Back to my 1980s

Gamblers' money is easy to make.

Zhao Hua walked back to the market, thinking happily.

Zhao's father followed behind, carrying a bucket and a carrying pole. The scale and straw rope were placed in the bucket. He couldn't understand why Zhao Hua had given him the bucket to sort out the money, but after sorting it out, he forgot to take it back.

Fortunately, Zhao Hua seemed to remember this after walking for a while, and took the bucket from him, leaving him only the carrying pole.

By the time the father and son had made their round trip, plus the time spent selling fish, an hour and a half had passed by the time they arrived at the market.

Zhao Hua spotted Zhao Ru's stall immediately, with several people watching the fish standing in front of it.

He suddenly realized that he had never given Zhao Ru change...

Why had she never mentioned it to him? Zhao Hua was also a little confused...

Thinking back carefully, I realized that I had never carried change before. People who bought fish usually brought a bunch of one- or two-cent coins with them. In the countryside, it wasn't easy to find large bills. Selling just a few fish was enough to cover the cost of the change.

The father and son walked behind Zhao Ru's stall, while three other girls helped catch fish and thread straw ropes.

Zhao's father squatted behind them waiting for them, while Zhao Ru weighed the items and collected the money in front. Zhao Hua went to the three girls to see if there was anything he could do to help, but he was a bit taller than them.

In summer, they wear relatively light clothing. Suddenly being so close, looking down at them from above, I quickly glanced over, inwardly amazed, then stepped back, deciding to let them do their own thing...

After waiting for a while, Zhao Ru still had some fish left to sell. Fewer and fewer people came out to buy vegetables, and many vendors had already packed up and gone home. Zhao Ru anxiously turned her head and glanced at him a few times.

He glanced at the sky; it was still early before the Industry and Commerce Administration Office closed. Delivering fish now would be too conspicuous, and waiting for Director Zhang to finish get off work to deliver the fish would take too much time.

After thinking for a moment, he simply went forward, scooped out all the fish, divided them into five or six small piles, each weighing two or three pounds, and put them on a burlap sack.

Seeing that he had piled the fish haphazardly, Zhao Ru asked curiously, "Why did you take them all out? And why are you piling them up like this?"

Zhao Hua didn't even look up, but he didn't ignore her. He casually said, "Let's sell them in piles, two yuan per pile. Let them choose which pile they want, it'll save us trouble."

"Will this work?"

"Why not?" He divided the more popular crucian carp into smaller piles, and also divided the more meaty and less bony catfish into smaller piles. He roughly estimated that each pile was worth a little over two yuan.

He made sure the piles of fish looked about the same weight. This time, he didn't go back, nor did he scan the area randomly. He squatted in front of the sack, waiting for someone to come up and ask the price.

Sure enough, several people found it intriguing to see the fish piled up like that and came up to ask, "Are you planning to sell these fish in bulk? Not individually anymore?"

"Yes, it's a pile! Two yuan a pile! Choose whichever pile you want! First come, first served! If you're slow, you'll have to wait for the next round!" Zhao Hua stood up and shouted to the few onlookers in front of him.

His voice attracted a few more people to come and watch the excitement. No matter what it is, being sold in bulk means there might be a bargain, so as soon as people hear the words "bulk sale," they can't resist the urge to join in the fun.

Suddenly, the number of people in front of the stall increased again. The few people who had initially inquired about prices saw that more and more people were asking about prices around them. As the number of people increased, they thought that since they had arrived first, they couldn't let the people who came later get there first.

They all stepped forward, selected a bunch, paid, and took the fish. Then they went to the side to see which bunch the remaining people had chosen, secretly comparing it with the ones in their hands.

There were six piles in total. Five piles were chosen, leaving only the last pile. Everyone felt that the last pile was left over from others' choices, and subconsciously felt that it was bad.

Those who had their eye on the fish worried that if they took the last bunch, the people who had chosen earlier would criticize the fish they had, making them hesitant to buy.

Seeing this, Zhao Hua smiled and called out, "Last bunch for 1.9 yuan! Sold out and going home! Anyone want some? If not, I'll take them home and eat them myself!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a woman suddenly appeared, shouting, "I want it! I want it!"

Zhao Hua glanced at the woman who had spoken, and gestured for Zhao Ru to come forward and get the money. He bent down, strung the last of the fish together with straw rope, and handed them to her.

Then they rinsed the burlap sack in the bucket of water used to hold the fish, and then poured all the water out of the bucket into the ditch next to the market.

After tidying up, he turned to look at Zhao Ru, only to find that her three girlfriends were staring at him with sparkling eyes.

He pursed his lips, called out to Zhao Ru, and the group returned to Shuanghuai Village together.

Upon arriving in the village, Zhao's father handed the carrying pole to Zhao Ru and parted ways with them to watch people play cards. Zhao Hua glanced at him, somewhat speechless. He hadn't even returned the raincoat yet, and he was already going to watch people play cards. He didn't even know whose house he had borrowed it from.

After walking a few steps forward, Zhao Hua took out the coins from his pocket, counted them one by one, and gave each of the three girls 5 cents. Ignoring their objections, he put the coins into their hands, giving each of them twenty or thirty coins...

Seeing their slight embarrassment, he turned to Zhao Ru and said, "I asked you to sew me a bag to hold my money, but where is it? I still haven't seen it!"

Zhao Ru was stunned, never expecting that she would be involved in this matter. She couldn't help but complain, "Brother? When have you ever seen me idle? Are you running out of things to say?"

Zhao Hua almost choked on his breath, cursing inwardly that this bastard really didn't know how to cooperate. They had already agreed on something, and he didn't want to waste his breath on five cents, so he tried to change the subject.

Taking a deep breath, she could only try to smooth things over: "You have no idea, I'm afraid to walk fast these days, for fear that I might accidentally drop my money. This time it was several tens of yuan, not much, but it would still hurt to lose it!"

The girls exchanged glances, looked at Zhao Hua's cold mouth, then glanced at the pile of coins in his hand, bit their lips lightly, and without further ado, stuffed the coins into their pockets. They figured they could help out more next time.

Zhao Ting and Zhao Xiaoran stared at the 50 cents in their hands, and suddenly remembered Zhao Ru's teasing words, and gradually began to blush.

Zhao Hua didn't have the time to care about them and went straight home. Why would he stand at the village entrance and be made a fool of?

The girls lagged behind, whispering amongst themselves, and only dispersed when they reached Zhao Hua's house.

Zhao Hua entered the courtyard, placed the water bucket by the wall, took off his raincoat and hung it in the main room, then went directly into the east wing. Zhao Ru leaned the carrying pole against the wall, hung her raincoat, and followed behind him.

Zhao Ru habitually closed the door as soon as she entered. Zhao Hua glanced at her; the room was dark because of the rain. He reached out and turned on the light, then took out some money from his pocket and placed it on the table.

Zhao Ru also took out money as she walked. The market was crowded and no one could see her. It was raining when she left the market, so she kept the money until she got home.

The two counted the money: Zhao Ru's was 33.85, and Zhao Hua's was 37.76. The handful of change Zhao Hua had grabbed that morning was also included.

However, a handful of coins would only amount to one yuan at most. After deducting the loose coins, he made a total of seventy yuan from selling fish today. He gave three yuan and fifty cents to Zhao Ru and put the rest of the money into the drawer.