“When I arrived, the whole family was inside happily discussing something. As soon as I walked in, however, my mother-in-law had a long face and said that there were no pickled vegetables left, asking me to go to another house to get some. What kind of mother does such a thing?” Ye’s Second sister-in-law felt aggrieved.
“She says there aren’t many pickled vegetables left, but when we divided the family, we had two whole jars and didn’t take a single jar for ourselves to give to them. How could we have eaten that much-pickled vegetable in just a few days!” During her complaints, she completely forgot that at that time, the two of them had desperately refused to take that jar of pickles just to split another penny.
Ye Xia frowned at her, “Can’t you think of another solution? You can’t even get a jar of pickles. I go to work every day; what are you doing at home?”
“What do you mean? Are you starting to blame me now? She is your mother, and you are her son. If your mother doesn’t even give you some stale pickles to eat, you don’t blame her, but me? Are you even human?”
Ye Xia sighed and patiently comforted his wife. At that moment, Ye’s Second sister-in-law suddenly remembered that their mother had been getting up early and working hard in the next room, even taking Ye Oldest to town. The two of them decided to wake up early the next morning to sneak into the kitchen to see what was really going on.
Ye Oldest was filled with questions and asked his mother, “Why does the second one suddenly want to eat pickled vegetables? Didn’t he say before that he dislikes pickled vegetables the most?”
Ye’s mother responded, “Why are you asking me? I don’t know. We have pickled vegetables at home every day. Who cares whether he likes it or not? If there are no vegetables, he has to eat pickled ones anyway.”
“Mom, you are still smart. You didn’t give her the pickled vegetables; otherwise, what if we made pancakes and found we had none? That would be a disaster!” Ye Qiu looked at Ye’s mother with admiration.
After hearing Ye Qiu’s words, Ye’s mother proudly raised her head, “Hmph, I have eaten more salt than he has rice. That little mind of his can’t escape me at all.”
Ye Oldest sister-in-law expressed her concerns, “What if the second one has done something? Yesterday, Ye Xia said he was going to bring pancakes for Chengcai.”
“I remember clearly: among the people who came to buy pancakes this morning, there was no sign of the second one.” Ye Oldest confidently replied after some thought.
Ye’s mother pointed a finger at Ye Oldest’s head in exasperation, “Oldest, how can you be so silly? If he doesn’t come to buy them, he can have someone else buy them for him!”
“Everyone, don’t worry. Even if they know we are selling them, what can they do?” Ye Qiu reassured the group.
“He can at most imitate us and sell pancakes, but even if he doesn’t, there are other people selling them.”
Ye’s mother seemed to foresee a scene of competitors invading the street. “How can this be? This idea was yours first! If they set up stalls next to us, wouldn’t they be stealing our business?”
“Mom, don’t you still believe in your son? With my clever brain, by the time they make pancakes, I would have thought of something even tastier and more profitable!”
The crowd felt relieved. They returned to their activities. Ye’s mother recalled what she just said and looked at the jar of pickles, realizing there wasn’t much left. She called Ye Olderst’s sister-in-law to make pickles together, knowing everyone who tasted her pickles claimed they were especially delicious. She could not afford to run out of pickles.
Ye Qiu seized the opportunity and suggested, “Mom, how about we set up a small cart with a stove to cook pancakes right there? We can mix the batter on-site; we don’t need to worry about selling out!”
Today, the demand for pancakes has surpassed supply, and having a stove nearby to cook and sell fresh ones would be great. Moreover, those buying pancakes complained that the pancake skins from earlier were a bit soft, so using freshly made ones would surely sell better!
Ye’s mother pondered for a moment, “Why buy a new one? Didn’t Wang Mazhi have a cart for selling cakes? Go ask if we can borrow it for a few days. If it works well, we can buy it directly and see if he has any eggs we can buy too.”
“Mom, you’re brilliant! I’ll go borrow it right now.”
With Ye’s mother’s approval, Ye Qiu immediately declared that everyone had worked hard throughout the day, and he would definitely take care of it.
As Ye Qiu walked down the road, a thought struck him, but when he wanted to grasp it carefully, he had already arrived at Wang Mazhi’s door. For a moment, he seemed to forget some important hint.
“Uncle Wang, do you still have that little cart for making cakes? Can I take a look?”
Wang Mazhi squinted at him, “Ye Qiu?! Why do you want to see the cart?”
The cart was still at home, gathering dust, but why was Ye Qiu asking about it?
Could it be that Ye Qiu was no longer comfortable after the family division, had no money to play around, and wanted to play some tricks?
Given Ye Qiu’s character, he might really do something like that. Their little cart had only been used for three months, and it was still as good as new; selling it would certainly fetch a good price!
However, as they were all from the same village, it would sound uncomfortable to refuse lending something. Especially with the Ye family just having divided, if he directly refused, wouldn’t it make him seem heartless and ungrateful? He had to think of a more decent way.
Wang Mazhi hesitated in his response. At that moment, Grandpa Wang, relaxing in the yard, lazily called out, “Oh, it’s Ye Qiu. You have grown so tall!”
“Grandpa Wang, let me give you a shoulder rub. I’m really good at it! Every time I do it for my mom, she says she feels wonderful!” Ye Qiu was not only sweet-tongued but also hardworking, eagerly giving Grandpa Wang a shoulder rub. However, the more he acted like this, the more suspicious Wang Mazhi felt.
He called him Grandpa Wang, even though they had no familial ties. Still, he had a good relationship with his own grandfather. Ye’s mother was confident in getting the cart borrowed thanks to the good relationship between the families. As a child, the original owner often liked visiting here. Grandpa Wang, noticing Ye Qiu’s frequent visits, would always share little treats with him, sometimes peanuts or wild fruits from the mountains, especially at New Year’s, when the original owner would return with their pockets stuffed to the brim.
Unfortunately, the original owner had grown up differently. Ye Qiu felt he recognized him because the original owner had secretly borrowed Wang Mazhi’s cart to sell things for money to play.
People in the village were, to some extent, related; normally, borrowing something wouldn’t raise any thoughts. But it was the original owner who was an exception.
Ye Qiu continued to massage while discussing with Grandpa Wang, “Not just the cart; I also wanted to ask if you have any extra eggs at home. My mom asked me to see if we could buy some.”
“There’s no eggs at home. If you want some, just go take a few from the kitchen. What’s all this buying business?” Hearing his old man’s extravagant words, Wang Mazhi felt a pain in his heart; Ye Qiu was indeed as greedy as Ye’s Second sister-in-law said.
Subscribe
Login
0 Comments