Chapter 95: Deal Reached

Seeing Li Xiangdong and his two companions standing there, Gao Xinmin said irritably, “What are you standing there for? Follow me!”

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Hou San and Ah Zhe looked at Li Xiangdong. Li Xiangdong sighed and said, “Let’s leave it to fate.”

He then lifted his leg and followed.

The three of them were on tenterhooks as they followed Gao Xinmin to the conductor’s lounge.

“Stack the sacks neatly. Don’t put them everywhere.”

“Thank you, Conductor!”

“Thank you so much, Uncle Gao. You are truly a good leader who is considerate of his subordinates, always thinking of everyone. For the three of us to be able to come out with you, it has truly broadened our horizons and opened our minds.”

With this turn of events, Li Xiangdong’s mood greatly improved, and he laid on the flattery as if it were free.

Hearing these words, the frustration that Gao Xinmin had felt because of Hou San dissipated quite a bit, and a smile appeared on his face.

“Alright, enough with the sweet talk. If I really hadn’t let you bring these crickets on the train, who knows how you three would have cursed me.”

Li Xiangdong said with a serious expression, “You are the conductor of this train. No matter what decision you make, it is definitely from a leader’s perspective. How could the three of us possibly curse you?”

“That’s right, that’s right. Uncle Gao, you are the best conductor at our Beijing station.”

“I can see it now. These two are just stubborn.”

Gao Xinmin smiled and pointed at Ah Zhe and Hou San, then looked at Li Xiangdong and said, “You, on the other hand, are a sweet-talker. Now all of you, get to work.”

The journey back was uneventful, except when they passed through Dezhou. Hou San, taking advantage of his small stature, squeezed through the crowd and bought four roast chickens.

The money was charged to the public account. Li Xiangdong and his two companions each got one, and the remaining one was given to Gao Xinmin.

Li Xiangdong and Ah Zhe couldn’t bear to eat theirs, planning to take them home to share with their families.

Hou San, however, was different. Before the roast chicken in his hand had even warmed up, he had already run off to curry favor with Kong Da Ni.

Kong Da Ni hadn’t even agreed to be his girlfriend yet, and he had already completely forgotten about his parents.

At five in the morning on the third day, the train pulled into Beijing station.

Because Ah Zhe needed to stay behind to clean, Li Xiangdong and Hou San had planned to make two trips to move their things. But to their surprise, Gao Xinmin took the initiative to help, carrying a sack and walking with them to the water supply team’s office.

“What are you so surprised about? I took your roast chicken, can’t I give you a hand?”

Gao Xinmin left this sentence and walked towards the platform. He was the conductor, and the final finishing work was up to him.

Li Xiangdong and Hou San waited at the office desk for Ah Zhe. When everyone was there, the three of them, carrying things on their shoulders and in their hands, walked out of the train station building.

They first found a state-run breakfast stall and had a comfortable breakfast.

They hadn’t slept well on the train, and the three of them were now more tired than ever. So they didn’t bother to squeeze onto a bus, but instead hailed a tricycle. It cost them a full 50 cents to get to the vicinity of Baita Temple.

The tricycle driver looked at the three of them’s backs and spat fiercely. The three freeloaders had sat for the whole journey, almost exhausting him to the point of collapse.

This 50 cents was really not easy to earn!

“It’s still early. Let’s find a place to rest for a while.”

Li Xiangdong led the two of them to a corner of an alley, put down their things, and sat on the ground. The three of them smoked and chatted.

It wasn’t until the sun was high in the sky that the nearby small market became more and more lively.

Li Xiangdong pointed to a bald man in the distance and said to Hou San and Ah Zhe, “See that man? He’s Cricket Sun. Except for him, go and ask the price at all the other cricket stalls.”

“Dongzi, I understand. Hou San and I can definitely handle this.”

“Don’t worry, Brother Dong.”

Ah Zhe and Hou San, one on the left and one on the right, each took two bamboo tubes and went their separate ways to test the prices at the other cricket stalls.

After about half an hour, the two of them came back one after another.

“How was it? What’s the price?”

Ah Zhe shook his head, “No one offered a higher price than Cricket Sun. The highest offer was one and a half yuan.”

Hou San nodded, “Same here, Brother Dong. We still have to go to Cricket Sun.”

“Alright, then I’ll go call him over.”

Li Xiangdong stood up, patted the dust off his bottom, and walked quickly towards Cricket Sun’s stall.

Cricket Sun had just sold a cricket for two yuan. He had gotten this cricket from a child in exchange for a sugar ball.

He had just happily put the money in his pocket when he looked up and saw Li Xiangdong standing in front of him with a smile. He stood up and put his arm around Li Xiangdong’s shoulder.

“Dongzi, you’re finally here. I haven’t been able to eat or sleep well these past few days, I was so afraid you were lying to me. Where are the crickets?”

Li Xiangdong pointed, “Over there.”

Cricket Sun looked over and saw Hou San and Ah Zhe in the distance. He remembered seeing them walking around with bamboo tubes in their hands just now and instantly understood. He said angrily, “You’re a slippery one.”

“Old Zheng, watch my stall for a while. I’m going to talk business with this little brother elsewhere.”

“Sure, you go ahead.”

Cricket Sun gave instructions to the stall owner next to him and then pulled Li Xiangdong quickly to the corner.

He first nodded to Hou San and Ah Zhe, then looked at Li Xiangdong in surprise, “Are all of these yours?”

Seeing Li Xiangdong nod, he said with excitement in his voice, “Are these three boxes also full of crickets?”

“All of them. Hurry up and inspect the goods. We’re still waiting to go home.”

“I won’t delay you. It’s crowded here. Follow me.”

Cricket Sun led Li Xiangdong and his two companions through several alleys to a large courtyard.

Li Xiangdong looked at the messy environment and asked, “Uncle Sun, do you live here?”

Cricket Sun opened the door and welcomed the three of them into the room. “These two east-facing rooms in the front yard are both mine.”

Li Xiangdong and his two companions didn’t pay attention to what Cricket Sun was saying, because the situation in the room really surprised them. The room was full of cricket jars, and there were stacks of empty jars on the floor. There was almost no place to stand!

“Uncle Sun, can you sleep at night?”

“I sleep in the next room. Besides, what do you know? Listening to the chirping of the insects, I sleep even more soundly.”

Cricket Sun smiled, “Shall we count and inspect the goods?”

“Go ahead and count.”

Hou San and Ah Zhe watched Cricket Sun inspect the goods. Li Xiangdong looked around curiously and soon discovered that Cricket Sun spent several minutes looking at each cricket.

“Uncle Sun, if you look at them like this, when do you plan to finish? Can you finish before dark?”

“Don’t be anxious. I’ll be quick, alright?”

“Then hurry up. If you can’t finish before noon, you’ll have to treat us to lunch.”

“I’ll treat you. You can rest assured. Can Uncle Sun be short of a meal for you?”

Li Xiangdong’s joke turned out to be true. He almost choked on the steamed bun and pickles in his hand. “Hou San, go buy a few bottles of Beibingyang. It’s too dry to eat like this.”

“Got it, Brother Dong.”

Hou San, gnawing on a steamed bun, quickly bought back three bottles of Beibingyang. He didn’t even count Cricket Sun, mainly because he was getting impatient with Cricket Sun’s dawdling.

Cricket Sun wasn’t angry. He didn’t even have time to eat his steamed bun, so why would he drink soda?

It wasn’t until Li Xiangdong had a good nap that Cricket Sun finally finished inspecting all the crickets.

He pointed to a dozen bamboo tubes at the side and said, “The crickets in those bamboo tubes are no good. Some are already dead. The rest are a total of 439. We’ll trade according to the number.”

Li Xiangdong nodded. He then took out four more bamboo tubes from his cloth bag. “Then take a look at these four.”

Cricket Sun’s eyes lit up when he heard this. His eyes lit up even more when he saw the crickets in the bamboo tubes!

“Good stuff. 5 yuan each, I’ll take them!”

“One shot, 25 yuan for all of them, no bargaining.”

“Deal.”

“Uncle Sun, you have tickets, right?”

“What kind of tickets do you want?”

“Cloth tickets, cigarette tickets, liquor tickets. I’ll take whatever you have. We’ll just use them to offset the money.”

“Alright, you wait.”

…

Li Xiangdong took a stack of banknotes and some tickets from Cricket Sun, feeling very emotional. He had finally made some money.

“Uncle Sun, we’ll come find you next time we have goods.”

Li Xiangdong led Hou San and Ah Zhe out of Cricket Sun’s residence. He felt that the two people beside him were already starting to have green lights in their eyes.

“Let’s go. Let’s find a place to split the money and go home!”