48 "Their lives collapsed overnight"
Huang Zheng said that they were playing together, but in fact, she was helping more.
The summer clothes in the store have been piled up for a long time. If they are not sold out, all the money will be lost. After much thought, she finally came up with a way to survive, which is to sell them off at a low price rather than keep them piled up.
He found a tricycle to pack up all the clothes in the store and sell them at the markets in the surrounding towns. It was too much for one person to load the goods and ride the tricycle, so he had to ask Tao Wanjia for help.
The two sisters got up very early. It was just dawn at four o'clock. After the tricycle drove out of the main road in the city, it bumped along the bumpy road for almost an hour before reaching the market.
It wasn’t too early, and vendors were gradually putting their wares on the cement countertop.
Tao Wanjia got out of the car and looked around. Some good seats had already been taken.
"How about we go to the intersection?" she thought. "There are more people here."
Huang Zheng straightened her shoulder bag, lowered the carriage, and began unloading the goods. She moved the clothes hangers to the positions Tao Wanjia had chosen.
"Help me write a few words."
"What to write?"
Tao Wanjia took the cardboard from her and asked tentatively, "Twenty-one pieces? Fifty-two pieces?"
"No, you write that the store is closed and I'll sell it for money."
Huang Zheng spoke beside her ear, and when she finished writing, she found a conspicuous place to put it. Seeing the crowd gradually gathering around her, she adjusted the volume on the speaker and began to shout.
The market in the countryside is very bustling with people. It is inconvenient to go to the streets on normal days, so people go to the market to buy everything. There are daily necessities and even vegetable seeds and farm tools.
Huang Zheng also thought that it would be easier to sell with more people, so she shouted with all her might, each shout louder than the last.
Tao Wanji stood by to assist her, and occasionally helped to get clothes when someone came over.
Huang Zheng was such a talker that she could always compliment anyone who stopped by for a short while. As she introduced the clothes, her face was filled with enthusiasm yet also with reluctance. "These are all good brands. Take a look! The boss is losing money in business, so he's lowering the prices. You can't even get these prices if you buy more!"
With the added bonus of her mouth and the sound played in a loop by the loud speaker, more and more people were attracted. Huang Zheng's so-called "sell for money" actually set prices according to different clothes, all based on her mouth.
Huang Zheng turned around after finishing her work and saw Tao Wanjia staring at her in a daze. She smiled and said, "So, do you think I'm smart?"
"Yes, yes, you are born to be a rich woman. You will get rich sooner or later."
Tao Wanjia smiled and agreed, but in reality, she felt she was having a hard time. Thinking of the discontent she had righteously expressed at the dinner table last night, she could understand. She had indeed entered society early because of this family, and had worked her way through life without complaint. Even if they were sisters, they shouldn't be treated differently, let alone not.
Many times, Tao Wanjia's feelings towards Huang Zheng are very complicated. She doesn't like her embarrassment and sharpness, nor does she like her cold words to her because of her calculations. But those opposites of dislike will also have likes, just like at this moment, she will soften her heart for this sister who saves money to buy gifts for herself.
"By the way, you don't even know how I bought this bracelet that fits so perfectly?"
Tao Wanjia, curious, finally asked the question she'd been wanting to ask since last night. She and Huang Zheng had never had such a heart-to-heart moment before.
Huang Zheng, still smiling, looked at the gleaming ring on her wrist in the light and showed her the other one on her wrist. They were a pair of twin bracelets, which she had bought long before her college entrance exam.
"After all, we grew up together. How can I be your sister if I don't even know this?"
She rarely expressed her affection to Tao Wanjia, and even though she acted like a well-mannered older sister both in front of others and at home, Tao Wanjia knew that Huang Zheng had only just begun to figure out how to be a true older sister. And it seemed like she was only just beginning to understand her.
It's been a busy week.
After the market farthest from Rongcheng ended, the two of them had completely disposed of all the clothes. Huang Zheng calculated the cost and consumption. Although he had lost some money, it was still within a controllable range. He was in a good mood and thought that today was his birthday, so he closed the stall early and went back.
In late June, the weather was so hot that the wind was hot and sticky.
Tao Wanjia remembered that the sun that day was so red that it looked like egg yolk flowing out of the heart. On the way back, the two of them talked and laughed, and they felt that every mountain and every blade of grass was extremely cool. When they passed by the former family building, they also glanced at the towering blast furnace. That thing no longer looked like the monster that swallowed smoke when they were children, but instead looked like a golden cudgel that continuously created clouds in the sky.
Twenty-year-old Huang Zheng and eighteen-year-old Tao Wanji saw the steel plant and still expressed their opinions as they did when they were children, describing the shapes of the buildings that they could already name. However, neither of them knew that the steel plant that they saw as so stable now would be reduced to complete ruins in two hours.
Their lives collapsed overnight.
No one knew and no one noticed. Even He Yu, who had just left the family building, only felt that the sun was very big when he looked back. The temperature that had become scorching unknowingly did not come only from the scorching sun, but also from the blast furnace where the smoke was quietly growing thicker.
"I thought you were anxious to come back to accompany me, but it turned out you were here for someone else."
He Jinsheng stopped and stood in front of the car. When the back door opened, he took another look at He Yu, his eyes resting on his hand holding something. "Do you want Dad to take you there?"
"Need not."
"You still have things to do, I can just take a taxi over there."
He Yu walked out of the iron gate of the family building at the speed of light, hailed a taxi and headed straight for Huaihua Hutong.
Huang Zhibiao and Liu Sulan did not go to work today. They were at home cleaning the house to celebrate Huang Zheng's birthday. They were both a little surprised to see He Yu coming.
"It's Xiaoyu, didn't you say your family is going back to South City?"
"My mom went back home first because of work, and my dad and I will have to wait for a while."
After answering, he naturally put the specialty in his hand on the ground, "Uncle and aunt, aren't Wan Jia and Huang Zheng here?"
"They just came back from the market to buy food. Today is our little Zheng's birthday, so you can stay here and eat with us tonight."
He Yu nodded, and after getting the specific address, he found an excuse to go see if they could help him. He was eager to go home, clutching the small gift box in his pocket, and trotted all the way to the nearby vegetable market.
Tao Wanjia was a little surprised to see him. "Didn't you say it would take two weeks to come back?"
"My dad came back early so I followed him back." He smiled, took the heavy shopping bag from her hand, and stared at her without blinking.
The change in status hadn't fully caught up to either of them. They were clearly very familiar with each other, yet even looking at each other made their faces flush. Tao Wanji coughed lightly and slowly lowered his gaze.
Huang Zheng, who was standing by, noticed something and noticed the subtle atmosphere between the two. She spoke sympathetically, "It's still early for dinner, so if you have anything to do, go ahead and do it. I'll call Wan Jia after dinner."
He Yu gradually realized the embarrassment on his face and explained that he took her back to the family building to get a book. It would have been fine if he hadn't explained, but the explanation made it even more obvious.
Huang Zheng was amused. She watched the two of them leave, and found it even more amusing when she realized the distance was wide enough for another person. She hadn't yet considered what it would be like for Tao Wanjia to fall in love one day, but she felt much more at ease if that person was He Yu. After all, he had always been responsive to her requests since she was a child.
Tao Wanjia hadn't been to the family building since he moved out, so he felt a little unfamiliar here again.
He Yu saw her hesitation, took her hand and led her to the living room, "No one is home."
He smiled and pushed her onto the sofa, then turned and went to the kitchen to cut fruit.
"No..." Tao Wanji stared at his back, "What do you want to talk to me about?"
She thought that today was Huang Zheng's birthday, so she shouldn't delay too long. At least she had to go back early to help Aunt Liu.
"It's okay," He Yu placed a plate of sliced peaches in front of her and sat down next to her. "It's just that I really want to stay with you for a while, just the two of us."
His eyes were filled with emotion, and he was surprised that he had spoken so directly. It must be habit. He had been used to being with Tao Wanjia for so many years, so even a few days of separation made him feel unbearable.
Tao Wanjia felt the same way, but she couldn't say it out loud like He Yu did. Her face just kept getting redder under his gaze.
"Is your air conditioner broken?"
She looked away and lowered her head to eat the peach.
He Yu smiled, noticing that the blush on her cheeks was almost the same color as the skin of a freshly washed peach. He found the air conditioner remote and turned down the temperature, but after trying several times, he realized the power was out.
So he turned around and went to the bedroom to get the backing of the drawing paper and used the most artificial way to cool her down.
"Is it still hot?"
"Better."
"What have you been busy with lately?"
"Just help Huang Zheng with her affairs."
"Busy?" He Yu continued slowly. In fact, what he wanted to ask was why didn't you reply to his message.
Tao Wanjia nodded and briefly told him about what happened at the market. She and Huang Zheng had to keep a close eye on things, otherwise someone would steal wallets and other things. So of course, she didn't have time to reply to his message.
"I thought someone regretted it and didn't know how to talk to me so they didn't reply."
For the first time, He Yu discovered that Tao Wanjia was completely different in front of her. The dandy nature in his heart became even more pronounced when it was just the two of them.
"I won't regret it!" She glared at him and retorted stubbornly, "If anyone should regret it, it's you—"
Before she could finish her words, a hot breath approached, and He Yu kissed her lips lightly.
His voice broke. "I'll never regret it."
The heat in the room rose, and as the two hearts were turning upside down, there was suddenly a loud bang outside the window.
It was a sound like the sky cracking apart, like countless thunder roaring simultaneously. The glass windows shattered and the ground shook.
Tao Wanji's ears went blank for a moment. She watched He Yu's lips opening and closing as he asked her something, but she couldn't hear clearly. They didn't even know when they had landed on the ground. They supported each other and stood up, looking through the broken window at the black smoke rising straight into the clouds.
All sounds around were silenced, leaving only the deep red flames that continued to open and pierce through everything.
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