Year 1979: Eating meat with my wife and children

next day

As dawn broke, the rain, which had been drizzling all night, left the ground damp.

Li Xiangdong and his two companions didn't eat breakfast; they packed all the bamboo tubes they had prepared overnight into burlap sacks and cloth bags.

Hou San felt he had been cheated and insisted on getting the three sacks from the employee.

The three of them changed into their usual clothes, each carrying a cloth bag and a burlap sack, and quietly opened the gate to the courtyard.

As soon as Li Xiangdong closed the gate, he turned around and saw Gao Xinmin, who had just returned from a stroll.

Gao Xinmin strode over and asked, "What are you three doing, sneaking around like that? What's in the sack?"

"Good morning, Uncle Gao. These sacks are full of bamboo tubes. The three of us are going out to catch crickets."

Li Xiangdong put down the sack and opened it to let Gao Xinmin take a look.

Gao Xinmin took a bamboo tube out of the bag, glanced at it, and then casually threw it back.

"Why are you catching crickets? If you three are itching to do something, I can give you some work to do."

Li Xiangdong quickly took out his own Daqianmen cigarette and handed it to Gao Xinmin, even lighting it for him.

"Uncle Gao, you don't know, crickets are a traditional Chinese medicine. We catch them to treat people's illnesses. This was specifically instructed by the resident doctor of Tongrentang. He said that crickets from Ningyang have strong medicinal properties, and it's best if they are alive so that their medicinal properties can be preserved to the maximum extent when making medicine."

He spouted a string of nonsense without thinking, regardless of whether Gao Xinmin believed him or not.

Gao Xinmin asked, smoking a cigarette, "Is this why the three of you switched shifts to come to Shandong Province?"

Hou San grinned mischievously, "Yes, Uncle Gao, Dong Ge and I are the most loyal of all. In order for A Zhe's father to recover as soon as possible, we specially asked Uncle Hai and Er Guaizi to switch shifts. Otherwise, who would like to come to this godforsaken place? Don't you think so?"

When A Zhe saw Gao Xinmin looking over, he nodded with a wry smile, "Train conductor, Dongzi and Hou San are right."

"So, out of the three of you, one is filial and the other two are loyal. If I stop you from going, I'll be the bad guy."

Gao Xinmin said expressionlessly, "Since that's the case, you guys hurry up and go. Three sacks of bamboo tubes, how many crickets are you going to catch? I can't keep you waiting. Remember to come back early, we still have to go back to the capital this afternoon."

"Understood, conductor."

"It won't be a problem, Uncle Gao."

"Uncle Gao, please keep this pack of cigarettes."

Li Xiangdong shoved the remaining half-pack of Daqianmen cigarettes into Gao Xinmin's hand, saying, "Uncle Gao, let's get this over with."

After he finished speaking, he shouldered the sack and walked out first, with Hou San and A Zhe following closely behind him.

Gao Xinmin watched the three figures disappear into the distance, shook his head and smiled. He didn't believe Li Xiangdong's words at all, but he didn't intend to stop them, as long as they didn't do anything to undermine the state's unified purchase and distribution system.

Catching crickets is fine, but what's the use of those things? Are you going to take them back to the capital to feed the chickens?

Hou San, struggling to carry the sack, approached Li Xiangdong and asked, "Brother Dong, do you think Uncle Gao believed it?"

"Whether he believes it or not, we're going to say it no matter what."

Li Xiangdong glanced at the two of them and said, "If anyone asks you two, you'll both say the same thing, especially you, Hou San. You should keep your mouth shut in front of Kong Dani."

Hou San nodded and said, "Don't worry, Brother Dong, I won't tell Da Ni. When I make money, I plan to buy Da Ni a pair of leather shoes."

A Zhe asked curiously, "Hou San, who is Da Ni? Is she your girlfriend?"

Hou San blushed and said, "She'll be my girlfriend sooner or later."

"cut!"

Ah Zhe said disdainfully, "So, she didn't like you? You still have to buy her little leather shoes. Tsk tsk, Dongzi, what was that word you used before? A simp, right? Hou San, you're just like a simp now."

"Ah Zhe, you little black kid, are you never going to stop? Last night you called me a dog, and now you're saying it again? Do you want a beating?!"

Hou San threw the sack on his shoulder to the ground and then lunged at A Zhe.

Li Xiangdong stepped forward and stood between the two. "A Zhe, swallow whatever you want to say! Hou San, pick up the sacks on the ground. From now on, neither of you is allowed to speak again!"

Ah Zhe and Hou San had already found out the location of the market last night.

There were hardly any people on the road early in the morning, so they had to walk. Fortunately, Ningyang County is not a big town, or rather, the county town is not big now.

Just keep walking along the main road in the city. When you encounter locals, Li Xiangdong will take a cigarette from Hou Sanbu, offer it to them, and ask for directions.

The county town was full of bumpy dirt roads, and it had rained all night. Li Xiangdong and his two companions had to stop every now and then to take off their shoes and brush the mud off the soles.

After turning left and right and walking along several small paths, it took more than half an hour to finally arrive at the market.

It was called a market, but it was more like a cattle and horse market, with two large thatched sheds in the middle of an open area.

There were stalls selling all sorts of things, from needles and thread to lambs still drinking milk, both under the shed and outside.

There were quite a few people coming and going in the market. Li Xiangdong saw a young man sitting on a half-brick with a dozen or so cricket jars in front of him.

He handed the sack to A Zhe, stepped forward and said with a smile, "Fellow villager, let's see your crickets."

Upon hearing this, the young man's lifeless face immediately broke into a smile. His accent wasn't very strong, and he said, "I have plenty of good insects here. Feel free to look around."

Li Xiangdong picked up a cricket jar, opened it, and looked inside without saying a word, until he had looked at all the cricket jars on the ground.

Seeing the young man's anxiety, he stood up and said with a smile, "The cricket is nice. How much do you plan to sell it for?"

The young man laughed and said, "Five cents each, that's not expensive. These are all good insects, all my..."

Li Xiangdong interrupted him, saying, "I don't want just one, I mean all of them."

"all?"

The young man scratched his head, squatted on the ground and pondered for a while, "If you want them all, you can give me 45 cents each. These are all good bugs, all from my own..."

Seeing that he was about to start rambling again, Li Xiangdong walked over to A Zhe, picked up two sacks, and whispered to him, "These crickets are all pretty good. You can try to bargain with him a bit more. Hou San and I will go to other stalls to continue buying."

After saying goodbye to Hou San, who was still watching the commotion, he walked another ten meters or so. He stopped and thought for a moment, then said to Hou San, "It's too slow for us to collect from each house one by one. Let's stop here and collect from here."

Li Xiangdong put the sack in his hand on the ground and shouted loudly to the passers-by, "Time to collect crickets!"

It worked; he saw many people looking in their direction. "Hou San, come and call them all over here."

Hou San is most happy to do things that show off!

He nodded with a grin, put down the sack, and shouted loudly, "Cricket collection time! Cricket collection time!"