novelraw Chapter 246 - 243: This Kid Hid It Deep
Chapter 246 - 243: This Kid Hid It Deep
The hotel was only a ten-minute walk from the station, but Li Xiangyang was still worried. He escorted the two women back to their hotel, found a restaurant, and ordered food for them before heading back to the station.
Seeing how thoughtful Li Xiangyang was, Zhou Xiaohong looked at Lin Lan with envy. "Little Lin, your Xiangyang is full of surprises. He used to be such a cold person, but he’s actually so considerate. Who would have thought!"
Lin Lan recalled Li Xiangyang’s old, taciturn demeanor and nodded with a smile. "I know! I didn’t expect it either. He used to look annoyed if he had to say one extra word."
Zhou Xiaohong rolled her eyes. "I think he was only annoyed with other people. He was never annoyed about anything to do with you. Do you remember that time the joint defense team came to arrest us?"
The memory made Lin Lan want to laugh. "I remember. I face-planted in the dirt, and that guy Dongzi was smugly making fun of me."
"Xiangyang always used to run faster than a rabbit and never got caught. But that one time, he just ’couldn’t’ run," Zhou Xiaohong said with a pout. "And we got caught because of it."
’Thinking about it now, Li Xiangyang must have had his eye on Lin Lan even back then. That guy really knows how to hide his intentions.’
Lin Lan finally understood why Li Xiangyang and the others had been caught last time. She said, embarrassed, "Maybe he really couldn’t run."
"Hmph!" The envy in Zhou Xiaohong’s eyes was impossible to hide. ’The difference between people is just too great.’
As they spoke, the food arrived: salt-fried pork with garlic shoots, egg drop soup, mapo tofu... Lin Lan and Zhou Xiaohong ate quickly. They paid the owner a small deposit, borrowed two enamel mugs, and went to deliver food to Li Xiangyang and Chen Dongming.
When they got to the station, Li Xiangyang and Chen Dongming were already in the middle of the line. Lin Lan and Zhou Xiaohong took their places.
By the time the four of them bought their tickets, it was already past eight o’clock. They returned the enamel mugs to the restaurant owner, went back to the hotel, and washed up with hot water from a thermos before going to their respective rooms to sleep.
Early the next morning, Boss Ge had the goods packed and ready. A tall, sturdy man loaded the goods onto a tricycle flatbed.
Boss Ge said to Li Xiangyang, "Brother Li, you can go with Gu Dahai. He has a contact who can get you onto the train."
"Okay, thank you, Boss Ge." Li Xiangyang then turned to Gu Dahai and said, "We’ll be troubling you then, Brother Gu."
Gu Dahai said cheerfully, "It’s no trouble. Just follow me."
The group followed Gu Dahai through a small alley and into the station. The man guarding the iron gate saw him coming, smiled, and opened it. He told him that the morning train to East Market was at Platform 1.
Gu Dahai thanked the man with a smile and led Lin Lan’s group toward Platform 1.
Lin Lan and the others noticed that the staff members they passed along the way acted as if they didn’t even see Gu Dahai, letting him bring people into the station without question.
Gu Dahai helped Lin Lan lift a box onto the train’s luggage rack. "There. They’re just starting to check tickets over there, so you’ll have to wait a bit."
Li Xiangyang took a pack of cigarettes from his satchel and handed it to him. "Thanks, Brother Gu. Where can we find you in the future if we need help?" ’This guy is worth knowing,’ he thought. ’He could be useful for buying tickets or getting goods onto the train later on.’
Gu Dahai readily accepted the cigarettes, grinning to reveal a mouth full of white teeth. "Brother Li, you’re a good man. Next time you’re in the provincial capital, just go to Number 69 in that alley we just came from to find me for deliveries. If you can’t buy train tickets, you can also ask me to help you get them."
Li Xiangyang replied readily, "Great. We’ll come to you if we need anything in the future."
"See you!" Gu Dahai nodded, gave Li Xiangyang a fist-and-palm salute, and left.
It was already past eleven by the time Lin Lan’s group arrived in East Market. Li Xiangyang found a contact at the station and borrowed a tricycle trailer to haul their goods to the house near Limin Restaurant.
Zhou Xiaohong and her husband helped carry the goods upstairs to be stored. With Zhou Xiaohong’s family living next door, they didn’t have to worry about thieves, and storing things upstairs also protected them from moisture.
After the four of them came downstairs, Li Xiangyang went to return the trailer.
Zhou Xiaohong smiled at Lin Lan. "We’re right next to the department store here, so it’s the perfect place to sell clothes. It would be great if we could go to Yangcheng City together!"
Lin Lan said, "It’s fine. You two can go first and scout things out. I’ll come as soon as I get things settled here." After a moment’s thought, she added, "Are you still setting up your stall for the next few days?"
Zhou Xiaohong laughed. "Today’s only Thursday, and we don’t leave for another five days. I can still earn over a hundred yuan in that time. Just remember not to prepare my order for next Wednesday."
"Got it!" Lin Lan waved to her and headed home.
It was past two o’clock when she got home. Lin Yuezhen and Qiaohui were loading goods onto a pushcart. Seeing her return, Qiaohui said, "Cousin, the carpenter said the shelves are done. We told him to come tomorrow to settle the payment for his labor and the remaining materials."
Lin Lan nodded. "Qiaohui, you go set up the stall. I’ll take a bath and change, then I’ll be right there."
"Okay, Cousin." Qiaohui finished loading the goods and left with the pushcart.
Lin Yuezhen hurried inside, stirred the charcoal in the stove, and ladled a full pot of water onto it. She then gestured, asking Lin Lan how the supply run went.
"We brought the goods back. They’re stored next door to Sister Zhou’s place," Lin Lan said, then went to fetch a large wooden basin. "Has Little Douzi been good these past few days?"
Lin Yuezhen nodded. She ladled the hot water into the basin, added a few more scoops of water to the pot on the stove, and closed the door as she left.
After washing up, Lin Lan wrapped her hair in a towel, changed her clothes, and dried her hair. She said goodbye to Lin Yuezhen and rode her bike to the Eucalyptus Forest.
Qiaohui told her that the fermented bean curd was almost sold out and that they had sold several pounds of dried mushrooms. She had also been telling customers that after the market in the Eucalyptus Forest closed, they would be opening a dried goods and local products shop in the eastern part of the city, so they should go there to buy things in the future.
"Not bad, Qiaohui," Lin Lan said with a smile. "In the future, when I have to go out on business, I’ll feel at ease leaving you to watch the shop."
Qiaohui blushed and pointed at Yang Zhigang, who was weighing meat for a customer. "Brother Zhigang taught me. He said that to be in business, you have to be a smooth talker and find ways to keep your customers coming back. That’s the only way business will get better and better."
The thought that her future shops would need managers crossed Lin Lan’s mind. She asked Qiaohui, "Qiaohui, have you ever been to school?"
Qiaohui said shyly, "I finished the fourth grade, but then our school didn’t have a teacher anymore. It was too far to go to another production brigade’s school, so I stopped going."
Lin Lan looked at Qiaohui in surprise. "Then where do Little Yu, Hongbing, Hongjun, and the other kids in the brigade go to school?" ’I can’t believe the children in the mountains don’t even have a school to go to. I thought every brigade had an elementary school.’
Qiaohui said sadly, "Only a few of the boys went to live with their maternal grandmothers to go to school. The rest don’t study at all. The brigade leader went to the commune several times but couldn’t find a teacher willing to come to Shishanling. They said the pay is too low and it’s too far. Even community-paid teachers won’t come."
"The adults think school is useless anyway. They think it’s more practical for the kids to stay home, pick mushrooms, help with their younger siblings, and do chores."
’If it were me,’ Lin Lan mused, thinking about the roads to Shishanling and the salary of a community-paid teacher, ’I wouldn’t want to go to such a remote mountain ridge to teach for just a dozen or so yuan, especially at a place where I might not even get paid on time.’
Yang Liying picked up a few sheets of tofu skin and some pieces of dried tofu, then walked over to Lin Lan’s stall. She handed them to Lin Lan and said, "Qiaohui told me you went to the provincial capital to buy bulk spices. My older sister said she wants to buy some from you to make braised dried tofu to sell."
Lin Lan nodded with a smile. "Of course! The shipment has arrived. Just have her give me a list of the spices she needs, and I’ll get them for her."
"I’ll go tell her as soon as I get back."