"Okay! Oh, but the rent can't be cheaper! Because I rent out every room in this yard at this price. The one you want is bigger because it's closest to the toilet, so I didn't raise the price.
Come on, young man! It’s only 80 yuan a month. If you can rent it, rent it. If you can’t, I can’t help it. Haha, otherwise I’ll rent it to you cheaply, and other tenants will ask me to lower the rent. You
Say no?"
Although Mr. Li spoke with a smile, his attitude was very firm.
Comrade Xu said a few more words, and seeing that the price was still not coming down, he accepted it.
80 is 80!
Judging from the old man's attitude, he probably wouldn't be able to pay back much of the price even if he kept talking.
"Okay! Let's rent that one! Do we sign the contract now?"
"Okay! Okay! Come with me..."
…
After the house was rented, Xu Tongdao and Xu Tonglin began to work together to clean up the room and lay out the bedding. In fact, they didn't have much to pack.
The luggage they brought with them was not much.
While Xu Tongdao was making the bed and folding the quilts, Xu Tonglin was sweeping the floor. While sweeping the floor, Xu Tonglin asked: "Xiaodao, what should we do next?"
"Go to the scrap collector and see if you can buy a second-hand tricycle."
"Oh, do you know where there is a scrap collector?"
"Let's look for it!"
…
As a result, after they cleaned up the room, they went out to search all morning. They found three scrap collectors and finally found a barely usable second-hand tricycle.
Just this, it all cost twenty yuan.
The front tire was probably broken and out of air, and the tread on the tire was so worn that it was almost invisible. Xu Tongdao and Xu Tonglin pushed the broken bike and went to find a bicycle repairman to replace the inner and outer tires of the wheel.
In addition, the car is equipped with a chain lock.
By the time everything was done and the car could finally be ridden, it was already past one in the afternoon.
Their stomachs were already growling with hunger.
While riding this broken tricycle, he passed a noodle shop. Xu Tongdao took Xu Tonglin in and ordered two bowls of green vegetable noodles.
"Xiaodao, we have spent more than two hundred, right? Do you still have enough money?"
While waiting for the noodles to be served, Xu Tonglin asked in a low voice.
"It's okay! I know what I know." Xu Tongdao smiled and reassured him.
"That's good! Then what shall we do when we are full?"
"Go buy condiments first!"
"Xiaodao! Before you came, your mother asked you to find your cousin as soon as possible. Cousin, when do you plan to go find them? Where did your mother say they work? Is it called the Red Star Hotel?"
Xu Tongdao's mother, Ge Xiaozhu, had indeed warned her about this before they set off in the morning.
Perhaps in Ge Xiaozhu's view, they are only 17 years old after all, and they are still half-grown children. It is their first time to come to the county town to find a way out, and they will not have any relatives or friends to take care of them, so they must be worried.
Hearing this question, Comrade Xu shook his head slightly and said, "Don't worry! Let's go out on our own first. If that doesn't work, we'll go find them later!"
He said this, but in his heart he never thought about looking for his cousin.
After eating the noodles, Xu Tongdao rode the bicycle, and Xu Tonglin sat in the back car and rushed to the nearby vegetable market.
After riding for a while, Xu Tonglin suddenly thought of a question, "Hey, by the way, when did you learn to ride this kind of tricycle? I can't even ride it. I heard that this thing is not easy to ride!"
Comrade Xu smiled, "It's quite easy to ride!"
"Really? Then come down and let me take a look?"
"Let's buy condiments first, and you can try it next time!"
"Oh, okay!"
After a moment of silence, Xu Tonglin couldn't help but ask again: "Is it really easy to ride?"
Comrade Xu suppressed his laughter and nodded.
When they arrived at the vegetable market, they locked the car and went to buy various condiments, as well as bamboo skewers, charcoal and other materials needed for skewering mutton.
In addition, in order to save living expenses in the future, Tongdao Xu also picked some pots, pans, coal stoves and other items.
This time, Tongdao Xu paid another hundred and dozens of dollars for the purchase.
After all the money was paid, Tongdao Xu didn't have much money left.
There are only about two hundred yuan left.
They did not buy mutton today, but only bought two bottles of hot sauce and a handful of dry noodles to cook for dinner at night.
The reason why I didn't buy mutton was because Tongdao Xu didn't plan to set up a stall selling kebabs on his first day in the county.
First, there was no time. There was not enough time to process the ingredients, and there was no time to use bamboo skewers to grill the skewers.
Secondly, although he knew before he was reborn that there were many late-night snack vendors here at night, he had never been to this area before and after the original time and space of 1998. He did not know the specific conditions of the night market in this area, so before he came to the county today
, I have already thought about it - first find out the situation of the night market here.
…
Night falls as expected.
Xu Tongdao, who had already filled his stomach with noodles, took the curious Xu Tonglin out of the courtyard of the rental house and continued walking along the alley until he came to the main road by the river.
At this time, this street, which was still deserted in the morning, had become completely different.
Almost all the shops on the roadside are open, including barber shops, dance halls, game halls, restaurants, mahjong parlors...
What is different from other places is that the lights of many storefronts on this street are red.
There were more cars on the street than in the morning, and there were more than ten times as many pedestrians.
At a glance, it was ten times more lively than when Comrade Xu and others came in the morning.
"It's so lively! Is this street specifically for night business? When we came back from shopping in the afternoon, it was quite deserted, right?"
Xu Tonglin sighed in a low voice while looking at the scene on this street.
Xu Tongdao hummed, but his attention was not on Xu Tonglin. His eyes were attracted by the small stalls on both sides of the street.
At a glance, he roughly estimated that there were at least twenty or thirty stalls.
There are those selling fried rice and noodles; there are those selling steamed buns and steamed buns; there are also those who put dozens of gadgets on the ground and let customers throw small traps for a fee...
etc.
Food and entertainment are all small businesses like this.
Comrade Xu also saw three stalls selling barbecue.
One of the booths was occupied by a middle-aged couple. The man was a fat man. The fat man was wearing a white vest with blue tattoos on his two exposed arms. At the other booth, a bald man was operating.
The third stall... is being cooked by a skinny man with long hair. At the stall of this long-haired man, there is also a young girl with skin as white as snow and an oval face serving dishes to customers and collecting money.
Tongdao Xu stood under the plane tree on the roadside, squinting and watching quietly.
Not long after, Xu Tonglin also followed his gaze.
When Xu Tonglin saw clearly who the owners of the three stalls were, Xu Tonglin was a little scared and whispered: "Xiaodao, do we really want to set up a stall here? Those three people... don't look like them.
Good people! If we compete with them here for business, they won’t destroy our stall, right?”