Rebirth in 1958: Getting rich starts from Nanluoguxiang

Nanluoguxiang is over 800 meters long. It is an old street with two shops on one side. However, since it was too early, the doors of the shops were closed and boarded up.

Only the breakfast shop at the intersection was still open, and the aroma of fried food wafted through the thick door curtains.

Qin Dabao couldn't help it, so he went in and bought an oil cake, spending five cents and one or two grain coupons. He ate it while it was still hot, and turned to Gulou Street to take the bus.

He wanted to go to Wangershan Qinjiagou. He took two buses, got off at the Summer Palace, and then walked for more than 40 minutes to get there.

It is rush hour now, and the roads are lined with office workers in gray and blue work clothes. Occasionally, two bicycles pass by, always attracting countless envious glances.

You have to know that in that era, the bride price for marrying a wife in the countryside was only five yuan or ten kilograms of corn flour. To buy a bicycle, you needed a bicycle ticket plus 286 yuan. Sixty years later, a bicycle would be at the level of a BMW 740.

So people who ride bicycles all hold their heads high and their chests out. If a young man has a bicycle at home, it can be like holding a beauty pageant.

Gulou Street is bustling with people, with supply and marketing cooperatives, grocery stores, vegetable stores, grain stores, and restaurants all next to each other. This is the most convenient place to live in Nanluoguxiang. You can buy whatever you want without going far away.

Songs are playing from the loudspeakers, waking up the people of Beijing in the morning. Hearing this sound always makes people's blood boil and their hearts surge.

Qin Dabao was standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus. People of this era were very disciplined and lined up spontaneously. If you didn't follow the rules, you wouldn't be allowed to do so. The ticket seller would teach you a lesson in minutes.

The scenes in movies where people squeeze onto buses and subways only started to appear after the 1970s and 1980s. They don’t exist now.

However, the nightmare begins once you get on the bus. People are packed tightly together, and those who are too short to reach the horizontal railing or handrails are often squeezed by people in front, behind, and on both sides of you, with your feet off the ground. You can only breathe a sigh of relief when the bus arrives at the station.

Qin Dabao hates taking the bus. There are all kinds of smells in the bus. It's not so bad in winter, but if you go back to summer, you'll smell farts, stinky armpits, and other miscellaneous smells that will make you question your life.

After wandering for more than two hours, he finally got off the bus. When his feet stepped on the snow, Qin Dabao breathed a sigh of relief. He had to find a way to make money and buy a bicycle as soon as possible. Taking the bus was too painful.

After passing the Nanruyi Gate, he stood on the ice of the Kunyu River for a long time. Qin Dabao knelt down devoutly, thanking this place for his rebirth.

Qin Dabao walked along the Kunyu River towards Wanger Mountain. The further he walked, the fewer people there were. The white snow covered the entire earth, and it looked exceptionally clean at a glance.

Qinjiagou is located at the foot of Wanger Mountain. Although it looks desolate and sparsely populated now, in later times, it was located within the North Fifth Ring Road, with housing prices starting at 40,000 yuan per square meter.

Qinjiagou and several surrounding villages are located in the mountains and beside the rivers. In theory, they should have a good life, but natural disasters can never catch up with man-made disasters. Even if there is a good harvest, it cannot stop the order of some people to give birth to children without anus.

Over the past year, one call today, one order tomorrow, the people have been running around in a hurry, their crops have been wasted, they have been able to satisfy their mouths but not their stomachs.

People didn’t know that the end of 58 was just the beginning of the famine, and in the next three years, hundreds of thousands of people would die of hunger throughout the North.

Qin Dabao sighed as he walked along. He now had the body of a teenager but the mentality of an old man, and he was always thinking about all sorts of messy things.

Seeing that there was no one around, he took out the flour bag and put it on his shoulder. When he walked forward, there were people around. He couldn't let anyone see the thing that appeared out of nowhere.

Finally, he saw smoke from the cooking stove in the distance, which made Qin Dabao quicken his pace. He could see his grandparents again, the two old people who loved him most in the world.

As soon as he arrived at the village entrance, several children who were playing on the ice came over and kept calling him "little grandpa" and "great grandpa". There was also a snotty kid who called him "uncle".

One of the reasons why Qin Dabao likes to go back to his hometown is because he is older than his grandfather. Of course, this is not because he is capable, but because his grandfather is capable.

His grandfather Qin Goudan is the oldest person in Qinjiagou. The only one who can be compared with him is his seventh brother Qin Gousheng. This old man in his seventies or eighties is in charge of all the affairs of Qinjiagou. There is no other way, Qin Gousheng is the patriarch of the clan, and the village chief Qin Qingrong is his son.

Qin Dabao always goes back to Qinjiagou, and all these kids know him.

"Brother..." Another group of kids ran out of the village, led by his little devil brother Qin Erbao.

Qin Erbao is seven years old this year, at the age when he is disliked by dogs. He is naughty all day long and is notoriously naughty at home and at school. His mother has regretted countless times that she did not strangle Erbao to death when she gave birth to him.

Qin Dabao adjusted Erbao's cotton hat. Smoke was coming out of the hat. It was obvious that he was running around like crazy. It was strange that these kids were so energetic when they couldn't even eat enough.

Two men wearing tattered cotton jackets, cotton hats and carrying bags walked over slowly. Now they only had two thin meals a day, so no one dared to move too much, otherwise they would get hungry quickly.

Qin Dabao carried his younger brother on his back and felt that he was much lighter. It seemed that he was still not full and had become thinner due to hunger.

"Dabao is back?" The two men greeted Dabao with a smile.

Qin Dabao glared at him and said, "You are so disrespectful. Call me uncle."

The two men are brothers, one named Qin Zihui and the other named Qin Zijun. They are both nephews of Dabao within the fifth degree of mourning. However, these two guys are in their thirties and their children are about to get married.

"Uncle, uncle." The two brothers Zihui dared not not to call him. Everyone in the village knew that Qin Dabao was the eldest son and the eldest grandson, and was the apple of the eye of the Seventeenth Grandpa and Grandma. No one could offend him, otherwise the old man and the old lady would stand in the street and scold him for two hours without stopping. The key point was that they had to smile even after being scolded. Didn't they want to kill themselves?

"Well, where are you going?" Qin Dabao had returned to his hometown many times in his previous life, so he was very familiar with these people.

"Oh, our village has formed a militia platoon. My brother and I are both militiamen. So, we have to go to the village office for meetings and study every few days."

"What?" Qin Dabao became interested. At the end of last year, a call was made for all citizens to join the army and weapons were distributed to each village. In his previous life, Dabao had been in charge of firearms for decades and touched guns every day. Now his hands still itched when he thought about it.

"Who's in charge of the militia? What kind of guns do they have?"

"My uncle Qingrong made Uncle Dazhu the platoon leader of the militia. He has a lot of guns." Qin Zihui and the other man counted on their fingers: "We have Hanyang rifles, large eight-shot rifles, Type 38 rifles, and yes, two Type 99 rifles."

"Fuck!" Qin Dabao was surprised. The firepower was quite strong. He would borrow a big eight-grain rifle from his uncle Qingrong later. He would go hunting in the mountains to improve the living conditions at home.

Seeing Erbao lying on his brother's back and making faces, Qin Zihui couldn't help laughing and said, "Uncle Dabao, Erbao has become famous in the village these days..."

Erbao gritted his teeth: "Don't say it." This kid was most afraid of two people in his life, one was his brother and the other was his mother. The key point was that these two people really beat him, especially his brother, who was very ruthless. Seeing that the two were about to complain, he quickly slipped off Dabao's back and grinned at Qin Zihui and his brother.

As soon as Qin Dabao grabbed his collar, Erbao immediately became obedient. This was the prelude to his brother's punishment.

"What trouble has this kid gotten himself into again?"

"Hahaha, it's nothing. He just plucked out the whiskers of Seventh Grandpa's cat and threw Fifth Grandma's dog into an ice hole. And there's also our big goose. They start fighting whenever they see each other. Now the big goose turns and runs away when it sees Erbao."

"Hahaha" Dabao also laughed. He knew this younger brother too well. He had been a naughty boy since he was young. Later, he went to the countryside as an educated youth and finally calmed down.

"Let's go. I have to go see my grandparents. Tell Dazhu and I'll go find him later."

"Okay." Qin Zihui and the other person left.

Qin Dabao tapped Erbao with his finger. He had no idea what to do with this naughty little brother, so he gave Erbao a light kick and said, "Go play!"

When Erbao saw that his brother was not angry, he happily jumped up and went to play with his friends.

Qin Dabao walked along the road in the middle of the village. His grandparents lived at the west end of the village, more than a hundred meters away from other houses. In fact, his grandfather's house was built on the mountain. Looking down from his grandfather's house, the whole village was in sight.

Apart from a few children, I didn't see anyone else along the way. They were all staying at home for the winter and no one came out to visit. If it weren't for these children, the village would be dead silent.

My grandparents divided the family completely after my uncle got married. The old man has three sons. The eldest son, Qingyou, is Dabao's father. Now the whole family is registered in the city.

The second son Qingfu and the third son Qinggui have both separated and lived separately. Now it is just the old couple living in the old house, which is quite quiet.