Return to 90 and start a career

With two "huge sums of money" in his pocket, Li Manjun left Ma Street and wandered around for a whole noon in Heather Town, which had three streets in the early 1990s.

Some people set up stalls to do small businesses, selling clothes, shoes, and snacks. As long as they could sell, they were selling.

People who have just emerged from the reform and opening up have a high enthusiasm for consumption and will buy whatever is available.

Looking at the busy stalls, Li Manjun swallowed unconsciously. She was greedy.

Then, he entered the only department store in the town.

The building is two stories high. The first floor sells daily necessities, including pots and pans, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea.

The second floor sells clothing, shoes, hats, electronic watches, and various fashionable trinkets.

Today is a big market, the flow of people is much larger than usual, and business at every counter is very good.

"Manjun is here, what do you want to buy?"

The saleswoman at the spice cabinet knew the residents of the town very well. As soon as she saw Li Manjun, she recognized her as the eldest daughter of Accountant Li's family in the town office and greeted her warmly.

Li Manjun called Auntie, scanned the tall display cabinet, and said with a smile, "Auntie, give me two kilograms of sugar."

He said and handed over the two dollars.

One pound of sugar costs one yuan, two pounds is exactly two yuan.

The sales lady gave Li Manjun a look at the scale on the self-labeled sugar. It weighed two kilograms, and handed it to Li Manjun, "Buying so much sugar, are you going to visit relatives?"

Li Manjun just smiled and hummed, then walked quickly towards the house of his former best friend Liu Yan with Baitang in his arms.

The saleswoman could only retract her gossipy gaze with regret.

Liu Yan's family lives in the compound behind the meat factory, and dozens of families live in a five-story tube building.

The meat factory moved to the county in the late 1980s, and now the factory building has become the town's chicken and duck slaughterhouse. As soon as you enter, there are chickens crowing everywhere, and chicken and duck feathers are flying all over the sky.

There was a fishy smell in the air, which didn't dissipate until we crossed the courtyard and entered the Tongzi Tower.

Liu Yan's house is on the first floor. It has an extra kitchen set up in a shed than the residents above, so there is no need to compete with neighbors for a shared kitchen.

This is also the reason why Li Manjun chose to come to Liu Yan.

One is because the two have a good relationship and are trustworthy.

Another thing is what she wants to do next, and only Liu Yan's separate kitchen can meet the conditions.

Of course, the kitchen conditions at Li Manjun's home were definitely better, but she didn't want her mother to know that she still had private money.

At this time, the adults and children are not at home, and the kitchen belongs to only two people.

Liu Yan looked at the two kilograms of sugar brought by Li Manjun in confusion, "Why are you buying sugar?"

"Open the coal hole and turn up the fire." Li Manjun followed the original memory and took down the iron pot and spoon from the kitchen shelf of Liu Yan's house and put them on the coal stove.

While operating, he explained: "Boil the sugar until it becomes thin and use it to replace the toothpaste skin."

"Toothpaste skin?" Liu Yan was confused, "Why are you changing the toothpaste skin? Are you collecting rags?"

Li Manjun raised his eyebrows and said, "You can say that."

Then, with a mysterious smile, he said, "I was just walking around the street and found a business opportunity, but whether it can be successful depends on how good the two of us are today."

Liu Yan's eyes suddenly lit up, and she immediately opened the furnace door proactively and said to Li Manjun: "Take me, take me!"

The coal fire licked the bottom of the iron pot, and the pot quickly became hot.

Li Manjun poured the cut sugar into the pot, stirred it evenly with a spoon, and licked a little water into it while stirring. Soon, half the pot of syrup was boiled out.

"Where are your peanuts? Get me some." Li Manjun asked.

Grandma Liu Yan’s family grew a lot of peanuts in her hometown, and the ones she couldn’t sell were dried and sent to Liu Yan’s house to serve as snacks for the children.

Liu Yan ran into the room and handed half a bowl of crushed peanuts to Li Manjun. The peanuts were sprinkled and the syrup in the pot simmered, turning into peanut candy mixed with peanuts.

Li Manjun twisted it up with a skimmed bamboo skewer and took a lick. It was a little hot, but sweet and fragrant.

"Is it delicious?" Liu Yan asked anxiously, waiting with a clean open clay pot in her hand.

"Well, it's almost done, let's put it on." Li Manjun nodded and handed the remaining candies on the bamboo stick to Liu Yan's mouth.

She took a lick and smiled happily, "Sweet!"

Li Manjun looked at the bamboo sticks in Liu Yan's hand and asked her, "Do you know where I can get these sticks?"

She just found this stick in the cupboard of Liu Yan's house. It may have been left over from snacks such as fried skewers she bought before, but she hasn't lost it yet.

Liu Yan thought for a while, said yes, and asked Li Manjun to wait for her for a while, then turned around and ran towards the neighbor's grandma's house upstairs.

There is an old lady selling candied haws skewers here, and she must have bamboo sticks at home.

Li Manjun waited for a short while, and Liu Yan rushed back, ran into the house to get the peanut bag sent by her grandma, scooped out a bowl with a bowl, carried it upstairs, and signed a handful of clean new bamboo sticks.

"There must be two hundred sticks in this handful. Is that enough, Manjun?" Liu Yan asked breathlessly.

Li Manjun nodded repeatedly, "That's enough, that's enough. Break one stick into two. We are still short of one bag."

Liu Yan immediately said: "I have an old schoolbag, made of cloth. Just wait, I'll get it!"

He rushed into the house like a gust of wind again, and when he came back there was a cloth bag in his hand.

Liu Yan put the sugar bowl and bamboo sticks in the bamboo basket and straddled her hands. Li Manjun grabbed the big cloth bag. The two sealed the coal stove, locked the doors, and happily ran towards the alley of the nearby residential area.

"How are we going to collect it?" Liu Yan asked curiously.

Li Manjun said: "Just shout."

Liu Yan was immediately frightened and she was embarrassed to open her mouth.

Li Manjun smiled and did not force her. He thought about the money, took a deep breath, and shouted loudly without any psychological burden:

"The toothpaste skin is replaced by peanut candy! Peanut candy, fragrant and sweet peanut candy!"

Liu Yan's face turned red, and she followed Li Manjun bravely, fearing that the neighbors would find her.

Fortunately, this residential area was quite far from her home, and there probably weren't many people who knew her nearby. After listening to Li Manjun shouting nonchalantly for a while, Liu Yan became more and more natural and started shouting too.

"The toothpaste skin is replaced with peanut candy! It's replaced with candy! It's replaced with candy!"

Soon, little kids who had been left at home before going to school poked their heads out of the doors and windows.

"How do I change it?"

Li Manjun replied loudly: "The small toothpaste tube costs five yuan for a candy bar, and the large toothpaste tube costs three yuan for a candy bar!"

The child nodded, ran to the house, picked up the toothpaste casing that had been hidden earlier, and ran over to exchange for candy.

A five-year-old child sniffed and handed over the toothpaste pods in his little black paws. Li Manjun counted them, and there were only four of them.

"One more to go."

After that, he twisted a piece of peanut candy and handed it to another child who had enough toothpaste rinds.

The five-year-old child looked at the peanut candy with saliva, sniffed hard, rolled his eyes, and thought of something, asked Li Manjun to wait for him, turned around and ran home.

I ran to the door of my house, walked lightly, glanced at my grandma who was lying in the room, squinting, and sneaked under the window sill. I stood on tiptoe, grabbed the unused toothpaste in my hand, unscrewed the cap, and squeezed out the toothpaste. , happily took the empty toothpaste holder and came to Li Manjun to exchange for candy.

"Okay, this is yours." Li Manjun handed the candy to him. The child sniffed and licked the candy, very happy.

"I want it too, I want it too!" the other children shouted.

In this moment, Li Manjun and Liu Yan were surrounded by children nearby.

If there were adults at home, they wanted to make the children happy, so they handed the remaining toothpaste cassettes to the children and asked them to exchange them for candy with Li Manjun.