MC Bookstore Chapter 1070 - 943: Uncle, How Have You Been Lately?
Chapter 1070 - 943: Uncle, How Have You Been Lately?
Going to visit Zhao Dashan isn’t as simple as just saying it. Since they were already in the county town, they naturally couldn’t forget Zuo Lin and Uncle Ye and the others. With all this door-to-door visiting, the next day’s plans would have to change.Zhou Jiao happened to also want her husband and sons to have a proper day of rest.
For once they were of one mind: Zhang Guoqing also wanted to take his wife out for a day.
So after dinner, the couple tacitly began speeding up their packing. Like getting the family’s change of clothes ready; when you visit someone, you have to bring a little gift, right?
Once they got back to the county town, they first split up, each going to their own mother.
In the small courtyard, Mother Zhang had been bored, debating whether to leave her working husband and go out. The moment she saw her youngest son bringing his whole family in, her face broke into a wide smile as she went up to meet them.
"You little rascal, it’s so late and you’re still dragging the kids out on the road at night. You can’t do that tomorrow. Have you eaten yet? I made something good for you."
Looking at Mother Zhang, Zhang Guoqing felt a surge of warmth. This was a mother’s love. A mother will always first ask if her son is hungry or cold, if he’s put on weight or gotten thinner.
"Ma, we’ve eaten. Don’t fuss, your son isn’t going to starve."
He was about to move closer and chat with his old mother for a bit more, but before he’d taken a few steps, Mother Zhang had already brushed past him, bending down to scoop up the pair of little sons.
Well then, he was out of favor again.
With Mother Zhang looking after the children, Zhang Guoqing was much more at ease. Seeing that it was getting late, he took Zhou Jiao and two bottles of liquor and headed to the nearby Zhao Family.
The Zhao family’s courtyard had added side rooms again in the past two years. It seemed that with two sons married, whether they lived at home or not, the parents still hadn’t forgotten to keep rooms for them.
"So you still remember to come by?" Zhao Dashan was playing with his grandson in the yard. Seeing the couple come in, he joked, then immediately raised his voice, "Wife, Jiao Jiao’s here, cut open a watermelon!"
"Uncle, why are you being so polite? A glass of water is fine."
Zhao Dashan rolled his eyes at him with a grin. "In your dreams. I’m treating Jiao Jiao. You’re lucky if you get the rinds. Haven’t seen you in over two years, and you’ve gotten sturdier."
Zhang Guoqing set the liquor down, raised his arm and flexed, "I work out every day, look, all muscle."
"Mm, your limbs have gotten even more developed."
Cheng Hongli came out just in time to hear that and let out a little "pfft" of laughter. "Already a grandpa and still acting like a kid. Xiao Wu, hurry and eat watermelon with Jiao Jiao."
Being teased by his wife like that, Zhao Dashan just chuckled indifferently and pointed at the long bench beside him, motioning for them to sit. "How’s Brother Zheng?"
"Right before we came over, my dad had just gone on a business trip. Lately things have flared up over there again, so he’s a bit busy." Zhang Guoqing took a slice of watermelon and handed it to Zhou Jiao.
The child in Zhao Dashan’s arms ah-ah’d and reached out to grab it, making Zhang Guoqing laugh out loud. "This must be Hongbing’s son, right?"
"Oh? You can tell?"
Zhang Guoqing smiled at Cheng Hongli. "Takes after his father’s love of food."
Hearing that, Cheng Hongli burst out laughing. He really had guessed right—this was indeed Zhao Hongbing’s eldest boy. She happened to be on leave these days, so she’d had her grandson over to play.
"Uncle, how have things been lately?"
Zhao Dashan shook his head. "A military representative came in, organizing ideological study every day. Now the streets are full of little punks with red cloth strips tied around their arms, so puffed up the world can’t hold them."
Cheng Hongli called out "Old Zhao" in disapproval.
Zhao Dashan waved his hand. "They’re not outsiders. I’ll be careful when I’m outside."
Cheng Hongli gave Zhou Jiao a wry smile, stood up with her grandson in her arms. "We women will go inside. Your uncle’s all pent up inside; let Xiao Wu talk some sense into him."
Zhou Jiao gave Zhao Dashan a worried look and followed her into the room.
"Your uncle had originally wanted Ping’an and the others to stay in town, but when he heard you were coming, he thought it over and decided it was better for them to stay in the countryside. Don’t listen to his nonsense about you not coming to see him sooner."
Zhou Jiao nodded with a smile.
"Did you see those groups of young people on your way in?"
Zhou Jiao had indeed seen them, checking suspicious people everywhere, and squeezing some oil and water out of soft targets while they were at it. They were all lads of seventeen or eighteen; she didn’t know why they hadn’t gone to the countryside.
"Did they give you any trouble? There’s an Investigation Office in the county, and those youngsters belong to it."
"Two of them seemed to know Xiao Wu and Yuntao. Oh, and Yuanyuan and her family of three came with us. She said they were in a hurry to catch their ride and would come see you and Uncle next time."
As for what was going on with those youngsters from the Investigation Office, Zhou Jiao didn’t ask further. Either they had someone backing them, or they’d already gotten a firm footing early on.
This so-called county Investigation Office was all just a self-proclaimed organization, yet they really did have the authority to meddle. These days, even the police station had to make way for such self-styled organizations in many matters.
"Oh, then they must have recognized who Xiao Wu is. Nowadays when production team members come to town to visit relatives, if they bring too many things they all get checked. I’d actually wanted to buy some cotton last year and send it to your family, but it all got ’cut off as tails.’"
Zhou Jiao said with a smile, "I still haven’t thanked you for that. My mom really liked the cotton cloth you sent over."
"Your mom sends who knows how many things every year, no need to stand on ceremony. That homespun cloth was bartered from a nearby village. I’ll ask around again later."
Zhou Jiao hurriedly declined. "We still have some at home, it’s enough. My mother-in-law said that with the Revolutionary Committee set up, inspections are really strict now. Better safe than sorry."
Seeing this, Cheng Hongli just smiled and changed the subject to other matters. She’d known that no matter how much time passed, it was easy to change rivers and mountains but hard to change a person’s nature—this girl was still extremely cautious in how she did things.
Outside, Zhao Dashan was telling Zhang Guoqing about the changes in the county town over the past few years, especially in the last year.
"Mr. Liu’s two sons still couldn’t escape. They were in the first batch to be knocked down the summer before last. I heard even the old man’s old friends in the provincial city couldn’t protect them."
"At the start, all the smashed-up stuff was loaded up by the truckload from our side and hauled over to the East Suburb scrap station, and the trucks were provided by our unit. My heart was just twisting..."
"Once the Revolutionary Committee was set up, Li Aiguo—he’s very capable—immediately stabilized things. The others were either sent down or left. The only two units left intact were ours and the Zuo Lin Bureau. If we hadn’t had real guns, we’d probably have been charged into and torn apart too."
Zhang Guoqing didn’t need to see his expression; he could tell how dangerous it had been just from his words. Though he was in the army, he’d heard plenty of rumors—some places had bullets flying everywhere, they said.
Even Beijing had ended up with armed showdowns deciding victory or defeat, let alone here in these remote mountains and rivers. He didn’t even know what words to use to comfort Zhao Dashan.
"It’s not just here. Remember that stretch of reed marsh by the river on the north outskirts of the provincial city?" Zhao Dashan frowned deeply. "It was that wild riverland by the reed marsh that saw the worst fighting—five people died there, and there’s no way to even count how many were injured."
How could Zhang Guoqing not know? That stretch of wild riverland didn’t just have lots of wild ducks and river fish; the reed thickets had even more snakes and insects. Back then, quite a few little devils had been buried there.
To start a fight over there was really to ignore feudal superstitions and ignore human life. He didn’t know whether to call those people young and ignorant or incredibly bold.