Chapter 45 [45] I want to go home
The problem now is these little hooligans.
I didn’t get the goods today, will you come back tomorrow or the day after tomorrow?
This problem gave Tang Yuanyuan a headache.
Li Mu sat down on the sofa with a dagger in his hand, one leg raised proudly: "If you beg me, I will solve it for you."
"I know where they are."
Tang Yuanyuan: "How do you know?"
Li Mu touched his chin and said, "For a while, I hung out with them."
Tang Yuanyuan: "Have you ever been a gangster?"
Li Mu nudged his nose with his thumb, feeling guilty. "For a while, I really wanted to kill Zhao Shun and let Zhao Dong experience the pain of losing his loved ones."
Tang Yuanyuan: "Then why did you change your mind?"
Li Mu scratched his hair and said, "Those people are nothing like in the movie."
Tang Yuanyuan: "What's the difference?"
Li Mu: "In movies, the men are all very loyal, but they're not like that."
Twelve-year-old Li Mu, who was only 1.5 meters tall, tried his best to befriend a little gangster, and the gangster took him to see his elder brother.
The eldest brother asked him why he wanted to join their gang.
Twelve-year-old Li Mu imitated the brotherhood he saw on TV: "Brother, if you help me kill someone, I will be loyal to you until my death and will go through fire and water for you."
Before he could finish his words, the big brother kicked him out of the door and told him to get away.
Tang Yuanyuan laughed so hard she covered her stomach. "You're talking nonsense! Killing people gets you shot. They were just robbing and didn't want to die."
Li Mu smiled embarrassedly. He was really stupid at that time.
Tang Yuanyuan suddenly turned serious and said, "So, you've changed your strategy again, angering Zhao Shun and Aunt Zhao, making them live in distortion and hatred, turning the Zhao family's life into chaos and preventing Zhao Dong from living a peaceful life?"
Li Mu had a very innocent and aggrieved expression: "Fuck, do you think of me that much? I don't, it's them who are feeling unbalanced and think I spent their money."
"I just saved you, and you still miss me like this? If I had known, I would have ignored you just now."
Tang Yuanyuan: "That gangster can't just rob my store. After robbing mine, he will definitely rob yours too."
"If you don't help me, your store won't be any better. At best, we're fighting side by side."
"...Tang Yuanyuan, as a person, being a little stupid at the right time will make you more likable. If you act like this, no man will dare to marry you in the future."
"What a coincidence! The last thing I want is to get married." Tang Yuanyuan said sternly, "Don't change the subject. You hate Zhao Dong and his family. You've driven them both crazy, step by step, to where you are today, right?"
"Don't pretend in front of me. I know you too well. With your intelligence, it won't be a problem for you to get along with anyone you want, unless you don't want to."
Li Mu was very angry. He could deceive anyone he wanted to, but no one could see through him so clearly. How come Tang Yuanyuan could always recognize at a glance that he was pretending!
The eyes are too poisonous.
"I am not clean, but they, mother and son, are not innocent either."
"If I spend even a penny more on Zhao Dong, they won't be happy. They'll just give me the cold shoulder and say mean things to me. My dad saved his dad's life so they can be supported. Why should I have to scrimp and save to appease them?"
"The more they try to stop me from spending, the more I spend, making them feel bad and heartbroken."
"You owe someone a life, and you expect nothing in return. There's no such thing as that. I'm a stubborn person, and I don't think there's anything wrong with me."
Tang Yuanyuan: "Will you be cunning towards me in the future?"
Li Mu gave her an idiotic look: "You didn't hurt me, why would I hurt you?"
He immediately put on a fierce expression, his bones crackling. Tang Yuanyuan suspected he thought his hands were his own bones. "I hate being hit in the face the most. Tang Yuanyuan, if you dare hit me again, I'll let you taste my methods. I have many methods."
Tang Yuanyuan was not afraid at all and met his gaze: "If you don't provoke me, I certainly won't hit you. If you dare to provoke me, I will let you taste my methods."
Boring.
Li Mu yawned, "I'm so sleepy, I'm still going through all this trouble in the middle of the night."
Tang Yuanyuan swept all the broken glass from the glass door at the entrance. That way, if anyone had bad intentions, their feet would be hurt first, and she could sleep peacefully.
I slept soundly in the second half of the night, and was awakened by screams from the bun shop next door at dawn.
"Hey, Xiao Tang, why is your door like this?"
Tang Yuanyuan rubbed her eyes and opened them a little: "Oh, someone robbed the store in the middle of the night."
"I'll get some more sleep."
After saying that, he buried his head and fell asleep again.
The owner of the bun shop was quite frightened because they had a refrigerator in their shop, which cost them 2,800 yuan.
If Tang Yuanyuan had slept in the store last night.
No, her husband has to sleep in the store tonight.
One morning, after the loud shout of the lady boss of the bun shop, all the shop owners in the area knew that there had been thieves last night. If anyone didn’t have some valuable goods in their shop, half of their property would be stolen!
So everyone was encouraged to stay up all night, and if any thieves dared to come, they would be sent away without a trace.
Zhou Wei patted her heart: "It's a coincidence that you slept in the store last night."
Tang Yuanyuan was also very fortunate. Unexpectedly, after a quarrel with Li Mu, she accidentally saved the store.
However, this also sounded a wake-up call for her. Although the glass door looks nice and is convenient for doing business, it cannot be used as a door directly. An additional layer must be added on the outside.
It was not possible to use that kind of opening and closing door directly. There were no rolling shutter doors at that time. The master thought of a way to chisel a gap in the ground, and then made a few wooden boards to insert into it and support it against the eaves.
So he asked the master to build a door outside. Li Mu puffed up his cheeks and added a door outside as well.
Tang Yuanyuan continued to eat, drink and sell clothes as usual, without any hurry. It was not until noon that Li Mu came to her shop first.
"Hey, Tang Yuanyuan, why don't you beg me? Don't you want your shop anymore?"
Tang Yuanyuan: "If these little hooligans rob my shop, they will rob yours too. Besides, Zhou Wei's father is here to look after the shop tonight. It's your shop, so Aunt Huang has to go home after get off work, right?"
Li Mu puffed his cheeks in displeasure. How could he always be caught by a little girl like Tang Yuanyuan!
"Then you called me by mistake yesterday."
"I'll treat you to some buns."
"That's too perfunctory, isn't it? Do you know how important a man's face is? It's more valuable than his knees!"
"State-owned hotel."
"I'll reluctantly forgive you this time."
"So when are you going to go find those little hooligans?"
"No hurry, let's eat first. Those people have their days and nights reversed. They have to sleep until night and start activities in the evening."
"..." The little hooligan hasn't been dealt with yet, so she has to invite him to dinner first.
Although it is a state-owned restaurant, it has actually been contracted out and turned into a private restaurant. Of course, it does not charge tickets. In fact, there are some large state-owned restaurants now, but in the minds of ordinary people, state-owned restaurants are still large restaurants, and it is an honor to be able to eat here.
It was the first time for both of them to come here, but they were both worldly-wise and not at all reserved.
"Fuck, rob the money!"
"A serving of braised lion's head is five dollars."
Tang Yuanyuan stepped on him under the table and lowered her voice: "If you had spoken properly, the waiter would have turned his face up, thinking he was a country bumpkin."
Li Mu could see the waiter curled his lips out of the corner of his eye and said, "That's the price at the state-owned restaurant. If you can't afford it, there's a sesame seed cake in the alley on the left. They're fifty cents each."
Li Mu forced an innocent smile and asked: "How much do you make as a waiter here?"
The waiter said proudly, "I make two hundred dollars a month."
Li Mu's expression suddenly changed, with that kind of infuriating contemptuous look: "You earn a portion of braised pork a day, but you can't even eat it yourself, and you still have the nerve to laugh at me?"
The waiter's face turned dark in an instant.
Li Mu said to Tang Yuanyuan again: "Look, what's so scary about people like this laughing at you? She herself is the laughing stock. Why are you paying attention to her?"
Tang Yuanyuan: "..."
The waiter's face darkened even more.
Li Mu suddenly lost the mood to eat: "Let's go eat wontons. Wontons are only one dollar each. I don't want to make money for them anymore."
"Since we're here, let's just eat like this, so people won't think we can't afford it."
Li Mu turned around and shouted in the lobby: "Where is the leader? Who is the leader here?"
Li Mu's voice was already quite loud, and everyone's attention was drawn to this side. A man in a short-sleeved shirt came over and said, "Sorry, I'm the manager here."
Li Mu complained directly: "You waiters have such poor quality. How can you look down on others?"
The waiter never expected that this kid was so difficult to deal with. He just said a sarcastic remark, but not only did they talk back, they also complained.
In the past, those who came to eat from the countryside had complained that lion head soup was too expensive. She always said so, and several of them ordered it anyway to prove that they could afford it.
This kid wasn't satisfied after being scolded, so he even complained!
"Manager, they were the first to complain about our lion's head being too expensive and accused us of robbing them."
"What's the matter? I can't tell you that your vegetables are expensive."
The manager said, "I'm sorry, young student. Our lion's head is made with the best front chops, each weighing three taels, and then steamed with our chef's unique craftsmanship. It's our signature dish, and good things are expensive."
Li Mu: "Is that all you need to say? Why are you making fun of me?"
Manager: "Sorry, it was my employee's mistake."
He then instructed the waiter to ask her to apologize.
Seeing that Li Mu was not easy to deal with, the waiter immediately put on a flattering smile and apologized, and took the initiative to pour a glass of water for the two of them.
The attitude is completely different from before, it's like serving a big boss.
Tang Yuanyuan ordered a vegetarian dish of three fresh vegetables for herself, which also cost one dollar per plate. It was so strange that she wanted to go to a restaurant, and the vegetables were also delicious.
Li Mu: "Tang Yuanyuan, I suggest you try this lion's head. It's going to make me cry."
Tang Yuanyuan could already smell the aroma of meat: "No, vegetables are delicious too."
Li Mu poked his chopsticks into the lion's head and picked it upside down, eating it like a candied haws. "It would be a great regret in life if you don't try such a delicious lion's head."
Tang Yuanyuan looked around and saw no one else in the room eating like him: "You eat like this, aren't you afraid of being laughed at?"
Li Mu glanced sideways and said, "Who dares to laugh at me?"
"..." There really was nothing left. Li Mu turned her sharp eyes towards the waiter, and she almost trembled.
Tang Yuanyuan: "It's not suitable anyway. It might even fall to the ground. You'd better put it in the bowl and eat it."
Li Mu: "I'll eat it like this, it'll make you so greedy."
Tang Yuanyuan: “…” She felt like breaking up with him again!
In the evening, it was time to set out to find those little hooligans. After thinking it over, Tang Yuanyuan decided that Li Mu should not go alone, so she rode her bike along as well.
If anything happens, you can call the police yourself.
Li Mu stopped the car in front of a dilapidated factory that had stopped production not far from the train station.
He straightened his clothes and touched his hair: "Stay here and wait for my good news."
Tang Yuanyuan kept hearing noises that sounded like fighting inside.
Twenty minutes later, Li Mu came out.
There were two bruises on his face and his clothes were deformed.
Li Mu straightened his clothes and held his chin high: "Although the process was a little more difficult than I thought, it finally succeeded."
"Don't worry, he's still a man of some integrity. He keeps his word and won't steal from our store again."
Tang Yuanyuan: "Your solution is to start a fight?"
Li Mu: "Challenge their boss and beat him into submission, so they won't have the nerve to steal from our store."
Tang Yuanyuan suddenly thought of something: "You were the one who figured it out before?"
Li Mu felt a little regretful. If he had known this earlier, he would not have mentioned it last night.
"Now, I've knocked him down. Do you know how strong he is? It wasn't easy for me to beat him."
Tang Yuanyuan looked him up and down and said, "I can see it. It's really not easy."
"Let's go to the clinic."
Li Mu: "What kind of clinic? I just got punched twice in the face. I was letting him go at first, but you don't know how miserable he was. I used a series of Shaolin kicks and he vomited blood on the spot."
Tang Yuanyuan: "Stop talking nonsense and go to the clinic."
Tang Yuanyuan pushed Li Mu into the clinic. When the doctor pulled him, he found that many parts of his body were bruised and swollen under his clothes.
Tang Yuanyuan was almost laughing out of anger: "Li Mu, is bragging fun?"
Li Mu: "Whoever is bragging, I will really beat him down."
He was just exaggerating a little. The other person was taller, stronger, and more powerful than him.
He runs his own business, has no background or connections, and these things only benefit people like him.
Li Mu guessed that maybe it was this group of people who had visited his home before.
Now that I'm being targeted, how can I not fight?
He can only fight with his life.
Tang Yuanyuan was very angry: "If I had known that you had such an idea, I would have told you to go to hell. Fighting is so cruel. If you really get hurt, what are you going to do with the rest of your life!"
Li Mu: "I'm out of here safe and sound. Don't worry, no one will harass our store anymore."
Tang Yuanyuan: "This is the last time. If you dare to fight again, I will break your legs."
Li Mu snorted disdainfully.
Tang Yuanyuan knew what he was thinking at a glance: "Do you think I can't control you? Next time, let's fight again and see if I can beat you up."
Li Mu stared at Tang Yuanyuan for a while, and suddenly said, "I found that you look quite similar to Aunt Huang."
Tang Yuanyuan spat out a mouthful of water: "I think you want to die."
Li Mu: "You know Aunt Huang's son, Sun Xiang. He used to fight, and Aunt Huang would chase him with a stick and beat him. She also chased him and beat him when he didn't want to go to school. Later, he was admitted to university."
Tang Yuanyuan rolled her eyes at him: "I want to be your grandmother."
Tang Yuanyuan went to the train station and rescheduled her ticket for two days.
It takes longer to get to Shanghai, 28 hours by train. Now that they are a little richer, Tang Yuanyuan bought a sleeper ticket.
Lying down is much more comfortable than sitting. Tang Yuanyuan sleeps with his eyes closed most of the time. When he is not asleep during the day, he looks at the scenery outside the window. Now he is willing to eat the boxed lunch on the train, and when he is hungry, he is willing to have a snack and eat instant noodles in an aluminum lunch box.
The train arrived in Shanghai in the middle of the night. There were no buses at that time. I didn't dare to stay in a hotel near the station, and I didn't dare to take this human-powered tricycle.
Ask the security guard at the train station about the regular state-owned hotels and guesthouses nearby.
The security guard casually pointed to a large sign in the distance and said, "See that old man? He's next to the KFC."
The streets of Shanghai were brightly lit, unlike any other city they had visited, and the night was as bright as day.
Just looking at the sign, it doesn't look like a shady shop.
When I asked about the price, I found out that the cheapest one was 65 yuan per night.
Li Mu turned around and walked out: "This must be a shady shop. If it wasn't, how could it be so expensive? Is his room made of gold?"
Tang Yuanyuan felt that the 20 yuan a night in Ningcheng's guesthouse was ridiculously expensive. She thought 30 yuan was the maximum.
So the two of them walked forward, looking around as they walked. It was the middle of the night and they walked three miles. They looked at several guesthouses. 30 yuan was the cheapest here, but they were all crowded with people. It felt unsafe. Both of them had huge sums of money on them, so they didn't dare to stay.
In the end, I found that this luxurious one looked safer, so I gritted my teeth and stayed in a room that cost 60 yuan.
Li Mu sat cross-legged across from the toilet, his face filled with disbelief: "People can actually poop in the house."
"You can flush the shit away."
Tang Yuanyuan touched the bathroom tiles, her face full of envy: "The bathroom can be decorated so beautifully."
“It looks better than my house.”
"I thought Simmons mattresses were just for enjoyment, but I didn't expect rich people to live like this. Even their toilets are more sophisticated than our houses."
“No wonder it costs 60 yuan!”
After studying the toilet, Tang Yuanyuan studied the curtains. In their place, they just cover the windows with newspapers so that it cannot be seen from the outside.
They hung a piece of cloth hanging from above, and this curtain was more exquisite than the clothes of many people in Yucheng.
No wonder the factory director’s wife looks different when she talks about the Shanghai market.
It’s too prosperous.
You don't need to boil water to take a bath here. Hot water will come out as soon as you turn on the water heater.
The windows of the houses in Yucheng are small, but the windows of their house are very large. Looking out from here, the lights outside are as bright as stars.
This is not a city, it's a paradise.
Shanghai is so prosperous now, I wonder what the capital is like now. Tang Aiguo never said anything about going back. Big cities are so good.
What he said was that there are liars out there, how dark it is.
Big cities are obviously great, right?
And that lamp, the lights in Yucheng are all wired. They call it a switch. Press it and the light comes on.
Their lights were not the kind of bulbs that Yucheng had. The square lampshades on the outside were particularly large, like an enlarged version of the moon. Tang Yuanyuan lay on the Simmons mattress, looking at the lights, and was reluctant to turn them off.
The Simmons bed was so comfortable that the two of them, lying on their own beds, felt like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden. It was so refreshing that it took them a long time to fall asleep, and when they woke up it was almost noon.
When we checked into the room at night, the waiter told us that if we checked out after 12 o'clock, we would be charged for the next day's room rate, so the two of us simply extended the room rate for another day.
This house is comfortable to live in, but it does hurt a lot.
At this moment, both of them were starving. The room rate of this guesthouse was outrageous, and the food was also incredibly expensive, so the two of them left the hotel and prepared to eat some wontons or something.
Tang Yuanyuan stopped an old lady wearing fashionable clothes and a silk scarf and asked, "Grandma, is there a wonton shop nearby?"
The old lady stretched out her hand to him and said, "One dollar for asking for directions."
Li Mu: "Fuck, you old lady, you look like a decent person, but you are trying to rob me."
The old lady said: "Little guy, if you don't have money, don't ask for directions. Go back to where you came from."
Li Mu: "Hey, you old man"
"You'll die if you talk nicely," Tang Yuanyuan kicked Li Mu on the butt. "This isn't the alleys of Jade City. Put on your mask. We're not familiar with this place, so don't cause trouble."
Li Mu puffed up his cheeks and said, "She was the first to grab the money."
Tang Yuanyuan: "Why don't we just ask someone else? She's gone anyway."
A person who had just witnessed the whole thing came over and said, "Young man, young lady, this is how it is in Shanghai. You have to pay to ask for directions."
"Don't think I'm lying to you. You'll know if you walk around a few more times."
Li Mucai didn't believe it. If giving directions could earn money, then anyone could get rich. He mouthed to Tang Yuanyuan, "Partner."
Definitely an accomplice!
Tang Yuanyuan thanked him and said, "We are not in a hurry. Let's go around by ourselves."
They randomly chose an alley and walked a little further in. They didn't see a wonton shop, but they did see a shengjian shop. A serving of 4 pieces cost 3 yuan.
Tang Yuanyuan took the opportunity to ask the boss where the wholesale market in Shanghai was.
The boss said, "If you want to ask for directions, just ask the guide. It's one dollar for asking and ten dollars for showing the way."
Both of them choked.
In this place in Shanghai, there is actually a fee for asking for directions!
When the two of them went to the train station, they found that giving directions was really a profession here.
Even if the staff are wearing red armbands, you have to give them 1 to 2 taels if you ask for directions.
Tang Yuanyuan thought that since this was the rule here, he might as well spend ten dollars to find out more about the market here.
Li Mu: "What a lousy place. They charge a fee just for asking for directions. They have no compassion at all."
Tang Yuanyuan: "Think about it from another perspective. You can make money just by asking for directions here. No wonder the prices here are so high, the buildings are so tall, and there are so many cars on the road. Everyone has money!"
"I've decided to apply to a university in Shanghai. It's definitely easier to make money here."
Li Mu thought so too. This place is more than a hundred times more beautiful than that shabby place in Yucheng. Even their shit is different from theirs.
If he had a choice, he would like to live here.
There are many wholesale markets in Shanghai, including toy wholesale markets, clothing wholesale markets, small commodity wholesale markets, antique wholesale markets, and talent markets.
As for high-end shopping malls, there are more than ten of them.
However, the guide didn't know what kind of rhinestone hairpin Tang Yuanyuan was talking about. Tang Yuanyuan guessed that even in Shanghai, this thing should be a high-end product.
Tang Yuanyuan asked the other party to write down the address, asked for a map, and found out the bus route. The two of them went to the small commodity wholesale market first.
After waiting for three more buses, all of which were full, the two realized that the buses here would probably never be uncrowded, so they had no choice but to squeeze in. After changing buses twice, they finally arrived.
Tang Yuanyuan discovered that compared to Ningcheng, there were more categories of goods here, including headbands and scarves.
Tang Yuanyuan asked about the wholesale price, which was quite cheap, but if the freight for hiring a car was included, the price would no longer be competitive.
The shipping cost is too expensive!
I had no choice but to give up the small commodities and go to a high-end shopping mall. Sure enough, I saw rhinestone hairpins in the glass display cabinet.
Here, expensive rhinestone hairpins can cost as much as three thousand, and those that cost six or seven hundred are considered cheap.
Li Mu gasped: "Such an expensive thing, who, who would buy it?"
While we were talking, a beautiful lady came over and bought one for over 3,000 yuan.
Li Mu: "It's so easy to make money here!"
Tang Yuanyuan smiled at him: "You think so too? What a coincidence, I think so too."
Li Mu had a bad feeling: "What do you want to do?"
Tang Yuanyuan: "Li Mu, how much savings do you have?"
Li Mu clutched his pockets tightly, feeling as if he saw a robber approaching him. "What do you want to do?"
Tang Yuanyuan: "I have 17,000 yuan in savings, which is not enough for this rhinestone business."
Li Mu took another breath. Why did he only have a savings of less than 5,000 yuan, while Tang Yuanyuan had nearly three times as much as him?
So infuriating.
“Why do you earn so much more than me?”
Tang Yuanyuan: "Clothes alone are definitely not enough. I make money by selling crystals, bags, and rhinestone hairpins."
"Li Mu, give me the money. We'll exchange it for rhinestone hairpins and split the profits proportionally."
Li Mu swallowed hard, clutching his pockets tighter, his words stuttering. This was his entire fortune, a sum so huge he'd wake up laughing if he touched it in the middle of the night. "All, all in this?"
"Crazy."
"You're crazy."
"I want to go home."
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