Yu Jinhuai habitually held it when he put it in his hand and only touched his fingers. Feeling the weight of his palm, he slowly opened his fingers. His fingertips slightly curled up as if he was savoring the temperature and touch that had just remained. He lowered his eyes to look at the things in his palm.

It was a small yellow square box with the three words “green bean cake” written on it.

Yu Jinhuai leaned back against the wall and put his crutches aside. The box seemed small and exquisite for his palm. After studying the box for a while, he carefully opened the lid to reveal the contents.

The transparent bag was wrapped with silver paper. Yu Jinhuai took out the bag and stuffed it into the small box. After hesitating for a while, his fingers gently unfolded the silver paper, finally revealing the green bean cake wrapped in the innermost part. There were a total of six small pieces. He stretched out his hand and pinched a small piece, and saw that the green bean cake quickly crumbled and turned into powder.

 He didn’t dare to move now. He hesitated for a while and then lowered his head to eat it in one bite. The green bean cake melted in his mouth. It tasted sweet but not greasy, but had a faint bean fragrance.

After eating the green bean cake, Yu Jinhuai folded the silver paper and put it into the paper box solemnly.

When he returned to the bedroom with a cane, Meng Yunshu was already sitting on the kang holding Yu Zhining and telling him a story. The oil lamp on the kang cabinet was emitting a weak light, illuminating only a small area. When Meng Yunshu raised his head and looked over with a faint smile on his lips, the oil lamp illuminated more than just an inch of space.

Since Meng Yunshu came to the Yu family, coaxing Yu Zhining to sleep every night has become his must-do.

Neither of them mentioned what happened just now, but instead kept it in their hearts after looking at each other tacitly.

Meng Yunshu curled up in the warm quilt and wanted to sleep. He muttered in his heart, I don’t know when customers will come to the store?

He only ccared bout money now.

——Dinglingling.

Speak of the devil. Meng Yunshu curled his lips happily and patted Yu Jinhuai beside him.

He lowered his voice, “Brother Huai, I’m going to the store.”

“Mm.”

After informing him, Meng Yunshu entered the store excitedly. Even though he was sleepy and had to get up early tomorrow, it couldn’t stop him from wanting to make money.

——

Seeing the customer standing in the store, it was easy to tell from his clothes that he was a customer from the end of the world.

 The shelves in the store were still empty. Meng Yunshu looked at the new customer and said awkwardly, “Wait a minute.”

Afraid that the customer would leave, he added, “I’ll be quick.”

The new customer glanced at him and said meaningfully, “I can tell.”

Meng Yunshu, who was busy stocking the shelves, looked at his hands in confusion and wondered how he could be so fast?

Soon, he clapped his hands and stood up. He stood stiffly inside the counter with his hands hanging by his sides holding his pants. He squinted his eyes and said, “What does the customer need?”

Gu Ming pulled at his bloody coat. His eyes wandered around the items on the shelves, raised his hand and touched the stains on his body. He curled his lips in disdain, with a momentum of cursing out the world.

 “Give me two each of shampoo, shower gel, and soap.”

“Give me ten bags each of instant noodles, dried noodles, and bread.”

“Also I want energy drinks, mineral water, and chocolate.”

He took down the things he needed from the shelves one by one. Meng Yunshu thought he wanted a lot.

“Boss, from your clothing, you are from ancient times?” Gu Ming picked up his goods while talking to Meng Yunshu.

Meng Yunshu kept scanning the products with his hands. When he heard his question, he took a few steps back and nodded.

“The ancient times were good.” Gu Ming said in a conscientious manner, “It is much better than our apocalypse. There is nothing to eat or drink, and even taking a bath is extremely difficult.”

“The ancient times were beautiful. It is nothing like our apocalypse where there are zombies and mutant plants everywhere.”

At this time, Meng Yunshu found that the new guest was a chatterbox, well, a chatterbox with mysophobia.

“I can’t even sleep peacefully.” Gu Ming sighed, “I can’t even find a girlfriend.”

“Boss, there is no food, no fun, and no girlfriend. Is there any meaning in such a life?”

Hearing this, Meng Yunshu thought he was going to commit suicide. He raised his head and was about to comfort him, but saw a bright and rogue smile on his face. He immediately realized that he was being fooled. He was a little angry and felt that his kindness was being fooled. He closed the bill with a cold face and immediately shut the door and drove him out without caring about Gu Ming’s mood.

When he saw that there were 500 more Chinese Yuan in his account, the depression and anger in his heart dissipated.

He walked to the farm behind to water the plants, looked at the fruits in the basket, and thought about what excuse to take them out without arousing suspicion. Telling Yu Jinhuai was easy since he knew the existence of the store, but Yu Zhining was not. He was young and couldn’t keep things secret. Yu Jinhuai threatened and coaxed him not to tell others about the instant noodles and milk powder.

Meng Yunshu wanted to supplement the nutrition for his family, but he had no suitable reason and could only put it aside temporarily.

—

It was still dark, and there was a crescent moon and stars in the night sky. Daqing and Dahei in the main room were still asleep. The neighbor’s rooster just crowed once. In the past, it was not time for Meng Yunshu to get up, but now he had to wake up in the dark for his livelihood.

 Meng Yunshu put on his clothes and heard a rustling sound beside his ears. He knew that Yu Jinhuai had also woken up. This was what they had agreed to last night. Yu Jinhuai would get up with him and help him knead the dough.

It was much easier to have someone to help than to work alone, and he could sleep a little longer.

The oil lamp was placed on the windowsill yesterday. Yu Jinhuai lit the lamp and handed it to Meng Yunshu, who led the way in front. He followed behind with a cane. Both of them walked very lightly, afraid of waking up Yu Zhining who was still sleeping.

Their footsteps woke up the sleeping Daqing and the others. They raised their heads alertly, stared at the direction of the bedroom with their ears erect, and quickly lay down again when they heard their footsteps. The tip of their tail hanging on the ground was still shaking gently.

 After washing with water from the stove, he went to the kitchen. The flour he bought yesterday was still in a small jar. The aroma of the pork bone soup and spicy soup base simmering on another stove was strong. It aroused the greed in Meng Yunshu’s stomach and made his stomach growl.

He was sleepy after getting up early and couldn’t eat much, but smelling the aroma, Meng Yunshu felt that he could eat a bowl of noodles.

“Eat before you leave.” Yu Jinhuai scooped the flour, moved his eyes over his stomach, and said softly.

Meng Yunshu stood in front of the stove cutting green vegetables neatly, and refused without raising his head: “No, I’ll eat when I get to the county.”

It’s just enough to advertise.

 Yu Jinhuai didn’t say much when listening. Instead, he threw a strand of noodles into the stove after rolling them. Seeing this, he said with regret: “You’ll lose money.”

Meng Yunshu was busy serving the dishes and didn’t notice it until he turned around and saw the noodles in the bone soup. Seeing the self-blame on Yu Jinhuai’s face, he put down his work and walked over to comfort him: “Brother Huai, it’s okay. I’m hungry. It’s not a waste.”

“It’s the only way.” Yu Jinhuai nodded heavily.

Yu Jinyue was driving in the front while Meng Yunshu was sitting in the carriage, protecting the stove and the pot. A light bulb suddenly lit up in his mind and he suddenly realized that it was not because he was careless, but he did this just to fill his stomach with a hot meal. He sat in the carriage with nothing to block the wind, feeling the cold wind and the chill of winter. Meng Yunshu only felt warmth in his heart.

“Brother-in-law, are you cold?”

“No.”

Listening to his words, Yu Jinyue couldn’t help but doubt himself. He felt the cold wind biting his bones, but his frail Brother-in-law didn’t feel cold. Before leaving, his second cousin brother told him to take good care of his brother-in-law, saying that he was afraid of the cold. He never thought that he was the only one who was cold on the road. It seemed that his brother-in-law must be wearing very thick clothes.

Meng Yunshu, who only wore one more of Yu Jinhuai’s cotton coat than usual pulled his clothes and shrank himself in.

It was already dawn when they arrived at Hua’an County.

Each person paid one wen to enter the city, and the carriage cost two wen.

Four wen were spent at once. Meng Yunshu, who was walking beside the carriage, clenched the remaining money in his hand with heartache. He spent another sum of money before opening the business.

 Hua’an County is divided into the South City and the North City. The South City does business such as cloth, grain, pawnshops, and restaurants, while the North City does business such as selling meat, vegetables, cattle, and sheep. There are pawn shops here as well. While ironwork and furniture are on Wanwu Street between the South and North City. This street also has small food businesses. There are small stalls one after another, which is very lively. These small stalls do not conflict with the business of restaurants but only those who have some money in their families go to small stalls.

You need to pay to do business in Wanwu Street. It is calculated on a monthly basis at 36 wen per month.

Meng Yunshu and his friends came a little late, and the good positions were all picked up by others. Only a few positions in the innermost part were left. There were some in the middle, but they were much smaller than other places and could not accommodate their stall.

“Brother-in-law which one do you want?” Yu Jinyue raised his hand and placed it on his forehead. He stood on tiptoe to look at which of these positions was better.

 Meng Yunshu looked through it and pointed to the number 16 position, “Let’s go with number 16. You go and pay the money. I’ll move the stuff down first.”

Oden needs to be served at any time, which means the fire can’t go out, so they brought firewood when they came. The stove was custom-made and was slightly larger than the small stove used at home. It was a heavy clay stove and Meng Yunshu had a hard time moving it.

When Yu Jinyue came back after paying the money, the things were almost in their positions. Yu Jinyue hurried over to help Meng Yunshu. The carriage could not be placed here. There was a room in the innermost part that was specially used for ox carts and horse carriages. It only cost two an, and there were people looking after it. They didn’t have to worry about whether the horses had eaten well all the time.

The stove only reached Yu Jinyue’s knees, so they both sat on the firewood at the back. The folding small table was made by Yu Jinhuai and was now propped up next to it. It was filled with vegetables and meat, and there were two baskets of noodles that had never been seen before. One was red and one was green, which seemed to complement each other when placed together.

 There weren’t many people on Wanwu Street, and even fewer people walked to the innermost part.

After sitting there for a long time and no one came, Yu Jinyue panicked, but Meng Yunshu calmly started to pick up food.

As the fragrance spread, more and more people were attracted.