132. Repayment and Dividends
132. Repayment and Dividends
That afternoon, when the sun was setting, Lu Lao Er and Lu Lao Si each pushed a cart and went out.
"Have a safe trip."
"Okay, got it."
Lu Lao Er responded to his wife behind him and pushed the cart away.
Lu Wulang and Lu Liulang followed behind their father to help push the cart. When their father got tired on the road, it was the two brothers' turn to pull the cart.
On the cart were the utensils they used to set up their stall and skewered vegetables.
Meat wasn't available every day in the countryside, and the weather was getting hotter. They were afraid that if they kept the meat at home for too long, and had to walk all the way to the city, the meat would spoil on the way. So they had arranged with the butcher in the city a few days ago to pick up the meat at his house in the afternoon.
They were doing business at night, leaving home at this time every day so they could get into the city before sunset. They would do business in the city at night and leave as soon as the city gates opened the next day.
After making these two trips every day and doing business all night long, the two adults and two children all lost a lot of weight after a period of time.
However, no matter how hard or tiring it was, as long as they saw the money in their pockets increasing day by day, the two pairs of father and son, and the four of them, were very happy in their hearts.
That day they left home an hour and a half earlier than usual and arrived in the city half an hour earlier than usual.
However, when they came into the city, they found that their third brother's (third younger brother's) stall had been closed. They thought they had sold all their things and gone home.
They had been setting up their stall in the city for so long, but they had never once run into their third brother's family. But this was normal, as one family did business in the morning, and the other did business in the evening. One family would close their stall before the other came, and when one family came to set up their stall, the other family would leave the city.
Unable to wait to set up their stall today, Lu Lao Si said to his second brother, "Let's go to Third Brother's house to deliver the goods first. After we come back, we will set up the stall."
"Okay." Lu Lao Er nodded, took out the money for buying meat and gave it to his son, asking him to go to the butcher to pick up the meat. "Remember to smell the meat, okay? Don't buy rotten meat."
"Yeah, I know." Lu Wulang took the copper coin handed to him by his father.
"Then you just stay here and look after our things, and don't go out to play." This is what Lu Laosi instructed his son.
"Okay, I understand." Lu Liulang felt a little envious when he saw his cousin who could buy meat with the copper coins.
After Lu Lao Er and Lu Lao Si told their children what to do, the two brothers, one carrying a cage of chickens and the other carrying a basket of vegetables, went to the house of their third brother (third elder brother).
However, when they arrived at their third brother's house, they found out that their third brother was not at home.
Lu Mingfei, who was studying at home, heard his second and fourth uncles talking, so he came out of his bedroom and entertained them on behalf of his mother. He invited them to sit in the main hall, "Second uncle, fourth uncle, please have a seat. How come you have time to come to our place today? Aren't you setting up a stall today?"
Liu Sanniang poured tea, said hello to her two uncles, and went to the kitchen to busy herself.
"Baibai, we just arrived in the city, so we thought we'd come over to say hello before going back to set up a stall." Speaking of setting up a stall, Lu Laoer sincerely thanked his nephew: "Thanks to the barbecue recipe you gave us, we can make a living in the city."
"Otherwise, your fourth uncle and I are illiterate and have no skills, so no one would want to hire us no matter what we do." At this point, Lu Laoer was still very grateful to his nephew for putting aside their past grudges and helping them two uncles.
Little did they know that Lu Mingfei was not helping his two uncles, he was helping his two cousins.
"I'm just providing you with a way out. Whether you can complete it or not depends on yourself." Lu Mingfei also found that these two uncles looked much thinner than the last time he saw them. It can be seen that this business is not easy to do.
He didn't expect that these two uncles would be so fearless of hard work and be able to persevere.
Seeing that his two cousins didn't come, Lu Mingfei casually asked them: "Didn't the fifth and sixth brothers come with you?"
"They're here too. I asked Wulang to go get some meat from the butcher, and Liulang is watching over the stall." Lu Laoer replied, "We'll go back later and grill some skewers for them to bring over so you can taste our cooking skills."
"Don't bother, we'll have dinner and then close the shop to rest." Lu Mingfei said this just because he didn't want his two uncles to ask his cousin to deliver things to their house. It was true that his mother and brothers were asleep after dark, but he usually read until midnight.
Thinking about how they had been setting up stalls in the city for so long and had never come to their third brother's house to say hello, Lu Laoer felt a little embarrassed.
Lu Mingfei didn't mind this and continued to ask, "How is the business at your stall?"
"It's okay, it's okay. Business is pretty good recently." When he said this, a smile appeared on Lu Laoer's face.
"I heard that you passed the scientific examination successfully again this time. Congratulations." Lu Laosi and his nephew expressed their joy.
"Yes, yes, I haven't told you congratulations yet. Soon our family will have a scholar, and your fourth uncle and I will also benefit from you in the future. When we go out in the future, people outside will say that this is the scholar's second uncle and fourth uncle." Lu Laoer also said with a smile.
Lu Mingfei did not respond to his second uncle's words, because not everyone could benefit from his influence.
When Lu Lao Er saw that his nephew didn't respond to their question, he felt a little embarrassed and his smile faded a lot. He asked about his third brother who was not at home, "Why is your father not at home? Where did he go?"
"He and his men went out of the city." Lu Mingfei replied.
"What is he doing outside the city? The city gate will be closed soon. Won't he go back to live in the city?" Lu Lao Er turned his head to look at the sky outside and asked worriedly.
"There's a place to live outside the city." Lu Mingfei didn't say what his father was doing out of town, because he didn't want to discuss family matters too much with his two uncles. He knew that if he told his two uncles about their family buying land and opening a farm outside the city, the rest of the Lu family would know about it.
So it wasn't that he was on guard against his two uncles, but he felt that there were some things that didn't need to be known to the people in the Lu family's old house.
"Oh, that's good." Lu Lao Er also heard that his nephew didn't want to talk too much about this matter, so he stopped asking.
The two of them didn't know what to talk about with their nephew. The three of them sat there and the situation became increasingly awkward. Lu Lao Er glanced at his fourth brother and said to his nephew, "It's getting late. Your fourth uncle and I will leave first. We still have to go back to set up our stall."
The two men stood up.
Lu Mingfei stood up and asked, "Second Uncle, Fourth Uncle, aren't you going to have dinner at our house before leaving?"
"No, no, there are still a lot of things to do at the stall. Oh, yes, this is the silver I borrowed from your father last time. I'm returning it to him. Since he is not at home, you can give it to your mother and tell your father later." As if remembering something, Lu Laoer took out the silver he had prepared in advance from his arms and handed it to his nephew.
"And there's some from me. Remember to tell your father." Lu Laosi also took out the silver he had prepared in advance and gave it to his nephew.
"In addition, there's this one, which is the dividend we share from setting up our stall. You gave us the kebab recipe, and I discussed it with your fourth uncle, Wu Lang, and the others, and decided to give you a share of the dividend. Your fourth uncle's family and I will take 30%, and the remaining 40% is for you." Lu Lao Er took out another purse and told his nephew how much silver they earned from business last month and how much each family would get. "From now on, we will send you the dividend on the 10th of every month."
However, Lu Mingfei only took the silver returned by his second uncle and fourth uncle. As for the dividends, he did not ask for them. "I can't take this money from you. You can take it back. You don't have to give me any dividends in the future."
"That won't work. Without the recipe you gave us, we wouldn't be able to make any skewers. You must take this money." Lu Laoer stuffed the silver into his nephew's hand.
Lu Lao Si also said, "Yes, this silver should be given to you, just take it. You will need a lot of silver for your studies in the future, so use it for your studies."
"There's no need for dividends, just take them back. My father and mother have money to support my studies, thank you for your kindness." Lu Mingfei pushed the purse back to his second uncle and said to his fourth uncle next to him.
"No, no, you must take this silver. You gave us the recipe. Without you, we wouldn't have made so much money." Lu Laoer stuffed the purse into his nephew's pocket and prepared to leave.
"Second uncle, fourth uncle, wait a minute." Lu Mingfei chased out of the yard and did not let his second uncle and fourth uncle leave like that.
When their family was in such a difficult time, they never thought of asking these two uncles for help, let alone now that their lives are getting better, they don’t need this kind of profit sharing that would be icing on the cake.
Who knows if this little bit of money will lead to further involvement with the Lu family's old house in the future? This little bit of money is not worth it for him. Lu Mingfei saw the intention of his two uncles doing this, and it was precisely because he understood that he was more willing to refuse.
"What's going on?" Liu Sanniang, who was in the kitchen, heard the voices outside and came out to ask. Seeing her eldest son and two uncles arguing in the yard, she asked in confusion.
The three children playing in the yard also looked at the two strangers in the house.
To Lu Mingrui, these two uncles, whom he had only met a few times, were strangers to him. Lu Mingcong and Zhang Xiaobao were also unfamiliar with the two uncles of the Lu family, so the three children looked at the two strangers who were pulling their eldest brother with their eyes as if they were strangers.
Zhang Qi knew who these two people were, but he was not familiar with Uncle Lu Er and Uncle Lu Si.
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