Chapter 74: Zero Cost

“Hou San, do you want a wife… ah, pfft, do you want fried dough twists?”

Hou San, who was in the middle of putting on his pants, saw his expression change from excitement to listlessness as Li Xiangdong’s words took a turn.

In just a few seconds, he was like a middle-aged man who had just finished his business, with an “I’m fine with whatever, you do you” kind of look.

Standing in front of him, Li Xiangdong was momentarily dazed. This “whatever” vibe felt so familiar…

He shook his head and urged, “Say something. Do you want to bring some fried dough twists and mackerel back for your family?”

Hou San blinked, “Of course I do. But Brother Dong, grain tickets are one thing, but fish tickets are hard to get. This is my first time in Tianjin, and I don’t have any connections to exchange for tickets. Should we go to the black market?”

Li Xiangdong waved his hand, “No need. I found a place where you can buy them without tickets. Both the fried dough twists and the mackerel are 30 cents a pound.”

Hou San was surprised, “So cheap? Never mind the mackerel, but white flour is already 18 cents a pound. And this doesn’t even require tickets. Is it half-mixed with cornmeal?”

“No, don’t worry.”

Li Xiangdong shook his head. He believed that even if Zhao Si didn’t care about Yang Dabao’s face, he would still care about his own reputation.

Sometimes, the more illicit the business, the more attention is paid to these things.

Li Xiangdong pulled the dressed Hou San, planning to go find Ah Zhe next.

Coincidentally, Ah Zhe was coming out of his room to look for them, and the three met in the hallway.

The moment Hou San saw Ah Zhe, he was like a grasshopper, jumping up and down, pointing at his nose and cursing.

“Ah Zhe, you bad seed! You tricked me into thinking there was a surprise, causing me to get a butt full of water spray! I’ll fight you!”

The moment Ah Zhe heard the words “bad seed,” he was instantly reminded of things from a few years ago, when many people used to curse him like that.

However, he knew Hou San didn’t mean it. More importantly, he was the one who had tricked him first, so he was in the wrong. Thus, he could only stand there and talk back.

“Who told you to be so curious? If you weren’t curious, you wouldn’t have been fooled. Why are you yelling at me? Do you want to fly to the sky?!”

Li Xiangdong stood between the two, most of his energy focused on Hou San. Hou San was now like a moth, recklessly trying to pounce on Ah Zhe.

“Ah Zhe, hurry up and apologize to Hou San.”

“Hou San, how could you call Ah Zhe a bad seed? You apologize to him too.”

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. These two “bulls” had even clamped their mouths shut. Li Xiangdong was at his wit’s end with them.

Hou San tugged at Li Xiangdong’s arm, “Brother Dong, let’s go. Didn’t you say we were going to buy fried dough twists and mackerel? Let’s not take Ah Zhe with us.”

“Why can’t I come? I’m going to follow you guys!”

Ah Zhe followed closely behind them. He and Hou San argued all the way from the corridor to the front of Zhao Si’s room.

“You two can do whatever you want when there are no outsiders. Now, both of you, shut up.”

Li Xiangdong knocked on the door after speaking.

Zhao Si opened the door with a smile and invited the three of them in. “Dongzi, are these your two friends? What do they want, and how much?”

“This is Zhao Si from the Tianjin cafeteria, Brother Si.”

After briefly introducing them to Hou San and Ah Zhe, Li Xiangdong looked at Hou San and asked, “I got 5 yuan worth of fried dough twists and mackerel. How much are you planning to buy?”

“I’ll get the same as you, Brother Dong.”

Hou San then snorted provocatively at Ah Zhe.

Li Xiangdong looked at Ah Zhe, “And you?”

Ah Zhe thought for a moment, “I’ll pass on the mackerel. My dad and I don’t know how to cook it. I’ll just buy some fried dough twists.”

Old Four looked at Ah Zhe and smiled, “5 yuan worth of fried dough twists, right? Okay, I’ll write it down…”

“Brother Si, we don’t need that much.”

Li Xiangdong interrupted Zhao Si, “Ah Zhe, Brother Si’s place doesn’t require tickets, and the fried dough twists are only 30 cents a pound. It’s just you and your dad at home, just buy some…”

As he was speaking, he suddenly thought of his other childhood friends. “Ah Zhe, let’s do as you said. Let’s bring more back and give some to Xiao Linzi and the others.”

Ah Zhe scratched his head and smiled, “We were thinking the same thing.”

Li Xiangdong nodded and took out another yuan from his pocket. “Brother Si, I don’t want the mackerel anymore. Change it all to fried dough twists. I’ll give you another yuan, give me 20 pounds.”

Ah Zhe followed suit, “Brother Si, I also want 20 pounds of fried dough twists.”

“Then I don’t want the mackerel either. I also want 20 pounds of fried dough twists.”

Hou San saw Ah Zhe looking at him. “What are you looking at! It’s my own money, I can buy whatever I want!”

He turned his head and explained to Li Xiangdong with a smile, “I have several nephews and nieces. I’m afraid if I buy too little, it won’t be enough to share.”

After paying and leaving Zhao Si’s room, Hou San saw that Ah Zhe was still following behind him like a shadow.

“Why are you still following us?”

“You idiot, you’re going to eat breakfast, so I can’t go eat breakfast?”

Seeing the two about to argue again, Li Xiangdong quickened his pace, too lazy to deal with them anymore. It was too embarrassing. So many people in the courtyard were watching them, yet they didn’t seem to care about their own faces.

After breakfast, they returned to the hostel.

Li Xiangdong leisurely enjoyed the life of a retired old cadre.

He lay on the bed, smoking a cigarette, drinking tea that Hou San had gotten from somewhere, and holding an old, expired newspaper.

Life is good, so good~

Leisurely times always pass quickly.

After lunch, Li Xiangdong returned the deposit for last night’s lunch boxes and brought Hou San and Ah Zhe to the back kitchen of the cafeteria.

Zhao Si was packing the fried dough twists, wrapping every two pounds in a sheet of oil paper and tying it with a string.

For convenience, ten oil-paper packages would be tied together.

Zhao Si greeted them without stopping his hands, “Dongzi, you’re here. Wait a moment, it’ll be ready soon.”

Li Xiangdong casually picked up a small fried dough twist and tried it. It tasted pretty good. Bringing it home would surely make Li Xiaotao and the others ecstatic.

But the more he chewed, the more something felt off. It was pure white flour. Was this guy Zhao Si really that honest?

Just then, Ah Zhe sneakily pulled Li Xiangdong to a corner and pointed to the flour sacks at the base of the nearby wall.

“Dongzi, isn’t the cafeteria only supposed to store ingredients for the day? I ate the steamed buns this morning, and they were leftovers from yesterday. The only main dish for lunch was rice. Where do you think this bag of flour was used?”

Hou San stared blankly, completely confused by what Ah Zhe was saying. “What else can you do with flour? Make steamed buns and noodles.”

Ah Zhe rolled his eyes at him and said in a low voice, “Which of your eyes saw steamed buns and noodles? This was obviously used by Zhao Si to make our fried dough twists.”

“Ah~!”

After last night’s incident, Hou San had learned his lesson. He looked at Li Xiangdong and asked, “Brother Dong, will we get into trouble for buying these fried dough twists?”

“It’s fine. If Zhao Si dares to make them, why wouldn’t we dare to eat them?”

Although Li Xiangdong said this, his back molars were grinding.

He knew it. How could this dog Zhao Si be so honest? It turned out Yang Dabao was right. He dared to use the cafeteria’s white flour so unscrupulously for his own private use.

No wonder it was 30 cents a pound. He was treating the collective as his own home, directly making his personal business a zero-cost venture.

If the businessmen from the future saw this, they would be so envious they’d bang their heads against a wall and die