When I was surprised, Zhang Xueyao stepped out of the car.

She wore her hair tucked back and wore a black professional skirt, a white shirt, and a pink bag.

"Just got off work?"

I looked at her, put a lotus root slice in my mouth, and chewed it gently.

"Well, recently the company took on a project, and I often work overtime until late."

She placed her bag in the corner of the table and sat down on one end of the bench.

I got up and went to the cupboard to get a pair of chopsticks and put them in front of Zhang Xueyao's table.

"I haven't eaten yet, let's eat here."

I bumped my glass with Brother Scumbag and took a sip of white wine.

"What are you trying to do when you call me today, uh, it's delicious."

Zhang Xueyao picked up the chopsticks, pinched a bamboo shoot, and said while eating.

"It's delicious, my stewed autumn bamboo shoots are the best appetizer."

Brother Scumbag took another sip of wine, and the alcohol streaked across his esophagus, making him frown.

"Anyway, you should be careful lately, if you find that someone is following you, you can call me or call the police immediately, that group of people is not good, it is enough to make trouble for me alone, I don't want to involve you too."

The evening breeze blew, the laurel trees in the yard rattled, and a few short shirts on the hangers also fluttered in the wind.

"Then there has to be a reason, isn't there something unspeakable from your girlfriend?"

Zhang Xueyao wiped her mouth with a tissue and looked at me with a puzzled face.

"Well, there's a bit of trouble over there."

"Oh, I'm not afraid, it's a society governed by the rule of law, and I really don't believe that people dare to kidnap me."

Zhang Xueyao made a righteous and awe-inspiring posture, and put another lotus root slice into the bowl.

Brother Scumbag advocates that you must drink well, sometimes I admire his amount of alcohol, even if he is drunk and unconscious that night, he will get up and go out of the stall the next day.

That night, the two of us wiped out the bottle of liquor, and one of us drank a dozen beers, so that I forgot all about when Zhang Xueyao left.

I have been out of the stall with Brother Scumbag for more than a month, and I have a general understanding of the basic process, including purchase channels, clothing storage, regular fire sales, small profits and quick turnover, etc.

One day I said to Brother Scum: "Brother Scum, I know almost everything about these two flea markets, I want to do it alone, do you think it's okay?" ”

"Of course I support you, you follow me every day, and you don't have a salary, don't you want to earn more money when you go out."

Brother Scumbag was looking down and sorting out a handful of change in his hand.

Later, Brother Za accompanied me to the market management office to pay the money for renting a stall and the warehouse usage fee.

He also accompanied me by train to other provinces and bought 20,000 yuan of clothing.

"The first purchase or go to a few more garment factories, we are a small business, must be more than three, quality is secondary, but the style should be novel, the clothes sold should meet the vision and aesthetic needs of young people, if you want to be ready for a long time, then cooperate with several garment factories, they will deliver to you regularly, so as to save you the trouble of running back and forth."

Brother Slag explained to me the tips of buying goods at a low price, his purpose and concept is to do everything possible to reduce costs and obtain maximum profits, and it is Brother Slag who tirelessly instilled in me the way of doing business, which will create my unique vision in the future.

After I shipped the 20,000 yuan of clothing to the warehouse, all the formalities were completed, and thus my stall career officially began.

I wake up at the same time every day, but most of the breakfast is prepared by him on the grounds that what I make is not to his taste.

I remember the first day when I set up a stall alone, I found an extremely remote location, which may have a lot to do with my personality, I don't like to follow the crowd to rob, because of this, the scumbag brother also reprimanded me once.

"The mall is like a battlefield, if you want to kill time, then you go home as soon as possible, this is not for you, if you are a mind to make money, then you have to let go of your arms and work hard, no one will pity you here, that group of people can't wait to trample you under your feet, then there will be one less competitor, look at your virtue, like a house cat, this is a wolf's den, if you don't want to be eaten early, then risk your life to rob them."

Brother Scumbag made an expression of hatred for iron and steel, in fact, I understand all the truths he said, maybe since I was a child, everyone has instilled in me the idea of eight to five in the morning, go to work steadily, and there has never been a business-run relative in my family, so when I first embarked on this road, I will inevitably be a little stunned and confused.

The flea market in the summer is like a big steamer, baking the crowd of people who set up stalls to make a living every minute, and thieves are rampant here, some of them appear in groups, gangs appear, ask for prices in front of your stall, they tear up their voices, grab a pair of shorts, pick up a small shirt, ask questions, it's very noisy.

I couldn't resist it, but they always asked and didn't buy, and when they left, there were always a few less clothes on the paving, which made me very angry.

Once I asked Brother Scum: "Brother Scum, they always blatantly steal my clothes, should I talk to the market administrator about this?" ”

"Marketplace administrator? Don't be naïve, they are only responsible for collecting the cost of the stall, and don't care about anything else, you still don't bother with that tongue. ”

Brother scumbag smoked a cigarette, his face full of relief.

"Then what to do, just let them steal unscrupulously?"

I said indignantly.

"There's no way, you're a strange face, they will naturally come to bully you, if you stay here for half a year, they won't come."

"What kind of heresy is this, a broken market, and bullying newcomers."

I gritted my teeth, my face full of envy and hatred.

"It's good to get used to it, it's nothing more than taking a few of your clothes, I told you a long time ago, this place is the place of survival of the fittest, if you want to make money, you have to learn to endure humiliation, if you want to choose a comfortable life, the gate is over there, no one is stopping you."

Brother Scumbag said everything is reasonable, every sentence is heart-piercing, maybe I lived too comfortably and nihilly in the past, and I have never really experienced the hardships and pressures of doing business, I will only see their infinite scenery on the surface, but ignore all the sadness and sweat behind it.

When I first arrived, I didn't dare to shout loudly, and every time I had to wait for the customers to come to inquire about the price, I would explain them one by one, a bit like Jiang Taigong fishing, only asking for the bait.

I couldn't shout anyway, but fortunately, no one knew me in this place, and I didn't feel embarrassed and embarrassed about setting up a stall.

Just a few days before I came out of the stall, I sold a piece of clothing, or sold at the purchase price, the business was bleak, all day long, sullen, I once doubted, I was not doing business, if it wasn't for the hot head at the beginning, I would not have fallen into the current miserable situation.

Brother Scumbag has never laughed at me, he just begged me to adapt to such an environment as soon as possible and get out of the haze of inferiority.

Every day when I came back from the stall, he would go out of his way to prepare a few small dishes and ask me to drink some wine with him, but I felt that the taste of this wine had changed, and it had changed on the first day when I set up my own stall, and it became bitter and difficult to swallow.

I had lost my appetite, my weight had dropped rapidly, and I had almost passed out in the stall a few times due to chronic malnutrition and loss of appetite, and I just felt that the world was spinning, and the crowd of people walking back and forth in front of the stall had ghosted, they were slowed down, and some even stayed in the shadows, standing still.

But my heart was beating wildly, my pulse soared more than 100 per minute, my blood pressure dropped for a while, my pale cheeks were not bloody, the sun was scorching, I was sweating, and the whole flea market was like hell on earth, tearing at my last belief every moment, and I held on.

But the weak body can no longer support the high-intensity work, and finally one day, after noon, I did not enter the oil and water, and looked at the front with wooden eyes, it was a crack in the wall, and there seemed to be a trace of cold breath in the gap, and there were a few creepers growing along the gap with difficulty, and the yellowing branches and leaves showed the end of life.

With a thud, my upper body smashed over the paving, and a large pile of clothes buried me underneath, and I lost consciousness, only feeling that I had completely suffocated, as if I had fallen into a fire, hot, dry, hungry, thirsty, and exhausted.

When the scumbag arrived, I had already been carried into the ambulance, and the piercing horn told me that life could go on.

I've never been so tired, not only physically tortured, but also exhausted.

The damn dream continued, and in the dream I was always calloused and ragged, either stuck in a quagmire from which I could not extricate myself, or fell under a dark and boundless cliff, and even if I struggled and struggled to survive, I could not break free from this bondage.

When I woke up, the room was empty, and incandescent lights lit up the room, telling me it was late at night.

The whole world fell silent, and I instantly felt like a forgotten and abandoned person, and that unspeakable loneliness surrounded me, and for the first time I had fear and uneasiness.

I don't know how long I've been lying down, whether the clothes on the stall have been thrown out of the door by the caretaker, two tears running through the corners of my eyes and down my ears to the pillow, I don't know why I'm crying, whether it's sad tears, or regret that I left my hometown in the first place.

I don't think these can explain why I chose this path, either die in comfort or survive in competition, Professor Liu once said to me, born as a human being, you must be a responsible and responsible man, so as to live this life in vain.

Yes, the road you choose must be completed on your knees, even if the road ahead is cloudy and bumpy, but as long as you bravely cross the past, then who will point fingers and make irresponsible remarks about your future.

I sat up, grabbed a glass of water from the table, and gulped down.

When I put the cup down, a feeling of dizziness rushed into my brain and almost made me fall out of bed.

I rubbed my temples lightly and lay back on the bed.

The door to the ward was pushed open, and a sweet, lovely, and graceful familiar face appeared in front of my eyes.