In an old house hidden in darkness in the city, Zhang Yiyan, who was sleeping soundly in bed, was suddenly awakened by the howling night wind.
"Ugh!"
He frowned and sat up. After regaining his composure, he grabbed a piece of dirty and patched clothes that were neatly stacked aside. He threw them around his body, got off the bed, and stretched out his hand to pull the light cord a few times.
, but there was no response from the overhead light.
"Some dog must have pinched the wire for me again!" He cursed and groped under the bed with his feet, and soon found a pair of tattered cotton shoes and put them on his feet, and then groped in the dark.
Come out of the house and walk to the corner of the courtyard to prepare some water.
First it was ticking, then clattering, and finally it was ticking again.
It took him a full two minutes to get rid of the urine that Chu Heng could finish in fifteen seconds.
"Hey, I'm getting old!"
Zhang glanced at his depressed look and his sore lower back, then returned to the house again with a long sigh.
Having lost his sleepiness, he did not go back to bed directly, but went to the table, took out a match and lit a kerosene lamp on the table.
When the dim orange light came on in the room, Zhang frowned and looked at the black smoke rising from the light. He waved his hands to disperse the pungent smell lingering on the tip of his nose, then sat down and picked up the thermos bottle on the table.
I poured myself a glass of boiled water.
"Zi Liu! Ha!"
Under the solitary lamp, a thin old man with a hunched back was holding a water cup and sipping at a sip. In the dim environment, he looked particularly desolate.
After drinking a few mouthfuls of hot water like this, Zhang Yan's eyes gradually became hollow, and he was inexplicably stunned, with a hint of sadness in his expression.
I wish I could go back to Japan, but his family was once full of friends and descendants.
Unexpectedly, now he only has a broken lamp to accompany him through his days.
Even his children only asked someone to secretly bring some things over and did not dare to visit him.
"Why!"
After a long while, Zhang sighed deeply, thought about it, got up, walked to the chest of drawers, took out an envelope from the secret compartment on the bottom floor, turned back to the table and sat down.
Immediately, he carefully took out a few pieces of letter paper from the envelope, slowly unfolded them and put them under the kerosene lamp, squinting and looking at them carefully.
This letter was sent to him by his second son from the distant army. In addition to some concern, it also reported that he was safe. But what made him most happy was that his second son said in the letter that his second daughter-in-law had finally given birth.
It's a boy. The little guy is very good at eating. Sometimes he doesn't have enough milk and his strength is not small. The old Zhang family has another strong boy!
"Oh."
Zhang read the part about the grandson in the letter over and over again, and a happy smile appeared at the corner of his mouth unconsciously.
This happened for a long time.
He carefully closed the letter, put it back into the envelope, and put it back in the secret compartment of the chest of drawers. Then he thought for a while and reached out to open one of the empty cabinets. He reached in and fumbled around before pulling it open.
A board revealed a hollowed-out hole in the wall behind it, inside which were placed bottles after bottles of liquor, including Quanxing Daqu, Maotai, Wuliangye, Fenjiu, and Jingzhibaigan. These were all in these days.
Chu Heng brought him a bottle of wine when he came over. Every bottle was good wine.
But he didn't even look at the good wine. He reached out and took out a small jar from among the many wine bottles, then closed the board again and returned to the table with the jar in his arms.
This is the sorghum wine sent by his eldest son. It is very strong and the taste is not satisfactory. It has an earthy smell and is far less fragrant than the ones in the grid.
But in his eyes, this wine is the best wine in the world!
He took a small wine cup from the table, Zhang Yan opened the jar carefully, filled the cup with wine, and then took a small sip from the wine cup.
He didn't want to swallow it directly, but held it in his mouth and savored it with squinted eyes before slowly swallowing it into his stomach with satisfaction. The strong smell of alcohol instantly dispersed in his stomach, making his body warm.
After taking a few sips like this, he suddenly frowned and muttered: "The child can't be hungry. I have to look for that boy later and get some milk powder to send over."
"Dong dong dong!"
At this moment, a gentle knock on the door sounded from outside.
Zhang's heart moved at first sight, and a smile appeared on his lips. He quickly put down his wine glass, stood up, walked out of the house, and went to the courtyard door to open the door.
"Squeak!"
When the door opened, he saw Chu Heng standing outside the door carrying a bag of things.
"I guess it's your kid!" Zhang smiled and said.
"Master Zhang, I wish you a happy New Year!" Chu Heng held his hand with a smile on his face.
Although he was happy in his heart, Zhang Yi couldn't help but look disgusted, and curled his lips and said: "It's really new. This is the first time I see someone coming to pay New Year's greetings in the middle of the night. Are you here to visit the grave?"
"I would like to come over during the day, do you dare to let me come?" Chu Heng looked at him sideways, stepped directly into the courtyard, and shouted.
"Mom, keep your voice down, are you afraid that others won't know you're here?" Zhang closed the door with a frightened look and hurriedly pulled the grandson into the house.
A few moments.
The two came to the room and sat down at the round table.
Chu Heng looked at the wine jar on the table and raised his eyebrows: "Hey, how can you sing like this? You stayed up so late at night and drank wine? I happen to be a little hungry too, let me drink some."
As he spoke, he reached for the wine jar.
"Go, go, this is none of your business." Zhang glanced at him and slapped his paw away, picked up the wine jar like a treasure, got up and went back to the chest of drawers, put the wine jar away, and took out a bottle of Jingzhi
Baigan opened another bottle of canned yellow croaker, filled half a plate of peanuts, and put them down together at the table.
"Bottle of wine and vegetables, let's just drink it."
"That's good."
Chu Heng didn't mind it either. He happily took the wine bottle, unscrewed it, poured two cups of wine, touched it with him, drank it all in one gulp, then picked up the chopsticks, picked up some peanuts and stuffed them into his mouth.
While eating, he said: "I just went to that master's house."
"Oh? How is he now?" Zhang Yi quickly asked with concern.
"It's good. I'm much better than you. At least my family is with me." Chu Heng squinted at him.
"Do you really know how to speak? You're here to scold me during the Chinese New Year, right?" Zhang immediately became angry after just one glance.
"Haha." Chu Heng looked at his appearance and laughed. It was easy to get sick if you kept some things in your heart, but it would be better to say them out.
"You're making fun of your grandma!" Zhang glared at him, picked up his chopsticks and knocked on his forehead, and then asked angrily: "I have something you can do for me."
"Tell me." Chu Heng asked, rubbing his forehead.
"My second daughter-in-law has given birth and she doesn't have enough milk. Please send me some milk powder. You can tell me how much it will cost." Zhang glanced at him with a arrogant expression. He had made a lot of money from Chu Heng during this period.
"Hey, what are you asking for? It's just some milk powder. Just treat me as a follower." Chu Heng waved his hand very generously, picked up the wine glass with a smile, and said: "Just tell me, your second son
Where is it and how much milk powder do you want?"
"He is in the border area now. As for how much milk powder he wants, the more the better. I won't be too little if ten cans are eight, and I won't be too much if one hundred or eighty cans is too much." Zhang looked at him with a faint look.
"puff!"
Chu Heng spit out a sip of wine and raised his head speechlessly: "Are you raising a child or a calf? You are not afraid of bringing disaster to your son!"
He also understood that the old man was confused when he was concerned, so after thinking about it, he said: "Let's do it this way. I'll ask someone to send ten cans over first, and then I'll get some nutritional supplements to replenish them. If there's not enough, I'll send them back later. I happen to have comrades in arms."
With the transportation company, it’s convenient to go back and forth.”
"That's OK." Zhang Yi nodded with a smile on his face, picked up the wine glass and touched it with him, and solemnly said: "I won't say thank you. You can use my old bones as you like!"
"That's just right. My dog grinds his teeth twice. Can you remove two of them?"
