HPDBC Chapter 1167: The Human Heart is Unpredictable
Chapter 1167: The Human Heart is Unpredictable
Chapter 1167: The Human Heart is Unpredictable
The charcoal was burning brightly with a red flame, and the roasted beef brisket skewers were sizzling. The beef brisket was fat and lean, and the fat was oozing out as it was roasted, forming small bubbles on the skewers.
Next to the simple brick oven, Zhao Jun held a skewer of meat in each hand. When grilling skewers, you have to turn them over one by one, otherwise the heat will be uneven.
Seeing Ma Ling coming out of the house with a large enamel plate, Zhao Jun asked with a smile, "How is it?"
"Okay." Ma Ling said with a smile, "All the kids said it's okay."
The first 20 skewers Zhao Jun grilled were all eaten up by the children as soon as they entered the house. Barbecue is very tempting to children even after 20 or 30 years, let alone nowadays.
"Here you go." Zhao Jun put ten skewers of beef on the bricks next to him, picked one out and handed it to Ma Ling, saying with a smile, "Try it."
"I won't eat it yet." Ma Ling took the skewers and put them on the enamel plate. Zhao Jun was nice to the girl, but she was very sensible. So many elders in the room hadn't eaten yet, so she couldn't put the skewers in her mouth.
At this moment, Ma Ling suddenly remembered something and said to Zhao Jun: "Tell me, could it be that I didn't read the note I left for him?"
"It's all right." Zhao Jun said, "I told Baoyu to come over and take a look before he comes back."
At noon, the three members of the Ma family had lunch at Zhao's house, but Ma Yang never showed up. It was common for a boy of his age not to go home, but he had to go home for lunch.
So, Ma Ling couldn't help but worry about her brother.
Zhao Jun blinked his eyes, not knowing what to tell Ma Ling. If Zhao Jun guessed correctly, Ma Yang should be hunting pheasants and rabbits in the south and north.
"Do you think he can cause any trouble outside?" Ma Ling asked Zhao Jun nervously, but Zhao Jun laughed when he heard it. If you say Li Ruhai can cause trouble, Zhao Jun believes it. But what about Ma Yang? What he did was just a business of eighty cents at most, what kind of trouble could he cause?
Said Cao Cao, Cao Cao.
Just when Ma Ling was worried, Ma Yang came.
Seeing the child covered in dirt, Ma Ling was furious. She pulled Ma Yang over and patted the dirt off him while asking, "What have you been doing?"
"Little brother!" Zhao Jun called Ma Yang with a smile and gave him some beef skewers to eat. The boy was hungry and took the skewers and gobbled them up.
Ma Ling glanced at her brother, feeling both distressed and angry.
"Ling'er." Zhao Jun put ten skewers of grilled beef brisket on an enamel plate, and then said to Ma Ling, "You should go back soon. It's cold outside. Little brother, let him eat here with me."
There were too many children in the room, and it would be difficult for Ma Yang to compete with them if he entered the room.
Looking at Ma Ling's departing back, Ma Yang retracted his gaze and said to Zhao Jun, "Brother Jun, didn't you hold two hairpins in your hands that day?"
"Ah..." Zhao Jun was startled when he heard this, and then asked, "What's the matter?"
"I'll give you the money for one that day." Ma Yang said, "I'll save up the 65 cents."
Zhao Jun twitched his lips and looked at Ma Yang, thinking, it would be strange if this kid could cause trouble.
Thinking of this, Zhao Jun approached Ma Yang curiously and asked, "Little brother, tell me the truth, have you given away that hairpin?"
Zhao Jun's question made Ma Yang blush. He looked at Zhao Jun sideways and wondered why this guy was so nice.
"Hey? Tell me!" Seeing that Ma Yang didn't say anything, Zhao Jun became anxious. He especially wanted to know whether Li Ruhai's future daughter-in-law would accept gifts from his brother-in-law.
"No..." Ma Yang just opened his mouth, but was interrupted by Zhao Jun, who asked, "She didn't want it?"
"Cough! Cough..." Ma Yang choked. Zhao Jun patted his back. After Ma Yang calmed down, he looked at Zhao Jun angrily and said, "I haven't sent it yet?"
As he spoke, Ma Yang snatched the beef skewers from Zhao Jun's hand and said, "I'll wait until the New Year to send them to you."
"Don't delay." Zhao Jun urged, "What are you talking about? The longer the night, the more dreams you will have. Don't wait until others have finished sending their gifts before you do it."
Zhao Jun's words were like a flash of lightning in the dark night, reminding Ma Yang of the Hongtou Ling incident.
Seeing Ma Yang stunned on the spot, Zhao Jun, who was watching the fun, instigated: "Little brother, you have to hurry up, it's better to hurry up sooner rather than later!"
"Yeah!" Ma Yang nodded heavily, then looked at Zhao Jun and said, "Brother, you are a good person!"
"Ah?" Zhao Jun was stunned, then said unhappily: "Nonsense!"
Ma Yang smiled, threw the stick aside, raised his hand and gestured to the front of the Zhao family's house, and said, "Brother, I'm going in. I'm going to say hello to my uncle and aunt."
"This kid." Zhao Jun looked at his brother-in-law with satisfaction and whispered, "He's even polite now."
As soon as Ma Yang left, the Jiefang car stopped outside the yard, and Li Baoyu and Jie Chen both got out of the car.
Li Baoyu held a small bowl in his hand, ran to Zhao Jun, and said, "Brother, the chili powder is ground!"
In order to make the skewers more delicious, Zhao Jun sent Li Baoyu and Jie Chen to Zhang's courtyard to grind red pepper powder. In order to make the round trip more convenient, the two brothers drove a car.
Otherwise, it is not Wang Meilan who is out of touch with the masses, it is clearly the whole family that is out of touch with the masses.
Another twenty beef skewers were placed on the oven made of two rows of bricks. Zhao Jun sprinkled salt on them first to season them, but only sprinkled chili powder on them when the skewers were cooked.
He learned this from the couple grilling skewers under the bridge when he was on night watch in the capital.
In the west room of the Zhao family, the men were chewing beef skewers and drinking the beer bought by Li Baoyu.
Although Li Baoyu drove back, it was too cold outside. After the beer was in the house for a while, steam began to form on the bottle.
A warm bed, cold beer and some barbecue, Boss Zhao, who has traveled all over the country, is lost.
"Brother Zhao." Wang Qiang clinked the bottle with Zhao Weipeng, tilted his head back and took two gulps of beer. He then took a bite of the skewer of meat and asked Zhao Weipeng, "You said my sister is out of touch with the masses, but isn't this delicious even if you don't eat it?"
"Who said that?" Zhao Weipeng pulled the last piece of meat off the skewer and shouted with wide eyes, "Who said my sister-in-law is out of touch with the masses? Am I not one of the masses?"
Zhao Weipeng's words made everyone laugh.
At this time, Zhao Jun, who was grilling skewers outside, took out five skewers of beef and said to Li Baoyu, "Baoyu, take them back to Ruhai."
"No!" Li Baoyu rarely disobeyed Zhao Jun's order. He said angrily: "Let him starve to death!"
"Tsk!" Zhao Jun held the skewer of meat in his hand, nudged Li Baoyu with his elbow, and said, "Otherwise, he is my own brother, so he is the best."
Upon hearing this, Li Baoyu took the skewer of meat, but he took one skewer and finished it in two bites.
……
Two hours later, in the outer room of the Li family, Jin Xiaomei lifted the lid of a large pot, and instantly a wave of hot air came out, blocking people's vision.
Jin Xiaomei held the pot lid horizontally in front of her and fanned it to let out the heat. Then she put the lid aside, picked up the flat spoon with her right hand, and dipped her left hand in the bowl of cold water.
In this way, Jin Xiaomei used both hands to pick up the large steamed donkey meat dumplings from the pot and put them into the large plate.
The steamed dumplings were very hot right out of the pot, so Jin Xiaomei would dip a few fingers of her left hand in cold water from time to time.
At this time, the door of the west room opened and Li Ruhai stuck his head out.
Since returning to Yong'antun, Li Ruhai has eaten two sticky rice dumplings and a piece of salted mustard greens.
Jin Xiaomei was busy at the stove, not paying attention to what Li Ruhai was doing behind her. Seeing Jin Xiaomei picking up the last dumpling and picking up the plate to leave, Li Ruhai called softly, "Mom..."
"Get lost!" Jin Xiaomei turned sideways and yelled, and Li Ruhai quickly lowered his head and closed the door.
Today's dinner is not the most sumptuous one in history, but it is the one that Wang Meilan is most satisfied with.
Wang Meilan was very satisfied with the braised donkey ribs and big steamed donkey meat dumplings.
After eating and drinking, the Zhao family's guests went back to their homes, but Wang Meilan chatted with Zhao Youcai and Zhao Weipeng in the outer room about what happened that morning.
Wang Meilan felt uncomfortable with the result of the Yongan election, but since a bunch of people from her family, especially her in-laws, were there today, she didn't show it.
After everyone left, Wang Meilan sat in front of the stove with a somewhat lost look on her face. This scene was seen by Zhao Youcai who had just returned from the toilet.
It should be said that Zhao Baotou behaved very well today. Seeing that Wang Meilan was unhappy, Zhao Youcai squatted in front of her and comforted her.
When Zhao Jun came in, he saw the couple whispering to each other. He wanted to slip back into the house, but when he glanced at Wang Meilan, he noticed that her eyes were slightly red, which scared Zhao Jun.
"Oh my god, who offended you?" As Zhao Jun spoke, he glanced at Zhao Youcai, who glared at him.
Zhao Weipeng heard Zhao Jun's voice. After Zhao Weipeng came out, he also asked with concern: "What's wrong, sister-in-law?"
"It's okay, brother." Wang Meilan sighed softly, and then said to Zhao Jun: "Get a stool for your uncle."
Zhao Jun took the four-legged stool and gave it to Zhao Weipeng. Then Wang Meilan said to Boss Zhao, "You already know it. Sister-in-law is not afraid of you laughing at me. Do you think I am out of touch with the masses?"
"Hey, sister-in-law!" Zhao Weipeng waved his hands and said, "I was just chatting with my brother the other day. Don't take it to heart."
"It's not your fault, brother." Wang Meilan sighed, "I was just thinking, I've been in this village for all these years, and I haven't made enemies with anyone. You say my family is rich, but we didn't steal or rob, they are all my sons..."
At this point, Wang Meilan paused, waved her hand to Zhao Youcai to show respect, and continued: "And your brother, they both earned it by hunting in the mountains. So you say, let's eat and drink a little, this..."
As Wang Meilan was speaking, she noticed Zhao Weipeng's eyes fell on her raised wrist. Wang Meilan quickly lowered her arm and pulled her sleeve to cover the big gold bracelet on her wrist.
Zhao Weipeng's fat face was tense, and he tried hard not to laugh out loud. Until he could no longer hold back, he lowered his head and rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, then raised his head and said, "Sister-in-law, what do you say about this?"
Zhao Weipeng paused for a moment, then said, "The difference in living standards is just too great. Let's take today for example. I estimate that the amount of meat eaten by all the families in this village combined is not as much as what we eat."
After hearing what Zhao Weipeng said, Wang Meilan and Zhao Youcai looked at each other and the couple stopped talking.
To put it bluntly, this is the conflict caused by the huge gap between the rich and the poor.
"And, sister-in-law." Zhao Weipeng continued, "My nephew of your family is good at hunting. He has brought hunting skills to Dayong's family, Sun Jie's family, and Lingdang's family. Yes, your families have a good relationship, but other families will be jealous. If you gather these families together to eat meat every day, others will be even more unhappy when they see it."
"Yes!" Zhao Youcai then added, "It's just bloating and swelling of the skin and eyes."
"This is normal." Zhao Weipeng said: "When I first got up, the villagers in my village were very dissatisfied with me. As a naked kid since childhood, they all looked at me and ignored me."
Zhao Jun did not interrupt the three people when they were talking. He knew that with the rapid development of China's economy, such things were rare in the city. But in the countryside, it was still the same until 20 or 30 years later.
If a person works in the city, earns money, and drives back to the village a car worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, most of the villagers will praise him.
But if someone goes to the city and makes a fortune, and then drives back to the village in a luxury car worth millions, the villagers will rarely say anything nice about it.
This is the reality, this is the hatred of the rich by the radicals.
"Brother, what happened later?" Zhao Youcai asked Zhao Weipeng curiously.
"Later." Zhao Weipeng said with a twitch of his lips, "My dad said that these were all fellow villagers, and asked me to help them make money, and then I would catch fish."
As he said that, Zhao Weipeng pointed to the Zhao family's bowl rack and said, "Let's eat the cod today. I prepared it for you."
"Ouch!" The three members of the Zhao family were all shocked when they heard this, and then they heard Zhao Weipeng continue to say: "My home is close to the sea, and I collect the fish these people catch. In the end, every family makes money, more or less."
Hearing Zhao Weipeng say this, Wang Meilan's eyes lit up and she asked, "Brother, what's the end?"
"It's over?" Zhao Weipeng sneered, "It's over, but it still feels like shit."
"Huh?" Zhao Jun and the other two were stunned. At this time, Zhao Weipeng took out cigarettes from his pocket, took out two and gave them to Zhao Youcai, and said, "These people, I tell you, they don't appreciate your kindness even though they make money. What do they say? They say I exploit them, that I make money by relying on them, and that I pocket all the big money."
"Oh my God!" Wang Meilan frowned and said, "Why are these people like this?"
"That's it, sister-in-law!" Zhao Weipeng took a puff of cigarette and said, "Don't you think it's infuriating? Those villages nearby are not infuriating, but the people in our hometown are all old relatives and old families. They say those things, which are so unpleasant to hear!"
"It's all the same." At this time, Zhao Jun whispered, "It's the same in our village."
Zhao Jun had seen too many things like this in his previous life. Things as harmonious as Sun Shaoan opening a brick factory could only be seen in TV dramas.
"Ah..." Hearing Zhao Jun say that, Wang Meilan blinked twice and said, "Brother, at first I also wanted to lead these people to make money, but after listening to what you said, I decided not to do it anymore."
"That's right, sister-in-law..." Zhao Weipeng just opened his mouth and suddenly froze. At this time, Zhao Jun and Zhao Youcai also looked at Wang Meilan in astonishment.
"Lan." Zhao Youcai frowned and asked Wang Meilan, "How are you going to help them make money? Tell me about it."
I will post two chapters in a row around 10 o'clock tomorrow morning to finish this part.
(End of this chapter)