Old Xu grinned, showing his teeth: "Slow down, slow down, don't grab it! Come on, come on, one skewer for you, two skewers for you, five yuan a skewer, I'll take ten yuan from you, come on, one skewer for you..."
Before long, Old Xu and Han Fei had finished all three hundred-plus skewers of flat candied hawthorn.
Don't underestimate the purchasing power of children. Most of them buy two or three skewers at a time. More than 300 skewers can be snatched up by just over 100 children, which is not even enough for three classes.
Han Fei looked apologetically at the children who hadn't bought any candied hawthorns: "They're all sold out, you can go home now."
"Is that all?"
"Is that all?"
"Wow, I thought it would be dirty and taste awful, but the little dumpling just gave me a bite, and it's so delicious!"
"I also tried a bite of my classmate's candied hawthorn, it was so delicious!"
"I've never eaten such delicious candied hawthorns before!"
"I lost my teeth and can't bite into other people's candied hawthorns, but I can only eat the candied hawthorns sold by the old man! I want more!"
"I hate sour things the most. Even though there's sugar on the outside of the candied hawthorn, I still find it too sour. But the candied hawthorn at Grandpa's house isn't sour. I want to eat it, I want to eat more! I can never get enough!"
"My grandma also lost a tooth. She loves candied hawthorn, but she can't eat it anymore now that she's lost a tooth. But I'm sure she can eat this candied hawthorn! I want to buy some for my grandma!"
"Grandpa, I want candied hawthorn berries!!!"
"I want candied hawthorns too! Please give us candied hawthorns!"
"Grandpa, go home and make candied hawthorns. I'll wait for you here!"
"Grandpa, please come back to sell candied hawthorns after school, okay?"
"Waaaah... Grandpa, I want to eat candied hawthorn!"
"Awooooo!"
"Awoooooo!"
One person's tears can set off a whole host of others.
Han Fei and Old Man Xu were once again surrounded by children, a group of pitiful little crying children.
Old Xu was covered in sweat. He wiped his brow and asked in a flustered manner, "Old Han, what should we do?"
Han Fei coaxed the elementary school student who was leading the crying and was crying the loudest, and finally managed to stop him from crying.
"What else can we do? Buy some hawthorns, cook them, and sell them to them after school."
"But what if they don't buy them after school? Won't the candied hawthorns just rot in our hands?"
Old Xu was afraid of the children's change of heart. He had previously scolded them, saying that the candied hawthorns were picked up from the garbage dump and that he would never eat them, but then he turned around and started fighting over them, crying and shouting that he wanted to eat them.
What if we buy hawthorns now and make them, but they don't want them after school? We'd lose a fortune!
The hawthorns we picked before were picked from the yard, so there was no cost and they just wouldn't sell. But this time we have to spend a lot of money to buy hawthorns, and if we can't sell them, we'll really lose a lot of money!
“I believe they will come back to buy. They didn’t buy before because they thought our candied hawthorns were dirty, because they had never tried flat candied hawthorns before and were averse to fresh food, so they naturally misunderstood our candied hawthorns. Now that they have tried them and have recognized our quality, they will definitely come back.”
“Even if they want to buy it after school, they may not be able to, because their parents will stop them from eating at roadside stalls when they pick them up from school.”
"If they're crying like that, and you're a parent, could you stop them?"
Old Xu shook his head decisively: "We can't stop it!"
If his future grandson were to cry and beg for a candied hawthorn, how could he bear to refuse?
Han Fei counted the money he had earned: "Even if we can't sell them, we won't lose money. Let's go."
In the classroom, Han Chengshan was sitting in the last row, sleeping on his desk, when suddenly a group of his underlings rushed over:
"Brother Shan, something bad has happened! Those guys are completely disobedient and haven't handed over the candied hawthorns to us!"
Han Chengshan sat up, still sleepy, and asked lazily, "What happened?"
“Brother Shan, wasn’t that stall set up by our grandpa? Now that our grandpa’s here on our turf, we can’t let him go back empty-handed.”
"So we went to the classes of the younger students and 'appealed' to them, asking each of them to buy at least one candied hawthorn, and those who had money to buy two more. Even if they didn't eat them, they shouldn't throw them in the nearby trash cans."
"After all, Grandpa has a part-time job collecting garbage. What if he sees the trash can full of candied hawthorns? He'd be so heartbroken."
"Just in case, we instructed them to hand over the candied hawthorns they bought to us for disposal. We will definitely destroy the evidence and leave no trace, so that Grandpa will never see it and will not be saddened by it."
"But those guys wouldn't listen; they refused to hand over the candied hawthorns!!!"
"What should we do? What if they throw it in the nearby trash can and Grandpa sees it? All the hard work he put into making these candied hawthorns will be wasted. Wouldn't he be heartbroken?"
Han Chengshan rubbed his temples: "You guys can't even handle this little thing. How are you going to survive with me after graduation? Fine, fine, I'll have to do it myself!"
Han Chengshan cracked his knuckles, looking ready to go out and fight.
His underlings all stopped him: "Brother Shan, you can't hit people anymore! You've already received three disciplinary actions. If you get another one, you'll be expelled!"
Han Chengshan silently lowered his hand.
The eldest brother said that nine years of compulsory education is free, and no matter what, he must get a junior high school diploma, otherwise he will not acknowledge him as his third brother.
Xiaoqi also said that if she had a third brother who didn't even graduate from junior high school, she would lose face and he would not recognize her.
He's already in fourth grade, and he'll graduate from elementary school in another year. It wouldn't be worth it to be expelled at such a crucial moment.
"Come on, let me ask you properly, I won't hit you."
Han Chengshan led the way into the classroom of the first-grade students.
The usually noisy and cheerful children were now as quiet as chickens during their lunch break. They sat motionless in their seats, their little hands flat on their knees, not daring to even look up at the older boys.
"You, you." Han Chengshan pointed at a chubby boy in the first row: "Come here."
The chubby boy stood in front of Han Chengshan, wishing he could disappear into the ground, and lowered his head very low.
"Tell me, did you buy candied hawthorns?"
"I...I bought it." The chubby boy's voice trembled.
Han Chengshan held out his hand: "Hand it over."
The chubby boy glanced at Han Chengshan's hand, then at his own protruding belly, and whispered, "It's gone."
Han Chengshan roared in fury, "Throw it away? Didn't I tell you not to throw it away!"
The chubby boy's eyes were filled with tears as he timidly said, "No... I didn't throw it away."
"What about the candied hawthorns?" Han Chengshan asked, seeing that he was about to cry. Afraid of attracting the teacher's attention, he tried to suppress his temper and soften his voice.
The chubby boy blinked his big eyes, looking innocent and pitiful, and pointed to his round belly: "Inside my belly!"
Han Chengshan was taken aback, as were his underlings.
Han Chengshan looked at the other children. The first-graders all lowered their heads, seemingly answering Han Chengshan silently, their big eyes all staring at their own round bellies.
"You all ate it?" Han Chengshan asked in surprise.
The children all nodded in agreement.
Seemingly recalling the delicious taste of candied hawthorns, they forgot their fear of the older boys, and the children eagerly took turns saying:
"So delicious! It's the best candied hawthorn I've ever had!"
"I lost a tooth and can't bite into other candied hawthorns, but I can eat the ones the old man sells!"
"It's so delicious! It's not sour at all, and not astringent at all!"
"It has no seeds, and it's delicious!"
"The candy is delicious too, it's crunchy!"
"I want to eat more!"
"Me too, but there aren't any left. They're all gone. I only managed to get one."
"It would be great if the old man could set up a stall to sell candied hawthorns after school!"
"Then I'll definitely buy two!"
"I want to buy three of them; I'll take them to my mom!"
"I want to buy four, my grandma loves them too!"
"I want to buy ten!"
"I want to buy ten too!"
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