“Good craftsmanship”

At the hair-shaving stall, Wei Ran looked at himself in the mirror held by Cao Dumb and said with satisfaction. He was indeed satisfied. Cao Dumb's shaving skills were indeed good.

"Pack up your picks first."

As Wei Ran spoke, he handed a piece of ocean to the other party, "Please help me pay for the shoeshine. The rest is a reward. We will find a car to pick you up later."

"Hey!" Cao Mute clenched the silver dollar handed over by Wei Ran and responded with all his strength while suppressing his excitement.

After carefully patting away the hair residue on his body, Wei Ran put on his woolen coat and walked towards the cloth shop.

When he stopped a cigarette vendor and bought two packs of cigarettes and returned to the car, he found that Tao Canhua and Qiushi had already returned and were sitting in the car waiting.

"The mule cart has been found"

Tao Canhua pointed to a cart not far away and sat on the cart with his hands on the handlebars and said, "It's been booked for a long time."

"In this case, you two go shopping and go back first."

Wei Ran lit a cigarette and said, "By the way, I'll send the barber back first. What do you think? Isn't this skill good?"

“The cut is really good”

Qiushi followed up with a compliment, then lowered his voice and asked, "Brother Wei, he is really..."

"Um"

Wei Ran nodded, but did not talk about Guan Bingwen. He just said, "Give me the car keys. I will go to Taihua Building to sit for a while. You can go back directly after you are done."

"also"

Tao Canhua responded before Qiushi could speak. After handing the car key to Wei Ran, he held Qiushi with one hand, waved the car handle and walked towards the grain and oil store.

After dismissing them, Wei Ran got into the car and sat down. While smoking, he took out the piece of paper Guan Bingwen put in his shoe.

Unfolding it and looking at the plan above, Wei Ran couldn't help but grin. This plan was definitely bold, but it was also creative.

After taking out the food box and putting the piece of paper in it, Wei Ran flicked the cigarette butt away and drove to Taihua Building.

Under the guidance of the waiter, he went up to the second floor and asked for a seat by the window facing the street. Wei Ran casually ordered some food and drinks. While listening to the nonsense of the storyteller on the stage on the first floor, he was distracted and secretly looking out the window.

The teahouse diagonally opposite.

This teahouse only has two floors in total, but because of the cold weather, the paper windows on the second floor are all closed tightly, so you can't see what's going on inside at all.

Wei Ran glanced at the first floor of the teahouse while flicking the cigarette ashes. Wei Ran looked away casually. The teahouse was not open, but there were cars next to each other on both sides of the door on the first floor. He had to stop talking.

A dozen bicycles.

On the side of the teahouse door, there was a young guy with 37-cent haircut, his sleeves rolled up, guarding a not-so-big briquette stove, and sitting on a small bamboo stool to bask in the sun.

On the briquette stove were not only two pieces of roasted sweet potatoes, but also shelled peanuts. On the small kang table next to the stove, there were also a teapot, a kettle and a large plate of chopped vegetables.

Strips of Shawo radish, plus a small dustpan filled with peanuts and a pack of cigarettes.

From time to time, the little gangster who is guarding the car will politely say hello to acquaintances passing by, or warmly invite acquaintances to have a cup of tea.

Although no one really sat down to ask for tea, the little ruffian didn't care. On the contrary, he seemed to enjoy this boring and relaxing job.

Without reading any more, Wei Ran waited until the storyteller downstairs clapped the gavel again, then paid for the refreshments, went downstairs with a cigarette in his mouth, and drove towards the study apartment.

When he drove the car into the yard, he happened to see Tao Canhua and several young men with shaved heads, happily busy carrying half a fan of pork and several bags of white noodles from the mule cart.

"Have you bought everything?" Weiran lowered the window and asked.

"I've bought them all," Tao Canhua responded, "Mother Yang even made her noodles."

Hearing this, Wei Ran smiled, drove the car into the garage, then took out the food box and dug out the note, and then walked through the small door into the lobby on the first floor.

At this time, at the door of the room on this floor that once belonged to Cao Mute and now belongs to the dormitory of the theater troupe members, some young men were queuing up to get their hair cut. In several bathrooms, there were also young men who had just had their hair cut and were washing their hair.

He glanced at Cao Muba, who was busy cutting the hair of young men in the room, and then looked at Meixiang and Jasmine, who were sitting in the lobby on the first floor not far away, drinking tea. Wei Ran raised his hand towards each other from a distance,

Pointing to the stairs leading to the second floor.

Seeing this, Mei Xiang put down her teacup, followed Wei Ran to the second floor, and then led him to the third floor.

"Uncle Mute has aged so much that I almost didn't recognize him." Mei Xiang lowered her voice and sighed after leading Wei Ran into the study.

"yes"

Wei Ran sighed. Speaking of which, it was actually less than five years ago, but the mute uncle who was busy cutting his hair looked as if he was more than ten years older.

"What do I want from you?" Mei Xiang asked in a low voice, leaning against the door.

"I met Xiaoguan. At that time, he was setting up a stall next to Uncle Mute to shine shoes."

"Guan Bingwen?" Mei Xiang immediately widened her eyes and asked in surprise, "He and Ling Lu are back?"

"Xiao Guan came back first." Wei Ran paused and described in detail what Xiao Guan told him.

After hearing that Guan Linglu had given birth successfully, Meixiang immediately stood up and walked a few steps excitedly, and kept saying, "We have to prepare a decent gift for Linglu and the child."

"Don't worry, there are other things to do."

Wei Ran pulled the other party to sit down, took out the note from his pocket and pushed it to Mei Xiang, "Tomorrow night, Canhua and I have to go over and cooperate with them in cleaning up a teahouse. There lives Uncle Guan's former confidant Hu Dacai, this traitor

Now he is focused on capturing our radio station for the Japanese."

With that said, Wei Ran recounted the things about Hu Dacai.

"The deaths of Dogfish and Keqin were also related to him? Linglu was also caused by him?" Meixiang slammed the table hard upon hearing this, lowered her voice and asked, "Can I help?"

"It's enough for you to inform Andy of the good news that Ling Lu has given birth as soon as possible. By the way, plan with her what kind of gift to give." Wei Ran reminded with a smile.

"Yeah!"

Meixiang finally remembered belatedly, "We really need to inform her of the good news as soon as possible. I'll call her right away."

Watching Mei Xiang run out of the study because of this rare good news, Wei Ran took a deep breath and followed him out of the room.

On the following afternoon, Cao Yaba cut the hair of every young man and girl in the troupe, including Tao Canhua and Qiushi. In the end, even Yang Ma, Uncle Meng, and even Jasmine let him have his hair cut.

Fan.

Similarly, the boys and girls who had their hair cut off were arranged to start cleaning after washing their hair, or to help cook in the kitchen and be busy with various things.

As evening approached, with the youngest one also washing her hair, Jasmine finally gave these troupe members who had been busy all year a holiday and let the mule cart chartered for half a day take them for a walk in Quanyechang.

stroll.

At the same time, on the sofa in the basement facing the stage, Cao Duba finally took off the felt hat on his head and sat around the same table with Mei Xiang and Andy.

Forced by the situation, they had not seen each other for several years. Whether it was Cao Duba, Mei Xiang or Andy, the excitement of meeting again after a long separation was naturally inevitable, but now that they were really sitting at the same table again, they all fell into silence for a while.

Wiping the corners of his eyes, Andy rolled up his sleeves in a panic, took off a warm bracelet from his wrist and handed it to Cao Mute, "Uncle Mute, give this bracelet to Xiaoguan and let him sell it.

Sending it to his sister is a full-moon gift I prepared in advance for my fellow enemy."

"and this"

Meixiang said, and pushed a small makeup box to Cao Yuba, "I also prepared a gift for Miss Linglu. She has a home now and can't go back. She also has a child, so she must have spent a lot of money.

, Uncle Mute, take these back so that mother and son can spend the New Year with peace of mind."

Hearing this, Cao Mute was silent for a moment, and finally took the bracelet handed over by Andy and stuffed it into his arms, and then accepted the heavy jewelry box.

"How are you doing?" Cao Duba picked up the pencil on the table and wrote on a newspaper.

"good"

Mei Xiang sighed, "It's just that Andy and the sisters are suffering because they don't have many opportunities to go out. We can only go out for a while after everyone has gone to sleep at night."

"What do we have to suffer from?"

Andy lit a cigarette and took a puff, "It's just... I don't know when this day will end..."

"How about sending you away from Jinmen?" Cao Mute wrote his suggestion.

"Need not"

Andy shook his head decisively, "If I wanted to escape, I would have escaped a long time ago. I have finally learned how to send and receive telegraphs in the past few months. If I escape now, what's the point of learning that? Uncle Mute, don't worry,

I can definitely take over my brother's job, now I can even copy telegrams."

"I have persuaded her several times. If she was willing to leave, she would have left long ago."

Mei Xiang shook her head helplessly, then changed the subject and asked, "How is Mr. Feng's situation?"

"Everything is fine." Cao Duba hesitated for a moment after writing these four words, and then continued, "I can't say anything else."

Hearing this, Mei Xiang and Andy looked at each other, and they also tacitly brought the topic back to the Guan family siblings.

Compared to the two women who were talking to each other, neither Wei Ran nor Tao Canhua, who was sitting next to him, obviously wanted to join the conversation and take up their rare time to meet and chat.

However, Wei Ran set up his camera on an Eight Immortals table right in front of the stage and prepared in advance.

As he expected, the conversation between Cao Duba and others did not last long. Qiushi ran down and reminded, "Miss, someone has returned and is helping Yang Ma carry things in the yard."

"It's time for me to go, please pay attention to your safety." Cao Duba wrote the last sentence, then balled up the newspaper and put it in his pocket.

“Let’s take a photo”

Wei Ran greeted, "I have set up the camera. When the war is over one day, I will develop the photos."
To be continued...