The night passed without incident, and early the next morning, Li Yi was roused by his third older sister, Li Na.
Knowing how anxious his third sister was, Li Yi didn’t say a word. After a quick bite to eat, he got to work.
Since the 150-plus portions he’d made yesterday hadn’t been enough to sell out, Li Yi decided to make even more today.
Fortunately, making liangpi wasn’t particularly difficult—it just took some time.
After more than three hours, he finally finished processing over 40 jin of flour, producing a total of over 210 sheets of noodles.
After chopping the side dishes and loading everything onto the mule cart, the siblings headed straight for the county seat.
Just like yesterday, their first stop in the county seat was the state-run restaurant to sell mushrooms!
Once again, Liu Jingshan personally received Li Yi. After peeling them, the three large baskets of mushrooms weighed a total of 137 jin, selling for 95.9 yuan.
Just like yesterday, Liu Jingshan generously gave Li Yi 96 yuan.
The whole process of selling the mushrooms took less than 15 minutes. Li Na didn’t even get a chance to help before she saw Li Yi slip the 96 yuan into his pocket.
To be honest, Li Na was truly shocked!
Although she had heard Li Yi mention before that mushrooms sold for 70 cents per jin,
But hearing about it and seeing it with her own eyes were two different things—the visual impact of that thick stack of 10-yuan notes was simply indescribable.
So much so that even after the donkey cart had gone a long way, Li Na still hadn’t snapped out of it!
“Hey, snap out of it!”
Hearing Li Yi’s voice, Li Na shot him a withering look and said, “What’s with the ‘hey’? Call me ‘sister’—you have no manners at all!”
“What’s wrong? Did that get to you?”
“Not really, I was just a little shocked. You made nearly a hundred yuan in just a moment—that’s pretty scary!” Li Na said, her face still showing signs of lingering fear.
“Haha, a hundred bucks is nothing. In a few years, even making ten thousand a day won’t be anything special!” Li Yi said nonchalantly.
“Ten thousand yuan? My goodness! A ten-thousand-yuan-a-day earner? That’s impossible!”
“Sis, times are changing. The government has already allowed private enterprise to exist, and the vitality of the market is about to explode. It’s bound to make a group of people rich…”
Seeing that his older sister was completely lost, Li Yi didn’t continue with the theoretical stuff. Instead, he said, “Sis, you just need to know that our family will be doing much better soon—that’s all you need to know!”
“Hmm, but I’ve got to warn you about something. Don’t get all cocky just because you made a little money. You’ve really messed up for Xue now—you’d better treat her right!”
Li Na still felt terribly guilty about what had happened between Tang Xue and her younger brother, and her words inevitably leaned toward Tang Xue’s side.
“Sis, I’ll treat her well even without you telling me to. I promise!” Li Yi said.
“Hmph, your promises don’t mean a thing to me. Save them for Xiao Xue!”
“Are you even my sister?” Li Yi complained helplessly.
“Heh, what do you think?”
As they chatted and laughed, the siblings arrived at the entrance of the sugar factory.
Just like yesterday, the area was already packed with workers waiting to buy liangpi.
Upon seeing Li Yi’s distinctive bright red donkey cart, the crowd immediately gathered around.
Li Yi quickly unloaded the cart and set up his stall, then began slicing the noodles and preparing the broth, while Li Na stood by to collect money and grain coupons.
Since they’d brought extra sheets of noodles today, they didn’t finish selling the last batch until past one o’clock!
After sweeping up the trash on the ground, the siblings left the sugar factory!
Since they were going to the educated youth commune today to propose marriage, they had to prepare some supplies. Plus, with the flour at home running low, they also needed to go shopping.
So the siblings drove their mule cart straight to the supply and marketing cooperative in town.
This wasn’t Li Yi’s first time at the supply and marketing cooperative. Since he always came in acting like a big spender, the sales clerks there all recognized him.
As soon as Li Yi walked in, a young female clerk came over to greet him, smiling as she said, “Comrade, you’re back again!”
“Yep, I’m bothering you again!” Li Yi said with a smile.
“What would you like today?”
“First, I’ll take some white flour—fifty pounds today!”
“Sure. Anything else?”
“Yes, I’d also like two feet of plain cotton fabric, two feet of patterned cotton, two flower-patterned enamel basins, two thermoses, two towels, two bars of soap, two tubes of toothpaste, two bottles of face cream, two pounds of brown sugar, and two packs of Big White Rabbit milk candies!”
Hearing Li Yi’s order, the sales clerk asked in surprise, “Comrade, you’re getting two of everything—are you getting married?”
“Pretty much. I’m going to propose today!”
“Well, congratulations! Your fiancée is truly lucky—you’re bringing so many gifts just for the proposal!” the saleswoman said with a look of envy.
“Haha, my wife is an educated youth from the city—she’s beautiful and well-educated. She deserves the best!” Li Yi said with a smile.
“No wonder you’re spending so much. I wish you a long and happy life together, and may you have children soon!”
“Thanks so much! When I get married, I’ll treat you all to some wedding candy!” Li Yi said happily.
“Well, you’d better not wait too long, hahaha!”
…….
After easily buying all the raw materials for tomorrow’s market stall and the items needed for today’s marriage proposal, Li Yi and Li Na set off on their journey back to the village.
But just as they were less than five kilometers from Nianzishan Village, they suddenly spotted a person lying on the dirt road ahead, with a bicycle overturned beside them.
Without hesitation, Li Yi stopped the mule cart and went over to investigate.
Lying on the ground was a gray-haired old man who appeared to be in his fifties. His eyes were tightly shut, and his face was completely pale.
“He… he isn’t dead, is he?” Li Na said, her voice trembling.
Li Yi placed his hand on the old man’s carotid artery to check for a pulse, then leaned over to listen to his chest before saying, “He’s still alive, but his breathing is weak. His condition is critical!”
“Th-then what should we do?”
Li Yi first examined the old man’s body. Aside from a scrape on his arm, he found no other obvious external injuries, which suggested the old man hadn’t lost consciousness due to an injury but had likely suffered a medical episode.
But Li Yi wasn’t a professional doctor; he clearly couldn’t determine what was wrong with the old man.
“Sis, go get that tablecloth from the car and cover his head with it—we don’t want him to get dehydrated from the sun!”
“Okay!”
When Li Na walked over with the tablecloth, she saw Li Yi rummaging through the old man’s pockets!
“Xiao Yi, what are you doing? Even though he’s unconscious, we can’t do anything unethical!”
Li Yi shot her a look and said, “What are you thinking? Am I that kind of person?”
Li Na looked at Li Yi, then said with a serious expression, “You are!”
Hearing this, Li Yi was instantly speechless.
But when he thought about his past behavior, it made sense that his third sister wouldn’t trust him.
“He’s clearly having a medical episode,” Li Yi explained. “If it were a common elderly ailment, he’d have his own medicine. Let me see if he has any on him!”
Just as he spoke, Li Yi noticed several hard, lumpy objects in the old man’s outer pocket and hurriedly pulled them out.
Disappointingly, however, they weren’t medicine at all—just a few pieces of candy.
Apart from these candies, the old man had only a few yuan, some grain coupons, and a work ID.
The ID card revealed that the old man’s name was Wang Guoguang, and he was the deputy director of the county glass bottle factory.
Seeing that Li Yi hadn’t found any medicine, Li Na said anxiously, “Xiao Yi, what are we going to do without medicine? If he dies here, won’t we be held responsible?”
Li Yi frowned but said nothing. He stared at the pieces of candy over and over, then carefully examined the old man’s complexion.
“Sis, go to the car and find a clean bamboo tube, then bring over a tube of brown sugar water!”
Although Li Na didn’t know what Li Yi was up to, she did as he said.
Once the brown sugar water was ready, Li Yi immediately had the old man lie across his lap, then used a small wooden spoon—the kind used for seasoning—to slowly feed the brown sugar water into his mouth.
Since the old man had already lost consciousness, Li Yi was worried he might choke, so he could only feed him bit by bit.
It took over ten minutes to get the entire half-bamboo tube of brown sugar water down his throat.
Li Yi then listened carefully to the old man’s heartbeat and noticed that his pulse had slowed significantly compared to before, and the cold sweat on his forehead had subsided considerably.
Realizing the brown sugar water had taken effect, he immediately said, “Sis, the old man’s condition has stabilized for now, but just to be safe, we should take him to the hospital!”
“Hmm, let’s hurry then. Don’t let this delay your marriage proposal!”
“Okay!”
……..