Ask for peace of mind

The train station was crowded with people, and Xu Wei'an was holding a snakeskin bag and flipping through the plastic bottles one after another.Although there are a few scavengers like him, the traffic at the train station is heavy, and the trash cans are always turned over and over again.Because of his drooping arms, some passengers felt sorry for him and offered to stuff bottles into his bags.

Looking at the sun, he felt that it was almost time, so Xu Wei'an took the bag to pick up the bicycle from the bicycle guard at the corner of the street.

After selling the bottle, Xu Wei'an stopped by the roadside video store to buy magazines, and finally went to the vegetable market to buy meat.

Their dishes are usually potatoes and onions that are easy to store, and cabbage is usually delivered once every three days.Meat is not easy to store, and there are many mosquitoes and flies in the garbage dump, so it is easy to spoil, so Lao Huang gave Xu Wei'an 100 yuan a month and asked Xu Wei'an to buy fresh meat every day.

Xu Wei'an didn't play tricks on saving money. Every time he bought the meat and the unit price, he carefully wrote it down in his notebook, and showed it to Lao Huang at the end of the month.This notebook was picked up by Brother Wang from the trash. The notebook is very complete, and half of it has nothing written in it. It was given to Xu Wei'an, and Xu Wei'an used it as an account book.

At the end of the first month of buying meat, Xu Wei'an gave the bill and the rest of the money to Lao Huang.At that time, Lao Huang was stunned after reading the bill, and then said with a smile: "I don't have to return the money to me in the future. If there is more, it will be yours."

Seeing that he would not accept it, Xu Wei'an put the money together with the meat money for the next month without saying a word.It's just that he bought more meat in the second month, and spent all the more than 100 yuan on meat.

Brother Wang and the others heard that Xu Wei'an used to be a student. When carrying garbage, if they saw some books, notebooks, etc., they would pull them out and put them under the eaves of the wooden house to dry, and let Xu Wei'an see if they were worthwhile.Xu Wei'an will check and organize them one by one when he is free.Not to mention, Xu Wei'an sorted out a pile of those books that were picked up from the garbage dump.He kept the useful ones to read, and sold the useless ones in the second-hand book market. The money from the sales was added to the meat money to buy meat for everyone.

Of course, he has carefully recorded the source and whereabouts of public money in his notebook, and he will never be greedy for a penny.

It's not that he doesn't want money, but he always believes that only what he earns through labor is his.The world is fair, if you take more things that don't belong to you, you will definitely have to repay them twice in the future.He is a poor poor man, but he can't pay back what he has and what he doesn't have, so let's do his job honestly.

Last night, Brother Wang and the others worked until the early hours of the morning. Xu Wei'an made porridge and steamed buns for breakfast, and they had to eat something good for lunch, otherwise they couldn't bear it.

Meat money is one hundred a month, and the price of meat has been rising recently.Pork now costs one yuan and thirty cents a catty, but it was still one yuan a catty when it first came to the garbage dump.An average of two and a half catties of meat per day, more than a dozen big men, is just enough.

The weather in the south is hot and humid, and it is easy to get angry in summer. Xu Wei'an plans to cook some mung bean soup at noon, steam a dozen steamed buns, stir-fry some vegetarian dishes, and some meat dishes.Eat cold noodles at night, or simmered noodles.

Xu Wei'an left the garbage dump at around five in the morning, picked up garbage for more than three hours, went back and forth for two hours, and returned to the garbage dump at around eleven o'clock.Brother Wang and the others are not here, so they probably went to collect garbage.

He was quick to do things. First, he picked some mung beans and soaked them, then cleaned the pots and dishes that had been soaked in the morning, and took out the meat and washed them.The hot water in the teapot on the coal stove was very hot. He poured it out to rinse the chopping board, and then quickly cut the meat with his left hand.Quickly set up the big pot to make a large amount of fried pork with beans and potatoes.After the meat dish was ready, he shoveled it into a basin, and then covered it on the table with the gauze he bought earlier.Two vegetarian dishes are made of vinegared potatoes and scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and they are all shoveled into the basin after cooking.Finally, he fished out the soaked mung beans and made mung bean soup.After the mung beans were put into the pot, he began to take out the steamed buns that he had steamed in the morning, put them in the steamer, and put them on the pot.In summer, the steamed buns are not put out frequently. He always wakes up in the morning to knead the dough and steam dozens of steamed buns, which can last a whole day.

Xu Wei'an had never cooked stir-fried dishes at home before, let alone hard dishes.This is not to say that the Xu family does not allow him to cook, but that the Xu family's conditions do not allow it. The family's meals are steamed buns, noodles, noodle soup and the like that are easy to prepare and require no seasoning throughout the year.Occasionally, when guests came, it was Mrs. Xu and Sun Yulan who were cooking, and he was not given a chance to cook. At most, he helped light the fire and watched them cook.After arriving at the garbage dump, he accidentally picked up a cookbook from the garbage dump, and made use of the abundant ingredients here to cook all the dishes that can be made in the recipe.Fortunately, his craftsmanship is not bad, and everyone speaks highly of it.Xu Wei'an is also very interested. As long as he has time and ingredients, he will cook a few dishes to satisfy everyone's hunger.

After the meal was ready, Brother Wang and the others also came back in a truck full of garbage.More than a dozen shirtless people jumped out of the car, each with flushed faces and dark wheat-colored upper bodies dripping with sweat.Xu Wei'an quickly poured the cold water prepared in the morning into their respective kettles, and asked them to sit and drink some water.

Brother Wang's face was tanned black and red, and sweat was streaming down his face.He picked up the towel hanging around his neck and wiped his sweat, and said to Xu Wei'an, "Anzi, don't be busy, let's drink some water and then unload the car. Let the food dry first, and we will unload the car before eating. Mrs. Tian It’s hot, rest for a while after eating, and then go to load the car.”

Xu Wei'an took out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat, looked up at the sun, it was already noon.

"Okay, Brother Wang, rest for a while. I made mung bean soup at noon, steamed steamed buns, and fried a few dishes. I put the mung bean soup out and put it under the gauze to dry. I will boil some water later Now, it's too hot, and the cool white is fully prepared."

"You can eat first when you're done, don't worry about us." Brother Wang took everyone to unload the car after drinking the water.

Xu Wei'an didn't eat it first, he took out the mung bean soup and put it under the gauze net - fortunately he bought a big net cover at that time, otherwise there would be nowhere to store the food.Then clean the pot and pour water to boil.The kettle was also filled with water and put on another coal stove to boil water.

There are many mosquitoes and flies in the garbage dump in spring, summer, autumn and winter, and it is not convenient to store food.Xu Wei'an had no choice but to let Lao Huang customize a large gauze cover for him.At the beginning, everyone laughed at him for being too meticulous. After the net cover was made and used, everyone realized that it was really convenient. At least when eating, there would not always be floating corpses in the bowl.Although the old men are used to the environment where mosquitoes breed, but after all, no one will feel clean after eating the food in their stomachs.

Xu Wei'an's hard work earned him unanimous praise from the porters.Everyone gets along very well, helping each other with things, and the relationship is very harmonious.Although living in such a dirty environment, this is also the most memorable period of Xu Wei'an's life.He relies on his own labor to make money for survival, and he does not rely on others, nor is he warm or cold, and he is not frequently beaten, scolded, or indifferent. Here, he is free, happy, and full of hope.

After washing in the afternoon, Xu Wei'an had nothing to do.

Brother Wang and the others divided into groups after a break. Some people stayed at the garbage dump to crush the landfill garbage under the sun, and some continued to go to the garbage site to collect garbage.The wooden house was as stuffy as a steamer, and Xu Wei'an was not in the mood to take a nap.He carried the snakeskin bag to rummage through the pile of rubbish that he pulled over in the morning.Plastic bottles, books, paper, and metal bumps were piled up on the ground by him.After picking up a pile of garbage, he began to drag the plastic bottles on the ground to the wooden house by category.

After sorting out the trash, he looked at the sun, and it was time to start preparing dinner.He first mixed the noodles in a basin, then rolled the noodles into thin slices with a rolling pin, and cut them into noodles with a knife.Make cold noodles for dinner to relieve the heat and cool down. It is just right to eat in summer.

After eating, everyone went to take a shower one by one.

Brother Wang took a shower, squatted under the eaves with a teacup to enjoy the coolness, and told Xu Wei'an who was kneading the good news.

"You don't have to cook tomorrow night. Lao Huang has been promoted, so invite us to dinner. Our image is not good, and it is not convenient to go to the restaurant. Lao Huang ordered the dishes and delivered them directly."

Xu Wei'an had no idea where to eat. After hearing what Brother Wang said, he thought about it and said his plan, "Then I'll knead less noodles and steam less steamed buns tomorrow morning. I won't cook meat dishes at noon tomorrow. Yes, the chefs in other restaurants must cook better dishes than mine, so I will save some stomach for everyone and eat more at night, as it is hot and the food will not last.”

Brother Wang laughed when he heard this, "Although we haven't eaten restaurant dishes, your kid's cooking is good, at least it's better than my mother-in-law's cooking."

Brother Wang is 32 years old this year. He is tall and strong.There is a boy in his family who is younger than Xu Wei'an, who is in junior high school. Brother Wang may be out of empathy and takes good care of Xu Wei'an.Brother Wang usually doesn't tell everyone about his family's affairs, but he can't leave his mouth for almost three sentences to his wife.Everyone chatted with him, and he often brought him to his wife when they chatted. Everyone laughed at him.

Xu Wei'an smiled and remained silent.

Sure enough, Brother Wang immediately said, "Oh, no matter how bad your mother-in-law is at cooking, I still think about it. Only a mother-in-law can give you the taste of home."

Xu Weian put the kneaded dough into the basin and covered it.He asked Brother Wang, "Are you going back this year?"

Brother Wang sighed, "I still won't go back. Our small place is too remote. It takes three or four days to go back. We only have ten days off in total. We can't do anything when we go back. Besides, the brothers and sisters in the family have been sick for the past two years. There are only a few, and the big family lives in three blank houses, it is too crowded, and I have no place to live when I go back." He drank his saliva, and said his plan, "I plan to save some more money, and go back next year to take your sister-in-law Take it with your baby, and you can have a family to take care of when you live together. After all, there are more opportunities at home than outside."

Although Brother Wang didn't say it clearly, it's obvious that the family has scriptures that are difficult to recite, no wonder he basically doesn't mention family affairs.But Brother Wang's plan, Xu Wei'an thinks it's good, a family can only be considered a family if they live together, and it's not a problem if they always live in two places like this.