Sheng Hai.

It was already past 10 p.m.

At the entrance of the community, which looked like it had not been handed over for a short time, Zhang Jiehua parked the small tricycle at the door and took off the short sleeves that had been soaked in sweat for a day.

In July, the temperature in Shenghai is quite high, and even after 10 o'clock at night, it still has a sense of heat that makes it difficult to breathe.

He casually put his short sleeves on his shoulders, walked to the back of the small tricycle, and began to move boxes of goods on it to the grocery store next to him.

Most of them are mineral water, drinks, ice cream, snacks and the like, as well as a few boxes of beer, one of which was asked by a resident in the community to help bring it, and the other boxes were kept for bulk sale.

Many wholesalers generally have home delivery to these grocery stores, and they also deliver to this store, but this time is generally relatively fixed. Because their location in this community is a little remote, some scattered to replenish the stock, the wholesaler is not so happy, out of the car to calculate the freight.

Small business, if you want to count the freight, it is not very cost-effective, this kind of scattered replenishment, simply ride a tricycle to pull. This is a big city, all cement asphalt roads, and the roads at night have street lights, which is also easier to walk.

In the first few times, his father took him there, and in the later times, Zhang Jiehua could basically handle it himself.

"I'm dying of thirst, Mom, where's the tea?"

After moving things into the store, Zhang Jiehua wiped his sweat with the short sleeves on his body and asked a middle-aged woman sitting at the counter.

On the counter, a middle-aged woman in a gray shirt was facing a notebook, holding an electronic calculator and entering numbers one by one.

Hearing Zhang Jiehua call him, he raised his head slightly, a few fine lines appeared on his forehead and the corners of his eyes, and casually pointed to the inside of the grocery store, "On the small table for dinner, I poured it just now, it should be cold." ”

"Got it."

Zhang Jiehua nodded, looked at the stacks of mineral water and beer that had just been stacked, felt a little unstable, and changed the position slightly, making sure that it would not be knocked over, before turning around and walking into a small room in the store with satisfaction.

The space of the whole store is not large, but because of the new community, the store has high ceilings, and then it is divided into several small rooms.

Zhang Jiehua touched the button on the wall to turn on the light, and suddenly saw a folding table in the inner room, with a large plastic cup on it, holding a large cup of boiling water.

Tea, in fact, is boiling water, and Xiushui's dialect tea refers to tea and boiling water.

Zhang Jiehua reached out and touched the outer wall of the plastic cup, because of the heat, it was still a little warm.

"I forgot to put it in the fridge earlier."

Touching the water cup is still a little hot, Zhang Jiehua suddenly became hot, in the hot days of summer, people often have dry mouths, want to drink water, cold water is fine, but hot water, always make people a little irritable.

There is mineral water in the shop and drinks in the fridge, but these are sold for money.

He wouldn't stop his parents from drinking, but he himself was somewhat reluctant to drink a bottle of Coke on the first day of the store.

Before coming to Shenghai, although the conditions of my family in the village were not good, my parents had labor, and they were quite passable.

But when I arrived in the big city, I realized that it was not easy in all aspects.

Gently let out a sigh, suppressed the heat of the mind, picked up the cup again and touched the edge of the boiling water with his lips, it was a little hot, but it could still be eaten, and he was already thirsty on the way, so he directly raised his head and poured the water in the cup.

After drinking a glass of water in one go, Zhang Jiehua picked up the hot water kettle next to him and poured a cup again.

Walked out of the cramped inner room again, turned off the light, and Zhang Jiehua saw his mother holding a notebook in front of the counter, frowning, and beckoning to him, "Son, you come and count it, how can I calculate it a little wrong." ”

Zhang Jiehua wiped the sweat on his forehead again, poured a glass of warm water in one go, his body was a little hot again, walked to the counter and took the bookkeeping notebook from his mother's hand, glanced at it, and asked, "Which is wrong?" ”

"I sold two cases of beer yesterday, didn't I give any money, the total price is less."

"Mom, it's all paid in cash, maybe you miscalculated. Alas, you have to be so delicate when you open a store, don't all the money go into your own pocket, I don't think my sister-in-law has opened such a big store and doesn't keep accounts like us. ”

"What do you know!" The middle-aged woman gently patted Zhang Jiehua's head, "We are just a small shop, so we have to be fine, you are going to go to high school next semester, and I want to help you earn out the tuition fees, I have already borrowed a lot of money from your sister-in-law to open the store, and I will have to borrow it when the time comes, I can't open this mouth." ”

"Okay, okay, I got it."

Zhang Jiehua shrank his head, picked up the calculator, and also checked the numbers one by one, and began to calculate.

The middle-aged woman glanced at the sweat on Zhang Jiehua's face, took out a plastic fan from under the counter, fanned Zhang Jiehua, and said: "Sweat, I told your father, Sheng Hai is very hot at this time, tell you not to come, don't come, he wants to call you." How good it is for you to study and study your homework at home now, I have been out for a few months, and I don't know anything else, but I really know how much it is a loss to be uneducated. In my elementary school culture, I can't remember any accounts. As your sister-in-law said, now you have to graduate from college when you go to work as a waiter in a hotel to serve dishes. ”

"Uh-huh." Zhang Jiehua snorted twice, carefully looked at the sales data recorded in the notebook, his mother was careful and basically wrote down every stroke, but the handwriting was indeed a little sloppy, and he looked at a few times before he could roughly guess what was being sold. However, he didn't ask directly, and still entered the data into the calculator one by one.

The middle-aged woman next to her gently fanned Zhang Jiehua, and still said to herself: "You were admitted to high school this time, your uncle and second uncle called your sister-in-law a few days ago, and they didn't believe it, and asked if your sister-in-law lent us money to buy you a place, you have to fight hard, study hard in high school, and let them take a good look." ”

"Uh-huh, I see." Zhang Jiehua nodded, finished typing the last line of numbers, checked it, and then pointed to the notebook in his hand, and said to the middle-aged woman: "Mom, that's right, it may be that you missed a box." ”

As he spoke, he looked at his mother and seemed to remember the trivial matters in his hometown, and persuaded again, "Mom, don't compare with my eldest uncle and second uncle, what's the point of comparing that." ”

"That's right." The middle-aged woman put down the fan in her hand, put away the notebook, and looked at the young man who was already half a head taller than herself, and said with some indignation: "I don't want to compare with them, they have to rely on us." Your uncle has a son and a daughter, and your second uncle has two sons, so we have no luck, and you are the only one who catches up with family planning. In the past, the two of them looked down on us, but now...... I didn't graduate from junior high school, and now I have a high school student in this family. ”

"Mom, I was recruited by a sports specialist."

Hearing his mother talk about his high school education, Zhang Jiehua's face was slightly red, and several cousins in their family, including himself, didn't seem to be reading material.

Some did not finish elementary school, and some graduated from junior high school and went to work. His own grades are not good, and according to the results of the high school entrance examination, he will not be able to go to high school.

But this year it may really be luck or something, Xiushui No. 2 Middle School has a special sports enrollment, his homeroom teacher and physical education teacher persuaded him to give it a try, he didn't think so much at the time, just made a phone call and talked to his parents in Shenghai, and then went to Xiushui No. 2 Middle School to enroll.

As a result, as soon as his high school entrance examination results came out, news came from Xiushui No. 2 Middle School that he had been admitted.

Zhang Jiehua didn't expect it himself, and his parents didn't expect it either.

His family knows his own affairs, his parents know Zhang Jiehua's grades, it is unlikely that he will be admitted to high school, and the family conditions cannot afford to buy him a place to go to high school, and the graduation from junior high school will come to an end, but he is young, and the two couples who go out to work are worried, either afraid that he will study badly or that he will suffer.

In the last half year of junior high school, I found a way with Zhang Jiehua's sister-in-law to open a small grocery store in Shenghai, just thinking that when he graduated from junior high school, he would come out to help in the store.

But now that I know that he can go to high school, to be honest, this thing is completely unexpected by the family, but this is definitely a great thing, the couple is desperate to hope that their son can have a good future, and since he has been admitted, he must study hard in high school.

On the first day of Zhang Jiehua's journey from Xiushui to Shenghai, the couple took their son to the next restaurant for the first time and asked for a few bottles of beer. In fact, their family doesn't drink alcohol, and they brew some rice wine all year round to entertain guests or cook at home, but at that time, Zhang Jiehua saw his father drunk for the first time, and his mother was also a little drunk.

The father slapped the table and yelled at his son to give him a long face, and the mother smiled so happily for the first time in years, as if for the first time he had seen him do things beyond their ability without relying on them.

As for whether it is a sports specialty or something, they don't care, all they care about is that they have passed this threshold.

Three years of high school might have been hard, and if he could go to college, it would have been harder, but they both enjoyed it.

When Sheng Hai helped his mother run this small grocery store, his mother was careful about his calculations, and his father even went to the nearby construction site at night to show people materials and equipment, just thinking about making more money.

Putting down the calculator in his hand, Zhang Jiehua walked to the door of the store shirtless, pulled a small horse and sat down.

Looking at the row of various hardware stores and real estate agents across the street that have also opened recently, my heart is flying.

"Xiushui No. 2 Middle School, Track and Field Team, High School, University ......"

The future seems far away, but it seems to be within reach.