Chapter 28 Protection Fee

Seeing the quarrel and pushing in front of them, Su Qingyu stopped and looked.

I saw that this vegetable market was very crowded. The vegetables and livestock brought by farmers in the countryside are placed randomly on the ground. If conditions permit, a board is put on the board. If conditions are better, there is a cart, and they are placed on the cart.

The vegetables were picked and pushed all the way, and the vegetable leaves were a little wilted. People splashed them with water from time to time, making the whole street a little wet.

Add to this the excrement of domestic animals, the feathers shed by poultry and wild animals, as well as the mosquitoes attracted by the scraps thrown away by fish sellers and meat sellers...

The whole street looked crowded and dirty.

Su Qingnao saw many well-dressed women passing by with handkerchiefs covering their noses. They hurriedly turned around and left without even picking something. They didn't even count the money they got back.

There are also some people who don't care about the environment, maybe they are used to it, and they choose at the vegetable stalls and bargain with the farmers, which is lively and lively.

Looking at the quarrel and pushing place, a bunch of people gathered around. After listening for a while, Su Qingyu also understood.

It turned out that a few gangsters came early in the morning to collect the stall protection fee. A farmer had to pay a large sum of money for the chickens, ducks and vegetables he brought before he sold them. He was a little unhappy and started to quarrel with the farmer.

The neighboring villagers couldn't stand it, so they helped him by saying a few words. The gangster hit him with a stick, and the two sides started fighting.

Su Qingyu looked at the farmer's stall and saw a cage on the ground. Inside, two chickens and a duck could be seen vaguely with their feet tied and their wings clipped. Next to the chicken coop is half a basket of eggs and half a box of vegetables.

Some of them must have been sold.

You may not earn much if you sell them all, and the protection fee will be fifty cents.

A penny is very important to the farmers. They may have walked dozens of miles in the morning, pushing and shouldering the ground to sell money. The money they got was not enough to pay the protection fee, but they were impatient.

"We're not saying we won't pay the protection fee, but it's too much. We can't even make so much in the morning..." The old farmer begged weakly, hunched over. The two half-year-old grandchildren were close to him, pinching the corners of his clothes with fear on their faces.

"Stop talking nonsense! If you just sell vegetables, we will charge you ten cents, but look at you, you are selling poultry! Look at what was made for you on this ground. And we came to see it this morning, You picked out a cage of chickens and ducks, at least seven or eight of them, and I charge you fifty cents. It’s all for the sake of the fellow villagers, so I’ll leave you alone.”

The old man waved his hands repeatedly: "No, not that many. I only brought four chickens and one duck. There are three more that have not been sold. Each one only earns a few hard-earned money..."

Those bastards didn't listen: "Stop talking nonsense. If you don't pay, we will take away your cage of chickens and ducks."

"No way!" When the old man heard that the chickens and ducks were about to be taken away, he became anxious and subconsciously threw himself on the chicken coop.

The people watching the excitement whispered.

"This group of people is really going to eat people. All their hard-earned money this morning has gone into their pockets."

"Isn't it? No one is taking care of this? If the villagers don't dare to come to sell vegetables, what will the people in our town eat?"

"That is to say, it is enough to charge two or three cents. Why do you charge so much? You still think that the ground is dirty, as if they can clean it up after charging money."

Some people who didn't know the truth looked at a few gangsters and asked the people next to them: "Are they from the county government?"

Some of the onlookers looked disdainful: "Where did the county government come from in our town? There are some casual officials sent by the county government in our town. Well, they are the scholars from the Liu family in Qian Street. But they didn't say to invite anyone to come. Protection fee. This group of people is here to rob it.”

Su Qingyu listened for a while and finally understood the whole story. She looked at the street carefully and thoughtfully.

When she came to her senses again, several gangsters had walked away in high spirits with sticks on their shoulders.

When passing by her, Su Qingnao felt that one of them looked familiar, so she turned her head and took a closer look. Hey, doesn't he look familiar?

Some time ago, Su's mother kept talking about the widowed leopard girl in the village, saying how sad her life was as a widow with a son. Xiao Qingyang and Xiao Qingxing also kept talking about the leopard, saying that all the children in the village were afraid of it. he.

In those days, the vegetables in the Su family's vegetable patch kept disappearing inexplicably, and her stepgrandma cursed in the direction of Huabao's house for several days.

As a result, Su Qingnao was very familiar with the name Huabao.

Looking at the leopard again, he looks like a human and a dog, and his clothes are also bright. Looking at the age of twenty-three or four, he looks like a ruffian.

Because of their behavior, no one in the nearby countryside wanted to marry into his family. As a result, even though he is a grown-up, he is still single. Hua Bao's mother was the only one with him. She begged her grandfather and grandma to find him a matchmaker, but no matchmaker, no matter how greedy for money, would come to his door.

When the person you say you're close to hears that it's his home, they won't even open the door.

At this moment, Su Qingnao saw that he was looking agitated. He was holding a half-meter-long polished stick in one hand and tapping the palm of his other hand from time to time as he passed by her.

Maybe he noticed Su Qingyu's gaze and looked towards Su Qingyu... Maybe he thought Su Qingyu looked familiar, and even frowned in thought.

Su Qingyu didn't want to deal with him and quickly looked away, but the other party didn't stop.

It wasn't until the group of them had gone far that Su Qingyu moved to the vegetable market.

Look at the old man who was charged fifty cash, holding his two grandchildren in his arms and wiping away tears.

His grandson, about twelve or thirteen years old, lowered his head, holding the rope of the chicken coop tightly in his hand, his lips tightly pursed, his eyes full of hatred. The younger granddaughter hugged the old man's arm to avoid the gaze of the onlookers.

Su Qingmei sighed softly.

There were still three chickens and ducks in the cage, but they could only be sold for fifty cents. If they were taken away, it would be a loss. Looking at his stall on the ground, I'm afraid that after paying the money, there would be little left of the hard-earned money for the day.

Su Qingmei looked at the chickens and ducks in his cage and found that they were well-fed, with shiny and smooth feathers. The eggs in the basket were also wiped very clean. Although the vegetables in the vegetable basket were turned over in a mess, it could be seen that the vegetables were also grown very well, with few worm holes.

When Su Qingmei looked at the three generations of grandparents and grandchildren, the onlookers had already surrounded him and bought everything on his stall because they sympathized with the family.

The old man reacted, weighed the goods and thanked the buyer. After being comforted by everyone, the three grandparents and grandchildren calmed down a lot. They wiped their tears and helped the buyer to bundle the chickens, ducks and vegetables.

Finally, the half basket of eggs was also bought by an old lady.

The old man and his family packed up their burdens with many thanks, supported each other, and hurried out of the vegetable market.

Su Qingmei looked at it with some sighs. The lower-class people, who have no money and no power, have the hardest life.

Su Qingmei strolled slowly in the vegetable market.

I found that the variety is quite rich, with fish, meat, poultry, game, various eggs, mountain delicacies, river fresh, and vegetables.

But there is no good planning. The whole street is crowded and dirty, and there are so many people around the stalls that it is difficult to walk.

Farmers crowded together and put the things they brought on the ground at random, and there were water stains, dirt, and mosquitoes on the ground. Some places with a lot of water were so muddy that you couldn't even step on them.

The farmers wore straw sandals and their clothes were gray and patched. They didn't care if they got dirty. But most of the people who came out to buy things in the town had some money, so they wore cloth shoes. The women wore long skirts. When they stepped on them, their shoes got dirty and water got in them, and their skirts were splashed with a lot of mud and water.

Many people walked on tiptoe. They screamed when they stepped on water, and they shook their skirts off with frowns on their faces.

Su Qingmei walked around and had a bad experience.

She bought some food and her hands were full, so she was ready to go back.

With her hands occupied, she couldn't free her hands to hold the hem of her skirt, so she could only walk slowly on tiptoe. After wading through the muddy section, she looked down and saw that her cloth shoes were soaked, her footwear was soaked, and the hem of her skirt was full of mud.

Just as he was frowning, the food in his hand was snatched away.