Chapter 35: The Father and Son Who Got Rebuffed

The other young children didn’t speak, but they all stared at the two of them in unison.

Zhao Tiezhu couldn’t help but straighten his back.

He was the oldest at twelve years old, and was considered the little boss of this area.

Wang Erhu was a year younger than him, but he was tall and strongly built, so the two of them stood on equal footing. Usually, when they led their little lackeys to play “fighting the invaders^[1]” in the fields, they both acted as commanders.

Now, with all the little brothers under them wanting a bowl of fish soup, they had to figure out a way.

“Zhao Tiezhu, come on, let’s go ask!”

Wang Erhu propped himself up, climbed over the back of the field ridge, and turned to say to Zhao Tiezhu, “He seemed to say earlier that he wanted help gathering river snails! What if he wants our help too?”

Zhao Tiezhu nodded and followed.

A moment later, the two of them stood in front of Xie Zhao.

Seeing the boiling, milky-white fish soup with a thick layer of oil droplets and lean meat bubbling on top, the two of them couldn’t help but swallow hard.

“Xie Tian, is this your second brother?”

Zhao Tiezhu asked.

Xie Tian nodded, staring at him with a proud face. “Yes! This is my second brother! He can study and make money, he’s amazing!”

Zhao Tiezhu stared at Xie Zhao for a few moments.

“My mom said your second brother is a city person, and he has his nose in the air!”

He looked puzzled. “But he doesn’t look any different from us to me!”

Xie Tian’s face went cold.

Although she didn’t quite understand what it meant, it definitely wasn’t anything good!

She glared at Zhao Tiezhu huffily. “Your nose is in the air! Your whole family’s noses are in the air!”

Xie Zhao finally burst out laughing.

“Want some fish soup?”

Holding Xie Tian’s hand, he held back his laughter and looked at Zhao Tiezhu and Wang Erhu, asking unhurriedly.

They were just kids, after all; there was no need to take it to heart.

Hearing about the soup, Zhao Tiezhu and Wang Erhu were instantly distracted. Both were children who didn’t know how to hide their thoughts, nor did they know what it meant to feel embarrassed.

Hearing Xie Zhao’s question, they immediately nodded like chickens pecking at grain.

“I heard you earlier. You said you want to gather river snails, that they can be sold for money, and you’ll also give us fish soup, right?”

Wang Erhu counted on his fingers, looking at Xie Zhao earnestly. “My family’s fields are full of those things. At the start of spring, my dad plowed up a bunch of them, and I gathered them all to feed our ducks.”

“Why do you want those things? They don’t taste good and they’re a hassle. My dad gathered a bowl of them once and asked my mom to stir-fry them to go with his drinks. My mom twisted his ear and scolded him, saying it wasted oil and time, and called him a spendthrift!”

As Wang Erhu spoke, his eyes suddenly lit up.

“That’s right! My mom also said you’re a spendthrift! No wonder you want them!”

Xie Zhao: “…?”

Thanks, I feel thoroughly offended.

He coughed and awkwardly changed the subject. “I have a friend who buys them, and he asked me to help. How could I eat so many by myself?”

Xie Zhao stared at the two of them and said seriously, “Fifty cents a jin. How about it? Will you do it? Cash on delivery. We’re all good comrades, and good comrades don’t lie! May lightning strike whoever lies!”

Well then.

Hearing this, Wang Erhu and Zhao Tiezhu nodded in unison.

Fifty cents!

It was usually hard enough for them to even ask for five cents!

“We can do it, but can I bring them along to gather them and sell them to you too?”

Zhao Tiezhu pointed to their playmates behind them, who were eagerly poking their heads out.

Wang Erhu rubbed his stomach and added, “Also, a bowl of soup for each of us! Can we? I’m so hungry!”

“Of course you can!”

Xie Zhao smiled and said, “But I don’t have many bowls. You’ll have to line up to drink. Once you’re done, you go look for river snails, deal?”

Seeing Xie Zhao agree, the group of young children immediately came running from behind the field ridge, shouting with excitement.

Zhao Tiezhu and Wang Erhu were the first to eat.

Each of them held a bowl of fish soup. A few green scallions floated on top, and the hot, bubbling broth smelled so delicious it made their mouths water.

Xie Zhao even scooped a whole fish for each of them. The two of them slurped it down, their faces flushed red, sucking on the fish in their mouths, covered in sweat.

“I’m going to dig for river snails!”

Wang Erhu’s eyes shone brightly. He looked up at Xie Zhao and said seriously, “Don’t you lie to us! Fifty cents a jin. If I dig them up and you don’t pay, Tiezhu and I will pee against the wall of your house!”

Zhao Tiezhu nodded vigorously.

“We’ll stink you out!”

Xie Zhao: “…”

“Don’t worry! Cash on delivery! I definitely won’t lie to you!”

Having received Xie Zhao’s promise, the two children took off running.

Meanwhile, the other young children had already lined up obediently by age, waiting for Xie Tian to ladle out the soup.

Half an hour later, everyone had finished drinking and rushed back home.

After packing up the remaining clay pots, Xie Tian stamped out the embers with her foot and looked up at Xie Zhao with a worried face.

“Second Brother, will this work? Will they really dig them up?”

Xie Zhao smiled and patted her head.

“Just wait and see. There won’t be any problem.”

Human nature was a complex thing.

He had already guessed that Xie Cheng and Xie Youzhen would get rebuffed everywhere.

Think about it.

It was the Lunar New Year, and the dead of winter. Although the snow in the fields had melted, the mud mixed with snowmelt was still freezing cold.

After being busy all year round, people finally had a chance to rest. Who would have thought someone would come to their door and tell them to go dig for river snails in the mud?

And for such a worthless thing, too!

At the market, nobody even wanted them at thirty or forty cents a jin. In the countryside, they were just stuff used to feed chickens and ducks!

And then he tells you he’ll buy as many as you have, and at fifty cents a jin!

Anyone who believed that would be a fool!

Besides, Xie Zhao had just split from the family. It was common knowledge that Old Man Xie favored his eldest son, so where would Xie Zhao get the money?

Even his wife giving birth in the hospital had required borrowing money from the communal family fund!

They wouldn’t believe a word of it!

And so, Xie Youzhen and Xie Cheng got rebuffed everywhere.

No matter what they said, it was no use.

“Alright, alright! Even if it’s fifty cents a jin, I don’t have the time to go catch them!”

Zhao Delong waved his hand and gave his wife a look. Immediately, Liu Cuihua poked her head out of the house and shouted, “Delong! Come light the stove! Are we eating or not?”

Zhao Delong used the excuse to slip away, slamming the courtyard gate shut.

Once he was inside, Liu Cuihua’s voice carried clearly to Xie Cheng’s ears, without the slightest attempt to lower it.

“Who does he think he is? How dare he try to scam us! Ha! Does he really think we Zhaos are pushovers?”

Liu Cuihua grumbled loudly, clearly intending for Xie Cheng to hear. “Everyone has seen what kind of person Xie Lao’er’s Er Xiaozi^[2] is! Taking his wife all the way to the county seat just to give birth? If that’s not a spendthrift, I don’t know what is! And now he’s buying river snails? Fifty cents a jin! If he’s really that rich, why did he have to ask for money from the communal family fund when his wife gave birth? What a joke!”

Xie Cheng’s face turned livid with anger.

He had always been thin-skinned, and being mocked indirectly like this made him so angry that he spun around and walked away.

Ha!

They had a chance to make money handed to them on a silver platter, and they didn’t even know to appreciate it!

By the time dusk fell, he had made his way back home, still fuming.