Chapter 001 The First Melon
【New melon today! 】
Gu Xicao's eyes lit up as she dragged the garbage bag. She stomped on a can in front of her and threw it into the bag. Then she asked, "What melon? Tell me quickly."
[Garbage collector Lao Chen and scrap seller widow Zhang had an affair last night. His wife caught them in the act and slapped them twice! ]
Gu Xicao took a breath of cold air.
This melon is really explosive!
If she remembered correctly, Widow Zhang was almost seventy years old this year, and Old Chen was only in his fifties. The two of them were quite close on weekdays. Widow Zhang would send Old Chen soup and sweet soup that she cooked every now and then. But Gu Xicao always thought that Widow Zhang and Old Chen were just good friends, and she didn't expect that there was such a relationship between them.
Gu Xicao was really shocked.
Lin Yuan went to pick up two cardboard boxes and came back. Seeing Sister Gu in a daze again, he said, "Sister, are you tired? How about I drag the things to Uncle Chen and you can rest here for a while?"
Gu Xicao came back to her senses and saw Lin Yuan's concerned look. She couldn't help but sigh that children from poor families have to grow up early.
Lin Yuan is only nine years old this year. If she could go to school before, she would be in the third grade of elementary school now. It is normal for her to worry about homework and think about playing all day long. It is nothing like now. Not only does she have to pick up trash with her to earn a living, but she also has to take care of her non-blood-related sister.
It has been about a month since Gu Xicao came here. If it weren't for Lin Yuan, such a caring brother, and the melon-eating system that can provide spiritual entertainment, he would have wanted to die.
When she woke up, she found herself in Hong Kong in 1990.
Hong Kong's economy was developed at that time, but there were still people who lived poorly in this prosperous era. What's more, the original body and Lin Yuan and his mother all came here illegally. It was not easy for them to get identity cards, let alone survive.
At the end of last month, Lin Yuan's mother died of a heart attack, leaving Gu Xicao and Lin Yuan alone to depend on each other. They rented a subdivided flat and made a living by picking up garbage.
"No, let's go together. Old Chen is very cunning. Last time you went there, he used a magic scale on you and lost sixteen of our lives!"
Speaking of this, Gu Xicao felt angry.
The two of them could only earn around 70 or 80 yuan after three days of hard work picking up trash, but Old Chen was really wicked and cheated them out of 16 yuan in one go.
He really deserved to be slapped in the face by his wife.
When Gu Xicao thought of this, she immediately became excited. She pulled the garbage bag and said to Lin Yuan, "Let's go back quickly. We are lucky today to have picked up so many cardboards. I will buy you a bowl of cake later."
When Lin Yuan heard this, he swallowed, nodded heavily and said "hmm".
The purchasing station is located in a remote corner of Mong Kok. It bypasses the busy streets and avoids the crowded crowds. It only takes half an hour to walk to the destination through a shortcut.
Outside the recycling station there was only a small yard surrounded by iron sheets. All kinds of garbage were piled up in every corner of the yard, and flies and mosquitoes were buzzing around.
Gu Xicao pulled the garbage bag inside and looked around, "Uncle Chen, Sister Chen, we are here to sell garbage."
A middle-aged woman with a broad waist and a fat body came out. She was wearing a stained apron around her waist and had a sullen face. When she saw Gu Xicao, she didn't look happy. "Why are you yelling? You're selling garbage."
"Mrs. Chen, aren't we afraid of disturbing your rest? By the way, why is it so quiet today?"
Gu Xicao dropped the garbage bag. Chen Sao had already squatted down and pulled up the garbage bag upside down. The cans and glass bottles inside fell to the ground with a ping-pong sound. Chen Sao fiddled with the cans with her hands. She even wrung out the tightly screwed bottles and threw them on the ground, saying, "Why is it so quiet? A group of people just came here. Our business is good. Lao Chen, Lao Chen, what are you doing in the dead room? Come out and give me a hand."
Old Chen came out of the house with a shamefaced look on his face, and helped count the bottles and weigh the cardboard.
Finally, he calculated the amount, "The bottle... the cardboard is twenty yuan, a total of eighty-one yuan."
Lin Yuan couldn't help but said, "Uncle Chen, this number is wrong. We have 42 kilograms of cardboard, and one kilogram of cardboard is 60 cents. It should be 25.20 yuan. You gave us too little."
"It's missing, what's missing?!"
Mrs. Chen immediately glared at Gu Xicao and her brother with her hands on her hips, looking at them fiercely. She was especially jealous when she saw Gu Xicao's fair little face. "Your cardboard is soaked with water. We'll charge you 20 yuan, which is a good thing for you. If you dry it and weigh it, 20 yuan will be too much."
As she spoke, she touched the water on the cardboard with her fingers as thick as sausages.
When Gu Xicao saw it, her face almost turned pale with anger.
This water was not poured on the ground by Mrs. Chen herself just now.
Other garbage collectors have to be cunning and won't pour out the water in cans and glass bottles. Gu Xicao and Lin Yuan are very particular about their work and will pour out all the water and then crush the cans and sell them.
Now it seems that my kindness was taken for granted.
“You, you…”
Lin Yuan was young after all, and he was very angry but didn't know how to refute.
Gu Xicao took a deep breath. She couldn't get angry. She couldn't get angry. They couldn't offend Mrs. Chen and her husband. They were the only recycling station in Mong Kok. If they offended them, they would have to go to other districts to sell their garbage.
But the security in Hong Kong is very chaotic now, with gangsters running rampant. Gu Xicao was afraid that the two children would be packed up and sold as pigs if they ran so far to sell garbage.
"Mrs. Chen, eighty-one is eighty-one."
Gu Xicao forced a smile, without any resentment on her face.
She looked at Old Chen, then said to Mrs. Chen, "But Mrs. Chen, I have something to tell you."
"What's the matter?" Mrs. Chen was feeling proud of herself for having taken advantage of him. She folded her arms and looked at Gu Xicao with disdain.
Gu Xicao pulled Mrs. Chen's sleeve and said, "Let's talk about this aside. We can't let anyone else know about this."
Mrs. Chen was full of doubts, but knowing that Gu Xicao and her brother were honest, she was not worried that they would do anything tricky. She just followed Gu Xicao to the side of the yard suspiciously.
"Mrs. Chen, there is something I have kept in my heart for a long time, but I have never dared to tell you."
Gu Xicao pretended to muster up her courage, her face turning red, "Earlier, earlier I saw Uncle Chen stuffing money into Mrs. Zhang's pocket."
"What?!"
Mrs. Chen screamed like a wild boar whose tail was stepped on.
Without thinking, she turned around and wanted to rush over to beat Uncle Chen.
Gu Xicao quickly stopped the person and tried her best to persuade him in a low voice, "Mrs. Chen, if you want to do this, I dare not tell you anything else."
Mrs. Chen's face flushed with rage. She glared at Old Chen for a few seconds before turning back to look at Gu Xicao: "Tell me, what's going on?"
"Nothing, but I saw Uncle Chen and Mrs. Zhang getting close, so Uncle Chen threatened me not to tell you, and he often targeted me. You saw what happened today."
Gu Xicao shook her head and sighed, "I know that you are a good person, Sister Chen, and you never take advantage of poor people like us, so I told you specifically to prevent you from being kept in the dark."
She knew Mrs. Chen's character very well: she was narrow-minded but also very concerned about her reputation.
If I praise her as a good person, she must be happy. Plus, I have done a good job, so Mrs. Chen will definitely be willing to go down the stairs.
As expected.
Mrs. Chen showed an embarrassed look on her face and coughed a few times: "Yes, I am a very fair person and I will not take advantage of others. Don't worry, I will return the money to you in due time."
"Thank you, Mrs. Chen."
Gu Xicao was surprised and looked at Mrs. Chen with gratitude.
Mrs. Chen was pleased and said, "Don't be so polite. I've always been a good person. However, you have to help me keep an eye on your Uncle Chen. If you find him giving money to the bitch Zhang again, tell me."
"That's for sure, Mrs. Chen. To be honest, what I hate most is the mistress!"
Gu Xicao showed a look of indignation, gritting her teeth and said, "Mrs. Chen, you are so beautiful, capable, and virtuous, and Uncle Chen cheated on you. It's really unfair to you."
"Alas, beauties have always had a miserable fate."
Mrs. Chen looked sad and sighed.
Gu Xicao looked at her three-foot-thick body and couldn't tell where it was thin.
However, for the sake of the money, she nodded in agreement.
Mrs. Chen probably wanted to bribe her to catch the adulterer, so she not only paid the actual price, but also gave Gu Xicao a dollar and told them to go back and buy ice cream.
Lin Yuan kept chattering along the way, curious and excited: "Sister, how did you do it? Mrs. Chen is usually very stingy and is not willing to give a dime more."
"Children shouldn't know about this kind of thing."
Gu Xicao didn't want to contaminate her younger brother with the dirty things between adults.
She took out a dollar from her pocket and said, "Let's use this dollar to buy some bowl cakes. I saw that one bowl cake cost one dollar, which is just enough."
"One dollar. How about, don't buy the bowl cake. Let's save it and see if we can pay last month's rent."
Lin Yuan was a little excited, but after thinking about it, he bit his lip and shook his head.
Gu Xicao felt helpless when she heard the word "rent". Lin Yuan's mother died of a heart attack last month, and the money of the Chen family and the original body was drained just to deal with her funeral. The rent was still owed.
Nine hundred yuan a month in rent is not a lot, but the two of them only make seven or eight hundred yuan a month picking up garbage. In the past half month, the two of them have saved up more than three hundred yuan.
There is no way around it. Water, electricity and other commodities in Hong Kong are very expensive. The cheapest cabbage costs two dollars per pound.
"It's okay. I'll figure out the money issue later. Let's go buy some bowl cakes first."
Gu Xicao touched Lin Yuan's head, who was frowning and looking worried, and said, "Besides, I also want to try what the bowl cake tastes like."
"Well, let's go and try it."
Lin Yuan was still a child after all, and he was moved by Gu Xicao's coaxing.
The two found the bowl-shaped cake stall they had seen before. Before they went over, Lin Yuan stopped and pulled Gu Xicao towards home.
Gu Xicao was puzzled: "What's wrong, you don't want to buy it?"
"No, sister, the price of the bowl cake has gone up. It's one and a half yuan now."
Lin Yuan said somewhat frustratedly.
Gu Xicao: “…”
Damn it, the prices of goods are rising faster than her blood pressure!
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