Chapter 111

Brewing coffee

"I just don't believe it, eldest brother. Why? I ask you why you avoid your father. I know you paid for the medical expenses, but the second brother has a family of six daughters. I want to ask you, can you not support them?"

In the hotel lobby, as soon as Nie Gong came back, he was stopped by Huang Guilan who was sitting there waiting for him.

She was really worried. The whole family depended on Nie Bozhao for support, and suddenly one day he said he would not give them money anymore. What do you think of this?

The worker hadn't slept for a full forty-eight hours. No, if we count from the day the flight took off from the Bunker Airport, he hadn't slept for 72 hours.

When we arrived in Dongfeng City, we aligned our orbit with the mathematicians and spent two days and two nights calculating and studying the problems in the satellite recovery process. We simulated it on a large computer and also performed field calculations. We were sure that this time the satellite recovery would be as problem-free as the previous launch. Then we got on a helicopter and returned to the provincial capital.

The leader came to greet him personally. He didn't even eat the breakfast served. He returned to the hotel early in the morning. Unexpectedly, he ran into his biological mother. She was not alone. She also brought Chen Qiaoqiao, who was holding a family heirloom.

"Mom, I'll give you the money, but you can't make a scene like that. What's the big deal about you making a scene in the hotel lobby?"

"January 20th, that was the old price. Prices are skyrocketing now, and I heard there will be land reform. We will be even poorer in the future. You have to support mom in her old age, and you have to pay for me. If I wasn't poor and couldn't make ends meet, would I come here to bother you?"

The few people who were responsible for sending Nie Gong back, who were also small leaders of the military region, resigned one after another when they found out what had happened. Of course, they couldn't help thinking that Nie Gong was a capable person at work, but not necessarily a man of both integrity and talent.

Otherwise, my mother wouldn't come here to ask for living expenses.

"Well, Bozhao, if it's inconvenient for you, I'll pay some money first and help you solve this problem?" Leng Qi is in charge of logistics and has a lot of money, so he has to pay first.

Then he added, "To be honest, our parents paid for our college education. Even if we have become successful and don't want to go back home, we can't forget our parents, right?"

"Minister Leng has a lot of money, and no one knows where it all came from. He has a lot of wealth, but we don't have the money to take care of these things." Suddenly, Chen Lina's voice rang out from the other side of the lobby.

Huang Guilan had never seen Chen Lina's hot temper, so she thought she wouldn't dare to argue with so many people around, so she pointed at her nose and started to curse like a shrew, "Shameless thing, we were the ones who introduced our son to you, and now you're in charge of people and money after you got married, you ignore your parents and relatives, and you focus on living a lavish life in the frontier. Today I won't find fault with anyone else, I'll just find fault with you. I have to tell everyone how unfilial this daughter-in-law is."

Chen Lina's voice was louder than hers. With a snap, a "Selling Child Contract" was slapped onto the price list in the lobby. "Huang Guilan, show me what it says. Regardless of life or death, we are no longer parents. You sold this son. Even a laborer has parents. We have paid for his education and sent him to college, and we haven't even started to show our filial piety yet. You are a seller of children. What kind of mother are you?"

"Then I am also his mother. He came out of my belly. I raised him until he was ten years old, and he will have to take care of me when I grow old."

"I have been sending money every January 20th for five years. Two hundred and forty yuan a year, five years is one thousand two hundred yuan. I just want to ask, how much is a pound of rice and a pound of noodles now? You can't eat all the rice and noodles you buy with this money in your lifetime. Why do you have the nerve to say that he didn't give you money?"

"It's not enough now. I'm going to raise the price to fifty per month."

"Ah, that's not enough. You work at the Women's Federation and get 20 yuan a month. The second brother is the village chief now and gets 8 yuan a month. Look at the shoes Chuanbao is wearing.

Ah, look at Chuanbao's clothes, the chicken thigh on the ground that he has not chewed, and what my son is wearing. Is the laborer a pig head or a fat sheep? My son is covered with patches, and he needs to provide for you blood-sucking worms?"

Chuanbao suddenly took off Chen Lina's shoes and she burst into tears.

Chen Qiaoqiao was so scared that she hid away. Huang Guilan wanted to move forward, but Chen Lina poked Chuanbao's shoes directly in front of her eyes, forcing her to listen.

Pulling Erdan out, she pointed at his feet and said, "Look, this kid's shoes were taken off by his brother. They're a pair of white canvas shoes. Look how many times I've patched them. Look at my youngest son's pants. How many patches are there on them? Don't they want to wear clothes without patches and shoes without patches? We have three children to raise. We also need food and drink. My husband sent twenty yuan back home. My younger brother's child got tired of eating chicken legs and threw them on the ground. His parents sold him. It's just a birth. How many times do you want to sell him before you are willing to do that? I ask you, huh?"

"After all, you gave birth to him, so it's only right that you give me some money." Well, the world is full of good people like this, and someone really stepped forward to speak.

"If you want money, I can. Nie Bozhao, your second brother doesn't want to be the village chief anymore, and your mother doesn't want to work at the Women's Federation anymore. I guess she doesn't want the future pension either. Support her.

I will support you for your whole life, but I want your son to tell the leaders to dismiss you from your current jobs."

Huang Guilan was so frightened that she stood there in a daze.

A group of military district leaders also looked at each other in bewilderment, until suddenly someone applauded, and the situation that had suddenly fallen to the freezing point was finally broken.

"Boss, I earned that job by myself. I really don't know how to greet the leader, do I?"

Huang Guilan came to her senses and calculated both sides. Not to mention that she was the director of the Women's Federation, her son was the village chief, which was a very lucrative position. She was also prepared to make a large sum of money in the future when there would be land reform. If she really lost her position as village chief, wouldn't she cry?

"Mother, you helped me take care of my children when I was in the most difficult time. I am very grateful to you, but don't you think that if the family scandal spreads to our county, the local leaders there will have opinions about you?" Nie Gong was too lazy to talk nonsense. "If you really want money, it will become a big trouble and a lawsuit. I haven't slept for three days. I need to go to sleep. You can think about this matter yourself."

Well, a seemingly completely unsolvable incident was resolved by Chen Lina with just a few words.

From then on, although Huang Guilan also wanted to make trouble, whenever she thought of what Chen Lina said pointing at her nose in the hotel lobby, she had to think twice.

"Minister Leng, why aren't you leaving yet?" Nie Gong and his wife took their children upstairs. A colleague saw Leng Qi standing in the hall with his eyes looking towards the stairs, so he asked.

"Oh, it's okay. You go first. I'm in charge of logistics. There are some things I need to take care of here."

As he spoke, he went to the front desk, asked for the registration book, and then wrote down Chen Lina's date of birth and information from it. Then he went to the Women's Normal University.

At the Women's Normal University, he found a photo of Chen Lina when she entered the school. It was a black and white photo with two big, sleek braids and a smile like a crescent moon.

She was such a beautiful girl, how could she marry a nerd like Nie Bozhao?

Leng Qi couldn't figure it out.

He put the photo in the files of the Normal University, stared at it for a long time, and then he applied it to himself.

Leng Qi also got a special haircut and asked a young man from the military barber shop to shave his beard clean. He put on a neat military uniform and waited for the class reunion in the evening.

When Nie Gong woke up, he found four heads on his head.

He picked up the smallest and roundest Sandan and wanted to give him a kiss, but Sandan thought he was smelly and immediately hid, "Daddy stinks, I want Mommy to kiss me."

"Hurry up and take a shower, then get up and eat. We have something good to show you." said Miss Chen.

"Oh, that big loaf of bread from the old ferry, Miss Chen, how do you know I like it?" After brushing his teeth, the worker took a big bite of the bread and drank a sip of boiling black coffee before he finally found his mind.

"Well, this coffee is not bad. It's not the yellow juice in the hotel. Where did you get these coffee beans?" Nie Gong then said.

Erdan took a bite when his father wasn't paying attention, stuck out his tongue and said, "Dandan, take a lick, it's really sweet."

Sandaner also took a sip and stuck out his tongue, "Dad is drinking hot pot water again."

"I was just walking around the street. There was a place selling foreign goods behind the provincial party committee. I bought some coffee beans and a coffee machine for you. Your three sons took turns grinding the coffee. They almost broke their arms before they could grind a few cups of powder. Then they borrowed a pot to brew the coffee. Tell me, how can the taste not be authentic?"

Nie Weimin quickly brought the small coffee machine over. Nie Gong looked at it and felt like he had found a treasure. "This thing must have cost a lot of money. Is your mother's salary enough to sell it?"

After rushing the two kids into the bathroom to take a shower, Xiao Nie pulled his father into the bedroom and dug out a large black leather box from the head of his bed.

"Boy, you went to the old house with your mother too. How was it? Do you like these books?"

Xiao Nie nodded, stuck out his tongue, picked it up and poured it out. It turned out that the hard box of the 1965 edition of "Ci Hai" was actually filled with gold bars.

The laborer regarded money as dirt and was of course unmoved by it.

He stared at his son and wife with his bright eyes, and finally said, "My father has always said that there is something. He firmly believes that there is something, so I believe it too. You dug it out from under the living room, right?"

It seems that Nie Gong also knows what is hidden in his old house.

"Does this belong to your father or to the original landlord family named Ma?" Chen Lina said, closing the dictionary again.

The worker weighed the gold in his hand for a long time, and suddenly pinched Miss Chen's inner thigh hard, "You burned three volumes of my 1965 edition of the out-of-print "Ci Hai"."

"If I don't burn the stuffing inside, others will find out. Nie Gong, we haven't returned to the border yet. Besides, our wealth cannot be exposed. We have to do things in secret." Miss Chen cried out of pain. Then she looked at Nie Weimin, the little bastard, who was laughing secretly.

After the two children finished their bath and moved to the bedroom, the worker, who was in another room, told Chen Lina where the wealth came from.

According to him, the wealth belonged to Landlord Ma.

That was in 1949, when Hongyan was just being liberated. The landlord Ma Da did not ask for reform or to start a new life. He just said that he wanted to take his children to Hong Kong. At that time, the exit control was not very strict. Commander Nie used his connections and found a way to send the landlord and his family out.

Of course, the landlord also said that everything in his old house would belong to Commander Nie from now on.

However, Commander Nie also said that the house and property would belong to whoever it belonged to, and he would not take a penny and would wait for Landlord Ma to come back.

After taking over the landlord's compound, it was impossible for the organization not to investigate, but they searched it from top to bottom. Since the landlord had hidden his property well, they didn't find anything. Commander Nie, for the sake of loyalty, of course wouldn't tell anyone, so the matter was left unresolved.

"I didn't expect your father had selfish motives and didn't dig out these things and confiscate them at the time."

"In the early days, he was busy liberating the border, and we lived in the military compound. After the organization allocated this compound to him, another revolution began, and he didn't have time to report this to the organization. Otherwise, if it was dug out, it would definitely belong to the organization."

So, how ironic it is that Commander Nie was unable to give the gold to the organization in the end. Before his death, he left a will explaining where the treasure was hidden, and now all these things belonged to Nie Gong.

"But why did you dig it out? It's of no use to us." Nie Gong's calmness almost drove Chen Lina crazy.

"I just want to ask you, I have raised your child for five years, from the age of twenty to twenty-five, the five most beautiful years of a woman's life, and I have dedicated them all to the frontier. Can I use this gold?"

Miss Chen suddenly became gentle and talked about the price. The worker's hair stood on end. "You don't want to make a big gold chain and hang two big circles on your ears, or make a gold-threaded jade dress, just like our Tibetan compatriots. You are already very beautiful, don't you need to dress up?"

"Can you please stop being so superficial?" Chen Lina said, "I want to ask you, worker, have you seen where the longest queue is outside right now?"

"The entrance of a state-owned store or clothing store. What's going on?"

"Without cotton, you can't weave cloth. Without cloth, you have nothing to wear. In my family, the older ones wore the clothes and the younger ones wore them. It was really a patchwork. I had money, but I couldn't buy cloth. I even had my hair pulled out in order to snatch cloth from the supply and marketing cooperative. Do you know what is the most memorable thing about the ten years of rectifying the chaos in my last life?"

"What?"

"Rob cloth, small commodities, cotton thread. These things are produced in small quantities and are must-haves. It can be said that everyone has money in their pockets, so it's hard to rob them. I don't want much, at most a big yellow croaker as capital for starting a business. Lend me a few and I'll bury the rest. Okay?"

Chen Lina actually had already thought of a grand money-making plan.

Why are coastal areas developing so fast? It is not because the coastal areas have well-developed transportation radiating to inland areas. When selling from the border to inland areas, the transportation is even more developed, and the cost of train transportation is very low.

If you want to know why the frontier area did not develop during the ten years of rectifying the chaos, it is not only because there was no money and people were afraid to do it, but also because no one really knew what the future would be like.

The border areas are the main production areas of cotton and wool. Many large garment factories in coastal areas have their manufacturing plants built in the border areas.

Afraid that she would not be able to convince this old-fashioned old man, Miss Chen massaged his back and shoulders. In a panic, she wanted to grab an orange, but ended up feeding him a slice of soaked lemon. Nie Gong felt so sour that he almost fell off the bed.

"So, this is what you have thought of a long time ago, right? To take over the farm and open a textile and clothing factory, the initial capital you need is my big yellow croaker?"

"You said that you would never leave the oil industry unless someone chased you away. You should leave the money-making business to me for the rest of your life, and you can just focus on being as beautiful as a flower."

After saying that, Miss Chen knelt on the bed with snow-white sheets and watched eagerly.

Nie Gong seemed to be thinking, and Nie Weimin, who had been eavesdropping, became anxious. "That's not just yours, there's also ours. Can you give my share to my mother?"

Sandan also came out and said, "Everything I have belongs to my mother."

"Everyone, get in and don't come out." The worker was very angry. In a hotel like this, there is no privacy between couples.

After thinking for a long time, he finally said, "I can lend it to you, free of charge, interest-free, you can use it as long as you want, even if it's yours, but you have to promise me one thing. If you can't promise me this thing, you have to bury it back where you dug it out from, and I can't give it to you."

"Tell me, what do you want? Do you want to be a liberated peasant and a slave singing, or do you want something more exciting?"

"I don't object if you want something more exciting, but that's not the most important thing. The important thing is, Chen Lina, you have to remember that you can't die before me in this life.

No matter where you are or what you are doing, just remember one thing: if you die before me, I would rather throw this gold into the Yellow River than give it to you.

"You are so selfish. You died before me in your last life. Do you know how much pain the person who died later would have to endure? Okay, I don't want it anymore. Give all these things to Bao Manli."

"Why are you bringing up Bao Manli for no reason?" The worker almost jumped up. This woman was simply unreasonable.

But women are unreasonable. Miss Chen said nothing and didn't even look at her. She was as arrogant as a queen who was looking down at her courtier and waiting for him to do his best to please her.

"Isn't it okay to give you all this? But you have to remember one thing, Chen Lina, really, cherish your life. The moment I pulled you out of the swimming pool, I almost went crazy." Nie Gong didn't dare to joke anymore and said quickly.

He loves Miss Chen and respects Miss Bao, so he doesn't dare ask Miss Chen to gossip about Miss Bao anymore.

"The current international gold price is at its highest point. With the end of the Cold War, the gold price will tend to stabilize. I won't owe you any money if I exchange gold now."

"From the perspective of the economic trend, you're doing the right thing. Go for it. I support you. If this is not enough, tell me and I can find a way for you. One million or eight hundred thousand should be no problem for us." Nie Gong suddenly came up with something clever.

Miss Chen's eyes were full of stars at that time. "Nian Gong, please don't lie to me. Where do you have other money?"

"After you left this room, did you check when you came back to see if the eavesdropping device was blocked?"

"I've checked it a long time ago, and there really is a eavesdropping device. I installed it in the cupboard and played some music." Xiao Nie said in a low voice.

Nie Gong sat up and said, "Nie Weimin, go back to your room."

However, it is no wonder that Nie Gong has to be cautious. He works in the confidentiality industry. Hongyan and Bianjiang are competing provinces. He can help Hongyan, but he does not want people from Hongyan to eavesdrop on him.

"The real treasure hidden in that house is not the layers of gold bars wrapped in felt underground, but a huge fortune that is far away in the sky and right in front of you.

But many people are desperate but can't find it. If you really need funds to start your business, I will give it to you when necessary. Is that okay?" said Nie Gong.

"Where is it? I can't find any place to hide anything in that yard." Miss Chen became excited.

"Come, come, the liberated peasants are singing."

"Go away. Go wherever you want."

…

"Please, tell me where it is hidden. Leng Qi has been looking for it for so many years and can't find it." Miss Chen suddenly asked again.

Now it was Nie Gong's turn to be stunned. "Do you know Leng Qi?"