Chapter 130

Meng Weihua left the store and, when passing the newsstand, glanced at the somewhat sloppy man.

And that man had just paid the money, turned around with a copy of Reader, and when he looked up, he met Meng Weihua's gaze, then gave a friendly, slight smile, lowered his head, and walked away quickly.

In the northeast corner of the county town, there was a patch of low-rise residential houses. The man walked on the uneven dirt road. There was a large pit by the side of the road, filled with garbage.

It was fine in winter, but in summer, it stank to high heaven, especially after rain, when the smell was even stronger. And the nearby residents had lived in such an environment for decades.

The man's home was at the northernmost end. This garbage pile didn't have much of an impact on his home, but it was right next to the railway. Whenever a train passed by, sitting at home, one could feel the ground trembling.

His house didn't have a main entrance; the alley was behind the house. On the east wall, there was a passage more than a meter wide with the neighbors, and inside there was a simple wooden door nailed together with wooden boards.

The man pushed open the wooden door and entered the courtyard. He tilted his head and glanced into the room, seeing his wife sitting on the edge of the kang, her legs bent, leaning against the wall, her head buried in her arms, as if she had fallen asleep.

The man entered the room. The sound of opening the door woke the woman. The moment she looked up, she wiped her face messily with both hands, but it didn't wipe away the tear stains on her face.

The man was anxious. "Xiaohui, what's wrong with you?"

Su Xiaohui looked at the man, just looking without saying a word, and the tears on her face couldn't stop flowing down again.

The man was scared. He climbed onto the kang and grabbed Su Xiaohui's rough hands. "What exactly is wrong with you? Speak!"

Su Xiaohui pulled her hand away from the man's grasp, then took a deep breath. "Let's get a divorce."

The man was stunned, then retreated to the side silently.

"He Zhongwei!" Su Xiaohui was terrifyingly calm. "I once had dreams too, but for you, I gave them up. These years, I have to earn money to support the family, and besides taking care of the children, I also have to take care of your parents. I can't hold on anymore."

He Zhongwei had a face full of guilt. "Can you give me one more chance?"

"Fine!" Su Xiaohui said. "I can give you one more chance. Give up your writer's dream and burn all those manuscripts."

He Zhongwei looked at the manuscripts piled up on a square table at the end of the kang. Although they had been rejected by magazine offices time and time again, that was his hard work of several years; how could he bear to burn them?

"Forget it!" Su Xiaohui said. "I'll go make something good to eat. Let's have one last breakup meal."

"Burn!" He Zhongwei roared, his emotions agitated. "Burn them all, burn them all."

He Zhongwei climbed to the end of the kang, hugged a thick stack of manuscripts, and got off the ground, but just as he reached the door, he hesitated again and pleaded, "Xiaohui, give me one month, just one month."

Su Xiaohui said, "One month? For so many years, your submissions have never been successful. What else can you do in this month?"

He Zhongwei hurriedly took out Reader. "Look, Jiangzhou Yugong Wine Cup Short Story Literature Competition, first prize bonus, second prize 30,000, even the third prize is 10,000. So I want to enter the competition. If I can't win this time, I'll burn all of these and then honestly go find a job."

Su Xiaohui was somewhat disbelieving. "First prize? It wouldn't be a scam, would it?"

"How could it be a scam?" He Zhongwei said. "This is Reader, and there are also Contemporary, People's Literature, and Harvest; they all published the submission notice. It must be a competition jointly organized by these famous magazines; it can't be fake. And I also inquired about the title sponsor, Jiangzhou Yugong Wine; it really is a premium wine, and even the People's Daily has reported on it."

Looking at He Zhongwei, who was not old but had a face full of vicissitudes, Su Xiaohui's heart softened again. She sighed long and hard. "Alright, I'll give you one last chance."

Zhou Andong had just come out of the finance section when he saw those people from the Heilongjiang Supply and Marketing Cooperative entering the factory gate. After seeing him, their faces lit up, and they walked over quickly.

Captain Liu nodded and bowed, saying, "Factory Director Zhou, we are here to apologize to you." After finishing, he pushed Zhao Guang beside him. "Hurry up and apologize to Factory Director Zhou."

Zhao Guang said unwillingly, "Sorry!"

Zhou Andong went up the stairs with an expressionless face. "What attitude are you using to apologize? When you've figured it out, come find me again."

"Factory Director Zhou!" Captain Liu still wanted to say something.

Zhou Andong waved his hand without looking back. "I'm very busy. If you have anything to say, say it next time."

Zhao Guang's face looked very bad. Looking at Zhou Andong's back, his eyes were full of resentment.

Captain Liu looked at Zhao Guang coldly. "Do you know how much money the Supply and Marketing Cooperative lost because of you?"

"How much money the Supply and Marketing Cooperative lost, what does it have to do with you!" Zhao Guang roared and walked away.

Returning to the office, seeing Jian Qiu arranging some books on the bookshelf, Zhou Andong asked curiously, "Where did these books come from?"

As he spoke, he picked up a copy of Water Margin. "Hmm? Why does this book look so familiar?" Then he flipped through it, and the more he looked, the more familiar it became.

Jian Qiu smiled and said, "I got them from Gu Bing; he doesn't read them anyway."

Zhou Andong realized. "No wonder it looks familiar. This book is at his place; I flip through it often."

"By the way!" Jian Qiu put the books away and poured another cup of tea for Zhou Andong. "Can you drive?"

Zhou Andong said, "Yes, but I don't have a driver's license."

In this era, getting a driver's license was not so easy. A C-license required four months of training, including one month of theory and four months of practical operation, and the cost was quite expensive.

In this era when the salary was only two or three hundred, getting a B-license required two or three thousand, and if it was an A-license, it would cost seven or eight thousand; that was quite scary.

However, drivers in this era were quite popular. Spending so much money to get a driver's license was just to find a good job.

Of course, traffic management in this era was very loose, and there were many unlicensed drivers. As long as there was no accident, no one would check.

"Nothing to do in the afternoon, I'll accompany you to take a photo, and let the logistics department handle it. They have acquaintances in the traffic police team; it won't take many days for the driver's license to come down."

Jian Qiu said with a smile, "That Santana of Gao Qingkui is new; it's only been bought for half a year. Actually, it was prepared for Zhang Deyou; I didn't expect it to be cheaper for you."

Zhou Andong sat in the chair and stretched. "No way, I'm just lucky."

At this time, Gu Bing knocked on the door and entered. "Going to eat?"

Zhou Andong looked at the time. "It's only eleven o'clock and you're going to eat?"

Jian Qiu pulled Zhou Andong. "Let's go, let's go take a photo after eating."

After eating, they found a photo studio, Zhou Andong took an ID photo, and then went around the store. An Jing was actually not there again, but it was impossible for her to go home so early, and he didn't know where she had run off to.

When they returned to the factory, there was still half an hour before getting off work. Many factory workers' families, supporting the old and leading the young, came to the winery and then gathered at the entrance of the Cultural Palace, waiting.

Zhou Andong saw this and thought, how could this work? The old were old, the young were young; don't let them freeze. He hurriedly found someone to open the gate of the Cultural Palace and let these families in.