Struggle Life in the 1970s

"Wow——" Her voice was so penetrating that the crowd fell into a brief silence.

She stared at the man in black with a burning gaze, as if she had seen through his conspiracy, and said firmly, "You said you bought this fish from me? Are you sure?"

The man was suddenly shocked by her momentum. He hesitated for a moment, then turned his eyes to the right. He mustered up his courage and answered in the same hoarse voice, "Nonsense! You're the only one here that claims to sell fresh live fish. Where else can I buy it if not from you?"

"Good!" Chu Ye clapped her hands, and people's eyes shifted to her. She raised her voice, "But I have to say - this fish! It was caught from the water a few days ago! It was not bought from me!"

"You're talking nonsense!" The man in black exploded instantly. He was furious and anxious. He jumped up and pointed at Chu Ye's nose and cursed, "I think you, little girl, really need a lesson! Not only did you sell stinky fish! You also refused to admit it! Now you're throwing dirty water on the customers. I think you really don't want to do this anymore!"

He turned his wrist, and the tattoo on his arm was completely exposed. The blue dragon and white tiger looked ferocious, as if they were about to break through the skin and bite the person in front of them.

Uncle Wang hurriedly stood in front of the stall, but was waved aside by the man. Fortunately, there were many people around and they all stopped Uncle Wang, so no one got hurt.

Uncle Wang turned around and saw that the man was about to smash the stall again. He covered his chest and went limp. "Ouch - I'm having a heart attack again... Hurry, this man is the murderer, don't let him get away."

Uncle Wang covered his heart with one hand and pointed at the man in black with the other hand. The man turned his head away in surprise. His original arrogance was gone, and his eyes were full of helplessness and confusion.

Three or four people gathered around Uncle Wang and pulled him to rest aside. Chu Ye also wanted to come over to see what was going on, but she saw Uncle Wang, who was surrounded by people, quietly winked at her, indicating that he was fine.

Chu Ye then felt relieved. She looked at the fish pieces on the chopping board and thought through the doubts she had just discovered. Everyone's eyes were on Uncle Wang at this time, and no one paid attention to her. After Chu Ye figured everything out, she turned her head and looked to the right.

The stall owner on the right is a man of medium height. Years of hard work have made him not fat. He looks strong and muscular, with sparse eyebrows and slightly sunken cheeks. He looks like an honest man who earns his money by setting up a stall.

At this moment, he stood on tiptoe and stretched his neck. His eyes fell on Wang Bo along with everyone else. After a moment, his eyes met with the man in black. Both of them had worry in their eyes.

Suddenly, he looked down and directly at Chu Ye. Under the light, Chu Ye's face was calm, and her black eyes looked at him through the crowd. Her eyes reflected bright white light, like the lights that illuminate everything at night, dispelling the heavy haze.

Before he could react, Chu Ye's mouth corners curved to the sides, finally forming a very bright smile, and then turned his head.

This scene was too weird. The wrinkles between the man's eyebrows became more and more crowded. Why did Chu Ye only smile at him? Did she discover something? This shouldn't be the case.

The situation on Uncle Wang's side was much better. After such a commotion, the tense atmosphere just now disappeared completely, as the saying goes, "The first burst of energy is strong, the second is weaker." The man in black was full of anger, but was forcibly interrupted by Uncle Wang. In addition, it was indeed he who pushed the man at that time, so he couldn't help feeling panicked when he heard Uncle Wang say that his heart was hurting. Now that he saw Uncle Wang's condition had improved, he was relieved.

He came here to pick a fight because of his brother-in-law's advice. If someone died because of it, he might as well go out and turn left and die on the street.

These bad things happened one after another, and the crowd who had come to join in the fun felt a little exhausted physically and mentally, but with the intention of seeing what happened so they could go back and gossip, everyone's eyes fell on Chu Ye again.

Remember what she said before? Oh... I remember now! She said the fish was caught from the water.

Hiss! Could it be that this person has a sharp eye? Can he even distinguish between the fish he raises and the fish he catches?

Seeing everyone's eyes focused on her again, Chu Ye's eyebrows curved, and a clear, high-pitched female voice reached the ears of the people present, "This fish has multiple scratches in its mouth. It looks like it was bitten by a hook in the water. If there are any fishermen here, you might as well come up and check to see if it is as I said."

As soon as he finished speaking, two people squeezed out from the back, came to the front of the stall, turned over the fish head and examined it carefully.

"Yes, this does look like it was caused by a fish biting a hook." One person spoke first, and the other nodded in agreement.

The originally quiet crowd started to communicate with each other in a "rustling" manner, just like the wind blowing through a poplar forest.

"Oh! You two are the helpers she hired! How come whatever she says is the truth? Besides! This might be something she fished out of the river!" the man said dissatisfiedly, but he learned his lesson this time and only moved his mouth, not daring to push anyone again.

As soon as he said this, the first person who came up to check the fish was dissatisfied. He took off his straw hat and said in an unhappy tone, "Young man, your habit of throwing dirty water is not good. I am not someone who can be invited by everyone."

The man in black had a bewildered look on his face. Although he wanted to refute, seeing that the man dared to speak so confidently, he was unsure of his attitude for a moment.

At this moment, someone recognized the identity of the man in the straw hat, "Isn't this Boss Zhao? Ouch, I almost didn't recognize him."

"Boss Zhao? Which Boss Zhao?"

"That steel mill to the east is his."

"Ouch!"

"I heard that Boss Zhao likes fishing when he has nothing to do. He used to go fishing with Boss Han and Boss Wang."

"Then there is really no need for people to lie."

From the words he spoke, everyone understood the man's identity, and the man in black choked, feeling fortunate that he had not said anything excessive.

Boss Zhao seemed to have seen through the essence of this farce. He looked at the man in black and asked, "You didn't use the fish you caught to deliberately blackmail people, did you?"

After the words fell, the crowd started to talk loudly. Since Boss Zhao had said so, it was hard to say what the truth was. The man in black stood at the center of public opinion and immediately retorted angrily, "This is the fish I bought! She must have caught it and wanted to get rid of the responsibility!"

"First of all, I don't know how to fish. Secondly, isn't it much easier for me to catch fish from the pond every day than to catch them by fishing?" Chu Ye was calm.

The man's face was full of annoyance. He gritted his teeth and said, "Who knows if you can fish! What if you are lying?"

This was a bit unreasonable. Anyone present who used their brains would know whose words were more reliable.

The public opinion that originally supported the man in black gradually changed, and people realized that perhaps from the very beginning, this was just a deliberate attempt to find fault.

Chu Ye smiled, like a captain fighting the waves, she steered the boat easily and repelled the raging waves. She smiled calmly, pointed at the fish and continued, "Okay, consider it as the fish I caught. Now I have another question."

She paused, and everyone was attracted by her words, looking at the chopping board in the direction of her finger. The man in black remained silent, and no one knew that his heart was beating violently and cold sweat was running down his back. At this moment, he was like a prey on the grassland, never knowing where the hunter's next shot would hit.

"I am not very strong, so when I need to chop the fish, I always cut from both sides, which results in an obviously uneven surface on the fish bones. But the fish here was cut cleanly, and you can tell that the fish bones are neatly cut because they were cut with a strong knife. I don't think I have the ability to do that."

"This..." The man in black was speechless for a moment.

Chu Ye took advantage of the victory and said crisply, "And the most important point! Every time I handle fish, the fish line will be pulled out, but the fish line of your fish is still well inside the body!"

After saying that, she swiftly fished out the live fish from the fish tank, knocked it unconscious, scraped off the scales, cut small pieces of it, and finally gutted it, removed the internal organs, and cut it into pieces. She did it in one go, and it took only two minutes.

She pointed her finger and said, "You can compare and see if what I said is true or not?"

Boss Zhao on the side came over first, turned over the fish pieces, and carefully compared them with the fishy fish pieces. Then he nodded continuously. More and more people gathered around. According to what Chu Ye had just said, they also found that there was indeed a big difference between the two kinds of fish pieces.

More and more voices supported Chu Ye, and unfriendly eyes gradually fell on the man in black.

At this time, Uncle Wang came over, opened the plastic bag in his hand, and said generously, "This is the fish I bought here before the blackmailer came. You can also check to see who is lying."

When the three kinds of fish pieces are put together, the contrast is very obvious, and all the evidence matches up, so it is clear at a glance who is lying and who is looking for trouble.

"Damn it! You're such a big guy, you can work in a factory to earn money, how dare you come to blackmail a little girl?"

"How shameless! I was just speaking for him!"

"Does anyone know where this guy lives? The reputation of the whole street has been ruined!"

"You're using the fish you caught to scam people? Ugh!"

"Luckily the boss is smart, otherwise we would have been kept in the dark."

"Beat him! There are so many of us, I don't believe he dares to fight back!"

……

All the insults that had previously fallen on Chu Ye fell on the man in black in large numbers.

I don't know who started it, but people started throwing whatever they had in their hands at the attacker, including vegetables, frozen fish, and especially those who had bought cabbage, which was in plastic bags and hit people so painfully.

The man in black was like a rat crossing the street, wailing and holding his head. He soon ran out of the seafood market in twists and turns and disappeared.

The farce ended so hastily. Some people began to feel embarrassed and apologized to Chu Ye for speaking up for the man in black.

Chu Ye laughed and waved her hand, saying that she didn't take it seriously. Because of her action, many people placed orders on the spot. The carp were sold out quickly. There was only one left, so she kept it and called out to Boss Zhao.

"Hello, I want to give this fish to you. Thank you for speaking up just now." Chu Ye had a sincere smile on his face.

Boss Zhao was stunned at first, then waved his hand, "Keep it for yourself. I don't like eating fish. People who fish don't eat fish, haha."

But he paused and asked, "By the way, little girl, where is your fish pond?"

Chu Ye also heard clearly when people were talking before. This Boss Zhao used to play with Han Zhao's father, so she honestly explained, "It's the fish pond that Boss Han left behind."

"Oh? Did that kid Han Zhao sell it to you?"

"Ah."

"How's that kid doing lately?"

"That's good. He lives nearby now." She didn't directly tell Boss Zhao where he lived, and Boss Zhao didn't care. He put on his straw hat and left with a smile.

Uncle Wang left with his things without knowing when, and Chu Ye regretted not saying thank you to Uncle Wang today.

Maybe next time! Next time Uncle Wang comes to buy something, I will thank him properly.

After the crowd dispersed, she put the smelly fish pieces on the chopping board into the bag, and packed the fish pieces she had chopped. After cleaning up her stall, she stood in front of the stall on the right holding two plastic bags.

There were no customers here at this time, and the stall owner looked at Chu Ye with horror.

Chu Ye smiled, a very sincere smile, and she said, "I have seen that man before. He helped you move goods at Tangkou. You two were talking and laughing, so you must be a close relationship."

The stall owner's eyes widened, his fingers trembling as he stepped back. Chu Ye leaned forward, placed a bag of bad fish on his chopping board, and said faintly, "He left something here when he left. You should be able to return it to him, right?"

After saying that, he turned around and left.

(End of this chapter)