During lunch, I told Auntie He about admitting her as my gan-parent, Auntie He was also so happy that she couldn’t stop smiling, and kept on calling my dad as a star for their family, Old He haven’t been as happy as today in recent years, and even managed to get such a good gan-erzi! Yet, for Xiyuan and my wedding, Uncle He never mentioned it, but from the gaze and expression he looked at me with, I could deeply feel those unnatural feelings, it was completely the appearance of the father-in-law appraising the son-in-law!
Towards this sort of gaze, I could only pretend like I didn’t know anything, and busied myself through eating. To be honest, after getting used to all the expensive food, occasionally eating this sort of countryside meal was really interesting. Unknowingly, I actually ate one more bowl of rice than normal.
“Oh yeah, Old He, don’t you have a younger son? Where is he?” After drinking three rounds, my dad noticed that someone was missing at home!
“He’s at school, our home is far from the school, it’s very inconvenient for him to go back and forth, and so he’s living at school!” Uncle He said.
“Oh yeah, Uncle He, did you manage to get the money for little bro’s school fees?” I suddenly thought of a very important problem, the reason that He Xiyuan went to work in the city is to get school fees for didi!
“Ai! Where would we get money! Even the money to get me treated was borrowed!” Uncle He said. “Huwa’s (Uncle He’s son’s pet name) teacher is a good person, and talked with the school, so the child can go and study first, and we can pay the school when we gathered enough mony for the school fees.”
Hearing that, my dad took out his wallet without saying anything, but who would have a lot of money in their pockets in this era! Adding onto the fact that my dad left in a hurry in the morning, and didn’t bring a lot of money, as well as spending fifty when taking the cab, he only have less than a hundred kuai in his wallet. My dad wasn’t sure of what to do as he acted awkwardly, if he took it out, it really wasn’t enough, if he does, what the h.e.l.l was he doing! In his helplessness, he could only shift her gaze to my mom, and prepared to ask my mom for help.
Actually, from the moment she saw my dad open his wallet, my mom knew what was going on! Yet, she had left in too much of a hurry, and didn’t even bring a backpack, or even any money, so when her gaze met with my dad’s, she couldn’t help but shake her head.
I saw through my dad’s embarra.s.sment, so I quickly took out my wallet from my clothes, took out a stack of hundred kuai notes and said to Uncle He “Ganba, take and use this money for now, I left in too much of a hurry this morning, and didn’t bring much cash! If it’s not enough, then just call me!”
Don’t ask me why I didn’t go and withdraw more money at the bank, there are no banks in these poor places, there is just a Rural Credit Cooperatives or something, there is no concept of Union Pay yet, and I didn’t have a pa.s.sbook for the credits cooperatives either.
“How… How is this okay! Quickly take it back, how can I take your money!” Uncle He quickly waved his hand and said.
“Ganba, you’re treating me as an outsider, I’m your gan-erzi, which is Huwa’s gan-gg, it’s perfectly right for gege to pay for didi’s studies!” I said it honorably, causing Uncle He unabl to refuse.
“But… this money is a bit too much…” Uncle He received the pile of money, and estimated, there was at least three to four thousand kuai there.
“Old He, it’s gan-erzi’s goodwill, just keep it!” My dad advised. Only now did my dad finally believe that his son was truly rich, and would casually bring several thousand kuai when he goes out.
Uncle He thought about it, since Old Liu put it that way, if he continued to refuse, that would be wrong, what’s more is that his family was truly lacking money! Thinking back to his and Old Liu’s relationship back in the days, they were closer than real brothers, they ate the same bowl of rice, slept in the same bed, wore the same underwear, he shouldn’t be embarra.s.sed about receiving money from Old Liu! Thus, he didn’t say anymore, and put away the money, “This money is enough to cover the income of our fruit garden for an entire year back then! If I knew I had such a promising son, what need was there for me to get angry with Jia Daguo!”
Getting reminded like that, I suddenly remembered, I nearly forgot about the reason coming here, it’s to get even with that Jia Daguo! Thus, using the excuse of going to the toilet, I went outside to call Guo Qing.
“Boss, what’s with you, you left without saying anything, me and the brothers are standing under the sun at the village entrance like idiots! Those civilians all thought that we are some kind of underworld gang, and are staying far far away from us!” The moment the call went through, Guo Qing started complaining loudly on the other side.
“Hehe, sorry, sorry!” I said. “Ai? That’s not right, what do you mean thought that you are some kind of underworld gang? Are you guys not?”
“Boss, this is different, underworld gangs are criminals, I already thought about it, I want to establish a company,” Guo Qing smiled. “I know I’m on the edge of the cliff already, so I have to hold the reins back at the last moment!”
“Since you can think like that, I’m rather glad, however, let’s talk about this later,” I started to talk business. “Go and find a person for me, he’s called Jia Daguo, he’s the son of the village chief of Zhendong Town, he has quite a bit of background here, I think he’s in the society as well, help me find him!”
“No problem!” Guo Qing replied. “What do I do after that? Get rid of him?”
“Get rid your a.s.s! Do you really think the days are too comfortable and you want to go in? If you really do something so big, I can’t help you!” I scolded.
“No problem, I’ll go and find dasao!” Guo Qing smiled evilly.
“Whatever, then try and see she will help you without me!” Your dasao’s dad is working for me, who are you going to find! I thought to myself. If you really did something and went to beg Zhao Yanyan’s grandpa, with Grandpa Zhao’s just personality, he will be the first one to send you to prison!
“Hehe!” Guo Qing smiled and said. “I know, I know the line! I was just kidding.”
“Basically, just put surveillance on him after finding him, then capture him when you get to somewhere without people, I’ll go over at night!” I said.
After eating, our large family sat and chatted in the courtyard, it was rare for Uncle He’s mood to be great, and so he made an exception to come out to sit in the sun
“Ganba, how much does Jia Daguo owe you in total?” I asked.
“Ai! It might not be much to you, it’s only three thousand something kuai, but for our family at the time, it was life-saving money, Xiao Xi and Huwa-zi’s school fee is all reliant on this! But from the looks of it now, I was too impulsive then! Going to risk my life with someone else for three thousand kuai!” Uncle He sighed.
“Don’t worry, Uncle He, I will definitely get justice for you,” I said seriously. Three thousand kuai might not be enough for even a meal at a high-cla.s.s restaurant, but this isn’t the issue! The amount of money was secondary, the main thing is that this Jia Daguo actually caused trouble for me family members! I was just getting bored, and he sent himself to me.