Chapter 247: Reborn in the 90s: The Tyrant Flower Chapter 248 Going to the Market

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Chai Mi

"If you're the one using it, then there's no need to pay." Chai Mi answered with a smile, "When the time comes, you buy the pipes and such yourself, and water the fields yourself. Our family's water pump and pipes were all bought by my dad. If there's anything you don't understand, go ask him; he's familiar with it."

"Mm." Liu Zhijing had never watered crops either. Although this thing didn't seem to have much technical content, he still needed to learn some basics.

The tractor was fast, and soon entered the township.

The township's market was on a large open space on the west side of the township's streets. This market had a history of many years; it could be traced back to before the Ming Dynasty, when it already existed during the mutual trade period.

However, although it had existed for a long time and was of considerable scale, overall it was still particularly rundown and scattered.

Simply put, aside from the crowds, everything was still a mess.

Especially at the market, there were many pickpockets (this character should be read LV, third tone. Couldn't find the character, using pinyin isn't great either. Just going with the colloquial 'pickpocket'). These professional thieves specialized in slashing bags and stealing money.

So before getting off, Chai Mi warned Su Wan: "Mom, when you go buy things later, hold onto your money tight. Absolutely don't let your guard down; there are many pickpockets here. Don't go where it's crowded; you go once, you lose something once."

Su Wan simply took only a few yuan, then gave the money to Chai Mi: "I'll just take a little. When I'm done buying, I'll come back. If it's not enough, I'll go again. Anyway, I'm just strolling."

Actually, Chai Mi had also lost things before... so Chai Mi wasn't sure she wouldn't lose them either.

Mainly because that group of pickpockets was really too professional — the kind that steals without you knowing — it was really hard to deal with.

Chai Mi therefore decided to go spend the money prepared for big purchases first, then go stroll the market afterwards.

By chance, just as she went out, she saw Chai Mi's eldest aunt Su Jin had also come to the market. Eldest Aunt walked unsteadily; although she wouldn't fall, she was still exceptionally slow.

Su Wan looked at Eldest Sister, so the two of them went to stroll first.

Liu San and his wife also went to the market, but they went to sell goods.

That left the three of them — Chai Mi suggested buying two water pumps first, then delivering them to Liu Zhijing's shop to leave there. That would be much more convenient, saving them from carrying a pile of money and risking losing it.

Water pump sellers were naturally in the hardware store, and they were outrageously expensive.

The big brother selling water pumps — he was the same nature as Liu Zhijing doing business — the whole street only he sold them, just that kind of water pump wound by southern family workshops himself, directly six hundred plus...

More outrageous than damn robbery.

But there was no way around this kind of thing. After all, only his family sold them; otherwise you'd have to go to the county town...

Finally, after Chai Mi bargained hard, she bought two for nine hundred yuan.

After buying, Liu Zhijing drove the tractor and hauled them to the shop.

Chai Mi also conveniently made a trip to the transformer substation and sent that broken certificate over.

Chai Mi sometimes lamented: others get reborn with a bunch of spaces and a bunch of golden fingers, but she has nothing at all, making it really hard to earn money.

Earning money is truly hard.

Handling affairs is even more exhausting.

"Aiya, why don't we go drink a bowl of tofu pudding?" Song Qiushui started making a fuss: "Sesame cakes, tofu pudding, or mutton soup or beef offal or wontons — anyway, I'm hungry."

Chai Mi frowned: "Sister, it's not like we just got to the market and you want to eat? Let's at least walk a circle first, then you can be hungry..."

"Didn't eat breakfast."

"I didn't eat either." Liu Zhijing said somewhat embarrassedly.

At home, Liu Zhijing's mother Xue Haiyan didn't cook, and father Liu Zhanggui couldn't cook.

A couple years ago, Liu Zhijing felt his parents' divorce made him suffer. Now that his parents remarried, Liu Zhijing sometimes even felt their divorce back then was right...

These two people, neither cooks, just relying on each other...

Later Liu Zhanggui ran to others' homes to mooch meals, Xue Haiyan ate instant noodles...

Liu Zhijing starved...

Liu Zhijing: Just those two, actually remarrying was right, just don't ruin other people.

"Where to?" Chai Mi asked: "My second aunt's family, Fifth Uncle and his wife, make pretty good sesame cakes."

Song Qiushui shook her head straight away: "Their tofu pudding is cold; if I go, it's got to be that old man's place."

Chai Mi naturally knew whose place it was.

This market had a seller of fried dough sticks and tofu pudding. That old man raised a cow; on a rainy day the cow ran off, he chased it wearing slippers, fell down, and the bitter part was, a normal person falling generally has nothing happen. He directly got his neck impaled on a tree branch and died on the spot.

Since then, that woman stopped frying dough sticks and only sold tofu pudding. Otherwise she couldn't keep up.

However, fortunately, specialization in one's field — she professionally sells tofu pudding, so she makes it even more delicious.

"But then don't I still have to buy sesame cakes at my Fifth Uncle's?" Chai Mi helplessly spread her hands.

After all, just drinking tofu pudding isn't too good either.

Song Qiushui and Liu Zhijing both had no objections.

So the three of them put the tractor at Liu Zhijing's shop and walked into the market.

As mentioned before, this market's characteristic is that it's very big; its drawback is that it's very chaotic.

Vegetable sellers, meat sellers, goods sellers — they really just set up places in a damn mess. There are even people pushing bicycles selling things.

The road is still dirt, making it a chicken-flying-dog-jumping mess everywhere.

To describe it in one sentence: crowds so packed you can't squeeze through or push through.

"Why are there so many people, it's really damn uncomfortable. I even suspect someone just secretly touched my butt..." Song Qiushui cursed and grumbled.

"Don't suspect; someone really did touch your butt."

"Damn it, who's so desperate for a woman, in broad daylight under the bright sky..."

"Pickpocket..."

Song Qiushui's face instantly turned awkward: "So it was a pickpocket touching... Good thing I have no money. Otherwise, wouldn't it be gone?"

Chai Mi nodded: "I know, I saw it all, but I couldn't be bothered to remind him..."

"You should have reminded me. Catch that thief and beat him up to vent your anger. Anyway, Da Zhi is here, so why would we be afraid we can't beat a thief?" Song Qiushui said angrily.

"Forget it. I wanted to remind the thief: don't steal from my family's Qiushui—her purse is cleaner than your faces..." Chai Mi said with a smile: "But that person was so fast, in the blink of an eye I couldn't see him anymore, otherwise I would have caught him and beaten him up. Lately I've wanted to hit someone; hitting others is illegal, but hitting thieves is open and aboveboard..."

Several thieves who were about to steal money stared in shock: Damn! This woman has ill intentions... Others go to the market to buy things, but she comes to the market to beat thieves... Quickly tell the accomplices to stay away from this woman, don't risk your lives just to steal some money...

Chai Mi naturally couldn't tell which one was a thief and which one was a shopper. She glanced again and found another thief had put his hand into Song Qiushui's pants pocket...

There were too many people.

Chai Mi and Song Qiushui were actually one after the other.

Chai Mi reached out and grabbed that person's hand: "Hey hey hey, what are you doing? Just now it was you, I saw it all, and you're still stealing? Shameless..."

The thief wanted to break free, but couldn't shake off Chai Mi's hand.

The next second, before the thief could quibble, Chai Mi picked up a scale pole from a nearby vegetable stall and smashed it at him.

Crunch!

The scale pole broke, and the thief clutched his head, falling to the ground in pain.

Chai Mi had been in a bad mood lately and wanted to hit someone to feel better, so she started kicking him directly: "Damn it, I'll teach you not to be good, stealing things."

The crowd did not gather to watch the excitement because Chai Mi caught the thief and beat him up.

Anyway, there were so many people that no one knew what was going on inside, and they continued shopping at the market.

Song Qiushui came back to her senses, grabbed tomatoes from the stall, and threw them at the thief: "Damn it, stealing money is one thing, but touching my ass... am I someone you can mess with?"

Thus, at the market, there appeared a scene of two beautiful girls beating up a thief together.

The thief had never suffered such injustice in his life, and the problem was he couldn't fight back, not even having the ability to strike back.

Beaten until his face was covered in blood, he kept begging for mercy: "Two ladies, I'll never dare steal your money again."

Chai Mi: "Damn it, I don't believe it, a dog can't change its habit of eating shit..."

Song Qiushui: "Damn it, is it about money? You touched my ass, I'm an unmarried young woman, and you let you touch it?"

Thus, the two of them beat the thief up again.

Liu Zhijing, standing to the side, watched with a frozen face, feeling a bit stunned: No, did the style change this fast?

After a few more minutes, Chai Mi and Song Qiushui finally let go of the thief.

The thief had already been beaten beyond recognition.

Seeing Chai Mi and the other stop, he ran away on his legs.

Chai Mi didn't care anyway; anyway, these days, beating a thief isn't a crime... and as a thief, one should have the awareness that being beaten is a home-cooked meal; anyway, if you steal money and get caught, you get beaten.

This era is different from later generations, and it can't be said that hitting people isn't a crime; it's mainly that thieves can't call the police themselves and say: Damn it, I stole money and got beaten...

If that were the case, he'd probably get beaten even more...

Chai Mi wasn't particularly violent today; it's just that this thief was too outrageous, stealing right under several people's noses. Most importantly, he not only stole money but also groped Song Qiushui a few times, which was very offensive.

After dealing with the thief, the vegetable-selling old man to the side finally came to his senses: "My vegetables... my scale..."

Chai Mi helplessly compensated the old man some money, and only then was the matter settled.

Speaking of this matter, there's a lot to say, but it was only three or five minutes. Since everyone was in the crowded market, although there was some impact, after a moment, people didn't know exactly who hit whom or who was injured.

"Shao bing, shao bing..."

A few moments later, several people entered the market and arrived at the shao bing stall of Chai Mi's second aunt's husband's younger brother and his wife.

Chai Mi's second uncle's family ranked fourth, while this shao bing seller ranked fifth, so in terms of seniority, Chai Mi had to call them Fifth Uncle and Fifth Aunt.

Their shao bing stall had been open for many years, dating back to when Chai Mi was a child.

Back then, eating rice and white flour was extremely difficult, basically unavailable; being able to eat a meal of dumplings during the New Year was hard, and usually eating white flour was extremely luxurious.

Occasionally going to the market, Mother Su Wan would save some money to buy Chai Mi two youtiao or two shaobing.

Buying two shao bing in that era was completely different from buying two shao bing in later generations.

In later generations, it was simply because he only wanted to eat two shao bing, so he bought two.

But over ten years ago, it was simply having no money, only able to buy two to eat.

In the past, Chai Mi thought that was the biggest hope when going to the market; being able to eat two shao bing was enough to be content.

"Fifth Aunt, how much per catty?"

"One yuan two..."

"I'll take five yuan's worth..."

The woman packing the shao bing was quite plump, but her face looked kind and benevolent, while Fifth Uncle also looked like an honest person.

After weighing five yuan's worth, Fifth Aunt stuffed two more shao bing in: "Eat more, Chai Mi, you've lost weight."

Chai Mi had indeed lost weight recently; she had more worries, so her appetite wasn't good.

Chai Mi paid and was about to leave when Fifth Aunt suddenly asked: "I heard... your grandfather was in the newspaper?"

Good news doesn't leave the door, bad news travels a thousand li.

Chai Zhongxiao's matter spread fast enough.

"That's a shameful thing; now I don't even dare say your second aunt is our old Zhang family's daughter-in-law..."

"Nonsense; my fourth sister-in-law is still our old Zhang family's daughter-in-law, don't talk nonsense..."

Chai Mi just said she didn't know, avoiding Fifth Uncle and Fifth Aunt's entanglement.

The good news is: Chai Zhongxiao's disgrace is known to all.

The bad news is: now Chai Mi doesn't even dare say her surname is Chai...

So damn embarrassing!

Chai Mi and the other two walked around the market again, buying some small things. As for the rest, they'd wait until after drinking the tofu pudding.

Chai Mi just bought a few pencils, erasers, stationery, and books, planning to have Chai Xiu use them later.

Song Qiushui, however, bought some fried cakes...

Liu Zhijing bought nothing, merely following along; he had originally intended to return to the shop, but just now Chai Mi and Song Qiushui got into a fight with a thief, so he forgot about returning to the shop.

Naturally, all is Tai Ping Chang An.

Although the thief was beaten quite miserably, Chai Mi was unharmed, so he did not care much.

The tofu pudding seller was a stall by the market road; beside the stall were placed three or four small tables, and at this moment the tablesides were full of people; on the tables were some chili powder and bottles of soy sauce and vinegar, also leek flower and garlic paste, and some other things like fried dough sticks and baked cakes.

Naturally, she only sells tofu pudding.

The fried dough sticks and baked cakes were all bought by customers from other places.

There were also people who simply drank tofu pudding, and incidentally drank some alcohol.

Yes, this stall also sells alcohol, bulk baijiu.

"Boss, three bowls of tofu pudding."

Chai Mi frowned slightly at the smell of alcohol beside her; not far away, two old men in their seventies or eighties sipped wine from small cups mouthful by mouthful, utterly disregarding others' feelings.

Naturally, this place sells alcohol to begin with, so it is not unreasonable; in these mountain wilds, everyone exhausts themselves for a livelihood, and being able to drink two liang of small wine is also good.

Even if it is fake alcohol.

Sometimes, what one drinks is precisely these Shi Ji that are about to be lost.

The landlady bustled for half a day before bringing up the tofu pudding, and she did not distinguish between salty or sweet — here it is uniformly salty.

Song Qiushui took a sip of tofu pudding, and her whole body felt comfortable; it was very hot and scalding, and also very spicy.

"Comfortable, not to mention adding several large meat buns, drinking two liang of small wine, this life couldn't be better."

"Hey hey hey, that's enough from you, you have baked cakes to eat yet still think of buns; in a moment will you be thinking of dumplings too."