Chapter 4 Four

For dinner this evening, Mrs. Lin added another plate besides the usual one meat and two vegetables. It was red stewed meat bought from the Eight Immortals Building, Mr. Lin's favorite thing.In addition, there is a catty of rice wine.Miss Lin couldn't stop laughing, because the business in the shop was good, because the new cheongsam with big silk had been made, and also because Shanghai opened fire on the Japanese.Mrs. Lin's hiccups became even less frequent, only once every ten minutes. Only Mr. Lin felt bored to death.He drank heavily, looked at his daughter, then at his wife, and wanted to announce the bomb-like bad news several times, but finally he didn't have the courage.And he wasn't desperate yet, he still wanted to struggle, at least he still wanted to hide that he couldn't hit the ground between his two strokes.So when the chamber of commerce agreed to pay five thousand and asked Mr. Lin to contribute twenty yuan, he agreed without hesitation.He decided not to let his wife and daughter know the real situation of the family's difficult situation until the last five minutes.His cost-effectiveness is like this: if people owe him 80% of the bills, he will pay 80% of the debts. Anyway, he can use the excuse of fighting in Shanghai, and the money bank is not connected; Situation, the only way is to use the method of gouging out the flesh to mend the sores, desperately selling cheap goods, and earning a few money to get through the present.These days, who can take care of the future?Just muddle along.

Having decided on a method in this way, coupled with the power of the pound of rice wine, Mr. Lin slept soundly all night without even having a single nightmare. The next morning, when Mr. Lin woke up, it was already half past six, and the sky was very gloomy.Mr. Lin felt a little dizzy.He hastily swallowed two bowls of porridge, and went to the shop, where he immediately saw the Shanghai customer sitting there with a straight face and "replying".What especially surprised Mr. Lin was that Yu Changxiang, who was diagonally across the door, also posted a red, green and green note, and there was also a "10% discount on the big sale"!Mr. Lin's "wishful thinking" thought up last night was immediately shaken by the red and green notes diagonally opposite the door.

"Boss Lin, you are really joking! You didn't reply to me last night. The ship leaves at eight o'clock, and I have to transfer to the train. I have to take the eight o'clock boat! Please hurry up—" The Shanghai guest said impatiently, and put a fist on the table.Mr. Lin can only accompany you, please forgive me, it is because the Shanghai war bank has no connections, and we have been regular customers for many years, please be extra careful. "Then tell me to go back empty-handed?" "This, this, absolutely not. Once our Shousheng comes back, he will pay as much as he has. If I hide half of the money, I am not a human being!"

Mr. Lin said in a trembling voice, trying his best to hold back the tears rolling down his eyes. The conversation came to an end, so the Shanghai guest had no choice but to stop talking, but he sat there and refused to leave.Mr. Lin was in a hurry, his heart was beating wildly.Although he has been in extreme poverty in recent years, he has been able to cover up his face; now that there is a person sitting in the shop, if this matter spreads, his credit will be ruined, and he still has many debtors. To follow suit, his shop had to be closed immediately.In desperation, he thought of a way, and invited the debt collector to sit in the inner house several times, but the debt collector refused.

It was freezing rain again.There was almost no one walking on the street.Since the existence of this street, I have never seen such a bleak end of the year.The new wind blows those signboards, making a crackling noise.Gradually the freezing rain turned into snowflakes again.The guys in the shops along the street leaned on the counters and raised their faces in a daze. Mr. Lin chatted with the bill collector without saying a word.Miss Lin suddenly walked out of the butterfly gate and stood on the side of the street watching the freezing rain.Mrs. Lin's uh-uh voice sent from behind the butterfly gate gradually increased.While talking socially, Mr. Lin looked at his daughter and listened to his wife's hiccups, and his heart felt sour. He remembered that his life was not happy at all, but he didn't know who had framed him to this point.The Shanghai guest seemed to have calmed down a bit, and suddenly said earnestly:

"Boss Lin, you are a good person. You have no hobbies at all, and you are very serious about doing business. Twenty years ago, were you afraid that you would not get rich? But the situation is different now, with heavy taxes, high expenses, and clear business. It's still up to you." Mr. Lin sighed and smiled wryly, which was considered humble. The Shanghai guest paused, and continued: "The market in your town is worse this year than last year, isn't it? The interior is all dependent on village business, and the country people are too poor, so there's nothing you can do about it—ah, it's nine o'clock! Why hasn't your bill collector yet Come on? Is this person reliable?"

Mr. Lin's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't answer for the time being.Although he is an old buddy of seven or eight years and has never had any troubles, who can guarantee it to the end!What's more, he didn't come back after the expiration date.Seeing Mr. Lin's hesitant look, the Shanghai guest laughed; the laughter was a bit strange.Suddenly, Miss Lin turned to Mr. Lin and shouted hastily: "Father, Shousheng is back! He's covered in mud!" Apparently, Ms. Lin's cry was also strange. Mr. Lin jumped up, surprised and happy, and anxiously wanted to run to the counter to see, but he was flustered and his legs were weak.At this time Shousheng had already run in, really covered in mud, and sat down panting, speechless.Mr. Lin guessed that the situation was wrong, so he was so frightened that he had no idea and didn't speak.The Shanghai guest frowned beside him.After a while, Shousheng gasped and said:

"It's so dangerous! I almost got caught by them." "Did the robbers rob the fast boat?" Mr. Lin was so shocked that he was forced to speak out. "It's not a bandit. It's a soldier of the army! I couldn't make it to the fast flight yesterday afternoon. I took the boat early this morning. I didn't know that the boat stopped outside the east gate when I heard that it was going to catch the boat. I couldn't walk half a mile ashore. Met Raff. Amao from Baoxiang Clothing Village in the west was dragged away by them. I ran fast and escaped back by taking a small path. Damn it, my life is at stake!"

While speaking, Shousheng lifted up his clothes, took out a hand towel bag from his belly pocket, handed it to Mr. Lin, and said: "It's all here. The Huangmaoji in Lishi is disgusting. We have to pay attention to this kind of account next year! ——I'm going to wash my face and change my clothes before I come back." Mr. Lin took the towel bag and squeezed it, with a smile on his face.He opened the handkerchief at the check-in desk.First take a look at the "list", do some calculations for a while, and then check the amount of money: it is 11 yuan for Dayang, 200 yuan for Xiaoyang, 420 yuan in banknotes, plus two bank notes at sight, one It is fifty taels of gauge yuan, and another one is sixty-five taels of gauge yuan.All of this was paid to the Shanghai customers, and according to the calculations, there was still a difference of more than 100 yuan.Mr. Lin thought about it for a while, and peeped at the Shanghai guest sitting there smoking a few times. Then he sighed, picked up the two bank notes and the four hundred yuan bill, and held them in front of the Shanghai guest, saying: After a lot of talking, I just got a nod from the Shanghai guest and said "yes".

But the Shanghai guest read the Zhuang ticket twice, and suddenly smiled again and said: "I'm sorry, Boss Lin, take the trouble to exchange the banknote for me!" "Ok, Ok." Mr. Lin answered quickly, and hurriedly stamped the store's book card stamp on the back of the banknote, sent a clerk to Hengyuanzhuang to withdraw cash, and asked for banknotes.After another half hour, the man came back empty-handed.Hengyuanzhuang took the note, but refused to pay; it is said that it was deducted from Mr. Lin's arrears.It was really snowing, and Mr. Lin didn't open an umbrella, so he went to Hengyuan Village to negotiate in person in the snow, but the result was in vain.

"Boss Lin, what's the matter?" Seeing Mr. Lin running back with a sad face, the Shanghai visitor asked impatiently. Mr. Lin almost wanted to cry, but he sighed without answering.Apart from begging the Shanghai guest to be more accommodating, is there any other way?Shousheng also came to help Mr. Lin.They swear: the owed more than 200 yuan will be remitted to Shanghai by the end of next year.It's a regular customer. They have always settled accounts in three quarters, and never said a word. Today is really an unexpected change. The overall situation is like this. There is no way, it's not because of them. However, it won’t do if we don’t add some.Mr. Lin could bear the pain and made another fifty yuan in cash from the sale in the past few days, and he paid a total of four hundred and fifty yuan before sending away the troublesome Shanghai bill collector. It was eleven o'clock at this time, and the sky was still fluttering and snowing.Buyers don't have half of them.Mr. Lin was puzzled for a while, and discussed with Shousheng how to collect the account of this street.Both of them frowned, and they both felt that it was really uncertain to put away the town's more than 600 yuan account.Shousheng whispered into Mr. Lin's ear: "I heard that Julong in Nanzha and Heyuan in Xizha are unstable! These two places owe us 300 yuan, and these two debts must be guarded against in advance. If you eat them, it's not a joke. of!" Mr. Lin's face changed, and his lips trembled a little.Unexpectedly, Shousheng lowered his voice even more, faltering and faltering out even more frightening news: "Also, there are nasty rumors that we are here. The Hengyuan Manor must have heard these rumors, which is why they are so urgent to us. Maybe the bill collectors in Shanghai also know a little bit-but, who Against us? Is it diagonally opposite the door?" As Shousheng said that, he smacked his mouth towards Yu Changxiang.Mr. Lin's eyes followed Shousheng's mouth and glanced there, his heart was beating wildly, his face was mournful, and he was speechless for a long time.His numb and painful heart felt that this time he must be ruined! ——It is the mischief that is not destroyed: the master of the party blackmails him, the bank oppresses him, his peers slander him, and he has to suffer bad debts. Who can bear such a lot of torture?And why should he suffer?He, who inherited this small shop from his father, never dared to waste it; he, how flattered he was in business; he never did harm to anyone, nor did he have any evil intentions; even his ancestors never did harm to anyone, I have done bad things!However, he has been so miserable! "However, master, let them spread rumors, don't worry. There are gossips in the famine year. It is said that nine out of ten shops in the town can't celebrate the New Year. The times are not good, and the market is so clear. It has always been tough. It’s not our family’s difficulty that our shops are facing famine this year! The sky is crushing everyone, and the chamber of commerce has to come up with a solution; we can’t drag it all down together, making the market even less like a market.” Seeing that Mr. Lin was suffering, Shousheng temporarily comforted him, and couldn't help but also sighed. The snow is getting denser and thicker, and the streets are already white.Occasionally, a dog walked by with its tail hanging down, shook its body, shook off the thick snow accumulated on its fur, and then quietly left with its tail between its legs.Since the existence of this street, I have never seen such a desolate and desolate New Year's Eve!At this time, as far away as Shanghai, the heavy artillery of the Japanese army was frantically bombarding the bustling shops there.