Aunt Wang's eyes lit up: "My husband can do it, just let us do it for you, the labor and materials are not expensive!"

“Are you a professional at this?”

"What profession? Oh, of course I specialize in this! We are neighbors now and will live together for the rest of our lives. How can I lie to you? Don't worry, I will definitely help you make your house beautiful and brand new!"

"That's good."

Aunt Zhong beside her hurriedly pulled Meng Tao's hand and said, "Do you want to tidy up the yard? These vines are dead. Let my eldest son help you pull them off?"

Aunt Wang pushed her away and said, "What are you talking about? Why should two families do this little job? We'll take care of it!"

"Hey, why are you like this? You are so unreasonable." Aunt Zhong slapped Aunt Wang back and said angrily.

The two were about to quarrel, and Aunt Zhao intervened: "Alright, be quiet, this is someone else's house. The girl didn't say she wanted to pull out these vines. Besides, why pull them out if they're not dead? Wouldn't it be nice to keep them for next spring when they bloom? Have you forgotten your Zhong Miaomiao, who moves ladders and climbs over the wall all day to cut flowers for Old Man Jia to put in the vase."

"What do you care, you nosy woman!" Aunt Zhong rolled her eyes at Aunt Zhao and walked away.

"Who is the talkative woman? Is it wrong for me to tell the truth? Mr. Zhong, explain it to me clearly!" Aunt Zhao chased after him.

Meng Tao: “…”

The neighbors don't seem to be very friendly. She's a newcomer, so she can only watch and interact with them carefully.

Aunt Wang went home excitedly and brought her husband over, a middle-aged man with a simple and honest look. Meng Tao called him "Uncle Wang" and the man nodded in agreement. Meng Tao thought that she would have to call "Aunt Wang" "Aunt Wang" from now on.

Uncle Wang worked in a construction team, so he knew how to paint walls and replace ceilings. This didn't require much technical skills, and it was easy to find and buy materials. After the discussion, Meng Tao gave him the money to buy materials. Uncle Wang used his spare time to do the work, so it would take three or four days to finish all the houses in the yard. Meng Tao asked him to take his time, as she wanted quality and was not in a hurry to move in.

Because painting the walls would dirty the ground, Meng Tao didn't clean the yard. She was not here often, so after painting the walls, the cleaning work inside and outside the house and the yard was handed over to Aunt Wang, but she was told not to touch the flower pots and vine flower racks, and to clean up the dead branches and leaves and make sure the ground was tidy and clean, and she didn't need to worry about anything else.

The key to the courtyard gate was handed over to the Wang couple, and it was agreed that Meng Tao would come to inspect the work in a week and then pay the workers.

Meng Tao counted and registered the flower pots and other movable rockery, stone tables, stone benches and other items in the yard one by one, and asked Aunt Wang to close the door when entering and leaving, and that none of these could be left behind. Aunt Wang patted her chest and made the promise.

Walking on the street, Meng Tao thought to herself that she still had to pay to stay in a hotel. Fortunately, she was smart and changed the date on the certificate so that she could use it to register for accommodation.

There was a state-owned hotel on Limin Street. Meng Tao checked in and then went out for dinner. She went to the same restaurant she had eaten at noon and ordered a bowl of noodles with gravy. She took out the lunch box, which contained the braised pork left over from lunch. The hotel waiter took it to the kitchen to heat it up, and that was how she had dinner.

Seeing that it was still early, Meng Tao wrapped her head and face with a large scarf and went to the black market.

Unexpectedly, I met Ma Fengnian again.

Ma Fengnian was standing beside a stall talking to someone, gesticulating and looking very excited, completely different from his downtrodden image last time.

Meng Tao first looked at the items on sale on both sides. They were all coarse grains, fine grains, dried vegetables, cloth and clothes. There was nothing special. When she saw Ma Fengnian finished talking to someone, she walked over and called out, "Master Ma."

Ma Fengnian was stunned for a moment, then immediately asked in surprise: "Miss Tao?"

The last time Meng Tao dealt with him, she was also covered tightly with a scarf, leaving only her nose and eyes exposed, but she did not deliberately change her voice, so he remembered it, and her stature was about the same.

"Yes, it's me." Meng Tao asked, "What good stuff did Master Ma bring this time?"

Ma Fengnian waved his hands quickly, "No, no... My two cousins ​​are there. They killed a wild boar, a whole litter of wild boars! There's a lot of meat, and we can't sell it all in the countryside. Someone wanted to buy it all, but the price was too low, so I asked them to follow me in the car. It would be good if we could sell it for more money."

“Is it sold out?”

"Half of it has been sold. It's selling well! Do you want some, Miss Tao? I'll ask them to charge you less."

"No, I don't accept raw meat."

"Why don't you harvest some to eat? Ten or twenty pounds... I don't charge you for it!"

Ma Fengnian waved his hand generously. If it hadn't been for Miss Tao, he would have been in trouble. Not only would he have to pay a large sum of money, but he would also have lost his job. What's the big deal about sending ten or twenty kilograms of wild boar meat? Besides, his cousin would definitely not charge him too much money.

Meng Tao shook her head: "Thank you, I still have wild boar meat at home. I just saw you here and thought you had something good."

"I do have the mountain products you want. Many people have asked me if I would buy them recently, but I'm worried that Miss Tao won't contact me soon, so I don't dare to accept them."

"If you receive the goods now, what can you receive?"

"In addition to the mushrooms, black fungus and walnuts we had last time, there are also cured chicken and duck, air-dried rabbit, deer roe, other dried vegetables, dried beans, homemade sweet potato vermicelli and potato vermicelli from the countryside... Do you want any of these?"

"If it's good, I want it."

"Of course it has to be of good quality. The supply and marketing cooperative also accepts this, but the price is low. My fellow villagers want me to buy it."

"Then you can take them. Take a batch of special mountain products and ship them over next Friday. Put them in the original warehouse and I will go to receive them."

"Oh, good!" Ma Fengnian said happily.

Meng Tao recalled: "Last time you said you had a tea plantation or tea factory?"

"Yes, Jinling Tea Garden is famous. In the old days, it was offered as tribute to the imperial court. My wife's cousin works in the tea factory."

"Then I'd like to give it a try with 20 to 30 kilograms of tea leaves, and I'd like to have top-grade or first-class tea leaves."

Meng Tao took out two hundred yuan from her schoolbag and gave it to Ma Fengnian as a deposit. Ma Fengnian took it with a smile. He actually trusted "Miss Xiao Tao" very much, but having a deposit would of course be better.

In order to avoid attracting the attention of people around them, the two quickly walked away.

Before leaving the black market, Meng Tao went to a stall to exchange some cigarette tickets. There were no cigarette tickets among the pile of tickets that Shen Yu gave her.

I will go back to Xingyang County tomorrow and buy a few packs of good cigarettes for Zhang Fu. This time I will buy Daqianmen cigarettes to make him happy. I said I only came to Mengzhou for one day, but I ended up staying here and not going back. He has to buy meals and accompany and take care of two wounded soldiers. It's very hard.

The next morning, Meng Tao had breakfast at the state-owned restaurant. Seeing that she had plenty of time, she walked to the bus station. Passing by the post office, she stopped to think about it and decided to go in and call Shen Yu.

It was almost ten o'clock when she dialed the number that Shen Yu had given her last time in the doctor's duty room at the hospital.

In the provincial capital, Shen Yu was sitting at his desk flipping through documents when the phone rang. He reached out and picked up the receiver. His official voice was cold and indifferent: "Who is this? Please go ahead."

It was as if I heard the sound of nature in my ears: "I am Meng Taohua."

“Peach Blossom!”

Shen Yu's heart trembled, and he subconsciously looked at the closed office door. A smile broke out on his handsome but cold face: This girl finally has some conscience and called to comfort him early in the morning!

Last night I dreamed of peach blossoms. She put on makeup and changed her face, but he could still recognize her at a glance. It was his little frizzy cat. She looked ugly at first glance, but ugly in a cute way. She was naughty, cunning and could coax people. She escaped from under his hands, running farther and farther. The place she ran was like a chasm. He couldn't catch up with her. No matter how he called her, she didn't turn back. He felt lost when he woke up. Although it was a dream, he still felt very uncomfortable.

Unexpectedly, he received a call from Taohua, which made him very happy: "Taohua! How are you? Where are you now? What are you doing?"

"I'm fine, how about you?" Meng Tao was infected by Shen Yu's joy and greeted him as well.

"I'm fine! You haven't answered me yet, where are you?"

"I'm in Mengzhou."

"What are you doing going to Mengzhou? Are you disobedient again?"

Meng Tao knew what Shen Yu meant by "disobedient" and replied, "I didn't. I just came to have a look and play. If I come across something suitable, I will buy something."

"Did you buy it?"

“I bought it.”

"Is the money enough?"

"enough."

"Be careful. Tell me immediately if anything happens. Don't be stubborn, okay?"

"knew."

After a pause, Meng Tao continued, "Shen Yu, the gifts you gave me are too many and too expensive, as are the gifts you gave to Jin Niu. We are afraid we can't pay them back."

"You're talking nonsense again. We are lovers, so we should exchange gifts. I accepted everything you gave me, and you can't refuse anything I gave you. As for Taurus, I don't understand much. You can do whatever you want. Just do your part for me, okay?"

"I don't think I gave you anything."

"I gave it to you, but it's a little less. Remember to give me more later."

"Well, since you said so, I won't be polite. I also want to thank you on behalf of my brother Taurus."

Shen Yu was speechless. What a bad girl. Was she doing this on purpose to irritate him?

But he was in a surprisingly good mood: "I just sent you three letters, you probably haven't received them yet, you are not in the village, what should I do?"

Meng Tao: “???”

Is there something important going on with your elder brother that requires three consecutive letters to tell the whole story? "Zhou Cuiling or Captain Bao will keep it for me."

"Okay then, remember to bring a list and write a letter next time, otherwise I won't understand and will keep writing to you!"

Meng Tao: “…”

"Peach blossom?"

"Ah, I am here."

"You're at the Post Office?"

"Yes, I was about to go back to the county town. When I passed by the post office, I thought of you and ran in to call you."

"You should do this in the future. Miss me more and call me when you see the post office, okay?" Shen Yu smiled and praised and encouraged. The post office became inexplicably intimate in his mind: his girl, seeing the post office made her miss him even more and couldn't help but want to call him, how could it not be intimate? Meng Tao muttered in her heart: I also saw the post office yesterday, and I called today because I had time. I just want to tell you that giving gifts is also important. Don't give too expensive gifts at once. Consider whether the other person can bear it. And... how is my small change?

(End of this chapter)