In the 1990s, there were many petty thieves, so Shi Zhen was very careful on his way back, fearing that he might be targeted.
Fortunately, he was a tall man and dressed plainly, so he was safe the whole way.
The bus stopped in town, and Shi Zhen got off to walk home.
As he walked home, he noticed that some low-lying areas in the town were also flooded.
However, since it happens every year, everyone is used to it, and it's just a group of little kids wearing briefs playing in the water.
Shi Zhenxian went to the Shi family first.
It was four o'clock in the afternoon. Zhao Meiyun and Zhao Qiujuan were both at home, making dinner. Shi Dalin was not there; he wanted to earn more money, so he went outside to set up a stall.
As for Zhao Dongjuan... Shi Zhen didn't see her and didn't know where she went.
Shi Zhen came over intending to give Zhao Qiujuan and Zhao Meiyun the money they had earned from embroidering clothes these past few days.
It's definitely better to pay this money sooner rather than later.
When Shi Zhen went to Changxi City to collect the money, he brought his account book with him. Now he took out the account book and settled the money earned by Zhao Meiyun and Zhao Dongjuan.
The two women embroidered a total of 37.5 yuan. Shi Zhen didn't have any loose change, so he took out some whole bills and asked them to give him change.
Zhao Qiujuan immediately said, "Three hundred will do!"
"Even close brothers should keep clear accounts." Shi Zhen smiled; he had already decided to learn from his mistake and be more discreet about things.
Zhao Qiujuan and Zhao Meiyun were a little embarrassed, but they still gave Shi Zhen change.
After Shi Zhen left, Zhao Qiujuan took out 120 yuan for her mother, then grabbed the remaining banknotes, took out her savings book and said to Zhao Meiyun, "Mom, I'm going out to deposit some money."
Ever since Zhao Dongjuan rummaged through her things once, she learned her lesson.
She locks up all the money she earns now, and deposits it in the bank whenever she has a hundred yuan.
She went to the bank so often that everyone there knew her!
Zhao Meiyun is getting old and her energy is waning. Although Zhao Dongjuan has been willing to embroider some clothes these days, she can't embroider more than two pieces a day.
Normally, the clothes embroidered by Zhao Meiyun and Zhao Dongjuan together are only half the size of the clothes embroidered by Zhao Qiujuan.
At this moment, Zhao Qiujuan gave her mother 120 yuan, and the rest was her own profit.
Her mother had given her some savings and said she would also give her the money she earned from embroidering clothes. She was quite happy, thinking that she could buy a house with her mother.
In reality, in order to keep the family at peace and to keep Zhao Dongjuan from talking nonsense in front of Shi Ting and Shi Dalin, her mother has been giving Zhao Dongjuan money over and over again, at least several tens of yuan.
She wanted to save money to buy a house, and she couldn't even bear to eat the rice balls she sold herself, while Zhao Qiujuan had money to buy all kinds of snacks. Now she even wanted to keep clear accounts with her own brother.
Shi Zhen dotes on Shi Ting so much that he even makes her pay for popsicles when she wants to eat them!
Why should she give her hard-earned money to her younger sister?
After saving the money, Zhao Qiujuan went home and started studying Shi Ting's textbooks.
She learned pinyin after she became an adult, and found it not difficult. She had learned the basics from Shi Ting before.
Right now, she doesn't plan to study math or English anymore, since she can't learn them anyway. She just plans to learn to read.
We can't afford to be unable to understand anything in the future.
Zhao Qiujuan learned to read using a clumsy method: copying from the textbook.
She didn't set any requirements for herself. When there was work to be done, she would definitely work. When she had free time, she would copy from her elementary school textbooks.
Remember as many as you can.
Speaking of which, Zhao Qiujuan felt a little sorry for Shi Ting. Shi Ting had to copy more texts and do more exercises every day than she did. Shi Ting was a bit slow at doing chores and homework, and on top of that, she had to do embroidery to earn money, so she didn't have time to go out and play.
Zhao Dongjuan, however, was making sarcastic remarks, saying that they were wasting their time and that no matter how much they studied, they wouldn't be able to get into university.
She doesn't want to go to university!
After leaving the Shi family, Shi Zhen made a special trip to visit his father, who was setting up a stall outside.
His father did as he was told, tidied himself up, set up a stall at the entrance of the movie theater, and was clearly pleased to see Shi Zhen.
He now leaves at 10 a.m. and goes back at 10 p.m., without going home for meals in between, and has Zhao Meiyun bring his food over.
After all, setting up a stall can earn you a lot of money.
He can save forty or fifty yuan a day by setting up his stall all day.
"Dad, don't overwork yourself," Shi Zhen said.
"What's so tiring about this?" Shi Dalin looked at Shi Zhen seriously.
Indeed... Shi Zhen saw that Shi Dalin's complexion had improved a lot in just one month, so he didn't stop him anymore.
He stood there for a while longer, and then he heard Shi Dalin muttering again about going back to build a house.
Shi Zhen: "..." Shi Zhen didn't know what to say, because in his previous life, after making money outside, he also thought about going back to build a house.
Returning home in glory!
That's what everyone in their village did back then.
In reality, it makes no sense at all. Building a house in the mountains costs more than building one outside, since it's difficult to transport materials in.
In the end, nobody went to live there at all.
However, Shi Zhen did not use these words to persuade Shi Dalin. Instead, he said, "Dad, we are currently renting a house and have to pay rent. When we have money, we will buy a house here first, so we can save on rent. Then we can build a house in our hometown later."
"this……"
"Dad, my sister and I can't go back to the mountains anymore. Do you still want to marry my sister off to someone from the mountains?"
That's definitely not what I want to do.
Shi Dalin adored Shi Zhen's mother; she was a great beauty. Even though she was in poor health and couldn't do any work, he didn't mind at all and wanted to cherish her.
He also doted on Shi Ting, his daughter who was like a mother to him.
However, he didn't know how to express his pain, so he could only ask Zhao Meiyun to cook some good food for him every day. His son wouldn't let his daughter eat too many fried skewers, so he couldn't even give his daughter a fried skewer. Sigh!
Shi Zhen talked with his father for a while and then went home.
Some sections of the road were not flooded and were quite easy to travel, but some sections were flooded and required wading through the water.
As Shi Zhen was walking, he suddenly saw a child walking ahead of him suddenly sway and fall into the water.
He quickly stepped forward and scooped the child out of the water with his hand.
The water was a bit deep, up to his knees, but the child would drown not because of the water on the road, but because she accidentally stepped into the roadside.
On one side of this road is a river, and it's very deep there!
The child Shi Zhen picked up looked to be about five or six years old and was from the village. She was a little confused at first, but after she got over it, she started to cry.
Shi Zhen hugged her and lifted her up, saying, "It's alright, it's alright. I'll take you home."
Shi Zhen didn't take the child home. He dropped the child off at the drying ground in front of the house and left.
He walked a little further and saw Guan Baiyu's house, as well as Shi Ting and Shi Xinghuo, who were fishing with a net.
The net is spread out with a bamboo pole. You hold the net and scoop it out of the water in one direction, and you have a chance to catch fish.
Shi Xinghuo was strong and did this very well. Shi Zhen noticed that there were already five or six small fish in the small bucket that Shi Ting was carrying. They were either small crucian carp the size of two fingers or whitebait the size of one finger.
The river in front of their house is contracted out to fish farmers, but the black carp, grass carp, silver carp, and the like that they raise don't swim into the shallow water near the road. Only small whitebait and crucian carp swim up, and people catch them, but the person who contracted the river doesn't care.
"Where did this net come from?" Shi Zhen asked.
"I borrowed it from Uncle Jianguo," Shi Ting said. "Brother, I'm having dinner here tonight, and I want to eat fish!"
Are these few small fish enough to eat? Shi Zhen said, "Your family will be waiting for you if you don't go back. If you like these fish, take them home and let your sister cook them for you. Tell her that these small fish taste best when deep-fried."
Zhao Meiyun's cooking style is the same old thing; she doesn't put any ingredients in the water and just boils them. If you really want to make something delicious, Zhao Qiujuan is the better cook.
Of course, when it comes to cooking skills, even he can't compare to Zhao Qiujuan.
Fortunately, Shi Ting isn't picky about food right now; she loves to eat anything that's meat.
"Okay!" Thinking that the meals at home were often more plentiful than those at Shi Zhen's place, Shi Ting had no objections.
As for Shi Xinghuo, when the Shi family first came here, he ate at their house for a period of time.
But later Shi Zhen felt that it was inconvenient for him, a grown man, to eat at the Shi family's place every day, so he told him to eat at his place instead.
Shi Xinghuo's income is still collected by Shi Zhen. However, it's not good for him to always subsidize Shi Xinghuo, so now he only charges Shi Xinghuo 100 yuan a month for food, accommodation, water and electricity.
Shi Xinghuo's job digging pits for the waterworks has been temporarily suspended due to the excessive water flow, so he's been staying home these past few days.
Shi Zhen also found himself, quite unusually, free.
Shi Zhen was a little unaccustomed to this, and even thoroughly cleaned his house a couple of days ago.
However, he had something to do today... Shi Zhen spread the word that those who had previously embroidered could come to him to collect their money.
This kind of thing usually only needs to be told to one or two people, and they'll spread the word around, and by the next day, everyone in the area will know about it.
That's how gossip is passed down.
Shi Zhen lived in Guanjian State, so naturally, the first to receive the news were the people living near Guanjian State.
Zhang Xiumei is at home, tending to the chickens she raises.
She hadn't taken care of these chickens for a while; she had been busy embroidering clothes all day and had no time to look after these little rascals!
But these past few days, without clothes to embroider and with the continuous rain making the soil too damp, the chickens have become listless. So she and her husband carried dry straw down from upstairs to change the chickens' bedding to prevent them from getting sick.
As she was changing, someone came: "Xiumei, we have the money for sewing sweaters, go and get it!"
Zhang Xiumei paused, then exclaimed with delight, "I can get the money now? I'll go right away!"
She wanted to go out immediately, but then realized that she was wearing rubber boots covered in chicken droppings and dirty clothes. She could only say, "Oh, I'll go over later. I'll go change my clothes first!"
While Zhang Xiumei was changing her clothes, Shi Zhen was already giving money to Guan Jianguo's mother.
This old lady wasn't a fast worker; she could embroider about six or seven pieces a day. Shi Zhen calculated that she would earn a total of over 140 yuan.
He gave the money to the old lady, who was very happy and took out a dollar to give to Shi Zhen so she could buy an ice pop.
She ordered four sticks in one go: one red bean stick, one mung bean stick, and two sticks with sweet soup. She then shared two sticks with her granddaughter.
It's really rare. This stingy old lady had never bought anything from Shi Zhen before. She was always unhappy when her son bought cooked food or her daughter bought popsicles.
But thinking about it carefully, people her age have farmed all their lives and have no savings at all. Now that she's old, she relies on her son to give her a few dozen or a hundred yuan a year. She has no money on hand, so how can she be generous?
Moreover, Guan Jianguo has been buying popsicles for his daughter from time to time these days, but he doesn't buy them for himself, nor does he think of buying them for the old lady... The old lady has really had a hard time.
After Guan Jianguo's mother received the money, many other people came to collect their own money.
After receiving the money, almost all of these people went to Shi Zhen's place and bought popsicles or sodas to eat.
At this time, no one is controlling their sugar intake or avoiding sweets, because people don't usually have many snacks to eat, and sweets are still very attractive to them.
Most importantly... they used to come to Shi Zhen's place to get sweaters, and they've been craving these things for a long time!
Shi Zhen had previously purchased a lot of goods, especially soft drinks. After he made an agreement with the soft drink factory, they directly delivered a truckload of goods to him.
And now... these things are being sold off at breakneck speed.
Even the large bottles of Coke that he keeps at home have been bought by people who want to celebrate with their families.
Among those who came to collect money, some took only a few dozen yuan, while others took more...
Of all the people, Zhang Xiumei took the most. Shi Zhen's ledger recorded that she embroidered clothes worth more than 500 yuan!
Although some of them were made by Guan Jinjin, the main part was definitely hers... She's really quick.
Zhang Xiumei was delighted with the money and bought three red bean popsicles to take home.
Shi Zhen was busy when someone suddenly came over carrying a bucket. When Shi Zhen looked over, he realized it was the father of the child he had rescued earlier.
The child's father brought him a bucket of small fish: "Shizhen, thank you for catching my daughter. These are fish I caught this afternoon using rice grains. You can fry them up and eat them."
These fish are mostly whitebait, along with some other small fish.
There are plenty of whitebait in this river. Normally, people don't bother to catch them, but recently, with the flooding, many people have nothing better to do, so they've started catching them.
Some people use fishing nets directly, while others put some rice grains in a basket and wait for the whitebait to come in and eat before lifting the basket.
This person probably wanted to give Shi Zhen something to thank him for, but since he didn't have anything good to give, he gave him the fish he had just caught.
Shi Zhen did not refuse this kind offer and accepted the fish.
He had never met this family in his previous life, and he didn't know what happened to their daughter. But today was indeed a bit dangerous. Accepting a bucket of fish from them was nothing.
People came to collect their money one after another. Shi Zhen told Guan Baiyu to collect the money while he went to deal with the fish.
"Brother, let me do it," Guan Baiyu said.
"I'll do it, I'm quick," Shi Zhen laughed. Compared to killing fish, collecting money was definitely easier.
By the time Shi Zhen finished processing the fish, it was already six o'clock in the evening. Since no one had come to collect their money, Shi Zhen and Guan Baiyu went back, heated up a wok, and fried all the finger-sized fish.
After frying, braise it with soy sauce, sugar, and other seasonings. The result is delicious, and you can even chew and eat it along with the bones.
As they were doing this, a long time passed, and it was already seven o'clock when it was time for dinner. Shi Xinghuo was so hungry that he kept circling around the stove.
After finishing their meal, Shi Xinghuo went out for a stroll, while Shi Zhen and Guan Baiyu stayed home and did some accounting.
He can probably earn four thousand from this month's sweater business.
At that time, in some coastal open cities, foreign-funded enterprises invested and built factories in China, and the wages paid to workers could be three or four thousand yuan a month.
However, in some inland cities, many workers earn only a little over one hundred yuan a month.
In some local small workshops, a couple working day and night with a few or a dozen workers can earn tens of thousands of yuan a month.
In some remote areas, there is still no electricity or running water.
Shi Zhen didn't compare himself to the rich. He was very satisfied with his income. At least for now, Guan Baiyu and Shi Ting's tuition fees were no longer a worry.
If he makes money in the future, he plans to buy some daily necessities and save up capital to start his own business.
Shi Zhen had thought about his future.
He doesn't have many options left for the future.
After all, he doesn't have any diplomas, so it's unlikely he'll be able to go back to school.
Studying now is much more difficult than in later years; he would never find a school to accept him, let alone adult education…
He had seen Guan Baiyu take the exam in his previous life. At that time, such diplomas were still valuable, and correspondingly, they were difficult to obtain.
It's safer for him to continue doing business.
Doing business... in the catering industry is a good option; this period is a time of booming development for the catering industry.
But to be honest, he didn't understand a lot, couldn't guarantee that he could make it big, and didn't have a good recipe.
In contrast, he was already familiar with the path he had taken in his previous life.
Being a contractor can sometimes lead to a lot of unpleasant experiences. For example, after Shi Xinghuo died in his previous life, he particularly disliked the inadequate safety measures at some construction sites.
But even after entering this industry, he wasn't a big boss yet; he was just someone who helped out... He often found, to his dismay, that if he were to be perfect in every way, he might end up losing money instead of making any.
Because initially, for a project worth 100,000, after the person took it on, they would keep 50,000 for themselves or to bribe people, then use 40,000 to buy materials, and finally only give him 10,000 to do the work.
Fortunately, he has always been very careful, and there have been no accidents at his construction site.
He was very familiar with this industry; he knew which people were pitfalls to avoid and which were relatively better and worth doing business with.
Shi Zhen doesn't expect to earn a lot of money in this life; he feels that it's enough if it's about the same as in his previous life.
With his wealth from his previous life, he could buy Guan Baiyu a house and a car no matter which city he settled in in the future.
As for himself, he is not materialistic and has low demands for life. He doesn't mind living in Changxi City forever.
Since that's the case, he'll stick to the original approach.
In his previous life, he built his fortune little by little using the compensation from Shi Xinghuo's death. He not only struggled to make ends meet with that money, but he was also in dire straits at first. In this life, he can work hard and save money on his own.
After frying the bucket of small fish, Shi Zhen divided it into three portions. He and Shi Xinghuo had already finished theirs, but Guan Baiyu hadn't finished his. He was still holding a small fish, slowly nibbling at it.
It's strangely cute.
Seeing that he was healthy, Shi Zhen was happy. Thinking that he would be free these days, he said, "Xiao Yu, there will probably be a lot of people coming here to collect money tomorrow, and I can't leave... I'll take you to Changxi City the day after tomorrow and buy you some things you'll need for the start of school."
We haven't even bought Guan Baiyu's schoolbag yet. We also need to buy him a watch and some clothes...
Shi Zhen was pondering what Guan Baiyu might need when he heard Guan Baiyu say, "Let's call Tingting too, brother, you should buy her something too, right?"
Shi Zhen was taken aback for a moment, but finally smiled and said, "Yes, call her."
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