Linxia

Chapter 44, Apology

The next day, early in the morning, the sunlight shone into Xuan Mo Zhai, making it look mottled and fragmented, and filled with the fragrance of books and ink.

Shopkeeper Liu introduced Fang Lin: "I am Liu Zhentang, an old man. You must have heard of me, so I won't introduce myself to you. You have dealt with the three guys in the store before, so today we can officially get to know each other."

"This is Cheng Shiliang. He has been to school, knows how to read and do arithmetic. He is the cashier of our bookstore."

"Brother Cheng, there were a lot of people in the store last time and I rashly mentioned that little mistake. Don't take it to heart." Fang Lin said this as he looked at the tall, slightly fat man in nice clothes.

"Where?" Cheng Shiliang waved his hand. Originally, he was a good-looking man and still remembered what happened that day, which was a thorn in his heart. But now that Fang Lin took the initiative to talk about it, he let go of his grudge and didn't care about it anymore.

"Huang Di, who is good at talking, is responsible for guiding customers to buy things."

"Brother Huang, please take good care of me in the future." Fang Lin looked at the young man who was neither tall nor short and had slightly yellow skin.

"Take care of each other! Take care of each other! I knew from the beginning that Fang Linni was a capable person and would definitely be able to get in. Now isn't it the case? Congratulations!" Huang Di's words sounded very nice.

"Chai Yiwei, my distant nephew, moves books and cleans in the store. He is an honest man, but he is a little slow in talking. Don't bully him, kid."

"Brother!" Chai Yiwei spoke first to greet him.

Fang Lin looked at the other person and saw that he was short and thin, with a slightly dark skin. He smiled back at him.

'Of the three, Cheng Shiliang comes from a better family, and he bears grudges, but he also has a generous side; the other two may come from less wealthy families, Huang Di is eloquent, and Chai Yiwei is relatively honest. Of course, this is just a first impression, and we need to see more. 'He thought to himself.

"Oh, and my wife, her last name is Min, she cooks in our bookstore, she will come in the middle of the morning, you have seen her too."

After the introduction, Manager Liu assigned Fang Lin a task: "Fang Lin, you just need to find out where the mess is and put the books back in place. Then, look for people who are busy and help them out. Okay, that's it, everyone should go about their own business!"

Speaking of which, after confirming Fang Lin's character yesterday, he is becoming more and more satisfied with this fellow Fang Lin.

——Just as Fang Lin boasted at the beginning: he has a good memory, so he can put books back in place; he is strong, so he can move books, and he can help Chai Yiwei; he is also good at talking, so he can guide customers to buy books, and he can help Huang Di; he is good at math, so he can settle accounts, and he can help Cheng Shiliang. He is simply a jack of all trades and can be used anywhere.

Fang Lin devoted himself to the work. After a ten-day 'internship period', he was already quite familiar with the job and could do it easily.

In addition to his job of returning books to their original places, he also helped Cheng Shiliang, Huang Di, and Chai Yiwei from time to time, without showing off, just helping out and setting off the other party, like a green leaf to a red flower. It made them all feel that it was really good to have someone else, and they couldn't say they were friends for the time being, but they all had a good impression of each other, at least they didn't reject each other.

At noon, I stayed at Xuanmozhai and had my first meal here.

The rice was rice soup with very little rice husk in it. According to the standards of the people in Xiaohe Village, this was already considered refined rice. The dish was tofu mixed with green onions.

Fang Lin and the other four waiters from the store did not sit at the table, but sat in the kitchen to eat. The rice soup was okay, but the dishes were just a small half bowl of food that was reserved by Liu Min, the wife of the shopkeeper, and Old Lady Liu, which was a little tight for the four of them.

"Is the food in our restaurant good?" Cheng Shiliang asked.

He knew that Fang Lin's family had fled here, and when he talked about the food in the restaurant, he felt a sense of honor, and even deeper, a sense of superiority hidden inside - of course, he himself might not have noticed it. "Yes, it's much better than what I usually eat at home." Fang Lin smiled and nodded, knowing what the other party wanted to hear, and gave the desired feedback.

"The dishes were bought by the shopkeeper. Our shopkeeper is a nice person, but the old lady is... well, a little shrewd." Huang Di said, glancing at Fang Lin. Maybe because they were not familiar with each other, the words that came out of his mouth changed from 'stingy' to 'shrewd'.

"The old lady is actually okay. If she met the shopkeeper's eldest daughter-in-law, that would be..." Cheng Shiliang had an indescribable expression.

Huang Di seemed to agree with what he said when he heard it.

Only Chai Yiwei said something good, and he seemed quite satisfied: "I think it's all good, the food is not bad, and our shopkeeper also pays us a lot."

"That's true, our boss is a very good person...Okay, the food is getting cold anyway, let's eat! Eat!" Huang Di called out and took the lead in picking up a large piece of tofu.

Beside him, Fang Lin just listened without saying anything, maintaining a humble attitude.

Although he was quite interested in "It's hard to describe the details of Manager Liu's eldest daughter-in-law", he didn't ask too many questions as they were new to each other. He knew that if they kept getting along like this, he would know some things sooner or later, so he was not in a hurry.

……

After lunch, Fang Lin went out to help pour out the slop and unexpectedly saw Song Kai, who was limping and had a bruised face. He seemed to have noticed him and walked away with a grim look on his face.

"Song Kai is working at the dock, how come he is here?" There was too little information, Fang Lin had no idea for the time being, so he didn't pay any more attention and returned to the bookstore.

……

The store was not too busy today and work ended early in the afternoon. In addition, it gets dark later in this season, so Fang Lin did not have dinner or stay at Xuan Mo Zhai. He said goodbye to Manager Liu and left to find Geng Shi to look at the house.

After looking at one place, seeing that it was getting late, the two returned to the shantytown.

Halfway along the way, I met Zheng Yu, who was holding the pastries he had bought. He came to apologize: "Linzi, some time ago, Song Kai and I did a lot of wrong things together. It was my fault. Please accept this as an apology."

Fang Lin didn't answer, and looked into Zheng Yu's eyes: "If the wrong thing you said is about taking the wrong path, then it shouldn't be to me; if it's about the ridicule a few days ago, it's not directed at me alone, so there's no need to apologize only to me. Just tell me, what's the matter?"

Zheng Yu felt as if he had been seen through. He gritted his teeth and stated his purpose: "Being a porter at the dock is too tiring. I would like to ask you for some advice and find me a lighter job."

Fang Lin nodded, and suddenly asked an unrelated question: "What did Song Kai do today?"

He didn't care about Song Kai and his gang, but that was when it didn't involve him. Song Kai appeared near Xuan Mo Zhai this afternoon, and there was a possibility that he was targeting him - although this possibility was not very high, he still asked about it out of caution.

When Zheng Yu heard Fang Lin mention Song Kai, his expression was a little strange for a moment: "Maybe it was because of yesterday, after hearing that you saved your shopkeeper, Song Kai came up with an idea today. He hired someone to beat up the owner of a butcher shop, and hid aside to save him... But the owner of the butcher shop was a good fighter, and he was directly beaten up by the people hired by Song Kai. After asking about it, he pulled Song Kai out and beat him up..."

……

(End of this chapter)