The Scorching Sun - 40
Fang Zhuo had barely started her holiday when Ye Yuncheng was already making plans for their New Year's supplies.
His little food stall looked cheap to run on the surface, but the initial investment had actually been considerable, far beyond what he'd expected.
Rent, the truck for transporting goods, utilities, disposable tableware, Xiao Mu's wages... all the miscellaneous expenses had nearly wiped out his savings.
For a while, he had to calculate even the money spent on groceries down to the last cent. Whenever he bought ingredients, he compulsively checked and rechecked the weather forecast, making sure there wouldn't be rain the next day that would keep him from setting up his stall and leave him with food that had to be thrown away after sitting overnight.
It wasn't until the approach of the Spring Festival, when the streets grew busier and he no longer needed to buy any new equipment, that he'd finally managed to save a little money.
When Fang Zhuo came home with her backpack, Ye Yuncheng was sitting in the living room doing the accounts.
He was methodical by nature. The coins were stacked neatly according to size, and the figures on his ledger were written in such tidy handwriting that they made Fang Zhuo's exam papers look positively messy.
Only after he'd recorded the miscellaneous income and expenses from Alipay did he put down his pen. Fang Zhuo finally asked, "How's it looking?"
Ye Yuncheng looked at the figures at the bottom of the two columns, hesitated for a moment, then said, "We're almost back in the black."
Fang Zhuo set down her bag and smiled. "That's a good thing."
"Yeah, it's a good thing." Ye Yuncheng said, "The upgraded cart cost us a lot. But from an accounting perspective, that expense should be treated as depreciation and spread across the following months. So we're actually making a profit."
His original cart had been bought secondhand and modified. It didn't have a heating function, and after using it for a while, he'd realized how restrictive that was, so he'd decided to replace it with a fully equipped one. That way, next year he could sell hot food and wouldn't have to worry about keeping everything warm.
Because he cared about quality, the rice balls already had a good reputation. With a few more items on the menu, he believed their sales could become more stable.
"It'd be nice if we could rent a little storefront." Ye Yuncheng looked ahead. "Then we'd be able to offer delivery, bring in more customers, and stop worrying about the rain."
A little sprout that had fought its way upward and was growing sturdier naturally wanted a place where it could shelter from the wind and rain. Perhaps that was the sort of security every Chinese person carried deep in their bones.
Ye Yuncheng raised his head and joked at his own expense, "Am I getting a little too ambitious?"
Fang Zhuo laughed and measured out a tiny distance between her fingers. "Just a little."
"Then I'll be a little more ambitious." Ye Yuncheng smiled, his eyes crinkling as he teased her. "Next year, we'll start by making sure we have enough to eat and saving up your tuition. Once you start university, I'll keep moving forward with you and see if we can rent a shop within two kilometers of your school."
"We will," Fang Zhuo said firmly.
Ye Yuncheng picked up his pen again, turned to a fresh page in the notebook, and wrote the idea down as a reminder to himself.
Then he asked, "What about you, Zhuo Zhuo? Do you have any little ambitions before the New Year?"
Fang Zhuo thought for a moment. "I have one goal. It's not a very big one."
"What is it?" Ye Yuncheng asked with a smile. "Getting into A University?"
"I want to save up for a bionic prosthetic leg." Fang Zhuo lowered her lashes, her voice tinged with envy. "I saw someone wearing one on the street last time. It was amazing. They could walk freely, just like a normal person, and even run."
Ye Yuncheng froze for a moment and turned to look at her. His lips moved as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, nothing came out. His gaze only grew softer, and as his nostrils trembled, a glimmer of moisture gathered in his eyes. He stepped forward and pulled Fang Zhuo into a tight embrace.
"Technology is incredible these days." Fang Zhuo rested her head against his shoulder and murmured, "It can change anything."
"One day, you'll become someone incredible too," Ye Yuncheng said softly.
Fang Zhuo nodded. "Mm."
They stood quietly in each other's arms for a while. Then Ye Yuncheng let her go and raised a hand to wipe at the corner of his eye.
Fang Zhuo reached for the loose change on the table, but Ye Yuncheng stopped her with a raised hand.
"I haven't finished dividing it up yet."
Fang Zhuo looked puzzled. "Dividing what? Aren't we saving it?"
Ye Yuncheng smiled and shook his head. He moved the ledger to the middle of the table and pointed to the plans he'd written on the following page.
"Now that we've earned some money, we still have to spend what needs to be spent." Ye Yuncheng said, "The subsidy came in a couple of days ago. Uncle Liu helped us apply for some Spring Festival care packages. Rice, cooking oil, and a quilt. Remember to pick them up when you go back in a couple of days."
Fang Zhuo nodded. "Okay."
Ye Yuncheng asked, "It's getting cold now, the quilts we have at home still aren't enough. I need to buy a new one for you and Yan Lie. What color duvet cover do you like? And what about Lie Lie?"
At the mention of Yan Lie, Fang Zhuo couldn't help remembering the expression he'd worn when she'd been getting ready to leave school, that hesitant, unfinished look on his face.
Everyone else had been cheering and celebrating, eager to pour out through the school gates. Only he had caught hold of the black cloth strap dangling from the back of Fang Zhuo's backpack and started to say, "If you ever have money..."
If she ever had money, then what?
Really, he shouldn't have said "if." It should have been "when."
But Yan Lie hadn't finished the sentence, probably because he himself hadn't figured out how to put it into words.
There had been something faintly lonely and dejected in his eyes at the time, so unlike him normally.
"Zhuo Zhuo?" Seeing her staring into space, Ye Yuncheng called her twice. "What are you thinking about?"
Fang Zhuo came back to herself. "Yan Lie probably won't celebrate the New Year with us. His parents are back." Ye Yuncheng nodded, but he didn't cross Yan Lie's name off the list. Instead, he asked, "How long are his parents staying in A City?"
"I don't know," Fang Zhuo said. "I'll ask him."
She took out her phone and typed a message.
The reply came almost immediately.
Yan Lie: Until after the New Year.
Yan Lie: Uncle is really kind, but I can bring my own quilt. Don't spend money on me.
Fang Zhuo: Where are you right now?
Yan Lie: I'm playing basketball with Cake, Class Monitor, and the others. We're going for barbecue later, then a movie after that. Want to join us?
Quite a full life, Fang Zhuo thought.
Apparently, she'd imagined the whole thing.
Not long afterward, another message came from Yan Lie.
Yan Lie: Did you get home safely?
Fang Zhuo: I'm spending New Year's in A City. I got home ages ago.
Xiao Mu had gone to his uncle's house for the New Year, leaving his room empty, so Fang Zhuo could stay there.
There would be many more pedestrians on the streets on New Year's Eve, Ye Yuncheng wanted to sell for one more day.
He knew rice balls wouldn't be particularly sought-after on a day like this. Snacks, milk tea, and things like that would be far more popular. After considering it from every angle, he decided to make braised food instead.
Ye Yuncheng spent a small fortune on more than ten kilograms of pork trotters, chicken legs, chicken carcasses, and other ingredients, along with some vegetables. He started preparing everything around noon the day before, put it all into a pot to simmer that night, then took it straight out with Fang Zhuo early the next morning to sell.
Braised food was troublesome to prepare but easy to sell. And on New Year's Eve, with the festive atmosphere in the air, passersby were generally in high spirits.
Quite a few people saw the pair of them, one big and one small, standing beneath the colored lights waiting for customers and instinctively stepped forward to buy a few extra pieces, hoping they could finish early and go home for the New Year.
The braised food really did smell incredible, and Ye Yuncheng had already become a familiar face around the neighborhood. The two of them left home a little after six, and before ten, everything had been sold out.
They made far more money that day than they usually did. Fang Zhuo even received a helium balloon from a little child.
She tied the balloon to the front of the cart and pushed it home excitedly, where she and Ye Yuncheng began preparing their New Year's Eve dinner.
One cooked while the other helped with the preparation, and they worked together with perfect understanding. But because they had so few kitchen utensils, they didn't finally sit down to eat until six.
Neither of them had much of an appetite. After a few dumplings, they were already more or less half full, while the fish and pork trotters on the table had barely been touched.
And because neither of them was particularly good at finding things to talk about, the meal, though warm and cozy, was a little too quiet.
Fang Zhuo decided the main problem was the lack of the Spring Festival Gala playing in the background. Without the hosts' greetings, something essential seemed to be missing. At the very least, they could have complained about the programs together and made things livelier.
Ye Yuncheng suddenly sighed. "It'd be nice if Lie Lie were here. There are several dishes he likes."
"I like them too," Fang Zhuo said. "I just can't eat any more."
Ye Yuncheng put down his bowl and chopsticks and smiled. "That's fine. We won't cook tomorrow. We'll definitely finish everything then. Eat more later if you're hungry. Don't force yourself."
Ye Yuncheng hadn't had time to sleep the night before, and after dinner, drowsiness kept overtaking him. He went back to his room to rest first.
Fang Zhuo sat in the living room and read by the light of the lamp. But she hadn't studied for long before the singing drifting down from upstairs kept breaking her concentration, she simply took out the phone and played with it for a while.
After thinking about it, she sent Yan Lie a message.
Fang Zhuo: Have you eaten your New Year's Eve dinner? What did you have?
Yan Lie didn't reply.
Ten minutes passed, then more, and there was still no response from Yan Lie.
Following the tutorial, Fang Zhuo downloaded a match-three game to pass the time.
She played for half an hour, then switched back to her messages. There was still nothing from Yan Lie.
Fang Zhuo frowned, shifted into a different position, and opened the app store to download QQ.
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