Chapter 87: Open for Business

The next day

The sky had just begun to brighten. It had been drizzling all night, and the ground was wet.

Li Xiangdong and his two companions didn’t even eat breakfast. They packed all the bamboo tubes they had prepared overnight into sacks and cloth bags.

Hou San, feeling he had gotten the short end of the stick, had managed to get three sacks from the employee.

The three of them changed into the clothes they usually wore at home. Each carried a cloth bag and a sack on their shoulder, and quietly opened the courtyard gate.

Just as Li Xiangdong closed the gate, he turned to see Gao Xinmin, who had just returned from a walk.

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Gao Xinmin strode over and asked, “What are you three doing, sneaking around like this? What’s in the sacks?”

“Good morning, Uncle Gao. These sacks are full of bamboo tubes. The three of us are planning to go catch crickets.”

Li Xiangdong put down the sack and opened it for Gao Xinmin to see.

Gao Xinmin took a bamboo tube out of the sack, glanced at it, and then threw it back in.

“What are you catching crickets for? If you three are itching for something to do, I can arrange some work for you.”

Li Xiangdong quickly took out his Daqianmen cigarettes, offered one to Gao Xinmin, and even lit it for him.

“Uncle Gao, you don’t know, but crickets are a traditional Chinese medicine. We’re catching them to treat someone’s illness. This was specifically requested by a doctor from Tongrentang. He said that the crickets from Ningyang have strong medicinal properties, and it’s best if they’re alive to preserve their medicinal properties to the greatest extent during preparation.”

He spouted a stream of nonsense without a second thought, not caring whether Gao Xinmin believed him or not.

Gao Xinmin, smoking his cigarette, asked, “Is this the reason you three changed your shifts to come to Shandong?”

Hou San said with a mischievous smile, “Yes, Uncle Gao. Brother Dong and I are the most loyal. The two of us specially swapped shifts with Uncle Hai and Erguaizi so that Ah Zhe’s father can recover sooner. Otherwise, who would want to come to this godforsaken place, right?”

Seeing Gao Xinmin look over, Ah Zhe smiled wryly and nodded. “Conductor, Dongzi and Hou San are right.”

“So, among the three of you, one is filial, and two are loyal. If I were to stop you from going, I would be the bad guy.”

Gao Xinmin said with a straight face, “Since that’s the case, you should go quickly. Three sacks of bamboo tubes, how many crickets are you planning to catch? I can’t delay you. Remember to come back early. We have to return to Beijing this afternoon.”

“Got it, Conductor.”

“We won’t be late, Uncle Gao.”

“Uncle Gao, you keep this pack of cigarettes.”

Li Xiangdong directly stuffed the remaining half-pack of Daqianmen into Gao Xinmin’s hand. “Uncle Gao, we’re off then.”

After speaking, he shouldered the sack and led the way out. Hou San and Ah Zhe followed closely behind him.

Gao Xinmin watched the three of them leave, shook his head, and smiled. He didn’t believe a word of what Li Xiangdong had just said, but he didn’t plan to stop them either, as long as they weren’t doing anything to undermine the state’s unified procurement and sales.

Catching crickets was just catching crickets. What use were they? To bring back to Beijing to feed the chickens?

Hou San, struggling to carry the sack, sidled up to Li Xiangdong and asked, “Brother Dong, do you think Uncle Gao believed us?”

“Whether he believed us or not, we have to stick to this story.”

Li Xiangdong glanced at the two of them. “Whoever asks you two, you have to say this. Especially you, Hou San. Keep your mouth shut in front of Kong Da Ni.”

Hou San nodded, “Don’t worry, Brother Dong. I won’t tell Da Ni. When I make money, I plan to buy her a pair of small leather shoes.”

Ah Zhe asked curiously, “Hou San, who is Da Ni? Is she your girlfriend?”

Hou San’s face turned red. “She will be my girlfriend sooner or later.”

“Tch!”

Ah Zhe said contemptuously, “So she hasn’t taken a liking to you yet. And you’re already planning to buy her small leather shoes. Tsk tsk, Dongzi, what was that word you used before, ‘simp’, right? Hou San, you’re like a simp right now.”

“Ah Zhe, you little black kid, are you done? You called me a dog last night, and now you’re saying it again. Are you looking for a beating!?”

Hou San threw the sack on his shoulder to the ground and was about to pounce on Ah Zhe.

Li Xiangdong stepped forward and stood between them. “Ah Zhe, swallow whatever you were about to say! Hou San, pick up the sack from the ground. From now on, neither of you will say another word!”

Ah Zhe and Hou San had already found out the location of the market last night.

There were few people on the road in the early morning, so they could only walk. Fortunately, Ningyang County was not large, or rather, the county town was not large at the time.

They just had to follow the main road in the town. When they encountered locals, Li Xiangdong would also take out the Shengchan cigarettes that Hou San didn’t smoke, walk up, offer a cigarette, and ask for directions.

The county town was full of bumpy dirt roads. It had also rained lightly all night. Li Xiangdong and his two companions had to stop every once in a while to take off their shoes and knock the mud off the soles.

After turning left and right and taking several small paths, they finally arrived at the market after more than half an hour.

It was called a market, but it was more like a livestock market, with two large grass sheds built in the middle of an open area.

Under the sheds and outside, there were stalls selling all sorts of things, from needles and thread to suckling lambs. There was a bit of everything.

There were also quite a few people coming and going in the market. Li Xiangdong saw a young man sitting on a half-brick, with more than a dozen cricket jars in front of him.

He handed the sack to Ah Zhe and walked up with a smile. “Friend, let me see your crickets.”

Hearing this, the young man’s listless face immediately broke into a smile. His local accent was not very strong. “I have good insects here. You can take a look.”

Li Xiangdong picked up a cricket jar, opened it, and looked inside without saying a word. He continued until he had looked at all the cricket jars on the ground.

Seeing the young man’s anxious expression, he finally stood up and smiled, “The crickets are not bad. How much are you selling them for?”

The young man smiled, “50 cents each. I’m not asking for much. These are all good insects. I…”

Li Xiangdong interrupted him, “I don’t want just one. I mean all of them.”

“All of them?”

The young man scratched his head and squatted on the ground to calculate for a while. “If you take them all, you can have them for 45 cents each. These are all good insects. I… at night…”

Seeing that he was about to start rambling again, Li Xiangdong walked over to Ah Zhe, picked up two sacks, and said to him in a low voice, “These crickets are not bad. You can bargain with him a little more. Hou San and I will go to the other stalls to continue buying.”

After speaking, he called out to Hou San, who was still watching the excitement, and walked another dozen meters forward. He stopped, thought for a moment, and said to Hou San, “It’s too slow to buy from each stall one by one. Let’s not walk anymore. We’ll just buy them here.”

Li Xiangdong put the sack in his hand on the ground and shouted to the passersby, “Buying crickets~!”

It worked. He saw many people looking in their direction. “Hou San, you come and shout. Get all the cricket sellers to come to us.”

Hou San was most happy to do this kind of thing that put him in the spotlight!

He nodded with a grin, put down the sack, and shouted loudly, “Buying crickets~ Buying crickets~”