Chapter 47 Mobile vendors on Walker Street

Chen Yan watched the third uncle's figure disappear into the alley opposite No. 33 Walker Street.

He was shivered by the cold wind rushing in from outside the door. His head finally came to his senses, and he hurriedly closed the door. His heart finally relaxed, and he let out a long breath.

"Oh shit……"

The pressure brought by his third uncle was beyond his imagination, but fortunately he had already experienced the weirdness in the zoo at night and had developed immunity to this kind of pressure.

After calming down, Chen Yan thought of one thing:

Is the third uncle's abnormal behavior related to his extraordinary ability?

Chen Yan still remembers the weird story that his third uncle told in the zoo - the story about the "living corpse" named Solar. To this day, he can still recall it clearly.

If Uncle San's "resurrection" is related to his extraordinary ability, then everything can be explained clearly.

Chen Yan thought for a moment and couldn't think of any other possibilities for the time being.

So he put on his coat and went out.

The waffles from last night had been digested long ago. As soon as his nervous spirit calmed down, he felt hungry and his eyes turned dark with hunger.

He left his house and walked quickly west along Walker Street for six minutes, when he saw a breakfast vendor.

It stands to reason that the municipal government in the old city of Yanan City has banned these mobile vendors who do not pay taxes——

After 6 a.m. every morning, the police station in each street will organize patrols to disperse them.

On the surface, this is because it is difficult for the municipal government to collect taxes from them, and also because they occupy the already narrow streets - public transportation.

It is now 7 o'clock in the morning. Under normal circumstances, at this time, the mobile vendors selling breakfast should have already closed their stalls.

But today, I don’t know what happened. Both sides of the street were crowded with various vendors selling breakfast.

They push carts they assembled or carry baskets made of hemp rope and sell on both sides of the street.

There is no difference between the people at the bottom of the empire and the people in the Asian hometown. They take great pains to eat——

Even if there are only a few simple ingredients that they can use, and even if these ingredients are not easy to obtain, they will make good use of every ingredient and not waste any of it.

Frugality and frugality are one of the most practical rules for surviving in the cities of the empire.

There was quite a lot of food in the morning market today. Chen Yan took a quick look at it:

The drinks include coffee, ginger beer, pea soup, mushy paste, mint mushy paste (completely different experiences from ordinary mushy paste), etc...

Most of what we eat is potato chips, sandwiches, meat pies, salted eels, smoked herrings, fruit pies, gingerbread, etc...

Even rarer fruits appeared in today's morning market: oranges, lemons, pineapples...

For the working class, fruit is one of the luxuries - as large numbers of farmers left their hometowns, large sharecroppers were able to annex land and monopolize agricultural products, thereby raising the prices of agricultural products.

The bachelor workers like these ready-made things the most. They can eat enough for one person and the whole family will not be hungry, and they don't mind spending two pennies on a luxurious breakfast.

Workers with families have some concerns. They usually have no way to eat normal food. They have something to eat but not something to drink. If they have something to drink, they have no money to buy food. So they stood hesitantly in front of the stall for a long time before gritting their teeth and taking out the food.

For one penny, I bought some brown bread and a little bit of paste, which I barely used to satisfy my hunger.

It's impossible not to eat. They only eat two meals a day, and breakfast is a crucial thing.

There is always a balance between making money and overdrafting the body. From this aspect, each of them is a master at playing with this balance.

Chen Yan often saw workers in tattered clothes standing in front of the breakfast stall, stuffing their hands into their trouser pockets, turning over and over, rubbing the pennies in their pockets, hesitating.

Looking at them, he suddenly thought, if the Labor Party comes to power, will these people have enough money for breakfast?

He had no time to care about them.

He can't even take care of himself.

He came to a mobile vendor he used to frequent and took out two pennies.

"Three portions of black bread, two portions of pea soup, and one portion of mint mush."

The paste is made of milk and starch. Although it tastes bad, it is very satisfying - Chen Yan bought this mint paste for himself.

The pea soup was bought for oga rice and glutinous rice crackers.

Because Asians who have just come to the empire are usually not used to drinking glutinous rice. The same happened to Chen Yan when he first came to the empire. The first time he drank glutinous rice, he almost threw up.

But this stuff is really practical. After one bowl, you won’t be hungry for most of the day. It is a useful tool for workers to save money.

Asian immigrants, as long as they are not very rich big bosses, have become fond of drinking goo after coming to the empire for a long time, because it is so cheap.

The owner of the mobile stall in front of Chen Yan was a native aunt from the empire. Chen Yan used to buy breakfast from her because her family added more milk to the paste than other stores, making it less likely to cause vomiting.

When the aunt was collecting the money, Chen Yan inadvertently glanced at her purse.

There wasn't much money in that purse.

Chen Yan said in a relaxed tone of greeting: "Is the business good today?"

The aunt didn't seem to expect that this young Asian man was so cheerful. She sighed, with a trace of depression on her face and a forced lightness in her tone:

"No, I thought the business was good today. It's rare that those bastards from the police station don't come..."

Chen Yan looked surprised: "The police didn't come? Did they leave the mobile vendors alone?"

There was disdain in the aunt's tone: "Those bullies only bully ordinary people like us. How can they be willing to relax for a day when they only have so little ability in this life?"

The aunt's next words were in a slightly melancholy tone: "I just heard... I heard that it seems that because the general election is about to start, there are parties that want to win votes in a few blocks of Walker Street, so they are relaxing on some things.

Already."

The aunt obviously didn't know about this matter. While wrapping the black bread with scrap newspapers torn into squares, she said in a tone of "it's none of her business":

"Whatever, if you can sell it every day, who knows what those big guys will think and do tomorrow?

We, ordinary people, can only rely on their breath."

Chen Yan said nothing, only vaguely aware that this was wrong.

"for you."

Auntie handed breakfast to Chen Yan.

Chen Yan took the breakfast and saw the aunt's hand.

The aunt obviously looks no more than forty years old, but her hands are already full of ravines, and there are several large calluses on her palms. Each of those big calluses is larger than half of Chen Yan's thumb.

Those are a pair of workers' hands.

"Have a nice day, young man."

With a bright smile on her face, the aunt habitually rubbed the calluses on her hands and put the faded blue cotton cloth back into the basket to prevent the heat from the brown bread from escaping.
Chapter completed!