Year 1979: Eating meat with my wife and children

"Dongzi, you've finally come out!"

Li Xiangdong guessed correctly; the person who came to the door was indeed his childhood friend. The man speaking in front of him was not tall and had dark skin.

His name was Xiang Lin, and he had a buzz cut. Although he was a returned educated youth, he looked like a recently released convict.

It's not decades from now, when people would laugh at you for having that kind of "labor camp head" hairstyle.

"What are you dawdling in there for? If you don't come out soon, even the heavens will melt Xiao Linzi and me."

This is another childhood friend of his, Zhang Sen, whom he and his friends all like to call Sanmu.

Li Xiangdong stood at the door and looked at the two of them, laughing, "Sanmu, you should learn from Xiaolinzi and cut your hair shorter; it'll keep you cool."

He rolled his eyes at Lin Chong and explained, "The neighborhood committee arranged for me to be an apprentice at a barbershop. The master barber there saw that neither of us knew anything, so he had us practice on each other, and that's how we ended up looking like this."

Zhang Sen grinned, revealing a set of bright white teeth. "Little Lin, tell me about that guy. Did he also shave his head like a convict?"

Lin Jianjian chuckled and said, "He's even worse off, he got a whole shaved head."

"Hahahaha~"

Zhang Sen laughed so hard he could barely breathe, he almost passed out.

After exchanging a few jokes and banter, Li Xiangdong asked, "What kind of gathering is this today?"

Xiang Lin said, "A Zhe is back. Let's go and welcome him back."

Speaking of A Zhe, Zhang Sen, who had been smiling just moments before, immediately stopped smiling.

The main reason is that their childhood friend was in such a terrible situation; his circumstances a few years ago were truly heartbreaking.

Ah Zhe's real name is Shi Zhengzhe. Just hearing this name, you know that there are cultured people in his family.

Shih Cheng-che's father was a university professor who taught economics. Shih's mother and maternal grandfather's family fled before the humanitarian crisis hit.

Although his mother left a letter severing ties with his father, the two of them still had a hard time.

In this situation, keeping a low profile and avoiding standing out might allow you to get by.

That's true; nothing happened until the year Li Xiangdong got married.

But not long after, Shi Zhengzhe's father couldn't control his mouth and said some things he shouldn't have.

Saying he can't control his mouth doesn't mean that A Zhe's father is a chatterbox. He's like Zhao Gang from the TV series "Bright Sword" that Li Xiangdong watched in his previous life. He speaks out in anger after his ideals and beliefs are challenged.

Whatever the reason, he said some things he shouldn't have said, and then the father and son went to the southwest region to live in a small villa, living the idyllic rural life that modern-day migrant workers dream of decades ahead of time.

In his previous life, Li Xiangdong learned about the railway system's recruitment from A Zhe, because the neighborhood committee gave A Zhe a spot, saying that comrades who had been wronged should be given some consideration.

In the end, A Zhe didn't take the job. Following the course of his previous life, he didn't stay in the city for long after returning. He went abroad with his father to join his mother. They didn't meet again until the year 2000, when Beijing hosted the Olympic Games.

"Ah Zhe is back, we should go and visit him, but wouldn't it be inappropriate for us to go empty-handed?"

Li Xiangdong was in a bit of a predicament. He only had three cents on him, plus two packs of Daqianmen cigarettes.

Zhang Sen said, "Dongzi, don't worry, everything is ready."

"What are you preparing?"

Li Xiangdong was a little puzzled, as his two childhood friends were not well-off.

Xiang Lin was an apprentice at a barbershop, and Zhang Sen was assigned by the neighborhood committee to drive a tricycle. Both of them were married with children, and it was difficult for them to make ends meet.

Xiang Lin said awkwardly, "It wasn't Sanmu and me who prepared it. Binzi ordered a pig's head and a whole set of offal through their kitchen's purchasing department."

Binzi was also a childhood friend of Li Xiangdong and his friends. His real name was Qian Bin. After graduating from junior high school, he did not go to the countryside but worked as a cook in a state-run restaurant with his father.

Upon hearing this, Li Xiangdong urged, "You idiot, hurry up! That thing takes a lot of time to make. Here's what we'll do: I'll go get some loose liquor, and you two go buy some peanuts. The three of us should take something too."

"Okay, I'll listen to you, Dongzi."

The three split up: Xiang Lin and Zhang Sen went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy peanuts, while Li Xiangdong went to a small tavern to buy loose liquor.

To get the liquor, he needed empty bottles. His family kept the empty bottles in the main room, but to avoid his mother's nagging, he went back home and took two teacups from his own room to make do.

He spent the last three cents he had on him to buy two jin of loose Erguotou liquor. When he came out of the tavern, he steadily carried two teacups, one in each hand.

These days, things are all about being sturdy, durable, and big enough. A pound of wine poured into a teacup is only about seven or eight tenths full, and once the lid is on, it won't spill at all.

Li Xiangdong walked into Qian Bin's large courtyard and saw Xiang Lin, Zhang Sen, and two fat men, one big and one small, squatting in the yard, singeing the pig hair off a pig's head with fire, surrounded by several children watching the commotion.

Next to it were two large iron basins. One basin contained singed pig trotters and pig tails, while the other basin contained a whole set of pig offal soaking in water.

He placed the teacup he was holding on the windowsill and greeted the middle-aged man holding a palm-leaf fan, saying, "Hello, Uncle Qian, it's so hot, I'm sorry to trouble you."

Uncle Qian smiled like a Maitreya Buddha, "Dongzi is here. What trouble or not? I'll just talk. You'll have to do the actual work yourselves."

He stood up, lifted his shirt, exposed his belly, patted it a couple of times, and pointed his palm-leaf fan at the windowsill. "Why are you carrying two teacups with you when you go out?"