After a while, Mina and Sarah came to the driver's seat window:

"Brother, Sarah's mother invited us to be guests at home."

"Well, brother, the milk tea made by my mother is delicious!"

Karen wanted to refuse, he preferred to drive home directly, but looking at Sarah's expectant eyes and the somewhat reserved and nervous woman standing not far away, Karen still nodded and said:

"OK."

…

Sarah's home is deep in Mining Street. Because it has just rained, there are many puddles on the road. Some of the puddles are lined with bricks, so you can only walk across them by stepping on the bricks.

The eaves are very low, and you need to bend down to walk in. There are two rooms inside, one is for Sarah's parents, and the other is for Sarah and her grandmother;

The cooking area is outside, with a small stove built of bricks and half-shielded by an iron sheet.

The house is very clean, and there are some bouquets of wild flowers.

"Grandma, I brought my classmates and my classmates' brother to play at home."

"Okay, okay."

The old lady was old, but her hair was meticulously taken care of. She sat there and looked at Mina and Karen with a smile.

"Hey, Sarah brought her classmates home to play?"

A man's voice came from outside. He walked in staggeringly on crutches. He originally held a half-burned cigarette in his hand, but when he entered, he glanced at Mina and Karen and threw the cigarette away.

Got outside.

"Hello, uncle." Mina said.

"Classmate, hello, hello."

"Hello, I am Mina's brother, Karen."

Karen stretched out his hand to the man. This is a habit that cannot be changed, because he has never treated himself as a child, and the family is also used to this, so he does not need to pretend at home.

The man was stunned for a moment, but he still stretched out his hand to shake Karen's hand:

"Hello, you can call me Lot. My neighbors call me Cripple Lot."

Lot's hands were rough and covered with calluses, and the other trouser leg under the crutch was empty.

When he came in, Karen noticed that there were a lot of tires and cut tire skins in the yard, as well as some simple tools. Roth used the scrap tires to make "slippers" and sold them in exchange for income;

As for Sarah's mother, according to what Sarah said in the car, she was working as a worker in a nearby cotton textile factory. However, it was the off-season recently and there were not many days when she needed to work.

"Please sit down, please sit down."

Sarah moved some benches and Karen and Mina sat down.

"My dear, I smell something delicious. Are you making milk tea?" Lott shouted outside in an exaggerated manner.

"Yes, okay."

After a while, Sarah's mother came in carrying several cups with pot lids. The cups were filled with white milk tea.

The cups placed in front of Karen and Mina were full, the cups in front of Granny and Mina were half full, and the cup in front of Lot was just a tiny bit;

Sarah’s mother smiled again and said:

"I'm going to prepare dinner. Sarah just told me that I would like to thank your family for entertaining her with a rich meal today."

"Yes, Mom, Brother Karen's cooking is really good. I have never tasted the food he made before, but I think my mother's cooking is as good as Brother Karen's."

Sarah’s mother lowered her head, kissed Sarah on the forehead, and said with a smile:

"Don't worry, mom won't let you down."

immediately,

Sarah's mother seemed to be afraid that Karen would refuse to stay for dinner, so she specifically said:

"Please be sure to stay and dine with me as a reward for your hospitality to Sarah."

Lot also said: "Of course, classmates and friends, if you come to my house today, you will have hot food to eat, and when I go to your house tomorrow, I will also have hot food to eat, right, Mr. Cullen?"

Although Lot felt that the young man in front of him looked young, he behaved very elegantly. Just like the civil servants sitting in the office in the government, he subconsciously added "Mr." to the title.

"Then I'm looking forward to it."

Mina picked up the cup and took a sip of milk tea;

"How's it going, Mina?" Sarah asked.

"It tastes delicious," Mina said.

Karen also picked it up and took a sip, and then subconsciously controlled her instinct to frown. This cup of milk tea tasted very much like the malted milk tea when she was a child, and it also had extra sugar added, making it very sweet.

Karen took two more swigs,

Putting down the cup, he smiled and said, "It tastes good."

"Hahaha, right."

Lot seemed very happy. He picked up the cup and drank all he had, staying for a while longer. When he put the cup down, his lips were white, and he licked it with his tongue.

"Uncle smokes."

Karen took out his cigarette case;

In fact, he is not a big smoker now, only two or three cigarettes a day. In addition, his work responsibilities sometimes overlap with his uncle's, which means he needs to carry cigarettes with him all the time for social occasions.

Morf gold frame, 70 rupees per pack, the price is higher than the soft Chinese ones in the previous life.

Karen took one out and handed it to Lot, who took it with both hands.

Just as Karen took out a lighter and was about to help Lott light it, Lott glanced at his mother sitting there.

The old lady smiled and said: "Smoke it and stay with Mr. Cullen."

Karen understood and took the initiative to say: "Let's go smoke outside."

"Okay, okay."

Karen went to help Lot get the crutches, but Lot got it first and propped himself up: "Please come over here."

The two came outside,

Lot took out a match from his pocket, opened one, blocked the fire with his left hand, and approached Karen;

This cannot be denied, for the fire of the match will soon go out;

Karen could only smile sheepishly, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. After helping Karen light it, Lott brought the match that almost burned to his finger in front of him and lit his cigarette.

Then he immediately threw away the matchstick and made a "hiss..." sound from his mouth.

"Mr. Cullen, your family is in the funeral service business?" Roth added, "I heard it from Mina."

"Yes, Uncle Lot." Karen took out a business card from his pocket and handed it to Lot, "I have to trouble my uncle to help us introduce business in the future."

"Well, if anyone who lives here dies, they will be taken directly to the cremation house. There will be no mourning party."

Although he said that, after taking the business card, Lot still carefully put the business card in the bag on his chest.

"Is business easy now?" Lot asked.

It seems that no matter what background, no matter what environment, or even no matter the level of status, when two men light up a cigarette with each other, the topics they talk about are:

They are inseparable from each other: Is business doing well recently (How are you doing recently?)

"It's not very busy," Karen said.

After all, there is still no news about the customer who paid a deposit of 100,000 rupees, and the family is unlikely to take on other jobs in the near future, so they are quite idle.

"Yes, me too."

Lot nodded and agreed.

In fact, in the summer, slippers made of car tire leather sell well, and some groups like these extremely cheap slippers. But now that winter has come, naturally fewer people are buying slippers.

"It will be fine," Karen said. "In business, there will always be off-season and peak season."

Lot thought deeply and said: "Yes, yes, Mr. Cullen is right, everything will be fine."

Lot liked this feeling of chatting very much, even if a pair of tire leather slippers he made during the peak season only cost 2 rupees, and he also knew that one income from the Karen family's business might be worth his own slippers for a year...

It should even be more than that;

But he really enjoyed the atmosphere of standing with Karen and talking about "off season and peak season".

Look, we are all businessmen.

Halfway through Karen's cigarette, she subconsciously threw it to the ground. After a moment's hesitation, she continued to hold it in her hand.

Roth waited until the cigarette was about to burn to the filter, took another deep puff, and then threw it on the ground, followed by Karen.

Lot was a long-time smoker, so he smashed his mouth and touched his cigarette. But as soon as he took out the box, he hesitated, but he still took out a pack of "Wild Wolf" worth 2 rupees.

He took out one and handed it to Karen. Karen took out a lighter and helped him light the cigarette. Only then did Lot smile.

Smoking his own cigarette, it seemed that all of a sudden he no longer had the restraint he had when he smoked Morf Gold Frame;

Lott said: "My leg was amputated in an accident when I was working in the factory. The factory lost a little money at that time, and even the medical expenses were not enough, so I still asked Mr. Hickson for help. Hickson

Sir, do you know?"

"I seem to have heard it, it's..." Karen recalled the newspaper, "It's Mr. Mayor."

"Yes, that's Mr. Mayor. He was a member of our East District in his early years. He is the pride of our East District and one of our own." Lott gave many compliments to the old mayor, especially "one of our own"

.

"Mr. Xixon helped me find the factory owner, and the factory owner paid another sum of money. Although it was not much, I was satisfied. At least it was enough to pay for the medical expenses and there was still a little left.

well,
To be continued...