The Hu family has a small courtyard with three bungalows.
This yard is probably the only property his family has left. Hu Yitong has set his sights on this house more than once, but this house was left by his father, Hu Xingyun. Hu Xingyun passed away suddenly, and no one knew where he had hidden the title deed and the property certificate.
As luck would have it, because the property could not be sold due to incomplete paperwork, the big gambler Hu Yitong and the small gambler Hu Guiyuan were not left on the streets.
The only problem is that no one cleans the house all year round, so it's really dirty.
Chicken droppings, fallen leaves, and used packaging bags are scattered everywhere in the yard, showing that they have accumulated over the years. You know, the last chicken in this family died more than two and a half years ago.
Hu Yitong has no job. His gambling addiction is worse than his alcohol addiction. There is no way he can stay sober at his job for more than three hours, and he doesn't want to work.
But you still have to eat.
The Hu family has been a single-line family for six generations, and has a patriarchal tradition of favoring boys over girls. After the aunts and grandmothers in the family got married, they were able to escape from the sea of suffering.
In addition, there is a good-for-nothing gambler brother (nephew) in this family. He is like a sticky candy. If you are nice to him, he will really invite a wolf into the house. He will make up all kinds of lies to "borrow money" and never pay it back.
Even if you feel sorry for your nephew (grandnephew), you absolutely cannot have any contact with him!
What's more, this nephew (grandnephew) is no longer the innocent, smart and hardworking boy he used to be.
He inherited the Hu family's legacy and plunged into a gambling den. This man is basically useless.
Alas! To be honest, this is all the fault of his father, Hu Yitong.
Hu Yitong was not like this at first. He lost his mother at the age of three and his father at the age of ten. He had no grandfather or uncles. He grew up to be eighteen with the help of his neighbors. When he was old enough, he inherited his father Hu Xingyun's job at the jade factory. Later, he was introduced to an orphan girl named Zhao Yaping and married her.
A year after their marriage, the couple gave birth to a big fat boy, Hu Guiyuan.
When Hu Guiyuan was 3 years old, his younger sister Hu Guile was born. These two children were not only good-looking but also smart. When they were in school, they never got any score other than first in the class.
People say that Xiao Hu and Xiao Zhao had a miserable and pitiful childhood without parents. It turns out that their good fortune was all in the future. Look at their two children, I don’t know how they were raised, but how come they are so smart, good-looking, obedient and sensible?
Other children always do their homework first when they get home from school. After finishing their homework, the brother and sister see that their parents have not yet gotten off work, so they know to cook the rice and wash the vegetables first. When Zhao Yaping comes home from get off work, they put the vegetables directly into the pot and stir-fry, and then the meal is ready. How can they be so considerate?
Look at other children. When they get home, they turn around their schoolbags. When asked if they have done their homework, they tell you that the teacher didn’t assign any homework. Then they run out to play. When it’s time for dinner, they don’t come back unless you call them at least three times. Their clothes are covered in mud and sweat, as if they just came back from wandering.
In this comparison, the Hu family is better at educating their children.
Originally, if life had continued like this, Hu Guiyuan and Hu Guile would most likely be admitted to a university of their choice and find a similar job after graduation. By that time, Hu Yitong and Zhao Yaping would have been retired soon. They would both have pensions, take care of their grandchildren, dance and play chess, and their later years would definitely surpass more than 70% of their peers across the country.
But all this was destroyed in the summer of 1990.
In June of that year, after more than a year of hard struggle, the jade factory finally declared bankruptcy and closed down. Hu Yitong, who was about to reach middle age, became unemployed.
When he was young, he could only barely get a junior high school diploma and worked as a laborer packing and moving goods in a jade factory. He had no skills at all. Many companies were in recession in those years, and it was not easy to find a job again, but he had a family to support.
Although his family members comforted him and his children remained as worry-free as ever, he became more and more anxious day by day.
Later, someone introduced him to a tricycle near the train station. If he was lucky, he could earn more than ten or twenty yuan a day. But the good times did not last long. After just over a month, he was robbed.
The two guys rented his tricycle and said they were going to Xin'erqi, a place that was a mix of urban and rural areas and had a large population. Hu Yitong didn't want to go there. Firstly, it was getting late and the distance was not short. Secondly, he didn't think the two guys were good people.
As a result, the two boys kept calling him uncle, gave him the money in advance, and paid two more dollars.
Hu Yitong gritted his teeth and left.
As a result, when he rode to a deserted grove, the two guys started to attack him. They hit him on the head with a brick from behind, and he fell down immediately.
When I woke up again, I was in the hospital with a concussion and a broken right leg. My bag, which contained the twenty yuan I earned that day and the ten yuan I kept for change, was gone. My tricycle was also lost.
I stayed in the hospital for about twenty days and spent more than three thousand yuan.
Two days after being discharged from the hospital, someone from the police station came to inform me that the two guys had been arrested, but they had sold the tricycle and all the money had been spent. Moreover, the two guys were migrant workers with no permanent property, so there was no way they could get back the medical expenses and lost property.
Poor Hu Yitong spent more than 600 yuan to ask someone to buy him this tricycle. After just one month of working on it, the tricycle was lost and people were injured. He had to pay a total of nearly 4,000 yuan in compensation. The little severance pay given by the factory was almost gone, which made him very annoyed.
That day, Lao Pu, a former co-worker who was laid off at the same time as him, came to his house and invited him to drink.
Lao Pu is an old bachelor. He is over 40 and still has no wife. However, as long as he has enough food, the whole family will not be hungry. However, he is a bit dirty and does not pay much attention to hygiene.
Hu Yitong didn't want to go at first, but Lao Pu said that there were a few buddies here today, all of whom were very capable people. He thought he could see if he could get them to recommend some job for him, so he set off.
The gathering place was in the small courtyard of Lao Pu's house. When he arrived, four or five guests had already arrived. They had set up a big pot in the yard, and a pot of meat was stewing in the pot.
Lao Pu said that it was dog meat they had caught in the countryside. Hu Yitong felt a little disgusted when he heard it, but he still ate it and drank while eating.
Hu Yitong didn't see anything special about the capable guys that Lao Pu mentioned, but he thought they were quite good at bragging.
After eating and drinking, the group of people did not disperse. They set up a gambling table in the main hall of Old Pu's house, which was very familiar to them. They shouted and chatted, but they didn't play much.
This time, Hu Yitong didn't play. He drank quite a bit of wine, but he still knew in his head that he shouldn't touch gambling. Lao Pu and the others only invited him briefly, and since he didn't want to play, they didn't force him.
The second time, the third time, he didn't play.
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