"Boss, this table belongs to me," Zhao Mingyang said.
"You don't need it, little brother, why are you so polite?" the old man said.
"Old man, you are so polite. Aren't I trying to learn from you? Besides, you are also my senior, so I must treat you to this meal. If you want to be polite to me, you are looking down on me," Zhao Mingyang said.
.
"You boy, you are really a fan of pens. You are so smooth-talking. Okay, I won't be polite to you anymore, but don't keep shouting like an old man. This is not another place. You said you want to be in a mountain or a small city."
, your old man shouts to make people feel respected, otherwise he will be said to not understand the rules.
But I don’t like it. I’m the kind of person who gets old before I grow up. I’m not bragging to you. In the early 1990s, I collected various anime. I was still chasing stars at that time. I especially liked Yamaguchi Momoko.
Where's Hui?
So don't call me "old". What you call me "old man" sounds to me like you are eating, drinking and leaving quickly."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Mingyang burst out laughing and said: "Brother, you are alive and well! Your ideas are not outdated at all, and are more avant-garde than young people. Now we are playing with what you left behind."
"Don't talk about those useless things. There is no need to flatter you. I have already said it. It's just that I lost my virginity earlier than you and suffered more. But suffering is not a good thing. If I had a choice, I would like to take all my pain away.
Share it in exchange for happiness.”
"Brother is right, we are all human beings. There is no difference between young and old. Maybe I will go ahead of you. It's hard to say. Everyone has his own destiny. No one can say whether he will live or die. Today is a brotherhood.
The accent sounds like you are not a local from Pengcheng, right?" Zhao Mingyang said.
"My ancestral home is Hunan. I came here in the 1980s. I was already in my thirties at that time. I graduated from university at the age of thirty, so I am an old student. My classmates are all of different ages, so we
That group of people is actually not that old-fashioned. There are people in the same class who are one year apart in age or even in their twenties.
I am a real old man who gets married when he is forty and has children when he is forty-five. My son and daughter may not be as old as you.
When I came here, I worked in a newspaper office, mainly writing articles. However, in the early 1990s, I decisively resigned from the newspaper office and set up a street stall to start a business. At that time, I was selling socks on the street in front. I knew that this was the arrival of a new era.
, I can’t miss it.
At that time, my family didn’t understand me, and I didn’t even want my iron rice bowl. That was because my family hadn’t come here, and they were really out of step with the times. This was the most terrifying thing. It is no exaggeration to say that every day in Pengcheng was
A myth that changes every day,
Our hometown has not changed much for decades. It is like Hong Kong Island across the street. Have you seen those movies and TV series in the 1980s? At that time, people all had mobile phones, drove sports cars, and watched color TVs. But
We didn't even have black and white TV at home at that time, so the gap was so big.
But later, when I went to Hong Kong Island, I found that there was no Pengcheng there that felt like a metropolis. Pengcheng was developing too fast, creating one myth after another and shattering one after another.
There are no locals or outsiders here, they are all strivers. It is very tolerant here. Did you see that homeless man picking up bottles on the roadside? Do you know how prosperous he was back then?
In the early 1990s, he bought a Mercedes-Benz and had three female secretaries. Not to mention how prosperous he was at that time. He bought socks at a street stall I set up for 100 yuan. He just took two pairs of socks and left without me.
Change.”
Zhao Mingyang looked in the direction his brother pointed. A man with disheveled hair and rags was picking up bottles. He couldn't tell his age, but he was associated with a big boss with three female secretaries.
.
"Don't look at it. For someone like him, Pengcheng is already 80 years old if not a hundred. Back then, some people made millions overnight. That was in the 1990s. They got rich overnight and went bankrupt overnight. There were too many people who experienced ups and downs at that time.
Therefore, many people start buying houses because they are afraid that they will not be able to save money.
Can you believe that I made over a thousand dollars a day selling socks at a street stall? It was so easy to make money at that time. I thought, I can’t keep setting up a street stall like this, so I rented a shop to sell clothes and made a lot of money.
, and then I went to sell crystals, and I made some losses. After a lot of ups and downs, I bought two houses, rented one out and lived in the other myself. I used the remaining money to buy some insurance products, and now I am basically living on my laurels.
If you describe this place, it is a place where you can see the rewards if you work hard."
"Where are the children? Aren't they here?" Zhao Mingyang asked,
"I have gone to study abroad, and my wife and I are the only ones here. Brother, do you know what is the greatest sorrow in this world?" The old man looked at Zhao Mingyang and asked.
"I don't know." Zhao Mingyang said.
"The biggest tragedy in the world is that as I get older, there are more and more restrictions. Hell, I was not allowed to ski at the ski resort a few days ago, and I had to be accompanied by my children. I wanted to take my wife to ride a roller coaster, but I couldn't
Let's play. We also know that people are afraid of taking responsibility, but this keeps narrowing our scope and we can only be forced to accept the old-age lifestyle arranged by society.
For example, going out for a walk, sitting there with a group of old men and women waiting to die, and my wife can still dance in the square. I feel more and more that I have too many restrictions. Little brother, what do you think I should do?
"
Zhao Mingyang was asked. As people get older, there are indeed more and more restrictions. Bathhouses don't dare to let older people in, and taxis don't dare to take older people. They are all afraid. There is an old saying that goes beyond sixty.
If you don't stay overnight, you generally don't dare to keep people over sixty years old at home overnight.
"Actually, there are still many places you can go, such as billiard rooms, Internet cafes, and even disco clubs. These places usually don't have so many restrictions. Or go to the basketball court. You can go wherever young people go.
I don’t know what’s wrong, and I can’t solve this problem. I’m old, and maybe it’s as uncomfortable as you. I’m old before I grow up. The saddest thing about getting old is the layers of restrictions. In the end, I can only accept society.
The arranged old life is just sitting around and waiting to die, or you can take your aunt on a self-driving trip and just travel around the world." Zhao Mingyang said.
"This is good. I will prepare it tomorrow and then set off directly."
"Brother, are you going too fast?" Zhao Mingyang said.
"We can't wait, I might leave one day, and don't tell me I'm fast, it sounds uncomfortable." The old man said with a smile.
Zhao Mingyang laughed loudly when he heard this, picked up the beer and clinked glasses with the old man and started drinking.
The two of them drank and chatted, and it seemed like they had a very interesting conversation.
"Pengcheng is really a place where big guys gather. I recently bought a house from a corporate boss here. You know Wan Heng's Xu family. What I bought was Wan Heng's house." After three drinks.
Patrol, the two of them had drank three bottles of beer, and Zhao Mingyang did not dare to drink any more. If the old man died from drinking, he really could not bear the responsibility. However, Zhao Mingyang was relieved that he had not been engaged in the media industry for a long time.
Moreover, the old man seemed to have the capacity to drink at most one bottle of beer, and his face turned red after drinking more than one bottle.
"You know, back then I also interviewed Xu Tianheng, the previous head of the Xu family. Wanheng is the name of Xu Tianheng and his wife Wan Xiaoling." The old man said.
"Brother, you're not bragging, are you?" Zhao Mingyang smiled and used a provocation, knowing that the old man might not be bragging. After all, the status of newspaper columnists in that period was still very high, but such a provocation could stimulate the old man, just in case.
Say something useful.
"Why did I lie to you? What's the point of bragging? Let me tell you, I know that the Xu family has a lot of things going on." The old man said proudly. It seemed that he was waiting for Zhao Mingyang to answer and was ready to brag.
Already.
"Is it true? Can you collect reports in more detail than those anxious reporters on the Internet? No more chatting, let's eat skewers," Zhao Mingyang said, handing the old man a few grilled meat skewers.
The old man patted the table and said, "You guys look down on me and think I'm bragging. Just a little bit. If I tell you, you won't know. Do you know what Xu Tianheng did to start his business?"
"I know, several of the elder brothers of the Xu family went abroad. Those who went abroad made some money abroad, and then came back to reunite and gave Xu Tianheng a sum of money to start a business." Zhao Mingyang said.
The old man sneered and said: "Do you believe it? This is not a secret. It doesn't matter if you tell me. Many people in Pengcheng know it. Of course, many people don't believe it. Does Xu Tianheng's wife Wan Xiaoling know who she is?"
"Who?" Zhao Mingyang asked curiously.
"Wan Xiaoling is the sister of Wan Jinrong, the famous bandit leader in North China. Wan Jinrong was caught and killed and left a sum of money. Do you think why Xu Tianheng and Wan Xiaoling became a couple?"
Zhao Mingyang checked on the Internet and found that Xu Qingqing's grandfather was born in 1927. Of course, this is not accurate. The age can be faked. After all, he is so old, he may be older.
"Do they still have stories?" Zhao Mingyang asked.
"The Xu family is not from Pengcheng. Xu Tianheng came from other places. This matter was circulated in our newspaper at that time. I don't know who spread it, but everyone thinks it is very reliable. Xu Tianheng was probably worth ten thousand gold back then.
Rong's group.
His fortune may have been ill-gotten gains."
Zhao Mingyang was a little surprised. This is completely different from the investigation and the information on the Internet. How credible is it?
"Brother, why am I listening? Is this a rumor? It's best not to believe the rumors and not spread them," Zhao Mingyang said.
"Boy, I had the same idea as you at the time, but later, guess why I also believed this version?"
"Why?" Zhao Mingyang asked.
"This starts from an incident back then, an auction. This is also the reason why Xu Tianheng was said to have a background as a thief. There are witnesses!" the old man said.
"Witness? Brother, you smoke, tell me carefully, and I will listen to the story." Zhao Mingyang took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, opened it, took out one and lit it for the old man and said.
