Around five or six o'clock in the afternoon, there were only four melons left in the car. The two brothers looked at each other and smiled, both feeling relieved.
"Take a break, I'll bring some watermelons to Old Huang." Wang Peng put the watermelons into a snakeskin bag and walked to the gatehouse. "Uncle, these watermelons are for you."
"No, we have plenty at home," Huang Biao said with a smile, waving his hand.
"Don't be so polite with me, I still have ten or twenty thousand catties of watermelons in my field," Wang Peng joked with him.
After exchanging a few more polite words, Huang Biao had no choice but to compromise, lock the door, and take him home.
He didn't go back to his own home, but instead went to his son's home—the first floor of a residential building.
Wang Peng met a middle-aged couple. The man had his hair slicked back and looked like a leader in his workplace.
The woman wore jeans, had short, ear-length hair, and wore gold-rimmed glasses; she spoke in a gentle and refined manner.
He put the watermelon in the storeroom, said goodbye to Huang Biao, and left without saying a few words to the middle-aged couple.
“Xiaowei, this kid is quite pitiful.” Huang Biao sighed. “His friends told me that his father forced him to give his admission notice to his brother. He disagreed, so his father kicked him out. He sells watermelons to earn tuition fees.”
Song Wei smiled and said, "Father, just say what you have to say."
Huang Biao nodded. "He was the top scorer in the high school entrance exam. Your school should just waive his tuition. Don't let money hold back a talented person."
“I can’t make decisions about things at school all by myself.” Song Wei shook his head. “Dad, we can only do him a favor and allow him to sell melons here.”
Huang Jin said, "Father, giving birth to a child is a kindness, but giving too much can breed resentment. Helping him too much is not good either. Don't worry about it. Everything depends on his own fate."
...
There's a restaurant across from the People's Department Store.
Wang Peng ordered two bowls of braised noodles and added five yuan worth of mutton. The two brothers sat facing each other.
Before the noodles even arrived, Wang Peng was secretly counting his money under the table, and soon burst out laughing.
Today's income was 206 yuan. After deducting the cost of 700 jin of watermelon, the net profit was 138 yuan.
He took out seventy yuan and put it in the inner pocket of his waist bag. With the money he had saved in the previous two days, he had already raised two hundred yuan for tuition.
The remaining sixty-odd yuan was used as capital for starting a business and for daily living expenses.
"I've saved enough for tuition, let's celebrate with a beer!" Wang Peng called to the shopkeeper, "How much is a bottle of beer?"
"One yuan a bottle, how many bottles do you want?" The middle-aged shop owner walked out from behind the counter to get the bottles.
"Two bottles, please," Wang Peng said.
The boss brought over two bottles of wine and gave them two glasses; the two brothers drank one glass in one go.
Du Lei burped, “Tuition alone isn’t enough. You also need to save for living expenses. Once school starts, you won’t have time to do business, and no one will give you living expenses.”
He poured himself another glass of wine. "Once school starts, you won't have time to do business anymore. What will you do then?"
“That’s easy. Save up another six hundred yuan for living expenses before school starts. Brother Lei, is six hundred yuan enough for a semester?” Wang Peng wasn’t quite sure about current prices.
"That's barely enough, have another one." Du Lei raised his glass.
Wang Peng downed a beer in one gulp, feeling refreshed all over. "Once I sell all the watermelons from your family's farm, I'll not only be able to save enough for living expenses, but also to rent a place and buy clothes."
There are at least 10,000 jin of watermelons left in the melon field. Calculated at a profit of two mao (0.2 yuan), the total profit is about 1,800 yuan.
"Alright, I wish you all the best." Du Lei sighed and drank another large glass of beer.
Before I finished my beer, the owner brought me two bowls of braised noodles. I went back to the counter to continue reading the newspaper.
There was a layer of mutton in the bowl, and Wang Peng picked up some meat to feed Xiaobai.
The little white cat meowed twice, finished eating the meat, and then lay down on its owner's lap.
“Brother Peng, Feng Lingling and I started dating in the first year of junior high. In the third year, we lived at school. There was a pile of wheat straw outside the playground, and we often went there to date, hugging and kissing.”
"Wow, you're dating way too early!" Wang Peng gave him a thumbs up. "How old are you guys? You're not even fully grown yet!"
"Don't talk about that." Du Lei looked frustrated. "She got into No. 3 Middle School and asked me to lend her money for tuition. Do you think I should lend it to her?"
"Hey buddy, do you even have any money?" Wang Peng scoffed. "Where are you planning to get your money from?"
Du Lei was speechless and lowered his head to eat the braised noodles in his bowl.
Ping'an County has three high schools. The No. 1 High School gathers the county's elite students, while the No. 2 and No. 3 High Schools have poor academic performance.
Every year, No. 1 High School produces more than a dozen key university students, and occasionally even Peking University and Tsinghua University.
If No. 2 Middle School and No. 3 Middle School can produce a few students admitted to third-tier universities, the school authorities should set off firecrackers to celebrate.
"Let me guess." Wang Peng stared at his head. "You don't want to steal our grandma's money? To use the stolen money to pay her tuition?"
"Cough, cough..." Du Lei coughed violently, and beer sprayed out of his nose.
He hurriedly ran outside to blow his nose, and tears and saliva came out.
A moment later, he sat down opposite Wang Peng again. "You, how did you know?"
Wang Peng sneered, "That's not important. What's important is that you can't steal our master's money."
In his past life, Du Lei stole his grandfather's savings for his coffin and secretly took Feng Lingling to register for the Third Middle School. Although he saved his girlfriend's education, he angered the old man so much that he fell seriously ill.
If Feng Lingling were a good girl, then it would be fine.
The key issue is that she's a terrible woman.
In her past life, her coworkers all called her a "public bus," and neither of her two children after marriage were Du Lei's.
“Brother Peng, I think she loves me. She said she’ll marry me in the future, and I want to help her.” Du Lei blushed and stared at Wang Peng.
"How old is she?" Wang Peng took out paper and pen from his waist bag.
"Sixteen years old, why are you asking this?" Du Lei looked at his fanny pack. "Could you lend me 180 yuan first? I'll pay you back double later."
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