Chapter 75: Can’t Eat It If It Gets Moldy

“Dongzi, the fried dough twists you three wanted are all packed.”

Zhao Si walked over and saw Li Xiangdong’s gaze fixed on the flour sack that read ‘Tianjin Railway Station Cafeteria Supply’. He coughed twice, walked over, and picked it up.

“You guys can’t overthink this. We settled this matter a bit late, and I didn’t have time to prepare. I just used the cafeteria’s white flour as an emergency measure. I’ll replace it later.”

Whoever believed that was a fool. They hadn’t even had breakfast when they made the deal. What couldn’t be done in a whole morning?

Of course, Li Xiangdong wouldn’t be foolish enough to say this out loud. He shook his head, “Brother Si, you don’t need to explain to us. The three of us didn’t see anything.”

Zhao Si was overjoyed to hear this. Didn’t see anything, good! How sensible!

He grinned widely, “I fried some extra dough twists just now. I’ll pack a few more pounds for you later.”

“No need, Brother Si. You can keep them for your own kids. We’ll take what we paid for. We can’t take advantage of you.”

Li Xiangdong directly refused. Zhao Si thought he could shut them up with just a few pounds of dough twists. He was treating the three of them like naive kids.

Zhao Si understood that among the three, Li Xiangdong was the hardest to fool. He took two steps forward, pulled Li Xiangdong’s arm, and walked to the side.

“Dongzi, you three can’t go around telling outsiders about this. Just consider it a favor I owe you. If you run into trouble in Tianjin in the future, I’ll step in and help you sort it out.”

Li Xiangdong smiled, “Then I’ll thank you in advance, Brother Si. But I have one more thing to trouble you with. In the future, if I want to eat seafood but can’t come to Tianjin myself, you’ll have to help me out, Brother Si.”

He pointed at Hou San and Ah Zhe and continued, “Don’t worry, I’ll tell my two friends. We really, truly didn’t see anything today.”

Li Xiangdong naturally wouldn’t meddle in other people’s business. For Zhao Si to dare to do this so openly in the cafeteria, it meant at the very least that all the cafeteria staff were beneficiaries.

There was also the issue of the accounts between the cafeteria and the warehouse. The matter certainly involved more than just one or two people. It was best not to think too deeply about it.

On this chain, from top to bottom, it was all leeches…

“No problem. Whenever you want to eat seafood, just send someone with a message for me. Brother Si will definitely handle it for you.”

“There are trains from Tianjin to Beijing every day. I can have it delivered to you on the same day. There’s ice in the cafeteria’s cold storage, so I guarantee it will still be fresh when it gets to your home.”

Zhao Si was finally relieved. It was good that he wanted something. He was afraid of encountering someone with no desires; that would make this matter a ticking time bomb.

Li Xiangdong’s request was nothing. For Zhao Si, it was actually a good thing, another way to earn more money.

Heh, this business deal was truly satisfying.

The two reached a private agreement.

Li Xiangdong looked at the flour sack in Zhao Si’s hand, “Brother Si, you should be more careful in the future.”

Zhao Si just smiled and patted his shoulder, it was unclear if he had listened or would take it to heart.

“Brother Si, do you still need the flour sack? Why not use it to pack our dough twists?”

“What a coincidence, that’s exactly what I was thinking. Am I not thoughtful to you, my little brother?”

Zhao Si said as he walked outside the cafeteria, shook the sack out, and came back to help Li Xiangdong and the others pack all the wrapped dough twists into it.

The three of them had bought a total of sixty pounds. Zhao Si insisted on adding three more packages. The flour sack couldn’t hold all 66 pounds of dough twists, so they had to put some in their cloth bags.

The three bid farewell to Zhao Si, then took turns carrying the sack to the railway station, swaggering onto the platform through the staff-only passage.

The sweet smell from the sack of dough twists was overwhelming, causing the passengers on the platform to frequently turn their heads and look.

The staff at Tianjin Railway Station only gave a curious glance before going about their business. They had seen this kind of thing many times.

Their curiosity was only because Tianjin is by the sea. Train attendants from other places would mostly trade for some foreign goods. It was rare to see people like Li Xiangdong’s group, carrying a whole sack of food back.

“Hou San, what’s in the sack?”

“Comrade Li, what are you three carrying? Why does it smell so good?”

Li Xiangdong’s group was surrounded by colleagues from the same train. He took out an opened package and shared it with everyone to taste.

“Little Li, you bought these dough twists from Old Four at the cafeteria, right?”

“It must be Old Four’s. That guy is no good at anything else, but his skill at frying dough twists is top-notch.”

“No matter how delicious it is, you’ll get tired of it one day. I just have Zhao Si bring me some seafood now. I’ve had enough of dough twists.”

Yang Dabao shouted from outside the crowd, “What are you all crowding around for? Disperse, get back to what you’re supposed to be doing! The conductor is coming soon.”

Hearing Yang Dabao’s words, the crowd dispersed, leaving only Li Xiangdong’s group standing there.

Before Yang Dabao even reached them, a sweet aroma wafted into his nose. “Good heavens! Is this whole thing filled with dough twists? You three are really something!”

Before Li Xiangdong could reply, Hou San saw Yang Dabao approaching and eagerly asked, “Brother Yang, is there any news about the two who were arrested?”

Li Xiangdong also wanted to know the final outcome for those two guys, and he looked at Yang Dabao with curiosity.

“The conductor and Old Zheng have already coordinated with the Tanggu police station. The men will be sent back to our Beijing in a couple of days.”

Yang Dabao sighed as he spoke, “Their jobs are definitely gone. But at least they can come back. Although they’ll be in jail either way, as long as they can return to our Beijing, their families can reach them, and they might spend a few fewer years in jail.”

Li Xiangdong nodded in agreement. Yang Dabao was right. Transportation was inconvenient in this era. Even if their families all worked in the railway system, traveling back and forth would be exhausting.

Yang Dabao looked at the sack of dough twists and smiled, “You can put these in our break room. Don’t worry, all of us who work on the train know the rules. We won’t touch things that aren’t ours.”

“You guys hurry up. We’re about to start preparations for departure.”

As Yang Dabao was about to turn and leave, Li Xiangdong quickly took out two packages of dough twists from his cloth bag and stuffed them into Yang Dabao’s hands.

“Brother Yang, I really have to thank you for this. If you hadn’t built the bridge and introduced us, we wouldn’t have been able to buy such cheap things. Take these two packages as a token of my appreciation. You can’t refuse.”

Yang Dabao smiled and returned one package to Li Xiangdong. “This is too much. My nephew doesn’t like to eat them anyway. If they sit for too long and get moldy, it would be a waste.”

He then walked away with one package, heading onto the train to arrange the crew’s work.

Li Xiangdong put away the package Yang Dabao had returned and urged, “Alright, stop staring. Hurry up and carry the stuff to the break room.”

He saw Ah Zhe standing there, stunned by Yang Dabao’s words, and thought to himself that Ah Zhe still had a lot to learn. When Yang Dabao had been complaining to him, the things he said were even more outrageous.