The owner of the little shop must have been starved for conversation. Seeing that the two had no intention of leaving, he took the opportunity to make a profitable sale.
Then the floodgates opened, and he began rambling:
"As for Leng Qianyu, we all watched her grow up. Such a pretty young thing she became.
"A lovely person, too. After she got famous, people were always giving her things. Let me tell you..."
The old man leaned in conspiratorially, as though sharing earth-shattering news:
"Some even offered her a car and a mobile phone!"
His face filled with wonder and envy as he spoke. In those days, carrying a mobile phone and driving a Santana marked you as rich.
That was even more impressive than giving someone a luxury mansion in the future!
"Good heavens! And she still turned them down?"
Zhang Chengdao was hardly someone divorced from everyday life. He had the patience to cheerfully run a little shop in Britain's Chinatown day after day; of course he understood how ordinary people lived.
These days, a household worth ten thousand yuan was still a rarity. Women working at highly profitable textile mills in Jiangsu Province earned less than two hundred a month!
Offering over a hundred thousand really was lavish.
"She did!" The old man slapped the table indignantly. "That's why I say those people are just wagging their tongues.
"If even that couldn't tempt young Leng, how could she have run off for money?
"They were just jealous. That's what brought all this about!
"If you ask me, they deserved it!"
The old man sighed, looking puzzled.
"But it doesn't make sense. We've known young Leng's neighbors for years, too. How could they have let Gouwa starve to death?
"Never mind how desperately he was crying those two