Seventy Seventh Mid Autumn (Part 2)

  The next morning, the Zhao family was busy with a flurry of activity: washing vegetables, chopping meat, mixing dough, and seasoning. The whole family was bustling about, but most of the work was being done by Sun Zhenxiang, while Zhao Bingxing and his father were just lending a hand.

  Chen Xi saw Sun Zhenxiang pick up a large piece of dough and roll it out into a round piece of dough wrapper, then put in the filling, knead and pat it into a mold, take it out and it became a round mooncake. She was very curious, like a little dough monkey, holding her fingers around Sun Zhenxiang's legs and turning around.

  Sun Zhenxiang occasionally picked out a small piece of walnut kernel and peanut kernel to Chen Xue's mouth, watching her little mouth move back and forth as she chewed and ate, then closed her eyes and smiled as she continued to make the remaining mooncakes.

  Zhao Yang has already tidied up the east house in the old mansion, and it can be used as soon as the water heater is installed. The west house in the orchard is just the right size for a bathroom since it's a new house, and it only needs some simple cleaning, but he doesn't plan to bother with these things today either.

  At 10:01, he waved at Chen Xi and said, "Let's go pick up Mom!"

  Chen Xi let go of Sun Zhenxiang's leg and ran towards Zhao Yang with open arms.

  Sun Zhenxiang wrapped the mooncake and turned to Zhao Yang, saying: "You take a box of wine, a ham, two bags of mushrooms, wood ears, two bags of walnuts... and also send the medicinal liquor you brewed to Cao Jia's father and grandfather."

  At this point, all the buses have gone to the county and haven't returned yet. But does Zhao Yang need to wait for a bus? As long as it's any vehicle passing through the village, he just waves his hand and it stops!

  This time, too, after standing on the side of the road for just a few minutes, a three-wheeled vehicle heading to the county to purchase goods passed by. First, it took Zhao Yang and his companion to the entrance of Cao Huaxiang's home, then pulled them to the entrance of "Chenchen's Wardrobe".

  Chen Xue rode a tricycle for the first time. Although it was not as comfortable as a rickshaw, she wasn't afraid of being jostled while sitting on Zhao Yang's lap. She just felt novel. After getting off the car, she said to Zhao Yang: "Uncle, our family's tractor is 'not waiting', this uncle's car is 'waiting'!"

  Chen Xue learned two kinds of car engine sounds are quite similar, Zhao Yang couldn't help but smile and say: "Yes, Xue Xue is really clever!"

  But as soon as he walked into the store, his face didn't look very good. Morning plum took out three 100-yuan bills and said to a girl: "This bill is a bit old, can you exchange it for me?"

  Chen Mei's words were tactful, but in fact she was saying they had a problem with their money.

  She was facing a young couple, the girl looked like she was in her early twenties, with eye shadow painted on her eyelids in the shape of colorful butterfly wings, and her hair dyed orange. She didn't say anything, but her boyfriend, a skinny young man with a shaved head except for a strand of yellow long hair hanging over his forehead, glared at me and said: "What do you mean? We just withdrew money from the bank, how could it be fake? Damn!"

  Chen Mei didn't get angry, she just calmly looked at the two people in front of her and smiled warmly: "You took so much money, just exchange two bills for me!"

  The man snatched the money from Chen Mei's hand and shouted, "What do you mean by exchange? You'd better explain clearly to me, otherwise don't even think about getting a single cent!"

  "That's right! We're buying things from you because we think highly of you, don't make us feel uncomfortable!"

  "Alright then, put your clothes back down, I'm not selling to you!"

  Actually, "Chen's Closet" opened smoothly because Cao Huaxiang had made some connections beforehand. The process was very smooth and the business tax department never came to bother them. Moreover, they also received secret protection from the public security bureau, so the local thugs didn't dare to come over and harass them. People like the young man in front of me are just small-time hooligans who don't understand anything. Of course, it's also possible that those local thugs couldn't bear seeing the store doing so well and wanted a cut of the profits for themselves! After all, this kind of thing is unavoidable anywhere, even in big cities like Huang Hai, where you have to pay management fees of several hundred yuan every month to some "people in charge" just to set up a small food stall near the university.

  Of course, no matter what, this can't be the start! Moreover, during the holidays, we can't let them add to our troubles, right? Zhao Yang walked forward and looked into the young man's eyes, saying in a deep voice: "Get out!"

  Intimidated by Zhao Yang's aura, the young man couldn't utter a word. After a while, thinking of his girlfriend in front of him, he spoke again with a mixture of fear and ferocity: "Who do you think you are? What right do you have to make us leave?"

  Zhao Yang doesn't care about money that much anymore, but thinking of Chen Mei working from dawn till dusk, almost standing all the time, with hardly any time to sit down and rest, earning only around 300 yuan a day. If she gets cheated, it's a whole day's work for nothing!

  I thought of a piece of information I saw online yesterday, a woman took a basket of home-raised eggs to sell, and as a result, she received a fake bill. Not only did she lose her goods and waste her trip, but she also had to pay more than ten yuan out of pocket!

  And this young man had at least three counterfeit bills! These people are too hateful! Can't let them off!

  Zhao Yang didn't respond, took out his phone to find Cao Huaxiang's number. He had no choice but to bother Cao Huaxiang with such a small matter, as he only knew one person who could help him now. As for why he didn't call the police, one reason was that he thought it would be too much trouble, and another was that he had some doubts about their relationship with the police; besides, if he called them, they probably wouldn't take it very seriously anyway.

  That young man's heart was in a great turmoil when he heard the three words "Cao Secretary", and he wanted to pull the girl beside him and run, but he suddenly found that except for his eyes, his body seemed not to belong to him!

  As his understanding of the vital energy and blood deepened, Zhao Yang's control over them also grew stronger. Through sensing other people's vital energy and blood, he could exert influence on others more easily, especially those with lower levels of vital energy and blood or whose circulation was not harmonious.

  Like the young man in front of him, his stomach's qi and blood were only 70%, his liver's qi and blood were only 50%, his kidney's qi and blood were slightly weaker at 50%, and the qi and blood of other organs were all around 60% or so, already belonging to the category of "disease" spoken by Pao-yu.

  What Zhuangzi meant by "disease" is what we now call illness, and what he called "illness" is what we now call serious disease!

  Zhao Yang arrived, and Chen Mei no longer cared about the things in front of her. He took over Chen Xue, kissed him well, and scolded him a little: "Why bother Secretary Cao with such a small matter?"

  "Your matter is the biggest matter!"

  Chen Mei didn't bother with him, she just leaned against the morning sun's forehead and asked: "Mommy's little treasure, do you miss Mommy?"

  "Think!" Chen Xi hugged Chen Mei's face and asked, "Mom, why didn't you come home last night?"

  Mom is going to make money for Xiuxiu! Making money is good, so I can buy many beautiful little clothes and delicious food for Xiuxiu!

  "But XiXi has a pretty dress now!"

  Chen Mei pulled out a tissue and wiped the sweat and dirt from Chen Xi's neck, smiling: "There are even more beautiful clothes!"

  ……

  That young man originally still had a bit of luck, thinking that Zhao Yang might be pretending to scare him, but when he saw Chen Mei and Zhao Yang talking about Secretary Cao's natural expression, he thought it was probably not the same person.

  But his daydreaming ended quickly! Only three or four minutes after the phone call, a police car stopped at the door and two policemen walked in quickly.

  One of them, a man in his thirties with a very noticeable scar on his face and a stout build, nodded to Chen Mei first, then walked up to Zhao Yang, stretched out his hand and said: "You must be Zhao Yang? I'm Fang Bin from the Chengdong Police Station!"

  Zhao Yang shook hands with him and said: "Hello!" Then he pointed to the two young people and said: "It's them who want to use counterfeit money to buy things from us!"

  Fang Bin nodded to the young police officer beside him and said, "Cuff them!" Then he turned to Zhao Yang and said, "It's our fault for not doing a good job, causing trouble for you and all the other business owners!"

  The young police officer stood up straight and said, "Yes!" At the same time, he glanced at Zhao Yang and thought to himself, who is this guy? Why was Fang Suo Chang, who was usually very strict, being so polite to Zhao Yang?

  Zhao Yang thought for a moment and said: "Is it only our family who reported the police? Now is the short holiday period, if this thing is not accidental, you can check it out!"

  Fang Bin's face lit up, they had already received eight reports, compared to previous years, there was an upward trend! In any case, now that there were suspects, it would be easier to handle. He saluted Zhao Yang and said, "Thank you, Mr. Zhao, for your support of our work!" Then he took the two young men and sped away with sirens blaring.

  Deng Fangbin and the two of them, Zhao Yang saw Chen Xi being coaxed by Chen Mei to dance for her, so he walked up and hugged Chen Xi saying: "It's late, let's go home and dance again!"

  After the disturbance caused by those two young people, Chen Mei also lost her mood to continue doing business. She pushed her hair back behind her ears and said: "Okay!" Then she handed Zhao Yang the key to the house door: "I bought some gifts and put them on the table, you go up and get them down!"

  Zhao Yang shook his head and took the key, this year his family really received too many gifts! Not to mention the villagers' gifts, Cao Huaxiang and his wife brought some, Cao Jia's parents also brought some, and Meng Xuehui even had someone bring back two boxes of good wine and a wild ginseng.

  But when he saw that there was a T-shirt and a pair of jeans on the table, he couldn't help but feel wildly excited in his heart!

  The clothes and pants have a fragrance of fresh grass, which is his own laundry formula, indicating that the two pieces of clothing have been washed! After shaking them out, they've also been re-ironed!

  Zhao Yang took off his old clothes and put on these two new ones in three to five minutes, feeling as if his body was floating!

  Sitting in the car, Zhao Yang sniffed his clothes and smiled: "It smells so good!"

  Chen Mei smiled and pointed to the brand new pink nine-point pants on Chen Xiu's body: "I bought clothes for Chen Xiu, so I also bought two pieces for you. The money will be deducted from your salary, just telling you first!"

  "Coercive buying and selling!"

  "Take it off if you don't want it," said Chen Mei with a scowl, "it's not like it can't be sold!"

  Zhao Yang said with a straight face: "How can that be? From young to old, this is actually the first time someone has given me a gift!"

  Chen Mei pursed her lips and said, "I bought it for you! Don't think that by saying so, I won't deduct the money from you!"

  Zhao Yang smiled foolishly and said: "That's it!"

  Time flies when you're having fun, and before you know it, evening has arrived.

  The moon rises in the east, Zhao Yang and others move the table into the courtyard, in front of the pomegranate tree.

  The old house is not as spacious as the orchard, so Sun Zhenxiang said: "Let's go to the orchard next year, it's more spacious than here!"

  Zhao Yang didn't think there was anything wrong with this place.

  The fifteenth moon is round and bright, illuminating the courtyard as if it were daytime.

  Zhao Bingxing held Chen Xiu in his lap, stroking her small arm exposed outside, testing if it was cool or not. He then broke off a piece of mooncake and handed it to her mouth, with a bowl of grape juice still on the table.

  Sun Zhenxiang discontentedly said: "Don't always feed Xixi, or she'll get a stomachache!" As he spoke, he pulled Chenxu into his own arms and pried open her mouth to stuff in several pomegranate seeds.

  Zhao Bingxing hummed and said: "Just fed that little bit! You still feed Xixi pomegranate, don't you?"

  Sun Zhenxiang hummed and said, "Can it be the same? Didn't you hear Yangyang say that mooncakes are not easy to digest? Watermelon is just a little water, what's the harm in eating a little?"

  "Nothing's wrong, she didn't eat much for dinner, it's fine if she eats a bit!"

  The old house, the courtyard wall, the well, the pomegranate tree, the moonlight, and five people sitting around a table - this scene filled Zhao Yang's heart to the brim. This was perhaps the flavor of home!