Chen Lishu looked up at him lecturing with such a serious expression. Her peripheral vision caught Sun Ling and Jiang Yuwei, whose faces had already turned red. She suppressed a smile and said with feigned grievance, "What can be done about it? People with poor judgment don't have it written on their foreheads."
Gu Xingping, seeing her third brother and his wife chiming in, and the two girls not far away with faces flushed like liver, couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Seeing his wife looking at him with her dewy eyes and a hint of grievance, Gu Xingdong's gaze deepened. "Then let's move further away."
With that, he took her hand and led her out.
"You're walking too fast, I can't keep up." Chen Lishu, holding a book in one hand and her other hand tightly held by him, grumbled in dissatisfaction.
Gu Xingdong didn't say anything, but his pace slowed a little.
After leaving the bookstore, thinking about Gu Xingdong's reaction just now, Chen Lishu finally couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Haha... Xingdong, why are you so cute?"
Called him cute?
Gu Xingdong released her hand, narrowed his eyes dangerously, "You're asking for a spanking, aren't you?"
This expression only worked to scare his subordinates. Chen Lishu wasn't afraid. "You're just saying that. I'd like to see what you can do to me."
Gu Xingdong suddenly leaned in close to her ear and whispered something. Chen Lishu's face immediately flushed red as she shot him a glare and whispered, "Scoundrel!"
"Third sister-in-law, I want to go see a movie," Gu Xingping said, looking at a movie poster not far away.
The county town had a cinema, but the movies shown were not to her interest. This was the first time she had seen a female lead with a big wavy perm and fashionable attire.
"Okay, then let's go see a movie." Chen Lishu agreed, and Gu Xingdong had no objections. After all, he was on leave precisely to spend time with the two of them.
It was already afternoon when they came out of the cinema. Before heading home, Chen Lishu specifically went to buy two catties of lean meat to make cherry meat for the two of them.
Over the next two days, the sisters-in-law took the opportunity to pull out the eggplant vines and tomato trellises in the open ground at home. All the chili peppers were picked and strung together with thread, then hung outside the window.
They had been out for quite some time, and with Gu Xingping's school about to start, on the morning of the third day, the sisters-in-law cleaned the house and then took a bus to the train station.
After a day and a night of long anticipation, the train, unusually, was not delayed and arrived at the county train station on time.
To their surprise, as soon as the sisters-in-law got off the train and exited the arrival hall, they ran into Gu Xingye.
"Fourth brother, what are you doing here?" Gu Xingping asked Gu Xingye, who had become much tanner, with a look of surprise.
Their return had not been announced in advance, so it was clearly impossible for him to be there to pick them up.
Gu Xingye wiped the sweat from his forehead, pointed to the bulging satchel at his waist, and said in a low voice, "I'm here to sell things."
Then, as if remembering something, he called the two of them over, walked a bit further away, glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention, and then took out two bottles of soda from his satchel. He expertly opened them with a bottle opener and handed them to the two girls. "Little sister, third sister-in-law, you must be thirsty. I've chilled them with cold water."
"Soda?" Gu Xingping eagerly took the orange soda she liked the most and drank several mouthfuls in one go. With a sigh of contentment, she felt the heat in her body dissipate considerably.
"Fourth brother, what you said about selling things, you don't mean selling soda, do you?" Gu Xingping asked, having drunk half a bottle of soda in one go, only realizing the question belatedly.
Chen Lishu also looked at him curiously.
"Heh heh." Gu Xingye grinned, his teeth appearing even whiter against his tanned face.
"I'm getting married soon, and money is needed everywhere. Before, I heard third sister-in-law say that one could sell tomatoes and cucumbers at the station. Occasionally, people would ask me if I sold soda, so I found a way to get some soda to sell."
Gu Xingye explained as he led them towards a hutong entrance. "Big brother is building houses for someone today, so I came with second brother."
As they reached the hutong entrance, Gu Xingmin was sitting listlessly on a plastic crate, with a brand-new "erba dagang" bicycle standing beside him.
"Little sister, third sister-in-law, you're back?" Gu Xingmin was startled to see them and immediately stood up from the crate.
"I just happened to run into you at the station entrance," Gu Xingye explained. He then said to Gu Xingmin, "Second brother, you keep an eye on this place for a while. I'll go help third sister-in-law and the others with their things."
Gu Xingmin nodded readily. "Okay, you go ahead."
This time, Chen Lishu and the others brought back gifts for everyone else, as well as two bolts of fabric she bought in the provincial capital. If they hadn't run into Gu Xingye, the sisters-in-law would have had to exert themselves a lot.
"Fourth brother, did you buy a bicycle?" Chen Lishu asked curiously, thinking of the "erba dagang" she had just seen.
"Yes." Gu Xingye nodded. "This bicycle was really hard to get. Without a bicycle ticket, I specifically went to find Brother Zhou. In total, it cost nearly three hundred yuan."
The bicycle ticket cost one hundred yuan, and he specifically chose a "Forever" brand. The bicycle itself cost one hundred and eighty yuan, making a total of two hundred and eighty yuan. His savings were wiped out, and he still hadn't prepared for the sewing machine and other items.
Li Xiulan and Gu Shoufou were getting old, and Gu Xingye could still earn, so he didn't want to use the family's money.
"Third sister-in-law, I found someone to sell it to me at three fen per unit, while others sell it for five fen elsewhere, and at the train station, it can sell for seven fen. Plus, selling other things on the side, I can earn over two yuan a day. I've saved over twenty yuan during this time."
"Fourth brother, you're really capable," Gu Xingping praised him involuntarily when she heard what he said.
Gu Xingye smiled sheepishly. "I'm still far behind you, third sister-in-law."
Chen Lishu felt that Gu Xingye had done very well. She had the advantage of foreknowledge from her rebirth, while Gu Xingye had figured it out through his own efforts.
After escorting them to the small courtyard, and with business on his mind, Gu Xingye left after making arrangements for them to return together in the evening.
Seeing Gu Xingye leave, Chen Lishu began to sort out their belongings. Once everything was mostly organized, Chen Lishu took out the silk scarves she had bought in Shanghai this time and selected two of them, delivering them to the Wang and Ding families respectively.
"Sister, you're back."
Sun Min saw her entering the courtyard gate and walked out to greet her with a smile. It wasn't that she wasn't enthusiastic. Ever since she and her husband started working with Chen Lishu, their family income had increased by twenty to thirty yuan each month. This money had greatly eased their family's burden.
"I didn't buy much when I went to Shanghai this time, so I just brought you a scarf," Chen Lishu said as she presented the prepared scarf.
What she had bought was not the currently popular bright red silk scarves, but pure silk square scarves with handmade embroidery. Both in quality and style, they would not go out of fashion for many years.
"This must have cost quite a bit, right?" Sun Min's eyes widened slightly as she looked at the scarf in her hand. She worked in a garment factory and was very familiar with fabrics. Even though it was just a piece of cloth no bigger than her palm, it would definitely not cost less than six or seven yuan.