Year 1979: Eating meat with my wife and children

The grenade startled seven or eight neighbors, and with the addition of other neighbors who came to see what was going on, a large crowd gathered in front of the Li family's house.

Li Xiangdong reluctantly opened the door, only to be confronted by Huai Zi, who was nearly scared to death, and was questioned by him.

"Dong-ge, are you home? What's with this grenade?"

When the other frightened neighbors saw the family come out, they all said, "Dongzi, Aunt Wang saw it too! This grenade was thrown from over your house!"

"Dongzi, what happened? You scared me to death! How could you throw a grenade into the alley!"

"Dongzi, you can't just throw a fake grenade around like that!"

Li Xiangdong was utterly speechless. Why the hell was everyone questioning him?!

He was lying comfortably on the kang (heated brick bed) just now, what does it have to do with him?

He didn't throw the grenade!

Li's mother and two sisters-in-law came out to apologize to the frightened neighbors one by one, and Li Xiangdong accepted the grenade handed to him by Huaizi with a smile.

"I'm sorry everyone, my child is being silly and accidentally threw it out of the yard while playing with it."

He also knew to save face for Li's father. If he said the child threw it, people would only scold him a few times and forget about it in a couple of days. But if he said it was Li's father who threw it, then his father might go down in history in their alley.

Huai Zi's face turned red, whether from fright or anger, was unclear.

"Let me tell you, Dong-ge, the others were alright, but this grenade was thrown right at my feet! It scared me half to death! I even saw my dad waving at me!"

"Cough cough~"

Li Xiangdong almost burst out laughing. He coughed twice and hurriedly took out cigarettes to give one to each of Huaizi and the frightened neighbors.

"Everyone, calm down. You all know the grenade was fake; there was no gunpowder inside. Otherwise, we wouldn't have let the kids throw it around like that."

He bumped his head against the door frame as he spoke, "See, it's really okay."

Holy crap~

Although everyone already knew the grenade was fake, seeing Li Xiangdong's actions still made their legs involuntarily take two steps back.

"Dongzi, are you trying to scare your grandpa to death?"

"You child, you really are something!"

"Dongzi, you need to discipline your kids!"

After venting their frustrations, the neighbors left one after another after the Li family apologized.

After all, they've been neighbors for decades. They couldn't keep nagging the kids for being naughty, so they just let it go once they'd vented their anger.

Furthermore, they were already hungry after working all morning, and experiencing this on their way home for lunch made them feel they needed a good nap after lunch to recover.

"Brother Dong, the child is disobedient; we must discipline him severely!"

Huai Zi hadn't left yet; he was still a bit shaken, and his lips were trembling as he spoke.

Li Xiangdong nodded. "Brother Huaizi, I'm really sorry. The child is just being immature. You, as his uncle, should be more understanding."

By this time, Li's mother had also figured it out. The other neighbors who came to the door were alright, but only Huai Zi was really frightened.

She took Huai Zi's hand and said, "Huai Zi, I'm going to give them a good beating later, but you can't be angry. We'll have lunch at my house, and I'll have your nephew offer you a toast as an apology."

"No, Aunt Li, my mother has already prepared dinner for me. Aunt, what I said earlier was just in anger. The child is still young, so we can't really hit him hard. I'm going back now."

Huai Zi broke free from Li's mother's hand and turned to leave, but Li Xiangdong quickly stuffed the remaining half box of Daqianmen cigarettes into his hands.

"If you're not going to eat, you can have this half-pack of cigarettes."

"Well... okay, thank you, Dong-ge. You and my aunt should go back for dinner too."

All the neighbors left the house, and Li's mother and the others went home to continue cooking lunch.

Just as Li Xiangdong was about to turn around, he heard someone call his name.

'Squeak~'

A tricycle stopped at the gate. Zhang Sen was pedaling the tricycle, and Xiang Lin, A Zhe, and Qian Bin were standing in the back.

A Zhe was holding a brick, and Xiang Lin was holding a wooden stick.

Qian Bin, wearing a chef's hat and a white chef's scarf, was holding a kitchen knife.

The three men jumped out of the car and ran to his side, asking, "What happened, Dongzi?"

"Dongzi, I heard from Xiaolinzi that your house was besieged. Where are you?"

"What's wrong with Dongzi?"

Zhang Sen got off the tricycle, holding a chain in his hand. "Dongzi, are we too late, guys? Did they ransack your house?"

Li Xiangdong looked at their appearance, shook his head with a wry smile, and said, "It's nothing."

He briefly explained what happened, and of course, the culprit was Li Xiaotao.

Qian Bin laughed and said, "Dongzi, your house is really lively."

Xiang Lin looked at the grenade and laughed, "My nephew is a man destined for great things, but he just threw the grenade in the wrong place."

Zhang Sen snatched the grenade from Xiang Lin's hand and asked, "Then where do you think we should throw it?"

Xiang Lin grinned mischievously, "A public bathhouse, huh?"

Ah Zhe retorted sarcastically, "Get lost! If you dare throw this in a bathhouse, you'll be paraded through the streets in the afternoon for a public trial, and executed tonight."

Xiang Lin looked A Zhe up and down. "A Zhe, I'm just wondering, when other people are sent to the countryside, they come back dejected and avoid people. How come you're acting like nothing happened, and you still talk so much nonsense every day?"

Ah Zhe said speechlessly, "If I were like my father, we would have been bullied to death in the Southwest during those years. In order to suffer less, I could only pretend to be a simpleton."

"Well, it's been installed for a long time now, and I can't seem to change it now."

"Ha ha ha ha"

Li Xiangdong and the others couldn't help but laugh when they heard what A Zhe said.

Knowing that nothing had happened, the group chatted idly at the door for a while. Then, Ah Zhe and the other two jumped onto the back of the tricycle, with Zhang Sen still pedaling, and the four of them sped away.

Li Xiangdong smoked the cigarette A Zhe had given him and sat alone on the doorstep, wanting some peace and quiet.

Unexpectedly, Li Xiaotao came out of the courtyard again. He sat down next to Li Xiangdong and asked, "Third Uncle, Grandpa clearly threw the grenade into the alley, so why do you all say that I threw it?"

Li Xiangdong sighed and patted his silly nephew on the shoulder, "Although you didn't throw the grenade directly, you were the first one, and your grandfather was the second. You two are passing the torch from generation to generation."

Li Xiaotao picked his nose and nodded. Although he didn't understand, he was sure his third uncle was right.

“Third Uncle, you’ve been wronged just like me. Do you think my grandpa is getting senile? I know you can’t just throw grenades around like that. My older brother, my younger brothers, and I were playing happily in the yard when Grandpa threw it into the alley.”

As he spoke, he picked out a piece of booger, rubbed it in his hand, flicked it twice but it didn't come off, so he casually wiped it on the threshold.