Chapter Thirty-Three A Basket of Eggs

  Qiu Ye held the newspaper in one hand and pulled her brother with the other, quickly walking out of the post office. She still had a lot of things to buy, and it was getting late now. Her mother should have arrived already, so she needed to hurry up.

  They came to the market, and Old Lady Qiu had already started selling tofu. There were many people buying tofu, and Qiu Feng quickly ran to his mother's side without needing to be reminded, helping her sell the tofu.

  Qiu Ye looked at her brother's self-conscious behavior and nodded secretly to herself. Her education had been very successful. Her brother had grown a lot after going with her to sell meatballs for several weeks, and he now knew how to take the initiative to help his family members. This was a quality that her brother had not previously possessed. In the past, he had only had three thoughts: playing, eating, and joining the army. Now Qiu Ye was slowly helping him develop a fourth one - being able to feel empathy for others, especially his family members. Looking at it now, her brother's grasp of this new quality was still quite good.

  Qiu Ye didn't plan to go help out for now, she wanted to go to the market first and buy all the things she needed, otherwise her mother would catch her empty-handed and then she wouldn't be able to buy anything.

  So she quickened her pace and came to a woman selling eggs, looking at the eggs in her basket, they were freshly laid, with many of them still having chicken droppings on them. If this were in later times, she might not have believed it, because people back then could fabricate all sorts of fakes to make money, nothing was impossible for them as long as you could think of it. But people nowadays didn't have such intentions, the woman in front of her was a straightforward person.

  Qiu Ye crouched down, picked up an egg and looked at it. It was neither big nor small, just the right size for her. So she raised her head and asked: "Auntie, how much do you sell this egg for?"

  "One mao per piece." The old woman replied.

  "How many are there in this basket?" Qiu Ye wanted to buy all of them, so she asked how many were missing.

  "There are 58 in total." The old lady always counted carefully when she came home, and she had brought back a total of 100, having just sold 42, leaving 58 here.

  "Hey boss, if I'm buying everything, can you give me a discount?" Qiu Ye thought it was already very cheap, but she still instinctively wanted to haggle.

  The old woman looked at the little girl squatting in front of her with a difficult expression, then looked at her own eggs, she didn't know how to lower the price either, she hadn't gone to school, couldn't calculate clearly, this price was already calculated by the child when they came.

  Qiu Ye saw the old woman's difficulty, and she wasn't a exploiter of laboring people like Zhou Bapi, so she said: "Old lady, how about this? You have 58 eggs in total, which should be sold for 5 yuan and 80 cents. I'll pay you 5 yuan and 50 cents, that way you'll lose 30 cents, or rather, it's like giving me three eggs for free."

  The old lady finally understood, thought for a moment, and agreed. It's rare to meet someone who buys so many eggs at once. She had thought that she would have to sell them until the evening market was over, but now, although she gave away three eggs for free, she sold all of them at once. She can go home early too, there are still a lot of chores waiting for her at home.

  Then Qiu Ye paid 55 cents to the old lady, and then asked her to give her the basket as well. She also helped her carry the eggs to her mother's tofu stall.

  She took advantage of the crowd in front of the cart, secretly handed the eggs to her brother, and asked him to help put the eggs next to the car and watch them for her, then she slipped away again, with many things still not bought.

  Then she went to buy a few more radishes, the radishes at home were almost used up, so she could only buy some. Then she went to the store and weighed half a catty of tea leaves, choosing the cheapest kind, and then bought some cinnamon.

  When she returned to the tofu stall with several small paper bags, she saw her mother scolding her brother, and she guessed it was all because of that basket of eggs.

  She originally thought that since her brother had already been scolded, she would let him take the blame and continue to be scolded, exhausting their mother's anger. However, unfortunately, she was discovered by her mother. With just one glance from her mother, she slunk over to stand in front of her.

  Of course, she wasn't willing to be scolded, so her face was filled with flattering smiles, and she said in a sycophantic tone: "Mom, you're working too hard, let me give you a back massage." Seeing that her mom's expression hadn't softened, she quickly added: "Or should I give your shoulders a rub?" When she saw that her mom still looked angry, she turned to her brother and asked: "Brother, are you mad at Mom? Didn't I tell you, Mom works so hard every day, getting up early and selling tofu until late at night. What's it all for? Isn't it all for us two? How can you still make Mom angry?" As she scolded her brother, she also winked at him, signaling that he shouldn't lose his temper, but rather let them resolve the issue internally first.

  Qiu Feng looked at his sister's funny expression, and the retort that was about to burst out of his mouth was swallowed back. Anyway, mom had already scolded him, now he said the egg was bought by his sister, it would also make his sister get another scolding from mom, he wouldn't get praised either, as a brother, let him take the lead in front of his sister and bear the brunt of mom's verbal attack.

  Although Qiu's mother still looked unpleasant, seeing the funny look of her daughter and the tolerant look of her son, the fire in her heart dissipated by half, but the words she spoke were still very severe.

  "Xiaoye, what are you up to again? Are you going to take out that 200 yuan and waste it? Buying so many eggs at once, what do you want to do? This child is really something, three days won't pass without her causing trouble. Whose temperament does she have? The old Qiao family isn't like this, it must be the bad genes from the old Cui family."

  "Mom, you're wronging me! The 200 yuan is still there, and the money I used to buy eggs was earned by my brother and me selling meatballs together." Qiu Ye said with a hint of grievance on her face, thinking that she hadn't lied, the 200 yuan had indeed been exchanged for monkey tickets and was safely kept there, and what she spent now was her own earnings.

  Qiu's mother looked at her suspiciously, seemingly disbelieving, "Just you, that little丸子, can earn so much money?" Qiu's mother's thinking had always been stuck on the fact that her daughter had earned 6 cents, never imagining she would earn so many eggs.

  "Mom, you graduated from elementary school, didn't you? Think about it carefully. I earned 60 cents on the first day, and after more than 10 days, shouldn't I have a few dollars by now?" Qiu Ye didn't want her mom to know how much money she had in hand, or else she wouldn't be free to do anything in the future. It was better for her mom to think that she only earned 60 cents every day.

  Qiu's mother thought about it and realized that earning 6 cents every day would add up to 7 or 8 yuan after more than ten days. However, she immediately thought of how this foolish child had just gotten some money in her hands and wasn't herself anymore, buying so many eggs at once. How could she be so reckless? An 8-year-old girl dared to spend so much money on her own.

  Qiu's mother thought her daughter was small, but in fact, at Qiu Ye's current height, she could pass for 11 or 12 years old. At this age, kids are usually sturdy, so it wouldn't be strange for a teenager to help out with buying things. So, Qiu Ye's shopping trip didn't arouse anyone's suspicion.

  "How can you spend money like that? You just saved a few bucks and now they're all gone. Your dad said to trust you, but I think you're the most worrisome...". Just as Mrs. Qiu was about to continue scolding this increasingly bold girl, someone came to buy tofu from next door. She couldn't not do business, so she quickly shut her mouth and started cutting the tofu, weighing it, and collecting payment.

  After sending away the person who bought tofu, she had already forgotten what they were talking about.

  Qiu Ye saw that her mother was going to continue, so she quickly went forward and hugged her mother, saying: "Mom, don't say anything else, look at the aunt next door watching us."

  This Qiu Ye is telling the truth, just now when mom scolded brother, people around were listening with their ears perked up, and when they saw mom was going to continue, they all looked over here. Qiu Ye felt that although nowadays society lacks houses and entertainment is also scarce, people's gossip spirit is still very strong, wherever there is war, there are also wall listeners.

  Qiu's mother heard the girl say this, and only then realized that they were outside, not at home. She glanced to the side and saw several men and women looking over at them, so she quickly turned her face away, feeling unnatural. Qiu's mother immediately stopped talking, as the common thought in everyone's mind was that family shame should not be made public.

  Qiu's mother glared at her daughter and said, "Wait till we get home, I'll deal with you."

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