“They’re just little trinkets that aren’t worth much, but this child loves weaving these things, so we never stopped him.” The woman walked over carrying two bowls of brown sugar water and handed them to the village chief and Zhou Yuwei.
“They’re really beautiful.” Zhou Yuwei picked one up and examined it carefully, already wondering whether there might be a market for them.
“Y-You… like them?” the young man asked.
Even as he spoke to Zhou Yuwei, he never looked directly at her.
“I do. You’re very talented.”
“Y-You… like them… th-then I’ll… I’ll give them to you.”
He still avoided everyone’s eyes as he spoke.
Zhou Yuwei had seen people like this in TV dramas before. It looked a lot like autism.
“Really? Is that okay?”
The young man nodded.
“You’re pretty… so I… I want to give them to you. H-He…” He tilted his head toward the village chief. “He’s not pretty. I won’t give him any.”
Zhao Wenjie shook his head as he finished speaking.
“Thank you. I really like them.”
“Y-You… really do?”
“Of course. I think they’re very collectible.”
“I… I still have lots… lots more. If you like them… I’ll give them all to you.”
“No need. I couldn’t carry that many anyway.” Zhou Yuwei smiled. “Look, I only have two hands.”
She really did like them, but she didn’t want to take advantage of him. Besides, she didn’t have the money to invest in them yet.
“Th-Then I…”
He suddenly ran inside and came back carrying a beautifully woven little backpack basket made of emerald-green bamboo.
Then he selected several more small handicrafts from the shelf and held them out to Zhou Yuwei.
“For you.”
Zhou Yuwei looked toward Zhao’s mother.
“You should accept them,” she said with a smile. “This is the first time he’s ever talked this much to a stranger. He’s so happy that someone likes the things he makes.”
After all, Old Zhao usually criticized his handiwork.
Their son had been different from other children ever since he was little. With no better solution, they had kept him at home most of the time. He rarely went outside and spent nearly all his days weaving things.
Because of that, he knew countless weaving techniques, and many of the designs were ideas he had come up with himself.
“If you like them, just take them,” Old Zhao said as he walked over and stuffed the little basket into Zhou Yuwei’s hands. “Otherwise, he’ll keep thinking about it.”
“Thank you.”
Zhou Yuwei accepted it gratefully.
“I really like them—especially this bamboo weaving picture. If you added a little color to it, it would look even more beautiful.”
She had no idea that her casual suggestion would be taken so seriously.
From then on, someone would begin researching what kind of dye could permanently fix the colors.
With the little bamboo backpack on her back, Zhou Yuwei went to meet up with Zhou Yulan and the others.
By the time she returned, Liu Changyun was helping collect the eggs.
Zhou Yulan inspected every single egg while teaching everyone how to tell whether an egg was fresh or bad.
Bringing her along had truly been the best decision they could have made.
Otherwise, if villagers had slipped rotten or stale eggs into the shipment, they would have had no choice but to suffer the loss themselves.
“How did it go?”
“All settled. The boat will enter Beijing through the Yongding River. I’ll have my uncle meet it at the dock.”
“Good. Then you head back first and bring the truck over to pick up the goods.”
During those three days, they traveled through every village around Shidu.
They bought every egg they possibly could.
Only after tremendous effort did they finally gather enough.
By the time they delivered all the eggs to the bakery factory, it was already after ten o’clock at night.
“Not bad!” Wang Mingsheng said with surprise. “I honestly didn’t expect you kids to pull it off.”
He really hadn’t had much hope for them.
Yet these young people had somehow managed to collect so many eggs in just three days.
“We’re glad we didn’t let you down,” Zhou Yuwei replied with a smile.
“You really are an extraordinary girl. When you have time, have Changyun bring you all over to my house for dinner. You’ve done me a huge favor this time.”
Wang Mingsheng instructed the accounting office to pay them 5,500 yuan.
After all, once transportation and labor costs were included…
They had undoubtedly spent a great deal of money.
Just looking at the shipment, every few eggs had been carefully wrapped in reeds.
If they hadn’t hired people to do all that wrapping, the few of them probably would’ve had to work day and night for several straight days.
“Hehe, thank you, Uncle Wang.”
Zhou Yuwei accepted the money.
“It’s already so late. You kids should hurry home.”
After saying that, Wang Mingsheng went out and instructed the factory workers,
“Everyone, we’re working overtime these next few days. No matter what, we have to finish this order.”
“You got it!”
Everyone was thrilled.
These past few days had truly frightened them.
Without eggs, they couldn’t bake bread. Every worker had been worried that if the bakery failed to complete this export order, something might happen to the factory—and they themselves might even lose their jobs.
Fortunately, everything had worked out in the end.
So despite the overtime ahead, everyone was in high spirits.
All they hoped was that the bakery could safely get through this crisis.
Zhou Yuwei and the others rode one of the factory trucks back to their little courtyard.
While they were on the truck, they divided up the money.
Just like that, they had earned their very first pot of gold.
Zhou Yuwei first set aside the 2,800 yuan in costs.
There had been 150 yuan for the bamboo baskets, another 50 yuan to charter the boat, another 50 yuan to hire people to wrap protective coverings around the eggs, plus various miscellaneous expenses.
After taking out the 2,800 yuan in costs, the remaining 2,700 yuan was split equally among everyone.
Originally, Zhou Yulan refused to accept any.
“This is your business with Yuwei. I can’t take this money. It’s enough if Yuwei gets my share.”
She waved her hands repeatedly.
“Yulan, you can’t say that. Without you, this trip could never have gone so smoothly. We all did the work together, so of course we split the money together.”
Everyone received 540 yuan.
“But…”
“No more ‘buts.’ Take it.”
Zhou Yuwei stuffed the money into her older sister’s hands.
The others were equally excited as they held their shares.
This amount was more than ten months’ wages for an ordinary worker.
And they had earned it in only three days.
Just three days.
The enormous sum left them overjoyed.
Cao Bingkun was especially happy.
His family’s circumstances were fairly modest.
They weren’t as destitute as the Zhou family had once been, but with five children relying solely on his father’s salary, the entire family had always lived as frugally as possible.
When they reached the little courtyard—
“It’s getting late. We all have school tomorrow morning, so hurry home and get some sleep.”
Everyone headed back to their own homes.
Liu Changyun felt that the residential courtyard compound was strangely quiet tonight.
The silence all around him made him uneasy.
Whenever things were this quiet…
Something was definitely wrong.
Especially at his own house.
Sure enough…
Click.
Liu Aihua pulled the cord, and the light came on.
It nearly scared Liu Changyun to death.
He patted his chest before forcing out a smile.
“Dad… you’re still awake this late?”
“So you finally decided to come home?”
Liu Aihua was holding a huge straw broom.
It was hard to say how many brand-new brooms he had gone through over the past few days.
At first, he had been using the family’s old little broom for sweeping.
But as the days passed, his anger kept growing…
And the broom kept getting bigger.
“D-Dad… I was wrong.”
When you lived under someone else’s roof, you had no choice but to bow your head.
Especially after seeing that enormous broom.
To Liu Changyun, it looked every bit as terrifying as the great guandao carried by Lord Guan.
Smack!
Liu Changyun instantly dropped to his knees.
After all, a wise man knew when to submit.