Chapter 34: 34 Just Want to Take My Money
Yang Chunyan smiled and glanced at him, "You said I'd ask you for money when I buy something! Forget it, since you regret it, I'll just use my own money to buy it!"
"Buy it, buy it! Buy everything you want!" Zhou Huaian said, looking at her with suspicion, "I think you just feel uncomfortable because I gave you so much money, so you want to find ways to get some back."
Yang Chunyan looked at him with amusement, "Even if we take it back, it's our money, I won't give it to outsiders!"
"That's true!" Zhou Huaian said as he pushed the chicken cart downstairs to where ironware was sold.
North Street is also a place where groceries are sold, with vendors selling rat poison, dog-skin plasters for bruises and sprains, shoe repairmen, and roadside barbers. It is even busier than the market day in town.
Zhou Huaian pulled Yang Chunyan aside and looked at the crowd jostling around vigilantly, worried that she would be visited by three hands.
The two of them arrived at a stall selling iron tools. Yang Chunyan selected two hoes with pickaxes, and then bought a sharp knife after thinking about it. The total cost was four dollars and fifty cents.
Zhou Huaian's lips twitched with pain.
After buying the medicine hoe, the two pushed the cart to the stall selling leaf tobacco. The best tobacco was only ten cents per pound. Zhou Huaian picked the best and bought five pounds of high-quality tobacco for the old man and Zhou's father respectively. After looking around and seeing that the stalls in the vegetable market had been closed, he turned the cart around and headed towards the supply and marketing cooperative.
When they arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative, Zhou Huaian stood at the door watching the chicken bus. Yang Chunyan went to the supply and marketing cooperative and bought two packs of cigarettes, a pack of matches (ten boxes), a tube of toothpaste, and also bought some fruit candies for the children for twenty cents.
Seeing the flashlights on the counter, I thought about buying another flashlight and two pairs of batteries.
Zhou Huaian looked at Yang Chunyan who came out with something in her arms. He almost fainted after seeing clearly what she held in her hands. "..." You stingy bitch, you can't stand me putting two dollars in my pocket...
Yang Chunyan walked up to him and said with a smile: "I bought a flashlight. You don't have to worry about the oil lamp being blown out by the wind when you go to the toilet at night."
Zhou Huaian's expression immediately turned from gloomy to bright after hearing this. He took the cigarette she handed over, avoiding her gaze, and tore open a cigarette, lit it, took a puff, and then said, "Why don't you buy one for yourself?"
"I have it, no need to buy." Yang Chunyan put her things away and carried her small backpack. "Let's go to the riverside market to see if there is any fat meat left. We can buy two kilograms to take home for a snack."
"Okay! Let's see if there are any pig's trotters. Grandpa loves to chew on pig's trotters the most."
"Well! Buy two if you have them."
The two pushed the chicken cart to the vegetable market near Ning River, where there was a meat stall. The pig's trotters and fat were long gone, but there was still a piece of pork belly, a pile of bones and a pair of fat intestines.
These days fat meat is expensive, butt meat is cheap, and big bones are something no one wants.
The boss glanced at the two of them and said, "The fat meat is sold out. We still have more than three pounds of sitting meat. If you want it, I'll give it to you at a discount."
Zhou Huaian took a look and said, "It's too thin. We want to buy pig's trotters and ribs."
"It's sold out!" the boss tried to persuade him, "We still have a piece of pork belly left. It was originally sold for one yuan per pound, but I'll sell it to you for nine yuan. It's only three pounds and six ounces left."
Yang Chunyan pointed at the pile of large bones, dragon bones and fan bones without any meat left, and said, "Put the bones in there too. We want them."
Zhou Huaian glanced at it with disdain, "What are you going to do with the bones? There's no meat at all and they're just waste firewood."
"Young man, the bones and radish stew are delicious." The boss looked at Yang Chunyan, "Sister, if you buy the pig intestines, I will give you the bones."
Zhou Huaian said disdainfully: "It's so smelly and troublesome to wash, no, no."
The boss suppressed his disgust for him and looked at Yang Chunyan, "I'll sell it to you for 15 cents per pound. I'm selling it to you at a loss. Do you want to buy it?"
Yang Chunyan took a look at the pig intestines and saw that there was no water in them. She said, "At ten cents a pound, I'll buy it."
The boss nodded with a pained look, "Okay, if my kids at home weren't eating enough of it every day, I wouldn't be willing to sell it to you!"
9.2 jin of pork intestines and 3.6 jin of pork belly, totaling to 4.16 yuan.
Zhou Huaian said to the boss with a painful look on his face: "It's so expensive? 4 yuan, if you are willing, we will buy it, if not, forget it."
The boss looked at him unhappily: "You, young man, are not as straightforward as your wife!"
16 cents can buy more than a pound of salt. Thinking of this, Yang Chunyan pretended to be a bullied wife and said nothing.
Zhou Huaian rolled his eyes and said, "Stop talking nonsense. Are you going to sell it or not?" It's his money that she's spending, so of course she's going to do it happily!
The boss had no choice but to nod and said, "Okay, okay, I've already lost everything else, so this is not a big deal."
Yang Chunyan paid the money, and Zhou Huaian tied the meat and pig intestines to the edge of the bamboo basket and put the big bones in the basket. He looked at her proudly, pushed the chicken cart out of the vegetable market, and walked to the bridge. Only then did he remember that he had not gone to eat beef noodles yet, and forgot to ask about growing herbs!
Zhou Huaian looked at Yang Chunyan, "Shall we go back and eat some beef noodles before leaving?"
Yang Chunyan thought of the dry food she brought with her, "I haven't eaten the dry food I brought yet, I'll eat it next time."
"Okay, let's eat the dry food we brought first, and then we can go for beef noodles next time." Zhou Huaian pushed the cart and found a place to sit down.
Yang Chunyan put down the small backpack, took out the lunch box, opened it, and saw two eggs inside. "Look, mom also cooked eggs for us."
Zhou Huaian said sourly: "My mother probably cooked it for you. They treat you better than me."
Yang Chunyan picked up an egg and knocked it against her knee. "How dare you! Mom packed two eggs. Are they both for me?"
Zhou Huaian reached out and took the egg, tapped the eggshell with his fingers and rubbed it twice, peeled off half of the eggshell and handed it to her, saying with a smile: "I just said it casually. They are nice to you, and I am happy too."
Yang Chunyan looked at him and said, "I'm not going to live with them forever!"
"I'm not nice to you, am I?" Zhou Huaian looked at her aggrievedly, "Look at how Cai Ermei beat his wife. I can't even bear to touch you with my finger."
Yang Chunyan said calmly: "If you were someone like Cai Ermei, I would have divorced you long ago."
Zhou Huaian looked at her expression and felt that what she said was true. He was stunned for a while before saying, "Don't worry, no one in my family beats their wives, and I won't do that either!"
Yang Chunyan handed him the peeled egg and said gently, "I know you can't do it."
You know I can’t do it, yet you still tell me!
Zhou Huaian took the egg, took a big bite, chewed it hard for a few times, then took the multi-grain pancake handed to him by Yang Chunyan and started eating it in big mouthfuls.
The two of them drank the warm water in the kettle, ate the multi-grain biscuits in their lunch boxes, stood up, brushed the dust off their butts, and pushed the chicken bus back.
After walking for half an hour from the bridgehead to the asphalt road, they reached the slope again. Zhou Huaian tilted his head towards Yang Chunyan, "Yan'er, it's downhill. Get in the car and I'll let you go."
Yang Chunyan looked at the gentle slope below, nodded, and sat on it, "Hold on tight, don't slide down."
Zhou Huaian nodded with a smile, holding the handlebars with both hands, the chicken bus squeaked again and went down the slope quickly.
(End of this chapter)
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