Year 1979: Eating meat with my wife and children

"Dongzi, don't leave. If you're not satisfied with the price, we can discuss it again."

Uncle Sun quickly got up and stepped forward, pulling and dragging Li Xiangdong back to his stall. He gave up his own stool for Li Xiangdong to sit down and even offered him a cigarette.

"Dongzi, you've got connections, managing to smuggle crickets all the way from Ningyang. Uncle Sun really admires you..."

Li Xiangdong interrupted Uncle Sun's flattery and said directly, "Uncle Sun, let's get down to business. What you're doing isn't exactly a unique business. Give me an honest price, or I'll go ask at other stalls."

Uncle Sun realized that he was someone who wouldn't listen to reason, so he slapped his thigh and said with a pained expression, "Fine, Uncle Sun will take the loss and give you 1.5 yuan each."

Li Xiangdong exhaled smoke from his mouth, "Two yuan, and I'll bring it back from over a thousand miles away. Are you playing house?"

Uncle Sun's face was wrinkled and creased together. "Dongzi, you've gone too far with your offer. You should at least leave Uncle Sun a little something."

Li Xiangdong smiled and said, "Don't try to fool me just because I'm young. You're selling crickets from Beijing for 3 yuan. If you don't like it, I'll really go find someone else."

Seeing that he couldn't fool Li Xiangdong, Uncle Sun said with a smile, "Alright, then it'll be 2 yuan each. But let's make it clear first, I need to inspect the goods when they arrive. I won't accept anything that's just a cheap imitation."

"What are you thinking? Why would I bring back something that isn't good? It would just be too much trouble for me to handle back and forth."

"Dongzi, how many can you bring back? When do we make the deal?"

"It's hard to say the exact number, but at least two or three hundred. As for the time... today is the 14th, and I will come to see you on the 19th. I can't say whether it will be earlier or later, but I will definitely come on the 19th."

Nowadays, no one can guarantee that a train will be on time.

Once the deal was agreed upon, Li Xiangdong didn't plan to inquire about prices at other stalls; this was the current market rate.

If the price goes any higher, nobody will want them. After all, there are crickets in the capital too, just not as famous as those from Ningyang.

Li Xiangdong stood up and said, "Uncle Sun, it's getting late, I'll head back now."

Uncle Sun looked up at the position of the sun. "Let's go back. I should pack up and go home soon. Dongzi, you must remember to come on the 19th. Uncle Sun will be waiting for you here. You can't lie to me."

Li Xiangdong had only taken two steps when he heard Uncle Sun's words. He turned around and laughed, "Don't worry, I'm not just here for no reason. Why would I come here to lie to you?"

"But Uncle Sun, I don't think 'Cricket Grandpa' sounds good. It sounds like the cricket's grandfather is coming to claim kinship. You should stop calling me that in the future."

"You little rascal! You want to use me as a cymbal?!"

Uncle Sun casually picked up the cricket cage he usually played with and threw it at Li Xiangdong, who was turning to run away.

"Thank you for the cricket."

Li Xiangdong accurately caught the heartfelt affection that Uncle Sun was giving him, and held the fist-sized bamboo cricket cage to his ear to listen. "What a good cricket."

After sighing, he looked at Uncle Sun and said, "You have too much temper. Remember to drink more tea. I'm going to get up now."

After saying that, he took off running, shouting as he ran, "Uncle Sun, don't worry, I will take good care of this cricket."

Uncle Sun stood in front of his stall, watching Li Xiangdong run further and further away. He shouted angrily, "You brat! Give me back my cricket!"

Unfortunately, the distance was too far, and Li Xiangdong didn't hear it.

He ran all the way to the bus stop, arriving just in time for rush hour, where a long queue had formed in front of the bus stop sign.

Once on the bus, the crowd was just as dense as in later times. He had thought about getting a monthly pass, but then he realized that he would be traveling to other places frequently by bus in the future, and a monthly pass for public transportation wouldn't be very useful, so he gave up the idea.

He felt like he was missing out if he didn't take a single bus ride every day since he had a monthly pass.

......

The front door to the house was not closed.

Li Xiangdong stepped over the threshold and stood in front of the screen wall, craning his neck to look into the courtyard. No one was there.

All that could be heard from the main room was the noisy chatter of the children, with Li Xiaotao being the loudest, constantly shouting that it was delicious and smelled really good.

He called out in a high-pitched voice, "Someone from Old Li's family came out to pay the water and electricity bills!"

The sounds from the main room paused, and then Li's mother came out. As she walked towards the door, she asked, "What water and electricity bills are you paying? Did you come to the wrong house? Didn't we already pay this month?"

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw her youngest son standing in front of the screen wall. She took two steps forward and slapped him on the back, saying, "You brat, you're never serious."

Li's mother didn't hit him very hard, so Li Xiangdong didn't dodge. "I was just teasing you. Did A-Zhe bring us some fried dough twists?"

“They just left, and they brought over five big bags of fried dough twists. They said you all bought them together in Tianjin. We all tried them, and they were delicious.”

"As long as it tastes good, I'll make some other things for the family next time I have the chance."

"You go inside first, I'll get you some rice."

Li Xiangdong and his mother chatted as they walked toward the main house.

"Uncle San is back."

"Uncle, the fried dough twists you bought are so delicious!"

"Dad, have you bought any meat? I want to eat meat!"

"Hey, Uncle, why are you making the sound of a cricket?"

"Grasshopper! Uncle, did you buy some grasshoppers?"

As soon as Li Xiangdong entered the house, he was surrounded by the children. He smiled and said a few words to them, then urged them, "Go eat quickly, and I'll let you play after you finish eating."

He sent the children away and first greeted his grandparents, his father, and his brothers and sisters-in-law who were sitting at the large dining table eating.

Then he looked at Zhou Yuqin, who was feeding her daughter, and said, "Wife, you've had a hard time these past two days."

These days, couples rarely express their inner feelings to each other.

When Zhou Yuqin heard this, especially in front of everyone, she blushed and stammered, "It's not hard work, hard work what?"

"Daddy...hug me..."

Li Xiaozhu sat in her mother's lap and spoke up to ease her mother's embarrassment. She pouted, and tears kept welling up in her big eyes.

Li Xiangdong quickly picked up his daughter and asked, "Little Qi, do you miss your dad?"

"think..."

Li Xiaozhu hugged his neck, and tears began to fall one by one.

When Li Xiangdong saw his daughter start to cry, his heart ached. He quickly took the cricket cage out of his pocket and held it to her ear, saying, "Listen to this, isn't it nice?"

No...no...want

Li Xiaozhu pushed away the cricket cage next to her ear and hugged his neck tightly, refusing to let go.

Li Xiangdong put the cricket cage on the table, patted his daughter's bottom, and said, "Let's not cry anymore. Daddy will feed you, okay?"

Li Xiaozhu looked at him and murmured, "Okay..."

After sitting down, Li Xiangdong picked up the small metal spoon his daughter used for eating, scooped up half a spoonful of rice, and said, "Open your mouth, ah~"

Station Master Li Xiaozhu nestled in his arms and then opened her mouth to shout, "Ah~"