All she knew now, was that she was somewhere in South City, which was very far away from the Sea City. Even if she took a flight home, it would take her seven to eight hours. Furthermore, there were no direct flights from here to Sea City, and she would need to take a connecting flight. If she traveled by train, it would be about 40 hours, or approximately two days and two nights. She had no idea how long it would take to drive there, but it would probably take a few days’ time. Perhaps, it might even take her ten days or half a month, but she only had about 70 yuan with her, which was far from enough for the journey home.
Half a month later, as there were quite a number of people who came to have their hair done, she managed to collect another basketful of eggs. Additionally, the chickens at Changsheng’s house had more and better food to eat recently, so they would lay about five or six eggs daily. As these accumulated over the past to weeks, they finally collected a basket of a few hundred eggs.
However, the weather seemed to have become colder. Perhaps, the wintry coldness of late spring had arrived. Therefore, the weather for the past few days was quite cold and frosty. Even though the temperature was not extremely freezing, the lashing gale was like sharp invisible knives. As it slashed endlessly at the skin, the searing pain was simply unbearable.
Yan Huan covered her face with a piece of cloth, leaving only her eyes uncovered. The wind was blowing so fiercely that she could barely keep her eyes open. She raised her hand, trying to block the piercing wind from blowing at her eyes. However, her fingers became stiff and frozen from the numbing cold.
After walking for a while, she did not feel too cold anymore, perhaps due to the physical exercise. However, the blowing winter gust was still bone-chillingly cold.
Yan Huan and Changsheng immediately made their way to the restaurant. Coincidentally, the chef noticed them when they walked in.
“You guys are just in time.” The chef smiled as he continued to say, “I was just talking about the two of you, and when you would bring more eggs over. Everyone told us that your eggs are delicious, and have a smoother texture than the other eggs. So, I was waiting for your eggs to arrive.”
“In that case, do you still need the eggs? We still have more eggs in our village.” Changsheng was an honest person. He thought of helping the other villagers to sell their eggs if he sold all of his.
“Of course. we do. However many eggs you have, we’ll take them.” The chef smilingly took the basket of eggs from them and said, “As long as you can guarantee that the other eggs are as fresh as your free-range chicken eggs, we will buy all of them.”
“They’re the same, they’re all exactly the same,” Changsheng hurriedly nodded as he explained, “The hens are all reared by the villagers themselves. The eggs were laid in the past two weeks, so they are still very fresh.”
“In that case, ask them to bring the eggs here.” The chef had asked someone to weigh the basket of eggs. They paid five yuan for one kilogram of free-range chicken eggs, which was extremely cheap. Nowadays, even ordinary eggs would cost three yuan and a half, while free-range eggs would at least be priced at one and a half yuan. However, Yan Huan knew that in reality, these free-range chicken eggs were worth around seven to eight yuans. However, the villagers were not educated enough to realize it, and assumed that their eggs were merely normal chicken eggs. Actually, their eggs were pollution-free, but they did not know a proper place to sell their eggs, so they kept selling it cheaply.
Even though the price that the restaurant paid was not that high, it was definitely much better than selling the eggs on the streets. From now on, as long as they had eggs, they could bring them here directly to sell them. Hence, they did not need to waste time sitting on the streets to sell the eggs.
Changsheng managed to quickly gather the other villagers. Although all of them were dressed in old rags, they appeared trustworthy and honest. When anyone saw their nervously hopeful expressions, they surely could not detest them.
“I’m going out for a bit, I’ll be back after a while.”
Yan Huan told Changsheng casually. She made a mental calculation, calculating the time it would take to weigh the eggs and count the money. In the end, she realized that she would have enough time to return there.
“Be careful.” Changsheng wanted to go with her, but Yan Huan would not allow him to. All he could do was advise her, but he was deathly worried in his heart.
“Don’t worry, I know the way.” Yan Huan slightly nodded at Changsheng and covered her face again, before turning around and leaving the restaurant. When she arrived at the shop where she made the calls, she walked in after hesitating for a moment. This time, a lady was minding the shop instead of the previous shopkeeper.
As she picked up the receiver, she felt a bout of nervousness and her hand was drenched with sweat, making it hard for her to keep her grip on the phone. Her fingers trembled violently, as she carefully dialed the numbers. She checked them carefully as they appeared on the screen to confirm that it was correct. It’s this number, it’s put in correctly.
However, when the same cold robotic voice came out of the receiver, she felt that her heart was stabbed with a pang of bitterness as tears uncontrollably fell from her eyes,
“Hi, the number that you have dialed is not in service.”
She put down the receiver and did not try to call any other numbers. She knew that even if she attempted, it would be a waste of time, as all the numbers would not be in service and would not be connected. As she turned around to leave, her footsteps sounded unusually heavy.
Never mind. She tried to comfort herself. Haven’t I decided that I’m going to drive home? Telephones and numbers can be changed, but you can’t relocate a home so easily.
She suddenly thought of Qing Hua from the book ‘Uncle to Qing Hua.’ In order to return home, the girl had to collect trash and even sleep on the streets. At least, her current situation was better than Qing Hua’s. She knew where her home was, she had not lost her memories, and she did not need to pick up trash.
Rubbing her chest, she remembered that she noticed a shop that sold jewelry. She wondered if they would let her pawn her ring and necklace. Her necklace was not worth much, but the ring was very valuable. When Lu Yi first bought her the ring, it was worth more than 500,000 yuan. It was an authentic South African diamond, but she was not sure how much it would sell for. She thought that as long as she could sell it for around
Just moments after she had left, two men walked into the shop. One of them was the shop owner, who nearly injured Yan Huan’s fingers with the telephone cord last time.
The man pointed at the telephone and said, “Look at that, my telephone was just installed but I could not even earn 10 cents. Every number that is dialed is not in service, how can this be?”
The man lifted the receiver and checked it for some time, before saying, “The problem is the receiver. Even though it shows that the number is pressed, it actually isn’t. That’s why all the numbers dialed are actually missing a number. Since all of them are missing one number, they would not be in service, right?”
Yan Huan had been standing outside the jewelry shop for a while now.
Perhaps, only this shop seemed more luxurious there. At least, it had transparent glass doors and the light shining from inside was also very bright. At a glance, this place seemed like a glittering palace compared to the other places in that area.
