Volume 7 Chapter 1: A rare guest

After returning to Hangzhou, the weather was still very cold.

The shop was as deserted as ever, and when Wang Meng saw me, he was so tired that he didn’t recognize me at first and thought I was a customer.

The results of my friends’ discussions with me were very upsetting, making me restless. I couldn’t ask Uncle San again for fear that he would say I was fickle-minded. I had nowhere to vent my frustration, so I had to stay in the shop every day and play chess with the owner of the neighboring shop.

It’s strange, but after arriving in Hangzhou, I think less about annoying things. Maybe it’s because this city itself is very relaxing.

I haven’t seen Uncle San for a long time. The fat guy came to see me a few times, asking me to take care of things. This kid is also a busybody. He is a wealthy man, but he spends money quickly. He soon said that he had no money. When I asked, I learned that he had bought a shop in Beijing and spent most of it. These days, it is really not like before. With a few thousand yuan, you will never worry about money for a lifetime. However, he brought several customers with a Beijing accent several times, and he did sell a lot of goods. I guess the situation has opened up and he has made a lot of money.

One day, I was about to lose to the boss next door, who had already killed a pair of horses, but I refused to give up and was ready to continue until dinner. Then I heard someone coming over and cursing all the way. When I looked up, it was the fat guy again. This guy’s business is too good.

The boss next door had done business with the fat guy and extorted a lot of money from him. When he saw the fat guy coming, he ran away. I was relieved not to lose money, and I asked him what was wrong.

The fat guy was cursing and swearing. It turned out that he had brought two porcelain bottles to Hangzhou, but one of them broke on the train halfway, and he couldn’t find anyone to compensate him, so he was just sulking.

I’ve become quite familiar with him, and I know a little about his background, so I teased him, saying that he was crazy to take the train instead of the plane.

The fat man scolded, “What do you know? It’s strict to get on the plane now. We are considered important people in Panjiayuan, and people like Lei Zi take care of us. There have been too many international events in Beijing in recent years. Now, it’s swept away in a few days. I have a shop and I still come here every day to complain. Business can’t be done. This is why I had to go south for development. Jiangnan is a place where merchants are valued and money can be kept. But the women in Hangzhou are too fierce. When I tried to strike up a conversation on the train to relieve my boredom, I got slapped in the face. My goods were smashed to pieces. Who says that women in the south are made of water? This is cheating me. I think it’s caustic soda.

The fat guy has said this many times. I know what happened. A girl on the train was thin, and the fat guy saw that the girl was skinny and wearing heavy makeup. Of course, the fat guy’s feet stink, and it’s annoying to listen to him. It’s also too boring, so he scolded her, saying, “Big sister, you look so beautiful, but why are you so skinny? Look at your two pant legs, the wind blows your crotch like a lantern, and you have two propellers inside.

You can generate wind power just by farting. As soon as he finished talking, he was slapped in the face. I was laughing when I heard this, and I told him that it was good that they didn’t take you to the police station. Do you know that there is a crime called hooliganism in the world, and you are already suspected of it?

The fat guy still smiled and said that with that appearance, if I said that he was a hooligan, Lei Zi definitely wouldn’t believe it. I am definitely the victim.

I gave him an idea, saying that you don’t have to come in person in the future. Don’t you know that there is a thing called a courier in the world? Why don’t you invest a little money and open a delivery company? With a little hard work, once the logistics are up and running, it won’t be hard to deliver a few items at a time.

Fat man is not very good at business, and he doesn’t like complicated things, so he didn’t want to talk about this with me. He said, “When it comes to making money, it’s not that I’m cheap, but I’ve really gotten tired of it these past few months. You say that it’s meaningless to make money and then spend it all, but we still have to do that, right? That’s the true meaning of life. By the way, has your third uncle been doing anything recently? Why haven’t I heard anything?”

I said I haven’t been in touch with him either. I always feel that after that incident, there was a gap between me and Uncle San. He didn’t dare to see me, and I didn’t dare to see him.

The fat man didn’t care, and just said, “If there’s anything fun, give me a share. My bones have been itching for the past few months.”

I thought to myself, you’re still talking about money, aren’t you? I laughed and said, “You’re really strange, fat man. You’ve seen a lot of big money, so why are you so dissatisfied?” He said, “There’s always someone better. There are so many rich people in Panjiayuan, all of them invisible millionaires. They’re all hiding their treasures at home, and they’re all so competitive. They say that people live for a breath of life, and when they have money, they want even more money!”

I laughed and said that this was the truth.

Just as I was saying this, a man suddenly poked his head in from outside the shop, smiled and asked, “Boss, do you want to do business?”

The fat guy was digging his toes and looked up at the man. He let out a cry and said with a sneer, “It’s you?”

I looked back and saw that it was Ning. She was now wearing a T-shirt with a low-cut neckline and jeans. She looked very different from the sea, and I didn’t recognize her.

Ah-ning and I had almost no contact, and I had also asked around about this person, but there was no news. Now she suddenly came to see me, which made me feel very surprised.

Ah-ning ignored the fat man, glared at him, and then turned around my shop charmingly, and said to me, “Not bad, it’s quite quaintly decorated.”

I thought to myself, I’m an antique shop, do I need surrealistic decoration? On guard, I said, “You’re a rare guest, what do you want?”

She looked at me with a hint of disappointment, probably sensing my attitude, and then paused and said, “You’re really direct, so I won’t be polite. I came to you to invite me to dinner. Will you invite me?”