Chapter 102: An Unexpected Gift ⑥
When alone, one can’t help but overthink. It wasn’t even midnight yet, and Nie Qiu was already worried and went to find Nie Aifang. This is family; this is the feeling of worrying about family.
She worried, if she wasn’t at the barbecue stall, would those thugs bother Nie Aifang? Would they cut themselves while preparing vegetables? Get scalded by hot oil? Or get burned by the charcoal?
Once these thoughts entered her mind, all the terrible news stories she had read before suddenly flooded back, but with Nie Aifang as the protagonist. Thinking of this, Nie Qiu couldn’t sit still and her first thought was to see Nie Aifang immediately.
It was the same feeling Nie Aifang had when Nie Qiu came home two hours late, standing at the entrance of the residential area, looking out. It was worry between family members.
Nie Qiu walked for over half an hour to get there. Even though it was close to midnight, the night market was still brightly lit. At a street-side karaoke booth, a few boys and girls were inserting coins to sing. Merchants were cheerfully and loudly soliciting business. Nie Aifang was packing charcoal-grilled dried tofu for two young people. It was a scene of joy and prosperity.
Nie Qiu walked up and said with a smile, “Mom!”
Hearing Nie Qiu call her, Nie Aifang turned to look at her. “Why are you here? Why aren’t you resting at home?”
“I couldn’t sleep because you weren’t back,” Nie Qiu said with a smile, putting the grilled items Nie Aifang had prepared into a disposable food container. She handed it to a girl standing at their stall with her hand outstretched and collected the money from the girl.
Hearing Nie Qiu’s words, Nie Aifang paused for a moment and smiled. “Since you’re here, help me collect money and assist. We’ll pack up early today.”
“Okay!” Nie Qiu nodded and smiled. Following Nie Aifang’s instructions, she helped out. Sometimes, when there were many orders and Nie Aifang was too busy to flip the charcoal-grilled and iron-plate grilled items, Nie Qiu would help flip them to prevent burning. She also helped Nie Aifang collect and count money.
Once midnight passed, no matter how many people there were, it wouldn’t get much more crowded. Nie Qiu and Nie Aifang worked in an orderly fashion and closed their stall at one in the morning. Nie Aifang rode her tricycle, carrying Nie Qiu home.
Because the next day was Saturday, Nie Qiu didn’t have to wake up that early. When she woke up, Nie Aifang had probably already left home to buy vegetables. After Nie Qiu washed up and ate breakfast, she took her shoe box and left the house. There were quite a few courier points near the residential area, after all, this is the era of online information and logistics.
She paid eight yuan for postage, filled in the address and recipient details, and handed it to the staff to be packed. After leaving the courier point, she went to an internet cafe and sent the tracking number from the shipping label to the person who bought the shoes.
Because Nie Qiu didn’t stay online for more than twenty minutes, the Boss Lady charged her one yuan and even gave her a piece of bubble gum.
Saturday and Sunday passed at a moderate pace, but the logistics for delivering the shoes were also efficient. Since it was within the same city, Nie Qiu mailed the package in the morning, and the person who bought the shoes received them in the afternoon. In the afternoon, Nie Qiu went to a small internet cafe and opened her computer. She saw the message from that person, along with a picture message about a bank transfer. Seeing this, Nie Qiu finally breathed a sigh of relief. Three thousand yuan… If it was paid in installments, not a single cent would reach her.
But she smiled. This way, Nie Aifang wouldn’t be so tired in the future, right? Even though she had space, she understood the principle of give and take in business, so renting a vegetable stand had its costs.
Exiting the internet cafe, Nie Qiu stretched. She remembered that the person had remitted the payment at two in the afternoon. Now, she would go to the market to ask Brother Zhang if he had received it, so they could finalize the vegetable stand rental sooner.
It was the rush hour again. Zhang Qidi, who had just finished school, was also helping Zhang Qitian sell vegetables. Seeing Nie Qiu, he shouted loudly, “Nie Qiu, come to buy vegetables! Come over quickly, come over!”
Nie Qiu felt a little helpless. Zhang Qidi had always been an enthusiastic person. She knew that Class 1 had make-up classes on Saturdays, so she also knew that Zhang Qidi had probably just finished school. She walked over with a smile. As soon as she reached the vegetable stand, Zhang Qidi placed a bunch of water spinach in Nie Qiu’s hand. “Take this bunch of vegetables for your family to eat. I know your family usually buys vegetables for barbecue, so you probably don’t eat water spinach often, right?”
Nie Qiu looked at the fresh water spinach in her hand and then at Zhang Qitian, confirming that Zhang Qitian wasn’t angry about Zhang Qidi’s action. She then smiled, grabbed a bag hanging by the vegetable stand, and put the water spinach in it. She said to Zhang Qidi with a smile, “Thank you then.”
“What’s there to thank?” Zhang Qidi smiled. “Last time we ate barbecue at your place, you lost money, didn’t you? I asked other barbecue vendors, and chicken wings are five yuan per skewer! And fish balls… and chicken legs and things like that. We had over ten people eating, and you only charged so little. I thought…”
“Heh heh,” Nie Qiu chuckled. “How could we have lost money? It was raining that day, wasn’t it? If you hadn’t come to eat, we would have had to throw the food away anyway!”
Zhang Qidi smiled. “But you still made it for us! Even if you didn’t lose money, you didn’t make any profit, right!” After saying that, he went behind the stand and washed his hands, smiling. “Nie Qiu, everyone in our class says they regret you didn’t join our class. Come visit our class when you have time, and I’ll introduce you to some classmates.”
Nie Qiu nodded and watched Zhang Qidi put on his schoolbag. “Are you going back?”
“I have to go back. There isn’t much homework today, so I came to the market to help my brother. Now I need to go home and do my homework.” Zhang Qidi nodded, opened the flap of the vegetable stand, walked out from behind it, and said to Zhang Qitian, “Brother, I’m heading back first.”
Zhang Qitian, who was selling vegetables, nodded without saying anything. Zhang Qidi seemed accustomed to this. He slung his schoolbag over his shoulder and smiled at Nie Qiu. “I heard from our English Teacher that your English is the best. I bought a copy of ‘Quotations from Shakespeare’ in its original text. I’ll come to your class to find you when I have time, and we can read it together.”
Original text? Nie Qiu’s eyes lit up, and she smiled. “Okay!”
“Then I’ll be going now. See you on Monday,” Zhang Qidi said to Nie Qiu with a smile.
“Goodbye!” Nie Qiu replied with a smile.
Watching Zhang Qidi leave, Nie Qiu walked into the vegetable stand. After Zhang Qitian saw off a customer, Nie Qiu asked with a smile, “Brother Zhang, did you receive the money?”
Zhang Qitian paused, reached into his apron, pulled out a mobile phone from his pants pocket, opened the message interface, scrolled through the messages, and smiled. “I received the money. Watch the vegetable stand for me, and I’ll go withdraw the money and rent the stall before closing. Tomorrow is Sunday, so talk to your mom and have her tidy up the vegetable stand.”
“Do… we have to do it so soon?” Nie Qiu asked uncertainly.
“Why else? Besides tomorrow being your day off, when else will you have time?” Zhang Qitian said. “Are you going to let your mom tidy up that vegetable stand by herself? That stand used to sell seafood, so it smells. Not only do you have to scrape off the dirt with a scraper, but you also have to scrape the stand itself. And then rinse it with water.”
