Chapter 33
Zhang Ma on the stairs heard the sound of talking in the house, tiptoeing up to the door to listen, only to hear the voice of Mr. Su, bluffed, wanted to push the door and stopped, thought about it, pretending to have just come up, stomping the floor back and forth, while saying: “Aiyo, this dish can be sunk!” Then push the door again, walked in, as if nothing happened, shouted: “I bought you cookies, yo, Mr. Su, you’re off work quite early today.”
Then he pushed the door again, walked in, and shouted as if nothing had happened: “Yan Yan, I bought you cookies, yo, Mr. Su, you’re off work quite early today.”
Su Chunjun stood up early, waiting to greet and talk to Zhang Ma. Yang Yuyan didn’t know what was going on, but she jumped up and hid back in her house.
When Su Chunjun saw her, he didn’t call out to her, fearing that she would be even more uncomfortable, so he watched her hide in the house, leaving him alone to face Zhang Ma.
Zhang Ma was already staring at him with her nose in the air, but not her eyes.
Zhang Ma carried the dishes to the kitchen, “I think the closing time of this government department can’t be four o’clock!”
Su Chunjun smiled, “I came to the neighborhood to do some work, so I came up to see Zhang Ma.”
Zhang Ma smiled coldly: “Yo, you still come to see me specifically? Thank you for remembering, you came empty-handed? You didn’t bring me anything?”
Su Chunjun was at a disadvantage and apologized, “Mrs. Zhang, it’s my fault, don’t be angry!”
Zhang Ma snorted coldly, “This is all just horseplay! Don’t do anything bad if you know it’s bad!”
Su Chunjun quickly clasped his fists and begged her to shut up, “Mrs. Zhang, Mrs. Zhang, I didn’t do anything bad! I was just passing by to take a look, and I was afraid that the incident in the morning might have angered the second young lady again, so I came up to see her.”
The moment he said he did something bad, his sweat broke out.
Zhang Ma remembered this morning’s incident, and then looked at Su Chunjun everywhere is not good, his own girl is still small, this will fall into the hands of this big tail wolf?
She simply pushed Su Chunjun out and warned him in a lowered voice: “I know what you’re thinking! From now on, you are not allowed to see Second Miss secretly! You’re not allowed to come up here without me!”
Su Chunjun immediately guaranteed that he would abide by the rules and never cross the line, and then under Zhang Ma’s iron face, he took one step back and forth on the stairs.
Walking downstairs, the traffic on the street immediately brought him back to earth, and his feet felt as if they had stepped on the ground.
He stood in the street and took a few deep breaths, only to feel his chest warm! Even if she hadn’t said a word yet, he knew all about it. He had been wandering around since he left home, and had told himself that he didn’t need to care, that he wasn’t alone, that he had ideals and ambitions, and that he was already happier than ninety percent of the people in this world.
But today, when he was suddenly informed of the second young lady’s affection, he felt that he was like a kite. Finally, someone held the string, and he would not fly far away, and one day he could return to the ground.
He strides down the street with no destination in mind, with endless strength in his body, and many thoughts and ideas welling up in his head. He realized that before he seemed to be living an active life, but in reality it was nothing more than self-loathing and games. Only now did he really start to think about what exactly would be a better life.
Walking down the street, he looked up and saw a pawn store and thought about walking in.
The pawnshop courtier saw that he was young, wearing a neat and clean tunic, and there were no mud spots on his shoes, so he stood up to greet him, “What does the guest want?”
Su Chunjun took out his work permit, a thin piece of paper with a red stamp on it, with which he had taken advantage of a lot of bargains over the past few days, going in and out of various stores!
When the courtier saw this work permit, he smiled more politely, “Please tell me, sir.”
Su Chunjun smiled, “Do you have a typewriter here?”
Two moments later, he walked out of the pawnshop carrying an old wooden box. When he bought the typewriter, it came with paper and ink cartridges. He hadn’t paid for it yet, so he let the pawnshop open a ticket, and then he took it back to whichever account he wanted to charge it to.
He carried the typewriter and went back to the Zhu family downstairs, stood in front of the gate to think, and then left, turned to the meat store near the food market, bought two pounds of ham, so that the boss wrapped a little better.
The butcher store boss lifted the ham to him: “Bearing the favor of a piece of eighty cents.”
Su Chunjun: “Invoicing.” Then he took out his work permit.
The butcher store owner took a look, quite unhappy, staring at Su Chunjun for a couple of moments.
Su Chunjun: “I live in this neighborhood. I’ll give you the money next month after I cash the ticket.”
The butcher store owner did not dare to offend these wearing official skin, only to admit their own bad luck, seriously opened a ticket for him, and said when he handed it over, “You have a comfortable life, eat a meat do not have to pay.”
Su Chunjun took the ham rope and laughed, “What am I? When the adults are eating meat, I am just picking up the meat scraps. Thank you very much, see you later!”
After he left, the butcher store owner spat, “Bah, don’t come back!”
With the ham in his hand, Su Chunjun only had the courage to go upstairs and knock on the door. When he reached the door, he thought again and went upstairs to put down his typewriter before coming down with the ham in his hand.
There were two thuds, and before he could put his hand down, he heard Zhang Ma’s voice: “I’ll do it, Yan Yan, go write your words.”
Zhang Ma opened the door, her head poked out, and when she saw it was him, she put on a face: “Did you go downstairs and come back again? Our wife is at home.”
Su Chunjun hurriedly raised the ham, “Mrs. Zhang, I’m really off duty. It’s embarrassing to come to dinner all the time, this is what I purposely went to buy just now.”
After looking at the ham for a few moments, Zhang Ma reluctantly opened the door and let him in.
As soon as he entered the house, he saw Yang Yuyan writing in the dining room, Zhu Yanshu sitting on the living room sofa, the two of them looked up together, one hurriedly lowered her head to continue working hard on her schoolwork, and the other said with a smiling face, “Mr. Su, you’re off work quite early today.”
Zhang Ma sneered from the side.
Su Chunjun knew that he had touched the scales by sneaking in on this matter today. If he was still open and honest, and Miss Er was still in love, just like when he used to tutor Miss Er, then Ms. Zhu and Zhang Ma wouldn’t be so nervous.
Now that he has evil thoughts in his heart, and Miss Er has been amused by him to have maidenly thoughts, it would be inappropriate for the two of them to be alone again.
Not to mention Ms. Zhu and Mrs. Zhang are not at ease, even he himself does not dare to be at ease with himself.
Alas, he now sees the second lady’s silhouette of the heart will jump to disobedience.
Just in case, he would like to wish Ms. Zhu and Zhang Ma to keep a tighter eye on him to prevent him from losing control and making a big mistake. He still preferred to walk together with the second young lady openly and honestly, so that their love could last for a long time, rather than just trying to have a momentary pleasure.
In the past, when he arrived at the Zhu Family, he would first go to see Second Miss’ homework, but today he sat down on the sofa and made small talk with Ms. Zhu.
He said with a straight face, “I heard the second young miss talk about the Ma family’s matter, I don’t just have a few ideas, please listen to them and take them into consideration, if they are useful, then it will be me repaying the favor.”
Zhu Yan Shu today’s cards are not happy, is the heart put the Ma family’s matter, this problem is not solved well, the result is that she either lose a daughter, or lose the whole family. How could this make her still feel at ease playing cards?
She put her hands together, “I’m having a hard time, you’re a benefactor to my family if you can help with ideas, please don’t hesitate to tell me.”
Su Chunjun’s words were still the same ones he told Yang Yuyan.
First, the Ma family should not stay in the hospital, while there is still money in hand, hurry to find a cheap house to live. The money saved can also allow the Ma family to take medicine for a few more days.
Secondly, although Ma Tianbao is not lightly injured, but he is young and knowledgeable, Ma father and mother are doing manual labor, it is now unrealistic to expect them to go out to work to earn money, only Ma Tianbao, as long as he finds a job and has an income, the Ma family will not sit on the sidelines.
“I used to run all over the east and west of the city in order to rent a room. With the Ma family’s current family fortune, renting a house is just to have a place to sleep and land at night, so we can save as much as we can. They can’t afford to rent a house like Zhu Jia Lou.”
Of course he could not lead the Ma family towards the Zhu family. He didn’t know what kind of character the Ma family had, but people were poor, and the Zhu family was full of women with unarmed hands, and their home was full of valuable things, so if the Ma family had bad intentions and rushed in to kidnap or kill the people, and move the things out to sell them, it would be a tragedy of the first order in the world. He heard more than this on the street, the yellow bus driver can kill for a dollar or two, how can he let the Zhu family mother and daughter face this kind of danger?
Plan for the worst in everything in order to know where the bottom line is.
“But some of the places where the hard laborers live are very cheap, only a dollar a month.” Of course, the environment was very bad, all of them had a straw mat on the ground as a bed, which was just a little better than sleeping on the street with a roof over their heads. After he went to see it, he turned his head and left, even if it was cheaper, he couldn’t stand it.
Zhu Yanshu heard that is quite satisfied, look at Su Chunjun’s eyes are softer, better than when he just entered the door.
Su Chunjun said, “As for work, he is a college student, and his leg is injured, he can’t do manual labor, it’s best to work at home, copying letters, calculating accounts and so on.”
Yang Yuyan had long been unable to resist standing there at the dining room door curtain to listen, and at this time interjected, “Is that the typing job you told me about?”
Zhu Yanshu looked up, looked at her, then looked at Su Chunjun and smiled, “Mr. Su found a job for Yan Yan? What typing?”
Su Chunjun quickly explains, “It’s not the same. Ma doesn’t have a typewriter, so she can only work as a scribe. As long as there is a desk, a stack of paper, a fountain pen, and a bottle of ink. This job is very suitable for him, many places need scribes, as long as one is diligent, there is no worry about making money.” It’s just that it will be hard work, copying thousands of pieces to make a dollar or two.
Zhu Yanshu: “Oh, so that’s how it is. Then what about the typist Yan Yan said?”
Su Chunjun glanced at Yang Yuyan who clearly didn’t know what she had done, the two of them locked eyes, and the second young lady couldn’t help but smile daintily, and immediately put it away.
He turned his head back, not to mention angry, even the corners of his mouth curled up. He meets Zhu Yanshu’s gaze that has turned stern again, and explains in detail: ”Second Miss has always been very serious in her studies, and hopes that she can apply what she has learned. She entrusted me to find a job for her, and I searched for a long time before I found two. One is a typist, as long as you have a typewriter, you can work at home, and the working hours are very free. It’s just that you can’t make much money, and the typewriter requires learning.”
Zhu Yanshu thought the job sounded okay, and the most important thing was that it allowed people to work from home. The only problem was that she didn’t have a typewriter.
Zhu Yanshu: “Then to do this job, one would need to go buy a typewriter first.” She began to calculate when she would go to the department store to look around and pick one to buy.
Yang Yuyan saw that it was time to talk about herself, so she came over and wanted to sit down, she stood in front of Zhu Yanshu and Su Chunjun and hesitated for a moment, but still picked Zhu Yanshu’s side and sat down.
Zhu Yanshu held her daughter’s hand and patted it, looked at her and said, “Even if you buy it back, you won’t be able to use it, you need to learn it first.”
Yang Yuyan was just about to open her mouth to brag, when Su Chunjun cleared his throat, “I have one at home, just so I can teach the second miss.”
For a moment everyone in the room’s eyes were focused on him.
In front of him was Ms. Zhu, behind him was Zhang Ma. The only one who was barely considered his friendlies was Second Miss, but this friendlies opened her mouth and said, “When did you buy it? I didn’t see it yesterday!”
Su Chunjun only felt Ms. Zhu’s and Zhang Ma’s gazes behind him sharpen.
He summoned up the courage to say, “Just got it back today, I need it for work.”
As for what kind of work, there is no need to avoid people, because this is a “secret” that everyone knows.
He entered the Finance Bureau also has two months, always willing to follow the footsteps of the adults in front. He is not only a good sense of humor, but also poor, so the other people in the Finance Bureau feel that they can pull him a hand, but also to avoid standing in the Bureau of an outsider, so that they are tied up.
He had heard that the people in the Finance Bureau, whether they are big or small, even the house sweeping the floor to beat the night watchman have their own way of making money, but unfortunately he has not been able to get into the door.
In the past two days, there is an adult point him where there is a door, he sent a box of cigarettes as a gift of thanks, looking for the door to go.
The Finance Bureau is dealing with money, is the government’s first-class important place, the Chancellor’s House of the maiden seventh-grade officials, although he is not even see a page of the books, but shoulder to pay to go everywhere to collect the responsibility of the heavy responsibility of the note.
So, if, a certain adult real spend one thousand dollars, but reported three thousand dollars account, then this two thousand dollars, need someone to help think of ways to report up.
When the accounts are finalized and the money is cashed out, 70% will go to the lord, 20% will go to his supervisor, and only 10% will go to him.
Su Chunjun has no other thoughts except that the share is a bit small.
All the adults every day for the state exhausting, day and night, but the salary is only so little, how to support the many wives, aunts and concubines in the size of the public house?
Therefore, they do so, the people above also know, is from top to bottom, everyone knows the way.
Su Chunjun was very educated, greatly agreed, empathy, and immediately decided to join in the money together. Tonight’s ham is his pitch!
Alas, the flowers are too little, very embarrassed, I hope not to be ridiculed by everyone.
Su Chunjun: “I carried a typewriter back just to type out the account notes.”
Zhu Yanshu came to a realization, Zhang Ma was envious, Yang Yuyan understood after a moment of contemplation, and asked in fear, “Are you going to make false accounts?”
Zhu Yanshu poofed a laugh, stood up and said, “I’m going to go to the house to lie down for a while, Zhang Ma, call me after dinner. You two talk.” She walked to her bedroom and closed the door, and heard a string of laughter coming from inside the house.
Zhang Ma also turned around and went back to the kitchen.
Yang Yuyan hurriedly sat across from him and worried, “Is this okay? Will people find out? Will they arrest you?”
Su Chunjun wanted to laugh just now, but now he was made even hotter in his heart by her worry.
His voice was even softer as he explained to her carefully, “It won’t be. The notes that the adults go to each place to spend their money are all made by the shopkeepers themselves, and some of them are still handwritten. I imitated the notes from each store, so they wouldn’t dare to sue me even if they had the guts to do so.” And this is already a customary practice up and down the line, there will not be anyone to go from store to store to check one by one whether there is this amount of spending.
Moreover, the expenses of the adults are not only official expenses, but also the wife’s diamonds, the aunt’s fox-skin coat, and even more firewood, rice, oil, and salt at home. Here is how much is the adults own home food and drink finished, or even drivers, secretaries and other people underneath are included in it, it is really not good to break down.
So he can buy two pounds of ham today and flush it into these gross accounts, and he can buy a pot of flowers tomorrow and flush it in. As long as he is bold enough, he can even go buy a building!
But he didn’t want to move, so the matter of buying a building should be forgotten.
Explained clearly, Yang Yuyan also assured, just can not help but judge a bit: “You this account is also too messy, up and down one embezzlement?”
Su Chunjun laughed: “The Nanjing government is still clean much, I heard that other local governments can even military expenses are greedy no, the old Buddha is not also the navy military expenses to take to build a garden?”
Yang Yuyan rolled her eyes, “As if you’re saying that these are all good people! If you compare everything to them and follow their example, are there any good people left in the world?”
Su Chunjun smiled and calmed her down, “Don’t talk about national affairs, don’t talk about national affairs. By the way, do you want to learn how to type? You can go to my room to learn, I have a machine there.”
Before Yang Yuyan could say “yes”, Zhang Ma already rushed up.
“It’s time for dinner, second miss, stop talking and go wash your hands. If you want to type, let Mr. Su bring the machine down, there’s plenty of room over here, why squeeze into his pigeonhole!” Zhang Ma came up and shouted Yang Yuyan away, glaring viciously at Su Chunjun.
Su Chunjun didn’t dare to say that he didn’t have any evil thoughts at all, so he couldn’t say a word in his defense.
Yang Yuyan did speak for him, “Mr. Su is going to use that job, moving it over makes it easier for me to use it, how is he going to use it?”
Zhang Ma didn’t think it was a problem: “Then let your mom buy you another one, she has plenty of money! Buy one and put it at home for you to play by yourself!”
Yang Yuyan said indignantly, “I’m not playing with it.”