Year 1979: Eating meat with my wife and children

Seeing Li Xiangdong and the other two standing there, Gao Xinmin said impatiently, "What are you standing there for? Come with me!"

Hou San and A Zhe looked at Li Xiangdong, who sighed and said, "Let's leave it to fate."

After he finished speaking, he lifted his leg and followed.

The three of them followed Gao Xinmin with bated breath all the way to the train conductor's rest room.

"Stack the sacks neatly, don't leave them scattered everywhere."

"Thank you, conductor!"

"Thank you so much, Uncle Gao. You are truly a considerate leader who always thinks of everyone. The three of us have broadened our horizons and opened our hearts by being able to come out with you."

The situation took an unexpected turn, and Li Xiangdong was in a great mood, showering Li with flattery as if it were free.

Upon hearing these words, Gao Xinmin felt much of the resentment he felt towards Hou San dissipate, and a smile appeared on his face.

"Alright, stop with the nice things. If I really didn't let you bring these crickets on the bus, the three of you would probably curse me out."

Li Xiangdong said with a serious expression, "You are the train conductor of this train. Whatever decision you make, it must be from the perspective of the leadership. How could the three of us possibly criticize you?"

"That's right, Uncle Gao, you are the best train conductor at our Beijing Station."

"I think I've figured it out; they're both just being stubborn."

Gao Xinmin smiled and pointed at A Zhe and Hou San, then looked at Li Xiangdong and said, "You're quite the smooth talker, you two hurry up and get to work."

The journey back was uneventful, except when passing through Dezhou, Hou San took advantage of his small stature, crouched down and squeezed into the crowd to buy four braised chickens.

The money was put into the public account. Li Xiangdong and the other two each received one, and the remaining one was given to Gao Xinmin.

Li Xiangdong and A Zhe couldn't bear to eat it; they planned to take it home and share it with their families.

Hou San, however, was different. Before he could even warm the braised chicken in his hand, he eagerly ran to Kong Dani to curry favor with her.

Kong Dani hasn't even agreed to date him yet, and he's already completely forgotten about his parents.

At 5 a.m. on the third day, the train pulled into Beijing Station.

Because A Zhe needed to stay and clean, Li Xiangdong and Hou Sanben planned to make two trips to move the sacks, but unexpectedly Gao Xinmin's gang took the initiative to help, carrying the sacks and coming to the water supply group office with the two of them.

"Why are you making such a fuss? I accepted your roast chicken, so can't I lend you a hand?"

After saying this, Gao Xinmin walked towards the platform. As the train conductor, he was responsible for the final cleanup.

Li Xiangdong and Hou San waited for A Zhe while he was lying on the desk. Once everyone arrived, the three of them carried the items out of the train station building.

First, we found a state-run breakfast shop and had a comfortable breakfast.

Unable to sleep soundly on the train, the three of them were all exhausted and decided not to take the bus. They waved down a tricycle and paid a full 5 cents to get them to the vicinity of the White Pagoda Temple.

The tricycle driver watched the three men's retreating figures and spat angrily. The three shameless men had insisted on riding him the whole way, almost exhausting him to the point of collapse.

Earning 5 cents is really tough!

"It's still early, let's find a place to rest for a while."

Li Xiangdong led the two to the corner of an alley, put down his things, and sat down on the ground. The three of them then smoked and started chatting.

As the sun rose higher into the sky, the nearby market became increasingly lively.

Li Xiangdong pointed to a large bald man in the distance and said to Hou San and A Zhe, "See that person? He's Cricket Sun. Go ask about the prices at all the other cricket stalls besides him."

"Dongzi, I understand. Hou San and I can definitely handle this."

"Don't worry, Dong-ge."

A-Zhe and Hou-San, one on the left and one on the right, each carrying two bamboo tubes, split up and began to test the prices at other cricket stalls.

About half an hour later, the two returned one after the other.

"How about it? What's the price?"

Ah Zhe shook his head and said, "No, the price offered by Ququ Sun was higher. The highest bid was one yuan and fifty cents."

Hou San nodded and said, "Brother Dong, me too. We still need to go find Cricket Sun."

"Okay, I'll go and call him over."

Li Xiangdong got up, patted the dirt off his backside, and strode towards Cricket Sun's stall.

Cricket Sun just sold a cricket and earned two yuan. He traded the cricket for a candy ball with a child.

He had just happily stuffed the money into his pocket when he looked up and saw Li Xiangdong standing in front of him with a smile. He stood up and put his arm around Li Xiangdong's shoulder.

"Dongzi, you've finally arrived! I haven't been eating or sleeping well these past few days, afraid you'd lie to me. Where's the cricket?"

Li Xiangdong pointed with his finger, "There."

Ququsun looked up and saw Hou San and A Zhe not far away. He remembered that the two of them had been wandering around with bamboo tubes in their hands. He instantly understood and said angrily, "You little rascal, you're so cunning."

"Old Zheng, could you watch the stall for me for a bit? I need to go talk to this young man somewhere else."

"Okay, go ahead."

After giving instructions to the stall owner next to him, Ququ Sun quickly pulled Li Xiangdong to the corner.

He nodded to Hou San and A Zhe first, then looked at Li Xiangdong with surprise, "Are all of them?"

Seeing Li Xiangdong nod, he asked excitedly, "These three boxes aren't also filled with crickets, are they?"

"They're all there! Let's check the goods quickly, we're still waiting to go home."

"It won't delay your journey home. There are too many people and too many eyes around here. Come with me."

Ququsun led Li Xiangdong and the other two through several alleys to a large courtyard.

Looking at the messy surroundings, Li Xiangdong asked, "Uncle Sun, do you live here?"

Ququsun opened the door and welcomed Li Xiangdong and the other two into the house, saying, "These two east wing rooms in the front yard are all mine."

Li Xiangdong and the other two didn't pay attention to what Ququ Sun was saying, because the situation inside the room really surprised them. The room was full of cricket jars, and there were stacks of empty jars on the floor. There was almost no room to step in the whole room!

"Uncle Sun, are you able to sleep at night?"

“I sleep in the next room. Besides, what do you know? I sleep even better listening to the chirping of insects.”

Cricket Sun smiled and said, "Shall we count and inspect the goods?"

"Please order."

Hou San and A Zhe stared at Ququ Sun inspecting the goods, while Li Xiangdong curiously looked around. Soon he noticed that Ququ Sun would examine each cricket for several minutes.

"Uncle Sun, if you have this idea, when do you plan to finish reading it? Can you finish it before dark?"

"Don't rush me, I'll hurry up, okay?"

"Then hurry up, if you don't finish watching it before noon, you'll have to pay for the lunch of the three of us."

"I don't care. Don't worry about it. Would Uncle Sun ever let you go hungry?"

Li Xiangdong's joke turned out to be true. He almost choked on the steamed bun and pickled vegetables in his hand. "Hou San, go buy a few bottles of Beibingyang soda. It's too dry to eat like this."

"I understand, Brother Dong."

Hou San munched on a steamed bun and quickly bought three bottles of Beibingyang soda. He didn't even include Ququ Sun in the price list, mainly because he was getting impatient with Ququ Sun's dawdling.

Cricket Sun wasn't angry. He couldn't even eat a steamed bun, let alone drink soda.

It wasn't until Li Xiangdong had finished a nice afternoon nap that Ququ Sun finished inspecting all the crickets.

He pointed to a dozen or so bamboo tubes beside him and said, "The crickets in those bamboo tubes are no good; some of them are already dead. There are 439 left in total. We'll trade them by number."

Li Xiangdong nodded, and then took out four more bamboo tubes from his satchel. "Take a look at these four as well."

Cricket Sun's eyes lit up when he heard this, and they lit up even more when he saw the cricket in the bamboo tube!

"Great stuff, I'll take it for 5 yuan each!"

"One shot, and I'll give you 25 yuan, no bargaining."

"make a deal."

"Uncle Sun, do you have tickets?"

What kind of ticket do you want?

"Cloth coupons, cigarette coupons, liquor coupons, whatever you have, I'll take it, we'll just use it as payment."

"Alright, you wait and see."

...

Li Xiangdong took the stack of banknotes and some receipts handed to him by Ququsun, feeling deeply moved. He had finally made money.

"Uncle Sun, we'll come back to you next time we have goods."

Li Xiangdong led Hou San and A Zhe out of Ququ Sun's residence, and he could feel that the two people beside him were starting to gleam with greed.

"Let's go, let's find a place to split the money and go home!"