Year 1979: Eating meat with my wife and children

When Li Xiangdong saw Hou San suddenly being so attentive, he knew that Hou San was up to no good.

Moreover, this guy can't hide what he's thinking at all; it's written all over his face!

He refused outright, saying, "Don't bother, I can go by myself."

Just then, Ah Zhe returned after washing his lunchbox, and Li Xiangdong handed him his own lunchbox, saying, "Ah Zhe, could you wash my lunchbox for me? I'll go get some food."

"Okay, you go."

Ah Zhe sensed something was off about the two of them and wondered what they were up to. He took the lunchbox and walked back to the pool.

Under Hou San's indignant gaze, Li Xiangdong picked up the meal tickets and lunchbox on the table and walked towards the food serving window.

"Two servings of stir-fried pork slices and one serving of scrambled eggs with tomatoes!"

The woman serving the food took the lunchbox and meal ticket, scooped up the food with her large ladle three times, and then placed the lunchbox at the window.

The older woman asked, "Young man, are you new here? I saw you sitting with Hou San, are you friends? You seem to know the Gu family well, bringing back so many groceries at once."

Li Xiangdong replied with a smile, "Auntie, you're right. I just started working here today. But Hou San and I aren't friends; we're brothers. Besides, I don't have that many meal tickets; they all belong to Hou San."

After he finished speaking, he took the lunchbox and left, while the old lady watched him and muttered to herself.

Hou San has brothers?

Doesn't he only have two older sisters?

Besides, Hou San is known throughout the section for being heartless and carefree!

He actually thought of bringing food home. Has he grown up and become more sensible, and learned to be filial?

There were quite a few people queuing for food. By the time Li Xiangdong returned with a full box of food, Hou San had already finished eating and washed the lunchbox.

Li Xiangdong asked, "Hou San, where shall we rest at noon?"

"Go to my dad's office. This afternoon I'll take the two of you to the union office and the office in the train station building ahead to report for duty."

Hou San was somewhat absent-minded; he was still feeling the pain of losing the meal tickets he had just received.

"Let's go then, make room for our colleagues who are coming to eat."

As the three of them came out of the cafeteria, Li Xiangdong took the Daqianmen cigarettes that A Zhe handed him and then handed them to Hou San, asking, "Want a smoke?"

"Smoke! Why shouldn't I smoke?"

Hou San immediately took the Daqianmen cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag. "I have to get back the meal tickets you took from me!"

Ah Zhe, standing to the side, complained, "Hou San, these are my cigarettes! I knew something was off between you two. So, the food Dongzi just got was paid for by you, Hou San!"

Li Xiangdong, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, pulled three meal tickets from his pocket and stuffed them directly into Hou San's pocket.

"Hou San was showing off a stack of meal tickets to me. When I kindly reminded him, he mocked me for being envious of his meal tickets. So, I had to teach him a lesson. I'm planning to help you two make money, how could I possibly mooch off his three meal tickets?"

"Hou San, just keep gloating. When your dad finds out your meal tickets are gone, he'll definitely teach you a lesson. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Hou San was overjoyed to have his meal ticket back, he didn't understand any of the talk about "forecasting"!

"Brother Dong, are you planning to take the two of us from other places to Beijing to make money by smuggling goods?"

Ah Zhe looked puzzled and asked curiously, "What are you two talking about? Making money by reselling things?"

"You do not know?"

Hou San was amused; there really were things he didn't know about relationships.

Ah Zhe urged Hou San, "I don't know, tell me what happened quickly."

When Hou San saw A Zhe asking him for advice, he stiffened his neck, tilted his head back, and said smugly, "The most sought-after job in our railway system is the train attendant position. Don't look down on our low salary, but as long as we can go out on a train and bring back some things from outside, we can earn a lot of money."

"I'm not bragging, but I've seen people board trains while on an IV drip. You might think they're dedicated to their jobs, but actually they just don't want to go out and earn extra money!"

Ah Zhe swallowed hard, his voice trembling as he said, "Hou San, what you're saying is too outrageous. Won't anyone stop us from doing this?"

Seeing that A Zhe didn't believe him, Hou San got a little angry. "We're all on the same side, who cares? You'll see when you get on the train. Everyone's doing it, nobody cares. Even the train inspectors only check the ticket sales revenue, they don't care about this at all."

A Zhe asked, "Don't the train police care?"

Hou San squinted, "What do you think? You think they wouldn't do that?"

"How hateful! Wouldn't that mean we'd be rich in the future?"

Ah Zhe pounded his chest and stamped his feet, saying, "You have no idea how much I almost gave up on coming to work. I thought being a flight attendant meant serving people and it wasn't a good job!"

Hou San was stunned. Everyone said he wasn't very bright, but he thought A Zhe was even dumber and less intelligent!

A Zhe suddenly grabbed Li Xiangdong, "Dongzi, you knew it too, didn't you? I was wondering why you kept trying to persuade me not to change jobs this morning. Were you deliberately trying to make a fool of me?!"

Li Xiangdong smiled and neither admitted nor denied it. He did intend to make a fool of A Zhe, but he didn't expect Hou San to expose him so quickly.

Ah Zhe exclaimed excitedly, "If we can make money every time we go out on a trip, won't we be rich?"

At this moment, Hou San poured cold water on the idea, saying, "You can't make money every time you go out. You can only bring back something valuable if you go to the south. At most, you can bring back some food from other places."

Ah Zhe said nonchalantly, "Bringing some food is fine too, it'll be easy to pass it around when we get back..."

Li Xiangdong interrupted A Zhe's daydream, saying, "Then you'll get caught for speculation and sent to the Xishan Quarry, where you'll be playing with a sledgehammer smashing rocks."

"Bah bah bah!"

Ah Zhe spat three times in a row, "Dongzi, can't you wish me well for once!"

Li Xiangdong laughed and said, "Ask Hou San if that's possible."

Hou San gave an awkward laugh. "Everyone is just bringing things for their own people; nobody's going out to speculate or make money."

Seeing Li Xiangdong's gaze sweep over him, he honestly confessed, "Okay, some people have indeed been arrested for speculation and profiteering. I don't know if they were sent to the Xishan quarry, but I do know that a couple of years ago, one guy was executed!"

Upon hearing Hou San's words, A Zhe shuddered and began to back down, saying, "This is too dangerous. I think we should just forget about it."

Seeing his hopeless look, Li Xiangdong said, "I have a way to make money steadily and without much risk."

Upon hearing this, A Zhe immediately perked up, and even Hou San strained his ears to hear what good ideas Li Xiangdong had.

Seeing that Li Xiangdong stopped speaking halfway through his sentence, the two men said in unison, "Just tell us what your solution is!"