Chapter 665: Blocking People in the Alley

"She says it's her cousin, named Qin Jingru," Cui Xiu gestured with her chin toward the window, "says she's come into the city to see if there's any work."

Xu Damao sat in the chair for a while, then suddenly spoke up: "Mother, could you go talk to that Qin Huairu? I want to marry her cousin."

Upon hearing this, Cui Xiu's eyes nearly popped out: "How can you be so troublesome? You haven't even divorced Xie Xiaolan yet!"

Xu Damao stiffened his neck and said: "I don't want to live with Xie Xiaolan anymore. I used to think she was fine, that she wasn't greedy. But look at her now, demanding a house from me for her son's sake; I can't stand it."

Cui Xiu sneered: "You really have no conscience! She waited for you for five years!"

Xu Damao got worked up, his voice rising: "If she didn't wait for me, does that mean I, Xu Damao, wouldn't be able to marry a maiden?"

Luo Jiangtao, who had been sitting silently to the side, spoke up: "Damao, I think Xie Xiaolan is fine. Can't you just live your life properly? Stop stirring up trouble. That Qin Jingru is only eighteen or nineteen; do you think she'd even look at you?"

Xu Damao rolled his eyes, the corners of his mouth drooping: "I'm a city dweller, she's from the countryside; why wouldn't she look at me? Besides, I have plenty of money!"

Cui Xiu slapped the table: "Xu Damao! Are you looking to die? 'Plenty of money'!"

Xu Damao said in a low voice: "I was wrong, Mother, just let me stay for a couple of days."

Cui Xiu sighed, her tone filled with frustration: "Just keep stirring up trouble. You stir and stir, and you haven't even managed to stir up a child."

Xu Damao laughed: "Heh, knowing that He Yuzhu's wife won't live another two years, I'm not the only one with bad luck. That makes me feel better."

"What are you happy about?" Cui Xiu glanced at him, "He Yuzhu's situation is 'getting a promotion, making a fortune, and having his wife die'—that's a good thing. You're losing a son; that's a funeral!"

Xu Damao was stunned for a moment, then cheered up and slapped his thigh: "Yo, Mother, your learning has really improved lately."

Cui Xiu curled her lip: "It's all that brat Bang Geng; he's always spouting off, it's all things he said."

Xu Damao stayed in the room for a while, but couldn't sit still, so he shuffled out in his shoes.

Just as he stepped out, he saw Liu Guangfu squatting alone at the base of the wall like a quail, his face buried in a cloud of smoke, no one knowing what he was thinking.

Xu Damao's eyes darted, and he sidled over, squatting down beside him, shoulder to shoulder: "Brother Guangfu, how is your movement going?"

Liu Guangfu turned his head to look at him, his eyes filled with resentment: "Xu Damao, you really are a bad one. You got me a fake order to go after He Yuzhu, and what happened? My dad lost his position as Workshop Director, and it cost me my chance with Yu Haitang. Now, she's all I dream about!"

Xu Damao put on an innocent face and spread his hands: "Guangfu, is what you're saying true? How come I haven't heard about this?"

"Stop pretending with me!" Liu Guangfu spat, "How many days has it been? How could you not know?"

Xu Damao gave a sheepish laugh and said: "Guangfu, what's so great about Yu Haitang?"

Liu Guangfu shook his head: "I think Yu Haitang is better looking than a movie actress."

Xu Damao chuckled for a long time: "Guangfu, that girl Yu Haitang is a snob. If your dad were still a Workshop Director, maybe you'd have a chance, but now that he isn't, do you think she'd look at you?"

After hearing this, Liu Guangfu's face turned even grayer, and after a long while, he said: "You're not wrong about that. Do you know who that girl has been hanging out with lately?"

"Who?"

"A bunch of courtyard kids." Liu Guangfu took a fierce drag of his cigarette, his eyes turning a bit red.

Xu Damao's eyes rolled, and he patted his shoulder like an elder: "Guangfu, if you really want to marry her, you have to make a name for yourself in the movement and become an official."

Liu Guangfu looked up, a glimmer of light flashing in his eyes before quickly dimming, and he said nothing.

Xu Damao couldn't stand Liu Guangfu's indecisiveness; he was just like a woman.

He exchanged a few more words, then got up and walked toward the front courtyard.

Yan Bugui was directing Yan Jiekuang to put soil into flower pots, standing to the side with his hands behind his back like a foreman.

Xu Damao sidled up with a grin: "Third Master, just these few broken pots of flowers? Not one of them is worth showing off; why bother cleaning them up? What a waste of effort!"

Yan Bugui said nonchalantly: "Whether the flowers are good or bad doesn't matter. Planting flowers is just about the state of mind."

Xu Damao fished a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and pulled one out to hand to Yan Jiekuang.

Yan Jiekuang's hands were dirty, so he let Xu Damao hold the cigarette under his nose.

Xu Damao handed another to Yan Bugui and lit it for him attentively, as if serving an ancestor, before finally speaking: "Third Master, I want to chat with your Lao San about something; can you let him put down his work for a moment?"

Yan Bugui took a puff of his cigarette and waved his hand: "Go ahead!"

Xu Damao dragged Yan Jiekuang to the entrance of the toilet outside the courtyard, a place that reeked and where no one wanted to stay. He lowered his voice: "Lao San, can you do a favor for your brother?"

Yan Jiekuang shook his head like a rattle-drum, "What good could ever come from you, Xu Damao?"

Without a word, Xu Damao pulled five yuan from his pocket and slapped it into Yan Jiekuang's palm with a "thwack."

Yan Jiekuang looked down at the bill, his eyes immediately squinting into two slits, grinning from ear to ear, though his tone changed: "Brother Damao, who are you trying to harm? If you want me to help with something illegal, I won't do it."

Xu Damao shook his head and said: "I have to say, you Yan family members still have some backbone."

Yan Jiekuang shoved the money into his pocket and urged him impatiently: "Enough talk, hurry up!"

Xu Damao said with a grin: "Help me find out when Qin Huairu's cousin is free."

When Yan Jiekuang heard it was just this, he immediately relaxed and said dismissively: "Hi, is that all? Both of Qin Huairu's kids are in school, one in second grade, one in first. Qin Jingru has nothing to do every morning after dropping them off, just wandering the streets. That woman, I think she's quite vain; she can't take her eyes off any new gadget she sees, but she's too stingy to spend the money to buy them. I've run into her several times."

Xu Damao's eyes lit up as if he'd found a gold nugget, and he patted Yan Jiekuang's shoulder hard: "Brother! Thanks!"

Early the next morning, Xu Damao had someone take a sick note to the factory while he crouched at the entrance of the alleyway like a secret agent.

When Qin Jingru walked back after dropping off the kids, he seized the moment, pulled his bicycle across her path, and blocked her way perfectly.

Qin Jingru was startled, her eyes widening: "Who are you? Why are you blocking my way?"

Xu Damao said with a grin: "We live in the same courtyard. My mother is Cui Xiu, and I am Xu Damao!"

Qin Jingru looked him up and down and curled her lip: "Oh—my cousin mentioned you; she said you're no good."

Upon hearing this, Xu Damao put on a look of grievance, as if he had been deeply wronged: "There's a bit of a misunderstanding between her and me. To tell you the truth, I wanted to pursue your cousin at first, but she wasn't interested. It's a matter of mutual consent; if it doesn't work out, so be it. Why does she have to badmouth me to everyone she meets?"

Qin Jingru blinked, half-believing: "Really?"

Xu Damao patted his chest with a loud thud: "If I'm lying, I'm a grandson! Hey, are you busy? If not, want me to take you around for a look?"

Qin Jingru lowered her head to think, then looked up at his bicycle's back seat and whispered: "Then... I have to be back before three in the afternoon."

Xu Damao tilted the handlebars, shifted his butt back, and heroically patted the back seat: "Got it! Get on!"