CH 59

Hearing this, Xu Zhao smiled.

Popsicles, mooncakes, noodles, cigarettes, and other things, Xu Zhao had sold them all before so he knew that he would be able to sell vegetables as well. He was still a bit gun shy, but after receiving the Cui family’s encouragement, he gained a lot more confidence.

However, he couldn’t boast before the vegetables were all sold. He still needed to use his mind to sell the vegetables since that was the first hurdle.

Therefore, the Cui residence didn’t stay at the Cui residence for long. He gave Mother Cui four bundles of vegetables, then rode his bicycle to the steel factory first to give Sister Yun and the person in charge of the steel pipes, Manager Guo, four bundles of vegetables each as well. After making some more connections, he returned to the Cui residence again and left his bicycle. He carried the basket of vegetables with one hand and held Xu Fan’s hand with his other as they headed toward East Street’s vegetable market.

Mother Cui just so happened to not have work today and wanted to help Xu Zhao watch Xu Fan so that Xu Zhao could focus on selling vegetables, but Xu Fan wasn’t willing to part with Xu Zhao and followed him.

Cui Qingfeng smiled and said, “Mom, Sanwa sticks to Xu Zhao so much.”

Mother Cui immediately replied, “Which child doesn’t stick to their parents? All children stick to their parents. Especially Daddies like Xu Zhao who treat their children so kindly. Which child wouldn’t want to stick to him?”

“Youngest uncle didn’t. When Youngest uncle was young, he was very independent,” Cui Qingfeng added.

Mother Cui immediately denied, “Your youngest uncle stuck to your grandma more than anyone else!”

“Ah, really?” Cui Qingfeng giggled. He hadn’t known this fact. In his memory, his youngest uncle was very independent, amazing, and smart. Nothing was difficult for him. He really didn’t know that his youngest uncle had stuck to someone like that.

Speaking of Cui Dingchen, Mother Cui remembered when Cui Dingchen was a child and couldn’t help but say with a sigh, “Speaking of which, your youngest uncle was so cute when he was young. Sanwa has a lot of characteristics that are very similar to your youngest uncle when he was young.”

Cui Qingfeng was shocked and asked, “Sanwa looks like my youngest uncle? Mom, you must be joking, right? How does he look like my youngest uncle?”

“How doesn’t he? They both like to eat, like to stick to people, are good at speaking, and like beauty.”

Cui Qingfeng smiled and said, “You should let that go. How could you say my youngest uncle likes to eat? Xu Fan is a glutton, plus most children are like Sanwa. Mom, stop trying and find similarities between children and me and my youngest uncle. Neither of us are married yet.”

Mother Cui deliberately rolled her eyes at Cui Qingfeng and didn’t talk about children anymore.

Cui Qingfeng let out a mischievous smile, then became a bit worried about Xu Zhao and said, “I wonder how Xu Zhao is doing selling those vegetables?”

“He is definitely doing well selling them,” Mother Cui said without a hint of doubt.

“How do you know?”

“They’re good vegetables!”

“Other people also have good vegetables.”

Mother Cui firmly said, “What do you know? Other people don’t have as good of vegetables as Xu Zhao. Just wait. Xu Zhao will definitely sell out on his vegetables! Xu Zhao and Sanwa will be back soon. I’ll fry some peanuts for your dad and your youngest uncle to eat later.

Cui Qingfeng also liked to eat peanuts and said, “Fry them now. I’ll wait to eat them. Have Dad go watch the store first.”

“Alright, let’s peel some peanuts. We’ll give some to Sanwa to take home later.”

“Okay.”

Father Cui was ordered to go watch Fan’s Little Shop.

Cui Qingfeng and Mother Cui were in the courtyard peeling peanuts as they talked. As they talked, Xu Fan’s milky voice came from outside. The mother and son were stunned at the same time.

“Is that Sanwa?” Mother Cui asked in astonishment.

“It seems to be.” Cui Qingfeng was a bit suspicious. How could he be back so soon?

“It can’t be that the vegetables were already sold out, right?”

As soon as Mother Cui’s voice fell, Xu Zhao appeared at the courtyard entrance. One hand carried the bamboo basket and the other was holding Xu Fan. Xu Fan’s small legs padded inside the courtyard as he said, “The vegetables sold out! Me and my daddy sold them!”

Mother Cui and Cui Qingfeng were both shocked, their gaze falling on the empty bamboo basket. They then turned to Xu Zhao and asked in unison, “You really sold out?”

“We sold out,” Xu Zhao asked.

“That’s too fast!” Cui Qingfeng sighed in amazement.

Xu Zhao smiled and humbly said, “It wasn’t fast. It’s because there weren’t many vegetables.”

On one hand, there weren’t many vegetables, and on the other, vegetables were scarce right now. The entire market was currently very monotonous with only white radish, carrots, wax gourd, and salted vegetables. There were very few spinach and small Chinese cabbage since they were about to go out of season. Therefore, their appearance wasn’t good either. And so, once Xu Zhao’s bamboo basket of tender and green vegetables appeared in the market, it immediately caught everyone’s eye and was sold out almost immediately. A lot of people weren’t able to buy any.

After hearing this, Mother Cui happily hugged Xu Fan and said, “I knew it! They would definitely sell! Isn’t that right, Sanwa?”

Xu Fan nodded and said, “Mn. The vegetables Daddy plants are the tastiest!”

Cui Qingfeng was happy for Xu Zhao and said, “So you won’t have to worry about selling vegetables now? Will I also have other work to do now?”

Xu Zhao nodded. “Basically.”

It would be said that this trail sale was successful. Xu Zhao was able to see a bright future in an instant. Xu Zhao was unable to hold in his happiness. A plan emerged in his heart, waiting for him to make it real. He didn’t want to stop and immediately wanted to go home. He quickly placed the bamboo basket onto the back of the bicycle and turned his head to find Xu Fan.

“Xu Fan!” Xu Zhao called.

No one answered.

“Xu Fan!” Xu Fan called again.

No one answered. This little guy’s attention was grabbed by something again!

Xu Zhao parked the bicycle in front of the kitchen and saw Xu Fan holding onto Mother Cui’s leg, waiting to eat fried peanuts.

This little foodie!

“Xu Fan!” Xu Fan called again.

It seemed that Xu Fan only just now heard and turned back to look at Xu Zhao. “Daddy, fried peanuts.”

“We’re going home,” Xu Zhao helplessly said, “Are you coming home or not?”

Xu Fan was longing for the peanuts, his little finger pointed to Mother Cui as he said, “Grandma Cui is frying peanuts for me.”

“…”

In the end, when Xu Zhao left the Cui residence, he took with him a bag of peanuts that had just been fried. Xu Fan also had a lot of peanuts in his pocket. Xu Fan didn’t speak a single word during the ride, instead, he munched on the peanuts. Once they arrived home, Da Zhuang immediately came by to say, “Sanwa, you’re wearing my hat. You need to give it back to me.”

Xu Fan’s small hands immediately lifted to the Lei Feng hat on his head.

“That’s my hat,” Da Zhuang said.

Xu Fan thought the Lei Feng hat looked very good and wasn’t willing to take it off. “Let me wear it for a bit longer,” he said.

“That’s my hat.”

“Let me wear it.”

“No,” Da Zhuang directly refused.

“…”

Xu Zhao had never thought to ask about the “resentments” between Xu Fan and Da Zhuang and let them play as they liked. When he looked back at the two little guys, they were eating peanuts together, neither of them mentioning the Lei Feng hat that was on Xu Fan’s head.

Xu Zhao handed the bag of peanuts to Mother Xu and said it was given by Mother Cui.

After taking the peanuts, Mother Xu looked at the empty bamboo basket and asked, “Xu Zhao, how did selling the vegetables go?”

“We sold out,” Xu Zhao said.

“Sold out?”

“Mn. Sold for 3 Yuan.”

“3 Yuan! So much!” Mother Xu was very surprised.

3 Yuan!

Once Da Zhuang’s father, who was inside the greenhouse, heard this, he couldn’t contain the joy on his face. 3 Yuan. Besides the money for the seeds, they hadn’t spent money on anything else. They only had to put out manpower, and that basket of vegetables didn’t really take much effort, yet it was actually able to be sold for 3 Yuan. If that was the case, how much money could all the vegetables inside the greenhouse be sold for? Although it was more troublesome than growing wheat and soybeans, it was very profitable!

The joy on Da Zhuang’s father’s face instantly turned into excitement. His actions and speech became very energetic as he said, “Xu Zhao, doesn’t this mean that we’ll definitely make money in the future?”

“That still isn’t certain,” Xu Zhao said.

Da Zhuang’s father’s expression froze as he asked, “Why not?”

Xu Zhao said, “While growing vegetables, there might be pests, droughts—”

“That’s nothing!” Without waiting for Xu Zhao to finish speaking, Da Zhuang’s father proudly said, “Not to mention Uncle and Auntie Xu, even I had started farming when I was six years old. After 20-30 years, how could I not cure crop diseases? Don’t worry. You use your brains and I’ll use my brawns. We can definitely do it!”

“Okay. Then there’s something I want to discuss with you guys.”

“What is it?” Mother and Father Xu and Da Zhuang’s father all asked together.

“I want to install a phone at home first,” Xu Zhao said.

“Install a phone?” the three asked in unison.

“Mn. On the way back, I thought about it, and we can definitely sell vegetables in the vegetable market. But we shouldn’t only sell at the vegetable market, we should also do wholesale so that we can sell our vegetables to the outside. We should get first-hand information so that we can grow vegetables easier. We can’t always depend on Uncle Zhang, right? It’s troublesome for them, and we’d also feel bad.”

The three seemed to only half understand and nodded.

“With a phone, we can do a lot of things. It’ll be easier to contact people and make money,” Xu Zhao continued.

“How much does it cost to install a phone?” Mother Xu asked.

Xu Zhao thought about it then said, “About 3,000.”

3,000 Yuan!

Mother Xu was frightened and unable to speak.

Father Xu was also frightened by this number. Why was it so expensive!

Da Zhuang’s father wiped his hands on his pants and said, “We don’t have that much money.”

“If we wait to save up this money before installing the phone, it would be too troublesome. Besides, we would miss a ton of opportunities. So I was thinking of borrowing money from someone.”

“From who?” Mother Xu asked. “Who would have that much money? It’s 3,000 Yuan!”

Xu Zhao was silent for a second before saying, “There’s someone with that much money.”

That person was—Cui Dingchen.

Xu Zhao really had no other choice. This was how starting a business was. You couldn’t always have an abundance of money on you. There would be times where you were strapped for cash, so Xu Zhao decided to go find Cui Dingchen. He didn’t plan on calling him, but going to directly find him.

It just so happened that Cui Dingchen had returned to the county town today and had given Xu Zhao a call.

Xu Zhao immediately packed up his things and left with Xu Fan and a whole variety of greenhouse vegetables. He followed the direction Cui Dingchen gave and arrived at the grain supply station. Yep, it was the grain supply station. Xu Zhao recalled that when he was handing over the grain tax with Da Zhuang’s father before, he had seen a black compact car, which was Cui Dingchen’s. That was because Cui Dingchen lived nearby.

After biking past the grain supply station, Xu Zhao entered a clean and straight road. Small shops lined both sides of the road. It looked very secluded. Turning the corner and entering a street, he saw row after row of small courtyards, and behind the small courtyards were bungalows.

Bungalows!

Xu Zhao only just built a tiled house, yet other people were already living in bungalows. Although he had gotten used to high-rise buildings in the 21st century, he had lived inside a thatched hut and tiled house for too long. He still had a bit of envy for these clean and tidy bungalows.

After biking for another five minutes, Xu Zhao stopped inside a courtyard. He pushed the bicycle up to knock on the door. The door immediately opened. Cui Dingchen appeared wearing a low rise black sweater. After not seeing him for a long time, he looked especially handsome.

“Youngest uncle,” Xu Zhao smiled and greeted.

“Come in.”

Cui Dingchen saw Xu Fan sitting on the front handlebars and reached out to carry Xu Fan.

Xu Fan immediately cuddled into Xu Zhao’s body, unwilling to let Cui Dingchen hold him.

Xu Zhao lowered his head and whispered beside Xu Fan’s ear, “He’ll take you to see the big car.”

Hearing about the big car, Xu Fan immediately changed his attitude and reached out his arms toward Cui Dingchen.

“…” Cui Dingchen definitely wouldn’t lower himself to Xu Fan’s level, but he didn’t act affectionately with him either. He just lifted Xu Fan off the bicycle and placed him on the cement ground.

Yep, it was a cement ground. It wasn’t like Xu Zhao’s house where even the main hall had dirt ground. When it rained, their shoes would track water and make the ground muddy.

“Youngest uncle, did you just get back?” Xu Zhao asked with a smile.

“I’ve been home for a while now. Give me the bike.” Cui Dingchen took Xu Zhao’s bicycle. When his hands held the handlebars, he brushed against Xu Zhao’s fingers, feeling a slight chill. He lifted his gaze to look at Xu Zhao and said, “Why are your fingers so cold?”