Chapter 45 The Family Members of Those with Connections: "I'll take you to meet some relatives."...
On New Year's Day, the school didn't hold a party. This year's New Year's Day arrived amidst the sound of firecrackers. In elementary school, we had several performances. Xu Qing, wearing a little floral dress and leather shoes, made up like a flower, was a regular guest at the New Year's Eve party every year. There were no rewards for performing, but if verbal praise counts, then it was something. The class would have a "Model Student in Arts" certificate, and receive two black ballpoint pens and a notebook with "Iron Tower Elementary School" printed on it. That counted as a reward, so it wasn't entirely without reward.
"Hey, let's meet at Leshan Square tomorrow night," Jiang Yueming said.
It was holiday time, so the four of us got together to eat at a street food stall run by Uncle Han Jiang, called "Brother Fei's Barbecue Stall." Everyone Han Jiang brought was entitled to eat for free, otherwise Han Jiang would make a scene when he got home. Besides, four kids couldn't eat much anyway.
"What are you asking for, a fight?" Han Jiang mumbled, his mouth full of fried skewers.
“Screw you,” Jiang Yueming said. “I didn’t invite you to the fight. You’re a burden, dragging me down by at least a hundred meters. I can’t even run fast.”
"My sister is only three years old!" Han Jiang shouted.
That brat only heard the first half of the sentence.
"Then I'll make an appointment with your grandpa," Jiang Yueming changed his mind.
"My uncle is eighty years old!" Han Jiang continued to shout.
...
"Ming'er, do you think everyone is as idle as you?" Xu Qing only eats vegetables. She doesn't eat any meat to look better on camera. "I have to go to the city for the New Year's Eve party, the kind that's on TV."
"Did I hear that right?" Jiang Yueming flattered her. "So talented, what if she gets scouted by a talent agent tomorrow?"
Before Xu Qing could even speak, Han Jiang was the first to object, "No way! We can't go!"
"Hey, why are you so stubborn? Wouldn't it be better to be poached? You'd be going to a big city, that would be so prestigious," Jiang Yueming asked. Why was he being so defiant?
"Then, does that mean I won't be able to see Xu Qing anymore? Where am I supposed to find her? We don't even have each other's contact information... I only know her landline number, but if I go to Beijing or Shenzhen, the landline won't be useful anymore." Han Jiang's thoughts wandered further and further, and he looked extremely aggrieved, as if he was about to burst into tears at any moment. It seems the talent scout wasn't after Xu Qing, but rather him; his acting skills are Oscar-worthy.
“She will come back,” Jiang Yueming said.
"I'm not coming back until I'm scouted by a talent agent!" Xu Qing shouted, then turned her head and realized that Li Leshan was still sitting next to her. She glanced at Li Leshan quietly and lowered her voice, "We'll talk about it later."
"Xu Qing, you can't leave. I can't bear to part with you," Han Jiang cried out.
His shouting made Xu Qing blush, but it wasn't out of shyness. She turned her head away from Han Jiang, saying, "Whether we leave or not is up to me..."
Jiang Yueming's heart skipped a beat. Han Jiang's words just now echoed his own thoughts. The phrase "You can't leave" and his own thought, "Don't go too far," implied the same thing. But why could Han Jiang say it so openly, while he couldn't bring himself to say it? Even if Jiang Yueming wasn't asking Li Leshan not to leave, but merely not to go too far?
He looked at Li Leshan, his heart filled with mixed feelings.
He had originally planned to go see his second uncle's performance with the two of them, but Xu Qing was going to perform in the city, and Han Jiang insisted on sneaking in to sit in the front row. Well, not exactly sneaking in; as Xu Qing's friend, he had special privileges.
"Li Leshan, do you want to come and watch? The stage in the city is huge, and the chairs are soft, like small sofas, very comfortable to sit on," Xu Qing said shyly.
alright.
Han Jiang's privileges are gone.
Jiang Yueming glanced at Han Jiang, whose mouth was agape in disbelief. Even a dog on the street would feel sorry for him if it saw him like that.
He glanced at Li Leshan again. To be honest, he didn't know if Li Leshan wanted to go, but judging from Li Leshan's pleading eyes, the answer was probably no. And even if Li Leshan really couldn't go, what would happen to Han Jiang if he did?
"Hey, hey, why didn't you take me with you?" Jiang Yueming stepped in to smooth things over, directly separating Xu Qing and Li Leshan with his arm.
"Why did I bring you along? You're just making fun of me." Xu Qing pouted. "Don't interrupt."
“But—Comrade Xu Qing. Everything has to be done in order of arrival. I’m not trying to stop Li Leshan from going. We’ve already made plans to go to Leshan Square to watch the performance tomorrow night, right?” Jiang Yueming winked at Li Leshan.
Li Leshan nodded in agreement.
"Really?" Xu Qing asked, looking at Li Leshan in disbelief.
Li Leshan continued nodding, gesturing earnestly that he meant "really."
"What did he say?" Xu Qing asked, seeking a translator.
“He said it couldn’t be more true,” Jiang Yueming translated truthfully.
Perhaps, does anyone care about Han Jiang, whose heart is shattered into eight pieces?
Li Leshan thoughtfully switched seats with Han Jiang. He was originally sitting directly opposite Jiang Yueming, but now he sat next to Jiang Yueming.
While Han Jiang was throwing a tantrum, Jiang Yueming whispered to him, "Are you really not going? Xu Qing dances beautifully, it's free, and they'll even provide a car for you to come and go."
"You want to go?" Li Leshan asked in return.
Jiang Yueming quickly waved her hand, "I don't want to, I don't want to. I'll just watch it on TV then. I can see the person in person anytime. Hmm, it seems to clash with CCTV-1's time slot... Never mind, I'll just watch the local channel then."
“I know Xu Qing is beautiful. But I really won’t go,” Li Leshan said in sign language. “It’s too far, it takes more than an hour by car… I’m afraid Grandma will worry.”
"It's a good thing Xu Qing didn't know you were praising her..." Jiang Yueming muttered under his breath.
On New Year's Day, firecrackers were set off all morning and night. The explosions started at 6:30 AM in the third alley and continued until 7:30 PM. Jiang Yueming couldn't sleep soundly; he knew he was dreaming, but if he didn't know better, he would have thought there was a war going on somewhere.
This is supposed to be called "Farewell to the Old and Welcome to the New," but the farewell was quick and the welcome was grand, yet it was noisy—a hundred times noisier than Tian Tian's giggling laughter next to her.
Thankfully, Jiang Yueming wasn't short-tempered. Someone else with a bad temper would have been setting off firecrackers in the middle of the night at the building where the most enthusiastic firecrackers were going off. As for the other innocent neighbors, have you heard the saying, "A close neighbor is better than a distant relative"? "Close neighbor" is practically equivalent to "distant relative." And have you heard the term "collective punishment"? It often involves the execution of nine generations of relatives—who are they executing? Aren't they their relatives?
The performance officially started at eight o'clock, and Jiang Yueming had been waiting downstairs at Li Leshan's house since seven. Arriving early meant securing seats, especially in the front row; their heights were no longer what they used to be when they were children, and they couldn't squeeze right next to each other like that. Besides, Jiang Yueming needed to get rid of Tian Tian quickly; the little girl clung to his leg and wouldn't let go, like a personal accessory he carried everywhere. Luckily, Jiang Yueming managed to coax and cajole her into staying at his house, promising that Cui Cui would take her to see the show later.
"Hurry, hurry, let's go!" Jiang Yueming grabbed Li Leshan's arm and ran.
Leshan Square is more than a kilometer away from Sanxiang. We have to thank No. 1 Middle School for their relentless morning exercises, which have trained them to run a kilometer without getting out of breath.
A large crowd had already gathered in the square. Jiang Yueming, thinking that his second uncle was quite famous, led Li Leshan to stand at the front, ignoring the fact that the people here loved to join in the fun. It's unavoidable; the love of joining in the fun is ingrained in the Chinese psyche. Seeing something automatically triggers the ability to turn back every three steps, and every step back again.
"Wait a minute, isn't this a privileged position? Why didn't they give me a seat in the very center of the first row?" Jiang Yueming wondered.
He is a legitimate blood relative.
Li Leshan couldn't help but smile.
"What are you laughing at? I'm connected through connections, and you're connected through family." Jiang Yueming said, "When your second uncle asks, just say you're my younger brother, my cousin. He won't remember after all these years."
Li Leshan gave a thumbs up.
"Wait a moment, wait a moment, when the time is right, I'll take you to meet your relatives," Jiang Yueming said in a low voice.
He turned his head and raised his voice again. An older man behind him kept pushing and shoving, not only pushing him but also Li Leshan. Jiang Yueming raised an eyebrow and pointed, "Hey, brother, hold on a second, my shoes are behind you!"
“So fallen, so fallen,” Jiang Yueming hurriedly moved closer to Li Leshan, “Come on, let’s go backstage to find my second uncle.”
"There are so many people, there are people everywhere behind us."
“It’s okay. When we jump off the stage, everyone has to make room for us, right? Even the President of the United States has to make room for us. Otherwise, we’ll just jump on him.” Jiang Yueming’s mind worked quickly.
"You're really something," Li Leshan thought to himself.
Jiang Yueming grabbed Li Leshan's wrist tightly to prevent the crowd from separating them. He pushed forward while dispersing the crowd, each step now equivalent to a quarter of his usual pace. "Damn, what's going on? Are there eggs to grab in the first row? Why is everyone crowding forward?"
Li Leshan glanced back, and after seeing the words on the red cloth clearly, he quickly pointed to them.
The red banner boldly proclaimed: "Thank you for your support, friends and family. Front-row passengers can participate in a lucky draw for a basket of eggs."
"Holy crap, it really exists." Jiang Yueming exclaimed in surprise.
"Wait a minute. There's no rush to recognize the relatives." He stopped halfway and said in a low voice, "Let's go back and draw an egg first. I just remembered what my second great-uncle instructed: get number eighty, number eighty..."
"Only..." Li Leshan tried to walk back: "Number eighty?"
“Eighty and sixty-five,” Jiang Yueming said. “Just two baskets, about a hundred in total.”
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Author's note: My darlings, the ranking task is complete (burned out)! Happy National Day everyone!
Next week's updates will be every other day or every two days, but I'll guarantee at least 10,000 words per week. Thank you for reading, everyone! [pat on the head]
Thank you all for leaving comments, love you all~
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