Chapter 1012

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

With Baldy's promise, Wang Erhai felt reassured.

Let them play; at most they'll play through this Spring Festival.

After this, there won't be any more Liucun here, and there won't be any more gambling dens either.

Wang Erhai and Baldy were chatting when Yang Xiaocai walked over with a grin.

"Baldy, tonight single-hang number 42, ten bucks, mark it down for me!"

Baldy said:

"Then you pay up, and I'll mark it down right now."

But Yang Xiaocai said with a grin:

"Mark it on the tab first; when my son gets back, I'll pay you! My son should be back in these two days!"

Baldy was speechless:

"Aren't you trying to get something for nothing? I'm not putting it on the tab!"

Yet Yang Xiaocai shamelessly persisted:

"Just mark it down; after my son returns, I really will pay you back!"

Baldy was adamant, not budging an inch:

"Not marking it, not marking it — no room for negotiation!"

What kind of character Yang Xiaocai was, he knew all too well.

Besides, he didn't want to stir up trouble over a bit of petty cash.

If Yang Jiahao found out he'd lent money to his dad to play Liucun, he'd probably come knocking to raise hell!

So refusing outright was best; ten bucks more didn't matter, ten bucks less didn't matter either!

"Cheapskate!"

Yang Xiaocai gave a cold hmph and turned to look at Wang Erhai:

"Erhai, how about you lend me ten bucks?"

Wang Erhai didn't know whether to laugh or cry:

"Uncle Xiaocai, ten bets nine losses — just stop playing, okay? I heard you've played to the point you can't even afford oil and salt!"

But Yang Xiaocai had his own logic:

"Right, ten bets nine losses — I'm gambling on that one-in-ten chance! Think about it: Liucun pays forty-to-one. I bet ten bucks each time, bet ten times, lose nine times, win once — that's a hundred bucks spent, then the winning round nets four hundred. Ten bets nine losses, and I still net three hundred profit!"

Yang Xiaocai spoke with firm conviction.

At first listen it actually sounded somewhat reasonable!

That cracked Wang Erhai up:

"Net three hundred profit, huh? If it's really that easy to make money, you've played this long — how come you haven't struck it rich? Let me ask you: that forty-five hundred high-standard farmland subsidy you got not long ago — where's it gone now?"

Yang Xiaocai came up short for a moment.

Didn't he just lose it all playing cards last night?

Even Baldy couldn't help laughing, and urged him:

"You — just play less, alright? At least leave yourself some living expenses!"

Truth be told, seeing Yang Xiaocai lose like this, even Baldy felt a bit sorry for him.

Only his gambling addiction was too deep; couldn't stop him even if you tried.

Yet Yang Xiaocai stayed stubborn:

"I haven't struck it rich because the timing hasn't come yet — just you wait, one day I'll make it big! Erhai, don't be so stingy, just lend me ten bucks!"

Wang Erhai was speechless; not wanting to be pestered by Yang Xiaocai, he gave him ten bucks:

"Take it, take it — consider it a gift, no need to pay back!"

Yang Xiaocai immediately beamed like a kid:

"Erhai, you're a real good cadre; come next village committee election, I'll vote for you!"

Having said that, he immediately turned back to Baldy and said:

"Ten bucks single-hang 42 — hurry up and mark it down!"

As he spoke, he slapped the ten bucks hard into Baldy's palm!

A mighty, imposing look.

Watching Yang Xiaocai's comical and absurd appearance, Wang Erhai's resolve to clean up the township's Liucun atmosphere grew several degrees stronger.

This atmosphere really harms people deeply.

Before, Yang Xiaocai might have been lazy and gluttonous, but he hadn't sunk to his current state.

Ever since Liucun entered the township, he turned into this neither-human-nor-ghost state.

And at this moment, on the other side.

Wang Xiaohua took Li Jianjia up to the second floor of the new house to look around.

"Your house is decorated so beautifully!"

Li Jianjia looked and couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

Wang Xiaohua said:

"If you like it, you can stay here a bit longer."

Li Jianjia asked at this moment:

"Which room is ours?"

This building has three floors in total, each floor is three bedrooms and one living room; the three brothers plus their parents simply cannot occupy so many rooms.

Wang Xiaohua then said:

"Whichever you like to stay in, stay in that one; there's no rule saying which room belongs to whom."

Li Jianjia, however, said:

"Aren't there a lot of rules in the countryside? Things like seniority and order — how about we take the room in the farthest corner? That one over there should be the master bedroom; let your parents stay there, or let your eldest brother and sister-in-law stay there!"

Wang Xiaohua laughed and said:

"You really think of everything!"

At this time Wang Dashan also brought Du Xiaojuan upstairs.

Wang Xiaohua then said to them:

"Big Brother, Sister-in-law, you take the master bedroom; Second Brother and Second Sister-in-law take the middle secondary bedroom; Jianjia and I will take the corner one — how about that?"

Wang Dashan, however, said:

"Xiaojuan and I will just stay on the first floor; she's big with child, going up and down stairs isn't very convenient!"

Du Xiaojuan also said:

"Right, the second and third floors you can just stay in whichever; whichever room you like, stay in that one — the renovations inside are all about the same!"

Wang Xiaohua looked at Li Jianjia:

"What do you think?"

Li Jianjia then said:

"I still think staying in the corner room is better; that room's window — not far outside is a small river, you can see a nice view!"

Wang Xiaohua laughed in reply:

"Then okay, we'll stay in that room!"

Afterwards they went to the third floor for another look around, and also went up to the roof to see the scenery.

Looking down from the roof, the whole of Shanggou Village lay in full view.

Today's Shanggou Village, compared to the Shanggou Village of the past, its village appearance is improved by who knows how many times.

Not only have the village roads been hardened, every household has installed tap water, and in the village center a beautiful cultural room has even been built.

Additionally, the village's multi-story houses are many more than before.

Many people who went out to work earned money and all returned to their hometown homestead land to build multi-story houses.

However, behind the prosperity, it still cannot resist hollowing out.

Large flat apartments replaced black-tile mud-brick houses, yet the people in the village are still fewer and fewer.

"It's already the twenty-seventh of the twelfth month, didn't expect the village to still be so cold and quiet."

Wang Xiaohua gazed down over the whole village, involuntarily sighing a sentence.

Recalling childhood, never mind the twenty-seventh, even the seventeenth of the twelfth month, the village was already lively beyond measure.

Children in groups played hide-and-seek at village heads and alley ends, or jumped rope, or flicked glass marbles, or played Zuan Tianhou firecrackers.

Adults gathered at the village entrance to warm themselves by a fire and chat, or went everywhere visiting neighbors drinking alcohol and drinking tea.

Households with a television or speaker had long since turned the music volume to the max, playing Zhuo Yiting's New Year songs.

But now, it's the twenty-seventh, not a bit of music sound at all.

The sound of Zuan Tianhou firecrackers doesn't make a peep either.

Only his family today is holding a Housewarming Jixi; downstairs here it's a bit more lively; other places are truly silent as death.

"There's still a few days until the New Year; this counts as normal, right? After all everyone's gone out to work."

Li Jianjia returned Wang Xiaohua this one sentence.

In her view as a city person, migrant workers not returning, the village being a bit quieter is normal.

However Wang Xiaohua knew, this is not normal.

He felt the countryside's vitality dying out.

Like a living organism, at a speed visible to the naked eye, it is aging, it is dying.

At this rate, who knows — in a few decades Shanggou Village might become a deserted, uninhabited village.

At this moment, Wang Xiaohua suddenly said:

"Come on, let's go to the town!"

Li Jianjia was stunned:

"Go to town for what?"

Wang Xiaohua then said:

"Buy some fireworks and firecrackers to come back and play with!"