Chapter 14 Scoundrels Blocks the Road To Xiaodong Camp’s Entrance

It was also a group of peddlers who had been doing businesses.

They were begging the grandfather and requesting from grandmother* that they also wanted to pull two carts of watermelons out of the steward’s hand for sale, but the steward showed the stance of ‘One didn’t see the rabbit so one didn’t release the eagle*’.

(TN : metaphor for begging everywhere; metaphor for if there’s no clear goal, there won’t be any concrete action.)

Didn’t even bring a cigarette up but dares to pull watermelons from the camp. Yeah, you wish!

They blamed Mei Zhonghua and resented him for breaking the rules by giving away the cigarettes for the steward in charge. After the discussion, when Mei Zhonghua just left after he finished picking up the watermelon, they collided into him from behind. After Mei Zhonghua was knocked down, he got up and immediately knew what was going on. What a bunch of anxious lot. They didn’t have the ability to pull the watermelon out but put the blame on his head. He was not that easy to bully too!

Mei Zhonghua is a big, tall and burly man. Growing up in the village, there’s only the case of him bullying others and no one dared to bully him. These several ignorant people even dares to irritate and provoke him. He was so angry that he swung his arm and thrashed. He beat those guys until they covered their head and scurry away like a rat to its hole. But he also got a few punches. What made him even angrier was the several broken watermelons, which could be sold for several Yuan!

“Dad, don’t be angry anymore. It’s just a few watermelons. Just treat it as if we ate them ourselves. Leilei was greedy for watermelons yesterday. Today, let him freely eat to his heart’s content. “

Mei Zhonghua smiled gratifyingly. “Alright. After all, it’s already broken anyway. Let’s keep it for ourselves.”

“By the way, these two watermelons only split open, but they still look good. Might as well send them to my Maternal Grandmother’s house.”

Mei Xiaoran thought of her maternal grandmother. The maternal grandmother in her previous life loved her the most. Unfortunately, when her maternal grandmother was seriously ill, she was still in another city and didn’t return. She didn’t even have the chance to see her maternal grandmother for the last time when she arrived. She felt regretful whenever she remembered it.

“Can you even send a smashed watermelon to your Maternal Grandmother’s house? Dad can’t afford to lose my face with that person. Both of you, hold one big watermelon each and pay a visit there. Dad will stay here and watch the stall. “

Originally, Mei Zhonghua planned to pull another trip of watermelons for sale. But he just had a fight with others. If he goes there now and meets the others’ retaliation……He’s not afraid of those people, it’s just that he doesn’t want to bring trouble for himself. If those guys hit him again like before, how many watermelons will he lose then?

That would be a big loss!

This pair of siblings, Mei Xiaoran and her younger brother, each holding a big watermelon in their arms and go towards Beiguan’s direction. This only palm sized little county, from Dongguan to Beiguan, the distance was only a walk of twenty to thirty minutes.

Walking through the salt shop, Mei Xiaoran saw a vendor selling Shaobing*. She went over to buy two and paid ten cents. She handed Mei Xiaolei one Shaobing and the other one, she turned around and ran back to give it to Mei Zhonghua. Her dad had been busy all morning but didn’t have anything to eat yet!

(TN : Shaobing is a type of baked, unleavened, layered flatbread in Northern Chinese cuisine. Shaobing can be made with or without stuffing, and with or without sesame on top.)

When they arrived at the main street of Beiguan, from afar, Mei Xiaoran already saw her maternal grandmother was cooling off under the big tree on the doorway.

Maternal grandmother still looks really young. Her hair is still black and she doesn’t have many wrinkles on her face.

“Maternal Grandmother, we have come!”

Mei Xiaoran shouted excitedly, rushed to the front of her maternal grandmother’s house while holding the watermelon.

“Ranran, Leilei, you both have come.”

Maternal Grandmother Li stood up happily and rebuked, “Who made you come here on such a hot day?”

“Maternal Grandmother, it’s my dad who asked us to send the watermelon here. Eating watermelon in the hot weather is the best way to get rid of the heat. Quickly cut it up and taste it.”

Maternal Grandmother Li knew that her eldest son-in-law was concerned about herself, so her mood naturally became cheerful. When she saw those two watermelons, which was both big and round, her heart ached a little. “These watermelons are so big, it must have cost a lot, right? I’ve let your Dad spend money again.”

“It’s not expensive, it’s not expensive. These past two days, my Dad is selling watermelons. This was nothing!”

Grandma Li asked in surprise, “Your Dad sells watermelons? Isn’t he dealing……” In the middle of the talk, she looked around cautiously and said in a low voice, “Isn’t your Dad dealing with grains?”

“Maternal Grandmother, dealing with grains is considered as an illicit trading. It’s also frightening to sell them. Selling watermelon is different as no one cares about it. Now, it’s the peak season for watermelon. It’s much better than selling grain. “

Maternal Grandmother Li brought the well water out to let this pair of sister and brother wash their faces. She then moved two chairs to be put under the tree and let the two grandchildren put their legs to rest before she proceeded to ask them.

“How did you both do in the junior high school entrance examination?”

“Maternal Grandmother, me and Leilei both passed into the Third Junior High School. Lei Lei did well in the exam and got the score that exceeded the passing line by thirty points.”

Maternal Grandmother Li was delighted when she heard this. “Both of you have passed the exam. It’s great!”

In those days, communication was still underdeveloped. Telephones were rarely seen and were only available in those organizational units. Usually, when there’s something going on, it was passed from mouth to mouth. Maternal Grandmother Li didn’t see her eldest daughter for these two days, so she naturally didn’t know about this news.

“Where are Maternal Little Aunt and Maternal Little Uncle?”

Maternal Little Aunt and Maternal Little Uncle are Maternal Grandmother Li’s two youngest children, and they are twins. Maternal Little Uncle is only a few minutes older than Maternal Little Aunt.

“Your Maternal Little Aunt is at work, and your Maternal Little Uncle went out to play with his classmates.”

They only met Maternal Grandmother and Maternal Grandfather, and didn’t see their Maternal Little Aunt and Maternal Little Uncle. Mei Xiaoran’s interest was somewhat lacking. Noticing that it was not early anymore, she didn’t want to stay at her maternal grandmother’s house for lunch, so she pulled Mei Xiaolei and intended to leave.

“Wait a moment.”

Maternal Grandmother Li stopped them and took out two Yuan from her pocket. “You two got into junior high school but grandma didn’t have any gift. This is one Yuan for each of you to buy a pen and a book when school starts again.”

“Thank you Maternal Grandmother.”

The two siblings declined for a long time, and in the end happily received the pocket money from their Maternal Grandmother and went home.

By the time they arrived at home, Mei Zhonghua had already closed the stall and returned home. Today, there are a lot of people in the market fair. The two carts of watermelon, except the few broken ones, are all sold clean.

Mei Zhonghua calculated the money and found that just in these two days only, he has already made forty to fifty Yuan. According to this situation, if he can keep selling for another ten days to half a month’s time, he can even earn up to two or three hundred Yuan! If he really has two to three hundred Yuan, the first big thing he’d do is to buy a bicycle. It’s more convenient to do anything if they have a bicycle. He can’t always borrow a bicycle from Sixth Older Brothers’ house as the other party will also need to use it themselves.

However, if the group of scoundrels that he met this morning always keeps pestering him around, it will affect him pulling the watermelons out and selling them outside. Therefore, he must find a way to solve this.

He decided not to use the bicycle to pull the watermelon again!

The bicycle belongs to Old Sixth Brother. If he is always borrowing it, he will feel embarrassed too. What’s more, if he happens to meet that group of scoundrels again, putting aside the matter of whether they will hurt him or not, if they break the bicycle, he can’t even afford to compensate for it!

Before going to bed at night, Mei Zhonghua explained to both of his children that they don’t need to set up a stall to sell watermelons for tomorrow. He let them play at home nicely for a day because the day after tomorrow, school enrollment will begin again.

Mei Xiaoran promised to do so at that time, but the next morning, she had to pester Mei Zhonghua to bring her along and pull the watermelon together, or else she would not let her dad go.

“Ai, Ranran, why are you not obedient? Do you want dad to beat you up?”

“Hit me, hit me!”

Mei Xiaoran bolted uprightly and gave over her face. “If you are so willing, then just hit me. Anyhow, I must definitely go to Xiaodong Camp with you today.”

“Then let’s go quickly.”

When Mei Zhonghua arrived at Xiaodong Camp along with his daughter, he arrived an hour later than usual. It was almost eight o’clock after he finished picking up the watermelon.

Without the bicycle, it seems that he can only pull one cart of watermelon today. Mei Zhonghua thought so and left Xiaodong Camp.

When they got to the entrance of the Camp, they saw those bastards he met yesterday were guarding there!

“Ranran, later if Dad starts to fight with those people, just quickly find a place to hide. Do you understand?”

Mei Zhonghua himself was not afraid of that group of people, but today his daughter followed along with him, so he would naturally feel a bit worried.

“Dad, let’s go over there and see what they have to say?” Mei Xiaoran hardened her nerves and walked there, not even a tiny bit afraid.

It frightened Mei Zhonghua till his face turned blue. This courage of his daughter, whom did she follow after and how come she didn’t even know how to be afraid?

Ai, better hurry up and take a look at it. He can’t let his daughter get beaten by others!