157: Chapter 157 You were drained dry by the technician?

"Mom!"

A childish wail rang out in the living room. Su Ye quickly placed Su Xingxing on a chair, opened a disposable food container, took out a soup dumpling, and handed it to her.

Su Hong sat in his chair, opening a container of porridge for himself. He picked up a piece of pickled vegetable with his chopsticks and began to eat, glancing at Su Ye and Su Xingxing without saying a word. Li Mei hadn't even come out of the bedroom yet.

"Su Ye, stop teasing your sister. You two have been making a racket ever since you got back. And Su Xingxing, weren't you always looking forward to your brother's return? Now that he's back, you're unhappy again."

Listening to Li Mei's scolding, Su Xingxing sat honestly on the chair with her little head drooping and began to eat her breakfast.

Su Ye made a face at Su Xingxing and then asked,

"Dad, where's my car?"

Su Hong took a bite of a soup dumpling and said,

"In the underground parking lot. The car keys are in your drawer."

Li Mei, now dressed, walked out of the bedroom and said crossly,

"What? Have needles grown on your backside just as you've returned? Can't sit still? You already want to run out?"

Su Ye said with a sheepish grin,

"Mom— it's not like there's anything to do. I'm going over to Xiao Yong's house to see him."

Xiao Yong was Su Ye's childhood friend. They had attended middle school and high school together and had a very close relationship. They were the kind of brothers who might not contact each other for months, but if something happened, a single call would bring the other running immediately.

Li Mei's expression softened slightly.

"Going to see him is fine. Xiao Yong is more sensible than you. Last month, he even brought milk and fruit over to visit your father and me."

As Su Ye walked toward the bedroom to get his car keys, he asked,

"What are your plans for today?"

Su Hong said slowly,

"Your mom has to go to work. I'm going to head up in a bit to see your grandparents, and then I'm going to have tea with Uncle Li and the others. Your sister has to go to school soon."

Su Ye came out of the bedroom with the car keys and nodded, saying,

"Alright then, today we'll each go about our own lives."

Li Mei looked up at Su Ye.

"That won't do. You have to go to the school to pick up your sister at five-thirty."

Su Xingxing also looked up and nodded her little head, saying,

"Right, Big Brother, you have to pick me up this afternoon. You haven't picked me up in such a long time."

Passing by the dining table, Su Ye ruffled Su Xingxing's hair.

"Fine, Big Brother will pick you up after school this afternoon."

Su Xingxing shook her little head, trying to shake off Su Ye's large hand, and said in a sweet voice,

"Don't mess with my head. I'm a big kid now, and you're still rubbing my head. I won't grow tall if you keep doing that."

Su Ye gave it another vigorous rub.

"I'll rub it if I want to. You're just a little chubby girl anyway; it doesn't matter if you don't grow tall."

After saying that, he turned and left the house, leaving behind only Su Xingxing's dissatisfied cry of "Mom!!!"

Su Ye took the elevator to the second basement level. The parking lot was packed with cars. When the Su Family bought the house, they happened to get a free parking space, but it was only for the second basement. Later, Old Su found it too troublesome and bought another one on the first basement level.

The family had two cars. One was a BMW X1 that Old Su drove; after all, he often went out to discuss business, and driving a nice car made people look up to him, making business easier to negotiate. The other was a Volkswagen Lavida that Old Su used to drive. It was eight or nine years old and cost over 110,000 yuan when he bought it. Now it was probably only worth 50,000 or 60,000. After Old Su bought the X1, he left the Lavida for Su Ye to drive.

He made his way to the parking space with practiced ease. A black Volkswagen Lavida was parked there quietly. There was a thin layer of dust on the surface, but it was clear that Old Su must have taken it to be washed a few times after he left; otherwise, there would be much more dust after such a long time.

He opened the car door and plopped down. That familiar feeling returned. After all, this car could be considered the first car of Su Ye's life.

He pulled out his phone and called his childhood friend, Xiao Yong. It took over ten seconds for the call to connect.

A somewhat raspy voice came through.

"Hello! Ye-zi! What's up?"

Su Ye teased,

"What's wrong with you? From the sound of your voice, it's like you've been drained dry by a dozen masseuses."

Xiao Yong said irritably,

"Get lost. I'm a married man now, don't go spreading rumors about me. It's not like you don't know; we've been selling grapes lately. My family just finished selling yesterday. Doing it for five or six days straight really did me in."

Hearing Xiao Yong's words, Su Ye finally realized that it was now the grape harvest season, which generally lasted from August to December.

Chang City currently relied mainly on tourism and agriculture. Tourism went without saying; it mostly depended on those two 5A-rated scenic spots that Su Ye had been looking at since he was a child and was long tired of. As for agriculture, it was about growing fruit, especially grapes. Chang City had plenty of sunshine and a stable climate year-round, so the grapes grown there were not only beautiful in color but also had high sugar content and could be sold for a good price.

However, that was how things were a couple of years ago. Looking back six or seven years, the wholesale price of Shine Muscat in Chang City could reach seventeen or eighteen yuan per catty. One mu of land could produce about ten thousand catties of grapes. The cost per mu, even if you hired people for everything, was around twenty to thirty thousand yuan. As long as a family had about ten mu of land, earning one or two million yuan a year was not a problem.

But it wasn't like that anymore. Su Ye had seen on his friend circle earlier that this year's market prices had dropped to the level of one or two yuan. In this situation, you could still make a bit if you grew them yourself, but if you hired people to grow them, you'd only lose money.

Now, to save on costs, many growers helped each other out. If you sold today, I'd help you; if I sold tomorrow, you'd help me. For those crates weighing over twenty catties, one had to lift over a thousand of them a day.

"Alright, I was just saying I'm back and wanted to find you to hang out."

Hearing Su Ye's words, Xiao Yong's spirits were suddenly jolted, and his tone rose considerably, no longer sounding half-dead.

"You're back? Then come over and find me! I'm just getting out of bed."

Su Ye said with a smile,

"Fine, see you in half an hour."

After hanging up, Su Ye first drove to the entrance of the residential area to buy two cartons of Chunghwa cigarettes, two cases of milk, and some fruit before driving toward Xiao Yong's house.

Su Ye lived in the West District, while Xiao Yong lived right on the edge of the East District. Even taking the ring road, it would take nearly half an hour to get there.

Ten minutes later, Su Ye took a familiar small road off the ring road highway and drove along a dirt road. On both sides of the road were nothing but planting greenhouses; basically, no other fields could be seen.

After another ten minutes, Su Ye finally turned onto a cement road. He had arrived at the production brigade where Xiao Yong lived. The first house on the left at the entrance of the village was Xiao Yong's.

*Screech!*

Su Ye parked the car, pulled up the handbrake, took the items from the trunk, and walked toward the main gate.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

The iron gate rattled from the pounding.

"Coming, coming! Stop knocking, it's noisy!"

A man's voice rang out, and then a small door was opened, revealing a young man with thick eyebrows and large eyes.