The western suburbs of Yunhai City, an urban village.

In stark contrast to the surrounding high-rise buildings, the urban village is still a building from the seventies and eighties of the last century.

Several major concrete roads are lined with self-built buildings of two or three storeys and some dilapidated brick houses.

Although the building is old, there are many inhabitants, and it is even more crowded than the main city.

There is a main road running through the east and west in the urban village, and the street name is Beiqu Road.

As the name suggests, the road is full of potholes, and when it rains, the puddles are connected like a canal.

In the north of the middle section of Beiqu Road, there is a grocery store that sits north to south - Chen Ji grocery store.

The owner, surnamed Chen, is named Chen Jiaming, is in his 50s, and runs this ancestral grocery store with his wife Li Xiaohua.

The grocery store is a two-story self-built building, which was built decades ago, and the Chen family lived here, which is the ancestral home of the Chen family.

The urban village has its own administrative village name - Xingfu Six Village, which was demolished and bypassed here for some reason when the urban area was renovated, and it has remained the same for several years.

Most of the people living in the urban villages, except for some of the villagers in the original Xingfu Sixth Village, are young tenants of the surrounding factories and office buildings.

Urban villages have cheap rents and low consumption, making them very popular with surrounding tenants.

Chen Kee grocery store has two floors, the first floor sells daily necessities, and the second floor is residential.

The boss Chen Jiaming is kind and kind, and the neighbors around him call him Lao Chen.

The grocery store business is neither good nor bad, barely making ends meet.

The owner, Chen Jiaming, felt that he should add some income-increasing items to the grocery store.

After his inspection, he found that he sold breakfast well, so he set up a pancake stand in front of his grocery store and got up early every day to make egg pancakes.

In late autumn, the weather is getting colder, but his breakfast stall is getting thriving.

Although the breakfast item is single, only egg pancakes and soy milk, there are people queuing one after another from 5 a.m., and during the peak period around 7:30, sometimes there are nearly ten people in line.

It's another morning, and it's bright.

There was a light rain last night, and the ground was frosty in the morning.

Pedestrians on the road have already put on hats and scarves, and like the smoke rising from the roadside snack bars, wisps of white mist emerge from their mouths and nostrils between their breaths, blending with the fireworks of the world.

There were already 6 people queuing up at the breakfast stall in front of the Chen Kee grocery store, and the owner and his wife were busy.

The proprietress is a chef who skillfully spreads pancakes, beats eggs, and adds chopped green onions......

The boss helped bag the finished omelettes, and from time to time he greeted customers who came into the grocery store to buy other things.

"Lao Chen, make an egg cake, put two eggs, don't put peppers, I'll go to other places first, and come back to get it later." Aunt Li, a neighbor, went out with a cloth bag to buy vegetables at the vegetable market next door, and greeted the boss before passing by the grocery store.

She often buys egg cakes here, and after a long time, the boss and his wife have become accustomed to it, and after saying hello, they will prepare it for her when they have time.

"Okay, two eggs without chili. Lao Chen agreed.

Two more little girls on bicycles passed by and stopped when they smelled the scent.

"Eat omelets? But there are a lot of people in line. One of the girls complained.

"It's a small time to have so many people in line today, and it's still early, so you can wait. "The other girl was tempted to eat an omelette and insisted on waiting.

"Boss, how many are there?" the girl asked.

"There are 7 more, it's quick to do, one every two minutes. ”

Seven is a quarter of an hour, and it's a quick wait.

"Oh, let's make two, one without green onions and one without coriander. ”

The two girls placed an order verbally, looked around the left and right, and found that there was a grocery store behind the breakfast shop, and there happened to be something to buy, so they went into the grocery store to hang out.

"Boss, is there 502 glue?" asked one girl.

The boss, Lao Chen, was packing soy milk and freshly made egg cakes for a customer at the front, and while he was busy, he answered, "Yes, at the bottom of the second-to-last row of containers in the westernmost corner." ”

Following the boss's prompt, the girl found the penultimate row of containers in the westernmost row, leaned down and looked for the bottom floor.

Suddenly, a small black shadow sprang out from the bottom of the container.

The shadow was extremely fast, crawling over the girl's instep and hiding under another container.

The black shadow has gray fur and a long tail.

The girl screamed.

"Ah...... Mouse!"

The tall girl who was traveling with her was curious and bolder, "Where?"

"Under that container, I just came out of here and hid there. The girl pointed in the direction of the shadow.

The girl tiptoed after her, shaking the shelves, and a large rat scurried out from under the shelves.

"Oh my God, there are rats!"

When the rat saw the person, he panicked and ran from the grocery store to the street.

People queuing up for omelets were frightened.

The gray-haired rat is not only scary, but also very disgusting.

Originally, there were 6 people in the queue, but after seeing the mouse, three people quietly left.

The boss and his wife looked very embarrassed, which is understandable, a breakfast stall actually ran out of mice, and no one felt uncomfortable.

"Boss, there's a rat in your shop?!" complained a customer who had just picked up the omelet.

The boss hurriedly explained with a smile, "My store usually does a good job of hygiene, and it was just cleaned yesterday, maybe when I was cleaning yesterday, the mouse guard at the door was not put well, and the rats outside got into the store." ”

This explanation sounds acceptable.

"Ah, there are dead rats!"

Another girl screamed.

The two girls who were looking for 502 glue in the grocery store just now smelled a bad smell, and the tall girl followed the smell to open a wooden box and found a dead mouse inside, and the rat's fur was scattered, and its eyes and mouth began to rot, and it looked very terrible.

The boss panicked, how can you explain that there are dead rats?

And now there are a lot of customers outside the door, and the signboard will be smashed if it is going to be spread.

The reality is that this grocery store is frequented by rats every year, especially in autumn and winter, when there is less food to eat in the wild, and many rats move into low-rise houses in urban villages.

The Tan Kee Grocery Store is a decades-old building with many rat holes under the foundation.

The boss has also tried many methods of exterminating rats: rat poison, rat traps, sticky rat boards, and cats...... But the rats just can't be killed, and a few always pop up from time to time.

Fortunately, a rat died in the store, and it was turned out by the customer.

Isn't the rat poison working before?

But the rat poison has been put for more than half a year, and it is not poisoned sooner or later, but the rat is poisoned to death at this juncture?

The boss quickly made an excuse in his mind and blurted out, "There are a lot of peanuts in the store, and the rats broke in yesterday and were strangled to death." ”

As soon as the words came out, the boss thought it was funny, was there a rat that was strangled to death?

The boss then added, "It's peanuts with rat medicine, and they should have been poisoned." ”

Isn't there no rat in the store? Why rat poison?

The more you explain, the worse.

Two more customers walked in the line.

The two girls just now also walked out of the grocery store, walked forward without looking back, and finally left a sentence, "Boss, we don't want our egg cakes." ”

The customers are gone, and the egg cake that the proprietress is stalling in her hand is Aunt Li's next door.

"Damn rats are making trouble again!" the proprietress cursed, "Old Chen, quickly throw that dead rat into the trash can on the side of the street, it's really unlucky!"