The north is already bitterly cold in late winter.
The cold wind blew for several days, and it rained and snowed for several days in a row, making people feel cold to the bone.
Li Guifang saw that the weather was better today and was thinking about finding a few more laborers to help move the goods.
At noon, the snow finally stopped for a while.
Li Guifang was roasting a brazier in the store when she suddenly heard a "clang, clang, clang" sound outside.
Looking up, Feng Chunlian's thin body was hunched over the handlebars of a tricycle, her red, frozen hands tightly gripping the handlebars. The wheels of the tricycle had left two crooked marks in the snow and mud.
"Oh, my dear sister!" Li Guifang hurriedly lifted the cotton door curtain, and hot air rushed out along with a cry of surprise.
"It's freezing and snowy here, why did you come here in person?" She ran to the door in two steps, her cotton shoes squeaking on the snow.
Feng Chunlian jumped out of the car, breathing out white air, her scarf covered in icicles. "It snowed so heavily yesterday that we couldn't deliver your goods. Today, even if it snows like rain, you have to deliver them!"
He lifted the tattered tarpaulin covering the tricycle, revealing neatly stacked cardboard boxes. "Hurry up and get them in! This is awful weather! If we delay any longer, they'll get soaked."
Li Guifang felt warm inside and turned to the store and called out, "Big Mouth, Xiaomian! Come out and help!"
"Hey my!" Xie Dazui rushed out of the store upon hearing the noise, still holding a rag in his hand. When he saw the cart full of goods, his eyes lit up. "Old sister Chunlian, you are really nice!"
As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeves and started moving boxes, muttering, "Come inside to warm up and have some hot tea!"
Feng Chunlian waved her hand and picked up a pile of cardboard boxes: "Don't be polite, just finish moving quickly!"
Seeing Zhao Xiaomian still standing there stupidly, Xie Dazui immediately shouted at the top of his voice: "Xiaomian! What are you doing? Come over here and get to work!"
Zhao Xiaomian finally came to her senses: "Hey! Here I come!"
She trotted over and saw the mountain of goods piled on the tricycle. She smacked her lips in shock: "Aunt Feng, why did you come all the way here in this cold weather? You look so cold!"
"Of course!" Feng Chunlian stamped the snow off her feet. "If you don't come soon, your sister Guifang will be furious!"
Li Guifang was moving the goods while laughing and cursing: "Go to hell! Who's angry?"
Several people were busy moving goods, with smiles on their red, frozen faces.
Xie Dazui was the smartest one. While he was moving the goods, he tried to get close to Feng Chunlian: "Chunlian, next time you have any good goods, please let us know first..."
"Come on!" Li Guifang slapped Xie Dazui on the back. "Let's settle this account first!"
After the goods were moved into the small room on the second floor, Li Guifang counted out five hundred and forty yuan and handed it to Feng Chunlian.
Watching the other person happily riding away on the jingling tricycle.
Her heart was pounding - this was more than five hundred yuan!
Half a year ago, she couldn't even imagine that she could come up with so much money at once.
"Oh, this money is so much..." Li Guifang smacked her lips as she touched her wallet which was much emptier. But then she thought about the final payment that was coming from the diesel factory and felt that this amount of money was nothing.
The snow fell heavier in the afternoon, and there was not a single person to be seen on the street, let alone customers coming to buy things.
Li Guifang and a few others hid on the second floor, thinking about the gift box samples sent by the printing factory.
Xie Dazui was so anxious that she kept scratching her head: "This broken paper box looks simple, why is it so difficult to use it?" Her nails were almost broken, and it was still crooked when she started to use it!
Zhao Xiaomian also had a worried look on her face: "How can you put together such a beautiful box with so many pieces of paper? The quality is really top-notch!"
She picked up the sample and weighed it. "This one is really sturdy. When can we fold it like this?"
A few people were just feeling worried when they suddenly heard the door curtain being opened with a "rustle".
"Mom! I'm coming!" he yelled, shaking off the snow. "This is such a horrible weather! I'm freezing to death!"
Li Guifang glanced down and saw Li Mingyuan rushing in against the wind and snow, his umbrella held askew and his trouser legs half wet.
Then came the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. Li Mingyuan, his hair all tangled and messy, appeared in everyone's sight.
"Mom! I brought you something warm!" He brushed the snow off his body and took out a few roasted sweet potatoes from a plastic bag. "They're fresh out of the oven, they're still hot!"
Xie Dazui quickly grabbed one and said, "Hey, Mingyuan is the one who knows how to handle things!"
While they were eating roasted sweet potatoes, Li Mingyuan was already studying the samples. He even caught a glimpse of the gift boxes they were folding and chuckled, "Are you folding boxes or paper airplanes?"
He picked up a piece of corrugated paper and folded it into a nice shape in just a few seconds. "See? It should be folded like this. First, pinch these two corners..."
Zhao Xiaomian smacked her lips as she watched: "Comrade Mingyuan, you are so skillful!"
"Of course not!" Li Mingyuan raised his head proudly, then suddenly seemed to think of something and quickly lowered his head!
Li Guifang munched on a hot roasted sweet potato and glanced at him sideways. As a mother, how could she not know Li Mingyuan's little thoughts?
This brat must be complaining that this job is too cheap. After all, he is the deputy director of the unit, with more than a dozen people under him, but now he is just sitting here folding paper boxes. I wonder how uncomfortable he must be feeling.
However, although Li Mingyuan had a long face, he did not stop working for a moment, and he folded the paper box quickly and well.
Li Guifang is very satisfied with Li Mingyuan, who has been transformed for some time. This cheap thing is sometimes quite useful!
The next morning, Li Shuduo and a few other idiots who had been on holiday followed Li Guifang to do hard labor!
Seeing that it was already the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, Li Guifang counted on her fingers and found that there were only eight days left before the diesel factory could pick up the goods on the tenth day of the first lunar month.
As luck would have it, she had received several large cake orders in the past few days, keeping her very busy. Looking at the mountain of gift box materials, her eyes rolled and a plan came to her mind.
"Mingyuan," Li Guifang said, smiling as she approached her son. "The gift boxes you fold are the most neat, even neater than the samples from the printing factory."
As she spoke, she stuffed a cup of hot tea into Li Mingyuan's hand. "I'm most confident in leaving this job to your mother. When you deliver the goods, I'll give you a bonus!"
Li Mingyuan was about to decline when Li Guifang quickly called over Li Shuhang and the other half-grown children: "All of you, listen to the chief steward's instructions. When I tell you to tie a bow, you tie a bow. When I tell you to twist a paper flower, you twist a paper flower. If you do well, you'll get 10% more of your lucky money."
As expected, this group of uneducated people were overjoyed again. There is a big difference between 10% and 100%!
It was just a mess. Anyway, the task of delivering these 2,000 gift boxes fell entirely on the shoulders of Li Mingyuan, the general manager.
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