Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 22 Uninvited Guest

The second brother said that the car would not arrive until 3:30 in the afternoon. Yan Hui had nothing to do at the moment, so he started wandering around the market.

He still thinks that the "project" he inspected in the small town of Baishan is feasible.

As he walked, Yan Hui passed by Brother Lin's shop, saw Brother Lin, and greeted him.

"Hey, Xiaoyan, are you back from the mountains after making a lot of money?" Boss Lin took the initiative to greet Yan Hui when he saw him.

"No, Brother Lin, I'm still moving wood at Uncle Li's place." Yan Hui responded politely.

"Your uncle is lucky this time. He earned at least one or two years' worth of our money in one go! He didn't even give you 10,000 or 8,000 yuan? Why are you still moving wood?" Boss Lin's expression was a little sarcastic.

Yan Hui didn't know if this person was born like this, or if he was really narrow-minded because he had lost money to Brother Shan several times before, but he still smiled politely: "I'm still young and need to learn more."

In the Northeast, people with bad tempers usually lose their temper when faced with a smiling person. Seeing Yan Hui being so understanding, Brother Lin finally softened his tone and said, "Okay, work hard. You're young, so there's no need to rush. When I was your age, I was still farming in my hometown!"

"Learn more from you. If I'm lucky in the future, I can become a big boss like you!" Upon hearing this, Yan Hui immediately offered some nice words.

Although Yan Hui said goodbye to Brother Lin in a friendly manner, he still felt upset.

Even though Shan Ge withheld his money and even borrowed from him, Yan Hui's expectations of him were already low. Shan Ge, a man who had been in prison, wasn't a problem! Moreover, if he really ran into trouble and went to Shan Ge, he would definitely help him!
But this boss Lin is different. He is already a boss, but he still has such a mind.
Yan Hui had just walked a few dozen meters when he turned and saw a man coming out of Brother Lin's shop. He found an opportunity to follow the man for a few dozen meters. When they reached the next street, he approached him and said, "Brother, are you buying wood? I'm an insider at the market. I can get a discount on anything you buy."

"Everyone says that, huh!" The man glared at Yan Hui, obviously in a bad mood.

Yan Hui paused for a moment after being glared at, but still said politely: "Brother, I don't run a shop, I'm a worker here, I do know which one is good, and it must be cheap! If it's 100 cheaper..."

"Get out! What are you talking about here, you worker?" the man cursed angrily.

Yan Hui was stunned by the scolding. He said sorry and turned and ran away.

call.
Yan Hui had to adjust his mood. To be honest, he was prepared for being rejected and scolded, but he didn't expect the first person he met to be so fierce.
He didn't dare to curse back, and he didn't know who to be angry with, so he could only hold it in his heart. He walked and stopped, and soon he was out of the east gate of the market.

The Tiexi Timber Market was huge, and there were many vendors who relied on it for their survival. There was a wide variety of goods around. Yan Hui saw a clothing stall and thought about buying a clean short-sleeved shirt, as the weather was about to get hot. He thought, however, that if he wanted to attract customers, clean, upright clothing was essential.

Yan Hui spent more than 20 yuan to buy a set of clean clothes. The pants were second-hand, but they were already very good.

What he didn't expect was that after walking a few stalls forward, he saw a stall surrounded by about twenty people.

When I took a closer look, I saw that these were all second-hand clothes, each one costing 2-5 yuan.

so cheap?

Yan Hui was delighted. He could buy a few more pieces at this price!
At first, Yan Hui was worried about the quality of the clothes, but after touching them, he found that they were all normal clothes.

The only problem was that since they were second-hand clothes, the sizes were very mixed, making it difficult to put together a set. Most of the people around were just choosing, not bargaining.

When Yan Hui was squatting and choosing clothes, he listened to the customers chatting and learned the origins of these clothes.

One aunt, who had already taken five or six pieces of clothing, said they were from a prison in Fengtian. Prisoners were required to wear uniforms while incarcerated, so these were thrown away. If the prison had a large stockpile, someone would secretly sell it off at a low price.

The aunt spoke with great confidence, but the boss said nothing and did not refute.

Some people hesitated, but most people didn't care. Yan Hui hesitated. He was worried that he and Shan Ge were in the same courtyard, and if Shan Ge knew about it, would he be unhappy?

After much deliberation, I decided not to buy it.

Going further, there are some scattered stalls. There are not many people here, and the things sold by the vendors can't even fill a whole stall. They basically sell whatever they have.

There were even people selling ginseng, but Yan Hui had no idea whether it was real or fake, so he just glanced at it and passed by.

Yan Hui was planning to buy a book to read, but when he got to the end he didn't find any booksellers, only a stall selling dogs.

The box for the dogs... well... it's not really a box, it's actually made of wood stubble and sticks. This is because these puppies don't have much strength, otherwise they could easily break free.

Yan Hui was very sensitive to scraps of wood. Just looking at the box containing the dog made him feel uncomfortable. Could the little dog handle it? Wouldn't it be stabbed and covered in blood?

Just as he was thinking, Yan Hui looked up at the seller.

Unlike what one might have imagined, the seller was only fifteen or sixteen years old, looking even younger than Yan Hui. The clothes he wore were very tattered, and he was currently pulling out a cardboard box.

The young man was holding a small piece of burning paper shell and inhaling the smoke, looking quite enjoyable.

"Can I smoke this too?" Yan Hui couldn't help but ask.

"Sure," the young man looked up at Yan Hui and answered seriously, "This is no worse than cigarettes."

"You're so young, and you're such a heavy smoker?"

"I'm just sitting around doing nothing." The young man took another sip and said, "Boss, you want to buy a dog?"

Yan Hui shook his head slightly.

Seeing that Yan Hui was not buying a dog, the young man ignored Yan Hui and continued to enjoy his paper box.

Not understanding, but respecting. Yan Hui quickly left.

When passing by his second brother's place, Yan Hui went back to his residence before the car arrived and put the clothes he bought into the house.

Yan Hui had just packed up and was about to go to work when he heard a familiar voice outside.

Peeking out through the crack in the window, Yan Hui saw Shan Ge returning with a woman. Yan Hui saw it clearly and immediately recognized the woman as Red Lips.

Unlike her previous state, her red lips looked very down and out, and it didn't seem like she was pretending. I don't know what happened in the past two days.

The courtyard was very quiet and the sound insulation was very poor. Shan Ge spoke without reservation, and Yan Hui could hear his conversation with Hong Chun.

After listening to a few sentences, it seemed that Sister Red Lips had been cheated these days and came to Brother Shan for help.

This was beyond Yan Hui's expectation. Would this woman be deceived? Moreover, how deceived must she be to come to Brother Shan like this?
Shan Ge seemed to have known this in advance. He took out the money he had prepared and gave it to Hong Chun, which touched Hong Chun so much that he closed the door of Shan Ge's room.

Yan Hui seemed to have guessed what was going to happen and was about to sneak out. However, just as he glanced outside, he saw his fourth uncle entering the yard. He quickly hid behind the door again. After his fourth uncle came over, he knocked on Shan Ge's door and waited at the door for a while, as if he was very sure that Shan Ge was inside.

"Who is it?" Brother Shan seemed to be in a good mood. He opened the door and was not surprised at all when he saw his fourth uncle. Instead, he greeted him into the house warmly.

Yan Hui wasn't one for gossip, but at this moment he couldn't help himself and decided to eavesdrop. The house in this courtyard was made of a single sheet of iron, and Yan Hui could hear the conversation from this side, though it wasn't clear. He only heard that they seemed to be talking about ginseng.

After just a few brief chats, it seemed that the room was too crowded, so the three of them decided to go to another place to communicate, and then they quickly left together.

After the three of them left, Yan Hui always felt something was wrong, but he couldn't say anything. After calculating the time, Yan Hui decided to go to his second brother's place to work. After all, the time had been set.

When he arrived at his second brother's place, the truck carrying the goods had already arrived. Yan Hui put on two layers of work gloves and started working immediately.

It wasn't until around five in the afternoon that the work on the second brother's side was finally finished. After saying hello to the second brother, Yan Hui said he had something to do in the evening and couldn't help with the cleanup, so he immediately went to the fourth uncle's place.

Only Fourth Aunt was in the store. Yan Hui thought about it and decided to tell her that he had something to talk to Fourth Uncle about.

"Your uncle has gone out to eat. Just wait for him to come back after dinner." Fourth Aunt was knitting a sweater.

Yan Hui didn't know why he was knitting a sweater at this time of year, so he politely said, "Aunt, I have something to tell him. Can I give him a call?"

He didn't expect that his fourth uncle would go out at night.

"The phone bill is so expensive," Fourth Aunt pointed outside, "It's at the Iron Pot Stew place at the East Gate. Go look for it."

"Okay, then I'll go."

Yan Hui didn't know where Tieguodun was, but he was familiar with the East Gate. It was near the market he'd visited at noon, and it was quite lively there. He went back to his room to put on the clean clothes he'd just bought that day, then trotted all the way to the East Gate.

There are two Tieguodun restaurants in Dongmen. Yan Hui met his fourth uncle and others when he went to the first one.

Looking from the doorway, there are five people at the table.

The long-faced man with red lips who was accompanying him on the train was not there, but the man who claimed to be doing business in Hong Kong Island was there. Besides him, there was another person whom Yan Hui did not know.

When these people get together, there is definitely no good news!
At this time, how to call out Fourth Uncle became a problem. Yan Hui looked at the door and saw Fourth Uncle's car.

Ask Fourth Uncle to move the car?
There is a high probability that Fourth Uncle will give the key to Brother Shan and ask Brother Shan to come out and move it.

After thinking for a long time, Yan Hui still couldn't come up with any good solution. After all, he couldn't be sure whether these people had any problems.

After thinking about it, Yan Hui found a supermarket at the door, bought paper, pen and envelopes, and started writing quickly.

What he wrote mainly contained three contents: first, his speculation about the relationship between Shan Ge and Hong Chun; second, the situation of the businessman, he mentioned what happened on the train; and third, the situation of Shan Ge and himself borrowing money.

"Uncle, there's something fishy about Shan Ge borrowing money, but you mustn't mention it. It's not a big deal, but it might be related to what happened today. I also saw Shan Ge giving that woman money this afternoon. Anyway, these things should be useful for what you're doing today. Drink less and be careful. Just put this letter in your pocket and don't let anyone see it."

After writing, Yan Hui sealed the letter and put a stamp on it. Except for the lack of a postmark, it was a real letter and could not be seen without paying attention.

Then, Yan Hui took the envelope into the restaurant, found a waiter, and pointed to the innermost table: "Please deliver a letter for me. There is a name on the letter. Just say it's about his family."

"Why don't you just deliver it yourself?" The waiter was a little confused, but subconsciously reached out to take the letter.

"I was too anxious about something, brother, thank you!" After Yan Hui said this, he immediately turned around and ran away.

The waiter had been in contact with Yan Hui for less than 20 seconds and was a little confused, but after looking at the letter in his hand, he didn't think much about it and just handed it to the table inside.

Yan Zhihang was having dinner when he saw the waiter bring him a letter with his name on it. He was a little puzzled, but he opened it anyway.

As soon as he opened it, Yan Zhihang discovered the problem. This was a letter written by Yan Hui to him and sent by someone.

The content of the letter was not long. Yan Zhihang read it quickly and then put it gently in his pocket.

"Brother Hang, is there any emergency at home?" Brother Shan asked with concern.

"It's okay, but I may have to leave early and go out to make a phone call." After reading the letter, Yan Zhihang didn't say much and continued chatting with everyone.

Yan Hui had nowhere to go, so he started wandering around again. When he passed the market he had visited at noon, he found that the man selling prison clothes was gone. Apparently, the clothes had been sold out.

It was busier than at noon. Yan Hui was wearing new clothes, and the merchants around him were much more polite to him than at noon, enthusiastically trying to attract him. This made Yan Hui, who had always been a little unknown, a little uncomfortable. This made him even more generous.

I bought 5 steamed buns and a bag of pickles at one time.

Apart from food, he didn't want to buy anything. Yan Hui walked through the market in a few steps and saw the young man who sold dogs at noon.

Yan Hui had a good memory. If he remembered correctly, there were three dogs in total, and none of them had been sold. Perhaps they were hungry, as all three puppies were howling.

"Who would buy dogs if you were selling them in this timber market?" Yan Hui couldn't help but say.

The security in the timber market is pretty good. All the wood is large and difficult to steal, so not many people keep dogs.

"Boss, are you buying anything?" The young man looked up at Yan Hui with a puzzled expression, "Did you come here at noon?"

"Yeah, I saw your three dogs at noon, and there are still three of them now," Yan Hui pointed in a direction, "There's a big workers' community over there. You can sell them at the entrance when the kids get out of school. I'm sure you can."

"Child?" The boy was a little skeptical. "If a child buys a dog, will his parents let him?"

"Just listen to me," Yan Hui said kindly, "I've been around this market for a long time."

"Yeah," the boy nodded, looking at his puppy in frustration.

It was quite warm this season, but the evening breeze was still a bit chilly. The young man was wearing tattered clothes and looked very embarrassed.

Not only were the people in distress, the puppies looked even more distressed, and one of them looked like it was about to die.

"Here's this," Yan Hui thought for a moment, took out three of the five steamed buns he had just bought, and handed them to the boy.

"what?"

(End of this chapter)