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Chapter 512: Chapter 502 Safety is More Important Than Anything
Shen Yunfang, taking advantage of the moment when Wang Da Nainai wasn’t paying attention, made a gesture to everyone, hinting that they would discuss the matter later. It was better not to make Wang Da Nainai worry now.
Li Xianglian and Dashuan’s wife forcefully restrained themselves from asking questions. They turned around and urged their husbands to quickly unload the cart. Today they had all returned early, so they would let the old lady rest for the day and take care of the cooking themselves.
"Eh, why is everyone back so early today? I haven’t even started cooking yet," Wang Da Nainai said upon seeing all the people back home, and began to prepare to get out of bed to cook. The children in the household were all able to play on their own without her supervision, and they would come looking for her when they got hungry. Now, her main task was cooking several meals for everyone at home.
Shen Yunfang pressed Wang Da Nainai down, "Da Nainai, you don’t need to go. My sister-in-law and big sister are already cooking. You can stay with me to finish counting the money, or else we’ll have to count it all over again."
Upon hearing that they would have to count again, Wang Da Nainai withdrew her foot, which had been stretched out to get up. Despite the joy of seeing all the small change, counting it was quite a different matter. She had only counted for a short while and already felt her eyes blurring.
"Ah, how much did I just count?" Wang Da Nainai had forgotten where she had counted to during the brief interruption.
Shen Yunfang swept a glance over the money in front of Wang Da Nainai, "This is the seventh stack."
"Oh, right, right, right, I’ll recount this stack," she said. 𝔫𝖔𝔳𝔭𝔲𝔟.𝖈𝔬𝔪
The two of them continued counting money for nearly another hour.
"Yunfang, could we have counted wrong? Why is there so much money?" Wang Da Nainai began to doubt as she counted, finding it hard to believe. She saw that there was so much money, but Yunfang had only been out all morning. How could she possibly have earned so much?
Shen Yunfang quickly bundled up the counted stacks of cash with her nimble fingers, "No mistake, it’s exactly this much."
"This, this must be over a thousand?" Wang Da Nainai still couldn’t believe it and sought confirmation again.
"Hmm, one thousand eight hundred sixty-three yuan and twenty cents." That was the figure. "Da Nainai, don’t think there’s a lot of money here. Actually, we didn’t earn that much. This includes the one hundred yuan I took out for change and the original cost of the fireworks. We’ll also have to pay the overtime to the fireworks factory workers. In the end, the money we actually earned ourselves isn’t that much."
Only then did Wang Da Nainai nod in reassurance. That made sense, didn’t it? It wouldn’t be possible to earn as much in one day as she would working in the countryside her whole life. "That’s good, that’s good. Otherwise, it would have really been frightening."
Shen Yunfang stored all the money in her bag and then recorded the transactions in the account book. She told Wang Da Nainai to just rest in the room, while she went outside to tell Li Da Jie and the others about what had happened that day.
"Yunfang, come in quickly, my mother-in-law didn’t follow, did she?" Dashuan’s wife was anxiously waiting in the room and didn’t dare to call anyone over. She was so distracted that she couldn’t even focus on cooking.
"No, I’ve told Da Nainai to lie down in the room," said Shen Yunfang as she approached and found a little stool to sit on.
"Then tell us what exactly happened, why did Shuanzi tell us there was blood, and such a long knife involved?" Li Xianglian was also anxious.
When they first heard about it from Shuanzi, they didn’t care about making money anymore. They packed up their stall and ran home, fearful that Yunfang might come to harm. How could Xianglian make it up to her second brother? How could she explain it to her second brother? Only when they got home and saw that Yunfang was perfectly fine they managed to suppress their impulse and now they were waiting in the room.
Liu Jianjun and Dashuan were also looking at her, waiting for her to explain the situation.
"It’s nothing serious. I went to the market, where business was quite good. It hadn’t even been three hours since I set up the stall when I sold all the fireworks. And that’s when someone targeted me. Probably thinking I was an easy target as a woman with two kids, they tried to rob me on the way back. They even brandished a knife this long while threatening me," Shen Yunfang indicated the length of the knife with her hands.
Li Xianglian and Dashuan’s wife gasped in shock at the thought of that long knife, which could be fatal if it stabbed someone.
"How could I indulge him? I worked so hard for this money, and he thought he could just take it without lifting a finger. The nerve of him!" thought Shen Yunfang, unable to suppress her anger. Although there were always ne’er-do-wells in every village and place, why did it always seem that she encountered them? Was she somehow attracting trouble?
"You, how can you still not understand at your age? What’s more important, money or your life? If we run out of money, we can always make more. But if you stubbornly risk your life and lose it, what would happen to your two children, what about Hongjun?" Li Xianglian was so angry she felt like slapping her, but considering the woman was her sister-in-law, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Hmph, if it were her own child, the slap would’ve already been delivered.
"Sis, I learned a couple of moves from Hongjun, and besides, I could tell that guy wasn’t really capable of much, just trying to scare people," Shen Yunfang said with her eyes wide open.
"That’s still not okay, our own safety is more important than anything." Dashuan’s wife disagreed.
"So what happened in the end?" Dashuan asked, curious about the fate of that thug.
"He slipped and fell, and then somehow, he managed to stab himself in the stomach with his own knife," Shen Yunfang shrugged. Her kick had been so subtle that even Shuanzi and Shitou, who were right behind her, didn’t see it, let alone that unlucky devil. But who would believe his words anyway?
"What, he stabbed himself in the stomach? That can’t be," Li Xianglian exclaimed, surprised.
"That’s just too coincidental," Liu Jianjun muttered, but inside he felt that Yunfang’s luck was just too incredible.
"So, how’s the guy? He’s not dead, is he?" Even though she had already heard from the children that the man didn’t die, Dashuan’s wife still asked, concerned.
"No, he didn’t die. I reported the incident as soon as I got back, and the police went and picked him up right after. I think he won’t be getting out any time soon." Carrying a knife with intent to rob wasn’t going to be overlooked, even if it wasn’t a crackdown period, it wouldn’t be easy for him to get out.
"Ay, no matter what, we can’t let you go all the way out there by yourself anymore," Dashuan’s wife said.
"Exactly, isn’t it the same selling things here at home? It’s safer, and you can still make good money. We shouldn’t go out there anymore," Li Xianglian agreed with lingering fear.
"Sis, it’s really different. Do you know how much I sold in just three hours?" Shen Yunfang shook her head, displaying a proud gesture.
"How much?" Dashuan inquired.
"I sold out an entire tricycle’s worth, a total of over seventeen hundred," Shen Yunfang said, deducting the change she gave back right off the bat.
"That much?" Liu Jianjun also gasped.
They had good sales at the local market these past few days, but they were only making two to three hundred a day. Today, having packed up early, they made nearly two hundred.
"Of course, you know how many people come to the township market. And we, as fellow villagers, understand that rural folks are more superstitious about these things around the New Year. A few extra firecrackers might just drive away all the evil spirits from the household. So tell me, wouldn’t you buy them? Everyone wants a bit of good fortune," Yunfang reasoned, believing that fireworks would have a better market in the rural areas.
"That’s true, even if one is strapped for cash all year, the end of the year is no time to skimp." Li Xianglian nodded, that was always her line of thinking.
"So you see, I still need to go to that big market, but you don’t have to worry about me, I have good skills. Brother and sister-in-law, haven’t you seen for yourselves? I’m not an easy opponent for most people." Last year, she had single-handedly dealt with two hooligans who came to cause trouble, which they had all witnessed.
"That’s still not acceptable. There’s a saying that one can’t fight against the many; maybe you can handle one or two people, but what if they bring more? then you are finished." Li Xianglian still disapproved.
"How about I go with Yunfang next time?" Dashuan suddenly suggested.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"I think it’s a rare opportunity, and it would be a pity to give up just because of some envious people," Dashuan said, a bit sheepishly.
"Right, next time Brother Dashuan can come with me."
