60s: I have a store

Chapter 629 Simple Happiness
Zhou Yimin had been staying at home and was feeling bored, so he decided to go out for a walk. Before he knew it, he had walked to the only primary school in the village.

Look, the classroom is made of adobe, with a thatched roof and windows without glass, just covered with plastic sheeting, which rattles loudly when the wind blows.

It doesn't affect the children's serious study.

To avoid disturbing the children, Zhou Yimin quietly walked to the window and looked inside. There were more than a dozen old wooden tables in the classroom, with pitted and uneven surfaces, and some of the table legs were supported by stones.

The children stood with their backs straight, holding half a pencil in their hands, quietly reading the text along with the teacher at the podium.

Zhou Yimin watched for a while, then turned to leave, but was drawn to the laughter coming from the open space outside the school.

On the open ground nearby, several children who weren't in class were playing shuttlecock, both boys and girls, running around and sweating profusely.

However, a bright smile appeared on his face.

Zhou Yimin saw that the so-called shuttlecock was nothing more than a few chicken feathers found from who-knows-where, tied to a homemade wooden piece. Some didn't even have chicken feathers, just a wooden pad. It was light and floaty when kicked, and its direction was unstable.

A little girl with pigtails kicked the shuttlecock a couple of times before it fell to the ground. When she squatted down to pick it up, a hint of disappointment flashed in her eyes, but she still held the shuttlecock in her hand and ran back to continue playing with her friends.

This is one of the few toys she can proudly display.

Looking at the few tattered shuttlecocks, and then thinking of the various toys that children in later generations had, Zhou Yimin felt a pang of sadness.

However, considering that even basic needs like food and clothing are a problem now, it's normal that there's not much entertainment.

If you didn't see it, that's fine, but if you did see it, you can't pretend you didn't see it.

He looked around and, seeing no one around the school, walked to a big tree next to the playground, closed his eyes, and concentrated on recalling the store in his mind.

Zhou Yimin quickly found what he wanted—colorful shuttlecocks and bundles of colorful jumper wire.

"Ten shuttlecocks, two of each of the five colors; and five bundles of jumper string, one each of red, yellow, blue, green, and pink."

He clearly selected the items in his mind, confirmed the quantity was correct, and then gently "clicked" to confirm, immediately reducing his balance.

However, Zhou Yimin didn't care about the money at all.

After so long of reselling goods, he had accumulated an astronomical sum of money, and in this era, having too much money was not a good thing.

While it's no longer true that being poor is glorious, having a lot of money often breeds envy.

The next second, when Zhou Yimin opened his eyes, he was holding a bulging cloth bag.

Upon opening the cloth bag, ten brand-new shuttlecocks lay inside, their snow-white feathers adorned with colorful velvet. The copper coins were new, securely bound with red string, and felt heavy in my hand.

The five bundles of jumper cables next to it were all neatly tied with plastic rope, their colors were bright, and they felt soft and smooth to the touch.

Zhou Yimin picked up the cloth bag and walked over to the group of children playing shuttlecock.

When the children saw him, they were stunned for a moment, then recognized Zhou Yimin. They stopped what they were doing, timidly gathered around him, and sweetly called out, "Sixteenth Uncle!"

Zhou Yimin smiled and agreed, squatting down to open the cloth bag, revealing brand-new shuttlecocks and jumper strings inside.

"Come, see what good things Uncle Sixteen brought you."

The children's eyes lit up instantly, and they crowded closer together, their little heads huddled together, staring curiously at the colorful shuttlecocks, their little hands secretly clenched at their sides, wanting to touch them but too shy to do so.

Zhou Yimin picked up a red shuttlecock and handed it to the little girl who had just dropped it: "Girl, here, try out the new shuttlecock and see if it's easy to kick."

The little girl quickly took it with both hands. It was the first time she had ever touched such soft chicken feathers. Her eyes curved into crescents as she thanked him profusely, "Thank you, Uncle Sixteen!"

After saying that, she skipped and hopped to the side, gave it a light kick, and the new shuttlecock drew a beautiful arc in the air before landing steadily at her feet, making her cheer.

It's worlds apart from my old, "tattered" shuttlecock. Whether it's the feel or anything else, it's miles ahead.

When the other children saw this, they became anxious and surrounded Zhou Yimin, whispering, "Sixteenth Uncle, I want one too!"

Zhou Yimin did not discriminate and quickly distributed ten shuttlecocks to the children.

After receiving their new shuttlecocks, the children couldn't wait to start kicking them.

Zhou Yimin was quite happy to see this. It seemed that he could donate some toys to the school, which would allow the students to exercise and have fun at the same time. It was a win-win situation.

Just then, the school bell rang out from the direction of the classroom, its clear sound particularly loud in the quiet village.

Upon hearing the bell, the children in the classroom immediately gathered up their half-used pencils and tattered textbooks and ran out of the classroom chattering excitedly.

Immediately afterwards, Xie Yumei also came out of the classroom. She was the only teacher in the village primary school who was not a villager from Zhoujiazhuang.

As Xie Yumei walked to the door, she saw Zhou Yimin interacting with the children next to the school. She was stunned for a moment, then quickly walked over.

She walked up to Zhou Yimin and asked with some surprise, "Comrade Zhou, what brings you here?"

Xie Yumei also knew that Zhou Yimin was a very busy man, and she rarely had the chance to meet him.

Upon hearing the voice, Zhou Yimin turned around to look at Xie Yumei, and waved his hand with a smile: "Xie Yumei, you don't need to be so polite. We're practically from the same village now, so just call me by my name."

He pointed to the children playing with the new shuttlecocks next to him and continued, "I was just taking care of some things in the village when I happened to walk into the school and saw that the shuttlecocks the children were playing with were all worn out, so I replaced them with some new ones and even brought some jumper strings."

Xie Yumei looked in the direction Zhou Yimin was pointing and saw that the children were holding brightly colored new shuttlecocks. Some were chasing each other and kicking them, while others were using jump ropes to compete with each other. Their faces were full of unprecedented excitement.

She couldn't help but praise, "Zhou Yimin, you really have a kind heart!"

Zhou Yimin smiled somewhat embarrassedly: "It's all what I should do. The children are the hope of the village. Making them happy is more important than anything else."

Just then, several children who had just finished class ran over and surrounded Xie Yumei, asking, "Teacher, how do we do this problem?"

Xie Yumei immediately squatted down, took the notebook, and began to look at it carefully. She quickly came to the answer: "Look."

After finding out the answer, the children skipped and hopped back to the classroom to prepare for the next lesson.

Zhou Yimin glanced at the sun, thinking that he should go home to help his grandparents prepare lunch, so he said goodbye to Xie Yumei: "Xie Yumei, I'm going back now. I'll come over later to talk to you about school."

Xie Yumei nodded quickly: "Okay, drive carefully."

Zhou Yimin was walking home along the path next to the school. Just as he rounded the old locust tree at the village entrance, he heard hurried footsteps behind him, accompanied by a slightly hoarse shout: "Yimin! Yimin! Wait!" Zhou Yimin stopped and turned around. He saw a middle-aged man running towards him, his face full of anxiety, sweat dripping down his face, and he was evenly breathing.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Village Chief Wang from Shangshui Village.

Zhou Yimin found it a bit strange. The two of them didn't usually interact much. Apart from occasionally going to Shangshui Village to buy vegetables and chickens, they didn't have much interaction.

Before Zhou Yimin could speak, Village Chief Wang rushed to him in three strides, his hands on his knees, panting heavily, his chest heaving violently.

Zhou Yimin couldn't pretend he hadn't seen it, so he could only helplessly ask, "Village Chief Wang, you must have something to ask me about?"

Otherwise, they wouldn't have had to run so hard.

It took Village Chief Wang a while to catch his breath.

He looked around and realized that this was not a suitable place to chat, so he moved closer to Zhou Yimin and said in a low voice, "Yimin, this is not a suitable place. Let's talk business."

Zhou Yimin followed his gaze and looked around. Indeed, villagers passed by from time to time, and if they talked about anything private, it would be easy for them to be overheard.

He thought for a moment and then said, "In that case, let's go to my house. It's quiet there."

After saying that, Zhou Yimin didn't wait for Village Chief Wang's response and turned to walk towards his old house.

Village Chief Wang quickly followed, though he was a little tired, but he had no choice but to follow in order to reach an agreement as soon as possible.

Soon, the two arrived at Zhou Yimin's old house.

Zhou Yimin pushed open the slightly ajar courtyard gate and called out, "Grandpa, Grandma!"

Seeing that there was no movement inside the house, they assumed that Grandpa and Grandma were still resting in the inner room and had not yet gotten up. So they led Village Chief Wang to the main room.

Zhou Yimin poured a cup of hot water from the thermos, picked up a glass jar of honey, and added some honey into it.

Seeing this, Village Chief Wang couldn't help but swallow hard. Honey is a precious commodity, and he rarely had the chance to try it.

Zhou Yimin handed over the hot water: "Village Chief Wang, what can you say now?"

Village Chief Wang took the bowl, tilted his head back, and gulped down more than half of it. The warm honey water slid down his throat, and he couldn't help but swallow. Only Zhou Yimin would be so generous as to use honey water to entertain others.

He took a deep breath, and this time he didn't hide anything. He leaned forward, his voice filled with obvious expectation: "Yimin, I heard that you helped get the plastic greenhouses in Zhoujiazhuang?"

"I don't know... I don't know if you could also help our Shangshui Village get some plastic? Our village also wants to build a few plastic greenhouses."

Zhou Yimin was somewhat surprised by these words.

Although it's known that Village Chief Wang has been envious of Zhoujiazhuang's plastic greenhouses for quite some time now.

I didn't expect it to be brought up now.

Village Chief Wang thought to himself, if it weren't for the previous difficulties and the fact that the village simply couldn't come up with any extra money, this plan would have been put on the agenda long ago.

However, following in Zhou Yimin's footsteps, Shangshui Village still made a lot of money last year. They didn't want it back and came to ask Zhou Yimin for help before spring even started, just wanting to finalize things as soon as possible.

The main room was quiet, with only the occasional crowing of roosters coming from outside the courtyard, creating a somewhat heavy atmosphere.

When Zhou Yimin heard what Village Chief Wang said, he knew that Village Chief Wang wanted to copy homework, but he was not disgusted. On the contrary, he thought that Village Chief Wang was very bold.

Others might not have the same courage, considering that plastic is not cheap these days and production is low.

If I didn't own a shop, I wouldn't be able to buy it at all.

Zhou Yimin was silent for a moment before slowly saying, "I can get you some plastic, but let me make this clear beforehand: it's hard to find these days, and it's not cheap."

As soon as he said that, Village Chief Wang suddenly raised his head, his eyes widening instantly, and the tension on his face vanished.

Instead, I was filled with surprise, and my mouth opened unconsciously.

Village Chief Wang originally thought he would have to use a lot of words, so on the way there, he repeatedly thought of many different lines of speech.

They even planned to bring up the past relationship between the two villages again if Zhou Yimin hesitated, but they never expected that Zhou Yimin would agree so quickly.

For a moment, Village Chief Wang was a little stunned. He stood there for a few seconds, feeling both happy and a little dumbfounded. He was happy that the plastic issue was resolved and the greenhouses in Shangshui Village could finally be settled.

But the words he had been pondering all the way hadn't come in handy, leaving him feeling a bit empty and unsure of what to do with his hands.

Village Chief Wang, fearing he had misheard, quickly asked again, "Yimin, could you say it again?"

Zhou Yimin was a little helpless, but he still did as Village Chief Wang said: "Village Chief Wang, you heard me right, I said there's no problem!"

Upon receiving a positive reply, Village Chief Wang's anxiety finally subsided, and he could no longer hide the smile on his face.

He quickly stepped forward, rubbed his hands together in front of him, and said cheerfully, "Yimin, don't worry!"

"As long as the price isn't too outrageous, and it's within our village's budget, we're open to discussing any amount! Although the money our village has raised isn't much, everyone is willing to tighten their belts a bit more to build the greenhouse!"

As he spoke, as if afraid that Zhou Yimin might not be at ease, he added, "If you have a rough idea, let me know first, and I'll go back and discuss it with the villagers. I promise it won't delay your business!"

His anxious look made it seem as if he was afraid Zhou Yimin would change his mind at any moment.

Zhou Yimin replied with a smile, "Village Chief Wang, since I've agreed, I won't go back on my word. How about this, I'll go to your village tomorrow, and we can talk again then?"

Village Chief Wang wasn't stupid; he naturally understood what Zhou Yimin meant: "Alright, it's settled then. I have other things to do, so I'll head back to the village first!"

After saying that, he drank the last bit of honey water in the bowl and left without looking back.

When Zhou Yimin saw this, he couldn't help but laugh.

After hearing Zhou Yimin's laughter, Village Chief Wang walked even faster, and even started running.

What Village Chief Wang was thinking was that as long as he ran fast, embarrassment wouldn't be able to catch up with him.

(End of this chapter)