Chapter 77 (1/2)

Liu Huai'an jumped up from his chair like his ass was on fire and shouted, ”no! Not me!”

Aoki handed him another cigarette before he sat down again, but his face was nervous. His eyes turned disorderly. He looked left and right, but there was no fixed point.

”Tell me about twenty years ago,” Aoki said.

Liu Huai'an smoked with his head depressed. After smoking for a while, he looked up and said, ”it's really not me!”

Aoki said, ”I didn't say it was you. Just talk about the past.”

Liu Huai'an took two in a row before he opened his chatterbox and talked about his previous affairs intermittently.

In the early 1990s, when Liu Huai'an went to middle school, his father got off duty and set up a mobile stall in Liuying lane to sell baked cakes. Because of his short stature, he was nicknamed Wu Dalang.

Liu Huai'an's classmates at school all know this and often joke about him. Some teachers who can't name him will also call him ”Wu Dalang's family”.

As soon as he heard this, he felt very ashamed and wanted to find a hole in the ground.

Liu Huaian quarreled with his father more than once and told him not to sell baked cakes. He would rather be poor and bitter.

But his father is a kind-hearted and diligent man. He doesn't take this gossip seriously. He says that if people call it a nickname, you won't lose a piece of meat and be famous. The pancake business is OK!

Liu Huai'an's mother doesn't think so. She says that selling baked cakes can't make a lot of money. It's better to change careers and do something else. At that time, it was the hottest time for the private economy. It happened that Liu Huaian's uncle came back from working in other places and was ready to invest and set up a factory. Liu Huaian's mother encouraged his father to take shares.

His father said it was OK to take a stake, but he had to sell the pancakes. If the factory didn't work, he would still have a living. His mother said that the factory is full of things inside and outside. It's not a matter for the second uncle to run supply and marketing and manage production. His father said that if you don't trust him, you will go to work in the factory. Anyway, he is determined to guard his pancake stand.

In this way, Liu Huaian's mother and his second uncle opened a wool mill together. Business is booming and there is money at home. But the gossip outside is getting worse and worse.

”Pan Jinlian ran away with XiMenqing!”

”Which is Ximen Qing? It's obviously good with Wu er. That's what the book says!”

”Do you think Wuda is stupid? The family is so rich and still sells baked cakes on the street.”

”Oh, you don't know. All the money in the family belongs to Pan Jinlian. Wuda doesn't sell baked cakes and drinks the West and north wind?”

……

Whether in Liuying lane or at school, Liu Huai'an felt that everyone looked at him differently. He finally couldn't stand it. First he went to his father for a showdown. As a result, he gave his father a tiger meal. Even your second uncle can't believe it. Who else can he trust at home?

Liu Huaian went to her mother again, but she was scolded again. His mother was fiercer than his father and told him to go to the south to work if he couldn't go to college.

It was not easy to get into a university that year. Liu Huai'an thought that he could not get into the University anyway. He was angry at home. He might as well go out to work early. So he rolled up his luggage and ran south.

”I followed my fellow villagers to Yangcheng first, and then to Shenzhou. I worked in SEG and Huaqiang.” Liu Huai'an was obviously excited about his experience of working in the south, and his face was red. But his face soon darkened again, as if he remembered some terrible experience.

”Where did you get the chip?” Aoki asked.

”Yes,” said Liu Huaian, ”they caught me and put a chip on my back.”

”What do they want you to do?”