Chapter 248: Reborn in the 90s: The Tyrant Flower Chapter 249 Bottomless Pit

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

After finishing the tofu pudding, Chai Mi also felt much more comfortable.

With people coming and going here, and the strong smell of alcohol, she got up to settle the bill, and then the group went back into the market to stroll.

The market, in fact, is just selling things and buying things, the same concept as a large supermarket in later generations, only most of them just casually find a spot outside, set out their goods, and sell.

Taxes are very low, there are many sellers, so prices are relatively much cheaper.

Moreover, this market has a relatively complete variety of goods; it is the largest market among several towns, with many merchants coming and going, relatively more "bustling."

After strolling for a while, Chai Mi actually didn't have much to buy; she only bought a small bag of plums, then divided them between Song Qiushui and Liu Zhijing to eat.

Sweet and sour in just the right balance, tasted good.

The three people strolled a circle, all felt it was boring, so they went to Liu Zhijing's shop, planning to stay for a while.

"Feels like there's no fun of going to the market like in childhood anymore; see anything and don't really want to buy. It's not as fun as me catching scorpions; this market trip is just especially dull." Song Qiushui said with particular boredom.

"At least not buying things means not spending money. Your scorpion catching, you lost at least six or seven hundred, right? Just bought all that equipment to catch them, result you lost interest after one day, a bit wasteful." Chai Mi said somewhat helplessly: "Seven or eight hundred yuan, enough for your dad to earn for a period of time."

"Not just those... over eight hundred, all lost. Sigh..." Song Qiushui sighed: "The scorpions, all ran away... I put them in a jar, forgot to cover the lid, result over half ran away, the remaining few also dried to death in the sun..."

Chai Mi: "Then there's nothing to say."

The two people chatted idly, Liu Zhijing ran outside to start repairing vehicles for people, and there really were people coming to repair vehicles...

Chai Mi sat for a while, felt bored, so she and Song Qiushui went out to hang around. The room was still a bit small, a bit stuffy and hot.

This house of Liu Zhijing's was formerly the township's repair factory; at first it repaired everything, so locally it was called Daxiu Factory.

Later it went bankrupt, contracted to Liu Zhijing.

This area has many vacant houses; next to it is actually the village, geographic location average.

About a hundred-plus meters distance from the market.

On the west side of this row of houses, there is a dilapidated two-story building; what specifically it did, Chai Mi isn't clear either; many years old, looks like no one wants it, about four rooms, open top to bottom that kind, but only the small room against the west side has a small restaurant, above written: Haifeng Restaurant.

Chai Mi and Song Qiushui strolled in.

However, at mealtime there were no other people, just simply placed a few tables, a few stools, on the table also placed a fly swatter, nothing else at all.

Not a single customer, not a trace of life.

Even, didn't see the boss.

Here is actually very close to the market, but business is desolate to this degree, also quite something.

"Boss, where's the person? Not doing business anymore?!"

Following Song Qiushui's call, from inside finally walked out a person, big tank top big underpants holding a big palm-leaf fan, a face of not-fully-awake man walked over.

"Eat what? Small shop no credit. Pay money first, eat food after."

Chai Mi frowned displeased.

Song Qiushui also a face of discomfort.

Where does this look like doing business, clearly looks like a posture of driving people away.

A restaurant is ultimately a service industry; if this service attitude is bad, truly no one will come eat.

Chai Mi seemed to also see the reason why this family's business isn't good.

"What dishes?"

"You eat what, I go to market buy for you..."

"Buy vegetables first?"

"Otherwise?"

Chai Mi and Song Qiushui both fell into bewilderment: Damn! This restaurant of his runs awesome, not even a single dish, might as well just close up shop.

The two people of course also weren't here to eat, simply chatted idly for a while.

Said a few sentences, then felt this boss's mental state isn't very good.

After all, the person simply has no time to chat idly with Chai Mi, directly went back.

Chai Mi helpless, only good to go out together with Song Qiushui, return to Liu Zhijing's repair shop.

"Da Zhi, that area's houses, rent or sell?"

"Also rent, also sell." Liu Zhijing said: "That's the township's assets, now no one wants. Including the back courtyard, added together, total twenty thousand yuan, been trying to sell, no one buys. If rent, one room upper and lower fifteen hundred a year."

"Why is rent so much more expensive than buying directly?"

"Because rent someone can afford, buy is difficult. Twenty thousand too much..."

Chai Mi nods.

She currently indeed has a bit of money, but in this era twenty thousand yuan is really too expensive.

Expensive to the point the vast majority of people simply can't afford.

Four rooms plus back courtyard, twenty thousand yuan, this price in this era is actually still relatively reasonable.

"Inside more expensive some?"

"Market entrance that most expensive, want fifty thousand. Don't look distance not far, but money difference too much."

"Then yours opposite that?"

"Opposite is grain depot's territory. Haven't asked." Liu Zhijing answered truthfully.

Liu Zhijing's repair shop opposite is the grain depot. This house of his, belongs to sitting south facing north.

While opposite, sits north facing south.

The sunlight was somewhat better there.

But that side was the Grain Depot.

The Grain Depot was very large.

A row of houses on the west side was assigned to the Xiangli Gongxiaoshe.

A row of houses on the east side sat idle.

"How about I go ask for you?" Liu Zhijing asked after finishing his work.

"Go ahead."

So Liu Zhijing went to inquire.

After a while, he returned and said: That won't do, the Grain Depot neither sells nor rents; it belongs to the Grain Depot unit.

The Xiangli originally had some properties, but they all went under. However, the Grain Depot did not go under, nor could it, so it was not short of money. Most importantly, they did not want to change the usage nature of those few houses, so it was not possible.

He then asked several more families, none of which were very ideal.

Either too expensive or too remote.

"How about you just take the house next door to me?" Liu Zhijing said somewhat helplessly: "This row of houses costs over one thousand a year, and I only use two rooms. There are still four or five rooms empty. The place is big enough, it's just next to me, not very clean, with things like engine oil. You'd have to find someone to repaint the walls. The advantage is that it's cheap, the disadvantage is that it needs renovation."

"How long did you rent it for back then?"

"Five years, with two or three years left until expiration."

"I'll go back and think it over."

"Mm."

Chai Mi and Song Qiushui stayed up for a while longer, then went to the market for a stroll, finally picking up her mother Su Wan and others, riding a tractor, and returned home again.

In the following days, Chai Mi kept considering exactly where in the Xiang Zhen to rent a house.

The family's fields were mediocre; although there was land on the Back Mountain, together it was just over twenty mu. Now Chai Youqing had irrigated the irrigable crops, and these past two days Liu Zhanggui and Liu Zhijing, grandfather and grandson, were irrigating the fields.

The main business the rural family could manage was farming, but grain prices were also just mediocre. As for side businesses, it was nothing more than raising chickens, ducks, cattle, and sheep, but Chai Mi knew that could only be done on a small scale; large-scale raising was not feasible and would easily lose money.

So-called family wealth of ten thousand strings doesn't count the hair-bearing ones.

No one could guarantee that raising them for however long wouldn't bring a disease, at which point they'd be stripped to their underpants.

Then there was vegetable gardening, but the family situation made it very difficult. Her mother's health had never been good, and such heavy physical labor as vegetable gardening was definitely out of the question.

Opening a small restaurant wouldn't be bad.

Chai Mi felt gloomy; renting a house here was still a bit expensive. And those houses needed renovation, a complete mess, definitely not a small sum.

The most effortless and money-saving method was to find an existing small restaurant to take over. That place last time had a somewhat poor location, and Chai Mi wasn't too familiar with other places in the Xiang Zhen, so she planned to find a good idle day in a couple of days to go study it properly.

Just as Chai Mi was feeling gloomy at home, a voice pulled her back.

"Is Chai Mi at home?" The speaker turned out to be Second Uncle Chai You Fu.

Chai Mi glanced inside the room, listlessly went out to welcome him in.

"Second Uncle, how do you have time to come over?"

"Just thought to come by for a visit, nothing much."

Chai Mi made a sound of acknowledgment, boiled water and made tea, but didn't say anything.

"Where's your father?"

"I really don't know." Chai Mi also didn't know what Chai Youqing had gone to do; anyway, no one could be found since early morning.

Chai Youqing was relatively more diligent; presumably he had gone to work in the fields.

"Her Second Uncle is here..." Su Wan, holding the child, also came over.

"Sister-in-law... oh my, this child has grown even more handsome."

Chai Mi pursed her lips; whether her own little sister looked good or not, Chai Mi didn't know, but Chai You Fu's tongue was still quite sweet today.

"Have you heard about what happened yesterday?" After exchanging a few pleasantries, Chai You Fu finally got to the point.

"What is it?"

Chai You Fu's expression was somewhat off, but he eventually said it out: "That... Third Brother has been discharged from the hospital and is back home. Third Brother's wife has also come out, returning the same day. She came back yesterday."

Chai You De was discharged from the hospital?

Chai Mi really didn't know about this.

But it had to be said, Chai You De was actually quite tough. His head and a brick collided, and he still didn't die.

He was just very long-lived.

"Oh my, Third Brother and his wife are both back home." After Su Wan said this, she had no more words; she didn't know what to say next: "That... that..."

Su Wan actually didn't know what to do either; the problem was that this topic was quite taboo.

By common sense, since Chai You De's head was in that state, one should go visit and throw some money along the way.

But although the relationship between the two families was not irreconcilable, it was not on good terms either.

Even last time when her own family's Chai Xin had her Full Moon Wine, although Chai You De and Che Lianyun came, they didn't give gift money.

But their coming made it very hard for Su Wan.

If they didn't go visit, it would somewhat not be the right thing. But going to visit, they were somewhat reluctant to go,

especially since subsequent matters had a tense relationship with the old home.

So Su Wan was very embarrassed.

"Sister-in-law, I think I'll go visit. My eldest brother and I will..." Chai You Fu said.

"Unnecessary. Now Chai You De might hate you two for all we know. Besides, Second Uncle, do you have money?" Chai Mi asked.

"I definitely am not short of money."

"Second Uncle, you really do have money." Chai Mi smiled: "My grandfather's current situation; if you two brothers go, how will he borrow money?"

Chai You Fu fell into silence.

Chai You Fu couldn't make decisions at home, but he still cared about saving face outside. He was different from his elder brother Chai Youqing; Chai Youqing was honest and simple, not good with words. Chai You Fu spoke well, could talk his way around anything, and was a scene person.

Of course, he couldn't pull off any real scene business.

It had been a very long time since his wife beat Wang Huirong, and now he felt he could step in.

Mainly, summer vacation had started.

He was relatively idle.

Chai You Fu felt Chai Mi had some point: he absolutely would not lend money to Laozhai, but not visiting his own real brothers wasn't quite right either, for fear outsiders would gossip.

Although unwilling in his heart, this bit of formality still had to be gone through slightly.

"Lend money... I don't have that much. But since your Third Uncle and Third Aunt have had such a big thing happen, both families pretending not to see isn't quite right either."

"Second Uncle, you really have to go." Chai Mi said rather playfully: "My grandfather is so famous now that those above haven't had time to cause him trouble yet; if you go see my Third Uncle, aren't you afraid my grandfather will latch onto you?"

"This..."

Just then, Chai Youqing came back.

Seeing his elder brother return, Chai You Fu immediately ran over to talk to Chai Youqing.

The two brothers discussed it outside for a bit, then went into the house.

"How about we both go take a look?"

"Going is fine, but let's go empty-handed. After all, my Third Uncle came empty-handed too. Second Uncle, if you want to bring something, bring something." Chai Mi said very calmly, then did not forget to bring up some old scores: "As for getting injured, Second Uncle was better off. Two springs ago, my father was driving an ox cart to pull corn stalks from the fields; he was loading up on the cart when the ox lurched and he fell off, breaking his arm. Back then, Second Uncle couldn't bear to watch and helped during spring plowing, plowing several furrows."

After speaking, Chai Mi coldly looked at Chai Youqing: "My Third Uncle also came to see, but ate a meal and drank a round, took nothing, and even lost several rounds of wine. When plowing, he didn't go see, and my grandfather pretended to be old. My father's arm isn't quite right now; it wasn't healed properly back then, and it's still a bit crooked to this day."

Chai Youqing's right hand was indeed a bit crooked, and work was a bit delayed. It had been set back then, but after just a few days, since there was no other way for plowing, he went to plow his own fields; plowing with one arm, his right arm still got bumped, and afterward it wasn't healed well either.

Crooked, so it could only stay crooked.

Chai Mi said this, and Chai Youqing immediately stopped talking.

This matter hadn't passed long ago, and the implication of Chai Mi's words was very obvious: don't forget the pain after the scar heals.

Su Wan also immediately remembered this matter and was somewhat unwilling to go see Chai You De.

Back then the family had no money; setting the bone wasn't done at a hospital but at a clinic. It was just casually fixed, with no steel pins inserted, and misalignment afterward was normal. That year, our family could barely plant the fields, and no one cared. So this time Chai You De also had a fracture; although more places were broken, he didn't die, did he?

Moreover, the relationship between the two families was not very good; except for major events, they rarely interacted.

"How about letting your father and your Second Uncle go meet face to face and take a look, then come back? Money cannot be spent. As for the old man wanting to borrow money or whatnot, that's even more out of the question. Now the old man and old woman are both bottomless pits; no one can fill them."