Chapter 065 The Sixty-fifth Melon
Ma Qi had sharp eyes and could tell at once that something was wrong with Gu Xicao's expression. She leaned forward and leaned on the table: "Ms. Gu, did you also notice something was wrong?"
"Is there any need to look at this?" Wang Laoshi couldn't help but complain: "Doesn't this sound wrong?"
Gu Xicao knocked on the table, "I don't think this is right, Mr. Ma, why don't you just settle the account?"
"That's right, Brother Dali, if you really trust that Xiaobai, you should do the calculation. After that, everyone will feel relieved." Ma Qi urged with a mischievous look on her face.
On the one hand, she was really worried about Ma Dali, and on the other hand, she just wanted to watch the fun.
Ma Dali couldn't stand provocation, and after hearing what Ma Qi said, he said angrily: "It's alright, but I believe Xiaobai won't lie to me."
Ma Qi took the initiative to pay for Ma Dali. With only 188 yuan, he could watch a good show. It was really worth it.
Gu Xicao stood up and said, "Seeing is believing. Let's go and meet Xiaobai."
"Master, do you know where Xiaobai lives?"
Ma Dali was overjoyed.
When he stood up, he looked at his clothes. He was in a hurry to go out today and didn't dress up. He was just wearing ordinary long-sleeved shirt and jeans. How could he meet Xiaobai in this state?
"How about you wait for me and let me go home to change clothes."
"No need, just go ahead."
Gu Xicao looked at Hei Dazhuang sympathetically and said, "Be prepared. The Xiao Bai in your mind might be a little different from the Xiao Bai in reality."
Ma Qi and his friends drove here, so the four of them happened to be going there together at this moment.
Ma Qi sat in the passenger seat, turned his head, and said in a suppressed excitement: "Could it be that like the young master of the Li family, the person he is dating online is a man?"
"You knew about this?" Gu Xicao was a little surprised.
Ma Qi gossiped excitedly, "Everyone knows about this. Young Master Li hasn't come out to see people for a while because of this. It really makes me laugh to death."
Ma Dali exhaled through his nose and said angrily: "Xiao Bai is not a man, I called her!"
"How do you know she's not a woman in men's clothing? Some men pretending to be women have very powerful voices." Ma Qi teased, "Brother Dali, I advise you to lower your expectations. Otherwise, when you see a man who looks like you later, you'll be so angry that you'll die."
Gu Xicao crossed her arms and said with a smile, "That's not the case. That Xiaobai is indeed a girl."
"A female?" Ma Qi and Wang Laoshi were both stunned.
Ma Dali was delighted and said with a smile: "Hey, you all heard it. The master said that Xiaobai didn't lie to me."
"I didn't say that," Gu Xicao looked at the traffic outside the car window: "I just said she was a woman."
"What on earth is going on?"
Ma Qi was so curious that he felt like an ant on hot pot.
Gu Xicao had bad intentions and kept us on suspense, "You'll know when we get there."
The car drove from Mong Kok to the New Territories, getting more and more remote.
Unlike later generations, the New Territories today are very poor, with cramped and narrow buildings next to each other with almost no gaps in between, and electric wires spanning between the buildings like a spider web.
Ma Qi and his companion drove their car to the door of a convenience store.
This BMW car is particularly eye-catching here, and passers-by and people in the store are staring at it.
"That Xiao Bai lives in a place like this?"
It was the first time for Ma Qi to come to such a poor place. She could hardly close her mouth when she got off the car. She smelled the sour odor coming from the garbage dump and couldn't help covering her nose.
Ma Dali felt that this place seemed somewhat familiar.
"Is this place like this? Have I been here before?"
"You've been here?!" Ma Qi covered his mouth and asked in surprise, "Why did you come to a place like this?"
"My roommate..." Before Ma Dali could finish his words, he heard someone calling him, "Dali?!"
He looked back and saw the person who called him walking towards them from the store. The person was wearing faded clothes and had a look of obvious surprise on his face. "You, why are you here?"
"Shao Gang, I said this place is very familiar. Didn't I drive you home before?" Ma Dali remembered and put his hand on Shao Gang's shoulder, "The time when the No. 8 typhoon signal was issued."
Shao Gang rubbed his shoulders and said with a wry smile: "Da Li, be careful, are you trying to kill me with such force?"
"Shao Gang, who are you talking to? Come in and help with the inventory."
The plastic curtain of the convenience store was lifted, and a housewife who was almost fifty years old raised her hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead, and came out to urge with an impatient look on her face.
When the housewife saw Ma Dali and others, the expression on her face changed in an instant, and she became flustered, stunned, and at a loss.
"vigorously?"
The grandmother shouted out subconsciously.
Ma Dali was stunned for a moment, "Who are you?"
Shao Gang hurriedly blocked the grandmother and said to Ma Dali, "She is my mother. Mom, you go in first. It's not easy to entertain people here. I'll ask my friends to go sit somewhere else."
"Okay, okay." The housewife rubbed the corner of her clothes while answering, "Then take good care of your friend and be generous. Do you think I can give you some money?"
"No need, you should go back and sort the goods. There are so many goods today. If you don't sort them out quickly, how will you be able to handle the work later?" Shao Gang's tone was obviously a little impatient.
Ma Dali frowned, with some dissatisfaction on his honest face, "Shao Gang, that's your mother, how can you be so rude to her? Besides, we have been roommates in college for so many years, why are you still so distant? Since you have something to do in your shop, let us help you."
ah?
There was a look of panic in Shao Gang's eyes.
He hurriedly said, "No, no, how can you do such rough work? You can't stand it."
"Who said we can't do it? Don't worry, auntie, I'll do whatever you need me to do."
Ma Dali pushed Shao Gang away and asked the housewife.
Gu Xicao also rolled up her sleeves with a smile: "Although we are not as capable as Dali, we can still help with other work. Auntie, please don't be polite to us."
Mrs. Dong was suddenly flustered and looked at her son in confusion.
Seeing that everyone was determined to do so, Shao Gang found it difficult to stop them, so he had to bite the bullet and follow them into the convenience store.
The convenience store is not small, with six rows of iron shelves filled with various daily necessities, snacks and drinks.
Ma Dali is tall and strong, and he can easily carry four or five boxes of Coke from the back door to the middle.
With his help, the mountains of goods piled up at the back door were quickly placed on the shelves.
"You've worked so hard, have some tea."
Mrs. Dong brought a few disposable cups to everyone.
Ma Dali took the cup and drank the tea in one gulp like a cow chewing a peony.
Gu Xicao took a sip, but stopped and wiped his forehead with a piece of paper: "This tea tastes a little familiar to me."
"Familiar?" Wang said honestly, "Don't all green teas taste the same?"
For some reason, Shao Gang and his mother felt a little stiff.
Mrs. Dong said hurriedly, "This is just an ordinary tea bag, nothing special."
"That's not right. There are tea stems here. How can they be brewed with a tea bag?" Ma Qi pointed at the tea stems floating in the cup and said puzzledly. She looked at Mrs. Dong in confusion, not quite understanding why this aunt would lie about such a small matter.
Mrs. Dong had cold sweat on her forehead and her tongue seemed to be tied. She didn't know what to do.
Shao Gang quickly came up with an idea and explained: "My mother meant that the taste is similar to that of tea bags, which is very popular."
"Yes, yes, that's what I meant." Mrs. Dong breathed a sigh of relief and quickly agreed.
Gu Xicao took another sip, raised his head and thought, then shook his head and said, "No, no, the taste of this tea is really familiar, very similar to the tea that Mr. Ma gave us today. Mr. Ma spent 100,000 yuan to buy that kind of tea, how can it be a mass-produced product?"
Ma Qi reacted so quickly.
When Gu Xicao said this, she immediately realized that the so-called Xiaobai might be related to this store.
She raised her head and looked at Mrs. Dong and her son: "Where did you buy this tea?"
Mrs. Dong’s heart was about to jump out of her throat.
She winked at Shao Gang.
Shao Gang was stunned for a moment, "Ah, this, this was given to me by someone else."
"Others? Who?"
Ma Qi is not easy to fool. She looked at Ma Dali and said, "Brother Dali, is the roommate who met Xiao Bai him?"
Ma Dali nodded, his dark face flushed, and he looked at Shao Gang, "Shao Gang, I'm telling you the truth, we came here today to see Xiaobai. Where does Xiaobai live? You know, right?"
Shao Gang was almost crying and was shaking all over.
“I, I…”
He couldn't deny that he knew Xiaobai's address because he had already said that he knew Xiaobai.
But now, where can he go to conjure up a Xiaobai?
"Xiaobai, Xiaobai..." An old man with gray hair and high cheekbones, leaning on a cane, walked in from outside.
As soon as the old man entered the room, he didn't even glance at anyone else. He walked straight towards Mrs. Dong and took out a few ghost money from his pocket: "Xiao Bai, I made so much money today, I'll buy you some clothes to dress up, okay?"
The old man looked cheerful, but anyone with a discerning eye could tell that his condition was not normal and he clearly had Alzheimer's.
"Dad, why are you out again? The doctor told you to lie down in bed and rest." When Mrs. Dong saw the old man coming, she hurried over to help him sit down, "Why are you so disobedient?"
"What surgery? Why would I have surgery when I'm fine? Be careful if your mother hears you. She will definitely scold you." The old man showed a cunning smile on his face. "But don't worry, Dad will keep it a secret for you."
A smile appeared on Mrs. Dong's face.
"Xiaobai, are you Xiaobai?"
Ma Dali opened his mouth wide and stared at Mrs. Dong in a daze.
Mrs. Dong's body seemed to be frozen.
The old man looked around and looked at Ma Dali, bypassing Mrs. Dong. "Hey, who are you from, young man? You are so tall and strong, not bad, not bad. Do you have a girlfriend? My Xiaobai doesn't have a husband yet."
Ma Qi was no less dazed than Ma Dali at this moment.
She took out the wallet from Ma Dali's pocket, took out the photo and compared it with Mrs. Dong, "Is this you?!"
The old man smiled and nodded, "Yes, yes, this is my daughter Xiaobai. I didn't expect Xiaobai to have grown so big. She was still so small in my memory. Now she is old enough to find a husband."
Wang Laoshi moved his lips and thought, this is not the age to talk about the in-laws, she is clearly old enough to be a mother-in-law.
"It's really you!" Ma Dali's dark face lost all color in an instant, and he even looked a little fragile.
His body swayed and he leaned back.
"Da Li, I!" As soon as Mrs. Dong opened her mouth, Ma Da Li shouted, "Shut up, you are a liar, you..."
He looked at Shao Gang, "You, you are also a liar!"
At this moment, Shao Gang felt relieved.
He lowered his head and said, "I am sorry for you. My mother didn't want to do this. I forced her to do it. If you want to call the police to arrest someone, arrest me."
"No, it has nothing to do with my son. I was obsessed with money and cheated you out of your money for the sake of 100,000 yuan."
Mrs. Dong's eyes were red, "My son can't go to jail, let me go to jail!"
"Xiaobai, why are you crying? I know, you bad guy, you come to bully Xiaobai, right?"
The old man looked at his daughter and felt so distressed that he picked up his cane and was about to hit her.
Mrs. Dong hugged him and said, "Dad, stop making trouble!"
The old man was stunned. He looked at Mrs. Dong's tearful face and reached out his rough hand to touch Mrs. Dong's face: "What's wrong, Xiaobai? Who bullied you?"
"No one bullied me. I did something wrong. I cheated others of their money." Mrs. Dong lowered her head, as if she wanted to bury it in her chest.
"Ah, why? Didn't Dad always teach you that we should be honest and not take any money that we don't deserve."
The old man looked at Mrs. Dong with a look of disappointment and stamped his feet: "How did you become like this?!"
Mrs. Dong just lowered her head, tears dripping onto the ground.
The store was deathly silent.
"It's because my grandpa had colon cancer before."
Shao Gang was silent for a moment, raised his hand to wipe his face, and said, "Our family is very poor. My mother has been very frugal to support my studies. Intestinal cancer can still be treated in the early stages, but our family simply cannot afford the cost of the surgery. It was my idea to let my mother cheat you of the money. You can call the police to arrest me, but we cannot pay this money back now. I am willing to write an IOU and pay you back little by little in the future."
"Mr. Ma, it's our fault. We apologize to you and are willing to pay you double the money," Mrs. Dong raised her hand to wipe away her tears. "If you want to call the police, just let me go to jail. My son is still young and he can earn more money than me."
Ma Qi was in a complicated mood at the moment.
Logically speaking, one should be happy when a swindler is caught, but seeing such a tragedy happen to another family makes one feel uncomfortable.
She pulled Ma Dali's sleeve and said, "Brother, if they pay back the money, let's just forget about it..."
Shao Gang and Mrs. Dong both looked at Ma Dali with expectation and pleading eyes.
Ma Dali opened his mouth and walked outside with big strides.
"Brother!" Ma Qi called him, but he didn't stop.
The hope on the faces of Mrs. Dong and Shao Gang and his mother was instantly shattered.
"The tea leaves are all here. I'll return them to you!" Ma Dali walked back from outside with a big bag of tea leaves and threw the tea leaves to Shao Gang.
Shao Gang caught it in a panic and looked at Ma Dali in surprise: "Dali, you..."
"This is considered as a good deed for me. Write down the IOU and you have to pay me back even if you have to pick up garbage!" Ma Dali sniffed and said in a loud voice.
"Okay, thank you, thank you Dali, and I'm sorry."
Shao Gang said guiltily.
He hurriedly wrote an IOU, left his name and fingerprints, and handed it to Ma Dali.
Ma Dali took the IOU, his fingers trembling slightly.
He stuffed the note directly into his pocket and turned around: "Let's go, there will be traffic jams on the way back at this hour!"
After saying that, he walked straight out with quick steps.
"vigorously!"
Mrs. Dong suddenly called him.
Ma Dali stood at the door and paused in his action of lifting the curtain.
"Mom, you..." Before Shao Gang finished speaking, he saw Mrs. Dong quickly run to the cashier, take out a knitted scarf from under the cabinet, and ran to hand it to Ma Dali, "This scarf was promised to be knitted for you..."
Ma Dali stiffened his neck and said, "I don't want this cheap stuff. Ma Qi, let's go. What are you still standing there for?"
He ran to the car almost as if escaping, and Ma Qi and others quickly followed him out.
The car started almost instantly and quickly left the street.
Along the way, none of the four people in the car spoke a word.
Gu Xicao and Wang Laoshi were in a difficult position to speak up, and Ma Qi didn't dare to speak up either.
Ma Dali didn't say a word along the way. When they arrived at the destination, Gu Xicao and Wang Laoshi got off the car tactfully.
The car started without mercy.
Wang Laoshi couldn't help but sympathize with him. He asked Gu Xicao, "Boss, do you think Mrs. Dong has some feelings for Dali?"
Gu Xicao said, "So what if it is so? Mrs. Dong is old enough to be Dali's mother."
Wang Laoshi sighed, "This is how I regret not meeting you before you got married. I return your pearl to you with tears in my eyes. It's a pity that there is one more sad man in the world."
Driving away from the fortune telling shop, Ma Dali finally couldn't hold it in anymore and started crying loudly while driving, "Wow wow wow, I hate them so much, they are liars, all of them are big liars!"
Ma Qi felt sympathetic and sad, but also found it a little funny.
But she couldn't laugh at this moment. Ma Dali was driving, crying as he drove. She was afraid that if things continued like this, the headlines tonight would be about their car accident. "Brother Dali, don't cry. You're a grown man. Men don't cry easily."
"Bullshit, what's wrong with men? Men are not human beings. Wuuuu, my first love is over just like that. Wuuuu, I will never fall in love with a woman again in my life."
Ma Dali leaned his head on the steering wheel and the horn beeped.
The car behind couldn't help but drive up and scolded: "You little idiot, do you know how to drive? You drive like this."
"It's none of your business that I can't drive. I'm heartbroken today. If you make me angry, I'll die with you!"
Ma Dali said angrily.
Ma Qi winked at the driver of the car opposite and said, "He's killing a chicken and cutting its neck." The driver was startled and probably thought they were crazy, so he ran away immediately.
"A Xiang, you're back!"
Liu Suxiang had just got off work and changed her shoes at the door when she heard her mother's joyful voice. She put on her slippers and came in with the packaged barbecued pork: "Yes, Mom, you..."
Before she could finish her words, she saw the uninvited guest in the living room, and the smile on her face disappeared, "Why are you here?!"
"Ah Xiang, we are your elders after all. How can you be so rude and not even call your uncle or aunt?" Jin Liu rolled her eyes at Liu Suxiang, then turned to Liu's mother and said, "Sister-in-law, I'm not saying anything bad about you. My brother has been gone for so many years. It's not easy for a widow like you to raise a girl, but you can't teach your child to be so undisciplined."
"That's right. Look at Ah Xiang. She doesn't look like the daughter of our Liu family at all."
Liu Weiwen raised his lips with a look of disgust, "Also, I heard that Ah Xiang actually went to work at an amusement park. How can this be possible? If this gets out, it will be a disgrace to our Liu family."
Liu Suxiang almost sneered. She put down the barbecued pork and said, "Will you get out of here or not? What Liu family? What daughter? Are you still daydreaming? This is not the Republic of China anymore. The Liu family has already gone bankrupt and is worse than ordinary people. Why are you pretending to be a big shot here?"
"A Xiang!"
Mother Liu looked flustered and grabbed Liu Suxiang's hand, "Don't talk nonsense, little kid. Uncle and aunt, don't mind it. Ah Xiang has been spoiled by me and speaks without restraint!"
"Mom!" Liu Suxiang stomped her feet in anger and looked back at her mother in disbelief.
"Sister-in-law, of course we won't bother with children,"
Jin Liu stood up, holding a small bag in her hand, "That's all for today, don't go back on what we agreed on before."
"Of course not. Thank you so much for your help this time. Your eldest brother's spirit in heaven would be pleased that A Xiang has elders like you." Liu's mother smiled and saw the couple out.
Liu Suxiang was so angry that she almost died. She sat on the sofa, crossed her arms, and looked at her mother who came back happily: "Mom, what's wrong with you today? Don't you usually hate that couple? Why are you speaking up for them today?"
"Daughter, this is a different time. Do you know that they came here today to buy this unit?" When Liu's mother said this, her eyes were almost blooming with smiles.
"Buy our house?" Liu Suxiang was stunned. "Why would they buy our house? And, even if they did buy our house, there's no need to be so flattering to them. Have you forgotten how they kicked us out of the house after my father died?"
"How could that be? Even if my mother dies, she will remember that they took all the Liu family's property for themselves."
Seeing her daughter shaking with anger, Liu's mother came over and hugged her, stroking her arm to calm her down. "But people should not be hard on money. Our house is too small and far away. I want to buy a bigger house so that you and your husband can live in it in the future. Those two idiots said that they would pay 50% more than the market price to buy this unit. Otherwise, do you think I am stupid?"
"What?" Liu Suxiang pushed her mother's hand away and faced her. "They want to spend 50% more to buy this house?!"
"Yes, they are very sincere this time. They said they would directly transfer the money to us from the bank." Liu's mother said, "Once the money arrives, you and I will have to move out. But it doesn't matter. We have money and can live anywhere."
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