Chapter 22

Despite their reflections, the next day, the couple still got up early in the morning. Mei Qiuping prepared breakfast, as she still had to cook in the morning; otherwise, two steamed buns wouldn’t be enough for lunch. The dishes were simple: the leftover tofu from the night before was reheated, and she also stir-fried a plate of pickled vegetables.

Feng Zhenchang got ready for his business, and as they left the house after finishing their meal, their neighbors were either getting ready to go out or hurriedly eating breakfast.

Actually, there wasn’t much business in the morning. How many people would buy chestnuts so early in the day? But for one thing, they were used to getting up early, and for another, as Mei Qiuping said, even if they only sold half a pound or a pound in the morning, that was still a few yuan!

As they passed by the entrance of a residential complex, which was quite large, four simple carts lined up at the exit, all steaming hot. One sold steamed buns and mantou, another sold glutinous rice, another sold noodles, and the last one fried dough sticks. All of them had good business, not only from people going to work but also from the elderly and housewives in the complex who came with baskets to buy.

Mei Qiuping called out to Feng Zhenchang from behind, “Wait, wait.”

Feng Zhenchang stopped the cart and looked at her, “What, you want to spend money on breakfast?”

Mei Qiuping replied, “I’m just full from breakfast, I just want to take a look.”

Feng Zhenchang also looked and compared. The main difference from his cart was that they all had a large stove.

“Oh, right, we can also sell breakfast!” the couple said almost simultaneously.

So they decided to stop for a while and count how many customers the breakfast vendors had. They set up their stall, but no one came to buy from them. They didn’t mind, eagerly counting the customers on the other side—each person meant at least a few jiao in income! It wasn’t until around 9:30 or 10:00 that the other vendors started to pack up, and they rushed to the school.

After calculating, they found that even the least popular glutinous rice stall had had about thirty customers since they started counting. Even if they only made two jiao per person, that was at least six yuan! Over a month, that would be more than two hundred yuan!

They definitely could sell breakfast, but what should they sell?

By the time they set up their stall at the university entrance, they had already decided. They would sell large steamed buns, both vegetarian and meat. The vegetarian ones would be made with vermicelli or pickled vegetables from home, and the meat ones with pork. As for the price, they would check a few other bun stalls early the next morning. The location didn’t need to be changed; they would stay where they were, as teachers and students would definitely buy from them. If there were any leftovers, they could use them for lunch. They just needed to spend more money to buy a large iron pot and a steamer.

Feng Yiping’s life was actually quite good now! At school, although he was concerned about making money, it was nothing compared to the hardships of working and starting a family.

Because he was full of confidence about the future, he was always in a good and relaxed mood. Even though he only ate pickled vegetables with his meals, he even felt that he might be gaining weight around his belly. He didn’t want to have a prominent belly in his thirties, when everything else would be flat. His current figure was quite good, and if he could maintain it for twenty years, he would definitely have the body of a supermodel, a perfect clothes hanger. So, he was seriously considering whether to do planks to nip his small belly in the bud and also train his abs.

For men, abs were a great thing. Later, many fangirls, seeing men with six-pack or eight-pack abs, would have claws in their eyes.

Feng Yiping remembered that after thirty, the thing he was most dissatisfied with was his soft, saggy belly.

He had a particularly embarrassing experience with his belly.

Every year, he had to attend the spring hardware fair in Shanghai. The embarrassing experience happened during a security check on the way back. After passing through the security gate, the security personnel would scan you again with a metal detector and then roughly pat you down, just for show. In those years, domestic, especially airport, security was getting stricter. All liquids were prohibited on the plane, and everyone’s belts were a key inspection item.

The security staff that time was a young girl, quite pretty. After checking all the items, she had to pat down Feng Yiping’s belt, which was under his sweater. Her small hand went directly under the sweater to check the belt. Unfortunately, Feng Yiping’s sweater was made of cashmere, and he wore it directly against his skin. The girl’s hand naturally touched his belly. She was probably surprised and paused, probably wondering what this soft, squishy thing was. Then, almost instinctively, she patted it a couple of times before realizing and quickly pulling her hand back.

Feng Yiping was also stunned, then even more embarrassed than the girl, his face turning red like an apple. Men, in front of young, beautiful girls, always want to present their best side. Now, a girl had touched his biggest weakness, and it might become a laughing matter among her colleagues and friends for the next few days! Feng Yiping’s heart was cold and heavy. So, after returning to Guangzhou, he started doing sit-ups that day and continued to do so. However, no matter how hard he exercised, his prominent belly never went away.

Now, with such a good foundation, if he started training now, he should be able to develop abs. However, there was still the issue of space. Not to mention other things, just doing push-ups, there was no place, and other students would definitely laugh if they saw him. So, he decided to wait until he had his own space.

In terms of daily life, except for still not being fully adapted to sleeping at night, everything else was manageable. He could eat at least half a full meal, and this week, with five yuan in pocket money, he paid back 2.5 yuan to Xiao Zhijie and had 2.5 yuan left. Yesterday morning, he could even buy a leftover meat bun from the small kitchen.

As for the dishes, it didn’t matter if they were always pickled vegetables; he was used to it, and pickled vegetables went well with rice.

Studying was not easy, as the teachers’ pace was fast, but at least for now, even subjects he used to struggle with, like algebra and chemistry, seemed easy, as the knowledge was still basic. As for other subjects, like English and politics, he didn’t need to pay much attention in class; he could study on his own, so he had time to prepare to earn some manuscript fees.

He originally wanted to combine the stories from Tom Hanks’ "That Thing You Do!" and Andy Lau’s "A Moment of Romance" to write a story about a middle school student growing up overnight. However, he was unsure about the acceptance of such a fantasy genre at this time, so he decided to choose a more universally accepted topic.

In addition to the 600 pounds of chestnuts they had already collected, his grandfather used his influence to collect another 500 pounds from several families, which added up to a debt of about 1,500 yuan, putting a lot of pressure on them.

This time, he wanted to write a story about animals, specifically dogs. This genre was acceptable, and writing about it at his age was appropriate and wouldn’t invite criticism.

Children in the countryside were exposed to many animals from a young age. Every household raised chickens and pigs, and some had geese or ducks. A few households shared a cow, and some, like his second uncle’s family, raised sheep. In addition, almost every household had cats and dogs, which caught mice and guarded the house, requiring little extra food.

Chickens were simple; a few handfuls of grain a day were enough. Hatching chicks was a skill, and only a couple of women in the village could do it well, including the determined Mei Qiuping.

Cows, except during the spring and autumn planting seasons when they were needed for work, mostly needed to be fed. Fortunately, they could graze on grass, unlike pigs, which needed to be fed with pigweed. However, cows were the most valuable livestock, so everyone was very careful with them.

One important thing when herding cows was to prevent them from fighting. Cows fighting on the mountain could easily get hurt, and it was difficult to separate them. Getting too close to an angry cow could be dangerous, as it might charge or gore you.

However, in the village, there were always a few cows with very aggressive temperaments. The villagers believed that if a person was unreasonable and aggressive, their cow would be the same, always trying to bully other cows. For example, the cows from Feng Wen’s family, whether his grandfather or his father raised them, were always the ones looking for a fight.

These cows would immediately enter a fighting stance when they saw another bull, bending their front legs and tilting their horns forward, snorting and charging at the other cow. At this moment, you had to hold the rope tied to your cow’s nose tightly, pulling it to the side. If it didn’t listen, you could break a branch and hit it a few times.

When on the mountain, you had to be careful not to be near the aggressive cows. If you had to be on the same mountain, you should tie your cow far away from the aggressive one and keep a close eye on it. If you saw the aggressive cow coming, you should drive it back from a distance.

However, even with all the precautions, some things were inevitable. For example, your cow might be tied, but the other one was free, and you might not see it coming. Or, your cow might break free from its tie. The worst case was when both cows were tied far apart, but one of them had a wooden nose ring that broke, freeing it completely.

Feng Yiping remembered clearly that during the summer of his third grade, his cousin Feng Dazhi’s cow’s nose ring broke, and it started a fight with another cow. Before anyone could separate them, Feng Dazhi’s cow was gored and pushed down the mountain. It couldn’t get up and lay there, moaning pitifully. The moaning was heartbreaking.

Later, a dozen strong men from the village took turns carrying it back. The vet said its leg was broken, and it had three broken ribs. There was no way to save it, so they had to kill it.

The next day, most of the village came to see, not just to look, but to say goodbye. The children didn’t understand and were jumping around, but the adults had no smiles on their faces.

Unlike pigs, which were slaughtered every year, with dozens or even a hundred being killed in the village, and two butchers still being busy at the end of the year, slaughtering a cow was a rare and specialized task. They knew that to kill such a large animal, they had to hit it on the nose.

Feng Yiping squeezed to the front to watch. The cow lay there, not moving or moaning, probably because its throat was hoarse. Feng Yiping stood by the cow’s head and was stunned when he saw large tears streaming from its eyes. Even years later, he insisted to his parents that those were definitely the cow’s tears. The cow must have known its condition, whether from pain, sadness, or fear, it was crying.

So, when Feng Dazhi came with an axe to kill the cow and told Feng Yiping to move, he immediately ran away. He couldn’t bear to watch what happened next.

This experience made him change the channel whenever he saw bullfighting on TV. He found it cruel and even perverse, and he wanted to ask the proud matadors and the cheering audience if they had seen the tears in the bull’s eyes as it lay there, being stabbed to death.

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