Chapter 18 Community Police



Walk into the vermilion gate and go around the mountain screen wall.

I saw Uncle Ling in a military green coat. He was sitting under the bare grape trellis in the front yard. He had a lot of white hair on his head and wore a pair of black-framed reading glasses on his face. He was fascinated by the newspaper.

This scene was very old-fashioned.

Uncle Ling's name was Ling Jianguo. When he was young, he was the most handsome policeman in Mabian Hutong. He was a soldier, tall and handsome, and was very popular with the aunts and uncles in the hutong.

Now the change is really big.

He is only a dozen years older than Ye Mo, and he is still a community policeman. Rather than being a neighbor elder, he actually played more of a brother role for a long time.

And now -

the neighbor brother is also starting to get older.

"Uncle Ling." Ye Mo cleared his throat, raised his voice, and called again, "Uncle Ling."

Ling Jianguo then withdrew his attention from the newspaper, took off his glasses and put them on the table, and looked up at the door.

He paused for two seconds, then looked again.

"Momo? Is that little Momo? Look at this girl, she has changed a lot since she grew up, she has become more and more beautiful, does she have a boyfriend? Is he here today? Let uncle take a look, I can help you with reference."

Ye Mo was concise: "No boyfriend."

"See, my old friend has a son, he has the same education as you, and he looks okay. I heard that he is a returnee and works at Peking University. He is quite a match for you, Momo. He was thinking about you, and you came back today. When fate comes, it can't be stopped."

"..."

Every time Ye Mo came back, Uncle Ling and Aunt Zhang would nag about this.

At this moment, the bandit and the shit shoveler were in tune with each other, and the barking attracted Ling Jianguo, who always loved dogs.

"Hey, this big black dog is called Bandit, right? He's gained some weight again. He's really well raised!"

After handing Bandit to Uncle Ling to "play", Ye Mo carried the remaining two bags of things, passed through the screen door from the west, walked through a long corridor, and passed through an inner courtyard door to the north courtyard.

The north courtyard is about 30 square meters in size. There are four pomegranate trees in the yard, and there is a super large jujube tree in the middle. Under the jujube tree, there are some commonly eaten vegetables and common flowers and plants.

Ye Mo walked to the main room with familiarity, knocked on the door three times, and said louder: "Grandma, I'm back!"

"Momo?"

It was cold in winter, and Grandma Ye rarely went out. She was watching TV with the nanny Aunt Yang in the bedroom equipped with floor heating. When she saw Ye Mo coming back, she was very happy, and the wrinkles on her face were all smiling.

"Grandma, don't get out of bed."

Ye Mo put down his things and sat next to his grandmother. He wrapped her old and skinny hands with his hands, and listened to her chattering. The heating in the bedroom seemed to be warmer.

...

We're having shabu-shabu tonight.

Uncle Ling was the chef, and Ye Mo wanted to help out, but was pushed out of the kitchen by Aunt Zhang and Aunt Yang.

In the hall of the middle courtyard, a couple of strangers sat. They were the people who rented the Ling family courtyard and were freelance workers. They were invited to dinner by the enthusiastic and passionate Aunt Zhang Lan.

The couple worked in art-related fields and had ideals and poetry that others could not understand. When chatting, they often ended up with a sentence that made the conversation awkward. It was better to just keep quiet.

"Aunt."

Ye Jialin, one of the twins who looked 90% similar to Ye Mo, liked to get close to Ye Mo today.

She and her brother Ye Jiayong were 13 and a half years old and were both in the third grade of junior high school. They had big eyes, round faces, and white and tender skin that only children have. They looked very cute.

The thoughts of adolescents are unpredictable. They used to ignore each other, but today, the little girl spoke like she was covered in honey, full of all kinds of ridiculous flattery.

"Aunt, are you really my father's biological sister? My father is older than my mother, and you are older than my mother. Before makeup, you look like my mother's sister, and after makeup, you look like her daughter, hundreds of times prettier than her."

It can be confirmed that Ye Mo's cheap brother and sister, who may not see her once a year, must be furious after hearing this. This girl was born in vain, and she stabbed her own mother more cruelly than anyone else.

"Stupid."

Ye Jiayong, one of the twins, was rational. He rolled his eyes and protested by turning his back to his sister to play Honor of Kings.

Many high school students now have learning machines, mobile phones, iPads, and notebooks, which are mainly used for playing games or chasing stars.

Parents can't be cruel to control them, and teachers can't control them either.

"Tsk, the truth is not allowed to be told." Ye Jialin is good at coaxing the elderly, "Grandma, don't you think so?"

"Momo is very beautiful." Grandma Ye nodded with a smile. At her age, it is the happiest to see her children and grandchildren get along harmoniously. "Linlin, your mother is also very beautiful, and Linlin, you are also very beautiful."

"Then do I look like my eldest aunt?"

"Ye Jialin, you have a big basin face, and my eldest aunt has a standard oval face. How can we compare? I'm not blind."

"Ye Jiayong!"

"..."

Ye Mo has no feelings for his younger brothers and sisters, and naturally has no ill will or close intentions towards his nephews and nieces. He used to be very distant from his younger brothers and sisters.

But niece Ye Jialin doesn't understand the word "alienation" now.

She talks too much.

When the two steaming mutton pots were served on the table, Ye Mo finally got rid of this little man who couldn't be scolded.

Old Beijingers love to eat shabu-shabu meat, mainly for the fresh taste. If you dip it in hot sauce, the taste is too strong and will cover the taste of the ingredients.

Just pair it with sesame sauce or green onion salt.

It takes real skill to pick and cut mutton. The slices of mutton are just the right thickness, with the right amount of fat and lean. After eating, the fresh juice fills the mouth, which is an excellent taste enjoyment.

Everyone is just focusing on eating.

Only the chef Ling Jianguo is shaking his head and ears with pride while drinking beer.

During the chat, the topic turned to the recent community security, and Ling Jianguo said: "Everyone should be careful at night recently. Try not to go out at night, and don't go out alone."

Ye Mo stopped eating mutton slices, and Aunt Zhang asked worriedly: "What happened again?"

"It's nothing." Ling Jianguo waved his hands, "The higher-ups told our community police to patrol more often on weekdays. It should be related to the fact that some people in Chaoyang area gathered to smoke that thing and commit suicide a while ago, the one in the news a while ago."

The main reason was that the order was inexplicable. I heard that many communities in Kyoto have received the same or similar orders from their superiors, which made the old policeman who has been working for decades smell something different.

He is a person who has experienced some hard times and knows that some orders may be more than just orders.

I hope he is just overthinking.

Ye Mo continued to put the lamb slices into the sesame sauce dish. When he lowered his eyes, a gleam of light flashed in his eyes.

Is the country acting so quickly?

On the second day, Saturday, Ye Mo politely declined Aunt Zhang’s request for a blind date, using the excuse that she had something to do at work, and asked Uncle Ling to help look after the bandit and take him away on Sunday.

If she could come back alive.

Aunt Zhang was still nagging: “Mo Mo, why don’t you go to the Forbidden City with the handsome guy who returned from overseas that Uncle Ling talked about, or visit Jingshan Park. It’s close to our alley anyway, and there are many people.”

The elders would not understand the concept of “having a house, a car, savings, and a dog, and living a free and unrestrained life.” In their opinion, women have to get married and have children to live a good life.

Although this idea may not be correct, they do care about Ye Mo, and there are not many people who care about her in this way. Grandma Ye is now powerless.

"..."

"Let's talk about it this weekend!"

Ye Mo smiled helplessly, squatted down and rubbed the bandit's head, waved to the grandmother who came to see him off with a cane, turned around and left the courtyard, step by step towards the unknown future.

"Woof woof woof!"

The bandit barked at the back of the shit shoveler leaving at the gate of the courtyard, and kept barking until he could no longer see it. Perhaps it was the inherent sense of uneasiness of stray dogs that was at work.


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