The weather was bad on Sunday, the streets were deserted, and business was slow. Ha Yue took advantage of the break to organize the goods in the store.
Previously, the convenience store's business relied entirely on Zhao Chunni driving her tricycle to the wholesale market to purchase goods. She had limited energy and was not good at dealing with people, so despite her hard work and hands-on approach, the convenience store only sold snacks and toys that children liked.
Since Ha Yue took over the convenience store, she has proactively sought out several distributors in the wholesale market, finalized cooperation agreements, streamlined the categories of snacks and toys, and focused on restocking items that power plant workers would consume.
From daily necessities to staple foods and cooking oils, all goods are regularly restocked by dealers' employees who drive to the store.
At the beginning of the year, she obtained a liquor business license and started sourcing her liquor from a single beverage wholesaler.
As more customers came to buy beer, and in order to earn the 200 yuan monthly display fee, Ha Yue would regularly accept the manufacturer's request to change the arrangement of the drinks on the counter.
In the morning, the beer manufacturer paid for price tags and posters to change the store's display. Ha Yue was behind the counter counting the goods and returning the previously slow-moving, near-expiry products.
In the afternoon, there were only a few of the best-selling washbasins and toothbrushes left in the store. She sent a WeChat message to the hardware store owner, telling him what products she needed, but he didn't reply for a long time. When she called him, she found out that his elderly relative had broken his arm and the owner was at the hospital taking care of him, so he couldn't deliver the goods for the time being.
So Ha Yue closed the shop and, in the midst of a fierce wind, personally drove her tricycle to the wholesale market.
After chatting with the hardware merchant's wife for a while, Ha Yue returned to Chunni's convenience store before lunchtime and carried the dozen or so boxes of goods loaded on the back of her tricycle into the store.
After finishing all the chores, she unscrewed her water glass, took a big gulp of cool boiled water, and felt refreshed all over.
She was in a good mood today. After a long day of work, her hair was full of sand and even her fingernails were covered in dust, but she still took the time to sit down, put on her headphones, and listen to her favorite music for a while.
The band's cover version of "First Love" was playing in her headphones, with lyrics that read "I had a sleepless night, my shadow appeared in my heart." However, the reality was the opposite. After a brief get-together yesterday, her first love sent her a message in the morning asking, "Did you get home safely?" and then fell silent again.
Ha Yue felt that the polite way she and Xue Jing were now turning their backs and waving to each other was the best possible ending.
After tonight, Xue Jing and she could officially say goodbye. She felt no resentment, only peace, and she was very relieved.
He should be on a plane by now, right? On her way home from the hotel last night, she checked the flights from Lincheng back to Jicheng on her phone. Due to the recent resurgence of the epidemic, the number of flights between Jicheng and the border has decreased sharply. There has only been one flight back in the last three days.
May he have a safe journey and a bright future in Jicheng.
Ha Yue yawned, feeling a little hungry. She stood up, phone in hand, the playlist already switched to the next song.
She walked briskly to the shelf, found a bag of instant noodles with a not-so-good date, crushed the noodles through the packaging, and then opened it and sprinkled half a packet of seasoning on top.
This is how Ha Jianguo taught her to eat. Ha Yue vaguely remembers that before she started sleeping in a separate bed from her parents in elementary school, Ha Jianguo had experienced a wave of layoffs at local companies.
That year, he repeatedly encountered setbacks in his re-employment. While idling around, he had the idea of starting a business again. He wanted to open a stationery store in front of the primary school for children of children in Hayue.
However, Zhao Chunni, who had already been with him through a business failure before their marriage, firmly disagreed with his use of the family savings. She said that the money was a fixed deposit for Ha Yue's college education.
The couple argued many times due to their differences of opinion. Zhao Chunni was stubborn, but in the end, Ha Jianguo compromised and promised Zhao Chunni that he would not bring up the idea of going into business again.
At that time, Zhao Chunni had a job as a sales promoter at a large local supermarket. The newly appointed supervisor didn't like her, so in addition to the nine-to-five schedule, she was often forced to work overtime. Since Ha Jianguo was temporarily unemployed, the task of taking care of their daughter's daily life naturally fell to him.
But like most young fathers, Ha Jianguo neither knows how to cook nor how to comb his daughter's hair.
From Monday to Friday, Ha Yue often went to class with a messy ponytail. After being scolded by Zhao Chunni too many times, Ha Jianguo rode his old bicycle with his daughter into a barbershop on the way home from school one day and cut her hair short.
As for meals, Ha Jianguo made do with whatever he could find. On school days, he would almost always go to the market to buy cooked food and cold dishes for his daughter. On Saturdays and Sundays, the father and daughter would spend the whole day looking for lottery shops on the street.
Ha Jianguo was so engrossed in studying the lottery that he didn't have time to take Ha Yue out to eat, so he bought two packs of instant noodles from the small shop next door and ate them dry with his daughter.
Besides eating instant noodles dry, Ha Jianguo also taught her to put peanuts and tofu in her mouth at the same time so that she could taste the flavor of pork and ham.
Ha Jianguo was like that in Ha Yue's memory; he was less like a father and more like a carefree, older friend.
Ha Yue ate too many instant noodles that year and did too many homework assignments at the lottery shop. But as the saying goes, heaven rewards the diligent. Ha Jianguo actually won the lottery after studying hard.
He won the third prize of 2,800 yuan, and without even blinking, he used it to buy his daughter a single wire mesh bed.
Ha Yue sat back down at the counter, holding a bag of instant noodles in her right hand and munching on it, while crumbs of instant noodles kept falling out of her pocket with her other hand.
After Ha Jianguo left, Zhao Chunni was forced to spend Ha Yue's college fund to open Chunni Convenience Store because she couldn't work a 9-to-5 job while taking care of her child alone. However, Ha Yue, who was a primary school student, was not happy because she could eat spicy strips for free. Every night, she would lie in bed, hold the wire by the bed with her fingers, close her eyes and silently shed tears.
She was young then and always felt that Ha Jianguo's infidelity was because of her.
If she hadn't been so compliant and had refused to accompany her father to the lottery shop, he would never have won the lottery. If she hadn't demanded her own bed, her father wouldn't have gone to the furniture factory and had an affair with the owner's wife.
However, this idea only bothers elementary school students. Ha Yue has not thought this way since she started middle school.
Because she began to believe that her father was a complete scumbag, just like Zhao Chunni described. He had never loved his daughter or his wife; he was selfish and incapable of loving anyone in the world.
All the past memories she cherished were just a mirage.
A person's fate is predetermined from birth, and Ha Jianguo's character is never suited to a lifelong commitment, so her parents' marriage was doomed from the start.
She did nothing wrong. If anyone is to be blamed, it's Zhao Chunni for not having the foresight to judge people before marriage.
People should have self-awareness, so she shouldn't look for a partner who is better than her in every way in the future.
Fatalism can help teenagers quickly reconcile with the past.
After labeling Ha Jianguo as hopeless, Ha Yue never hesitated to share any moment that might remind her of him.
She occasionally eats instant noodles dry, and the taste isn't particularly bad. For example, right now, she's enjoying it immensely.
However, her pleasant rest and meal were soon interrupted by an urgent video call invitation.
The person who made the video call was Lou Zhiyun.
She had rejected his advances on Saturday, but it seemed illogical that he would pursue her again just 24 hours later.
She couldn't even be bothered to read his text messages, so why would she want to have a video call with him?
This is some kind of ineffective communication by some freak.
After being rejected by Ha Yue with a furrowed brow, Lou Zhiyun persisted and initiated another voice call.
After being refused three times in a row, Ha Yue brushed the food scraps off her hands in front of the trash can, took a deep breath, and maintained a relatively polite attitude while typing.
"What can I do for you?"
The other party was utterly impolite; the message, though short, was filled with an unsettling forcefulness: "Answer the video call, I have something to say to you."
"Sorry, it's not convenient. You can type if you need anything. Or, for example, is there another time you bought something and I gave you the wrong change?"
The next sentence is ironic.
The instant noodles that Ha Yue had just eaten were now hardened in her stomach and kept coming back up to her throat. She disgustedly drank a big gulp of water to swallow the nausea.
Unexpectedly, the person on the other end continued to send impolite messages.
Is there anything inconvenient for you?
"It's not the middle of the night."
"What are you pretending to be innocent for?"
Upon seeing that last sentence, Ha Yue's bright, clear eyes were filled with the urge to run away from home. Her previous indifference towards Lou Zhiyun had completely turned into resistance, and her attitude had become blunt: "Have you taken the wrong medicine?"
Soon, Lou Zhiyun sent her several photos taken at night on Mulan Street, and the person walking in the distance while looking at her phone was her.
"What's wrong? This isn't you? Didn't you say you don't date? So you just like going to hotels with people in the middle of the night? If that's the case, count me in too. Or are you selling this for money? Name your price. Let's see if you're worth it."
Before Ha Yue could type, he sent another message.
"I've seen plenty of women like you. You just like to cling to rich men, don't you?"
"Gold digger! How much do you get paid to deliver goods to people's homes at night?"
Anger surged from the soles of her feet to the top of her head. Without thinking, Ha Yue typed into her phone, "Yeah, damn it, who doesn't like rich people? And he's not only rich but also handsome, and his physical condition is exceptionally strong. I like him so much that I'm willing to force myself to be with him. What about you? As for you, if you don't need your brain, you should donate it to a hospital. Don't act like a brainless coward in broad daylight, unable to understand human language."
"I spoke to you so nicely, and you're taking advantage of my kindness, aren't you? Are you tired of living?"
Ha Yue's voice suddenly became high-pitched, and her fierce demeanor resembled that of Sun Erniang, the woman who sold human flesh buns in the Water Margin, with "her eyebrows furrowed in murderous intent and her eyes flashing with malice."
After sending the message, Ha Yue quickly saved the screenshot of the other party secretly taking pictures of him on the street, and told him that if he harassed her again, she would print out the story of him following her on the street and post it on a big poster at his workplace.
When her employer refused to intervene, she called the police.
The police didn't care, so she gathered a few strong neighbors to block him at his dormitory and asked everyone they met which building Lou Zhiyun, who had followed women at night, lived in.
In short, Lou Zhiyun had better realize that trying to make her prove her innocence was futile. She was the shameless local bully. In a small town, gossip can be a powerful force, but those with nothing to lose are never afraid of those who have something to lose.
There is no absolute chain of power and sanctions here; those who have nothing, lie on the ground, and act like scoundrels always seem to benefit.
That's why the old folks always say that bad people come from poor and remote areas, right? She is that bad person!
When Lou Zhiyun was frightened by her domineering attitude and began to explain with lingering fear that she was just angry and confused, she directly blocked Lou Zhiyun's WeChat, logged out of WeChat, and then dragged the other party's phone number into the blacklist in her contacts.
To show that her little shop would no longer welcome his patronage, and that if she saw him again, she would shout "rape!" from ten miles away.
After doing all this, Diao Min's good mood vanished. Ha Yue held her half-eaten instant noodles, gazing wistfully at the weather outside the window. She figured there wouldn't be any more customers that night, and lost the patience to stay in the shop any longer.
After tidying up the trash and receipts in the shop, she put on a mask, goggles, and a hat before locking the door, wrapping herself up like a little potato in the swirling sandstorm, and rode her electric tricycle home early.
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