Ye Cheng

Before going to bed that night, Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan counted some money under the dim electric light, and there was actually 39 yuan and [-] cents. You must know that old man Wu in City C often can't earn this amount, so he was so happy that he couldn't help it. I started to look forward to the next day's business again.

Early the next morning, Ye Cheng and the others got up and brushed their teeth and washed their face without asking adults to shout. They brought toothbrush and toothpaste from their home, and they also brought a small towel.At that time Ah Qing and her mother had already woken up and were sitting behind the stove talking while lighting the fire. Seeing that they were up, each of them stuffed a brown sugar bun for them from the table.

Ye Cheng looked at the brown sugar bun that Ah Qing's mother gave him, and then at the sky outside: "You guys made it yourself?"

"Where can it be? In the next door village, his family's brown sugar buns are famous. They pick them out and sell them before dawn. Ah Qing likes to eat this." Ah Qing's mother smiled and said, usually he and the old man are friends. I don't buy much, after all, it costs money. They grow their own rice, grain and vegetables, and they don't need to spend half a cent to eat as much as they want.

The brown sugar buns are really delicious, and they are very big. I heard from Ah Qing's mother that you can buy three for one dollar, so Ye Cheng wanted to buy a few more, so that he and Lu Mingyuan could have lunch at noon, but that person It seems that I am no longer in this village, so I have to wait until tomorrow morning.

After a while, Ah Qing's father also came in from outside, carrying a few green vegetables with dew in his hands, Ah Qing's mother asked him to wash his hands, and also ate a brown sugar bun, the old man gnawed on one without soup or vegetables.

When the porridge in the pot was ready, A Qingniang asked Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan to drink a bowl each, then put on the black velvet shoes that Ye Cheng and the others repaired yesterday, and said that today he would take Ye Cheng and the others to the next village for business .The shoes that need to be repaired in their village are almost all repaired. If there are still a pair or two pairs that have not been taken out, Ye Cheng and the others can repair them when they come back at night, so there is no need to delay for a whole day.

At this moment, the sun had not yet come out, and the grass and leaves on the roadside were still covered with dew. Ah Qing and her mother walked ahead, talking as they walked, the mother and daughter seemed to have endless things to say. Cheng and Lu Mingyuan pushed the bicycles and walked behind. Lu Mingyuan was taller and held the handlebars in front, while Ye Cheng held the seat behind.

After walking for less than half an hour along the gravel road that the tractor left yesterday, Ye Cheng and the others turned into a loess road, passed through a small forest, and walked down a short section of steps paved with bluestone slabs. A three-fold courtyard is exposed in front of it. The houses are all built of stones. They look square and square, and some places are covered with moss.

"Yo, Ah Qing is here, why are you two so early?" On the roadside outside the yard, people from this village used a plastic pipe to draw water down from the nearby ravine, and built a reservoir. I'm brushing my teeth and washing my face right now.When one of the black and fat women saw Ah Qing and the others, she greeted them, and the people around them also laughed.

"Shouldn't it be early? Where can I find someone later?" Ah Qing's mother said with a smile.

"Who are you looking for?"

"I'm not looking for anyone, I just brought two dolls here to find out the way." A Qingniang pointed to their yard, where A Qing had already taken Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan to find a flat place to set up a stall.

"Your Ah Qing has learned a handicraft?" After washing his face, the man carried the washbasin and walked to his room. In this mountain, it is a rare thing for a woman to learn art.

Ah Qingniang followed the man to the door of her house, and sat down on the bench brought out by the man: "It's not Ah Qing, it's those two dolls. Look at my shoes, haven't they been bitten by bugs? They were repaired by them, look at the craftsmanship."

"Yo, this is really repaired by two dolls? How much does it cost?" There are no women in the mountains who don't plan carefully.

"Others are just thirty-five cents. I'm such a troublemaker. One yuan. That doll insists on refusing to take it. How can I take advantage of him, right?"

"That's right, it's really not easy for the two dolls. You sit down. I have a few pairs of old shoes in the house. I don't know if they can repair them." The woman entered the house after speaking. The pair of shoes went to Ye Cheng and the others.

"I heard that you two came to our village to repair shoes?" Although the guys were all set up in their yard, but looking at the size of the two children, the woman couldn't help asking again.

"Yes." Ye Cheng nodded, and Lu Mingyuan squatted on the ground to organize his tools.

"Then help me see, how much does it cost to repair these pairs of shoes?"

Ye Cheng took the old shoes she handed over and looked through them. There are quite a lot of old shoes in this family, but every pair has been washed clean, and it seems that they never intend to throw them away.He looked at each pair, and quoted one pair at a time.

After a while Lu Mingyuan stood up from the ground and added: "There is not enough fabric for repairing the upper, you have to get it yourself." He just checked, and there are still some inner tubes for repairing the sole, and they obviously have less fabric for repairing the upper , plus the piece of cotton left over from Ah Qing's house yesterday, there is not much left.

"That's easy to say." The woman was quite satisfied with the price Ye Cheng gave. She was obviously the type who was reluctant to throw away old things. After entering the room for a while, she brought out several old clothes for them to choose.

This end Ye Cheng and the others are considered to be in business, and Ah Qing and her mother were chatting and laughing at the other end of the yard: "Ye Cheng and the others are lucky today. In the whole village, only her family needs to repair more shoes."

"Isn't it, hehe, you said how could you, Aunt Xiaoyu, save yourself like that? Do you see that shirt on her body? She saw her wear it when you were married. It's been ten years since you were married. , she is still wearing it." A Qingniang sighed.

"Hasn't Uncle Dehai's income been pretty good for the past two years? Why is she still so economical?"

"You don't know, she was also afraid of poverty when she was a child, so she developed such a personality, and she will never try to change it in her life." Speaking of this, the atmosphere became a little heavy.

"Hey, mother, I'll go to Shangkan to get some work for Ye Cheng and the others." Ah Qing said suddenly.

"I'll go with you, and I'll just sit down." After speaking, the two of them left the yard. Ye Cheng and the others were working with their heads down, so they didn't notice.

There are quite a lot of people in this village. Ye Cheng and the others set up a stall in the yard, and after a while, many people gathered around to watch the fun. Everyone saw that their craftsmanship was really good, so they all brought out old shoes from home.

The middle-aged woman named Liu Xiaoyu looked pretty stingy, but she gave the money easily. Her shoes were repaired for [-] yuan, and she gave [-] yuan. She didn't mean to bargain at all, and gave a dime a change Done.

After a while, Ah Qing and his mother brought a group of people into the yard again. The business came quickly, and Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan were a little bit overwhelmed.The people in the mountains were not in a hurry either, each household moved out stools, sitting in piles in the yard, gossiping to pass the time.

Here, Ye Cheng and the others still have a lot of work to do, and the people in the village over there began to call for friends: "Xiaohui, go to grandpa's house and ask them to bring all the old shoes that need to be repaired." , Remember, tell the third wife’s family next door, that there are shoe repair masters in the city, the craftsmanship is good and the price is low, let them come quickly.”

Seeing that Ye Cheng and the others were busy, Ah Qing and his mother were ready to go back. A Qing Niang greeted the woman named Liu Xiaoyu and asked them to help the two children steam the rice when they were cooking at noon. , They will come to pick up people at night.

Then Liu Xiaoyu said: "Who are you going to pick up at night? When they are busy, they can sleep at my house. When Dehai goes out tomorrow, I will take them with me. Wherever I want to go, in this big mountain Is there any place where Dehai hasn't run?"

"That's good too. It saves these two children from running around all day. You can ask De Hai to help you take care. These two children are from Aqing's village. If you bring them out, you have to take them back."

"What are you talking about? There are still bad people in our mountains? Don't worry, I'll tell Dehai, I can't lose them."

It was also during lunch that Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan knew that this woman named Liu Xiaoyu was the hostess of the family that made brown sugar buns.Her man didn't come home until noon, and a big load of brown sugar buns were sold out. Xiaoyu asked him to drag off the shoes on his feet, take them to the sink to brush them, and let Ye Cheng make up for them in the afternoon. repair.

At noon, when Liu Xiaoyu and the others were cooking, they took the rice box that Ye Cheng had washed and put aside and steamed it together. The two of them borrowed a bench in the yard and ate the meat pie and pickles prepared by Cai Jinzhi.After a while, someone came to see, saying that such an order is not enough, and then went out with their own plates and put some dishes into their lunch boxes.

While eating, the people in the yard gradually dispersed. Some people gave money to leave their shoes here before they had time to repair their shoes, and asked Ye Cheng and the others to repair them and leave them in any house in the yard. Come pick it up another day.

After eating, a couple helped Ye Cheng and the others move their stall to the door of his house. The sun had already climbed high in the sky, and Ye Cheng and his stall were almost covered in the sun.The second floor of the houses in the mountains is longer than the first floor. When a whole row of houses is built together, a corridor is formed in front of the house. It is usually used to dry clothes and so on. Ye Cheng and the others sit in this place to work. In the open room at the back, the cool mountain breeze blows through.

Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan continued to work, and some adults in the yard advised them to rest for a while. Ye Cheng just looked at the pile of shoes that hadn't been repaired, and he didn't stop. Lu Mingyuan listened to Ye Cheng anyway.

Lu Mingyuan seemed to be working faster and faster now. Basically, if any guests came, they would be greeted by Ye Cheng, so he just kept his head down and worked.

When taking a bath at night, Ye Cheng found two big blisters on Lu Mingyuan's hands, and he also had blisters on his hand, but it was only a small one, probably because Ye Cheng had dug the ground before, and the skin on his hands was already bruised. It is thicker, and it may also be because he talked a lot with the guests today and did relatively little work.

"Does it hurt?" Ye Cheng wiped Lu Mingyuan's hands with a towel, carefully avoiding the two big blisters.

"It doesn't hurt much." Lu Mingyuan lowered his eyelids, watching Ye Cheng help him wipe his hands bit by bit.

"Don't do it tomorrow." When he was with old man Wu before, they didn't do so much work all at once. For some reason, Ye Cheng always felt that he should take care of Lu Mingyuan instead of letting him bring these two big blisters. keep working.

"I don't hurt." Lu Mingyuan pulled his hand back awkwardly.

"Then stop grinding the soles of your shoes." The bubbles in Lu Mingyuan's hands probably came out when he was grinding the soles of his shoes with a file.

"En." Lu Mingyuan replied, agreeing.

The author has something to say: After returning from Shibaling, Ye Cheng started school.