Chapter 75

The New Year atmosphere in 1992 was still very heavy. On Little New Year, one could hear the sound of firecrackers sporadically. After Zhou Andong washed up, he splashed the water into the courtyard.

Zhou Anqin came out of the house with a wooden comb and said while combing her hair: "Brother, today is the market day. Are you going to the market?"

Zhou Andong said: "Going. There's only one week left until the New Year; some things that should be bought should be bought."

"I'm going too, I'm going too!" Zhou Anning shouted, jumping on her feet when she heard it.

Zhou Andong said unpleasantly: "It's so cold, what are you going for?"

"I'm going!" Zhou Anning pouted, looking at Zhou Andong with teary eyes.

"Oh my, you're crying." Zhou Andong pinched the little girl's face, "Fine, I'll take you; stop crying."

The market was at the junction of the city and the countryside in the southern suburbs of Jiangzhou. Every month on the 3rd, 6th, and 9th of the lunar calendar, it was market day. Many surrounding towns would come here to the market, so the scale was not small.

Especially since the New Year was coming, people in the city all ran over to the market. It was pitch black, and the crowd was so crowded it couldn't be opened. Zhou Andong was afraid the little girl would be in danger, so he let her ride on his neck, which made the little thing giggle for a long time.

"Big brother, I want a candied hawthorn."

"Good!" Zhou Andong asked, "Xiao Bei, do you want one?"

Zhou Anbei shook his head: "Don't want one!"

Zhou Andong spent one yuan and bought two strings of candied hawthorns, giving one to the little girl and one to Xiao Qin.

"Brother!" Zhou Anbei ran to Zhou Andong's side and looked at a row of firecracker stalls, "Buy some firecrackers this year."

After Zhou Xiaoxin's accident, during the New Year, for the sake of good luck, they would buy some firecrackers, but ever since the accident, they hadn't bought any more.

Zhou Andong remembered very clearly that that year, Xiao Bei was still small, crying and shouting to buy firecrackers, but at that time, they couldn't even take out two or three mao.

"Buy. Not only buy, but buy a lot."

"Yes!" Zhou Anqin bit the candied hawthorn fiercely: "Buy a lot, and make that old witch Zhao Gui-fen angry to death."

"Old Uncle Wu!" Zhou Andong suddenly saw an old man in his sixties and shouted.

Wu Hanbao heard the shout, turned his head and saw it was Zhou Andong, and greeted him with a smile: "Little Dong!"

"Old Uncle Wu, how did you come?"

"Driving a donkey cart."

"Are there many people?"

"Not few, seven or eight."

"We'll take the bus back; you help me pull the things I bought back."

"As long as you aren't afraid of them being crushed."

Zhou Andong was just here to stroll around; there was nothing good to buy. There was so much game at home, so there was no need to buy meat. And at this time, except for dried goods like wood ear, daylily, and mushrooms, green vegetables were still rare.

However, in two years, the vegetable basket project would shift from production base construction to the simultaneous construction of production bases and market systems, and the vegetables in the north in winter would gradually become rich.

Zhou Andong bought some dried goods, fish, and shrimp, and then went to the firecracker stall, buying more than three hundred yuan worth, filling two large nylon bags.

Wu Hanbao was very surprised to see Zhou Andong buy so many firecrackers, but he didn't ask much: "Just put them by the cart; I'll load them onto the cart when the market disperses."

"Sorry to trouble you, Old Uncle Wu." Zhou Andong took out a pack of Red Plum cigarettes from his pocket and stuffed it into Wu Hanbao's hand.

"You child, why give me cigarettes." Saying so, Wu Hanbao gripped the cigarettes in his hand and wouldn't let go, happy until his face was full of wrinkles.

In the evening, Zhou Andong was scolded by Yuan Liying: "There's no one as wasteful as you. You can buy as much food and drink as you want, but why buy so many firecrackers? You light them, there's a puff of smoke, you hear a sound, and they're gone."

Zhou Anqin stuck her tongue out at Zhou Andong, and Zhou Anbei had long since run away to hide from the disaster. The little girl was gnawing on a frozen autumn pear.

Zhou Andong went out of the house, and Yuan Liying asked: "We're about to eat, where are you going?"

Zhou Andong took out a cigarette and lit it, then took a deep drag: "I'm not hungry; you guys eat first; I'm going out for a stroll."

In the countryside, once winter comes, the villagers have nothing to do and all gather together to play cards, especially when the New Year is coming, both old and young like to play a few hands.

Zhou Anbin was even more so, playing day and night. This wasn't it—just after finishing dinner, he went out with a matchstick for picking teeth in his mouth, looking in a very good mood. He probably won a lot during the day.

At the east village entrance, old Zhang's small shop had quite a few people playing cards every day. There were several groups playing poker and mahjong, and Zhou Anbin was also willing to play here.

"You ask me how deep my love for you is, how many points my love for you has, my feelings are also true, my love is also true..."

Zhou Anbin hummed and sang, and when he saw that he was at old Zhang's small shop, he quickened his pace, because if he went late, there might not be a place.

Suddenly, a figure flashed before his eyes, a sack was put over his head, and then his body suffered a blow like a violent storm.

"Ah, it hurts to death, stop hitting, stop hitting, who are you?"

Zhou Anbin's screams spread far away in the silent night, and were quite terrifying. Don't know how long it had been, the other party finally stopped, and then he heard the sound of footsteps going away.

Zhou Andong returned home, just halfway through eating, when he heard Zhao Gui-fen let out a howl.

"Which killer is it that beat my son like this? I'm not done with you..."

"Hehehe..." Zhou Andong ran out with a chicken leg in his mouth, then turned over and sat on the wall, "Auntie, what's the matter? Is it Anbin who was beaten, or Anlei who was beaten?"

"Zhou Andong!" Zhao Gui-fen pointed at Zhou Andong and asked angrily, "Was it you who beat Anbin?"

Zhou Andong said dissatisfiedly: "Auntie, you can't talk nonsense without evidence. Did you see me beat him?"

"Exactly!" Zhou Anqin also came out, "Auntie, you can't wrongly accuse people."

Zhou Andong snorted coldly: "A few days ago, the factory received quite a few letters reporting me. I even suspected that Zhou Anbin and Zhou Anlei wrote them."

Zhao Gui-fen was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, jumping and scolding: "Zhou Andong, you little bastard, how can you talk nonsense? Our Anbin and Anlei didn't even finish elementary school; how could they write whistleblowing letters."

Zhou Andong threw the chicken leg bone he had finished gnawing onto the ground and wiped his oily mouth with his sleeve: "So, although I suspected, I didn't look for them, right?"

Zhao Gui-fen snorted guiltily: "Considering you're young, I won't argue with you." After speaking, she turned and returned to the house.

Zhou Andong chuckled, jumped off the wall, and put his arm around Zhou Anqin's shoulder: "Go back to the house, it's too cold."

January 28th, morning, Zhuhai City, the revolving restaurant at the highest point of Yuehai Building. An old man was dining, and a middle-aged soldier carrying two stars and four bars (a rank) walked over, bent his waist, stood beside the old man, and whispered.

"This is today's People's Daily. There is a report on it; take a look."

"Good, let me see." The old man raised his head, nodded with a smile, and took the newspaper in front of him, "Socialist core values."

The middle-aged soldier said: "Yes, that's this report."

The old man continued to look down: "Advocating prosperity, democracy, civilization, harmony... my Chinese dream... the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation..."

The old man's eyes grew brighter the more he looked, and he spent more than half an hour reading the report of less than two thousand words.

"This little guy named Zhou Andong is amazing. Being so young, he has such strong strategic and forward-looking qualities. If there is a chance, I really want to see him."

The middle-aged soldier was stunned. When he retreated, he took out a small notebook from his pocket, wrote down Zhou Andong's name, and then thought for a moment, and drew a star after the name.