Shen Mengxi followed Lu Xiuzhi to work in the non-staple food store. All personnel other than the staff were not allowed to enter the counter, and Shen Mengxi sat on a small stool next to the radiator by the window.

The non-staple food store is only more than 100 square meters, and the four windows on the south side are not too big, and there are two wooden boards outside the wooden windows, which will be closed and locked after work, so the store commuting is also called opening and closing the board.

The remaining three sides are shelves and counters. Some of the peeled counters are lined with tobacco, alcohol, sugar and tea, and there are two large vats in one corner of the store, one for soy sauce and one for vinegar. The other big counter is selling tofu, green vegetables, pork and river fish, and there is a group of counters selling some cooked food, the pork head meat and sauce that are freshly out of the pot in the morning have just been delivered, and the whole store is filled with the smell of meat.

Last fall, the shop was heated and shared a boiler with a nearby manufacturing company, and the big stove in the middle of the house and the barrel that was circling in the air were finally removed. Lu Xiuzhi is very content, she no longer has to go to work half an hour in advance to burn the stove, and she can often take her daughter to the boiler room to take a bath.

Shen Mengxi went to the counter, watched Lu Xiuzhi play soy sauce for people with taste, a middle-aged woman took out an empty bottle from the woven basket on her arm, and put it on the counter, Lu Xiuzhi opened the top of the soy sauce tank wrapped in cotton, stuffed a funnel into the mouth of the bottle, put the bottle on the side of the tank with one hand, hit a bucket of soy sauce with one hand, and slowly poured the soy sauce into the funnel and flowed into the bottle.

The woman took the soy sauce bottle after paying, stuffed a wooden stopper tightly into the mouth of the bottle, put it in the basket she was carrying, and wrapped it in an old blanket so that it would not freeze and crack when she went out.

Feng Xiuying, who was selling candy over there, beckoned Shen Mengxi to come over, Shen Mengxi didn't know what was going on with her, and ran over only to find that she was holding a peanut to dip in and stuffing it into her mouth, Shen Mengxi instinctively dodged, but she was not as fast as Feng Xiuying, she stuffed it into her mouth, and almost didn't get stuck in her throat directly, Shen Mengxi looked at Feng Xiuying speechlessly.

"Eat, let's not tell your mother."

"Thank you, Aunt Feng, my mother won't let me eat sweet, I'm changing my teeth." Shen Mengxi dipped the peanut in his mouth, hesitating whether to eat it or vomit.

"Ouch, Aunt Feng forgot about this! You eat it, it's a pity to vomit, next time Aunt Feng will give you something that is not sweet! ”

Shen Mengxi noticed that her belly was round and knew that she was pregnant, so she went into the counter, and her bad habit was hard to change, and she quietly looked at other people's fetal appearances and checked their pulses.

"Baozhu, who let you into the counter?" Lu Xiuzhi warned on the other side.

"Get out right away!" Shen Mengxi responded. While pretending not to understand anything, he touched Feng Xiuying's belly, "You seem to be fat." ”

Thinking of something, she gently hugged Feng Xiuying's stomach and pasted it with her face, Feng Xiuying was a little unprepared, and spread her hands, "Ouch, ouch, good beads!" ”

Sister Li, who received the payment, was older, and said with a smile: "Feng, you must be pregnant with a boy!" ”

Feng Xiuying was pleasantly surprised: "Really? ”

"I think so, anyway. The younger the child, the more effective, Baozhu is nine years old this year, but the birthday is small, only a little more than seven years old, it should be accurate. Sister Li said.

Lu Xiuzhi also smiled and nodded, and the customers who came to buy things also echoed.

Feng Xiuying is very happy, now that she is planning to plan, she only has one child in her family, of course, she hopes to get a man in one fell swoop. "Little girl, when Auntie gives birth to a little brother, I will buy you a big doll!"

After getting off work at noon, Lu Xiuzhi took Shen Mengxi to buy a new book.

The two of them first went to the Muslim restaurant to eat two drawers of mutton siu mai, and then went directly to the department store, bought a few Tianzi grid books and math books on the first floor, and also bought two folders. "How many pencils are there? One and a half huh? Then don't buy it. ”

According to Shen Mengxi, he bought a dozen each, and he had to use it sooner or later anyway, but Lu Xiuzhi insisted on only buying two of the same and buying it again when he ran out.

Well, you have the money, you have the final say!

Lu Xiuzhi pulled Shen Mengxi up to the second floor again, this floor is a self-employed clothing area, at noon, there are really a lot of customers, as soon as you go up the stairs, the second is the stall of Lu Aiqin, the cousin of the fourth aunt's family, she collected the money, and when she looked up, she happened to see them, her eyes lit up, and she greeted loudly, "Fourth aunt!" Beads! ”

Lu Xiuzhi agreed, looking at her niece's two counters, "Aiqin is really capable, and there are so many new goods here." ”

"I can't study well, I can't find a good job, I can only come out to do some small business, and I can't let my parents support me at home!" Lu Aiqin smiled and said: "Zhuzhu's ski shirt is so beautiful!" I bought it in Shanghai, right? ”

"Yes, your fourth uncle's friend went back to Shanghai for the New Year and bought it for her, don't do it, I don't know how much it is!"

Lu Aiqin came out of the counter, pinched his ski shirt, and looked at the collar again, "This one can't be cheap, let alone forty or fifty!" ”

"Huh? It's so expensive, why are children's clothes so expensive? Lu Xiuzhi was taken aback.

"Although children's clothes use few materials, there are many processes, and this is the latest clothes, which must be expensive. I also go to buy goods in Ming'er Ha City, our county people love to catch up with fashion, everything is compared to Shanghai, there must be someone to buy. In the last two sentences, she lowered her voice and said to Lu Xiuzhi, as if she was afraid that the stall next to her would hear it.

Lu Xiuzhi nodded approvingly.

"Fourth aunt, do you want to buy Zhuzhu or do you buy it yourself, I am a newcomer, you can wear it! No money! There are also cotton shoes! ”

"I bought a book for Zhuzhu, so I'll come up and take a look." Lu Xiuzhi lifted the cloth bag in his hand.

"Oh, okay, you guys go around first, we have a lot of good things on the second floor!" Lu Aiqin raised his voice and said.

Lu Xiuzhi took Shen Mengxi around, and there were more than 20 stalls on the second floor, some selling clothing, shoes and hats, some selling Xiaobai, and some selling bed sheets and fabrics, and it was over in ten minutes.

Lu Xiuzhi was still at Lu Aiqin's booth, and picked out a pair of red snow boots for Shen Mengxi, with a yellow ski shirt, Shen Mengxi felt that he was like a plate of tomato scrambled eggs, "I don't want it, it will be warm in a few days, and if you can't wear it for a few days, it will be small next year!" ”

Lu Aiqin smiled, "Zhuzhu is like a little adult." It's okay, wear it, spring frozen bones and autumn frozen skin, you have to wear warm, this foot guard neck, thief warm. Next year, Sister Qin will send you a double big again! ”

Lu Xiuzhi also liked these boots very much, and bought them decisively, of course Lu Aiqin refused to ask for money, so after staging a "tear it" scene, Lu Xiuzhi, who had already explored the price nearby, threw down fifteen yuan, pulled his daughter and went downstairs.

"Auntie, give too much!" Lu Aiqin chased out, Shen Mengxi pointed to her stall, two customers looked at shoes in front of her stall, she had to sigh loudly, went back to the stall, and complained to the stall owner next door, "My aunts, this little aunt is the most particular, and it is also the best for my grandfather's family." My family wants to give them something, and I can't wait to pay you back! ”

The stall owner smiled, "It's not good, the first floor goes around, no one looks down on it, and it takes care of your family's business!" ”

Lu Xiuzhi panted and pulled Shen Mengxi out of the department store, Shen Mengxi didn't understand why she acted like a thief, "Don't run away, it's not like you didn't give money." ”

Lu Xiuzhi smiled, "What do you know, it's not easy for your sister Qin to make some money." I stay up here every day, and I have to go all the way to deliver the goods, it's pitiful! Let's go slower, she'll have to chase it out and stuff the money in your pocket. ”

"I'm a mother-in-law, do you know that self-employed people earn more than you!"

"Huh?" Lu Xiuzhi didn't believe it, "Don't talk nonsense, I've been working in the store for so many years, can I still not know the price difference?" ”

"You are state-run, people are individual, and the price is set by yourself, if you don't believe it, ask my second brother."

"Pure nonsense! Even if you earn a lot, it's not that you don't have a good job, and you can't even find a good partner, so your fourth aunt still asked me to introduce you. Lu Xiuzhi was not convinced, but she still planned to go back and ask her second son, "Your second brother is given clothes by their school, and I have to buy him a few pairs of socks, ouch, it's all your sister Qin's hands, and I don't care about it!" ”

The two of them muttered and walked forward, and they met a tall fashionable girl in a tweed coat.