1987 My Era

Chapter 116: The Capital City Forces the Emperor to Reign (asking for monthly tickets!)
The weather in the south in July changes suddenly and it starts to drizzle.

Li Heng and his partner bought an umbrella from the roadside. When they arrived at the school gate, it was already past 5 o'clock. At this time, Zhang Zhiyong remembered a serious question:
"Uncle Heng, you are sleeping at the English teacher's house tonight. Where should I rest?"

Li Heng looked around and pointed to the hostel diagonally opposite to the left, "Let's go over there and take a look."

The hostel is a bit old, the sign is not very conspicuous, and even the owner is not very serious, he drinks there.

Fortunately, there were rooms available and they were not expensive, so the two of them checked in quickly.

Zhang Zhiyong took a cold shower and then lay under the fan, not wanting to move. "You go find your English teacher. I won't accompany you. I'll take care of dinner by myself. Don't worry about me."

Li Heng also took a shower and hung his clothes on the balcony:
"Okay, since you have money, you won't starve to death, and you don't look ugly, I won't worry about you."

"Pooh!"

Zhang Zhiyong said, "Then will you come back tonight?"

"You're asking a nonsense question." Li Heng closed the door and went downstairs in one breath.

After the college entrance examination, the campus of No. 1 Middle School suddenly became quiet. Li Heng felt a little uncomfortable when he walked in. He came to the third floor of the teachers' family building as if he was familiar with the place and knocked on the door of his English teacher.

"dong dong dong"

"dong dong dong"

I knocked five times in a row, but no one responded.

Aren't you at home?

This shouldn’t be the case. I agreed to come over on the afternoon of the 14th, Li Heng guessed in his heart and knocked on the door again.

"Who are you looking for?"

Just then, a teasing voice suddenly came from behind.

Without turning around, I knew it was my English teacher. "Teacher, where have you been?"

"Where am I going? Is that a question you can ask? Who are you? Why should I report to you?" The English teacher sneered as always, and acted like a difficult person to get along with.

Li Heng was speechless. Looking at the dishes she was carrying, he understood instantly that she had gone to buy vegetables. Hmm, there was also a chopped duck. Isn't this the dish he likes?

Entering the house, she asked, "Where is Zhang Zhiyong? Isn't he going to the capital with you?"

Li Heng changed his shoes and said, "He got carsick and vomited three or four times along the way. He has no strength left and is resting in the hostel across the street."

Following the teacher to the kitchen, he asked again: "Teacher, have you bought the train ticket?"

The English teacher said without even turning around: "It's in the first drawer under the TV, go and see for yourself."

Hearing this, Li Heng returned to the living room, opened the drawer and saw three train tickets, all for hard sleeper trains. He shouted to the kitchen, "Why are there three? Who else is going?"

The English teacher smiled and said, "Who else could it be? Of course it's me. I have nothing to do during the summer vacation, so I'll go with you to see the world."

Li Heng leaned against the kitchen door, "Aren't you studying at Renmin University? Are you not tired of the capital yet?"

"It changes every year, how can you get bored? I haven't been there since graduation, so this is a good time to go back and take a look." The English teacher seemed to remember something. After saying this, he ignored him and fell into memories.

After a long time, Li Heng put the ticket back into the drawer and asked her, "Do you want me to help you?"

"No need. You finally come to Shao City, why don't you go to find Song Yu?" The English teacher waved his hand and signaled him to go away.

Song Yu, thinking of this beautiful face, Li Heng immediately became eager. He immediately returned to the living room, grabbed the phone on the coffee table and called Song Yu's home.

Because Song's mother knew Chen Zijin, he couldn't just go to her house and could only contact her by phone first.

But what made him depressed was that the phone rang 7 times but didn't go through.

I called three more times, but still no one answered.

Aren't you at home?
With doubts, Li Heng took an umbrella and rushed to Shaoxing Teachers College. As a result, the Song family's courtyard was locked and the door was closed. It turned out that they were not at home.

I wanted to ask the neighbors around, but then I thought better of it. If they mentioned it to Jiang Yue afterwards, wouldn’t everything be exposed?

I returned to No. 1 Middle School with little interest. This time I ran into Sun Manning, who asked me:
"When did you come? I went to my English teacher's house this afternoon and waited for you for a long time."

Li Heng said, "You just got here. Why are you waiting for me? Are you bored?"

"It's not boring, it's extremely boring. Reading Dream of the Red Chamber every day makes me almost turn into Lin Daiyu. That temperament is totally inconsistent with me. It drives me crazy!" Sun Manning kept complaining.

"Will you play billiard with me?" she asked expectantly.

"No need to fight. Why don't you call Zhang Zhiyong?" Li Heng refused.

"Don't call him, he has poor skills and I don't want him. I just want to fight with you." Sun Manning pulled his sleeve and dragged him to the billiard hall.

Instead of leaving, Li Heng was forced to continue working and played billiard with him for an hour or so.

During this period, Sun Manning told him that Song Yu and her family of three had returned to Taojiang, Yiyang. They left the day before yesterday, and she went to see them off.

Li Heng asked: "Did Song Yu ask you to tell me something?"

"What the hell do you want? Nothing." Seeing his disappointed look, Sun Manning couldn't help but laugh out loud in glee.

At dinner, Li Heng asked Duxinyan to eat with him, but he refused to come. Instead, Sun Manning joined in the meal.

When Sun Manning learned that her English teacher was going to Beijing with her, she clamored to go too. But it was useless to prepare at the last minute. She couldn't buy a ticket. Even with the help of connections, she couldn't get one. She had to give up in grief.

In fact, you can get on the train without a ticket these days, and you can just buy a ticket, but Li Heng and the English teacher looked at each other and didn't point it out. Sun Manning had never been far away and had no idea that this was possible, so she was so angry!
After dinner, the English teacher asked, "Do you want to go to the hostel tonight, or stay here?"

Li Heng was surprised: "Are you not afraid of ruining your reputation?"

The English teacher crossed his arms and looked at him sarcastically, "How dare you! I left the bedroom door open, and you wouldn't have the guts to come in."

The more familiar they are, the less scruples they have. Li Heng choked and retreated!

the next day.

Li Heng got up and washed before dawn. In less than 20 minutes, the two met up with their English teacher at the school gate and headed straight for the train station.

Maybe it was because it was summer vacation, the train station was so crowded that Li Heng's scalp was tingling. There were just too many people.

The three of them finally squeezed onto the train, but this was only the first stop on the journey north. Taking a train these days is a tough battle, and the whole journey takes more than 20 hours, which is not an easy thing to do.

Fortunately, it is a hard sleeper, which is more comfortable than a hard seat, and I can lie down and rest for a while.

As for the soft sleeper, forget it. It's as hard to get as an airplane ticket. You need a work permit and a letter of introduction from your employer. It's almost a pipe dream for a commoner to want to take one.

What is identity expression? The leader said this is it.

"is it here?"

"This is it."

The three of them finally found a seat according to their tickets, but before they could even sit down, a woman climbed in through the window. She was young and beautiful, probably in her 20s, with a pair of long legs, and she was wearing stockings.

Zhang Zhiyong, who came from a remote mountain village, had never seen such a fashionable thing before. He stared at it and stared at it. Suddenly, he covered his nose with his right hand.

Damn it! This bastard has a nosebleed!
The woman looked at the simple-minded man with amusement and then sat down opposite him.

Li Heng couldn't stand it anymore, so he dragged him to the toilet and said, "Can you be more motivated? My English teacher and I have lost face, and now it's like this. What will happen when we get to Beijing?"

Zhang Zhiyong knew he was in the wrong, so he didn't dare to refute. But when he heard the second half of the sentence, his eyes lit up:
"What's going on in Beijing? Can we still see the big foreign horses on TV?"

Li Heng wanted to slap this fool to death. "Can you see it? Do you have enough money? Are you tall enough?"

Zhang Zhiyong shouted, "I'm standing on tiptoe, I'm stepping on the stool."

Li Heng's face twitched: "You are only treating the symptoms but not the root cause. Think about your own weight. Can a toothpick thrown into the sea cause a splash?"

Zhang Zhiyong was indignant: "What's wrong with a toothpick? A toothpick can also kill someone!"

After cleaning up the nosebleed, the two returned to the hard sleeper compartment. The English teacher was already chatting with the woman.

Upon hearing it, I realized that the other person was a flight attendant who had just returned to Beijing to work after her vacation.

The flight attendants of those days were different from those in later generations. It was a truly high-class profession. They were beautiful, had high salaries, good treatment, and were not labeled with so-called scandals. It was impossible for ordinary families to marry one.

Because of his nosebleed, Quxinyan kept hiding and didn't dare to talk to the other party until they were short of one person when they were playing cards, and he was passively involved.

"Are you going to Beijing for a trip?" The flight attendant always liked to chat with Li Heng intentionally or unintentionally.

Li Heng played a king, trying to gain the right to play the card, "Let's go to our relatives' house and travel a little bit."

This is his habit. When he goes out, he never speaks too much and always talks about things that are beneficial to him.

"You have relatives in Beijing, that's pretty impressive." The stewardess touched the bomb in her hand, hesitated for a moment, and then smiled and let Li Heng play all his cards in one breath.

The three of them were playing cards and chatting. Well, Duanxinyan was a taciturn person and didn't say a word. Time passed quickly and before they knew it, they arrived in Hubei Province.

After playing cards for several hours, everyone felt a little tired. After eating something simple, they fell asleep.

However, the English teacher did not dare to fall asleep, and squinted his eyes to stay alert. Seeing this, Li Heng walked over and whispered, "Teacher, you go to sleep first, I'll watch over you."

The English teacher looked at him, smiled and nodded, said, "I'll do it for you later," and then fell into a deep sleep.

When the English teacher and Zhang Zhiyong fell asleep, the flight attendant, who was also on alert, suddenly asked Li Heng in a low voice: "What does your family do?"

Li Heng said: "Farming."

The stewardess stared at him for a while and didn't speak to him for a long time.

Five hours later, the English teacher and Zhang Zhiyong woke up one after another, and this time it was Li Heng's turn to have a good sleep.

The three of them took turns like this, and the train finally entered the capital city with a clanging sound.

Seeing Li Heng and the other two looking out the window, the flight attendant acted as a tour guide, telling them where this was, what delicious food and fun things there were, what famous attractions there were and so on.

As soon as the train arrived at the station, just as everyone was packing their luggage and preparing to get off, the flight attendant took the opportunity to suddenly slip a note into Li Heng's hand, and then left without looking back.

Looking at the graceful and thoughtful figure as she left, Zhang Zhiyong's nose started to bleed again and he quickly raised his head.

Wang Runwen adjusted his glasses with the tips of his fingers and asked Li Heng, "Why, are you interested?"

Li Heng knew what she was mocking, and he threw the note into a trash can without even looking at it: "You are looking down on me, right? I am not that kind of person."

His eyes stayed on the note for 2 seconds, Wang Runwen smiled, and then walked towards the exit.

"Fuck! That woman is wearing black stockings! That woman has dyed hair, and there's a foreigner there, with blonde hair and blue eyes!" Zhang Zhiyong shouted in a suppressed voice.

The flesh-colored stockings of the stewardess had already feasted his eyes, but he didn't expect that as soon as he left the station, he would see an even more bizarre world. His little eyes were so busy blinking that they couldn't keep up.

Wang Runwen stood there and looked around for a long time, then said with emotion: "I haven't been here for six years, and the atmosphere has changed. It's different now."

Hasn't it changed? It was so conservative before, but now not only has Teresa Teng's decadent music come in, but also all kinds of new trends from the south.

Although stockings, high heels and wavy hair are not mainstream on the streets yet, they are no longer rare and can be seen occasionally.

Wang Runwen tilted his head and asked him in confusion: "Have you been here before? Why do I feel that you are not surprised at all, and you are calm and normal."

In her eyes, Zhang Zhiyong's behavior was normal and consistent with the behavior of a country boy coming to the city, so she didn't say anything along the way, but instead found it interesting.

Li Heng answered irrelevantly, deliberately blurring the concept: "Don't forget, I'm the one who wrote "To Live" and "The Troublemakers". I've already imagined these things through books. There's nothing to be surprised about."

Thinking of his identity as an author and the maturity and steadiness that did not match his age, Wang Runwen forced himself to accept this view and asked:

"Didn't you contact the Chen family before you came? Why didn't anyone come to pick you up?"

"No."

Li Heng shook his head, then said, "I'm a little hungry. Teacher, you are familiar with this area. Let's find a place to stay and eat first."

Wang Runwen hesitated for a while and asked, "Where does Chen Zijin live?"

Li Heng said: "It should be in Haidian."

Wang Runwen nodded, "Come with me, we'll find a place to live nearby."

Places like Chaoyangmen, Yansha, Yuan, and Haidian were home to a large number of official residences. He was no stranger to the Chen family residence, having been there many times in his previous life, but as their relationship gradually became strained, he rarely went there again.

We took the bus to Haidian. As soon as the English teacher got off the bus, he took the two of us and walked about 150 meters forward, and finally stopped in front of a hotel.

"Teacher, have you been here?" Li Heng looked up at the hotel which looked ordinary in appearance.

"I've never stayed in this hotel before, but I'm familiar with this area. Let's stay here tonight." The English teacher said as he walked in first.

"Hello, is there any room available?"

"Hello, yes."

The English teacher realized something and asked Li Heng meaningfully, "How many rooms do you want to open?"

Before Li Heng could answer, Zhang Zhiyong had already taken out the relevant documents: "I want to live in a single room."

Hearing this, the English teacher turned to the front desk and said, "Then give me three rooms, preferably next to each other."

The front desk clerk symbolically checked the information of several people, and then said, "There are no more three adjacent rooms. There are two connected rooms on the second floor, and the others are scattered single rooms."

After discussion among the three, Li Heng and the English teacher would live in adjacent rooms, while Quxinyan would live in a single room, both on the second floor.

After entering the room, Li Heng looked around. The living environment was pretty good. There was hot water, a fan, a place to take a shower, a TV, and a place to hang clothes. It was just a little expensive.

In the hot summer, after sitting on the train for nearly 30 hours, they were all greasy and uncomfortable. As soon as they entered the door, they couldn't wait to take a shower and wash clothes. It was a pity that there was no washing machine, otherwise he would never do such a job.

Half an hour later, Li Heng knocked on the English teacher's door. "Teacher, are you done?"

The English teacher had just washed her hair. The half-wet and half-dry hair hung down on her shoulders and chest. Paired with her red dress, she looked quite charming.

"Be careful or I'll dig out your eyeballs and feed them to the dogs." The English teacher gave me a cold glance and slammed the door.

Sin! What a sin!

I just glanced at him instinctively, and I didn't stare at him. Is it necessary to react so strongly? Li Heng complained in his heart, and then angrily told the stupid guy to leave.

There were no old restaurants nearby, so the three of them had a full meal in a fly restaurant. It was a full meal. Although the food was not to their taste, they were still hungry.

Once people are hungry, they can even chew grass to produce a fragrant smell, so why would they care about anything else?

It was noon at this time. After lunch, the English teacher looked at the watch. Feeling homesick, she said she wanted to take a walk around the Renmin University campus.

Zhang Zhiyong was very tactful and followed along.

After watching the two people get on the bus, Li Heng pondered for a while, and finally returned to the hotel front desk and called the Chen family.

"Boom. Boom. Boom."

The phone rang for the fourth time and then it was connected. A familiar yet unfamiliar middle-aged female voice came from the other end.

"Hello, who is it?"

Li Heng was depressed. He didn't expect his luck to be so bad. The person who answered the phone was Zhong Lan.

But now that things have come to this, he can't show weakness, and can't just hang up the phone. He calmed himself down and said, "Auntie, please call Zijin for me."

He did not introduce himself.

There are no additional words after "Auntie", such as "good" or "good afternoon".

Anyway, it's just polite yet awkward.

Just then, a couple came into the hotel, speaking authentic Beijing dialect and asking the front desk for a room.

Hearing the Beijing accent coming from the other end of the phone, Zhong Lan reacted and asked, "You came to Beijing?"

Li Heng said yes and answered straightforwardly.

What is this kid doing in Beijing? The purpose is self-evident. Zhong Lan wanted to say that Zijin was not at home and wanted to hang up the phone directly, but when she thought of Li Heng's status, she looked back at the two sisters who were talking to their sister-in-law in the yard and said, "She is not at home. Call back later."

"it is good"

Before I could finish the word "OK", the other party hung up the phone.

Li Heng didn't ask where Chen Zijin had gone, nor did he ask how long this "wait a minute" would be.

Similarly, Zhong Lan did not say the specific time.

This is almost a kind of alternative tacit understanding between the two of them, just like Li Heng knows that Chen Zijin is at home, and knows that Zhong Lan doesn't want to help him call Chen Zijin.

After standing by the coffee table for a long time, Zhong Lan turned around and walked to the door, shouting to Chen Xiaomi: "Xiaomi, come here, I have something to talk to you about."

Chen Xiaomi put down the pumpkin seeds in her hand, stood up and walked over, "Sister-in-law, what's wrong? What's the matter?"

Zhong Lan glanced at her eldest daughter, walked into the house, and said, "Li Heng is in Beijing. He just called."

Chen Xiaomi was stunned. "You just finished the college entrance examination, why are you so quick? What did he say?"

Zhong Lan said, "Looking for Zijin."

Chen Xiaomi understood her sister-in-law's dissatisfaction and hesitation almost immediately, "Sister-in-law, don't you want them to meet?"

This is roughly what Zhong Lan meant, so she agreed.

Chen Xiaomi weighed the pros and cons and was about to speak when the phone on the coffee table rang again.

The aunt and sister-in-law looked at each other, and Chen Xiaomi guessed: "It might be Li Heng's call again."

Zhong Lan frowned, "It's most likely that little guy. He called me again right after he died. What is he doing? Is he trying to force me to abdicate?"

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(End of this chapter)