Year 1979: Eating meat with my wife and children

'dong dong'

"come in."

Li Xiangdong looked at Wang Chenghao, who was lying on the bed with his legs crossed, as he pushed the door open and entered. He asked, "What's up?"

Wang Chenghao glanced at the burlap sack and cricket box in the corner of the room. "Nonsense."

"Let's not talk about trivial matters. Go back and rest."

Li Xiangdong smiled and waved to him.

As Wang Chenghao walked towards him, he asked, "Hou San and the others went out?"

Li Xiangdong didn't answer him, but yawned.

Wang Chenghao didn't mind. He sat down next to Li Xiangdong and said, "I came here to invite you to our room for a drink."

Seeing that Li Xiangdong did not react, he got up and tried to pull Li Xiangdong off the bed.

"I'm sincerely inviting you, please do me the honor."

"Stop pulling me, I'll go, okay?"

Li Xiangdong wasn't interested in drinking, but he was curious about the cricket-collecting equipment that Wang Chenghao and his group used, and wondered what was inside the sack.

"I'll grab some good stuff for drinking, peanuts."

Li Xiangdong and Wang Chenghao weren't exactly enemies, but they weren't exactly friends either, so naturally he couldn't go drinking empty-handed.

"You don't need to take anything. I've already prepared good wine and food in my room. Come with me now."

Wang Chenghao snatched an oil paper package from Li Xiangdong's hand, threw it directly onto the bed, and then pushed him towards the outside.

I closed the door.

The two of them lived in places separated by only three rooms, just a few steps away.

Li Xiangdong followed Wang Chenghao into the house, where the food and drinks were indeed prepared.

Six bottles of baijiu (Chinese liquor), three braised chickens, a bag of peanuts, and a bag of dried fruit.

Four other colleagues from the same train were sitting at the table.

After sitting down, Li Xiangdong smiled meaningfully and said, "Comrade Wang Chenghao, is this some kind of trap? Are you planning to get me drunk and then ask me something?"

Wang Chenghao poured wine into the teacup in front of him and replied, "Don't overthink it. We're just getting together tonight to catch up with each other."

The other four colleagues chimed in, "Laba Dong, we're all colleagues, can't we get together and have a few drinks when we're not busy?"

"That's right, Laba Dong, don't think so badly of us. If you don't want to drink more, we definitely won't force you to drink."

The other four colleagues at the table kept repeating "Baba Dong" to each other.

Although Li Xiangdong found it somewhat unpleasant to hear, he was too lazy to correct him.

This nickname has probably spread throughout the passenger transport section and Beijing Railway Station. Let everyone call it whatever they want.

He smiled and pointed to five large sacks stacked together in the corner. "Let's put the wine aside for now. Can I see your cricket-collecting stuff?"

"Well... okay, you can watch it if you want."

Wang Chenghao got up, walked to the sack, untied the knot, and took out a bamboo tube to show him.

Hey!

The moment Li Xiangdong saw the bamboo tube, he knew in his heart that Wang Chenghao had definitely stolen his skills from him!

Bamboo tubes aren't the only way to transport crickets; other things can also be used.

The key point is that the bamboo tubes they prepared were almost the same size as those in their own house, and the cotton on top...

damn thing!

While on the train, Wang Chenghao must have secretly rummaged through their sacks during the breaks when the three of them were working.

Li Xiangdong looked at Wang Chenghao beside him and said meaningfully, "Comrade Wang Chenghao, you've found a good mentor."

"hehe."

Wang Chenghao could easily tell that Li Xiangdong was being sarcastic. He gave an awkward laugh and quickly changed the subject.

"We've looked at the food, let's go have a drink, or the food will get cold."

"Is there hot food on the table?"

"Ah~ this, hehe, slip of the tongue, slip of the tongue."

Li Xiangdong smiled at Wang Chenghao, thinking, "So what if he got caught red-handed?"

Before he could even say anything, Wang Chenghao started rambling incoherently. That bastard has no composure!

Li Xiangdong returned to the table, sat down, and began to play games with Wang Chenghao and the other four, but he didn't mention a word about crickets.

I just sat there chatting with them, ate quite a bit of food, but didn't drink a drop of the wine in my teacup.

He knew he had to get up early to work tomorrow, and if he wanted to drink, he could do it whenever he got home.

"Dongzi".

"Brother Dong."

A Zhe and Hou San pushed open the door and entered the house.

"Wow~ So much delicious food, Ah Zhe, let's go back inside and get some stools."

Hou San glanced at the dishes on the table, then pulled A Zhe back into the house and brought over two stools.

"You guys squeeze in, give me and Azheteng some space."

Hou San acted as if he were back home, pulling A Zhe to sit next to Li Xiangdong, and then grabbed a handful of peanuts.

"Zhe, eat up! Dong-ge, stop staring and eat too!"

Hou San ate ravenously while gesturing to the two of them.

A Zhe was initially a bit reserved, but then he saw Li Xiangdong wink at him.

With years of tacit understanding, he naturally understood what Li Xiangdong meant by winking at him, and immediately started eating voraciously with Hou San.

"Hiccup~"

Hou San picked up the teacup next to him and took a sip of water. "Finally, I'm full. A-Zhe, are you full?"

Ah Zhe wasn't thick-skinned enough. Seeing everyone looking at him and Hou San, he blushed and said, "I'm full too."

"That's fine."

Hou San, clenching his teeth, said to Li Xiangdong, "Brother Dong, we're full, let's go back to sleep."

"Row."

Li Xiangdong suppressed a laugh, stood up and said to Wang Chenghao, "You guys keep drinking, the three of us will head back first."

Wang Chenghao chuckled dryly as he got up to see them off, while his four other colleagues sat on their stools with long faces, not moving an inch.

They stared at the half-packet of dried fruit left on the table, cursing inwardly, "What the hell are we supposed to drink now? We've run out of snacks!"

As soon as Li Xiangdong and the other two left, they all complained, "Haozi, what were you trying to achieve by doing this?"

"Yeah, Haozi, those two guys, Hou San and Hou San, are like starving ghosts reincarnated. We haven't even had a few bites of the food on the table, and they've already eaten it all!"

Wang Chenghao took out a cigarette and offered one to everyone in the room, his expression not pleasant.

However, he patiently explained, "We're novices when it comes to collecting crickets. I originally planned to get on the good side of Laba Dong so that if anything went wrong, we could ask him for help. I just didn't expect Hou San and his buddy to mess things up."

"Don't be angry, guys. There's still half a pack of dried fruit left. Let's all have a drink together."

Wang Chenghao finally managed to persuade his group of people, and they had just sat down and were about to have some more drinks.

'dong dong'

"Who?"

Hou San pushed open the door and said with a smile, "It's me!"