◎Two chapters in one◎
When Jiang Che went out, it was still pitch black outside, and Wei Xuan gave him a flashlight.
It was Xue Bin who came to deliver the goods again this time, but he brought one more person with him.
Seeing Jiang Che approaching from a distance, Xue Bin jumped out of the car and waited until he got closer before introducing him: "This is Fang Zhiyuan, he's a short-distance driver and has a lot of time. You two should get to know each other. From now on, your work here will be handed over to him."
Jiang Che immediately extended his hand: "Brother Fang, I'll trouble you from now on."
"Brother, if you have any work in the future, just call the transport team to find me. Brother Xue and I are both in the third team."
Fang Zhiyuan's family conditions were not very good. He knew that Xue Bin was taking care of him and wanted him to take on more private work to supplement the family income, so he was very polite to Jiang Che.
After the two got to know each other, Jiang Che opened the store door and the three of them began to move things into the store.
After the three stores, all the goods on the truck were unloaded. After seeing Xue Bin and Fang Zhiyuan off, it was almost time for Jiang Che to go to work. He told the employees to sort out the goods and then went to the factory.
...
...
After Wei Xuan sent Jiang Che away, she took another nap. She didn't wake Yuanyuan up until she woke up feeling hungry.
Wei Xuan rubbed her face and gently patted her daughter's little butt: "What a little debt collector, you even dare to hit your own mother in the face, right?"
Yuanyuan thought her mother was playing with her and laughed happily.
The mother and daughter played around in the bed for a while before Wei Xuan got up and dressed her.
I had steamed buns for breakfast, and I made an extra cup of milk for my daughter.
After eating and drinking, Wei Xuan took the children downstairs to the yard and started preparing the braised meat.
Just like before, after cleaning up, I sent Yuanyuan back to the store, and then came back to move the braised meat over.
Today she still did not go to the other two stores. Wang Xiaomei directly showed her the account books. After looking at the account books, she took her daughter back home.
When Jiang Che brought the tricycle back in the evening, Wei Xuan was very happy to see it. The tricycles at that time were a little different from the ones in later generations. To be precise, it should not be called a tricycle, but a sidecar bicycle. The sidecar was small but deep, so she could put Yuanyuan in it without worrying that she would climb out.
Wei Xuan circled the tricycle twice and nodded with satisfaction. Seeing that his daughter was having fun in the tricycle, Jiang Che said, "I'll make a awning with cloth later, so that she won't be blown by the wind when she sits in the back."
"Is it still possible?" Wei Xuan asked in surprise, "Is it difficult to press the tent? If it's troublesome, forget it. This is fine. At worst, I can just ride slower."
"It's not difficult. Just find a wooden pole and nail it on. It can be done in half an hour."
Wei Xuan thought for a moment and said, "I remember there seemed to be a lot of long wood in the courtyard."
"Then I'll ride my bike over there to see if there's anything useful, and take a look at Master Lu's progress."
"Then go ahead. We'll have dinner when you come back."
"Okay," Jiang Che said as he prepared to take his daughter down from the truck bed. However, Yuanyuan was still very excited and didn't want to get down. She started crying as soon as he held her.
Wei Xuan said, "Okay, just take her with you. Ride slowly on the road and make sure she doesn't fall off."
There was nothing else to do. Wei Xuan watched the father and daughter ride away on their bikes, and went upstairs to continue cooking, humming a song.
She is in a good mood today, so she plans to make some more soup. The weather is too dry in winter, so she needs some soup to nourish her body.
Take a small piece of frozen pork ribs in to thaw, and peel a winter melon.
This winter melon is really big. It looks taller than Yuanyuan. Wei Xuan doesn’t like eating winter melon very much, but it’s okay to make soup with it. It won’t be so unpalatable after it’s melted.
When the soup was ready, Jiang Che came back holding his daughter.
As soon as he came back, he shouted, "It smells so good, can we eat now?"
"Okay, go wash your hands first."
"Okay."
When the father and daughter came out after washing their hands, Wei Xuan had just put the dishes on the table.
After the family sat down around the table, Wei Xuan asked him, "How is the courtyard going?"
"Almost done. The kitchen is almost finished. We just need to renovate the two adjacent rooms."
"Master Lu is very quick."
Jiang Che spat out the bone in his mouth and then said, "This is a craft passed down from my ancestors. I heard that they used to build houses for dignitaries in the past."
That was quite impressive. The two chatted about this and that until the meal was over, Jiang Che finally remembered to tell Wei Xuan: "After you settle the bill tomorrow, remember to go to the post office and mail the money back home."
The money for the fruit last time and the grain brought in yesterday have not been paid yet. Jiang Che is worried that his two uncles have no money and it will be inconvenient to collect the grain.
"Got it. I'll settle the bill tomorrow morning and go to the post office in the afternoon."
"Well," after saying this, Jiang Che took the piece of cloth that Wei Xuan found for him and went downstairs to press the awning of the tricycle.
Since the family got a tricycle, Wei Xuan's going out has become much more convenient. She just needs to put her daughter in the tricycle and take her to the yard in five minutes.
Today, I still went to the yard to prepare the meat first, and then moved it to the store to cook.
After that, she did not go home immediately, but rode her bike to two other stores.
After she arrived, she didn't interfere much in the store's affairs. She just took out the previous account book, did some calculations, and compared it with the remaining goods in the store to see if they were roughly the same and there were no major discrepancies.
She stayed in each store for about half an hour to an hour. After going around all three stores, Wei Xuan went home with the previous day's sales revenue.
The money sent back to my hometown is easy to calculate. I know how much grain I brought over. Then there is the fruit. The three kinds of fruit sold for a total of more than two thousand two hundred yuan. After deducting the labor and transportation costs, I rounded it up to an integer and divided one thousand one between each side.
After packing the money to be sent back to her hometown, Wei Xuan started to prepare lunch. After lunch and a nap, Wei Xuan took her daughter to the post office to mail the money back.
When Jiang Che got home from get off work in the evening, Wei Xuan told him about this matter, and then gave him the money she had gotten from Brother Wu for the meat that month, and asked him to deliver it after get off work tomorrow.
Seeing Jiang Che take the money, Wei Xuan asked him again: "The braised meat we make every day is only enough for one store to sell. Do you want to buy more?"
Jiang Che thought for a moment and said, "Forget it. You are taking care of the kids now, and you won't be able to handle the additional goods. Besides, I think Angkor Wu can't supply them either."
Section 63
Wei Xuan was just asking. Supplies were tight right now, and it was already a rare opportunity for them to be able to spare so much meat for them every day.
Two days later, Yuanyuan's little bed and the cabinet were ready, and Jiang Che went to bring them back.
After putting the bed in the room, Wei Xuan asked Yuanyuan, "Is it okay for you to sleep here tonight?"
"Okay!" She answered straightforwardly. When Wei Xuan was really going to leave her alone in the small room at night, she refused to do it. She wrapped her chubby little arms around Wei Xuan's neck tightly and refused to let go.
"Why do you have to tease her? Look how scared my daughter is." Jiang Che reached out to take Yuanyuan and carried her back to the next room.
Wei Xuan rolled her eyes at him and said, "I don't know who said it first, but the child is grown up and should live alone."
“Ahem…” Jiang Che made an excuse for himself: “Let’s wait until after the Chinese New Year when she’s one year older.”
In fact, Wei Xuan is not really ready to let her daughter live alone now. She will at least have to wait until next summer when the weather is warmer.
Two days later, the Siheyuan was also completely finished, and Wei Xuan returned the house in the small courtyard. From then on, the place where braised meat was cooked every morning changed from the small courtyard to the Siheyuan.
As the weather was getting colder, Jiang Che was afraid that it would be dangerous to drive to the countryside to transport goods, so he asked Fang Zhiyuan to transport goods for three consecutive days until both rooms of the courtyard were filled with grain.
This year's winter solstice was Yuanyuan's birthday. Because of Jiang Erjie's matter, Jiang Che didn't invite anyone to his house. The family of three just had a simple meal and that was it.
There is still more than a month before the Chinese New Year after the winter solstice.
This year during the Spring Festival, Wei Xuan will definitely take her children back to her hometown. She hasn't been back for the past two years because the children were young. It would be unreasonable not to go back this year.
New Year's Eve was still spent at the Jiang family, but this year Jiang's second sister came alone, without Nie Yuande. Even so, the atmosphere at the Jiang family was still not very good, but no one mentioned too many unhappy things during the New Year.
After the meal, everyone dispersed.
People have to stay up all night on New Year's Eve, so little Yuanyuan must have fallen asleep on time. Only Wei Xuan and Jiang Che were left at home, sitting in the bedroom, staring at each other, waiting.
Jiang Che was really bored, so he said, "Wife, why don't you take out the account book and money? Now that we have nothing to do, let's calculate how much money we made last year."
Well, this year we were so busy that the store didn’t close until the day before the Chinese New Year, and we haven’t had time to sort out the general account yet.
So Wei Xuan took out the account books of the three stores, counting from the day they moved and started cooperating with the Wei family to before the New Year, which was about three months. Together with the 1,100 yuan from selling fruits, they made a total of more than 2,800 yuan.
Adding up their previous savings, they only need 1,400 yuan to become a millionaire.
Jiang Che happily put away the account book and began to plan for opening a store next year.
As a result, he became more and more excited. Finally, he turned over and said to Wei Xuan: "Wife, if this continues, we will become rich in no time."
Wei Xuan pushed him away, got out of bed and put on her shoes: "Okay, stop dreaming, it's twelve o'clock, you can go to bed after eating dumplings."
"Wife, I'll help you."
On the morning of the first day of the New Year, after breakfast, the two of them took their children and carried their gifts to the Wei family.
The Wei family also got up early in the morning and started cleaning the room, killing chickens and cutting meat, waiting for the three of them to come back.
Yuanyuan was warmly welcomed by everyone the first time she came to her grandmother's house.
There are many brothers and sisters here who can take her to play. Compared with the Jiang family, the Wei family not only has more children, but also some of them are about her age.
She had a great time here for two days and cried when she returned. She held onto Wei Sange's son and refused to let go. She insisted that Wei Xuan take him with her before she left.
The adults were so amused by her behavior that they had to coax her to stop crying for a long time.
When they got home, Jiang Che said to Wei Xuan, "Why don't we send Yuanyuan to a nursery?"
In Jiang Che's opinion, his daughter was just too lonely when playing alone, so she was reluctant to let go after finally finding a playmate.
Wei Xuan also felt that raising the child at home and taking care of him every day would be safe, but it would be too lonely. The child should be played with more children. She nodded to agree with Jiang Che's suggestion.
So, after the fifteenth day of the lunar month, Wei Xuan started looking for a school with Yuanyuan.
After searching for three days, she finally found a nursery that satisfied her.
The nursery is only ten minutes’ bike ride from where she lives. She pays five dollars a month, sends her child there in the morning, has lunch at school, and then picks him up before five in the afternoon.
Wei Xuan saw that the lunch consisted of one meat, one vegetable and a soup, which was enough for the children to eat their fill.
On the first day of sending her daughter to school, Wei Xuan brought her a small quilt for her to sleep in according to the nursery's regulations, and also prepared an extra set of clothes.
When they arrived at the nursery, Wei Xuan handed her over to the teacher. Yuanyuan was not shy at all. After watching her follow the teacher inside, Wei Xuan waited outside for a long time before riding away.
I rode my bike to the courtyard, cooked the braised meat, and went to three stores for a walk. The whole morning was gone. When I was about to take a nap after lunch, Wei Xuan felt uncomfortable.
After finally falling asleep, she woke up and saw that it was not yet two o'clock. She cleaned the house inside and out, and finally it was past four o'clock. Wei Xuan went downstairs and rode her tricycle to pick up the child.
Wei Xuan arrived relatively early. When the teacher brought Yuanyuan out, most of the children in the class were still there.
Yuanyuan was so happy to see her mother coming to pick her up that she ran over from a distance and hugged Wei Xuan's calves and wouldn't let go.
Wei Xuan didn't pull her away, she just raised her head and smiled at the teacher shyly, then asked the teacher: "Did the child cause you any trouble?"
"No, Yuanyuan is very well behaved."
After chatting for a while and confirming that Yuanyuan was adapting well to the nursery, Wei Xuan took the child home with peace of mind.
On the way home, Wei Xuan asked her if she had a good time today.
I don’t know if she understood what I said or not, she said a lot to Wei Xuan in a gibberish.
Anyway, Wei Xuan didn't understand a word she said, but looking at the way she was gesticulating, Wei Xuan knew that the child was not wronged, and that was enough.
After the child had been in daycare for a week, Wei Xuan felt that it was time for her to find something to do.
Now, after she finishes making braised meat every morning, she is completely free. Except for occasionally checking the accounts of the three companies, she doesn't need to do anything else.
When Jiang Che came back in the evening, she told him her plan.
Jiang Che thought for a moment before saying, "How about you continue to open the fourth store? We have already bought the house anyway, so you just need to recruit people to decorate it. These things will keep you busy for a while."
"OK."
Wei Xuan did what she said. The next day, she went to find a master to paint lime in the store, and then went to a carpenter to make a custom shelf.
As for recruiting people, Wei Xuan really didn't know where to recruit, so she told Wang Xiaomei and the other three the news and asked them to introduce her to suitable people.
Unfortunately, before she could recruit anyone, Jiang Che brought back some very bad news from outside.
"Wife, you should put the matter of opening a shop aside for now."
"What's wrong?" Wei Xuan paused while holding the spatula: "Did something happen?"
Jiang Che told Wei Xuan about a female worker in the factory who was robbed on the road today.
"It's too dangerous. Don't go there to save money yourself in the future. Just go there during the day to calculate the accounts and keep the money. I'll pick it up from the store when I get off work in the evening and deposit it at the post office."
Wei Xuan was stunned when she heard this. How could such a thing happen in broad daylight?
She asked, "Is the worker who was robbed okay?"
"It's okay," Jiang Che shook his head, "Just the money is gone, but no one is hurt."
Fortunately.
Wei Xuan hesitated for a moment, then said, "But the store has already been cleaned up. Now we just need to recruit some people and we can open it."
Jiang Che interrupted her, "You don't know, we had a meeting in our factory today, specifically talking about this matter. It wasn't just the worker in our factory. There have been many robberies and injuries in Beijing recently, so for safety reasons, we should not open any more stores in the short term. I'm afraid these three stores are not safe. You should go out less often, send your daughter to the nursery in the morning, go home after settling the bills at the store, and don't wander around the streets outside."
Wei Xuan knew that Jiang Che was talking about her recent house hunting.
Wei Xuan wanted to exchange the money for a house since she had it all, so recently when she had nothing to do, she would go to the streets to look for houses for sale.
Seeing that Jiang Che was speaking so seriously, Wei Xuan had no choice but to nod in agreement. Compared to money, life is of course more important.
What happened next was just as Jiang Che had said. Every few days, he would hear about a robbery somewhere. Gradually, the situation became even more serious, with murders and rapes occurring.
When this incident happened, even Brother Jiang came to the house and persuaded Jiang Che to close the store first, because the person who was killed was a street vendor. It was said that he was targeted by an educated youth who had returned to the city. He originally wanted to rob him, but accidentally killed someone during the fight.
The Jiang family was worried that Jiang Che was also being targeted, so they sent Brother Jiang to persuade him.
After seeing off Brother Jiang, Wei Xuan asked Jiang Che worriedly, "How about we just close the store first?"
Jiang Che thought about it and felt really unwilling to do so. These three stores had been open for more than half a year, and he would definitely be reluctant to close them now.
Wei Xuan was reluctant to do so, but what could she do? There were three female employees in the store. If something happened, how would she compensate them?
Jiang Che didn't sleep that night. Before leaving the house the next day, he asked Wei Xuan to give her three hundred yuan.
Wei Xuan was worried and asked him, "What do you want to do? Don't do anything rash."
Jiang Che laughed: "What are you thinking? I just want to use my money to treat the police officers from the nearby police stations to a meal and give them some gifts so that they will hang out outside our store more often."
Oh, so that's how it is. Wei Xuan gave him three hundred yuan: "Is that enough?"
"That's enough. A meal doesn't cost much. I'll probably be back late at night, so you take the kids and lock the door."
"Okay, go ahead, and you should pay attention too."
After asking for leave from the factory, Jiang Che originally planned to go to the police station to inquire about the news. However, after thinking about it, he decided to call Xue Bin from the transportation team first. He remembered that Xue Yang had mentioned before that his brother had a comrade-in-arms assigned to a nearby police station. It would definitely be better to have an acquaintance there than for him to just go there like a headless fly.
"Hello," the phone was connected and Xue Bin's voice came from the other end.
Jiang Che quickly said, "It's Brother Xue, I'm Jiang Che."
Jiang Che? Ever since he handed over the transportation to Fang Zhiyuan, Xue Bin had not contacted Jiang Che for a long time. When he received Jiang Che's call, Xue Bin could not think of what he wanted to talk to him about, so he asked, "Is there something you want to talk to me about?"
Jiang Che didn't waste any time and directly told him the whole story.
Xue Bin was silent for a moment before he said, "Find a place to wait for me. I'll come find you and talk to you in person."
"Ah? Oh, okay." Jiang Che originally just wanted to find Xue Bin to make some connections, but he didn't expect Xue Bin to be so concerned about this matter. He immediately said, "Then can I wait for you in the store?"
"good."
After hanging up the phone, Xue Bin asked for leave from the team leader before leaving the transport team and rushing to Jiang Che's store.
As soon as Jiang Che arrived at the store, Xue Bin followed him.
It was still early, so the two were not in a hurry to go out. They hadn't explained it clearly on the phone, so now that they met, Jiang Che told Xue Bin his thoughts.
"That's it. I think with the police here, those who want to attack my store will have to restrain themselves a little bit."
Xue Bin understood. In fact, he came here not only to help Jiang Che connect with his comrades, but mainly because he also wanted to find out the inside story of these things from his comrades.
One of their team members was robbed on the road some time ago and is now lying in the hospital.
After listening to Jiang Che's story, Xue Bin looked at his watch and stood up.
"Let's go."
Xue Bin's comrade-in-arms was called Xu Jiang. When the two found him, he had just returned from the countryside and was so busy that he didn't even have time to drink a sip of water.
Section 64
Knowing that Jiang Che wanted to treat his colleagues nearby to a meal and ask them to help him look after his store, Xu Jiang did not refuse.
He just said, "Not now. We are really too busy now. As you can see, most people are not here. Wait until the evening. I will call a few colleagues on duty at the bureau to come together. Do you think it's okay?"
"Okay, why not? I'll leave this matter to Brother Xu."
Xu Jiang waved his hand and said, "You know Lao Xue, so he is my friend. Wait for him tonight." After that, he said a few more words to Xue Bin before leaving in a hurry.
Jiang Che sighed and said, "It's not easy for them either." He was so busy that he had dark circles under his eyes.
After not hearing Xue Bin speak for a while, Jiang Che turned around and saw that he was lost in thought. He had no choice but to interrupt him: "How about I treat Brother Xue to lunch at noon? I haven't thanked you for what you did before, and you helped me a lot again today."
This time Xue Bin did not refuse. After the meal, they agreed to meet in the afternoon and then went their separate ways.
When Jiang Che returned home, Wei Xuan was still awake. She was startled when she heard some noise outside, thinking a thief had broken in.
Only when she heard Jiang Che calling her did she feel relieved and quickly got out of bed and opened the door.
As soon as I saw him, I asked, "How is it going? Is it done?"
"Almost done. I have an appointment with someone for dinner tonight."
That's good. Wei Xuan sighed, "I really hope these things can be over soon."
Now I have to be cautious every time I go out, and everyone I see looks like a bad person. This feeling is really terrible.
Who said it wasn’t? Unfortunately, Wei Xuan’s wish did not come true. She didn’t know that this was just the beginning. As time passed, more and more crimes occurred.
She felt regretful but also grateful.
Fortunately, the three stores of his family have never been targeted. This is really thanks to Xu Jiang and his colleagues, who wear police uniforms and walk around the store entrances almost every day. After a long time, everyone has figured out that this is the police station's protection.
Those petty thieves really don't dare to come up with a plan to take advantage of the situation.
Of course, Wei Xuan and Jiang Che would also send gifts to Xu Jiang's family during every festival. After two or three years, the two families really became good friends.
It was not until July 1983, when the state launched a severe crackdown, that this unhealthy trend was gradually suppressed.
After the Chinese New Year, the summer vacation of 1984 ended, and Yuanyuan successfully became an elementary school student.
At this time, Wei Xuan also began to prepare to open the fourth store that had been shelved for a long time.
The author has something to say:
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated nutrient solution during 2023-03-23 23:00:35~2023-03-24 23:02:34~
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution: 3 bottles of Big Lazy;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!
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