Siheyuan: There are three little cats at home

Chapter 420 Convince
The old man is a veteran, over 60 years old, wearing a standard green military uniform, with a pale face and piercing eyes.

Even though he is an old man, he is very energetic and quite good.

Xu Qing was quite familiar with this old man. He was a citizen who lived nearby and came to visit the business every now and then. Every time he ordered a few kilograms of white flour or millet or stick noodles.

He never buys more, and comes back after eating. When the weather is nice and Xu Qing has nothing to do, he sits at the door of the grain station and tells Xu Qing how he stabbed the little Japanese to death with a bayonet.

Xu Qing found it fresh at first, but as time went by, it became less interesting.

The old man talks about Cheluluan every time, not to mention Xu Qing, Xiaoya and Meijuan can know it by heart.

However, whenever the old man talked about it, he always looked proud and proud, making it difficult for Xu Qing and Xiaoya to interrupt.

Especially the old man also let Xu Qing see the scars on his back.

Xu Qing not only respects, but also respects.

After all, this is a man who made significant contributions to the founding of the country.

Being able to keep your head in your belt and protect your country should be respected.

But the old man always asked Xu Qing to make it cheaper when buying food. Once or twice, Xu Qing didn't say a word.

But it happens every time.

Who can stand it.

When Xu Qing saw that the old man had arrived early this morning, he took the lead and said before he could speak first:

"Old man! It may rain today. Let's stop chatting. I'll give you two cents for five pounds of white flour. You can go back and rest early."

Seeing Xu Qing being so cheerful, the old man smiled on his wrinkled face, "Boy, since your grain station opened, I haven't bought grain anywhere else. If you do this, if you get even cheaper, if a second-rate guy comes to you in the future, Well, I’ll ask my son in the army to help you clean it up!”

Xu Qing smiled helplessly, and while using an iron dustpan to pick up the dough for the old man, he said: "Old man, you are the old man's fate. You have said so, how can I not let you go?"

Xu Qing finished packing the flour and handed it to the old man. Then he took the five kilograms of food stamps and nine cents and gave them away.

It was still raining outside, and big raindrops fell on the ground, splashing water.

Not long after the old man left, Xu Xiaoya came on a bicycle wearing a poncho and rain boots.

"Brother, today is the weekend. My sister-in-law said that after the rain stops, she will bring Hongzhi and Qiaoxin over."

Xu Qing smoked a cigarette, nodded, hugged the little flowers around him, turned around and continued to take stock of the [-] kilograms of grain that would be hauled to the Fifth Factory in the afternoon.

Weekends are weekends, but the Fifth Factory is not alone.

Besides, Aiguo is now the leader of the Fifth Factory, so if Xu Qing sends the grain there, someone will naturally accept it.

Moreover, in factories, in most cases, all the grain and vegetables for the next week are purchased on weekend afternoons.

On normal working days, the people in the canteen's back kitchen are busy cooking, so how can we allocate manpower to buy these things.

Besides, if you don’t remember to buy it until you can’t use it, then it’s too late.

In a factory with thousands of people, everything is available in abundance, unlike a small restaurant where anything is missing and you can buy it at any time.

The factory is big and there are many people, so you have to prepare everything in advance. If you don't come in front, you will be blinded if you can't buy it or if you don't buy it enough.

After Xu Qing counted [-] kilograms of grain, he and his sister Xiaoya sat in the grain station for a while before Sanhuzi's wife and Meijuan hurriedly came holding umbrellas.

Sanhuzi's wife was wearing a pair of black rain boots with countless bicycle inner tubes stuck on them. She said with an embarrassed look on her face: "Sir, it's raining today. My son had a fever early in the morning. He's late. Please be more patient and go there." Finally, Meijuan and I will definitely not be late again."

Xu Qing smiled and waved his hands and said, "It's okay. It's a rainy day. It doesn't matter if it's a little late. There's no business. By the way, if your son has a severe fever, I'll allow you to rest for a day. You and San Huzi will take him to the hospital quickly." Look."

Sanhuzi's wife looked grateful, wiped her rain-drenched hair with a handkerchief and said:

"It's nothing serious, I have cold medicine at home, and I gave him one before leaving.

Xu Qing didn't say anything after hearing this.

When the rain gradually subsided, Xu Qing asked his sister to take money to the braised pork stall at the street corner and bought four bowls of braised pork and four sesame seed cakes.

Then he sat in the grain station and had breakfast with Xiaoya, Meijuan, and Sanhuzi's wife.

The four cats smelled the scent and invariably circled around Xu Qing and the others.

He kept opening his mouth and shouting, as if he also wanted to eat.

Xu Qing lowered his head and took a look, broke off the sesame cake into four small pieces, dipped it in some braised soup, and placed it on the ground.

The four cats started eating immediately like hungry wolves.

Sanhuzi's wife said: "Shopkeeper, you can't raise cats like this. They can be spoiled easily. Ten years ago, in our village, if anyone gave them food, no one would be able to feed them."

Xu Qing swallowed the braised pork in his mouth and said with a smile:
"Sister Wang, you didn't come to my house. My daughter and my nephew Hongfu gave it milk powder and milk to drink. My daughter-in-law couldn't stop it."

Xu Xiaoya took a small bite of sesame seed cake and nodded:

"Sister Wang, have you never seen that little gray one? He is very naughty now. He eats and sleeps in the house all day long. He even catches the mice in our compound at first. Now the mice run past us and they are all gone." If you don’t open your eyes, put down the steamed buns

I won’t eat either, and I have to pester my little niece to drink milk powder. "

Sanhuzi's wife was shocked and frowned: "What's the matter? 20 years ago, it would have been fine if people didn't eat cats. They also gave them milk powder. I didn't drink it when I was a child."

Meijuan responded: "Sister-in-law, things are different now. I heard people say that foreigners treat cats as babies, let alone milk powder. They specialize in food for cats, and they are even more expensive than our white flour." The prices are high.”

When Sanhuzi's wife heard her sister-in-law's words, she suddenly felt horrified and sighed repeatedly:

"Foreigners have never been poor. A well-fed man doesn't know a hungry man is hungry. If there is no food in their country, do they still have the time to do that?"

"I also study what cats eat. Why, I make three dishes and one soup for cats every day."

Xu Qing, Xiaoya, and Meijuan were completely amused.

However, Xu Qing wouldn't let that little gray one drink milk powder and milk every day.

That is, my daughter Qiaoxin and my nephew Hongfu. They drank what was left and dipped it in steamed buns and fed it to the cat.

Life at home is easy, but we are not rich enough to raise a cat like a real uncle.

In these days, cats are mainly kept to catch mice. Children like small animals, so just accommodate them.

After breakfast, Xu Qing saw that the rain outside had stopped. He walked out of the grain station, raised his hands above his head, stretched his body, and breathed in the fresh air after the rain.

There were gradually more pedestrians on the street at this time.

The rain stopped and it was the weekend again, so naturally no one wanted to stay at home.

The business of Xu Qing Grain Station also boomed.

People who came to buy grain walked into the grain station one by one and selected the grain they wanted.

Xu Qing, his sister Xiaoya, and Sanhuzi's wife and Meijuan were busy greeting the guests.

At this moment, Ma Jinghong, holding her daughter and her son Hongzhi, stepped out of the car borrowed by Xu Fengming, followed Aiqian, Aiguo, and Xiujuan, and followed the flow of people towards their own grain station.

Business was good at this time, so Ma Jinghong let her son Hongzhi carry her daughter to the grain pile behind the counter to play with the cats.

She rolled up her sleeves and helped her husband and sister-in-law greet the guests.

Aiguo asked Ai Qian to send Hongfu to the back to play, and then the two of them, along with their third brothers Feng Ming and Xiu Juan, who had just parked the car, helped their eldest brother.

Xiaoya and Jinghong, one collects money and the other gives change.

Ai Qian and Xiu Juan collected food stamps and were on guard against anyone taking the food away without giving them money or food stamps.

Three brothers, Xu Qing, and Sanhuzi's daughter-in-law, Meijuan, helped those who wanted food with iron winnowing sticks and buckets.

It turns out that when domestic industry was underdeveloped, there were no iron dustpans, so wooden buckets were used to scoop out grains.First, it is convenient for scooping grain.

Secondly, it can also be used as a unit of measurement.

It's too cumbersome to use names all the time.

The general standard for shengdou is one catty and six taels.

But there are also those that hold two kilograms and one kilogram.

The buckets in Xu Qingliang Station are all two pounds.

It would be too troublesome to get one weighing six ounces per catty.

It doesn't matter if there are few people, but if there are too many people and they are too busy, it will seem like useless things.

It was so busy that when it was almost noon, there were finally not many people left.

Xu Qing asked his younger brothers and sisters, as well as his wife and two younger sisters-in-law, to rest.

He and Meijuan can handle the rest.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Xu Qing took advantage of the fact that there were not many people coming to buy grain at the grain station, and took his third brother to pull the [-] kilograms of grain prepared in the morning to the fifth factory.

Xu Aiguo was the director of the fifth factory, and it was difficult to show his face, so he stayed at the grain station with his sister and helped his elder brother keep an eye on it.

They grew up relying on Xu Qing's support.

Now that the eldest brother has opened a grain station, they have nothing to do on weekends, so they naturally come to help.

Not long after Xu Qing and Feng Ming left, Ma Jiefang rode his bicycle and brought his pregnant Wu Yuemei and son Ma Xiaojun to the grain station as a family of three.

Seeing that Xu Qing is not here, only Aiguo and Sanhuzi's wife, Meijuan, are there.

Ma Jiefang raised his eyebrows and said, "Patriot, where is your eldest brother?"

"My eldest brother and Feng Ming sent food to my factory."

Ma Jiefang held a cigarette in his mouth and lay down in front of the counter. After looking around the grain station, he asked:
"My fifth sister, didn't she come today?"

Xu Aiguo said: "Brother Jiefang, my sister-in-law came with me in the morning. There is no one here at this time in the afternoon. My sister-in-law, my wife, Xiaoya and the others went shopping with Hongzhi."

Ma Jiefang turned to look at his son and said, "Listen, your brother Hongzhi is here. When you come back later, you can play with him again."

Ma Xiaojun curled his lips, reached out and took out the glass ball from his trouser pocket, and was about to squat on the ground and play with it by himself.

Suddenly seeing the four cats, he stood up and pounced on them.

Xiao Hei, Xiao Bai, Xiao Hua, and Xiao Jin were so scared that they ran around.

Wu Yuemei hurriedly stopped her. She knew how naughty her son Ma Xiaojun was. If he caught those cats, he would probably be tortured to death. She said:
"You can play with them, but if they are neither light nor serious, you see how I will deal with you!"

When Ma Xiaojun saw the cat, he didn't listen to his mother. He climbed onto the grain pile, grabbed Xiao Hei's tail and refused to let go.

Xiao Hei was in pain, turned his head and roared fiercely, and Ma Xiaojun was so frightened that he quickly let go.

Ma Jiefang looked sideways and frowned, walked over, raised his foot and kicked his son's butt lightly:

"You brat, did your mother's words fall on deaf ears?"

Ma Xiaojun looked mournful and said aggrievedly: "Who let them run away?"

Just at this moment, Ma Jinghong and sister-in-law Xiaoya came back.

Xu Hongzhi drank soda and held his sister. When he saw Ma Xiaojun coming, he ran forward, handed the soda bottle over and said:

"Xiaojun, brother will give you a soda."

Ma Xiaojun suddenly became happy, drank a cold soda, and no longer wanted to catch the cats. He reached out and took out the glass ball, squatted on the ground and started playing with Xu Hongzhi.

Ma Jinghong held her daughter in her arms and said to Wu Yuemei, who had just revealed her belly: "It's so liberating. Why did I let you come here? If you are healthy, don't follow him around. Take a good rest."

Wu Yuemei smiled and said: "It's okay, Fifth Sister, I've only been here for a few months, so it's nothing."

After Wu Yuemei finished speaking, she reached out to hold her niece in her arms and said enviously:
"Fifth sister, it would be great if Jiefang and I were both girls this time."

Ma Jinghong smiled and said: "Maybe she is a girl?"

Wu Yuemei squeezed her niece's pink little hand and hummed:
"Yeah, I'm just looking forward to having a daughter. My son is too noisy. My Xiaojun wants me to tell Jiefang to do his homework every night. He doesn't go home after school in the afternoon. He just plays outside with his classmates and doesn't let him do anything. People worry less.”

Ma Jinghong didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Hongzhi is the same, he is always playful. Your brother-in-law is currently busy with the business at the grain station, and I am the only one in charge. I don't know why last time, he beat Sister Yu Li's daughter to tears in our front yard. , I didn’t even dare to let your brother-in-law know.”

Ma Jiefang came over and said, "Sister, you are still a naughty child. In two years' time, if you ask Hongzhi to beat Yan Jiecheng's daughter in your courtyard, he won't even bother to do it."

Ma Jinghong rolled her eyes at her younger brother angrily, "You weren't that strong when you were a child. When you were 13 years old, you made Aunt Li's daughter in our compound cry. Have you forgotten?"

Ma Jiefang looked embarrassed, scratched his head and said: "Fifth sister, it's not my fault. I didn't want to pay attention to her at all at that time. Who cares about a girl? It's not like she stole your candy at our house and refused to admit it. "

Wu Yuemei glared at Ma Jiefang and said: What kind of girl movie, don't you have any good words in your mouth?

Seeing that he had said the wrong thing, Ma Jiefang hurriedly turned around and walked to Ai Guo.

At this time, in the grain station, except for him, Aiguo and the three little guys, the others were all women.

Knowing that it would be easy to suffer a loss, he did not dare to say anything. He dragged Aiguo out of the grain station and stood outside chatting on the street.

The weather was getting a bit dull now. After the rain stopped in the morning, the sun came out.

It has been in the sun all morning, scorching the earth and seeming to squeeze out all the moisture in the air.

Ma Jiefang said while waiting for Xu Qing and Feng Ming to come back:
"Patriot, what do you think about my brother, if I resign from Factory No. [-], I can do business like your elder brother?"

Xu Aiguo rejected the offer from Ma Jiefang and said, "Brother Jiefang, why do you want to resign? Someone in the third factory is targeting you?"

Ma Jiefang held a cigarette in his mouth and bared his teeth: "No problem, I am the section chief, who dares to make trouble with me? Besides, you will succeed Brother Qingzi as the leader of the fifth factory, brother and you, who dares to make trouble with me?" .”

Xu Aiguo smiled and said, "Yes, but Brother Jiefang, you are doing well in Factory No. [-], why do you want to leave?"

Ma Jiefang puffed on the smoke and said: "Well, how should I put it? I have been in the factory for more than ten years, and I feel that I have no energy. Brother Qingzi is not here. Brother Damao of your hospital, I heard that he is also planning to do business recently. , all submitted their resignation letters to the factory, but the factory did not approve it and kept delaying it.

The country is now opening up, and I want to follow the country's lead and become self-reliant. "

Xu Aiguo looked at Ma Jiefang and said, "Brother Jiefang, have you thought about it?"

Ma Jiefang bared his teeth and smiled: "Hey, it's useless to think about it. Your sister Yuemei doesn't agree. During this time, I have been doing ideological work for her."

Xu Aiguo thought thoughtfully and said: "Brother Jiefang, you'd better think more about it. Don't be anxious. When my elder brother comes back later, you can ask my elder brother what he means."

Ma Jiefang smoked a cigarette, nodded and said, "Well, I came here today to tell Qingzi about this matter."

In Ma Jiefang's heart, Xu Qing is more than just a brother-in-law.

He and Xu Qing were high school classmates at first, then colleagues in a factory, and finally became brother-in-law and brother-in-law.

After getting along with each other for many years, he was very convinced of Xu Qing.

He is not a person without opinions, but he likes to discuss important matters with Xu Qing.

Because every step Xu Qing took, whether it was paving the way for his younger brothers and sisters, or doing anything else.

Ma Jiefang knows this and has witnessed it with his own eyes.

Naturally, I want to hear Xu Qing’s views on his choice to do business.

(End of this chapter)