his movements seemed to be deliberately slowed down by half a beat. His thin thumb picked up the bun and gently tore it apart. After a few seconds of pause, the light green bean paste slowly flowed out. At that moment, the fragrance of the beans and the wheat aroma of the bread spread. He sniffed for a long time, bathed in the gazes of the crowd, and in a gesture of arousing hatred, he bit the bun happily, squinting his eyes and enjoying it as if he had eaten dragon liver and phoenix marrow. Smelling this fragrance, but not being able to eat it, it was simply enviable to passers-by.
When passersby asked him where the buns came from, he rolled his eyes and ignored them.
If I ask him one more question, he will go to another place to continue eating his buns. This time, he is eating red bean paste buns. He continues to tear the bun skin in slow motion...
The round, snow-white buns reflected the faint moonlight, and each one looked like snow falling in winter. They were round and cute, and every wrinkle was delicate and pleasing to the eye. This was the bun that looked like the buns in a state-owned restaurant. When a customer who had just walked out of a state-owned restaurant turned around to look at the bun in his hand, he was so disgusted that he wanted to throw it away.
In the black market alley, the young trader still spared no effort to chat with Ye Qingshui.
He said: "If you want to sell your buns, you can't just stand there. Let me teach you--"
You have to be shameless... Before he finished speaking, one, two, three, four or five people came to Ye Qingshui's stall.
"Hey, so the bun is here."
"But I'm so anxious to find it. It smells so good. I've never eaten such delicious buns before."
"Big sister, how do you sell these buns?"
Everyone was talking at once, swallowing up the young trader's words. Ye Qingshui's face immediately smiled again, and she stood up and said in a sweet and soft voice: "Five cents for four, and you need three taels of grain coupons. If you don't have grain coupons, meat coupons will do. Four will cost one tael of meat coupons."
The steamed buns she made were thicker than those sold in state-owned restaurants, and they even had a core. The bean paste was moist and sticky, like quicksand, sweet and soft, and the price was nearly half the price. The three-pound steamed buns were still hot and sold out in less than half an hour. Ye Qingshui was so busy that he didn't have time to count the money in his hand.
After selling the buns, Ye Qingshui turned to the young trader and said, "You want to sell your eggs, but this won't work. Let me teach you—"
The dealer felt a little pain on his face.
Ye Qingshui pursed her lips and smiled, "Just sell the eggs to me."
The author has something to say:
Small theater:
Shui Ya: I never told you that I would make you so hated!
Child: “…”
A look of confusion.
When I was eating live in the cold wind, I was scrolling through the screen like crazy:
Delicious, delicious, delicious!
Such delicious food, why don’t you let me finish it in one bite? I shed tears of responsibility.
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