Chapter 17 Want to buy sweet-scented osmanthus and wine It was a rare opportunity for them to come to town, so the three of them, having registered, naturally would not go home so early. "Awei, where are we going next?" Fang Yuansheng asked as he rode his bicycle. "Let's go buy some school supplies. You guys can also see if there's anything you want to buy. How about getting a haircut together later?" Fang Wei also sat on the back seat of Xu Cailing's bicycle. "can!" The three of them left the school together. As soon as I walked out of the school gate, I saw an old man pushing a bicycle and selling popsicles. "I'm selling popsicles! Mung bean, red bean jelly, tofu pudding! I'm selling popsicles! Mung bean, red bean jelly, tofu pudding!" Without a tape recorder, this magical and repetitive hawking sound was made by the old man's own voice. In the hot weather, the old man pushes his bicycle and sells popsicles on the streets. Occasionally, people from the village come to sell popsicles, but they are rare. However, in the busier areas of the town, it is very common.
What child doesn’t like to eat this kind of sweet snack? Especially in such a hot summer, a cool popsicle is simply a source of happiness for the whole day. Fang Wei sat on the back of the bicycle, looking at Ah Sheng and Cai Ling beside him as they looked at the old man with longing yet retreating expressions, and with melancholy and tangled eyes, which were very much like himself when he was a child. The two little friends naturally wanted to eat it too. But they are all very sensible children in the eyes of adults. They never dare to spend the pocket money given by adults indiscriminately, and they never take the initiative to ask adults for anything. An ice cream cone at yuan and a bottle of Coke at 3 yuan are very expensive things for them today. Even if the popsicle is only fifty cents a popsicle, they will just secretly hold the change in their pockets tightly, with a look of desire and hesitation in their eyes. After all, for them, fifty cents might be enough to rent a comic book from a bookstore and read it over and over again for a whole week. Fang Wei caught the expressions of the two friends. He smiled and greeted them: "Come on, let's go to the old man's place, I'll treat you two to some popsicles!" "Ah? No, that's not necessary..." "Come on, come on, the old man will go somewhere else soon." At Fang Wei's urging, the two friends rode their bikes at an unprecedented speed and appeared in front of the old man selling popsicles in a flash. The gust of wind caused by the sudden braking of the two bicycles also blew the old man's loose sweatshirt. "Uncle, how much are your popsicles?" Fang Wei asked loudly. "Mung beans, red beans, jelly, and tofu pudding are all 50 cents. How many would you like?" The old man was wearing a big straw hat, and under the hat was an old face weathered by wind and rain. As he smiled warmly, the wrinkles on his face became deeper, just like the cracked soil in the fields. "What do you two want to eat?" "I want a mung bean popsicle!" "Me too!"
"Then give me three green beans." "okay." The old man propped up his 28-inch bicycle and opened the large foam box fixed on the back seat. A hint of cool air drifted in the hot air. He probably made the jelly and tofu pudding himself, and the mung bean and red bean popsicles were probably picked up from a snack factory. There was no exquisite packaging, just a paper bag covering the popsicle with a piece of wood poking out from the bottom. Fang Wei took out some change and gave the old man one dollar and fifty cents. The old man also handed three mung bean popsicles to the three people. After covering the foam box, the old man continued to shout in his brainwashing and devilish voice, pushing his bicycle through the streets to continue selling. Midsummer is the time when the branches and leaves of trees grow rapidly, casting cool shade on the roadsides of the town, providing a place for people to rest and set up stalls. Fang Wei, Cai Ling and A Sheng sat together on a stone bench under the shade of a tree, eating popsicles happily, with their bicycles parked beside them. "How does it taste?" Fang Wei took a bite of the mung bean popsicle in his hand, feeling it slowly melting in his mouth. His tongue tasted the sweet and cool feeling in his memory. The sultry summer air seemed to radiate from every pore of his body at this moment. "Hmm, not bad, not bad!" Xu Cailing, who has always had a cheerful personality, appeared very gentle when eating the popsicle. Fang Wei and A Sheng both bit it, but she licked it slowly, as if she was eating delicious food slowly. "Fang Wei, you treat us this time, and we'll treat you next time." "Okay." Fang Wei didn't care. Although no one had much money in their pockets at the moment, happiness was often not measured by money. Even if one became rich in the future, he might not be able to buy the taste of this popsicle that he had when he was young. If you want to buy sweet-scented osmanthus with wine, it doesn't seem like you are a teenager. Fang Wei was in a very good mood after entertaining his younger self and his friends. Fang Wei and Fang Yuansheng finished their popsicles first, and then went to a nearby shade tree to find a master hairdresser to help them cut their hair. "Cai Ling, do you want to cut your hair?" "No, my mother will help me cut it, you guys cut it." Fang Wei got his hair cut first. He sat on a wooden stool. The master barber tied a piece of cloth around his neck and started cutting his hair with a pair of manually sharpened scissors. There is a barber shop nearby, but a quick haircut in the shop costs five dollars, but if you find a master haircut on the roadside, it only costs three dollars. It was just a crew cut anyway, so Fang Wei was too lazy to spend the extra two dollars. The results were basically the same, and people didn't have so many messy hairstyles these days. It's this scissors sharpener... when it occasionally pulls your hair, it really hurts!! Soon, Fang Wei finished cutting his hair. Without a mirror, he had no idea how his haircut looked. However, seeing the look of disgust on the face of the girl next to him, he guessed that it was not very good. Of course, Xu Cailing's aesthetic taste doesn't count. Every time after getting her hair cut, she always complains that it's so ugly. In her opinion, boys look the most handsome with long hair like Nicholas Tse, who is the most popular male star nowadays! As for Jay Chou and so on, who is that? If Fang Wei remembered correctly, Jay Chou's first solo album was released this year. Unfortunately, the island is remote, and by the time he became famous here, it would be a long time... "Uncle, is there any water?" Fang Wei asked.
The weather is hot and it is inevitable that there will be sweat on the neck and face. After just getting my hair cut, the sparse hair sticks to my skin and is very itchy. "Yes! There is a bucket of clean water. Wash yourself, young man. There is also a towel next to it for you to wipe." Forget about the towel. Looking at the towel that was almost turning black, Fang Wei was immediately discouraged. He just squatted beside the bucket, bent over, and scooped water with the ladle in his other hand, which was somewhat inconvenient. Before he could pour the water on his head, a small hand reached out and took the ladle from his hand. "Squat down, I'm going to get your clothes wet." "Pour it slowly, please..." As soon as Fang Wei bent over, Xu Cailing took a ladle full of water and poured the cool water behind his head like watering a flower. You know what, this process is quite fulfilling. Xu Cailing watered him, rubbed his head, and talked to herself: "I'll give you more water so that you can bloom and bear fruit soon!" "...Xu Cailing, are you watering the flowers here?! Hey hey...slow down!" Finally, he rinsed the sparse hair on his head clean, and then he roughly sifted the short hair with his hands. In the hot weather, the hair dried in a short while without the need for a towel. A Sheng, who had his hair cut later, did not have the treatment of having his hair washed by the beautiful girl. Seeing that there were no other customers at the moment, the old man took the initiative to wash the young man's hair. The pair of rough and powerful old hands rubbed fiercely, making Ah Sheng grimace. "Young man, take a closer look at the mud you rubbed off the back of your neck!" "..." As a result, the young boy Asheng suffered a blow both physically and mentally, and he spent three dollars for it. …… "Buy two pieces of clothing." "Where can I buy it?" “This is everywhere.” Along the Baitan River, there are vendors setting up stalls everywhere in the shaded areas. There are people who cut hair, people who sell home-grown vegetables and fruits, people who sell various farming tools, people who sell clothes, shoes and socks, etc. With the arrival of a new semester, I have to buy myself some new clothes. Although there are small shops specializing in selling clothes, Fang Wei and his two friends are still more keen on buying at roadside stalls. In the words of my parents, the quality of the clothes is the same, but the ones in the store are more expensive. Of course, for the three of them, choosing to buy clothes at roadside stalls was mainly to save more money. After all, the money saved from the details of daily life was their few pocket money. Fang Wei and A Sheng bought a T-shirt and two pairs of socks, while Xu Cailing bought a pair of sweatpants. They were all unknown brands that they had never heard of. I'm not old enough to be vain, as long as the clothes are comfortable and fit me well.
After getting their hair cut and buying clothes, the three of them rode their bikes back to the school gate. There is a bookstore here called Guangming Bookstore. I don’t know if there is a Guangming Bookstore at the entrance of every school, but Fang Wei remembers that there is one. There are two or three bookstores and stationery stores like this in the town, but this one is the largest. Although it is called large, it is actually only about 30 to 40 square meters of business area. However, there are quite a lot of types of stationery and books. School is about to start, and I always have to buy some stationery. Fang Wei got out of the back seat and took out a book from the basket. It was "Fortress Besieged" that he rented two weeks ago. It would have been too expensive to buy the book outright. Xu Cailing and Fang Yuansheng also took out the comic book they had rented before, which was the very popular "Dragon Ball". They seemed to have seen Piccolo beating up Son Goku at the martial arts tournament recently. This passionate and righteous comic is the masterpiece in Fang Wei's mind. Now when he recalls the scene where Sun Wukong transformed into a Super Saiyan and beat up Frieza, his blood still boils. That is also the most perfect Saiyan form in Fang Wei's mind. As for those Saiyans with colorful hair that appeared later... what the hell are they? ! When I read the "Dragon Ball" comics now, I have read them many times, so the feeling they bring is naturally not as shocking as when I first read them. But for Xu Cailing and Fang Yuansheng, who were amazed by "Dragon Ball" when they first read it, the first thing they did when they rushed into the bookstore was to look for "Dragon Ball". In order to save money, their reading progress was the same. A comic book cost three yuan, but renting a book only cost fifty cents a week, so the two friends agreed to rent one book each, so that they could share the progress in the most pocket-money-saving way. When they walked into the store with the comics they rented last time, Xu Cailing and Fang Yuansheng suddenly felt Fang Wei's good intentions. He treated us to popsicles, saving us the fifty cents we had to pay to rent comic books... Uh... He really...! With a friend like this, what more could one ask for? ! "Why, why are you two looking at me with such slimy eyes?" "Brother Wei! We will call you Brother Wei from now on!" “…That’s not necessary.” In the middle of summer, Fang Wei couldn't help but shiver... (End of this chapter)
