Chapter 51
On the day of marriage registration, the new son-in-law knocked out his father-in-law's front teeth.
Even the knowledgeable street cadres had never heard of such a strange thing before.
It happened to be almost lunchtime, and seeing the excitement outside, a group of young cadres from the street put down their lunch boxes and followed Zheng Dongmei out.
Zhao Qiang had an argument with Uncle Zheng on his way to get the marriage certificate. The street office was not far from the scene of the incident.
When the group rushed over, Uncle Zheng had already been carried to a tricycle and was lying there.
There were dark red bloodstains on his chin and ears, and there were also spots of blood on the snow around the tricycle.
It can be seen that the amount of bleeding at that time was not small.
Zheng Dongmei is rude to outsiders but very filial to her parents.
As soon as she saw her father's miserable state, her legs felt weak.
She was furious with Zhao Qiang, and her words came out in a rush, "Why did you beat my dad like this?"
Zhao Qiang looked aggrieved. "I didn't hit him. He grabbed my clothes to stop me from getting the marriage certificate with you. We were supposed to meet at 11:30, and we were about to be late, so I pushed him in a hurry. The ground was a bit slippery, and he lost his balance and bumped into the handlebars of the tricycle, knocking out his front teeth."
He pointed at the handlebars and said, "Look here, there are still his teeth marks!"
He did increase the force at that time, but it was not enough to knock out the old man's front teeth!
The old man lost his teeth, and the root cause was knocking!
Zheng Dongmei pulled open her father's upper lip and found that his left front tooth was gone.
The front tooth on the right seemed a little loose. She reached out and touched the tooth, causing her father to howl like a pig being slaughtered.
The reason why Mr. Zheng failed to file a complaint right away was because of his front tooth that was about to fall out.
Every time he spoke, he felt the tooth moving left and right, and it hurt when his tongue touched it.
Zheng Dongmei didn't care about finding the responsibility for the moment and asked anxiously: "What should I do with this tooth?"
Liu Jinbao came over, took a look and said, "Let's find a dentist to pull it out. This tooth hurts when I touch it, and it will definitely affect my eating. There's no point in keeping it like this!"
Zheng Dongmei discussed with her father: "Dad, should I take you to have your tooth extracted first?"
Uncle Zheng was reluctant to have his tooth pulled out.
At his age, there are only a few good teeth left in his mouth, and every tooth pulled out means one less.
But he also knew that it was no use for him to just stand there, so he nodded with resentment.
Zhao Qiang seemed to want to make amends. He pulled Zheng Dongmei and said, "The hospital is quite far away, and tooth extraction is not cheap. How about I help you extract the tooth?"
"Can you pull it out?"
"That's not difficult! His tooth is already loose, it can be removed with a gentle tug. I was the one who helped pull out Jin Wang's bad tooth next door!"
No one knew who Jin Wang was and thought he had experience pulling teeth.
Zheng Dongmei thought that the purpose of going to the hospital to have a tooth extracted was also to pull the tooth out, so she nodded and let Zhao Qiang try.
Only the drivers in his team knew that Jin Wang was the old dog of the Jin family next door.
Uncle Zheng hated Zhao Qiang so much. How could he let him pull out his teeth!
He covered his mouth and whimpered, not allowing Zhao Qiang to get close.
Seeing this, Zhao Qiang pointed to the sky and said, "Look!"
Uncle Zheng subconsciously looked up at the sky. Before he could see what was in the sky, he felt a sudden pain in his mouth. The half-lost front tooth was quickly broken out by Zhao Qiang!
The people around him shuddered along with him.
Ye Manzhi even covered her mouth with both hands.
"Ahhh, I'll beat you to death, you bastard!" Uncle Zheng spat a mouthful of blood foam on the ground, and without any hesitation, he chased Zhao Qiang and kicked and beat him.
Zhao Qiang hid behind Zheng Dongmei and said, "Did you see that? That's how the uncle hit me just now. He wouldn't let me get the marriage certificate with you!"
Zheng Dongmei felt her father was being unreasonable and frowned, saying, "Dad, didn't you agree that Zhao Qiang and I should get married? Why are you suddenly changing your mind?"
Uncle Zheng spat a mouthful of blood onto the snow and said incoherently, "We didn't see this guy's true face before, but now that we do, of course we can't let you get married!"
"Uncle, aren't you disgusted with me just because of the work I've done? Tell me yourself, have I ever asked you to do any work since I took you out of the house?" Zhao Qiang said indignantly, "You're a grown man, and you stay at home every day. Is that okay? Auntie's also at home. What am I saying? Dongmei is a master hairdresser now. You're embarrassing her by doing this!"
Zheng Dongmei looked at her father with complicated eyes and said nothing.
"What grown man always stays at home? I took you out to work because I was afraid that outsiders would gossip about our family. But I didn't ask you to work! I'm the one who drives the cart and carries the goods. I buy you meat buns and I eat vegetable buns. What else can you not be satisfied with?"
The onlookers thought that what Zhao Qiang said made sense, and it was really great that his son-in-law could achieve what he did.
However, Uncle Zheng almost fainted.
He didn't pedal the bike, but he walked!
That idiot Zhao Qiang sat on the tricycle himself and asked him to follow behind.
When going uphill, I have to help him push the cart.
It was winter now, and his cotton shoes were frozen through after walking in the snow for half an hour.
He has never suffered such a thing in his life!
When this kid first came to his house, he spoke very nicely, saying that he would take care of them as his own parents and treat Zheng Dong like his own brother.
He did perform well at the beginning, and Zhao Qiang helped with some of the heavy physical work at home.
However, things started to go wrong after the two decided to get married. Not only did the boy encourage him to go out to work, he also wanted to find a job for his wife!
Today, in front of so many drivers, he scolded him for pushing the cart together!
Uncle Zheng's intuition told him that this marriage was not possible, so on his way to get the marriage certificate, he changed his mind.
After hearing the whole story, Zheng Dongmei said angrily, "Dad, what's wrong with you? We've just had a few good days at home, and you're making a fuss again? Zhao Qiang didn't ask you to do any work, so what are you dissatisfied with?"
She is a stubborn person and will listen to whoever makes sense.
Her father was obviously trying to cheat and make trouble today.
Uncle Zheng said angrily, "Anyway, I don't agree with your marriage. He beat me up like this. If you still dare to marry him, I will not recognize you as my daughter!"
"What's the point of saying such angry words? If you don't acknowledge my words, who will feed you?" Zheng Dongmei pulled Zhao Qiang aside and said angrily, "Let's go! Cadre Xiao Ye has filled out the forms. Let's go get the certificate!"
Zhao Qiang obediently let her lead him, then turned around and asked, "Officer Xiaoye, can we still get the certificate now?"
"Well, I'll work overtime and expedite it for you," Ye Manzhi said, glancing at the blood on Uncle Zheng's face. "After we get the marriage certificate, you can take Uncle Zheng to the hospital."
The group returned to the street office and completed the marriage registration procedures for Zheng Dongmei and Zhao Qiang.
Ye Manzhi handed them the marriage certificate and said a long list of blessings sincerely.
Zhao Qiang thanked me repeatedly, holding the marriage certificate in hand. He smiled and asked, "Comrade Xiaoye, my father-in-law doesn't want to drive with me, and I don't want to force him. Isn't the coal furnace factory in our neighborhood hiring workers? Can he go work there?"
Ye Manzhi declined politely: "The coal furnace factory is currently only recruiting workers under the age of 45. You are just right for the coal furnace factory. Uncle Zheng is a bit old."
*
Zheng Dongmei, who had obtained a marriage certificate, went to the health center with her father.
According to Liu Jinbao, the newly-formed father-in-law and son-in-law had another fight at the health station.
Ye Manzhi spent the entire afternoon listening to gossip about the Zheng family and laughing along with everyone else.
When he met Lin Qingmei in the yard after get off work, a smile was still on his lips.
"What are you grinning at?" Lin Qingmei said, holding her arm. "There's an ice rink over at the People's Stadium. Many of my classmates have plans to go skating this weekend. Why don't you come too?"
"But I can't skate!"
Ye Manzhi is interested in all entertainment activities, and she actually wants to go ice skating.
However, there was no ice rink in the city before, so if you wanted to skate, you could only skate on the frozen river.
Because there were news reports of children falling into ice holes every year, Old Ye strictly forbade his children to play on the river, so Ye Manzhi had never skated on ice since he was a child.
"I can't skate either, so we can learn together!" Lin Qingmei put her arm around her shoulders and said, "Ever since you started dating Captain Wu, they've been inseparable. Can you break him up and go out for a day alone?"
"We're not inseparable, are we?"
Wu Zhengrong is currently working on a new project, and she is busy at the coal furnace factory. It is good enough if they can meet two or three times a week. The rest of the time, they mostly rely on carrier pigeons to send messages.
Lin Qingmei rolled her eyes. "Isn't it that Captain Wu has been to the recent rehearsals of our concert?"
"Hey, he's going to take me to the Party School this afternoon, so going to the concert is just a side trip."
"I don't care. Just tell me if you can go with me to learn ice skating this weekend!" Lin Qingmei fantasized dreamily, "Once we learn how to skate, we can be like my big brother, skating so fast and dominating the ice rink!"
Ye Manzhi answered readily: "Yes!"
She could already imagine herself flying in the wind and dominating the ice rink!
However, she wanted to play with her classmates, so she naturally couldn't bring Wu Zhengrong with her.
This poor little thing can only spend the weekend alone!
When they met the next day, she tentatively asked, "Do you have any plans for this weekend?"
"The Military Representative Office is organizing a training exercise this weekend, which is not expected to be completed until noon."
"Why are we training again?"
Ye Manzhi originally thought that the officers in the military representative office tended to be civilians, mainly responsible for product acceptance and the like.
After spending a long time with Wu Zhengrong, I realized that their training tasks were quite heavy.
We would go on a training march every now and then, and it was more frequent in winter than in summer. After each training march, our cotton-padded jackets were soaked.
Wu Zhengrong replied briefly, "It's necessary for the mission," and then looked at her and asked, "Do you have any plans?"
Upon learning that he was going to participate in the training, Ye Manzhi secretly rejoiced for a moment, then said with pretended regret: "Hey, the People's Stadium has a new ice rink, and Qingmei asked me to go skating. I wanted to go with you, but since you have something important to do, I have to forget it."
Every time she said something insincerely, she would shake her head and sigh. Wu Zhengrong had long discovered this habit of hers.
Seeing the other party start to shake his head again, he suppressed the smile on his lips and said seriously: "Then I will postpone the training time and go skating with you first."
"Ahem..." Ye Manzhi choked on the hot water, put down the teacup and waved his hands repeatedly, "No, no, I can't delay your work! You should go to the training!"
She has already promised Qingmei to learn ice skating together. If Wu Zhengrong also goes, who will she accompany first?
Wu Zhengrong, however, said to himself, "I really haven't had much time to spend with you lately. Let's go ice skating. I'm a pretty good skater and can play with you for a while longer."
"Wait until I learn how to skate, then you can play with me." Ye Manzhi took out the scarf from her bag and tried to change the subject. "I've already knitted your scarf. Try it on first."
She thought that a beauty like Wu Zhengrong would look great in a red or white scarf.
But he wore military uniform all day, and the army green clothes looked a bit strange with a red scarf, and white was not resistant to dirt, so he finally chose black, which was easier to match with other clothes.
Ye Manzhi helped him tie the scarf. She was quite satisfied with the effect and nodded, saying, "I'll buy some more wool and knit you a smoky-colored one. It should look good with the military uniform."
Wu Zhengrong put on a new scarf and didn't mention the sweater, trousers and gloves that had not yet arrived.
She lowered her eyes to glance at the scarf with fine stitching, and said with a slightly regretful tone: "I took your scarf, but I can't go ice skating with you. I always feel like I owe you something."
Ye Manzhi was afraid that he would change the training time again, so she said in a nonchalant tone, "Just be nicer to me from now on."
She turned the page with difficulty and didn't dare to bring up the topic of skating for the next two days.
However, on Saturday night, as he walked into his building's corridor with the last five minutes of the curfew, Wu Zhengrong suddenly asked, "Do you really not need me to go ice skating with you tomorrow?"
"No, no, I'll just be with Qingmei."
"Well, let me give you this," Wu Zhengrong handed her the small box, "as compensation for my absence."
It was a small wicker suitcase. Ye Manyi saw him carrying it all the way and thought it was his toolbox.
She opened the box suspiciously, and when she saw the white ice skates inside in the light of the street lamp outside, she couldn't help but let out an "ah".
"Why did you give me this?" Ye Manzhi's eyes flashed with surprise.
There is a window for renting ice skates at the entrance of the ice rink. She is still a novice, so she can just rent a pair of ice skates.
"It's your first time on the ice, so you should have a decent pair of skates, right?" Wu Zhengrong helped her push up her woolen hat, revealing her bright eyes. He smiled and said, "Have fun tomorrow."
Leafy branches close the suitcase.
Surprise, excitement, and a little bit of guilt surged up together, making her hug him regardless of the occasion, standing on tiptoe to kiss him several times on his chin and cheeks.
"Brother Zhengrong, you are so kind!"
She was almost so excited that she invited him to go ice skating together, but when she thought of Qingmei's instructions and his training mission, she reluctantly held back her words.
Wu Zhengrong only pecked her lightly on the lips, then let go of her hand and said, "If someone sees us at the door, you'll blame me again. Go upstairs and learn to skate well tomorrow."
Ye Manzhi narrowed his eyes and promised, "When I learn it, I will help you dominate the ice rink."
"Well, then I'll wait for Comrade Xiaoye to take me."
*
When he met Qingmei the next morning, Ye Manzhi's heart was full of ambition to dominate the ice rink.
Lin Qingmei stopped her at the stadium entrance and said, "Most of the students in our class are here!"
"That's great, it's lively with so many people!"
"Zhou Mu is here too!" Lin Qingmei complained in a low voice, "I don't know who notified him, it's really..."
"Didn't he go to Anshan? When did he come back?"
After Zhou Mu's qualification to study in the Soviet Union was revoked, he seemed depressed for a while.
Once they met from a distance on the street, and the other party actually took a detour to avoid her.
She could understand this behavior. Zhou Mu always wanted to save face in front of her. It was indeed not a decent thing for him to lose his qualification to study abroad.
Ye Manzhi pretended not to see him at the time and walked away without looking back.
After that, she never saw Zhou Mu in the compound again. She heard that he was taken to Anshan by Sister Zhou.
Lin Qingmei whispered, "It seems he came back recently. Chen Lin said he would take the college entrance examination next year and went to the school to register a few days ago."
Zhou Mu's grades have always been among the best. If he had not been selected for the list of students studying in the Soviet Union, he would have taken the college entrance examination this summer.
"The ice rink is so big, we can't stop them," Ye Manzhi said indifferently, "Let's go and have our own fun."
She wasn't the one who did something wrong in the first place, so she wouldn't take the initiative to avoid the other person.
The ice rink at the People's Stadium is indeed very large, and almost the entire stadium is surrounded by ice.
The ice rink was packed with people, and various experts were zipping past at breakneck speeds, some even spinning and jumping across the ice, comparable to professional figure skaters.
Newbies like Ye Manzhi and Lin Qingmei could only move around in the novice area with difficulty, holding on to the railings.
After falling down a few times, Lin Qingmei sat on the ice and complained, "I suspect all the masters in the city have gathered here. What are you showing off for?"
Ye Manzhi tried to pull her up, but ended up sitting down on the ground too. However, she still said pertinently, "If I could fly on ice like them, I'd show off!"
"If I had known earlier, I would have called my second brother to teach us!"
Ye Manzhi, supported by two other classmates, struggled to get up from the ground. Just as she placed her palms on the railing, she heard a slick voice say, "Sister, I can skate. How about I teach you?"
"Who is your sister? Go play somewhere else!" Ye Manzhi ignored him and waved his hand to tell the man to get out.
Seeing that he was wearing a military coat and a cap with ear protection, she thought he was also a soldier. But when he spoke, he sounded so uncouth that she curled her lips.
This area is full of beginners, and there are many young girls.
Especially Ye Manzhi, who was wearing white figure skates and a red scarf, had a bright smile on her fair and beautiful face when she was talking to her classmates.
As soon as I walked onto the ice rink with my female classmates, several young men came to wander around.
Seeing someone take the initiative to talk, others also came over.
A tall guy skated up to Lin Qingmei and said, "Classmate, let me take you for a skating lap. I promise you'll learn it all. If you can't learn it, I'll be responsible for you for life."
"No need."
"If you don't learn from me, I'm afraid no one in this ice rink will dare to teach you."
Lin Qingmei snorted and pulled Ye Manzhi, saying, "Hurry up and call the police! Someone's bragging here and the situation is out of control!"
Ye Manzhi was amused by her. If she hadn't been holding on to the railing, she might have fallen to the ground.
The tall guy felt embarrassed after being confronted by Lin Qingmei, but when he saw Ye Manzhi smiling brightly, he changed his mind and wanted to invite her to skate with him.
However, before he could stretch out his hand, it was grabbed by a young man with great force.
Without saying a word, the man reached out and punched him in the face.
"Fuck, who are you?"
Seeing the tall man being beaten, the group of young people around him quickly gathered around and blocked the attacker in the middle.
The two sides started fighting for no apparent reason.
Lin Qingmei exclaimed, "Why is Zhou Mu getting involved? Why is he mentioned again?"
Ye Manzhi stretched his neck to peer into the crowd, "Is he going to be beaten up?"
No matter what, they were trying to help her, and she couldn't bear to see them get beaten by so many people.
"It shouldn't happen. He Xinhua and the others are here!" Lin Qingmei pointed in the direction of the boys in the class.
Ye Manyi thought to himself that if this really turned into a mass incident, it would be better to let Zhou Mu take the beating unilaterally.
The ice skates on her feet restricted her movements. She could fall after taking two steps. She held on to the railing and couldn't go anywhere.
After hearing Zhou Mu's muffled groan, Ye Manzhi reached into the pocket of his cotton-padded jacket, put the red armband on his wrist, then put the whistle to his lips and blew it several times, three long and one short.
"Public security on duty! No more fighting!" Ye Manzhi held the railing with one hand and flashed her red armband with the other. "Anyone who participated in the fight will be taken back to the police station!"
The young people startled by the whistle: "..."
The tall man let go of Zhou Mu, slid over to her side and asked, "Comrade, are you a police officer?"
"Yes, I'm from Guangming Police Station. Do you want me to show you my work ID?"
Ye Manzhi is a neighbor of the police officers and is not afraid of being exposed.
The tall man touched his nose awkwardly and said, "No need to see your work ID. How about I teach you how to skate for free?"
"I won't learn even if you pay me." Ye Manzhi extended her red armbanded arm in front of him again. "I'm on duty today. If you don't have anything to do, go in and play. Don't cause trouble for us."
The tall guy waved to his friends, and the group returned to the ice rink to skate.
After sliding far, he said to his companions: "That girl has a big cap, let's take it easy."
Lin Qingmei laughed: "You are quite impressive, you even dare to pretend to be a police officer!"
"Hey, the situation forced me to do this. I effectively defuse a mass incident." Ye Manzhi glanced at Zhou Mu, who had silently slid to his side. "How are you? Go wipe the blood from your nose first."
Zhou Mu casually wiped his nose and said stubbornly, "It's okay, they didn't hit me."
Ye Manzhi said disdainfully, "I'm talking to me, why did you suddenly jump out?"
"They're obviously teasing you!" Zhou Mu said angrily, "I'm just trying to protect you!"
"Thank you, but you'd better not do this again. I'm in a relationship now, and this is just a waste of effort. If someone gets hurt, I won't be able to explain it to Deputy Director Zhou."
Zhou Mu didn't listen to the rest of the sentence and just focused on the first one, asking, "When did you get a partner?"
It has been a week since he came back from his eldest sister's house, and he hasn't heard that Ye Manzhi has found a partner.
"It's been there for a long time. Even the parents have seen it."
Zhou Mu looked at her suspiciously, feeling that this was another excuse she made to distance herself from him.
Ye Manzhi let him look at her, paused for a few seconds, suppressed the subtle emotions in her heart, and said with a smile: "I really have a partner. You know this person, your Uncle Wu."
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