Yurong and Ah Cheng took Ming'er and Yong'er to No. 66 Baliqiao, where the whole street is full of small business shops, including fruit stalls, wonton shops, silk shops, hardware stores, cigarette paper shops, hair shaving shops, repair shops, newspaper kiosks, and all these things.

Yu Rong opened the door of the store, and the inside was almost furnished, with a wide counter, a few large sieves and some large glass jars on the counter, and a wall-wide medicine cabinet behind the counter, and a lot of herbal names were posted on the medicine cabinet. There is a patio at the back, which is quite spacious for drying clothes and herbs, and also for children to play.

Up the stairs is the dwelling, there are two rooms, the larger one is very bright, with a large bed against the wall, and under the window is a table of eight immortals, opposite which is a chest of drawers and a large wardrobe; The small one has a small bed against the wall, next to the bed is a cupboard, and there are some basin shelves, toilets, spittoons and other miscellaneous items. There was a briquette stove outside, and there was a pile of briquettes next to it.

"Ah Cheng, I sleep with the children on the big bed inside, and you sleep on the small bed outside."

"It's up to you to say that." Ah Cheng threw the burden onto the small bed, lay down on the bed, and leaned up: "I finally have a home." ”

Yurong put Yong'er on the big bed: "Ming'er, you take off your shoes and go to the bed to play with your sister." ”

Ming'er obediently took off her shoes, climbed onto the bed, and teased Yong'er.

"Ah Cheng, will you use this stove?" Yu Rong walked to the aisle and looked at the briquette stove in a daze: "I can only burn the stove, I've never seen this, how should I use this?" ”

"Neither will I." Ah Cheng touched his head: "Next to it is the wonton shop, just go buy two bowls of wontons later." ”

"You can't eat wontons every day, let's eat wontons every day, we have limited funds, we still have to cook by ourselves, I'll ask the neighbors here later." Yu Rong felt that Ah Cheng was a bit big and would not be able to live a careful life.

Yu Rong took out a stack of money from her belly pocket, counted it, and shook her head, the money was given to her by Yulin. Yurong is a budget-conscious person who never spends money indiscriminately, and Mrs. Lu took a fancy to Yurong at the beginning, thinking that she would be a person who could run a family. Now that she has just come to this new home, there will be more places to use money in the future, and Yurong feels that she has to save money.

"Yes, we are new to the city, we need to have a good relationship with the neighbors, distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors, or I will buy a few more bowls of wontons later and give them to the neighbors." Ah Cheng proposed to Yurong.

"Well, that's a good idea, follow the local customs, we are strangers, there are many rules here that we don't understand, we have to let these neighbors teach us." Yurong has a positive attitude towards Ah Cheng's idea, it is very necessary to have a good relationship with the neighbors, and many things must rely on the help of the neighbors, otherwise they will be black-eyed.

"Well, tomorrow I'll inquire about the medicinal herb market here, go buy some herbs, and ask someone to make a sign for our pharmacy. Yurong, you say, what's the name of our pharmacy? ”

"Lu Ji Pharmacy." Yu Rong blurted out.

"You and I are the owners of this pharmacy, and you and I are not surnamed Lu, how can we take the name 'Lu Ji'?"

"Then it's called Fang Kee Pharmacy."

"Your surname is Fang, and I don't have the surname Fang, we are brothers and sisters, it should be the same surname." Ah Cheng objected.

"Why don't you have my surname Fang?" Yurong joked with Ah Cheng.

"you, why don't you follow my surname Yuan?" Obviously, Ah Cheng wants to resolutely defend his surname.

"Then let's go our separate ways. So are we half-siblings or half-siblings? ”

"Of course it's half-sibling, half-sibling should still be the same surname."

"Yes, yes, we should be half-brothers and sisters." Yurong finally figured out the relationship between her and Ah Cheng.

"Alas, I knew that pretending to be a fake brother and sister was so complicated, so it was better to pretend to be a husband and wife, so it would be more worry-free." Ah Cheng was angry about Yurong's refusal to pretend to be husband and wife.

"You want to be beautiful. Okay, I've already thought of a name, it's called Fangyuan Pharmacy. Yu Rong made the final decision.

"It's pretty much the same, there are Fang and Yuan, okay, just take the name of this store. Okay, I see it's almost time for dinner, and I'm going to buy five bowls of ravioli. ”

Yurong took out the money from her pocket, counted it, and handed it to Ah Cheng.

After Ah Cheng bought the wontons, he first gave a bowl to Boss Xiao of the cigarette paper shop on the left.

Boss Xiao is about forty miles away, he is very thin, his forehead is particularly broad, his back is combed, his eyes reveal shrewdness, and his thin lips seem to give people a feeling of being able to speak and a little snarky. Boss Xiao opened a cigarette paper shop, and the goods in the store are relatively complete, such as cigarettes and old wine, tooth powder and toothpaste, towels and toothbrushes, matches, needles and threads, soap and straw paper and other daily necessities. He also set up a stall for renting comic books, and dozens of comic books were neatly placed in two wooden frames, and seven or eight small stools were placed next to them for readers to sit and read, for five cents a copy, and the business was very good. There is also a public telephone installed in the cigarette paper shop, and the surrounding neighbors have urgent matters to call in the cigarette paper shop, and when the phone comes in, Boss Xiao is the messenger, and he is familiar with the surrounding neighbors, as long as he shouts loudly, the surrounding neighbors will answer the phone.

Boss Xiao has a long-term sick wife lying at home, there is an old lady to serve above, the only daughter has been married, married to a small landlord in Anhui, usually he and his wife are at home. The family is supported by Boss Xiao alone, and this cigarette paper shop is their only livelihood.

Boss Xiao took the wontons sent by Ah Cheng and smiled.

"My sister and I just came from Guangzhou, and we don't know each other well, so we have to ask Boss Xiao for guidance in many places." Ah Cheng greeted Boss Xiao politely.

"Little brother, Nong is too polite, what's the matter, Nong just talk about it, I won't eat the wontons in vain."

"Then thank you Boss Xiao, I want to inquire, where is there wholesale herbs here?"

"Oh, Nong wants to know about the wholesale herb market, is it? It should be at the Eight Immortals Bridge, it seems that there are quite a lot of uh wholesalers there. Nong can go over there. ”

"Thank you, thank you! Boss Xiao, you use it slowly, I'm leaving. ”

"Sit down some more." Boss Xiao politely invited Ah Cheng to come in and sit for a while.

"No, no, I still have to feed the child. Goodbye, Boss Xiao. ”

"Okay, good amount, Nong is busy cutting down, I will have to send the bowl to the wonton shop at home." Boss Xiao smiled and waved to Ah Cheng and said hello.

Yurong also brought a bowl of wontons to the proprietress of the fruit stall on the right.

"Boss, I am a neighbor who lives next door to you, you can call me Yurong, I and my brother, as well as my son and daughter have just come from Guangzhou, we have just arrived, we are not very familiar with this place, and there are many things to ask you in the future."

"No problem, there is something, even if Nong calls me, I don't have anything to do anyway." The hostess was very welcoming.

"Then I'm welcome, I want to ask, how does this briquette stove make a fire?" Yurong's top priority is to solve the problem of boiling water and rice.

"Oh, the little things are wrapped around me, and when I eat the ravioli, I'll teach Nong, it's simple. Nong first carry the stove to the patio, otherwise the smoke will be too big and it will choke the little girl. ”

"Okay, I'm going to take down the coal stove."

After a while, the proprietress ran to the patio and taught Yurong how to make a briquette stove, Yurong watched it carefully, studied carefully, and it didn't take long to master the skills of a briquette stove.

"Thank you, hostess." Yurong didn't expect that this raw briquette stove was really a craft, if it wasn't for the proprietress to teach her, relying on her own foolishness, I don't know how much time it would take and how many briquettes would be wasted.

"Don't say a word to the boss, Nong will call me Mrs. Ye Haole." Mrs. Ye patted the ashes on her hands.

"Okay, Mrs. Ye, I'm really bothering you today." Yu Rong looked at Mrs. Ye gratefully.

"Small things, small things, Nong has time to say goodbye." Mrs. Ye said hello to Yu Rong and turned to leave.

"Don't look?" Yu Rong didn't understand.

"Oh, that's what it means to play." Mrs. Ye smiled and explained to Yurong.

"Oh, I see, I'll come to say goodbye. Thank you, Mrs. Yip. ”

Mrs. Ye's in-laws were originally the owner of a rice wine workshop in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and they were among the best families in the local area. My father-in-law and mother-in-law saw the hard work of several generations go down the drain, and they couldn't afford to get sick, but they died within a month. Since then, this Mr. Ye has been in a slump, lying on a bamboo couch all day long and smoking opium, and died before the age of 30. Although the man died, he owed a lot of gambling debts and debts from the opium parlor. When these creditors learned that Mr. Ye was dead, they came to collect debts one after another, and moved all the valuable things in the house, saying that they were used to pay off the debts.

Mrs. Ye is also really hard-working, when her husband died, she happened to be pregnant with Liujia, watching the Ye family fall into ruin, she is a woman, and she is pregnant, she has no energy and ability to reason with those creditors, so she can only go back to her parents' house for help, but unfortunately her brother and sister-in-law can't tolerate her, and they scold Huai all day long, always reminding her of the water spilled by her married daughter. It is said that cold porridge and cold rice are delicious, and cold words are ugly, Mrs. Ye left her parents' house with a big belly in a fit of anger, and came to Shanghai with some remaining dowry to beg for a living.

A few relatives and friends saw that she was pitiful, so they pooled some money to make capital for her and opened this "fragrant fruit store". ”

And God really deliberately teased Mrs. Ye, and the posthumous son that Mr. Ye left for Mrs. Ye was actually a big son. Maomao is a congenital fool, that is, Down syndrome, and at a glance you know that this child is a fool.

When Mrs. Ye gave birth to this son, she really wanted to die headlong, but looking at her stupid son wah-wah crying to feed, as soon as she wanted to die, this little life disappeared together, Mrs. Ye couldn't give up this heart, but this little life was the meat that fell from her body, even if life was bitter, there was still a relative by her side. So I dispelled the idea of seeking death.

Now Mao Mao is twelve years old, but his intelligence is equivalent to that of a five or six-year-old child, but Mao Mao is very well-behaved and obedient, especially listening to Mrs. Ye's words, telling him to face east, he will never face west.

Maomao usually doesn't run around, so when Mrs. Ye is doing business, she asks him to sit on the small bench in the store and gives him a small leather ball or a building block, which he will hold in his hand all day and never let go. When the weather is good, Mao Mao sits outside with a small bench, watching the pedestrians coming and going, while Mrs. Ye is busy with business inside, while watching Han's eldest son.

The surrounding neighbors are very sympathetic to Mrs. Ye's plight, and usually go out as a guest or for their own use, and usually go to her fruit stall to patronize the business, not that her family's fruits are cheap and good, but everyone hopes to help this hard-working woman in this way. Therefore, Mrs. Ye's business is basically supported by her neighbors.