Chapter 59

With a Modou watch on his left hand, a Red Lantern radio in his right, and a big "Forever" bike parked outside, he finally felt a bit like a successful person of this era.

But perhaps his frequent checking of the watch was too flashy, and a long-haired young man had been following him.

Wei Ming could always skillfully avoid physical contact with the other party, but the other party was persistent. Wei Ming had no choice but to take out Seeing Biaozi's brass knuckles. Under the deterrent of his bloodshot eyes from lack of sleep, the young man slunk downstairs.

Wei Ming shook his head. There were so many unemployed youths in Yanjing now, and people's hearts were restless. Social security was not optimistic. He was carrying so much cash, it was fortunate he had prepared in advance.

He pulled down his sleeves to cover the watch, walked around the third floor, didn't see anything he wanted to buy, and went downstairs.

In the kitchenware area on the second floor, Wei Ming's eyes lit up.

"Excuse me, how much is this kimchi jar?... Oh, five yuan."

Wei Ming saw a Sichuan kimchi jar, the kind with a groove on top to hold water, and then used an inverted bowl to seal the jar with water.

In Hebei, they didn't care for kimchi, and there were no such kimchi jars. They usually used large vats to pickle salted vegetables, which was simple and crude, but it didn't suit his mother Xu Xu Shufen's taste. She often talked to Wei Ming about the kimchi from her hometown.

In his previous life, when he returned to his hometown in Sichuan and Chongqing, his mother brought back a kimchi jar and would make some every winter.

For the current Wei Ming, the price wasn't the problem; it was just that holding such a jar on a train, then having to take a bus, and even a tractor, he was worried it would break before he got home.

"Let me look around some more~" Wei Ming went to browse other places, and then he saw the radio sellers, as well as Zhu Lin.

Besides radios, there were of course the currently popular tape recorders. Simply put, they were radios that could play cassettes. Before even getting close, he could hear the singing coming from the machine.

This song seemed to be *Roses Bloom Everywhere*, the one that goes "Roses, roses bloom everywhere, youth, youth is everywhere...", which had recently become popular again due to Deng Lijun's cover.

Of course, it wasn't that Deng Lijun had entered the mainland market. Official channels didn't dare to sell her music. There were people in some places who were sentenced for selling Deng Lijun's cassettes, but it was acceptable for mainland singers to change their singing style and reinterpret them, making them sound less "decadent."

For example, this song was the first pop music stereo cassette recorded by female singer Zhu Zhu Fengbo for the Guangzhou Pacific Audio & Video Company. To a certain extent, it could mark the beginning of the history of the mainland Chinese pop music scene.

This cassette was released in May, costing five or six yuan each. It had only been out for four months, and sales had already exceeded 2 million, with final sales of over 8 million. Behind the terrifying sales was the huge void in the entertainment needs of the Chinese people.

It could be said that the emergence of such pop music covers of old songs greatly promoted the popularity of tape recorders in the mainland. Zhu Lin wanted to switch to a tape recorder to listen to these songs.

However, domestic manufacturers couldn't produce this thing in this day and age, so they were basically imported, especially the Sanyo brand, which was the most popular. In addition, there were Toshiba and Hitachi, which were basically brought in from Japan under the guise of "China-Japan Friendship."

Zhu Lin had her eye on a "Sanyo M-X250F" model tape recorder and was preparing to pay.

Seeing Wei Ming come over, she, in a great mood, nodded and asked: "Did you buy your things?"

Wei Ming: "Bought them, did you find what you wanted?"

"Yeah, just this one," Zhu Lin said, "I'll go pay first."

As she walked away, Wei Ming listened intently to the music. As for buying? He definitely wasn't considering it now. Even the cheap ones cost over a hundred, and the ones over two hundred were only slightly lighter. He'd better save his money to improve his family's life.

Just as he was listening to the music, Wei Ming suddenly heard Zhu Lin's anxious voice coming from the counter not far away.

"My, my wallet is gone!"

Wei Ming walked over and asked: "Comrade Zhu Lin, what's wrong?"

Zhu Lin's eyes were red. She showed her bag to Wei Ming, and saw that there was already a neat cut in it, and the wallet inside had been stolen.

Wei Ming immediately thought of the long-haired young man he had encountered upstairs earlier.

He asked: "How much money was in it?"

"Including the money you gave me, it was almost three hundred yuan, plus my work ID." Zhu Lin held back her tears.

She had considered that in case Wei Ming didn't buy her radio, she had prepared a little more money. These funds, in addition to the wages she had saved over several months, were also supported by her parents.

The salesperson also helped ask: "Try to recall if there were any suspicious people?"

Zhu Lin thought for a moment: "There seemed to be a young man with long hair wearing a gray jacket who kept standing next to me."

As a Peking University guard and a nemesis of criminals, Wei Ming was naturally duty-bound in the face of such a situation.

He first ran to the window to look into the distance. Very good, that guy hadn't gone far.

So he took off his radio and jacket and threw them to Zhu Lin: "You follow behind, I'll go find that person first."

After saying that, Wei Ming ran out like a whirlwind. Zhu Lin only had time to shout: "Be careful!"~

A few hours ago, just at dawn, Zhu Lin began preparing for today's meeting at her home at the Industrial College. Not only did she change into a beautiful outfit and match it with a shoulder bag, but she also specially applied Friendship vanishing cream.

It wasn't that she had any designs on an 18-year-old little brother; this was just her respect for a writer.

She admired such people. Don't look at her as a medical worker; in fact, she was a literary soldier before, and she had some artistic youth flair.

Since more than half a month ago, she had often heard the name Wei Ming from her colleague Southern Murong.

Writing fairy tales, writing poems, and even submitting to *Harvest* and getting published—it was simply outrageous to the extreme.

At that time, Zhu Lin was a bit skeptical, until Southern Murong placed the three issues of Wenhui Bao and the Peking University school newspaper with Wei Ming's works in front of her. Only then did Zhu Lin confirm that there were geniuses in the world.

So when Southern Murong asked about the radio, she, who had originally planned to put it in a consignment store, readily agreed to the transaction, with the time and place convenient for Wei Ming.

She even initially set the price at 50 yuan, a little over 60% of the original price, just to make a friend.

So they agreed to meet at nine, but she actually arrived at 8:30. She didn't wait for an hour, but an hour and a half, and wanted to give up several times during that period.

If it weren't for Wei Ming's talent and Southern Murong saying the other party was a spirited young man, she really wouldn't have wanted to wait.

She just wanted to see how handsome he was to be able to treat an appointment like child's play and make her wait so long.

!

Then she saw him. Wei Ming's handsomeness exceeded her expectations, and he prepared an excuse about a broken tire, but it couldn't completely appease her anger. So Zhu Lin, who had originally wanted to sell it to him for 50 yuan, called out a price of 70 yuan, and the other party didn't bargain, which was quite straightforward.

Afterwards, the two went into the department store together. Now Zhu Lin came out alone, and her evaluation of Wei Ming had long since changed from "straightforward" to "an upright, kind, and brave good person."

She saw Wei Ming running to the west and was about to get her bike, but then she annoyingly thought that her parking ticket was also in the wallet, which was the voucher for picking up the bike. But her shoes had heels, and she couldn't run fast.

At this moment, she felt around and said "Huh," as she felt the parking ticket and keys in Wei Ming's jacket.

So Zhu Lin decisively went to get Wei Ming's bike, and then saw that antique-like big "Forever" bike, with the plating gone. This Wei Ming was quite simple.

"This bike isn't yours, is it?"

"Right, it's my brother's." Zhu Lin told a little lie, and because she was pretty, she successfully got the bike, rode it, and hurried to chase Wei Ming.

As a result, before she even left Wang Fujing Street, the bike slowed down. Zhu Lin stopped and looked: "The tire is flat!"

Fortunately, there was a repair shop nearby. She hurriedly pushed the bike over, let the master fix it first, and she would go chase the person first.

"Wait a moment~" The master skillfully pried out the inner tube, "Your tire is too rotten, why don't you just replace it with a new one."

"Ah?" Zhu Lin thought of Wei Ming's words earlier, "Then can I take a look at the front tire?"

The master took a look and retorted: "Didn't you just replace the front one with a new tire? Why replace it again? Is this your bike?"

"This is my brother's bike." Zhu Lin repeated this lie, while infinite apologies surged in her heart.

So he really had a flat tire on the way and pushed it all the way to the appointment. I actually had that attitude just now; I was really too much!

Zhu Lin blamed herself more and more, and then she thought that she didn't have a penny on her, so she hurriedly slipped away, saying she would come back to pick up the bike later.

Let's go find the person first.

But Wei Ming had long since disappeared. When passing by a police station, Zhu Lin decided to go in and ask. She didn't expect that she really asked the right person.

"Oh, that's right. Just now, with the assistance of a warm-hearted citizen, our patrolling comrades captured someone who robbed a bag with a knife. What is your name?"

"Zhu Lin."

"Where do you work?"

"Institute of Health, Academy of Medical Sciences," Zhu Lin then answered, "There was about 310 yuan inside, which I took to buy a tape recorder."

The answer was completely correct. The other party also let Zhu Lin identify the person who robbed her bag. That's right, it was that long-haired guy!

But looking at the other party's bruised and swollen face, it was obvious that there had been a fierce fight. Zhu Lin gripped Wei Ming's jacket tightly and asked with some worry: "You said that person had a knife, then, what about that warm-hearted citizen? Is he okay?"

Police officer: "Oh, he went to the hospital."

Zhu Lin: "What!"

(End of chapter)