Leadership inspection
(42)
Old Yao is coming to Beijing for an inspection visit, which makes me nervous.
The last time he came to Beijing was five years ago when I entered the university. I still remember that on the first day of school, old Yao and I took the train from our hometown to Beijing, carrying two large sacks of clothes and bedding.
However, the day after I checked in, Old Yao went back to his hometown and never got a chance to show him around Beijing.
Old Yao came to Beijing on a whim. My fourth aunt is a nanny in Baoding, Hebei province. At present, it is autumn leisure, the fourth uncle a person at home boring, they encouraged my father to go to Baoding with him.
My dad wasn’t as crazy about cards and mahjong as the other men in the village. He had few hobbies to entertain him during the rest of spring and winter. A year of busy and quiet life is boring. After the fourth uncle several door-to-door lobbying, agreed.
In just a few days, they ate salted duck eggs, roasted lake fish and had a bonfire party in Baiyangdian, Baoding. Fourth Uncle is a very playful person. After he was discharged from the army at 24, he moved south to Guangdong, selling high-end lighters, home DVDS and other fashionable items at the time. You did a lot of things when you were young. After years of toil and no profit, he gained a reputation as a loafer.
However, traveling thousands of miles is worth reading thousands of books. Uncle Four is always on the move, his belly is full of anecdotes. When I was a kid, we kids loved to hear him play pauper. He used to sit around drinking tea and chatting with the old men in the village. At such times, he would dance and talk like a charlatan storyteller, cultivating a loyal audience.
After a few days in Baoding, uncle 4 whispered in my father’s ear again. Baoding is only an hour’s drive from Beijing, and I haven’t seen him for more than half a year. Why don’t you come to Visit me in Beijing? He said he was coming to see me, but actually he wanted to drag my father to Beijing for a stroll.
In this way, two people took advantage of the interest of the bus into Beijing, to the capital.
I’ve been learning old Yao’s style for years. Not until last night did he call me to tell me the whole story. Surprised, for the arrival of the two elders, I dare not have a trace of slack. I sent an email to Ask Kang Shen for two days’ personal leave and went to zhao Gongkou bus station on the South Third Ring Road to pick him up.
Uncle four is still fat, fat, like a Maitreya Buddha. A few years ago, he contracted out the land in the village to work in a factory in town.
At first, he worked full time at the factory, eight hours a day. The factory is engaged in the processing of rubber products, which is a high pollution industry. More recently, he has been working odd jobs, sometimes for less than a few days a month, as factories have been on and off in China’s efforts to curb smog in the beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and elsewhere.
By contrast, Old Yao, a perennial farmhand, was thin and dark, with bulging veins in his arms. And because the waist is not very good, the body is a little stooped. Although they are of the same age, but from the appearance, it looks like a different era.
(43)
“Qiwa, your fourth aunt gave it to you.”
Uncle Four handed me a box of baiyangdian specialty – salted duck eggs. I carried it over, weigh weigh weight, still quite heavy, scan the carton packaging, 36 pieces. Normal meals are takeout, digestion of these eggs, it seems to take a long time.
We three people out of zhao Gongkou bus station courtyard, I turned around and asked four uncle: “you two is running natural and unrestrained, how didn’t I four aunts also take?”
“You boy obviously want to ask your father why didn’t bring your mother? Instead, you’re talking about your aunt. The master has just had a baby, and you are too busy to leave.”
Uncle Four is a clever man, he saw through my little mind at once. I didn’t dare directly ask Old Yao why he didn’t bring my mother. Old Yao’s stubborn temper is not to be provoked.
Old Yao said, “Your mother has long hair and short knowledge. She has never traveled far. She doesn’t want to come.”
Four uncle simple and simple smile: “sister-in-law or loathe to give up her raise that several pigs.”
“Dad, sell those pigs at once. Raising pigs is too much work and tiring. People can do without a meal, but pigs can’t miss a meal, and selling pigs doesn’t make much money.”
The fourth uncle also advised my father, “Next year, let the sister-in-law also go to Baoding, you can be a companion with Shuqin.”
“Your sister-in-law is not as clever as Shuqin, she is clumsy, serve the city people, but also not be scolded to death.”
.
I lead the way in front, the pace is walking more and more slowly, the head of the old niang constantly around the stove, cooking for the family busy figure. When I was a child, when I was studying in town, no matter how dark and cold it was in winter, my mother always got up on time to cook breakfast for me, for fear that I would be late for school.
When she cooked dinner, I was still in bed and refused to wake up. At this time she took the trouble to call me to get up, sleepy I get up gas are scattered on her body, she just suffered silently.
Cold water washed POTS and dishes, swept the floor and wiped the table, and in winter her rough hands swelled and turned purple with cold. The meat often cracks in the cold months. Every time I ask my mother if it hurts, she always smiles and shakes her head.
I felt sad, a man in his late fifties who had never been on a train, let alone a plane. The farthest place I have ever been is only a few dozen kilometers away from home in the city. From jet-black to streaky white, she has never been to a mall and hardly wears makeup.
Life at home is getting better and better, but she is very lonely. During the off-season, women of the same age in the village kill time by playing mahjong, playing cards or staying with their children.
But she had no hobbies, and when she was free, she sat at home chatting with a group of older ladies. When no neighbors came to visit, I would sit inside and watch TV all day, year after year.
He spent half his life in the kitchen, working in the fields, and, more sadly, enduring the strong masculinity of Old Yao. Of course, old Yao’s temper has improved with age.
In the dead of night, I often wonder what kind of wife I will marry in the future. Just be like my mother. I don’t want her to be smart or rich. I just want her to be kind and share the glory and disgrace with me.
(44)
Lao Yao, Fourth Uncle and I took the subway to Qinghe, about ten minutes’ walk from the subway exit to our apartment. I led them through the shanty town, looking and pointing all the way.
I stared down at the road and warned them not to step in puddles. As we were about to enter the apartment door, we ran into a bit of trouble when huang Fei, the security guard, stopped us.
Uncle Four took out a Chinese cigarette from his pocket and handed it to him. With uncle four’s ability to chat with strangers, they were finally allowed to enter the apartment.
After entering the house, Lao Yao sat down on Lao Pan’s bed, lit a cigarette and puffed. He scanned the room without saying a word.
The light streamed in through the narrow window, and dust danced in all directions.
Uncle 4 broke the silence: “Qiwa, your living conditions are a little rough.”
Usually there is no one to come, I rummaged cabinets, found the summer beer bought disposable cups, poured two cups of hot water, and said to fourth uncle: “here is cheap rent, convenient to work.”
Old Yao asked, “How much is it a month?” .
I strained my lips for a moment, then told the truth: “1,500.”
My father dusted off his cigarette and looked at me in surprise: “This house is 1,500 yuan a month? The houses next to the tarmac road in our village are rented to traders, and the five new tile-roofed rooms cost only 500 a month.”
Uncle four for me to speak: “second brother, you don’t watch the news broadcast. Can our countryside compare with such first-tier cities as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen? Qiwa, you are lucky that the child is sensible and does not spend money recklessly.”
I suddenly remembered the story of Bai Juyi’s first arrival in Chang ‘an.
In the third year of Zhenyuan Period of tang Dynasty, bai Juyi, at the age of 16, came to Chang ‘an, Kyoto, from the South of the Yangtze River and visited gu Kuang, a famous scholar, with his manuscript of poetry. When Gu Saw bai Juyi in the manuscript, he said jokingly, “It is not easy to live in Chang ‘an, where rice is expensive.” . Later, Gu Kuang looked through bai Juyi’s poems carefully. When he came to the sentence, “Apart from the grass on the original land, it withered and blossomed at the age of one year. The wildfires could not burn, but the spring breeze blew again,” he immediately shouted, “Good poem! It is not difficult to live in such a literary style.”
Such a great writer as Bai Juyi, living in the imperial capital of Mi GUI, would naturally have the confidence and strength to live on, rise quickly and become a guest of the emperor.
Ordinary people like me, also only want to make a living, get ahead, rich and luxurious definitely dare not dream, just want to live a comfortable point.
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