Siheyuan: There are three little cats at home

Chapter 460: What’s going on? Tell me.

The three people at the door of the grain station turned around when they heard the sound.

Xu Qing took a closer look at the front and saw that it was Hui Lihua, Luo Hongjuan and Li Shuzhen.

Then he and Er Mazi quickly walked back to their own grain station.

Er Mazi knew several of Ma Jinghong's colleagues fairly well.

After all, when Xu Qing and Jing Hong got married, and when Hongzhi and Qiaoxin were one month old, he met Hui Lihua and others at Xu Qing's house.

In addition, the three of them, Hui Lihua, were beautiful and outstanding. They had worked in a cultural troupe and practiced dancing for many years. They had a unique temperament that impressed him deeply.

Er Mazi had a hard time remembering it.

He had only met Wu Xiuying a few times.

He followed Xu Qing to the door of the grain station, grinned and said:
"Comrade Lihua, Comrade Hongjuan, and Comrade Shuzhen, we haven't seen you for a long time. My brother misses you so much!"

Hui Lihua frowned slightly and ignored Er Mazi.

Luo Hongjuan hummed and said: "I remember correctly, your name is Er Mazi. Don't be such a talker. You are us, you are us, you are us, we are us, don't keep it straight."

Er Mazi was scolded, but he was not annoyed. He looked at the three really good-looking people, holding cigarettes in their mouths and grinning with joy.

Xu Qing ignored Er Mazi and asked with a smile:
"Lihua, Shuzhen, Hongjuan, why are you here?"

Luo Hongjuan put her hands in her woolen coat and faced the warm winter sun. Her hair showed a bright black luster in the sunlight. Her face softened the coldness towards Er Mazi just now, and she said to Xu Qing with a smile:

"Lihua, Shuzhen and I went to Xiuying's place to play a few days ago. We just came back today and stopped by to see how the business at your grain station is going."

At this time, Jinghong came out of the store.

Seeing this, Hui Lihua immediately turned her eyes towards Xu Qing, twisted her body, faced Ma Jinghong and pulled down the scarf covering her mouth and nose and said:
"Sister Jinghong, we are going to Xiuying's place. When do you think she will come back?"

Ma Jinghong has close contact with several good sisters.

Knowing that they had gone to Wu Xiuying's side, he asked aloud:

"Lihua, please tell me quickly and stop being so pretentious."

Li Shuzhen said first: "Sister Lihua, Xiuying will come back next year. Her lover has recently been transferred to work. In the spring of next year, he will be appointed as the deputy director of our Water Affairs Bureau in Forty-Nine City. The whole family will come to Forty-Nine City."

Ma Jinghong was very excited when she heard this. She smiled and took Li Shuzhen's hand, and returned to the grain station with Hui Lihua and Luo Hongjuan chattering and giggling.

Xu Qing and Er Mazi are like two transparent people, no one cares about them.

Standing at the door of the grain station, you looked at me, I looked at you, and smiled helplessly.

Fortunately, Xu Xiaoya walked out of the grain station and saw her elder brother and Er Mazi coming back. She said with a pretty face:

"Brother, Master Diao, how many stamps did you two buy?"

Xu Qing took out the stamp album from his military coat and handed it to his sister Xiaoya.

Xu Xiaoya opened it and took a look, frowning slightly, "Brother, you are too perfunctory. There are just a few pictures, and they are not as many as those in Jianjun's stamp album."

Xu Qing smoked the cigarette and said, "Why don't you go home tonight and give the copy of Jianjun to Big Brother, so that I can go back and give it to Hongzhi in the evening."

Xu Xiaoya shook her head, "Brother, you don't know. Jianjun treats his stamp album as a treasure. He allows me to look through it, but he doesn't allow me to take it out of the house. He said that there are three or four stamps in his album that no one in our hospital has." , rare in the whole city.”

Er Mazi curled his lips, took out the stamps from his cotton trousers pocket, and said nonchalantly:
"Hey, what else can these crappy things do besides send letters? Jianjun is still a treasure. My son and my daughter only like to play with them."

Xu Xiaoya's beautiful eyes widened, "Master Diao, are you taking advantage of me and Jianjun?"

Er Mazi said quickly: "Xiaoya, brother, I really don't mean that. I mean these stamps, children's toys, don't give them to me for free!"

Xu Xiaoya held the stamp album, rolled her eyes at Er Mazi, and said with a snort: "What do you know? When I was in college, many of my classmates collected stamps. Now they are always asking where to find good-looking stamps."

Er Mazi scratched his head and looked at Xu Qing with a depressed look on his face, "What's so fun about this?"

Xu Qing actually doesn't understand much, but these days, there are indeed many people who collect stamps.

This is the truth.

Although the people around him don't play this.

But that doesn't mean no one likes it.

After all, in the years when supplies were scarce, stamp collecting could be regarded as a recreational activity.

He thinks that the fans who like to play with figurines in later generations should have the same mentality.

However, this is just his personal thought.

Seeing that Xu Qing didn't say anything, Er Mazi didn't bother to dig deeper.

Anyway, he was forced to buy some stamps to make them happy because of his entanglement with his son and daughter.

Otherwise, he rarely writes letters to people, so how can he buy them.

Besides, no matter how cheap a stamp is, it only costs two or three cents.

If life hadn't gotten better and the country had reopened, we wouldn't have been nervous about food and clothing.

He is not willing to spend money to buy these things just to comfort his children.

At twelve o'clock at noon, Ma Jinghong took her sister-in-law Xu Xiaoya, Hui Lihua, and Hong Luojuan out to eat.

The place I chose was Donglaishun.

Xu Qing said nothing.

Er Mazi sat on a chair nearby, secretly laughing.

Sanhuzi's wife and Meijuan said they were going to the vegetable market to buy some vegetables. It snowed last night and they were afraid that the vegetable market would close early in the afternoon.

After a while, only Xu Qing and Er Mazi were left in the grain station.

Plus the four cats lying in front of the stove, squinting and snoring.

Xu Qing picked up the teapot, poured a cup of tea for Er Mazi, and drank the tea while smoking.

The tea is high-quality tea. When he first opened the grain station, he got good tea leaves.

But everyone who came felt it was not good.

Xu Qing simply changed to Gao Si Er, which everyone in the city was accustomed to drinking.

Although it is extremely cheap, only a few cents per pound, it is of high quality and low price. Ordinary people can afford it and are accustomed to drinking it.

Come here to buy food, and then drink a glass of high street food, and you will feel as if you are back at home.

Just like Xu Qing, after buying the food, I still had to chat a little more and talk about the common things.

Xu Qing felt good about this.

A cup of high succotash brings you closer. Even if the people who come in don't buy food, just coming in will increase the popularity of your food station.

But now, no one came in, and Xu Qing and Er Mazi drank a little tastelessly.

There are usually few people there on weekdays, and people don’t want to go out when it’s freezing in winter.

It snowed last night, and there were not many people on the street, so there was no business.

It wasn't until Jinghong, Xiaoya and the others came back, around five o'clock in the afternoon, that people started coming to the door one after another.

Then, there were gradually more and more people.

Everyone at work has finished work, and those who have no food in the house have to take advantage of this time to come and buy food.

As more people came to buy food, the store naturally became lively.

All four cats jumped behind the counter and no longer dared to lie down in front of the stove.

Xu Qing, his daughter-in-law Jinghong, and his younger sister Xiaoya, together with Sanhuzi's daughter-in-law, Ermazi, and Meijuan, were all busy.

Hui Lihua, Luo Hongjuan and Li Shuzhen also helped.

Dong Laishun was invited by Jinghong at noon. The three of them had nothing to do and were not in a hurry to go home, so they helped Jinghong and Xu Qing pack white noodles and stick noodles for the guests.

In fact, there was something going on, but with Er Mazi and the others being there, Hui Lihua and the other two were too embarrassed to say anything.

After seeing off the last group of customers who came to buy food, Hui Lihua rubbed her sore arms and said:

"Sister Jinghong, you have to pay the three of us, we are exhausted."

Hui Lihua called Ma Jinghong, but looked at Xu Qing.

Er Mazi saw that Hui Lihua looked at Xu Qing in a strange way, and was secretly shocked, what is going on?
Smoking a cigarette and touching the stubble on his chin with his hand, he suddenly felt that something was not normal.However, Hui Lihua quickly turned her head and stopped looking at Xu Qing. Instead, she looked at the hanging military coat and said:

"Sister Jinghong, by the way, when we got off the train today, we met Xu Damao from your courtyard at the station. He was riding a small tricycle with military coats on it, and he was selling them at the train station."

Ma Jinghong had just poured tea for everyone, and now she laughed and said:
"Lihua, you need a salary. It's useless to ask me. The three of you didn't find the right person."

Then he added: "Xu Damao from our hospital recently got a batch of military coats. I have them hanging at the grain station, and I sell them on his behalf."

Hui Lihua snorted, reached out to take the tea cup from Jing Hong, held it in her hand, took a sip, tasted what kind of tea it was, and said immediately:
"Sister Jinghong, it's too much to serve guests with high-quality tea. No matter what, you have to serve good tea."

Xu Qing and Jing Hong were about to explain, but Er Mazi rushed to continue:
"Comrade Lihua, you don't know something. In the eyes of us ordinary people, this tea is the most delicious tea. Tieguanyin, West Lake Longjing, etc., before it, the whole of Europe stops eating.

When you drink a cup of high-definition coffee, do you feel like you are sitting on the kang of your own home? "

Hui Lihua, Luo Hongjuan, and Li Shuzhen looked at each other in confusion. When Er Mazi said this, they didn't know how to refute.

Because Gao Suier is the tea that ordinary households often drink and entertain guests.

When they were young, they always had it at home.

When Xu Qing saw that Hui Lihua and the others were stunned by what Er Mazi said, Xu Qing smiled and said:
“It’s not that I’m reluctant to serve good tea, it’s that people who come to buy food like the taste of Gao Sui. In the past, when I brought good tea from home, they found it not as pleasant to drink as Gao Sui.”

Hui Lihua rolled her eyes at Er Mazi, lowered her head and took another sip of tea.

The high broken pieces are not unpleasant to drink, they are the powdered tea leaves of jasmine tea.

It's just that it doesn't look very good.

Sanhuzi's wife and Meijuan had already left after work. Ermazi finished drinking tea, put on a scarf and a sheepskin hat, said goodbye to Xu Qing, Jinghong and others, walked out of the grain station, pushed his bicycle in On the street, I rang the car bell, turned to say hello to Xu Qing again, and then rode home slowly.

Xu Qing was also about to close the door and return to his compound, but when he saw that Hui Lihua and the other three seemed to have something to say, he asked his sister Xiaoya to leave first. Then he and Jinghong asked Hui Lihua at the grain station:

"You three, tell me what's going on."

Xu Qing sat on a chair and poured the remaining tea in the teapot into his teacup leisurely.

Hui Lihua said: "It's okay."

Luo Hongjuan and Li Shuzhen moved their mouths slightly and looked at Hui Lihua, then at Jinghong, and finally at Xu Qing.

Ma Jinghong saw that the three good sisters felt embarrassed and no one wanted to speak first, so she helped and said:

"Brother Qing, it's like this. It's not like Lihua and the others didn't want to go somewhere when they changed their jobs. By opening a new place, they jointly opened a dance class in the past few months. They spent a lot of money on decoration and advertising. As a result, after a few months, the total We have only recruited five students. We couldn’t support it any longer and closed the door last week. Now I don’t know what to do and I want your help to think of a solution.”

When Xu Qing heard his wife's words, he turned to look at Hui Lihua and the others, and said with a bitter smile:

"I don't understand this. How can I come up with any ideas? You should discuss it with your lover."

Li Shuzhen whispered: "Brother-in-law Qingzi, don't you open a grain station to do business? You have experience in this area. My wife is a section chief in his unit, but we have tried his method and it doesn't work at all. "

Xu Qing frowned and looked at his wife.

Ma Jinghong said: "Brother Qing, just help Lihua and the others think of a solution."

Xu Qing sighed in his heart. His wife had spoken. If he didn't help, it would be impossible. He stretched out his hand to drive Xiaobai away who was scratching his trouser legs, and thought:
"Shuzhen, Lihua, and Hongjuan, you three had a good idea of ​​starting a dance class, and you were right to apply for enrollment, but you just didn't choose the right time."

Hui Lihua and the other three were stunned when they heard this, looked at Xu Qing, and asked:
"Why is the time wrong?"

Xu Qing took out his cigarette, opened the stove cover before the fire was completely extinguished, put the cigarette butt in and lit it, took a puff and said slowly:
"The country has reformed, but the economic level of everyone has not improved yet. Except for those children from well-off families, ordinary families cannot afford the dance classes you run, and they will not agree to let their children go to your place.

Furthermore, our dance school in Sijiucheng was upgraded to a dance academy last year. Not to mention the expansion of enrollment, it is still a regular school.

After graduation, the state assigned jobs.

Most parents who want their children to learn dance will send them there.

The dance classes you run can only recruit students who are already working, or students who are still in high school and preparing to apply for dance academies.

Working people want to learn but don’t have time.

Students who study usually have classes at school and only have time on weekends. However, most parents will not agree with the heavy academic workload.

Also, you only recruit female students, right? "

Hui Lihua nodded and said: "How can we recruit male students? They must be girls. There are many high school female students who are quite willing to come to our place, but their parents won't let them."

Xu Qing smiled without saying a word.

These days, people all over the country are just barely full. They don't have to go hungry and tighten their belts to live their lives.

Forty-Nine City is the capital. Relatively speaking, the economy is better than other places. People's salary levels are also slightly higher, so they have more or less spare money.

But the three of them, Hui Lihua, were running dance classes, but they didn't find the right direction at all.

People in Forty-Nine Cities are still in the transition stage from traditional and conservative ideas to new ideas. Moreover, they are not yet rich enough to send their children to dance classes.

However, Xu Qing still came up with a way to help, and then said:
"Lihua, Shuzhen, Hongjuan, if you open the business in four or five years and the economic level improves, you won't have to worry about having no students. But now, it's very difficult. I can't think of any good ideas at once. It's up to you to wait for the students." After the winter vacation, if we hold a winter vacation class, we might be able to recruit a lot of people.”

Hui Lihua, Luo Hongjuan, and Li Shuzhen heard Xu Qing say this, thought for a while, and said:
"It's only just over December, and it will still be some time before students go on vacation. We can't just wait around now."

Xu Qing said helplessly: "Then what do you want?"

Hui Lihua bit her lip, glanced at Luo Hongjuan and Li Shuzhen, and sighed: "We don't plan to continue to hold dance classes. In the past few months, we haven't made any money, lost a lot, and been beaten by many second-rate people." I have reported them several times, saying that our dance class does not admit them and is discriminating against you gay men."

Xu Qing was instantly amused, laughing so hard that he almost dropped the cigarette in his hand to the ground.

Ma Jinghong poked her and stopped laughing, "Then what are you going to do?"

Luo Hongjuan said: "I haven't thought about this well, I want you to come up with an idea."

Xu Qing scratched his head and said: "There are many ways to make money. I can help you with ideas, but it requires capital."

Hui Lihua said: "What kind of business do you want to make a living? How much does it cost?"

Xu Qing was about to say something, but Li Shuzhen interrupted in a low voice:
"Brother-in-law Qingzi, the three of us are penniless now and don't have a dime in our pockets. Can you let us work at your place and earn some money first?"

Xu Qing suddenly understood that after going through such a big circle, Li Shuzhen was telling the truth.

Suddenly he frowned, looked at Hui Lihua and the others, and asked:
"What's going on, you three, want to follow Jinghong and work at my grain station?"

Luo Hongjuan glanced at Jinghong, grinned at Xu Qing and said:
"Brother-in-law Qingzi, we and Jinghong have been together before. Your grain station also employs people, right? Er Mazi, Na Meijuan and her sister-in-law, they can all work for you. Sister Jinghong and we are as close as sisters. , you can also consider us."

Hui Lihua and Li Shuzhen hugged Ma Jinghong's arms and echoed: "That's right, it's almost the Chinese New Year, and we don't want to look for jobs anymore, so we'll work here."

Xu Qing suddenly felt that his head was as big as a bucket.

What's this all about.

Xu Qing shook his head hurriedly and said: "During the winter, I stopped working in the warehouse in the suburbs and helped here. Except for weekends when there are many people, I usually work all day long. I am busy in the morning and afternoon. The rest of the time , all idle.

If I recruit the three of you again, the money I earn from running the grain station will not be enough to pay you, no, absolutely not. "

Luo Hongjuan said with a cold face to Li Shuzhen: "Shuzhen, what did I say when we were having dinner with Sister Jinghong at noon? Brother-in-law Qingzi would definitely disagree. Lihua, Shuzhen, let's go. At worst, it won't be on New Year's Eve." Let’s take the kids to Sister Jinghong’s house for New Year’s Eve dinner.”

Li Shuzhen lowered her head, stretched out her hand to shake Xu Qing's arm and said, "Brother-in-law Qingzi, please be kind and pity us, just let us work here."

Luo Hongjuan and Li Shuzhen, one plays a white face and the other plays a red face.

Xu Qing was left helpless.

Hui Lihua stood next to Jinghong and said nothing, but her eyes were fixed on Xu Qing, and the emotions contained in them made Xu Qing even more confused.

"Okay, it's useless what you say, I'm going to go out and get some fresh air!"

After Xu Qing finished speaking, he stood up from his chair and hurried out of the grain station.

The night sky is dotted with stars and the wind is bitingly cold.

Xu Qing threw the cigarette butt on the ground, licked it with his toes, and exhaled, feeling a little confused about whether to laugh or cry.

If they wanted to come when the grain station opened in the first half of the year, he would definitely be happy.

At that time, Xiaoya was still working in the piano factory and did not resign, and he did not hire Er Mazi.

Hui Lihua and the three of them will definitely want it.

However, now Jinghong and Xiaoya came to the grain station to help, and hired Er Mazi, Meijuan, and San Huzi's wives.

Not counting him, there were five of them.

A small grain station does not need too many people.

At this moment, Xu Qing stood at the door of the grain station, with only one word in his mind: "Sorrow!"

(End of this chapter)