Auntie? Please! Who are you calling auntie?
Chu Yu was speechless. She had every reason to suspect that the man was doing it on purpose. With the old lady peeking from the side, Chu Yu had no choice but to accept the situation.
"Young comrade, what would you like?"
Dai Donglin raised an eyebrow. "Auntie is old and hard of hearing. Do you have anything else besides quail eggs?"
Chu Yu realized she had made a blunder, her face flushed slightly, but she pretended to be calm. "Six cents each, how many do you want?"
Dai Donglin had no idea how much he wanted. He used to live in a compound in Beijing with a nanny who cooked for him, so he really didn't know anything about grocery shopping.
"Give me a hundred."
"A hundred?" Chu Yu frowned slightly. "Isn't a hundred too many? We can't finish them all in a short time. If you don't have a refrigerator at home, you can buy a few less and buy more when you've finished them."
Chu Yu felt she had been considerate enough. As a stall owner, it was commendable to consider things from the customer's perspective, but the customer didn't appreciate it.
Dai Donglin scoffed, his dark eyes fixed on her:
"How do you know I can't finish them? My mom had ten children, and I have a bunch of brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces. A hundred quail eggs would be gone in a few days. How come some vendors are advising people to buy less? Auntie, you're so honest in your business! You're even more kind than my own aunt!"
He kept calling her "Auntie," which Chu Yu could sense was a mocking tone. Not to mention that the original owner was only eighteen, even in her previous life when she was thirty, she had never been called "Auntie." Chu Yu was inexplicably annoyed.
However, his shout attracted quite a few onlookers.
People tend to follow the crowd when buying groceries, and Chu Yu herself is no exception. When she enters the market, she doesn't know which vegetables are good or which stall has the most people, so she just goes to buy from that stall.
Although Dai Donglin was the only one at her stall, he bought a hundred at once. Seeing this, the women passing by all thought they were getting a great deal and crowded around to ask Dai Donglin:
"Comrade, how many do you want to buy?"
Dai Donglin, a cigarette dangling from his lips, shouted, "One hundred!"
"A hundred? You're buying so many? How much are they each?" the older woman asked.
Six cents.
The older sister's eyes lit up when she heard this. Six cents for quail eggs was not cheap. Twenty quail eggs were enough to buy meat. Quail eggs were too small to fill her stomach. At the same price, it was definitely more cost-effective to eat meat!
That's what the older sister thought. A week ago, she wouldn't have bought them, feeling that one yuan for quail eggs wasn't even enough to fill a tooth gap, and that it wasn't worth it. Even for a pharmaceutical factory worker like her who gets government-subsidized food rations, buying quail eggs required careful consideration.
Ever since that newspaper headline called quail eggs "golden eggs," their value has skyrocketed. Rumors have it that one quail egg is worth three chicken eggs and that eating them can boost brainpower!
All the staff in the department are buying quail eggs. Even my older sister, who doesn't usually like quail eggs, feels that she would be missing out if she didn't buy some to eat because of this trend!
But all the stalls selling quail eggs at the free market were out of stock, saying the purchase price was too high and they couldn't find a source. The older woman had been trying to buy them for two days without success. Who knew this girl was selling them for only six cents? No wonder that man just bought a hundred at once.
She thought men were stupid and didn't know how to buy groceries, but little did she know they were more shrewd than anyone else!
"Little girl, give me twenty!" The older woman pretended to reach for her money.
Dai Donglin laughed and said, "Big sister, you're wrong. She's already thirty-eight, married twice, and has seven children. She's not a young girl anymore. She might even be older than you. You should call her 'big sister'!"
The eldest sister's expression was priceless. She seemed to be processing Dai Donglin's words in her mind: "She's been married twice and has seven children, yet she still looks so young?"
She wanted to ask what brand of face cream this guy was using.
After her older sister had walked away, Chu Yu gritted her teeth and said, "Hey! I'm talking to you!"
Dai Donglin stood to the side, a cigarette dangling from his lips, and asked in a smug tone, "Auntie, what advice do you have?"
Chu Yu was utterly exasperated with this man. Was he really going to stick to the term "auntie"?
"You know perfectly well that I lied to her, yet you still won't let it go," Chu Yu breathed a sigh of relief. After all, the customer had bought a hundred quail eggs, making her her biggest client since she started working, so she couldn't afford to offend her. Changing the subject, her voice was clear and gentle, "Tell me, when you call me 'Auntie,' am I taking advantage of you, or are you taking advantage of me?"
Dai Donglin didn't expect her to be so blunt, but he was even more blunt than her, "If I don't call you Auntie, what should I call you? I don't even know your name."
Chu Yu hesitated for a moment, then replied without hesitation, "Chu Yu, Chu as in the Chu River and Han Border, and Yu as in the elm tree."
"Dai Donglin, the 'Dai' in 'don't give me a green hat,' the 'Donglin' in the opposite direction from the small woods to the west."
Chu Yu was amused by him. Who introduces their name like that?
Dai Donglin glanced at the sun, then took two steps forward, leaning on his cane.
He didn't bring a shopping basket; he used his shirt to wrap the quail eggs.
To avoid damaging the quail eggs, he dared not use both hands to support himself with the crutches. He could only hold his shirt with one hand and use the crutches with the other, a posture so strange that the phrase "disabled but determined" popped into Chu Yu's mind.
Seeing her strange expression, Dai Donglin paused, wiped the sweat from his brow, and said lazily:
"Comrade, come lend a hand!"
How can I help?
"It's like helping an old man cross the street, understand?" He was a bit irreverent.
Chu Yu sighed. Since they were in such a situation, it would be unreasonable not to help.
She had no choice but to step forward and support his arm.
As soon as the traffic light changed, a horde of bicycles surged forward. Chu Yu, fearing he would be knocked down, stood in front of him and waited until the traffic had passed before carefully helping him move forward.
She was close by, and a sweet fragrance wafted over her. A breeze blew by, and her loose shirt clung to her slender figure, outlining her captivating silhouette.
The sun was scorching, its rays stinging the skin, but Dai Donglin seemed to have another fire burning within him, scorching her even more fiercely, almost pressing all his weight onto her.
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