Datou excitedly sat on the chair, waving his hands and feet as he said, "At first, no one bought anything, thinking our Chinese yam was smaller than others’ hawthorns. We didn’t sell a single skewer until noon. Then, my sister and I got hungry, so we split a skewer. A kid next to us was staring with longing eyes, so I felt sorry for him and gave him one, and then his parents came over and bought a skewer from us."
Daya was also very excited. Doing business this time was different from before when they used to follow behind their Auntie and Fifth Uncle and Sixth Uncle, doing work like yelling to attract customers, chatting with people, and managing the money, which had little to do with them.
But this time, the siblings were out on the street selling by themselves, and they sold every single sugar-coated hawthorn they had brought—none were left!
"Then those kids told other kids that our sugar-coated hawthorns were really tasty, so a few adults bought some for their kids. I remember Auntie said that these Chinese yams could also be used in medicine, so I told them that Chinese yams could strengthen the spleen and boost qi, and then lots of people bought them. Even some elderly people came to purchase them."
Manbao immediately said, "Hawthorns can be used in medicine too. They aid digestion, improve stomach function, invigorate blood circulation, and break up blood stasis."
Everyone: "...Manbao, we’re competing with the people selling sugar-coated hawthorn here."
"Yeah, yeah," Datou said angrily, "That old man is so annoying. My sister avoided the street he was on when we went there and changed to another street to avoid competing with him. But then in the afternoon, he came over anyway. Even though he came, that’s fine, but seeing that we were young, he tried to drive us off the street, saying that we were forbidden to sell sugar-coated hawthorns there from now on."
Datou clenched his fists and said, "The patrolling officers haven’t said I can’t set up my stall; what right does he have to forbid me?"
Old Zhou frowned and asked, "How was it resolved in the end?"
"Luckily, Fifth Uncle and his group weren’t too far from that street, so someone went to call them, and they arrived before we were driven off. When he saw that we had more people and that Fifth Uncle and Auntie were adults, he immediately didn’t dare to push us anymore." Daya hummed, "People like him are just like the idiom Auntie mentioned, what’s it called again?"
"Bully the weak and fear the strong!"
Daya laughed out loud: "Exactly, bully the weak and fear the strong!"
Manbao then clenched her fist and waved it in front of her, saying, "I know, it’s just like with Bai Erlang, a good beating would set them straight."
Old Zhou subconsciously nodded, then got a glare from his wife, and he immediately stopped nodding, reprimanding Manbao, "As a girl, how can you always think about fighting and killing?"
"So if I weren’t a girl, it would be fine?" Manbao immediately looked at Datou, egging him on, "Datou, next time he bullies you and Daya, you should let Daya stand back, and you step up!"
Ms.Qian tapped on her forehead and asked, "Have you finished your homework?"
"I finished it a long time ago."
"Then go read a book and help Datou get the ledger right. Look at the characters he wrote—they look like chicken claws."
Manbao took a glance, showing disdain, and said, "It must be because he writes too little."
Ms.Qian sent the children out before saying, "Eldest, tomorrow you and the others should accompany Datou and his group. We’ll be building a house at home, so you definitely won’t be able to leave. But if we can sell the sugar-coated hawthorns, it really would be another source of income for the family. Datou and Daya are growing up, and Sixth is only four years older than Datou; he’s also able to go to the county town to do business, right?"
Zhou Dalang was already feeling pity for the children and wasn’t too keen on them going back to the county town.
Upon hearing this, he hesitated for a moment.
Zhou Dalang was a tender father, but Junior Ms.Qian was a strict mother. She said, "Fine, tomorrow I will go with Dalang."
Zhou Dalang hung his head low, and in a soft voice said, "That man has been selling sugar-coated hawthorns in the county town for so many years now. He must know a lot of people. What if later on, he sees Datou and Daya not succeeding and bullies them again?"
Manbao and the others were listening intently at the windows and doorways to the discussion inside.
Even though they had been chased out, she wasn’t about to just listen obediently; she also wanted to see if the bully who harassed Datou and the others would get beaten up.
Old Zhou thought his eldest son was being too indecisive and said with disdain, "Datou is the first grandson, and Daya is the first granddaughter!"
Zhou Dalang straightened his back and relented, nodding and saying, "Fine, we’ll make a trip tomorrow."
Beating someone up wasn’t an option unless the other party took the initiative to cause trouble again. Otherwise, their visit tomorrow would merely be a show of force, mainly to tell the other party that someone was watching over the two children at home.
The discussion in the house stopped, and Old Zhou started talking about building the house, who to invite for quarrying and hauling stones, who to ask for cutting down trees, and so on.
Manbao found the discussion boring, so she slipped away quietly, then a group of children stood in the middle of the courtyard, with Manbao extending her hand towards Datou, "Where’s my share of the money?"
Datou looked at her with innocent eyes, "What share of the money."
"The sugar-coated hawthorns, of course. The Chinese yams were mine, so I should get a share of the money from the hawthorns."
Datou’s eyes widened, "But, but all the money was taken by my mother."
Manbao withdrew her hand, "No worries, I’ll go ask my sister-in-law later. How much did we earn today anyway?"
Datou, having studied for a little over a year now, could count from one to a hundred. On the way back today, he and Daya didn’t stop counting the money; first, they would count one hundred wen into the bag, and once reaching that amount, they would break a twig to keep track, then count the second hundred wen. However, they ran out of money before they could finish counting the second hundred.
So, he said, "There was one hundred, and another sixteen less."
The price of their sugar-coated hawthorn was the same as others’—a small skewer for three wen and a large skewer for five wen.
However, since the Chinese yams looked a bit smaller than the hawthorns, they had no price advantage.
So the fact that they managed to sell all of them showed just how popular the taste was.
Manbao laughed, "Let him use those sour hawthorns; I don’t like them at all. I bet the kids in the county town won’t like them either."
"That’s not true at all. I think they’re quite tasty," Daya said unusually in his defense.
Manbao curiously asked her, "How would you know?"
"Because I bought a skewer from him to taste. I thought his hawthorns were red and more appealing than the Chinese yams. I also wanted to know what his sugar-coated hawthorns tasted like, so I tried them."
Datou nodded, "I ate two as well. We even brought the rest back for our parents and brother to try.
However, poor Datou never got a taste of the hawthorn hawthorns, because Junior Ms.Qian confiscated them all, thinking that the sugar he poured on them looked so pretty. His sugar layer was clearer and slightly thicker than hers, so she became curious and studied them, inadvertently eating all the hawthorns.
He had been waiting on the side the whole time, only to see his mother breaking off some sugar to taste, then slowly, very slowly eating all the sugar-coated hawthorns.
He was stunned for a moment, then burst into tears.
His mother was really the worst!