Chapter 77

It was not yet dark, but the Zhu family building was bustling with activity. The people who went out to work and to school all came back. Those who went out to buy food, those who set up their own stoves in front of the door, those who stood there talking and chatting, and so on.

Today’s people are a little bit more.

Ma Tianbao squatted in the doorway, half-open door, supporting a small tin can stove, which put half a piece of residual coal, is Zhang Ma from the stove to him, but said that only today to see that he just came to give him half a piece of coal, every day to ask for coal can not be, outside of the coal trucks every few days, and not too expensive, thirty pieces of coal for 50 cents, counting a very fair.

He promised to buy coal tomorrow, and Zhang Ma nodded.

On the stove was a scrubbed casserole, in which were the dregs of the medicine that had been boiled so many times that they no longer smelled like medicine.

He boiled it for as long as he could, as if he wanted to cook out all the medicinal power in the residue.

The neighbors were either standing at the top of the stairs or on the stairs, pretending not to care, but actually talking about him.

He’d used the two dollars to take a bath, get a haircut, soak his old clothes in the broken wooden tub, change into the old clothes and shoes he’d bought at the second-hand store outside, and look a little poorer still, but not so much so that he’d get sideways glances.

He hadn’t been idle all day today.

Ma’s father and mother also used his boiled water to mix and wipe their bodies. Ma’s mother changed into the clothes sent by Zhang Ma, Ma’s father had to cover the quilt lying in bed, anyway, he can not move.

Ma Tianbao today in addition to buying clothes for themselves, the most important thing is to buy a new night pot, a new toilet.

When he lived in the hospital, there was a toilet and a night pot in the hospital. When they moved to the junkyard, there was no need to talk about it there, everyone pulled it outside.

Now, the newest thing in the house is the toilet that sits in the corner with the night pot that sits under the bed.

Ma Tianbao decanted the medicine and put it in a bowl that had already been brushed and cleaned and delivered by a neighbor, and carefully carried it into the house and handed it to Ma’s mother. He knelt down on the bed again and forcefully set Ma’s father up against the wall.

He said, “Mom, you feed Dad his medicine, and I’ll go buy two bowls of noodles.”

Ma’s mother agreed as she barked, “Add an egg to your dad’s bowl, but don’t add it to mine.”

Ma Tianbao: “Mom, you also need to replenish your nutrition.”

Ma’s mother worried, “Alas, the stalls over here are expensive ah ……”

Then you also need to eat ah, all day long you only eat this bowl of noodles.

He poured the dregs of the medicine into the Luo basket, spreading and spreading it out. Take that casserole to the water room to wash it, and use it to buy noodles.

Ma Tianbao closed the door, there is no lock, there is only one key, the extra match can only go to the locksmith by himself, and a handful of them will cost 50 cents. The key is on him, want to lock the door it, and worried about the room without windows, in case of trouble Ma father and mother can not run away.

Although he only went to the door to buy noodles, a quarter of an hour round trip, he was also uneasy.

He hated that he couldn’t tie his parents to the waistband of his pants.

He had never thought of it this way before.

Ma Tianbao hesitated in front of the door for half a day, and the neighbors behind him were still whispering about his family.

“Excuse me ……,” he turned his head and said sincerely, “I’ll go out to buy dinner, if my parents have something to call me, please all of you call me, I’ll be outside on the street.”

The “whispering” neighbors were startled, and for a moment there were seven or eight people agreed to him.

“OK, OK, OK!”

“You go, don’t worry, I’ll call you if something really happens.”

“Yes, uncle and aunt have something, call us can also ah.”

Ma Tianbao heart rose a warmth, and then look at them gossip actually feel a little funny.

But he still jogged out, saw across the street backstreet alley entrance there is a small stall is bubbling with water vapor, and hurriedly carried the casserole and ran over.

That was indeed a small stall selling food. On the left side was a big pot, boiling hot, on the other side was a big board, a man was kneading the noodles there, next to him were two children, neither of them were much older, a boy with a watermelon haircut, a look of going to school, next to him was his sister.

The sister was chopping scallions on a small stool, and the boy was going back and forth between the customers, saying over and over again, “Noodles and wontons are twenty cents a bowl, with an egg for twenty-five cents, and two wontons for twenty-five cents as well.” He saw the casserole in Ma Tianbao’s hand and knew that this was a person who came to buy food, not to watch the fun, and immediately asked, “What would you like to eat, sir? Noodles or wontons? There are six wontons in a bowl, the vegetarian ones have eggs in them, and the meat ones have shrimp and pork.”

Ma Tianbao swallowed his saliva and said, “Two bowls of noodles, plus …… two eggs.”

The boy immediately said, “Okay, sir! Fifty cents in total! And pancakes, you want pancakes? The ones with soy squash sandwiched in.”

Ma Tianbao shook his head as he pulled out fifty cents, the boy put it away and took his casserole and set it upright next to the row of bowls next to the pot.

Night is falling, the street traffic more, headlights into a river, flashing in the night.

Passersby were in a hurry.

A small stall on this side of the street exudes an incredibly tantalizing aroma and heat.

A customer eating wontons said, “Why is this meat missing? It’s full of green onions.”

Another followed, “I don’t think there’s as much meat as there used to be.”

The stall owner quickly said, “Ladies and gentlemen, alas, this is not my intention to be short of catty, I have been selling wonton bread here for almost forty years, and I always do business in good faith, which you all know! In this case, today each person will get two more wontons!”

When he said that, the customers felt that they had taken advantage of the bargain, so they all stopped screaming.

The stall owner hurriedly counted the number of people and placed double the amount of wontons.

Ma Tianbao was instantly moved, if the eggs were replaced with wontons it would be worth it! In the past, he would not be so thick-skinned to take advantage of people. But now where is the concern? He quickly said to the boy, “I’ll exchange my eggs for wontons.”

Although the stall owner was saying that those who bought wontons would get two more free, Ma Tianbao’s like this shouldn’t have been added in the first place. But now that the customers were all gathered around, and he was the one who was in the wrong, he had to admit his bad luck and gave Ma Tianbao six wontons.

As a result, when the people behind him saw this, they all changed their orders to one noodle and added two wontons so that the stall owner would send two more, which would be four.

That’s only six wontons in a bowl.

This stall sells wontons originally large, like a child’s fist, filling and dough tight, ordinary people eat six wontons, simply on the full.

The stall owner shook his head and said, “Yo, this is a big loss. Alas.”

But tonight this business is good, sold out can go home early, so the stall owner couple and two children are more diligent. The wife who cooked the noodles and wontons was more skillful, the boy counted and collected the money faster, and the sister cut the green onions and sprinkled the shrimp skin to adjust the base soup as fast as a string.

Some customers still thinking about what just happened, asked him: “Is the cost too high?”

The stall owner sighed: “Where ah. I went to buy pork today, and the owner of that butcher store closed down and quit.”

At this speech, people living in the neighborhood all said, “Yeah, the people across the street from me went to buy meat today and said they couldn’t knock on the door.”

“At noon my father-in-law wants to eat pig’s ears under the wine, so I went to buy, did not buy and scolded me.”

The stall owner said, “I had to go far away to buy meat, but I was late, and people refused to sell me so much, so I had to buy less. I’m still worried about what to do tomorrow.”

“Why don’t you do it? I haven’t heard of anything happening to their family.”

“His wife wears gold and silver and holds her son in her arms every day on the street, living a beautiful life.”

“I heard it’s his step-wife.”

“No, that porker Liu has a wife in the countryside! His son is about to get married. He ran to the city to open a butcher store, married this one again, had another little one, and has refused to go back ever since.” One of the customers laughed and said, “When he first came here in the past, that wife of his used to bring him pigs from the countryside, a woman pulling a crate with over three hundred pounds of hogs, capable of doing it.”

The boy brought Ma Tianbao’s casserole over to him, “Guest, this is yours, it’s ready.”

The casserole was full! The aroma was overwhelming. Apricot-sized wontons floated on top, and the soup was sprinkled with chopped green onions, purple cabbage, shrimp skin and squash, and two drops of sesame oil.

Ma Tianbao couldn’t be bothered to listen to their gossip any longer and carried the casserole back to the Zhu family building.

The neighbors on the stairs also went back to eat.

Ma’s mother even moved to the door, holding the door frame and looking out.

Seeing Ma Tianbao return, she hurriedly turned on the light. It turned out that he wasn’t home just now, so Ma’s mother turned off the light.

Ma Tianbao put down the casserole and let Ma’s mother and father eat.

Ma mother said, “You eat, you eat first, I’ll feed your father later.”

Ma Tianbao shook his head, “It’s fine, Zhang Ma said she would leave me food, I’ll eat then.”

Ma’s mother was going to say more, Ma Tianbao took out the paper, pen and ink for scribbling from his school bag, as well as a few blank envelopes, he said, “Mom, I’m going to write a few cover letters, it’s just outside under the street light, I’m going to hurry while there are less people on the road now.”

He didn’t wait for Ma’s mother to persuade him again and took the things and went out, just outside the Zhu family building under the street light, sat on the ground, put the paper on his knees to write, because there was nowhere to focus, he didn’t have any wasted capital, and in his heart, he was nervous and uneasy, and every sentence had to be measured back and forth in his mind before he wrote it, and every word, every stroke was neat and tidy.

He calculated in his mind what places he was going to go, wrote once in English and again in Chinese, and thought it would be better if he could write again with a brush.

As the night progressed, the pedestrians on the road soon became fewer.

Ma Tianbao was so focused on writing the cover letter that he couldn’t think of anything else.

Su Chunjun jumped down from the bus and walked quickly to Zhu Jia Lou, then he saw Ma Tianbao.

He thought it was a beggar, pulling out his pocket to give him two cents to let him go elsewhere, close to see is a young man, wearing a look is the pawnshop from the old clothes, followed by recognizing him.

He went to the side, see Ma Tianbao is writing by street lamp, deliberately avoid the light, not block his line of sight.

After looking at him for a while, he realized that he was writing a cover letter.

When Ma Tianbao finished writing this sentence, he then said, “I have a table there, I can lend it to you.”

When Ma Tianbao saw it was him, he quickly stood up, “Mr. Su, you’re back.”

Su Chunjun smiled and patted his shoulder, saying, “This cover letter is quite well written, where do you want to seek employment.”

Ma Tianbao used to want to go to a newspaper office or editorial office when he was in school, and never thought of seeking employment in a company. Now that he was hungry and clueless, he planned to walk along the street and knock on the door of every company to ask if there were any vacancies.

Su Chunjun didn’t want to see him stumble around and said, “Forget about foreign banks, they only have foreigners and Indians, they don’t use Chinese. They don’t use Chinese people. Unless you have a background of studying abroad, you have studied in their schools and are an alumnus, then it will be easier to handle.”

Ma Tianbao was naturally very sad to hear this.

Su Chunjun continued, “However, their mailroom is in need of help with letters and envelopes, so if you’re willing to do that, you can go and collect some and write them, like New Year’s cards, birthday cards, all of that. If you’re willing, you can collect some and write them, like New Year’s cards and birthday cards. I see that your English writing is very good, you can give it a try.” He drew out the English cover letter written by Ma Tianbao and said, “Take this letter and give it to them face to face, if you speak good English, you can also perform it directly, it’s not difficult to get this job. If you speak good English, you can also perform a little. By the way, if you’re sweet-talking, you can even eat the candy they have there.”

Su Chunjun said with a smile.

This was all his experience back then.

Ma Tianbao could read and write English, and his spoken language was actually not much of a sure thing, as he had never spoken to a foreigner before, and had only practiced with his classmates. At this point, he made up his mind, and also gathered his courage and decided to give it a try!

He followed up by pointing out to Ma Tianbao that if he knew how to write in both pen and brush, the department store also needed a lot of letters, all for customers, and they all had to be written in their own handwriting, so they were willing to pay someone to write them as well.

“There it’s five hundred pieces for a dollar, but since it has to be written in brushstrokes, you’d better prepare another cover letter in brushstrokes with two poems, that’s nine out of ten.”

Ma Tianbao grew up in the Jin public house, although the Jin family didn’t shell out money to send him specifically to private school, but if he wasn’t diligent and smart, he wouldn’t have become a young companion of Wang Gongzi and Sun Zhao. So, he did know how to compose poetry. Although he wasn’t brilliant, he could recite a few verses that were appropriate for the time of year.

When Su Chunjun pulled him in, he saw that his leg was still limping and frowned, ”You’d better get this leg fixed. You can’t rely on copying letters for the rest of your life, can you? After you cure your leg, you’ll be able to find a better job.”

Ma Tianbao smiled bitterly, how could he have time? He didn’t have any money either. All the money in the family had to be given to Ma’s father and mother first.

He gratefully said, “Thanks to Mr. Su for teaching me.”

Su Chunjun went upstairs and saw that the Ma family’s new home was on the first floor, and made a point to greet Ma’s mother at the door before going up.

He went back to his house to change his clothes and went to knock on the Zhu family’s door again.

Today he came back a little late, thought the Zhu family had already eaten dinner, but did not want the door to open, Zhang Ma called out: ”Fortunately, can finally come back to a.” I’ll go serve you dinner, Mr. Su, go sit down.”

Su Chunjun laughed: “There’s still my rice? It’s already past eight o’clock, you guys haven’t eaten yet?”

Yang Yuyan came over to pull him with a smile on her face, and the two of them stood in front of the dining room door and spoke, “We ate earlier, it’s just that my mom didn’t come back tonight, and you didn’t come back either, so it’s just my sister and I eating, so Zhang Ma made more.”

Yang Yucan is in the bedroom counting the accounts, to show Zhu Yanshu, these days the family spends a lot of money, the name and fragmented, she is writing down and counting, can not care about her sister and Mr. Su in the “public” intimate talk.

Zhang Ma specially packaged wontons today, prepared a long time ago, people can be cooked as soon as they enter the door, and will be able to eat in a while.

When Su Chunjun smelled the aroma, he sat down and said in a loud voice: “Mrs. Zhang, don’t worry! I can eat as much as I want!”

Zhang Ma carried the bowl over, “You’ve got to be kidding me! I’m just trying to do this because you guys haven’t eaten much in the past few days. This can’t be kept for long, I’ve only wrapped up fifty of them, and they’ll be gone in the morning if we eat them again.”

Su Chunjun hadn’t eaten this kind of home-packed wontons for a few days, the skin was as thin as a cicada’s wing, floating and sinking in the fresh broth, and you could see the greens and pink shrimp wrapped around the inside of each one.

He took a bite of one, so hot that his tongue blistered still couldn’t spit it out, and managed to swallow it down with tears hanging down his face.

“Yummy, really yummy, oh my god, I’ve just celebrated the New Year today.” Su Chunjun praised greatly, praising Zhang Ma’s heart, not to mention how comfortable.

At this time, someone knocked on the door, and Zhang Ma hurriedly said, “There’s more in the pot, you don’t have enough to eat and then go and serve it again.” Then she hurriedly went over to open the door.

It was Ma Tianbao who knocked on the door, and Zhang Ma said, “I’ll get it for you, but don’t come in.”

The door was not closed, so Ma Tianbao stood in the doorway, vaguely hearing the sound of talking and laughing in the house, as if there was Mr. Su?

He didn’t dare to go in, didn’t dare to probe, instead, he had to pretend that he didn’t hear anything, for fear of making someone angry.

Zhang Ma carried a pocket of steamed buns, and also took a jar of pickles, and brought it to him, saying, “I steamed my own date steamed buns, and this is also fried by myself, you take it back and eat it.”

The food was all freshly made, and was said to be “leftovers”. This was the Zhu family taking care of his pride, taking care of him in every way possible.

Ma Tianbao held it in his arms, bowed deeply, and turned to go downstairs.