happy fisherman

Chapter 22 Baogang Town

22
After an hour, I finally saw a place where there were people.

"Sister, is Baogang Town coming soon?" Bai Mancang raised his face and asked.

"I don't know either." She hadn't been to Baogang Town either.

"It's still early, and it should be half an hour's journey." Bai Manchuan said, he used to come to the town with his father to sell fish, but they all came on foot.

After walking for another quarter of an hour, Mancang suddenly pointed to a field not far from the road and shouted: "Sister, there seems to be an old lady who is growing vegetables over there."

Just now my sister said that she wanted to learn how to grow vegetables.

Bai Beibei's eyes lit up, he sat up straight and looked in the direction Mancang pointed, when he saw the vegetables in the old lady's hand: "Mancang, that lady is picking vegetables, not planting vegetables."

The corner of the driver's mouth twitched, this kid is so old that he can't even tell the difference between planting and picking?

Bai Mancang smiled embarrassedly.

In fact, it’s no wonder that Mancang doesn’t understand. He has never left the fishing village since he was a child, and no one grows vegetables by the sea. He has never eaten vegetables a few times since he grew up. He can’t even recognize the types of vegetables. How can he know what vegetables are? planted.

After passing through a few vegetable fields, it was desolate again, and after a while, it was Baogang Town.

To enter Baogang Town, you have to pass a small river. From a distance, several people saw a tall wooden archway on the other side of the bridge. On the top of the archway, there were three big characters "Baogang Town" written in flying and phoenix dances.

"It's here!" The coachman smiled and parked the car under the archway.

"Brother, do you want me to deliver this fish to your home for you, or do you take it home yourself?" Bai Manchuan asked as soon as he got out of the car.

"Put it in a cloth bag and I'll take it home myself." People here usually bring one or two cloth bags when they go out. The driver opens the cloth bag, and Baiman catches half a bucket of fish and puts it into the cloth bag.

Several people said goodbye to the driver and went to the center of the town.

"There are many streets in this town, the street in the middle is the largest, but the things here are also the most expensive. If we want to sell things, we have to sell on this street, and if we want to buy things, we have to go to the back streets... ..." Bai Manchuan introduced the general situation of the town to his younger siblings as he walked.

"Brother, where do we sell our fish?" Bo Beibei asked.

"The restaurant at the end of this street, the owner of that restaurant is very nice and the price is fair. My dad and I used to sell fish to him." Bai Manchuan led Bai Beibei and Bai Mancang with a bucket Go to the restaurant.

There are three restaurants on this street, and the one at the end is the smallest restaurant, so the business is not as good as the previous two. In order to save costs, the boss is both the boss and the shopkeeper.

Several people did not go through the main entrance, but went around to the back entrance of the restaurant.

The owner of this restaurant is a middle-aged man in his 40s, with a thin body and a friendly smile on his face. When he saw Bai Manchuan, he smiled and said: "Little brother, why haven't you come here for so long? Is the business too good?" No fish left for me?"

Bai Manchuan also laughed: "The boss was joking. Something happened to our family recently, so we didn't catch any fish. No, I'll send it to you as soon as there is any fish. Look, today's fish is good." Yes, specially reserved for you."

Bo Manchuan's short words made Bo Beibei look at him with admiration. He didn't expect that the honest and honest brother would be so tactful.

The boss looked into the barrel and said pleasantly, "Haha, all the fish today are alive, and they are not small in size and there are many varieties. This is really rare."

Today the fish is sure to be delicious and sure to please the guests.

In the past, Bai Manchuan and his son walked to the town carrying fish, and most of the fish died when they arrived in the town. No wonder the boss was so happy to see these fish.

"Little brother, I want all these fish." The boss said and asked people to weigh the fish.

Just now I gave half a barrel to the driver as a reward, and the rest of these weighed a total of 36 catties and 4 taels, and a catty was 150 Wen. The boss gave a round number of [-] Wen.

After leaving the restaurant, Bai Beibei couldn't help asking again: "Brother, why does a catty of fish only sell for 4 Wen?"

She remembered that a catty of brown rice cost five or six yuan, so selling a catty of fish was not enough to buy a catty of brown rice. She really didn't understand the consumption level here.

"It's not bad to be able to sell it for four pennies. If you get it from the other two restaurants, you may not be able to sell it at this price." The shopkeepers of the other two restaurants are quite dark-hearted. Will lower the price.

After hearing what his brother said, Bai Beibei fell silent.

The fish they risked their lives to catch were so worthless!

Seeing Bai Mancang's eyes full of novelty looking here and there, Bai Beibei shook off these messy thoughts and said with a smile: "Brother, take me and Mancang for a stroll."

"Okay, tell me what you want to eat, and I will buy it for you." Bai Manchuan said generously, children like to eat it.

Beibei and Mancang followed their brother and turned into another street. Mancang suddenly pointed to a stall selling windmills next to him and said, "Brother, I want that windmill, can I?"

He had seen this windmill before, and it was bought for a child by an adult in the village. At that time, he saw the child playing with this windmill and wanted it.

Seeing that his younger brother wanted to buy toys, Bai Manchuan hesitated for a moment. If his younger brother wanted to buy food, he would definitely not hesitate, but he was not very happy to buy this toy. what to eat.

"Brother, mother gave me money, and it's rare to come out once the warehouse is full. If he wants to buy it, let him buy it." Bai Beibei said and took out the twenty copper coins given by his mother before going out.

"Okay, you guys wait here, I'll go buy it." Although Bai Manchuan didn't approve of buying a windmill, he felt that his sister was right, and it was the first time that Mancang Chang came out, so he should be happy.

Bai Manchuan spent a penny to buy a windmill for Mancang. Although he was distressed, he felt that the money was well worth the money when he saw his younger brother happily taking over the windmill.

"Beibei, is there any food at home?" I was in a hurry to leave in the morning, and I forgot to ask my mother what she wanted to bring home.

Bai Beibei thought for a while: "Brother, let's buy some salt and soy sauce and go home."

She didn't seem to have seen these two things in the kitchen, she didn't care about cooking, everything was not delicious, but now mother is willing to cook, buy more seasonings so that mother can satisfy her stomach.

As for the oil, Bo Beibei went to the butcher stall to buy some big bones and meat. When the big bones were made into soup, some fat meat could be fried in oil.

"Okay, let's go to the grain and oil store then."

The salt and soy sauce here are not expensive. I bought more than half a bowl of salt and half a pot of soy sauce for five cents, but it cost an extra penny to buy the soy sauce pot. The boss also gave a small bag of salt as a gift. .

Coming out of the grain and oil store, Bai Manchuan saw a stall selling women's headgear in front of the grain and oil store, hesitated for a while, and said to Bo Beibei: "Bebe, go and see what you like."

The headdresses sold at this stall are all carved from wood, so they shouldn't be too expensive.

(End of this chapter)