CH 13

When Xu Fan heard Sister Yun’s voice, he stopped and used his strength to push the foam box to his side before turning his head to Sister Yun and said, “Auntie, did you call me? I’m called Sanwa, not child.”

Sister Yun instantly laughed. Looking at Xu Fan’s adorable appearance, her voice involuntarily became gentler and said, “Oh my, so your name is Sanwa?”

“Mn, I’m also called Baobao or Xu Baobao,” Xu Fan continued.

“You’re also called Xu Baobao? Nice. What a pleasant sounding name. Baobao, where is your daddy?”

“Daddy went to wash his hands.”

His milky voice was so charming.

Sister Yun’s heart melted. Using the same pitch as Xu Fan, she said, “Wash hands? Where did he go to wash his hands?”

“Up front.” Xu Fan’s small finger pointed in front of him.

“How about you take me to find him together?”

“Okay, follow me.”

Xu Fan pulled the foam box and continued forward.

Sister Yun followed behind with a small smile.

They left the building and walked towards a faucet located in the corner.

Xu Zhao was currently using soap to wash away the oil stains on his hands. When he turned his head, he saw Sister Yun and greeted with a smile, “Sister Yun, are you heading out for business?”

“No, I came to find you,” Sister Yun said with a smile.

“For me?” Xu Zhao rubbed the bubbles on his hands and quickly rinsed them off under the faucet, then asked, “Did you need something?”

Sister Yun didn’t beat around the bush and directly said, “It’s about the popsicles. I want to order your popsicles on behalf of the steel factory.”

“Order my popsicles?”

“Yes.”

“Sister Yun—” Xu Zhao finally couldn’t hold back and showed an excited expression.

Sister Yun hurriedly said, “Young man, don’t get your hopes up just yet. I still need to speak with my section chief. He’ll be the one who makes the final decision.”

“Okay, thank you, Sister Yun.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You can thank me if we succeed. If we don’t succeed, I will try my best.”

“Sister Yun, don’t say that. Regardless if it succeeds or not, I’ll always remember your help,” Xu Zhao said with a smile.

Sister Yun chuckled. “Youngster, you sure know how to talk. Let’s go.”

Xu Zhao followed Sister Yun to the section chief’s office to discuss the matter of the popsicles. They left Xu Fan in Sister Yun’s office to guard the popsicles, and also had the officer workers help them watch Xu Fan.

Thereupon, all the office workers continuously stared at Xu Fan’s handsome face.

Xu Fan thought that they wanted to eat the popsicles and laid his entire body over the quilt inside the foam box and said, “These popsicles are my daddy’s. You can’t eat them if you don’t pay money.”

He made the whole office laugh at once.

A few of the office workers became playful and started teasing Xu Fan.

One asked, “I can eat it if I give money?”

“Yes,” Xu Fan replied.

“How much is one?”

“Three cents,” Xu Fan tightly hung off the quilt and said.

“Three cents? I only have two cents. Can you give me a popsicle?” the person asked again.

“No,” Xu Fan immediately insisted.

“Why not?”

“It’s not enough.”

The person rummaged through their pockets and said, “Oh, I have four cents here. Does four cents work?”

“No,” Xu Fan still said.

“Why not?”

“The popsicles are three cents each.”

“How about you give me a popsicle for four cents instead?”

“No!”

“…”

An office worker burst out in laughter.

When Xu Zhao returned, he saw Xu Fan splayed on top of the popsicle box, the hole in his pants stretching wider that even his eggs were visible.

Xu Zhao felt embarrassed and called, “Xu Fan.”

Xu Fan turned his head and saw Xu Fan. His two eyes shined as he called, “Daddy.”

“What are you doing?”

“They want to steal my popsicles!”

“…They were just playing with you. Let’s go home.”

Xu Zhao picked up Xu Fan, and carried the box out of the office.”

Xu Fan turned his small body to lay over Xu Zhao’s shoulder and pointed at the foam box full of popsicles that was still inside the office and shouted, “Daddy! The popsicles! We can’t forget our popsicles!”

Laughter suddenly burst out from the office.

Xu Zhao couldn’t help but give Xu Fan’s tiny face a kiss.

Xu Fan looked at Xu Zhao with confusion.

“They gave us money. We sold the popsicles to them,” Xu Zhao said.

It was only then that Xu Fan quieted down and obediently hugged Xu Zhao’s neck.

Xu Zhao carried Xu Fan with one hand and held the foam box in the other. The foam box contained a contract inside. It was the contract that he just signed with the section chief. He predicted that if he wanted to get the contract signed, then he would have to exhaust a lot of effort, but he didn’t expect it to go so smoothly. To do business with an established state-owned business, other state-owned businesses would have to use their own strength. Therefore, he also used his popsicles selling strength to obtain this contract.

The contract term was 30 days. 500 popsicles everyday with each popsicle selling for three cents. In total, that was 450 Yuan. The steel factory put down a 30% deposit, which was 135 Yuan; and the rest would be paid in installment.

At this moment, Xu Zhao held a total of 135 Yuan in his hands. His hand started sweating.

It was 135 Yuan!

When Cui Qingfeng learned of this, he was shocked speechless, his gaze landing right on the pile of money on the table.

In the current era of this world, the fourth series of the Renminbistill hasn’t been issued, so the largest denomination bill was 10 Yuan. Therefore, 135 Yuan was thirteen 10 Yuan bills and one 5 Yuan bill. The stack was very thick and looked like a lot of money.

“135 Yuan?” Cui Qingfeng asked in disbelief.

By this time, Xu Zhao’s heart had already calmed down, so he calmly replied, “Yes, 135 Yuan.”

“They signed the contract?”

“They did.”

“We’ll be sending popsicles to the steel factory in the future?”

“Yes.”

“In total, that’s 450 Yuan?”

“That’s right.”

Four hundred and fifty Yuan!

Cui Qingfeng had lived this long, yet he had never seen this much money before. No, he had seen it before since his youngest uncle earned a lot of money, but his youngest uncle’s money belonged to his youngest uncle. However, this 450 Yuan was earned by himself. No, no. It was earned by Xu Zhao. Xu Zhao was simply his God of Luck. Once Xu Zhao arrived, the speed in which he earned money skyrocketed.

450 Yuan!

450 Yuan!

Cui Qingfeng was so excited that he didn’t know what to do. He hugged Xu Fan and expressed his gratitude. While hugging, he realized that something was wrong. He had hugged Xu Zhao. He hugged Xu Zhao! When he realized this, his face suddenly reddened and quickly let go of Xu Zhao. He made an excuse and ran out of the house. Under the shade of the tree next to the entrance of his house, he calmed down his wildly beating heart. Once he was sure he could face Xu Zhao, he headed towards the house and just so happened to bump into Xu Zhao leading Xu Fan out.

Xu Zhao reached out his hand to hand Cui Qingfeng 70 Yuan.

“What are you doing?” Cui Qingfeng asked.

“We won’t split the money we earned before, it’ll be used as capital. Therefore, we’ll equally split this 135 Yuan,” Xu Zhao said.

“If we split it equally, it would be 65 Yuan. Why are you giving me 70?”

“Xu Fan and I have had a few meals here.”

“We wanted to treat you to those meals.”

“We can’t count them.”

“We can.”

“To do business together, we must be meticulous and unambiguous.”

“…”

Cui Qingfeng discovered that Xu Zhao was standing firm, very firm. He was unable to persuade Xu Zhao and accepted the 70 Yuan in the end, then asked, “Where are you guys going now?”

“I’m going to buy Xu Fan two sets of clothes with the money.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“You don’t have to, it’s got. Stay home to cool down.”

“It’s fine.”

“You really don’t have to.”

However, Cui Qingfeng still followed Xu Zhao and Xu Fan to the county town’s clothes street. In this era, China had just developed. All professions were still in the beginning stages, including clothes. Most people chose to purchase fabric and make clothes at home. What with the dacron, acrylic, polyester, khaki, and whatnot. Neither Xu Zhao nor Cui Qingfeng knew how to make clothes so they could only buy some ready-made ones.

However, this era practically didn’t have children’s clothing. It was very difficult to find a shop that also sold children’s clothing. Cui Qingfeng thought they looked good, Xu Zhao thought they were okay, but with Xu Fan’s body… Anything he wore would look good. With an ordinary off-white short-sleeved shirt and an ordinary gray cotton-silk small pants that just so happened to cut off at Xu Fan’s small calves, Xu Fan’s whole image transformed. He was extremely cute and handsome.

Xu Fan also liked beauty and stood in front of a full length mirror that was stuck in the soil. He tucked the short-sleeved shirt inside his pant pockets and looked at his butt. There wasn’t a patch on his butt. He then looked at the crotch of his pants. The crotch of his pants didn’t expose his eggs or little pee pee. Finally, he happily turned to the mirror and said with glee, “Wow, I look good. I look really good!”

Xu Zhao: “…”

Cui Qingfeng: “…”

The shopkeeper wanted to sell the clothes so he did his best to praise Xu Fan.

Xu Fan liked being praised the most. He shyly clung to Xu Zhao’s legs.

“Owner, how much for one set of clothes and two pairs of shoes?” Xu Zhao asked the shopkeeper.

“Three Yuan,” the shopkeeper said.

Cui Qingfeng was immediately reluctant and said, “Three Yuan? That won’t do, it’s too expensive, way too expensive. Two Yuan.”

The shopkeeper quickly tried to reason, “Two Yuan is too little. These clothes are made with great materials, and the shoes were made to be breathable yet sturdy. I guarantee that you’ll be able to wear them for three years without tearing.”

“It’s still too expensive. Children’s clothes don’t use that much fabric. Two Yuan. It has to be two Yuan,” Cui Qingfeng said.

“2.50.”

“Then 2.40. Do we have a deal?”

“I won’t be able to cover the loss with 2.40. 2.50, alright?” the shopkeeper persisted.

Cui Qingfeng turned his head and said, “Come on, Sanwa. Take off the clothes. We’ll look somewhere else.”

Cui Qingfeng originally wanted to use this move to pressure the shopkeeper, but Xu Fan wouldn’t cooperate and tightly gripped Xu Zhao as he said, “I won’t take it off.”

Cui Qingfeng winked and said, “Take it off and we’ll buy better clothes.”

“No, these clothes are good,” Xu Fan insisted.

The shopkeeper was instantly happy.

Xu Zhao chuckled and fished out two Yuan to give to the shopkeeper, but discovered that Xu Fan insistently rubbed his forehead on his leg. “Xu Fan, what’s wrong?” Xu Zhao asked, puzzled.

“Daddy, it’s itchy,” Xu Fan whispered.

“Why are you itchy? Let me take a look.”

Xu Fan crouched down to take a look. Seeing that Xu Fan’s entire forehead was red, he was immediately startled.