novelraw Chapter 137 Keep a close eye on our smartest and most capable fifth sister.
Chapter 137 Keep a close eye on our smartest and most capable fifth sister.
Even with price reductions, no one will buy. Who would spend so much money on a defective product? The main problem is that they don't know how to repair it. A trip to the agricultural machinery station for maintenance would cost at least forty or fifty yuan.
This situation is rare, and Zheng Yunqing happened to encounter it. He negotiated with the tractor factory's sales staff to sell the entire machine as a spare part, reducing the price by 30%. This way, it wouldn't become scrap metal and need to be melted down for remand.
So they disassembled the machine into several parts and sold the used parts in a separate invoice. Therefore, when Tong Yuheng and his team reassembled it, they didn't actually have to reassemble every single part and detail.
They had already assembled most of the equipment by noon. Seeing how hard they were working, the team leader took good care of them, serving them tea and water with great attentiveness. It was almost noon, and he needed to keep his promise to treat everyone to a meal at a restaurant.
"Let's go, let's eat and rest for a while before we get back to work," the team leader called out to everyone. So everyone washed their faces and hands and headed to the state-run restaurant.
"Oh, my niece is here! Come in quickly! What are we having for dinner?" Among this large group of people, Cheng Damei seemed to only be able to see Tong Yuheng.
"Aunt Cheng, the brigade leader is treating us today, so please order something economical. Four dishes and two steamed buns each!" Tong Yuheng was afraid the brigade leader would be stingy, so she simply ordered a few dishes that were within his budget.
"A pot of braised pork with green beans, a pot of tofu and potatoes in a sauce, a scrambled egg with tomatoes, and a hot pot of sliced pork and pickled cabbage. I'll have the chef bring you a cucumber salad with jellyfish. How about that?"
"Okay, okay, okay, thank you so much, comrade!" the captain quickly agreed. But then he thought about how he was over forty and not as successful as a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl, and felt a little discouraged.
While everyone chatted, Tong Yuheng went into the work area next to the kitchen, where Cheng Damei was helping to organize the ingredients. "Aunt Cheng, I got half a pork carcass. Can I just give it to you? You don't need to pay me. Just give me fifteen catties of meat and five catties of ribs and store it here. I can pay you in installments when I come to eat."
"I told you not to be so extravagant! It's too wasteful! A single piece of pork weighs at least forty or fifty pounds, how can you calculate it like that every time? This time, listen to me, pay the actual weight!"
For the past six months, Tong Yuheng has been getting whole boxes of pork from Zheng Yunqing, all at reasonable prices. The pork is stored in the storage room of the space, and she can take it out whenever she needs it.
In order to ensure that her three younger sisters who were studying in the county town could eat well, she gave the cheapest food to several of Cheng Damei's colleagues, as long as they could get the good dishes that her sisters wanted to eat whenever they wanted.
"Alright, Aunt Cheng, I'll save two jin for each of you as a token of my appreciation," Tong Yuheng said.
"Okay, no need to give too much, one pound is enough. Otherwise, just consider it normal from now on. If you have connections to get such good meat, have your fourth uncle give it to you; you could make double the profit!"
Cheng Damei truly treated the sisters as family. Her two younger sisters and her children attended the commune primary school, and she genuinely cared for the sixth and seventh sisters like her own younger sisters. Although the two families hadn't interacted much in the past six months, they had gotten along very well.
"Okay, I'll help Fourth Uncle exchange anything I need from now on. Aunt Cheng, I'll pack lunch for Second Brother and Fifth Brother later. Just one meat dish, one vegetable dish, and a boxed rice will do. Put it on my tab. I'll bring the meat over this afternoon; it'll be frozen."
"Okay, I'll wait for you!" Tong Yuheng went out and sat down at the dining table, while Cheng Damei went to the kitchen to bring out the dishes.
First came scrambled eggs with tomatoes and braised tofu and potatoes in a sauce, then came complimentary cucumber salad with jellyfish. A little while later, braised pork with green beans and a hot pot of sliced pork and pickled cabbage were served.
Sixteen big white steamed buns, a whole basin full, and all the vegetables are ready. Let's dig in!
Although only one dish was arguably meat-based, every dish was bursting with meaty flavor and tasted delicious. The braised pork with green beans had an extra spoonful of meat added, and the sliced pork and pickled cabbage dish was generously layered with large slices of meat. The tofu and green beans were braised and then stewed in the broth, soaking up the meat juices—they were incredibly fragrant!
Soon the food on the table was gone. Tong Yuheng was full after eating only one steamed bun. She had only used her mouth today and hadn't cooked much, so she wasn't hungry.
Tan Suyun was quick on her feet; she ate just as much as the young men, finishing off two large steamed buns as well. She glanced shyly at Ren Hongmin, who chuckled to himself, thinking: "It's not like you've never eaten this much before. Are you afraid I'll see?"
Tong Yuheng broke his remaining steamed bun in half and handed it to the brigade leader and Chen Hongxue, saying, "Waste is shameful. I can't finish it. You two are elders, you should set a good example!"
"You little rascal!" The captain took the steamed bun apologetically, glanced at Chen Hongxue, and then picked it up and ate it, dipping it in the remaining broth from the pot.
The bill came to five yuan and six jiao! That's for eight adults! Yuheng is definitely the one with the most influence!
After he paid the bill, Tong Yuheng went to the kitchen, took three packed lunchboxes, and put them in his backpack. "Captain, you guys go back and rest for a while. I need to go to the school; my second and fifth kids are there!"
When Tong Yuheng arrived at the school, he greeted the gatekeeper and went inside. Recently, some parents and children had come, all for the math competition.
The gatekeeper said: What are you doing with this thing? You're not going to college. Isn't it said that the more knowledge you have, the more reactionary you are?
Yu Yao and Yu Han were both in the dormitory. Yu Yao was looking through a math book she had found at a scrap yard in Yan City, while Yu Han was tidying up her things on the upper bunk.
"Big sister!"
"You guys are pretty fast! You must be exhausted after riding all that way!"
"I'm not tired, but Xiao Wu is exhausted. She rode back by herself, and then I took over halfway back. She rode all the way to school!" Yu Yao praised her fifth sister.
"I just think my second sister is too slow! I'm stronger than her!" Little Five said proudly.
"Alright, I know you're capable! This time, listen to your second sister when you're out, and don't cause any trouble!" Tong Yuheng instructed.
"Big sister, do you think I can manage? I've neglected my studies for more than half a year..." Yu Yao was a little worried.
"It's okay, just do your best. If the teacher gives us the chance to participate, we'll consider it a lie. If they don't let us participate, we'll just learn more knowledge. Either way, it's not a loss!" Tong Yuheng comforted her.
"Oh, right, if you run into Uncle Liu in Sheng City, just pretend you don't know him. I'm worried he might be on a mission, and if bad guys notice, you'll all be in danger!" She remembered something important.
"Okay, big sister. Do you think we can help?" Xiao Wu suddenly interjected.
"Don't even think about it!" the eldest and second eldest brothers shouted in unison.
"Second brother, thank you for your hard work! Keep a close eye on our smartest and most capable fifth sister!"
"Okay, okay!" Tong Yuyao instantly felt that whether or not she participated in the competition, or whether or not she could get good results, didn't matter anymore!