Chapter 580: The Astonishing Patrick Thorne
"You only gave me five cents just now."
"I miscalculated. I’m not good at counting, but I’ve counted it correctly now." Nancy licked her popsicle, not at all embarrassed about being bad at math. She looked up and asked the man, "Mister, it’s six cents for two red bean popsicles, right?"
"That’s right. Three cents each, so six cents for two," the man said with a smile, but his eyes were on Jacqueline Spann. He would have let the one cent slide, but since the chubby girl was being so helpful, he couldn’t disappoint her.
"Hurry up and pay! The mister has to go sell his popsicles!" Nancy urged.
"What’s the rush? It’s not like they’re your popsicles. Mind your own business!"
Jacqueline Spann shot her a vicious glare, no longer hiding her disgust for Nancy. Dollar, who had been quiet until now, suddenly bared his teeth, arched his back, and growled at Jacqueline. She stumbled back a few steps in fright, but Dollar only barked more fiercely, looking like he was about to pounce at any moment.
"Get your dog away from me!" Jacqueline cursed.
"Dollar doesn’t bite people. And if he did, it would only be bad people."
Nancy retorted, but she still called Dollar off. Though he stopped barking, the way he stared at Jacqueline Spann made her heart pound with fear. ’I hate that beast,’ she thought. ’A stupid person raises a stupid dog. Sooner or later, I’ll teach that mutt a lesson.’
"I’ll just buy one."
Jacqueline Spann took only one red bean popsicle and handed the other back to the man. But the weather was hot, and it had been out of the cooler for a while, so the popsicle had already started to melt. The man frowned, but there was nothing he could do about Jacqueline, so he could only count it as his loss.
After Jacqueline Spann went inside, the man pushed the popsicle into Nancy’s hand. "Here, you eat it."
"Thank you, Mister."
Nancy accepted the popsicle and was about to take money out of her pocket, but the man refused it, got on his bicycle, and rode away. Nancy didn’t chase after him. ’I’ll just pay him next time,’ she thought.
’But how does Jacqueline Spann have money? Phoenix Golding is locked up, and Vernon Spann has left. Where would she get money all by herself?’
’She seems to be living pretty well. Who’s supporting her?’
’It’s definitely not Linden Golding’s family; they all hate Phoenix Golding’s guts. Linden’s mother only had a soft spot for Phoenix, not for Jacqueline at all, so that’s impossible.’ Nancy couldn’t figure it out. ’I’ll ask Adrian Hawthorne about it later.’
The double-rush harvest season finally arrived. Phoebe Huxley and the other women paused their sewing work, and the entire village, young and old, threw themselves into the intense and fervent task. Rosalind Green and Adrian Hawthorne didn’t participate. Preston Thorne had made a special exception for them—they didn’t have to work in the fields, but they also wouldn’t receive the village’s grain rations. Instead, they paid twelve yuan a year in rent.
Nancy, however, was still at leisure. She was no help either inside or out, so taking care of herself was the biggest help she could offer. But then, Patrick Thorne came home with good news.
"My second uncle’s factory is also giving out a high-temperature subsidy. Ten feet of fabric per person, and there are about four hundred people in the factory. Then there’s the machine tool factory, with about two thousand people. The price I quoted them is sixty-two cents. When are you going to stock up?"
Patrick Thorne was a man of few words, but when he spoke, it was astonishing. In just a few days, he had secured huge orders, even outdoing Clayton Xavier. Adrian Hawthorne couldn’t stay calm anymore; he even felt a little ashamed. ’These guys are both more capable than me, and I’m just treading water. No, this won’t do. I need to go out and land some big orders myself.’
"Second Brother, since when did you have connections at the machine tool factory?" Jim Thorne asked, voicing the question on everyone’s mind.
Patrick Thorne rubbed his nose and said vaguely, "A classmate’s dad is the secretary at the machine tool factory. I just mentioned it to her."
Jim Thorne, Adrian Hawthorne, and the others didn’t ask any more questions after hearing that. But Nancy’s interest was piqued. She asked loudly, "Second Brother, is your classmate a boy or a girl?"