Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 737 Chapter 736 Perhaps, everyone has a last resort
"Oh, you bought lard?" Xiao Wang sent his friend away, entered the house and asked in surprise when he saw the lard.

"Well, let's fry some Chinese toon fish tonight." Tang Zhitong happily put the pot on the stove, and while pouring the chopped lard into the pot, he discussed with Zhang Guifang: "Mom, Wenwen hasn't eaten Chinese toon fish yet, mix it with batter and fry it, and give half of the lard and oil to Brother Xiaoping."

Zhang Guifang opened her mouth but no sound came out. After three seconds, she uttered a "hmm" through her nose, which meant she agreed.

Tang Zhitong chuckled. He had dragged Xiao Wang in on purpose. It wasn't a festival, and eating fried food was a bit extravagant. He was also worried that his mother had been stubborn for so many years and wouldn't be able to give anything to his uncle. So he put the two things together to make it difficult for his mother to object.

Chinese toon fish is not difficult to make. Just make the batter, put the pickled Chinese toon sprouts in it and roll them, then you can put it in the frying pan.

Nowadays, most restaurants use animal oil to fry food, while vegetable oil is mostly used for frying dough rings and fried dough sticks.

Ordinary people don’t care too much about oil at home and just use whatever oil they have.

After Tang Zhitong refined the oil, he scooped out the oil residue, saving even the hot oil. He directly put in the flour-wrapped toon, took it out of the pot and let it air-dry for a while before eating.

The aroma of meat oil and toon sprouts mixed together is particularly tempting.

The family hadn't eaten fried food for a while, and even Tang Zhitong felt as if his stomach was being scratched by a cat's claws, as if a hand was about to jump out of his throat and grab the toon buds and pull them inside.

Fortunately, Tang Zhitong had an idea in mind. From the beginning of oil refining, he had been using hanging to clean up the aroma wafting from the main house.

If I don’t do this, the neighborhood kids will probably cry out of envy tonight.

After dinner, before returning to the wing room, Tang Zhitong took out the veterinary book prepared for Zhang Chengping from his schoolbag and gave it to Zhang Guifang: "Mom, I may not be at home when Xiaoping comes. Give this book to him later and let him read it more. When he returns to the production team, he must treat people and it would be best if anyone who treats livestock is arrested as well."

"Okay." Seeing her son's thoughtful consideration, Zhang Guifang took the book and put it away carefully.

Back in the room, they closed the doors and windows and drew the curtains, and it became the couple's private space.

"Hey, don't move." Xiao Wang pushed her husband's hand away.

Tang Zhitong lay there, watching Xiao Wang's performance with a smile.

"Hate it, it's at my throat." Student Xiao Wang stroked his chest with one hand, stroking it down from under his throat over and over again.

"Hahaha." Tang Zhitong laughed heartily and patted the bed with his hands.

"Don't laugh!" Xiao Wang threatened dryly.

"Okay, stop laughing, stop laughing. If you want to eat it, I'll make it for you when I have the chance. Eating like this can easily upset your stomach." Tang Zhitong advised sincerely.

Maybe because Xiao Wang likes fried fish with Chinese toon too much, or maybe because she hasn’t eaten such meat for a long time, she ate a lot tonight. After she came back, she kept sitting on the edge of the bed and didn’t dare to lie down.

"I ate too fast. I'll eat slower next time." Xiao Wang embarrassedly defended himself and refused to admit that he was greedy.

"Well, chew slowly next time. I'll pour you a glass of water, get up and walk around the room, and we'll chat." Given Xiao Wang's current condition, there was no way she could see the power of fire tonight, otherwise she would vomit all over the bed. Tang Zhitong got up from the bed again and assigned her some work.

"I went to my mother's house after get off work today. She said she wanted to visit the graves during the Qingming Festival and asked if it would be convenient for her to ask for leave." Xiao Wang stood up obediently and paced back and forth in the room.

"It's convenient. What's inconvenient about it? How to get there? By bicycle?" Tang Zhitong agreed without any hesitation.

In the traditional practice of most people, sons-in-law rarely visit the graves of their deceased father-in-law and mother-in-law, but there are exceptions, such as when they reach a certain level...

Of course, Tang Zhitong is not that snobbish, and he is more concerned about Xiao Wang's feelings.

"No need. Mom said we can call a car from the Women's Federation's car team when the time comes." Student Wang shook his head.

"Hey, that's great. I've never ridden in a car that I made with my own hands in my life." Tang Zhitong has been here for nearly two years. He has ridden in horse-drawn carriages, mule carts, ox carts, trucks, and trains, but never in a car because he was not of high enough rank.

"What are you thinking about? There are not so many domestically made cars waiting for you to ride in." Student Xiao Wang rolled her eyes at her husband, defeated by his naivety.

Tang Zhitong chuckled and said, "Classmate Wang was right. The current production of domestically produced cars is very limited, because many parts need to be completed manually, which is very time-consuming and the production is unstable."

The unstable production is not only because manual work takes time, but also because core components such as engines are imported. Once there is a bottleneck, there will be basically no production.

Even so, performance is not very stable.

However, in terms of the current industrial level, instability is normal. Everyone is very tolerant of domestically produced cars and can understand it. But in the next few decades, there are still many products that use hand-rubbing to show that they are different...

Tang Zhitong just wanted to say: Why not go back to primitive society and make fire by rubbing two sticks together?

"Do you still remember the song we heard at the entrance of our alley and in the Women's Federation dormitory?" Seeing that her husband didn't say anything, Xiao Wang thought she had said something too harsh, so she changed the subject.

"A bricklayer lives in a thatched house. A cicada has no clothes. Is this it?"

"Yeah. My mom said that someone was fanning the flames. This time, we conducted a large-scale investigation and caught this person. He was a spy planted by the logistics team leader. I was wondering if it was wrong for a child to sing this song?" said Xiao Wang complacently.

"Teacher Xiao Wang is really amazing. He can see the essence through the phenomenon and has a keen eye!" Tang Zhitong praised Xiao Wang and silently made a wish for the spy: sentence him to six years, then reduce his sentence to five years and let him experience the greetings from the people.

Xiao Wang enjoyed it very much. He raised his head proudly, and his white neck looked particularly slender under the light.

"Do we need to prepare anything for the Qingming Festival? Like tea?" During the Qingming Festival last year, Tang Zhitong remembered that they only brought tea. This year, tea is hard to buy, so if necessary, they have to prepare it in advance.

"No, my mother will take care of it." Xiao Wang shook her head, rejecting her husband's proposal, and then said, "On that day, you can accompany me to the office. There are many flowers in the courtyard of the North Library. Let's pick a few and bring them over."

"Okay." Tang Zhitong agreed readily. For this kind of thing, whatever classmate Wang said was the final word.

Before going to bed, Xiao Wang lay in her husband's arms, and Tang Zhitong put his hands on her belly and massaged it clockwise, just like he did when he rubbed his brother-in-law's belly during the Spring Festival.

Xiao Wang was very satisfied with her husband's thoughtfulness. She usually wouldn't eat so much, but this time it was because her husband had promised to make her fish with Chinese toon sauce, and today he fulfilled his promise. In his excitement, he didn't know how to control the scale. For a man who took his promise to her to heart, Xiao Wang would naturally take him to heart. She went to Chunshu Hutong today not to ask Director Ye about the arrangements for Qingming Festival, but to ask Director Ye to find someone to compose the music and write the lyrics.

The song Tang Zhitong gave a while ago was not complete. Xiao Wang naturally wanted to make her husband's masterpiece more complete and classic. She found several teachers through her own connections, and the responses they gave were roughly the same, that is, they were not capable of doing it.

At this time, Xiao Wang remembered that Director Ye took the initiative to ask if he needed help during the "One Cent" incident, so he went there.

Ye Zhijuan supported the young couple's literary and artistic creation, so she naturally agreed.

Xiao Wang didn't mention this tonight, thinking she would give her husband a surprise after the results came out...

April 4st, Friday, April Fools’ Day in the West.

Huo Xiaoping's father, Huo Lin, was sitting in his office answering a phone call. The more he listened, the tighter his brows furrowed. Before hanging up, he said, "I see. We'll wait for you in the office."

In addition to coordinating food supplies, Huo Lin has also been fighting against comrades in the public security department and criminals in the black market.

As more and more ticket scalpers were caught, the entire chain gradually surfaced.

It's shocking. In the entire chain, in addition to the unemployed vagrants in the old city, there are also people from the public security and grain departments, and the more you dig, the higher the level.

Today, the police confirmed the evidence and were going to come to the grain port to take the suspect away, and they informed me in advance.

Huo Lin rubbed his brows and picked up the phone again.

After a while, there was a knock on the door.

Huo Lin rubbed his hands back and forth on his face for a few times, and after relaxing his expression a little, he said, "Please come in."

"Director Huo, are you looking for me?"

"Come, sit down." Huo Lin stood up and took the initiative to make a cup of tea for the visitor. The tea was bought when he went to the meeting hall a while ago. It was 30 cents a small bag, and each person was limited to one bag.

"We have known each other for fifteen or sixteen years, right?" Huo Lin placed the teacup in front of the visitor.

"Thank you, Director Huo. It's been seventeen years. At that time, the Japanese had not surrendered yet and were sweeping the Central Plains."

"Seventeen years, time has passed so quickly. I remember you were only this tall back then, right?" Huo Lin smiled and gestured at his shoulders, "He insisted on pestering me to join the Eighth Route Army to fight the Japanese."

"That's because I saw the Japanese raids. They were so inhumane. If I could be as tall as I am now, I would be the first one to pick up a gun and shoot those beasts!" The visitor remembered what he saw and heard during the Japanese raids.

Stealing food and catching chickens are the most basic things, and insulting women is commonplace. What’s even more infuriating is that after these beasts have abused people, they start killing people, and they don’t even spare a three-year-old child!

And he is not picky about place at all. He can do it on the bed, at the doorstep, under a big tree at the entrance of the village, at the wellhead, or beside a small river. He can do it wherever is convenient.

But most of them still tied people up in an organized manner and drove them to the wellhead or riverside, then stabbed and beat them one by one, and then pushed them into the well or river in an attempt to pollute the water source.

In addition to this, they would set another fire to burn down all the houses in the village. It would not be an exaggeration to say that no one would be left alive.

"Being short has its advantages. When you were in the armed work team, you provided the organization with a lot of intelligence with your height." Huo Lin thought about how he got to know this old subordinate and gave the first affirmation of this meeting.

"Hey, I'm short, just a half-grown kid, carrying a load on my shoulder and pushing a cart into the city to be a peddler. No one is on guard against me, so it's easier to get intelligence." As soon as I talked about the glorious years, my thoughts couldn't help drifting there.

"You suffered a lot back then. I remember one time you went up the mountain to find the team to deliver intelligence, and you almost fainted from hunger on the way." Looking at his old subordinate, Huo Lin was very emotional.

"I ran too fast and felt a little exhausted. Later I heard from my comrades that I ate a lot that night and you were busy picking out the thickest ones for me. I ate not only your portion, but also those of other comrades. You were left with only wild vegetables for dinner." The visitor still felt embarrassed when he thought of that and kept scratching his head.

"Hahaha, why do everyone call you a little kid? You are still young, and everyone treats you as their own child." Huo Lin waved his hands, as if that was what he should do.

"Hehe, I didn't disappoint you guys. After eating that meal, my height has been growing rapidly. I was 1.7 meters tall when the Japanese surrendered. I came to you again and said that I wanted to join the team, but you still didn't agree."

"There was no one more suitable than you at that time. You were familiar with the local situation and had experience in lurking, but you never expected that someone would betray you and cause you so much suffering. Do you... blame me?" Huo Lin sighed. The comrade in front of him could be said to have grown up before his eyes. He was determined to sacrifice his life and shed his blood. Later, he was captured by the enemy and suffered all kinds of torture, but he gritted his teeth and did not leave any useful information for Chiang Kai-shek.

"How can I blame you? You chose your own path, and you have to carry the consequences yourself." The visitor smiled, as if he understood something. He picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea.

"Oh, I can't understand. Why...why..." Huo Lin was a little excited, and his hands were shaking violently as he pointed at his old subordinate, betraying his mood.

"Old chief, don't get excited. Do you know everything?" The man stood up and helped Huo Lin to his seat.

"Why? Why are you so depressed? You are still young and you have a bright future!" Huo Lin was heartbroken.

"Now that things have come to this, I won't hide it from you. I don't want to take this step, but the families of my comrades who sacrificed their lives to protect me have written to me for help, saying that their families are in great difficulties. What should I do? My salary is not enough for my share." The man said this calmly.

After saying that, he smiled and said to Huo Lin, "Old Chief, don't worry. I won't use the same tactics I used against the enemy on my own people. I will tell you everything you ask me."

Huo Lin was angry. Why didn't he ask others for help? Why didn't he ask the organization for help? Why did he take it all on his own?
But what's the point of saying this now?

Huo Lin agreed and sat on the chair. The atmosphere was a little frozen for a moment.

The visitor did not speak, but stayed with Huo Lin in silence, just drinking tea.

After the comrade from the public security department knocked on the door and came in, the man put down his teacup, stood up, stood straight, faced Huo Lin, and gave a standard salute.

After the ceremony, he turned around and walked to the police station, and stretched out his clenched fists...

(End of this chapter)