Fang Pingying seeing that he agreed did not inquire more, and said to him, "I bought quite a lot of vegetables from the market today, what do you want to eat tonight?"
"Anything will do," Luo Zhiyong said as he walked towards the kitchen. "I’ll go see what you’ve bought."
After rummaging through the vegetables Fang Pingying bought, which were all radishes, potatoes, and cabbages, and with only enough at for one al, he couldn’t help but complain, "Why didn’t you buy more at? You are pregnant now, don’t be frugal with food."
Fang Pingying smiled and said, "I actually wanted to buy more, but there’s nowhere to store it. Even in cold weather, at goes bad if kept for too long."
"That’s true." Luo Zhiyong thought for a mont, then ca up with an idea, "How about this, I can ask the uncle who buys groceries for the cafeteria to help bring so back for us when he goes shopping."
"No, let’s not make my pregnancy seem like sothing extraordinary and beco a laughing stock." Fang Pingying quickly stopped him, "Let’s see later on. If the shop does well, we can buy a refrigerator in the city, that thing can preserve freshness and we won’t have to worry about storing at for longer."
Generally, most people in this area are from rural backgrounds and aren’t very well-off, preparing als from their own households simply and plainly, and not many can afford at for every al.
If Luo Zhiyong really asked soone to buy at every day, it would not only trouble others but could also cause gossip, which Fang Pingying did not want to handle in any special way.
"That can be done indeed." Luo Zhiyong didn’t oppose this ti, nodded, and said, "Alright, you decide."
At night, Fang Pingying originally planned to cook braised pork with potatoes, but sohow, although she had not had any reactions since getting pregnant, when handling the at, the sll suddenly made her nauseous. She ran to the bathroom and threw up again, but only spit out so gastric acid.
Luo Zhiyong, who was cleaning up the living room, saw Fang Pingying’s actions and imdiately rushed to the bathroom, asking anxiously, "What’s wrong, what’s wrong? Didn’t you say there were no major reactions, why are you throwing up again?"
Fang Pingying rinsed her mouth with water, her face sowhat pale, "I don’t know, probably the little one inside doesn’t like at, it protests as soon as it slls it."
"The little one is indeed naughty." Luo Zhiyong took Fang Pingying to the living room to sit down, then rolled up his sleeves and headed to the kitchen, "I’ll handle dinner, what would you like to eat?"
"Just make braised pork with potatoes, you eat the at, and I’ll have the potatoes."
"Alright then." Luo Zhiyong smiled, "Whatever my wife wants to eat, I’ll make; the wife’s word is the law."
"Tease."
Watching Luo Zhiyong rolling up his sleeves and bustling about in the kitchen with an apron on, Fang Pingying felt a burst of sweetness in her heart, thinking that if it weren’t for those annoying matters at ho, life for the two of them would really be good.
Plain, warm, just like any other ordinary married couple, though they occasionally had so argunts, it was trivial and did not cause any trouble.
But good tis never last; it seems life always needs a bit of turbulence to keep it from becoming boring.
In December, as the weather turned colder, every day was filled with heavy snow. Luo Zhiyong basically did not let Fang Pingying go out anymore, fearing the cold and slippery roads, and even public buses stopped running in the evening, worrying about safety.
Fang Pingying’s store and Uncle Zeng’s accounts were usually taken back from the city by Luo Zhiyong when he was free and shown to Fang Pingying.
Initially, the accounts of the store could be reconciled. If there was a discrepancy of just one or two dollars a day, Fang Pingying would consider it as so items being used up.
When goods were delivered from Uncle Zeng’s side, unavoidable breakage of pastries happened due to loading and unloading.
But because the pastries were packaged in small bags, only the appearance was affected, the taste was the sa.
When Fang Pingying was in the store, she specially arranged a small shelf to put the broken or squashed pastries on, offering them as daily specials at half price.
Custors, being thrifty, still bought quite a lot of these. If there really were so pastries that couldn’t be sold completely, Fang Pingying would count them as waste. Every day there were a few items worth several cents, one or two dollars that she and others would use as breakfast or snacks.
Thus, at the beginning, missing four to five yuan a week didn’t bother Fang Pingying too much, since Uncle Zeng also bore so of the loss for the wasted pastries. When truly calculated, the loss in the store wasn’t much.
She just asked Luo Zhiyong to ask Luo Honglan what was going on. Luo Honglan simply said that Fang Xiu got lazy as the days beca colder, reluctant to make breakfast in the mornings. On days when it was her turn to cook, she would use those pastries for breakfast for the two of them.
Fang Pingying didn’t comnt much on this, because Fang Xiu and Luo Honglan, who were working at the store, were under her room and board arrangent. If they didn’t use these pastries for breakfast, they would have to go out to buy ingredients, considering the cost of oil, salt, and gas, eating the used pastries wasn’t much different financially, so Fang Pingying didn’t quibble.
However, this latest week when Luo Zhiyong brought the accounts for her to see, it was clear that the numbers were far off – there was a discrepancy of 20 yuan in just one week, making it clear this was not just shrinkage.
Even if it was shrinkage, it ant Luo Honglan and Fang Xiu were eating too much, consuming all the shrinkage goods, which from a business perspective, was uneconomical.
Moreover, the accounts of their own store showed no discrepancies; the problem was only with the goods delivered from Uncle Zeng’s side.
This ant, surely, there was a problem on one side; either Uncle Zeng had made a mistake in recording the quantity of goods or soone from their own store was hiding the actual goods quantity while keeping the store’s accounts looking good.
Aware of this problem, Fang Pingying instinctively suspected Fang Xiu – in the store it was just Fang Xiu and Luo Honglan, with Luo Honglan not skilled in accounting and mostly handling cash only. She avoided taking responsibilities, fearing she might make mistakes.
Thus, such complex accounting was sothing Luo Honglan wouldn’t understand, let alone alter.
So, when Luo Zhiyong had a holiday on the weekend and ntioned going to the store to get the books, Fang Pingying told him, "Today I want to go to the store with you, it’s been a while since I’ve visited, I need to see how my store is doing."
Seeing that the weather outside was okay, not snowing and much of the snow had already lted, Luo Zhiyong nodded, "Sure, co with , but dress warmly, it’s cold outside."
Luo Zhiyong made sure Fang Pingying was dressed in almost all the winter clothes she had, making Fang Pingying feel like she was wrapped into a ball, so uncomfortable that she said to him, "I will wear one less wool sweater, just fill a warm water bottle for to carry. We can change the water when we get to the store, I’m wearing too much and can barely walk."
"That works." While saying that, Luo Zhiyong went to fill the type of glass bottle used for warming hands, but hesitated when passing it to her, "Maybe don’t carry it, once we get to the city we can buy a hot water bag. This glass bottle is easy to break, it might hurt you if it shatters."
Fang Pingying smiled as she took it, "I will be careful, but the water in a hot water bag gets cold easily."
Luo Zhiyong thought about it and glanced at the bottle, muttering softly, "If only there was sothing that didn’t need frequent refilling, sothing that could be charged or sothing like that."(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welco to visit Qidian (qidian) to vote and get monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.)
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