"Mr. Qian loves to take advantage of small deals," Xue Yuantong whispered to Jiang Ning.
He often snatches the vegetables that Uncle Tang grows and asks Butcher Zhang for pig offal. Whenever there’s a holiday, and her mom makes dumplings, fries snacks, or prepares pickles, Mr. Qian always takes the most share.
Jiang Ning started the electric scooter: "Indeed, he even scamd Dongdong’s pocket money."
Dongdong is the notorious troublemaker in the bungalow area. This sumr, Jiang Ning scared him away using the Ghost Formation; otherwise, he’d still be causing trouble for the neighbors.
Xue Yuantong recounted: "Right, a few years ago, when my family just moved to the bungalow, there was a day with strong winds. Dongdong found a pot and sold it by the river dam to a junk collector. On his way back, passing by Mr. Qian’s house, he saw Mr. Qian spinning a top. Mr. Qian sold the top to Dongdong for ten yuan, even though, even if new, it’s only worth five yuan."
Jiang Ning: "That’s really shady."
Xue Yuantong pecked like a little chicken: "Yes, so Mr. Qian got his karma."
Jiang Ning asked: "What karma?"
Xue Yuantong, biting his teeth and holding back laughter: "Mr. Qian was watching TV in the evening and found there was no signal. Later he learned that what Dongdong picked up was his satellite dish."
Jiang Ning chuckled twice and then closed his mouth.
At that mont, he deeply understood how difficult the living environnt in the bungalow was, and yet, in such an environnt, Tongtong managed to get through three years of middle school and then another three years of high school.
This little girl’s middle school years were spent living with her mother, struggling to survive in the bungalow. When at school, she also had to help the group of villainous students led by Duan Shigang, by doing their howork and providing test-cheating services to delinquents like Qiu Die.
One must say, her stress tolerance is indeed extrely strong.
Jiang Ning decided that in the future, he could try to test Tongtong’s potential.
...
The river dam was bustling, as it was around four or five in the afternoon in winter, and many food carts were already set up.
Lin Zida saw Mr. Qian wanting to buy food and imdiately said: "It’s really a buy one get one, fried rice or noodles, five yuan a portion, with eggs and vegetables."
Mr. Qian calculated that five yuan was a bit expensive, but with buy one get one, it was worth it at two yuan a portion, what a bargain!
"Great, I’ll have a portion of fried rice, one to eat here, and one packed to go," Mr. Qian nodded, handing over a tal canister.
Originally, he planned to take it all to go, but with buy one get one, he could save one portion for the folks at ho.
As for the money, of course, he would pay after eating.
Sitting down, Mr. Qian noticed the empty plastic table and frowned: "Where’s the tea? Get so tea!"
Lin Zida, having set up the stall, was ready to serve custors, and without complaint, promptly served a cup of tea.
Mr. Qian took a sip of tea, gazed at the slowly flowing Hui River to the north, cleared his throat, and recited a poem: "Winter’s sunset reflects on the river, the flowing water silently mirrors the setting sun!"
Lin Zida applauded: "Great poem, great poem! The imagery of this poem is wonderful!"
Mr. Qian felt that Lin Zida was a promising young man. Now that he was reciting poetry by the river dam, Old Tang said he genuinely loved to read, while doggone Butcher Zhang called him a poor wretch, and the neighboring Tongtong and Jiang Ning didn’t even look at him.
’Truly a bunch of boorish people who couldn’t appreciate fine grain!’ Mr. Qian was extrely displeased.
Today, encountering such a young friend, Mr. Qian’s mood improved greatly.
He loved to ntor: "Why do you two co to the river dam to fish every day? And now setting up a food stall, don’t you study?"
Lin Zida fibbed: "We do study, we’re students of the Fourth Middle School, it’s all about practical life experiences now."
He was well inford, only sixteen or seventeen years old, but with a belly full of knowledge, and coupled with high emotional intelligence, he could even engage in back-and-forth with Mr. Qian.
Only left was the stronger will and resilience of Zhuang Jianhui, frying noodles alone.
His right hand not yet fully recovered, the young man, during this period, learned to use chopsticks with his left hand, so frying rice was no big deal, just a matter of flipping the spatula a couple of tis.
Mr. Qian noticed and nodded approvingly, saying: "You two are really good, knowing how to practice self-reliance through hard work, unlike that neighbor of ours, at your age, just sleeping outside the door every day with no ambition!"
Lin Zida thought for a mont; wasn’t this neighbor Jiang Ning?
It seed that this person didn’t have a good relationship with Jiang Ning!
’From this, one can see that Jiang Ning does have talent, but in the aspect of interpersonal relationships, he might not be doing well.’ Lin Zida made this judgnt.
In a few minutes, a plate of fried rice was served, and Zhuang Jianhui wiped his hands: "You’re our first custor, so we added an extra egg for you."
"Great!" Mr. Qian was happy to get another deal, but when he looked down, he found the fried rice was dark in color.
He pondered: "Too much soy sauce?"
Lin Zida helped his good buddy out: "Hahaha, you guessed it right."
Zhuang Jianhui’s words ultimately couldn’t be spoken; it wasn’t that there was too much soy sauce, it was that the rice was over-fried.
Lin Zida brought out a jar of Laoganma, giving Mr. Qian a couple of spoonfuls.
Laoganma isn’t cheap, nearly ten yuan a jar!
Lin Zida generously gave two big spoonfuls to help as a side dish.
Mr. Qian was initially a bit unhappy, but seeing this, he quickly urged: "Add another spoonful!"
Lin Zida generously added more.
’Wow, what a deal!’ Mr. Qian was extrely delighted.
He grabbed a disposable spoon, and since Zhuang Jianhui wasn’t an ordinary person, the spoon was of high-quality hard plastic, even with a frosted surface.
"Not bad, not bad." Mr. Qian, with so insight, was about to taste the food.
Zhuang Jianhui was full of expectations, hoping to gain recognition from others.
The once high-and-mighty young master now humbly awaited an ordinary person’s evaluation.
Mr. Qian took a big bite of the fried rice, finding it bitter, the rice undercooked, with a peculiar taste!
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