Chapter 32: Bread Clothes
Deng Dazhu was in his forties or fifties, of medium build and dark skin, a figure you wouldn't be able to distinguish in a crowd. He seemed unaware of the breakup of Deng Zhiming and Gu Yimin's engagement, and spoke enthusiastically to Gu Jianguo.
"Brother Jianguo, where are you going?"
"Go to the provincial capital." Gu Jianguo was a little wary of Deng Dazhu. Although he was not familiar with Deng Dazhu, he knew from Deng Dazhu's smooth speech and excessive enthusiasm that this person was not as easy to get along with as he seemed.
It had been a while since his family's Yimin and Deng Zhiming broke off their engagement, and Deng Dazhu couldn't have been unaware of it. The breakup had been so ugly, and now Deng Dazhu was so enthusiastic, how could he not have held back?
"Going to the provincial capital?" Deng Dazhu asked with a grin, "Why are you going there? To do some business?"
Gu Jianguo smiled and said, "Something happened."
Deng Dazhu was dissatisfied with his vague answer and wanted to ask more, but someone called him. He could only smile and say to Gu Jianguo: "Brother Jianguo, I have something to do, so I'll leave first. If you have any questions, come to the police station to find me. I'm not an outsider."
Gu Jianguo nodded politely, and as he watched Deng Dazhu's back walk away, he put away the smile on his face and frowned involuntarily.
"Doesn't he know that your two families have broken off the engagement?" Han Deyi asked Gu Jianguo.
"I don't know if he knows," Gu Jianguo said, "If he has any plans, I will take action."
Han Deyi snorted, "This kind of person is the most annoying. They just come at you directly, saying one thing to your face and another behind your back, treating everyone else like a fool."
Gu Jianguo sneered, "He probably just thinks I'm a fool."
Because his daughter Yimin and Deng Zhiming broke off their engagement, many people in the village called him stupid. He didn't care about that. Those who called him stupid were the ones who used his daughter as a tool for profit.
Over there, Deng Dazhu was talking to the police, glancing at Gu Jianguo a few times. Did he know about Deng Zhiming and Gu Yimin's broken engagement? Of course he did. He even knew about Deng Zhiming's attempted suicide over the broken engagement.
Because he knew this, he became even angrier and more resentful towards the Gu family. He didn't care who Deng Zhiming married, but he cared about the reputation of the Deng family.
When Deng Zhiming and Gu Yimin broke off their engagement, the Gu family clearly didn't give the Deng family face, and naturally didn't consider his face either. This made him very unhappy.
Although he held a low position in the police station, being just an ordinary policeman and not very capable, he was a well-known figure in Shanshui Town and he could not tolerate a small figure like Gu Jianguo damaging his reputation.
Gu Jianguo didn't take Deng Dazhu too seriously. Being timid when encountering things was not his style.
After checking their tickets and getting on the train, he and Han Deyi both had standing tickets. The two of them leaned against the carriage, chatting and looking at the crowded people inside.
Most people in the train car were dressed similarly, in Mao suits. But there were a few exceptions: four or five young men in their early twenties, all wearing jackets and trousers made of a blue fabric they had never seen before, and the shape of the trousers was a bit strange, like a trumpet.
Gu Jianguo didn't know how to judge their clothes. If you said they looked good, then they definitely weren't, at least they didn't suit his aesthetic. But if you said they looked ugly, then he didn't either.
I can only say that society has really changed. If it were a few years ago, this would definitely be considered strange clothing, and the person might even be taken away for a lecture.
It was past three in the afternoon when they arrived in Lizhou, the provincial capital. They checked into a hotel near the station. The hotel had rooms for four and for twenty people. A four-person room cost five yuan a night, while a room for twenty people cost three yuan. Naturally, the room for two people cost three yuan.
After arranging the accommodation, the two of them took a short rest and then started to walk around Lizhou City.
They had no idea what to explore, so they just wandered around aimlessly. They spent the entire afternoon wandering around, only returning to the hotel after nine o'clock that evening.
There were already many people in the room, some of them playing poker, their voices filling the room. The two men fetched some water, took out some dry food, and began to eat.
After a day, the pancakes had become as hard as stones, and they ate them with water to make them softer.
"Two big brothers," a young man in his twenties from the bed next to Gu Jianguo came over to talk to them, "Are you here to do business?"
The young man, wearing glasses and looking gentle and refined, made a good first impression, but his accent didn't suggest he was from this province. Gu Jianguo put down his pancake and said, "I'm here to run something. What about you?"
The young man grinned again, revealing his big white teeth. "I'm a reporter from the newspaper, and I'm here to do an interview."
Unexpectedly, he was a very educated person. Gu Jianguo thought that since the reporter had many contacts, he must know a lot, so he casually took out a boiled egg and handed it to him, "An egg laid by my own chicken."
The young man was about to refuse, but seeing his sincerity, he took it and asked, "Brother, where are you from?"
"From Yuhe County." Gu Jianguo picked up the leftover pancakes, took off his shoes and went to bed. When he turned around, he saw that the young man had a bulging piece of clothing covering his quilt. He had never seen such clothes before.
Because his daughter had told him many times that she wanted to sell clothes, Gu Jianguo paid more attention to clothes, so he looked at the strange clothes for a long time.
Seeing him staring at his clothes, the young man smiled and said, "Brother, do you think my clothes are weird?"
Gu Jianguo nodded, "I've never seen clothes like this before."
Han Deyi also came over to look at the young man's clothes. The young man handed the clothes to them and said, "I'm from Northeast China. It's very cold where I am. I often go out for interviews, so I gritted my teeth and bought a coat. It keeps me warm."
Gu Jianguo and Han Deyi reached out and touched the bulging clothes. They were soft and very elastic. Han Deyi said to the young man, "It's definitely not filled with cotton."
"Of course it's duck down, duck feathers."
Gu Jianguo's eyes lit up when he heard this. Wasn't this the down jacket his little sister had been talking about? He felt a little excited, but asked casually, "How much does it cost?"
When the young man heard his words, he slapped him with a painful look on his face. Gu Jianguo and Han Deyi both widened their eyes. It couldn't be what they thought!
Gu Jianguo carefully confirmed, "Fifty?"
Five dollars is absolutely impossible.
The young man took the clothes from the two men and said, "Even this is not something you can buy whenever you want. I asked a friend to bring it to me from the south."
No matter how calm Gu Jianguo and Han Deyi were, they took a breath. Fifty-five yuan, what does that mean?
Nearly two months' salary for an ordinary worker.
Farmers like them who work on the land can only save one or two hundred yuan a year.
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