Starting with vegetable greenhouses in 1988

Chapter 13 Consignment Stores

Li Zhe returned from the fields and strolled to Li Weidong's house. Seeing the green door ajar, he pushed it open and went inside. "Brother, are you home?"

"I'm here." In the courtyard, Li Weidong was shirtless, washing himself, and then pulled off the white towel draped around his neck to wipe his face. "I just got back from riding my bike to the county this morning. What's up?"

The Malay boy pulled up the curtain and said, "Second Uncle is here. Come in and sit down."

"Sister-in-law, don't bother. It's stuffy inside. It's cooler sitting in the yard. Where's Daya?"

"I was exhausted after running around all day, so I lay down on the kang and fell asleep." Ma Laixiao brought out two stools from the room and handed them to Li Zhe, "Sit on these."

Li Weidong put on a faded blue striped vest, rubbing his calves and grimacing, "I've been riding for most of the day, and both my legs are trembling."

"I also took a horse-drawn carriage to the county today. I wasn't tired, but my butt hurt from the bumpy ride."

Li Weidong said, "I wish our village could have paved roads like the county someday."

Li Zhe said, "That day will come."

The young man from Malay brought out an elmwood table, poured hot water for the two brothers, and came out with two yellow paper packets. "Second Uncle, these are snacks I bought at the county supply and marketing cooperative. Try them."

The Malaysian girl opened the paper package; one package contained mung bean cakes, and the other contained glutinous rice strips about the thickness of a finger.

Li Zhe picked up a glutinous rice strip and put it in his mouth. He took a bite and it made a "crunch" sound. It was crisp and sweet. He hadn't eaten it for several years, and the taste was not bad at first.

My sister-in-law is nice, but this is the first time I've ever been treated so warmly.

After a moment's thought, Li Zhe roughly understood the reason, but he didn't point it out and instead explained his purpose for coming.

"Second brother, I roughly know what the vegetable greenhouse you want to build is, but no one has ever done this before, so it seems quite risky... However, you're quick-witted, and if you're really determined to do it, I won't stop you."

"I can't be of much help, but I have plenty of strength. Whatever you say, I'll do."

Li Zhe wasn't surprised by his elder brother's reaction; the real decision-maker in this family was the younger brother from Malaysia. "Sister-in-law, what do you think?"

Seemingly surprised that Li Zhe would ask her, Ma Lai paused for a moment, then said, "What your brother said is exactly what I wanted to say. When it comes to fighting tigers, you need your own brothers. If he doesn't help you, who will he help?"

But did you manage to talk to Mom about picking the corn early?

“Dad mentioned it to her, he didn’t say anything, but he’s still upset about it.” Li Zhe sighed and said helplessly, “Sister-in-law, are you free tomorrow? Can you lend a hand at noon? You know Mom’s temper, if she’s really stubborn, everyone will go hungry.”

“I’ll go over there early in the morning and leave Daya with Mom. She doesn’t cook, but she can still take care of the child,” Malay replied with a smile.

She was actually happy to help.

Li Zhe sat for a while, then politely declined their invitation to stay for dinner and went home.

Li Weidong and his wife had been running around all day and were exhausted. They ate a few bites quickly and lay down as soon as it got dark.

"It's still more comfortable on the kang (heated brick bed)." Li Weidong lay sprawled out, stretching. "Wife, do you think the loan from the credit union will be approved?"

The Malaysian boy turned his head and lay on his side. "I don't think there's a big problem. My second uncle can get a loan, so why can't his brother?"

The clerk there was very friendly, calling us "comrade" repeatedly, clearly hoping we'd get a larger loan.

Li Weidong laughed and said, "The second brother was right. The interest rate on five-year bank deposits has risen to 10.80%. If you deposit the credit union's loan into the bank, you can make a lot of money in a year."

Malay snorted, "Uncle's loan is a legitimate business, but you're just relying on that little bit of interest."

"Wife, this interest is quite substantial, more than our family earns in a year. Besides, a family can't all work hard; someone has to maintain the family business, right?"

To put it bluntly, if the second son really suffers a loss, would we, as the older brother and sister-in-law, let him go hungry?

Malay nodded in agreement, saying, "Once this matter is successfully resolved, we must thank our second uncle properly."

"We're all brothers, thanking each other is too much." Although the family has separated, Li Weidong still feels that they are still family and there is no need to be too clear about the division. For example, he would help with things like harvesting crops and building greenhouses even if Li Zhe didn't ask him to.

In his view, these were all his own business.

Early in the morning, after having breakfast, Li Weidong took a sickle and several bags of urea and went out.

When he arrived at the old house, he saw a horse-drawn carriage parked at the gate, and his father and Zhao Tiezhu were chatting in the courtyard. Li Weidong greeted them and asked, "Where's the second son? When are we going to the fields to harvest corn?"

“He went to the consignment store to buy meat, saying he would give us an extra meal at noon.” Old Li stood up, slung the wooden basket against the wall over his shoulder, and said, “Let’s not wait for him. Let’s get to work while it’s still cool, and we can rest when it gets hot.”

The three of them took their tools and rode in a horse-drawn carriage to the fields north of the village.

The store is located in the center of the village, with an open space in front of it and a simple sunshade. People play cards and chat here every day, making it the liveliest place in the village.

Li Zhe lifted the gauze curtain and walked into the consignment shop, which was about fifty square meters in size. The shop was not big, but the goods inside were complete.

A middle-aged woman was sweeping the shelves with a feather duster. She was tall and dignified, and her delicate features suggested that she must have been very beautiful when she was young.

Li Zhe greeted her, "Auntie, you're busy."

The woman's name was Zhang Yuzhen. During the brigade period, she was a sales agent in a general store. In the early 1980s, when the supply and marketing cooperatives were reformed, Zhang Yuzhen contracted the general store and ran it with her husband. They lived a prosperous life.

"Li Zhe is here. It's been a while since we last met. What would you like to order?"

"Is there any pork?"

"Yes, your uncle just got some this morning." Zhang Yuzhen led Li Zhe behind the shelf, pointing to the pork on the cutting board. "Look how fresh and shiny this meat is. How much do you want?"

"Give me two pounds of meat, the fatty kind." Li Zhe prefers leaner cuts, the kind with three layers of fat and lean meat, but unfortunately, his taste is considered unconventional in this era.

"Look at this piece of meat, how about it? It's four fingers thick with fat."

"Okay, this one will do."

Zhang Yuzhen quickly cut the meat off the scale and placed it on the scale. "Two jin and two liang, that's a good amount. Today the price of meat is 1.95 yuan per jin, so it's 4.29 yuan in total. Anything else?"

Li Zhe walked around the shop and ordered two jin of tofu, two jin of vermicelli, a pack of lotus-shaped cigarettes, and two jin of loose liquor.

Fenjiu is good, but it's too expensive to be a staple food.

While packing the things, Zhang Yuzhen asked, "You bought so much stuff, is your house ready?"

"There's some work to do at home, so relatives came over to help."

"We must treat her well," Zhang Yuzhen said. "Why haven't I seen your mother lately? What have you been up to?"

"I'm at home taking care of my granddaughter," Li Zhe replied perfunctorily. Regardless of the situation at home, he still had to say the right things in front of outsiders.

"Tell her not to stay at home all the time, but to come to my shop to relax when she has time. It's more lively with more people."

Li Zhe didn't answer, paid the bill, and left.

Despite Zhang Yuzhen's outward enthusiasm, the two families are not close and rarely visit each other.

If this weren't the only store in the village, Li Zhe wouldn't have come here to buy things.

In his past life, when Li Zhe was young, he knew that his mother and Zhang Yuzhen didn't get along, or rather, his mother disliked Zhang Yuzhen. In Li Zhe's memory, Zhang Yuzhen was a good person, and he was puzzled as to why his mother didn't like her.

Out of curiosity, Li Zhe asked his mother, but she refused to tell him. When pressed, she would get angry.

It wasn't until a few years ago that Li Zhe learned the reason from his sister-in-law: the Wang family and the Zhang family were neighbors, and Wang Xiuying and Zhang Yuzhen had grown up together and had a very good relationship.

When she grew up, a matchmaker arranged a marriage for Wang Xiuying. Zhang Yuzhen was also present when they met. The man was a tall, handsome young man who was very likable.

However, after the meeting ended, the man remained silent.

Six months later, her best friend Zhang Yuzhen suddenly got engaged. Wang Xiuying also went to the engagement ceremony and felt that the man looked familiar. Upon closer inspection, she realized that he was the handsome young man she had met on a blind date six months ago.

After that, the two sisters started to quarrel. Zhang Yuzhen tried to smooth things over, but Wang Xiuying wouldn't listen.

Zhang Yuzhen wasn't a bad person by nature. In her previous life, after Li Zhe's mud-brick house collapsed, she gave him a lot of living supplies and refused any money offered to her.

In their later years, Wang Xiuying and Zhang Yuzhen's relationship improved. Wang Xiuying would occasionally visit the store. Overall, their relationship was rather complicated, and Li Zhe didn't want to get involved in the affairs of the older generation.

(End of this chapter)