Before they knew it, it was time to go out for a trip once every seven days, just as they had promised Xu Kang and Xu Le.
Xu An left his phone with He Ping to register the orders and plan the route for tomorrow, while he rode his electric tricycle with Xu Kang and Xu Le to the beach.
It's four o'clock in the afternoon. The sun isn't as scorching as it is at noon, and there's a sea breeze at the beach, making it the perfect time to go for a beach vacation.
Qianhai Town is named so because it is located by the sea, and is surrounded by the sea on three sides.
Starting from the center of Qianhai Town, it only takes 30 minutes by bike to reach any beach.
However, not every beach is the typical touristy sandy beach; some beaches are full of mud, where you can sink up to your thighs in the deepest parts; some beaches are covered with all sorts of shellfish that have been washed smooth by the wind; and some beaches are lined with endless mangrove forests...
Now that Xu An is taking the two children out to play, they naturally won't go on any challenging activities; they'll just go to a regular beach.
Early in the morning, the two little ones asked Xu An where they were going to play today. After learning that they were going to the beach, they carried a small plastic bucket in their left hand and a small shovel in their right hand all day, looking forward to their upcoming trip to the beach.
As soon as we arrived at our destination, before the car had even come to a complete stop, the two little ones struggled to get out of the car.
However, the tailgate of the car was too high, and the two of them had short legs. After stepping out with one leg, they were stuck there, unable to go up or down, which made Xu An laugh out loud.
Just before the two were about to burst into tears in their anger, Xu An finally had a change of heart and stepped forward to hug them down.
The moment their feet touched the ground, the two of them eagerly ran towards the sea, with Xu An watching them from a distance.
When I was little, my parents would come home every Chinese New Year and take me to the beach.
Thinking back now, this happened more than ten or twenty years ago, and my memory of it is very vague.
All I remember is that I was really happy and joyful at the time...
Depend on!
Before Xu An could finish his reflections, he saw the two little rascals, Kang Kang and Lele, running into the sea.
Startled, Xu An ran and caught the two of them, then slapped each of them before they calmed down and sat on the beach to dig for small crabs.
"Anzi?"
Xu An heard someone calling him from behind. He turned around and found that it was Aunt Hong.
"Aunt Hong, what brings you to the beach today?"
"I get so bored staring at those vegetables and fruits in the fields all day. I came to the beach to relax." Aunt Hong walked over to Xu An and sat down on a big rock. "Did you bring Kang Kang and Le Le here to play?"
"Yes, it's not good for the two of them to stay in the shop all day long. Children need to get out and move around more and get some sunshine."
Aunt Hong nodded upon hearing this and said nothing more. She and Xu An quietly watched Xu Kang and Xu Le playing on the beach.
The two seemed to have gotten tired of digging for crabs, so they started digging sand and building sandcastles with their small shovels.
However, the waves were quite large today, and the castle, which had just begun to take shape, was destroyed by a single wave.
The two were unwilling to move, so they continued to build a new castle on the ruins of the previous one.
After four or five castles were destroyed by the waves, the two finally gave up building castles and began to fight against the waves.
They built low walls out of sand, and after the waves knocked them down, they continued to build new walls, waiting for the next wave to arrive.
It was boring, but Xu An watched it with great interest.
Kids are so lucky; they can have so much fun even with such a boring game.
"Anzi, did you take the two of you out for fun this afternoon because you weren't opening the shop?" Aunt Hong suddenly asked.
"It's open. Heping is helping to look after the shop," Xu An explained.
“Heping is a good child too,” Aunt Hong said with emotion, then added, “He’s just a little mischievous and playful.”
Silence fell between them again. Perhaps it was because the sea breeze was so comfortable, perhaps it was because the sea made people let their guard down, or perhaps it was because Aunt Hong simply wanted to find someone to confide in. She faced the sea, seemingly talking to herself, or perhaps chatting with Xu An.
“These days, a supermarket manager approached us, hoping to cooperate with us. The terms he offered were quite attractive; the purchase price would be 3-5 cents higher than the vegetable vendors’ buy-in price.”
"Isn't this great?" Xu An casually chimed in.
"Yes, it sounds good," Aunt Hong sighed. "But the supermarket requires everyone to grow the same crops. There are more than twenty greenhouses over there. Each greenhouse produces 1,500 catties, so the total yield of all twenty greenhouses is 30,000 catties. If the supermarket breaks the contract, the vegetable vendors will definitely drive down the price of so many of the same crops. The price they offer will probably be no better than what you get from growing crops in the fields."
The same crops? Supermarket acquisition? Breach of contract? These words sound so familiar.
A distant memory suddenly appeared in Xu An's mind. It was something he had talked about with his grandmother in his previous life, something related to Aunt Hong. At this point in time, it would happen next year.
Aunt Hong's greenhouse supplier broke the contract, leaving nearly 5,000 kilograms of cauliflower from three greenhouses unsold.
The vegetable vendors who came to buy the vegetables saw that the quantity was large and pushed the price down to two cents per pound.
Aunt Hong was furious, so she harvested all the cauliflower inside and gave it away sack after sack.
During that period, every household in the village received two large sacks of cauliflower; they were really tired of eating it.
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