It was also at this time that the hotel waiter knocked on the door, walked up and asked: "Mr. Lei, it's almost time, can we serve the food?"
Lei Zhanjun hurriedly waved his hand and said: "Serve the food, and by the way, open ten boxes of the wine I brought." After saying that, Lei Zhanjun said to his comrades around him: "I brought twenty boxes from the military region today.
The real special Moutai, everyone drank it and took home whatever they couldn’t finish!”
When everyone heard that there was good wine, they all cheered, and then Lei Zhanjun arranged for nearly thirty of his comrades to sit at separate tables.
Zhang Wenhao's family sat at the same table as Lei Zhanjun's family, but the seating arrangement was very interesting. Zhang Xingping and Lei Zhanjun sat together, followed by Lei Zhanjun's wife and Song Huafang, then Zhang Wenhao and Lei Lei.
After we sat down, the hotel service staff came in with several trolleys. Each table had sixteen cold dishes, which had been prepared long ago, along with the wine that Lei Zhanjun had already brought from the military region on a truck.
Coming up, Lei Zhanjun said with a smile: "Everyone pays attention today. There are sixteen cold dishes. Don't worry about the hot dishes for now. They are all opened for me to drink! The hot dishes will not start until ninety minutes!"
The deafening cheers even startled the waiters. Each of these people are tough guys who have fought bloody battles. They are all huge. Drinking is their life. What's more, so many people have retired from the army today.
At the first gathering, everyone was very excited and had long been looking forward to having a drink with these brothers who had lived and died together.
The glass wine glass in the hotel is 250 ml, and the special Maotai-flavor Maotai liquor supplied by the military region is 53 degrees. Lei Zhanjun stood up and said to everyone: "Come on, brothers! Fill up the wine!"
"Okay!" Everyone also stood up and filled their own wine glasses. Lei Zhanjun picked up the wine glass and said to Zhang Xingping: "Brother Zhang, it can be said that you saved the lives of everyone here. No
Without you, we wouldn’t have this gathering today, so it’s up to you to say the first toast!”
Zhang Xingping wanted to shirk it, but everyone else also made the same request. Zhang Xingping looked at the blazing eyes around him, nodded, sighed slightly, and said: "For so many years, I have never dreamed of being able to have this day."
In this scene, we were all a bunch of young boys back then, and there were only a few big brothers in the company who had families, but none of us could come back alive. But now, each of us has our own family, our own
The current stability in the lives of our children and ourselves is hard-won. Without those comrades and brothers who sacrificed their lives in front of us, we would not have the opportunity to enjoy the peaceful life we have now. The first drink is a toast to those who went with us and worked with us.
We fought together, but there were no brothers who returned with us!"
After a conversation, everyone's eyes were red, and some people even cried when they thought of the past. Zhang Xingping shrugged his nose and held back the tears that were about to burst out of his eyes. He covered the mouth of the glass tightly with the palm of one hand and the other.
He picked up the glass and slammed it on the table without spilling any wine. Then, he raised the glass and shouted loudly: "Brothers, let's do it!"
"Pah!" Everyone smashed their wine glasses on the table, and then shouted at the same time: "Done!"
Half a kilogram of white wine, he drank it all after opening his mouth. Zhang Wenhao was deeply affected, but looking at the orange juice in his hand, he felt that he was a bit nondescript, but his father said that his wound was not healed yet and he was not allowed to drink, so he was helpless.
He shook his head and was about to drink the orange juice in the glass when Lei Lei, who was next to him, suddenly raised his glass to him and said, "Zhang Wenhao, let's have one."
Zhang Wenhao smiled at her, touched the glass lightly, raised his head and drank the orange juice, but muttered in a depressed tone: "It would be great if this was wine..."
Although the environment at the scene was noisy, Zhang Wenhao's muttering was still heard by Lei Lei. She pursed her lips and smiled, and whispered: "You are in a special situation today, and my dad doesn't let me drink, so we can only
Orange juice has replaced the wine. If I have a chance in the future, I will have a good drink with you. By the way, I can tell you that I have a good drinking capacity."
Zhang Wenhao curled his lips and asked jokingly: "Do you think my drinking capacity will be bad?"
Lei Lei raised her eyebrows and said, "If you have a chance in the future, we will know through a comparison."
Zhang Wenhao nodded and said: "Okay, I made a note of it. If I have a chance in the future, I will definitely have a drink with you."
Lei Lei smiled, then leaned over and said in a low voice: "You have the opportunity to teach me actual combat. After seeing your moves just now, I realized that Taekwondo is so weak. We used to compete with each other to see who could kick the legs."
You are taller and straighter, but you are thinking about how to kill the opponent in the shortest time. That feeling is really aura."
Zhang Wenhao joked: "Isn't Taekwondo also very aura? Not only does it need to be practiced in a special martial arts field, but it also has to wear specific clothes. What kind of belt you wear can also distinguish different levels. Before making a move, you always have to shout "
One sound, full of aura.”
"Stop talking..." Lei Lei shook her head and said with a depressed look: "Now it seems that Taekwondo and Sanda performances are more serious and beautiful, but they are not real fighting."
...
Once this group of middle-aged men started drinking, they never stopped. They drank three drinks together. The three drinks were toasts to their dead brothers, their current lives and their hopes for the future. Two middle-aged women
Looking at these grown men who were crying and laughing like children, they shook their heads helplessly, but they were also moved in their hearts. The two children were clinking glasses of orange juice to each other in boredom, and then smelled the rich and tangy aroma of soy sauce.
Swallowing saliva from the smell of wine.
Zhang Wenhao has always been afraid that his father drank too much, because everyone came to toast him and affectionately called him big brother. Even after so many years, you can still see the unabashed gratitude on the faces of these people.
, and Lei Zhanjun could not escape. Everyone took turns toasting to him, but they were all apologizing to him for not blaming Lei Zhanjun for the unexpected ambush.
It seems that for Lei Zhanjun, the forgiveness of these people is his biggest heartache. After each of them sincerely expressed their apology and goodwill, Lei Zhanjun burst into tears, including his wife.
, their daughter Lei Lei also shed tears silently. They knew that Lei Zhanjun had been struggling with self-blame in his heart for so many years, the countless times he cried in his dreams, the countless tears he cried huddled in the corner after waking up from nightmares, the countless tears
The slap that was suddenly slapped on his face completely moved away from him at this moment.
From then on, they began to recall everyone who appeared and left in their lives.
With tears in his eyes but a smile on his face, Wang Sen played with the glass in his hand and said, "Do you still remember the instructor, that Qilu man? How old was he when we went to the battlefield?"
"Thirty-nine!" Zhang Xingping blurted out: "He was thirty-nine years old that year and had three children. The youngest is now over thirty. The children are living a good life and are very filial. Unlike others who have many children.
They pushed the old people around each other, and these three children were snatching the old mother back and forth like a treasure. If she stayed in any house for more than one day, the other two families would not want to. Now my old sister-in-law is living a good life."
"Go and take a look if you have a chance!" Wang Sen said softly: "The instructor was very fond of me and wouldn't let me learn to smoke. But after I really learned how to smoke, I would always trade my good cigarettes with filters for mine.
He had no filter. When he was about to die, he told me to call him daddy, saying that I was about the same age as his eldest son and that he would never hear his son call him daddy again..."
As he spoke, Wang Sen lay on the table and sobbed, his shoulders shaking violently. Several people around him hurriedly came forward to comfort him. Zhang Xingping stood up at this time, picked up the wine glass, and said: "Why don't we want to be happy? Don't we?
Did our brothers leave us nothing but sadness in the end?"
This sentence made everyone agree with each other, and then everyone began to deliberately, no longer recall everyone who stayed on the battlefield with sadness, but with a knowing smile, recall those who were with them back then.
time.
There was too much drinking, and after the hot dishes were served, the atmosphere gradually calmed down a bit. Everyone no longer simply drank, toasted, and recalled the past, but the topic turned to their current lives.
Some of these people have become prosperous businessmen, some, like Zhang Xingping, live ordinary lives with more than enough, and some people's lives are not so smooth.
Speaking the truth after drinking, when Lei Zhanjun heard that many of his comrades in arms were not living a very happy life now, he made a decision to open a veteran's office in the cities where his comrades lived at the expense of his family.
The supermarket chain is left to these comrades or family members who have difficulties in life to manage it, and I give them 50% of the shares.
As soon as these words came out, everyone refused without hesitation. They were unwilling to accept help from their comrades. On the one hand, they did not want to cause trouble to their comrades because of themselves. On the other hand, it was also because of their own stubbornness and the concept of self-reliance.
Mostly, I don’t want money to be mixed into the brotherhood between comrades.
Lei Zhanjun’s wife immediately formulated a very professional business model: she would form a management team, go to the cities where these comrades are located, conduct on-site inspections, select sites and contact the most suitable and stable supply, and then she would fund the unification
For store design and decoration, the cost of each store is controlled within 500,000, and the comrades do not hold shares, but 50% of the shares, and receive dividends directly from the profits.
Even so, those people were still unwilling to accept it. Finally, Zhang Xingping stood up and said extremely seriously: "If any of you refuse, walk out of this room now. From today on, I, Zhang Xingping, will no longer recognize him as my brother."
! If you are a brother who is in trouble and you don’t let your brother help, then what kind of bullshit are you talking about? If you don’t have the friendship to support each other, you can’t even compare to a friend like a fox or a dog!"
In the end, under Zhang Xingping's strong request, everyone agreed, and Aunt Xue was unequivocal. She immediately took out her mobile phone, recorded their mobile phone numbers and home addresses one by one, and promised that the supermarket would open in the future.
Within a radius of no more than three kilometers from their home, we will provide them with maximum convenience.
Such an unusual gathering of comrades-in-arms lasted until twelve o'clock at night. Each of them drank a lot of wine, but what was rare was that each of them was very sober.
Before the show ended, Lei Lei took out a camera and wanted to take a group photo with everyone. Wang Sen quickly asked the waiter for some A4 printing paper, and repeatedly wrote seven big characters and two punctuation marks on them with a signature pen.
Nine people held up the paper and took a very meaningful photo. The photo was taken with the help of the waiter. Zhang Wenhao's family, Lei Zhanjun's family, and their 27 comrades were all in the photo.
In the crowd, pieces of A4 paper were linked together to form a sentence: "We are living a wonderful life!"
－－－－－－
I don’t know why, but after writing this chapter, my mood fluctuated a bit. I suggest you learn about a charity event called “Care for Veterans”. It is very touching and makes people feel guilty for no reason...
{Piaotian Literature www.piaotian.net thanks all book friends for their support, your support is our greatest motivation}