Li Jin, who is not good with words
I also bought a cutting board and a pot from other stalls. I have these two items back home, but the cutting board there is just a wooden block, which is too heavy to carry yesterday. The pot back home is also a large pot used on an earthen stove, which I can't carry either, so I have to buy them here now. Other slightly lighter items are all brought from my hometown.
Because Liu Xiangmei planned to sell food in the future, the kitchen utensils she bought were all large.
In addition to buying brooms, mops, and other items, at Wang Yao's request, Liu Xiangmei bought a wind chime for both her and Sun Min. It was a wooden board shaped like an eave with several bells strung on it, which looked quite unique.
Looking at Wang Yao, who was beaming with joy, Liu Xiangmei felt a pang of sadness. Ever since her daughter learned of Liu Lan's plans, she had been acting like a little adult.
He would brandish a kitchen knife at the slightest provocation from the Wang family, his eyes filled with hatred, showing no trace of a child's innocence.
She was quite eloquent; she had overheard her daughter's words of advice to Xiaomin at the train station that day, and at the time she felt only relief that her daughter had grown up.
Now, seeing my daughter's silly smile again, I suddenly understand that people don't grow up overnight. It's just that they have no choice but to persevere. If they could, who wouldn't want to be carefree forever? It's because they, as parents, didn't do a good job of providing their daughter with a free environment to grow up in.
"What are you standing there for? The driver over there is almost finished loading the truck," Liu Xiangqiu tugged at Liu Xiangmei, reminding her.
Liu Xiangmei snapped out of her reverie and glanced at Xiaomin, who was happily watching the wind chimes just like Wang Yao. She sighed and said earnestly, "Second sister, how long has it been since Xiaomin smiled like that in front of you? How long has it been since you asked your child what she wanted? Don't wait until she grows up and no longer needs your help before you regret it."
Liu Xiangqiu followed Liu Xiangmei's gaze and saw the wind chimes tinkling and the child smiling brightly, completely different from when he was at home. He was no longer like a lonely ghost, silent and still.
The goods were already loaded. Liu Xiangmei greeted Liu Xiangqiu and then took Wang Yao to sit in the back of the small truck and headed towards the city.
Wang Yao looked back and saw her second aunt and Xiao Min standing by the roadside, facing Dingjiang, talking about something.
…
The truck pulled up to the building where they rented a house. Wang Yao jumped out of the truck and saw Li Jin waiting at the door.
Upon seeing Li Jin, Wang Yao recalled how this man had commented on her thick eyebrows and excessive body hair the day before, so she rolled her eyes at him and hurried upstairs to open the door.
Li Jin touched her nose; she was still angry!
"Xiao Li, what brings you here? Did you go to look at houses?" Liu Xiangmei said to Li Jin while calling out to the movers to unload the goods.
Li Jin nodded, "I've seen it, it's already decided, it's upstairs from Xinhua Bookstore."
“Oh my, I heard that houses near the county’s No. 1 Middle School are hard to rent. You’re lucky. The location is good, close to both the primary and middle schools.”
Li Jin followed Liu Xiangmei upstairs, carrying a chair in each hand, and replied, "Yes."
"So when do you plan to bring your dad and son out?"
Li Jin replied, "I'll go today."
"We need to hurry. It looks like it's going to rain. It's so hot and humid. If it rains, I'm afraid there will be more rocks rolling down behind your house."
Li Jin replied, "Okay."
"When is Xiao Li going back to the army? Can he stay home a few more days this time?"
Li Jin replied, "I'm leaving the day after tomorrow."
“You soldiers have it tough. You bleed and sweat in the army, and you can’t spend much time with your families.”
Li Jin replied, "It's not hard work."
Even if Liu Xiangmei was very enthusiastic, she felt that talking to Li Jin was pointless at this moment. Every time he answered, it was just a few dry words, leaving her at a loss for how to continue.
Wang Yao listened from the side, wondering what was wrong with this person. Yesterday, he was picking a fight with her, and today he was ignoring her mother, yet he kept trying to get close to them. She just felt that this person was strange.
Li Jin knew that he might have upset Aunt Liu again, but he didn't know why or how to explain it.
He didn't interact much with women growing up. On his father's side, it was just him and his father. When he grew up and came into contact with his biological father's side, it was just his father and him.
There are no women in my family, and I rarely interact with women, so I upset Wang Yao when I was chatting with her yesterday. I reflected on it last night and realized that I was prone to making mistakes by talking too much, so I adjusted my strategy today. But it didn't work that I was trying to talk less.
He felt a little annoyed, but his face remained cold and aloof, as if he had come to collect a debt, which scared the movers so much that they put down the furniture and ran away in a flash.
Li Jin felt uncomfortable with Aunt Liu and Wang Yao's presence, and unsure of how to conduct himself, he made up an excuse and fled.
After seeing Li Jin off, Liu Xiangmei secretly breathed a sigh of relief and urged Wang Yao, "This house needs to be tidied up properly, let's get started quickly."
When they got home last night, they both just wanted to lie down immediately, so they took turns showering, making the bed, and going to sleep. They hadn't even unpacked the luggage they brought from their hometown yet.
Okay, the house is really messy, I have to clean it up.
Wang Yao first prepared a large basin of laundry detergent water, intending to wipe every corner of the house.
While wiping, he chatted with Liu Xiangmei: "Mom, I have about ten days before school starts. Are you sure you want to make liangpi (cold skin noodles) to sell?"
Unexpectedly, Wang Yao suddenly brought this up, and Liu Xiangmei casually replied, "It's not confirmed, it's just something I said. What, do you think selling cold noodles is a bad idea?"
Wang Yao: "It's not that it's bad, it's just that selling liangpi (cold skin noodles) is too troublesome. If you want to make it and sell it, then we have to buy special tools for making liangpi, right? I didn't see any of those tools at the second-hand market just now, so I guess we'll have to order them. Besides, I think making breakfast is too hard work."
Liu Xiangmei was taking down and washing the curtains when she heard Wang Yao's words. She pondered for a moment and said, "We can sell the cold noodles at noon too!"
Upon hearing this, Wang Yao quickly stopped her: "You absolutely mustn't. It's best to eat cold noodles immediately, especially in this hot weather. There have been cases of people who ate cold noodles for lunch and died from poisoning."
Liu Xiangmei had never heard of this before. She asked suspiciously, "Who told you this nonsense? I've never heard anyone say that."
Liu Xiangmei could not possibly have heard of this, because it was a news story that Wang Yao had seen in her previous life.
She made up a story: "Our teacher said that if cold noodles are left out for a long time, they will produce bongkrekic acid, which is deadly and there is no specific medicine for poisoning."
On one hand, Liu Xiangmei thought her daughter was exaggerating. So many cold noodle shops on the street were selling them at noon, and only one or two people had problems eating them; most people were fine. On the other hand, she also felt that if this didn't happen to her, it would be fine, but if it did, she would be burdened with the memory of someone's death for the rest of her life, and her life would be completely ruined.
Wang Yao gradually frowned. She originally thought it didn't matter whether her mother made liangpi or not, but as she analyzed it with her mother, she felt that making liangpi was tiring and not worthwhile.
Because the price of liangpi (cold skin noodles) is fixed at 50 cents a serving, you not only have to steam the noodles, but also make chili oil, prepare vegetables such as bean sprouts and cucumbers, and boil seasoning water... After doing so much, you only make about 20 cents a serving.
Wang Yao squatted on the ground, calculating the costs with Liu Xiangmei one by one, and finally said, "This doesn't even include your initial investment in custom-made tools, so I think you should give up on making liangpi (cold skin noodles)."
Well, Liu Xiangmei's suggestion to make liangpi (cold skin noodles) that day was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. Actually, she wasn't very confident. She had only made it once before in her hometown, and the taste wasn't very good. If she were to actually make it on a large scale for sale, there was still a lot she needed to figure out.
After listening to Wang Yao's words, I have now completely decided not to do it.
What could she do? Liu Xiangmei wondered as she washed the curtains.
Wang Yao was also carefully recalling the scene she saw when she passed by the school gate in the south in her previous life.
Most of them are various snacks, such as takoyaki and grilled sausages, which they can no longer make now.
What they really need to do is provide meals to fill the students' stomachs, and boxed lunches are undoubtedly the best choice.
Wang Yao said, "Mom, how about we sell boxed lunches?"
"The restaurant where we ate dumplings last night also had stir-fried dishes, and I saw they were all over a dollar. Isn't that a bit expensive? What if the students can't afford it?"
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