Electronic Nezha

Chapter 208 Uncle Ma is Good

After moving the boxes, Ma Fugui started chatting with Li Ping and Hu Chunyan.

There's not much formality among people in society. Ma Fugui told others to call him Old Ma, but he followed my lead and called me "Ping'er" and "Sister Yan." The three of us actually chatted enthusiastically.

Ma Fugui portrays himself as a worldly-wise but perpetually struggling old man struggling to survive on the poverty line. He has worked and earned money in various places since he was young, and there is no place in China from south to north that he has not been. He knows exactly what food is good in which place and what strange customs people have in which place. He doesn't care when Hu Chunyan sometimes makes sarcastic remarks, but he can cleverly defuse the situation with self-deprecation, making the two women laugh and giggle.

Today is the eve of the Lunar New Year shopping festival. With the gates open, a few people have wandered in and around. Sometimes they come to our two stalls to ask about fruit, so we've made a sale.

As a few people were casually picking through fruit at our stall, a short, stocky man in a security guard uniform shouted, "Don't linger at the entrance, it's a safety hazard, you know?" His shout caused the customers to roll their eyes and walk away.

An old acquaintance, Zhang Biao, has appeared again!

Zhang Biao gripped his belt with both hands, gave me a forced smile, and said, "Didn't expect to see you again, did you?"

I really didn't expect that this guy, who got arrested and detained for a few days after splashing milk tea all over Chen Feng, and then got punched by Hao Hao and went bald, would show up here again, all high and mighty, wearing the security guard uniform he'd always dreamed of. Looks like he really has some influence.

Hu Chunyan said angrily, "This is a market. How can we do business if we don't let customers linger? Zhang Biao, stop pretending to be something you're not!"

Zhang Biao, seemingly too lazy to pay attention to her, then shamelessly said to Li Ping, "Ping'er, still single? If you date me, do you think I won't take care of you? Think about it."

Li Ping turned away with a look of disgust.

Ma Fugui strode out of the stall and dragged Zhang Biao into a corner.

"What do you want to do?" Zhang Biao asked warily.

Ma Fugui gave a forced smile and casually stuffed half a pack of cigarettes into Zhang Biao's pocket: "Brother Biao, right?"

Zhang Biao yelled, "What are you doing! Who are you trying to disgust?" and reached for his cigarette.

Ma Fugui held his hand down tightly, still laughing it off, "There's a long way to go, just wait and see how I behave!"

Zhang Biao struggled a couple of times but couldn't pry Ma Fugui's hand off, so he went along with it, saying, "Then I'll wait for you." Then he turned to me and said, "Your new buddy is much more sensible than that cripple!"

He came to protest just to make a statement. After showing off, he moved on to other stalls. His tactics were exactly the same. He would cause trouble at any stall with customers. The biggest weakness of merchants is that they don't want to cause trouble. Before long, Zhang Biao's hands were full of spoils, including candy, dried goods, couplets, and fireworks.

I gestured towards Zhang Biao's retreating figure with my lip and said to Ma Fugui, "Old nemesis."

"I see it."

I lowered my voice and said, "Do you have any ideas?" There's a saying that describes something disgusting: "eating a fly." My situation is even worse than that. If you eat it, at least it won't bother you anymore. But Zhang Biao is much more disgusting than a fly. You watch him fall into the cesspool time and time again, and then watch him climb out of the cesspool again and time again to continue bothering you. Why use a fly swatter to kill a fly? Besides the fact that you can't hit it with your hands, you also have to consider its living habits!

Ma Fugui said with a smile, "You tell me what you want me to do."

"You're more knowledgeable and experienced, your idea is definitely better—tell him to stop making a fuss!"

Ma Fugui still smiled and said, "No matter what method we use, we can't use it here. My cigarettes aren't that easy to smoke."

Everything is set up here, but customers are still few and far between. There's no need to keep four people at the stall. Li Ping is going back over there, and I mean she should take Ma Fugui back with her. Hu Chunyan can stay here and watch both stalls by herself. Apart from sometimes being a bit sharp-tongued, Sister Hu is a reliable person.

Hu Chunyan said unhappily, "Anyway, it's not busy over there, let Lao Ma stay and chat with me." They were having a good chat, and she was even getting a little hooked.

Of course, Ma Fugui couldn't let me leave alone. He said cheerfully, "I have to make a good impression since I just got a new boss. You'll have to take care of things here, Sister Yan. Besides, I don't even know the prices, so what use would I be if I stayed?"

Hu Chunyan grabbed a pen and paper, wrote down a price list, and handed it to Ma Fugui, saying, "Then just memorize it, that'll be fine. You need to understand this stuff later on, you can't just be carrying boxes, can you?" Ma Fugui was taken aback. No matter how good the relationship is, it's still two separate businesses. If the other side doesn't want to help you watch the stall, you can't just say I should go ahead, that's not allowed by the experiential learning approach...

Old Ma can't leave, which means I can't leave either. I've seen how reckless the fishmen are; they won't give you a break just because it's the market. And I have no reason to stay.

"Uncle Ma, you can carry it. I'll leave after you've memorized it." I could only make up an excuse to delay for now.

Ma Fugui clutched the paper with a worried expression, forgetting one line after memorizing two. He kept mixing up the prices of oranges and tangerines, and then pointed at the paper and asked Hu Chunyan what the character was.

"You'll be ruined by a lack of education your whole life! Old Ma, how come you can't even memorize something as simple as this?" Hu Chunyan's mouth started to work hard.

“You try it when you’re my age!” Ma Fugui retorted, then added, “Besides, you’ve written it wrong. The character for ‘berry’ in ‘strawberry’ isn’t the same as the character for ‘plum’ in ‘plum blossom’. I don’t know how to write that either, but the character for ‘apple’ can’t possibly be the same as the character for ‘peace’ in ‘peace’. How long have you been in this business, and you’ve only ever written ‘pingguo’?”

Hu Chunyan said, "Just tell me if you can understand it or not—besides, this is an international writing style. Why do we eat apples on Christmas Eve? Because of peace."

"You're awesome! So the whole world uses Chinese characters now, huh? Then how do you explain 'liulian' (流连)?"

"The taste of durian will leave you wanting more!"

"If you, as a fruit seller, are going to use puns like this, then even fewer people will buy pears!"

I said to Li Ping, "I never imagined that such a small fruit stand could produce such outstanding talents."

"Hehehehehe." A burst of highly infectious laughter rang out. I was wondering why Li Ping was making this noise too when Ma Chaoran suddenly jumped out from behind me, "Baby!"

I was a little surprised and asked, "Baby, what brings you here?"

Ma Fugui: "Baby?"

Hu Chunyan tugged at him and said, "Don't shout nonsense!"

Ma Chaoran took my hands and said, "If you won't pick me up from get off work, I'll have to come pick you up instead."

"I'm just opening up a second front."

"So I've come to cheer you on!" she said, bouncing around. I could only bounce along with her, and the two of us looked like we were doing a quickstep.

Li Ping smiled and said, "This hot spring bath has really strengthened our relationship."

It's hard to describe the way Ma Fugui looked at us, especially at me...

Hu Chunyan said to Ma Fugui, "Alright, you don't need to think about showing off in front of your boss anymore. He and his partner are going home to enjoy their time together. Instead, tell me about your experience selling urns."

Ma Fugui gritted his teeth and said, "An urn? I've sold those things to countless people!" Judging from his predatory manner, I felt like I was already in his mind.

Ma Chaoran pointed at Ma Fugui and asked me, "Baby, is this the person you just hired?"

"Yes, I'll share your surname. From now on, you can call me Uncle Ma too."

Ma Chaoran nodded politely to her father and said, "Hello, Uncle Ma."

(End of this chapter)