Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 742 Chapter 741 Flying a Kite

It was a spring outing and the weather was hot, so in addition to apples, Tang Zhitong also wanted to bring some water.

There was only a portable kettle at home that was brought as a "dowry" by classmate Xiao Wang. With so many people, one kettle was obviously not enough.

When everyone was riding their bicycles home, Tang Zhitong found the salt water bottle that contained ketchup last year and planned to make do with it.

Tang Zhitong picked up the ladle next to the water tank and poured it into the water. Zhang Guifang scolded him, "What are you doing? You can't bring raw water when you go out to play. What if you get sick from drinking it?"

"Mom, it's okay. Our own water is clean and I drink it a lot." Tang Zhitong knew very well the quality of his own water. Kang Mazi had praised it before, and he probably drank it a lot.

"You kid, you don't listen to advice, and you're not afraid of making Wenwen get a stomachache." Zhang Guifang was a little unhappy to see that her son didn't listen to her.

"Mom, I think my sister-in-law is your biological daughter. We are like people picked up from the wild." Fengzhi said sourly.

"Go away, little kid, stop talking nonsense." Zhang Guifang was not angry. She smiled and slapped her daughter.

The atmosphere was joyful. Tang Zhitong packed two bottles, put them together with apples in his bag, and went out with his classmate Xiao Wang and his two sisters.

There were four people and three bicycles. Tang Zhitong was riding Fengzhi in front, while Xiao Wang and Fengzhen were following behind on bicycles.

Xiao Wang was carrying a water bottle, Tang Zhitong was carrying a shoulder bag, and Feng Zhi was holding a kite at the back.

It was explained before getting on the car that if the kite broke, there would be no fun today, so Fengzhi was very careful.

As his legs rose and fell, the crisp sound of two glass bottles colliding came from the bag, as if reminding Tang Zhitong: Hurry up and invent something to get us laid off!
Tang Zhitong listened to the noise and tried to keep his upper body straight to reduce the collision with the glass bottle.

Glass bottles are very practical nowadays, and many people use them as containers for water. In order to facilitate carrying and reduce bumps, many people sew a bottle cover with cloth or crochet with wool according to the shape of the glass bottle.

Having such a piece of equipment when you go out for fun is no less than having a durable Fu Guang in the 1990s.

In addition to the huge price difference between the glass bottle and the Fu Guang, there is another significant difference: the glass bottle will shatter when it free falls from the fourth floor, while the Fu Guang will bounce for you to see.

The group arrived at the north gate of the Temple of Heaven and stored their bicycles first.

Bicycles cannot enter the gate of the Temple of Heaven, but cars can. However, you have to buy a car entrance ticket, which is a bit like a parking fee.

Tang Zhitong went to buy a ticket. The price was a little beyond his expectation. It was fifty cents. Could it be that the ticket in the previous chapter was given to a friend at a 10% discount?

Fortunately, Fengzhi was not old enough and was given a free ticket.

The four of them spent one dollar and fifty cents and finally entered the gate of the Temple of Heaven.

Xiao Wang was a little surprised at the price. A kind-hearted person nearby gave him an answer: when the Temple of Heaven was first opened, a ticket was sold for three silver dollars, and the ticket price here has always been expensive.

It’s not cheap, and the young couple didn’t take it too seriously. They didn’t come here to ascend the throne like Yuan Datou, but they just came here to fly a kite.

The Temple of Heaven is large. Not long after entering the gate, Tang Zhitong saw vegetables planted in the fields nearby. They were sparsely planted, a bit like Tao Yuanming's style.

"The grass is lush but the bean sprouts are sparse." If this happened to an ordinary farmer, he would definitely be called a "lazy man." But Tao Yuanming was different. He had a family to support him, and what he cultivated was not the land, but the artistic conception.

If a drone were to take a bird's-eye view at this time, it would be discovered that the area with lush grass and sparse bean sprouts is not only at the north gate entrance. There is a large area in the southeast corner that has almost all been reclaimed as farmland.

Maybe it's because the Temple of Heaven is too big and there seem to be few tourists, or maybe there are just few tourists here, after all, the ticket price is expensive.

The crowd stopped when they reached the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. There were a few people flying kites here, but they all bought exquisite kites.

Compared with other people's kites, the "Swallow" made by Tang Zhitong and Xiao Wang through their collaborative efforts is a bit inferior.

Fortunately, Fengzhi did not compete with others and enthusiastically asked to fly first.

Tang Zhitong had no choice but to let her go. However, she did not master the technique to fly a kite. Even though Tang Zhitong supported her and let her run, the kite could not fly into the sky.

"Come, give it to me. I'll give it to you when the kite flies steadily." Seeing this, Tang Zhitong took over the control of the kite.

Tang Zhitong wound the kite string around to shorten it, held the string underneath the kite with one hand, put the kite in the right position, and then jogged against the wind, letting out the string as he ran.

The most difficult stage of flying a kite is when it takes off. Once it flies up, it becomes much more stable and you just need to pull the string from time to time.

Fengzhi impatiently took over the control of the kite, Fengzhen followed beside and watched over it, while Tang Zhitong took Xiao Wang and found a shade under a tree to sit down.

"I was careless. Next time I have to prepare a kite wheel. I'll ask the Science and Technology Commission if I can get a spinning wheel. I can use it to fly a kite." Tang Zhitong had just run and was sweating. He pulled his collar to fan himself, trying to cool down.

"Just use this. We only release it once a year. Maybe we won't want to release it next year." Subconsciously, Xiao Wang thought that asking for things from the government would cause trouble for them. What's more, what she wanted was a toy. She didn't support her husband's doing this from the bottom of her heart.

"This is too sloppy. Be careful not to hurt your hands when you fly it later." The kite was made, but Tang Zhitong did not prepare the kite wheel. He only discovered it when he went out to prepare the rope for the kite today. But it was too late to fix it now, so he could only make do with a screwdriver.

The sewing thread used to fly the kite is from the sewing machine. I bought a lot of it at the beginning and there was no shortage of it at home.

Insert the screwdriver into the sewing wheel and put the blade into the corn husk to make a simple kite wheel. It can be used, but not very convenient.

After hearing what her husband said, Xiao Wang covered her mouth and laughed, pointing at the kite flying in the sky and said, "You still hope that the kite doesn't fall down. If it falls down, we may not be able to fly it today."

"Pooh, pooh, at least you have to have a good time!" Tang Zhitong watched the kite swaying left and right under Feng Zhi's control. He patted his butt and stood up again. If he didn't step forward to take over, the kite would probably fall down in a while.

It would be fine if the kite was made of technological fabric. At most, the strings would be a little troublesome, but at least the kite would not break. But my kite is made of paper, so it would be ruined whether it fell to the ground or got hung on a branch.

Tang Zhitong arrived in time and the kite did not fall down. However, after it was stabilized and handed over to Fengzhi, it began to flutter again, as if the kite and Fengzhi were incompatible.

"Come, let your sister play for a while." After flying the kite under the scorching sun for a while, Tang Zhitong felt a little tired and handed the kite string to Feng Zhen.

Fengzhi had no objection to this. She was tired and sweating, so she turned around to look for Xiao Wang's seat and planned to go over to drink some water.

Before Fengzhi could take a step, a little boy on the steps of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests made a face at her: "Lelulelulel, your kite is so ugly."

Fengzhi looked at the little boy’s kite, then at her own kite, rolled up her sleeves and wanted to go up and “conquer people with virtue.”

Tang Zhitong also heard the boy's provocation. He glanced at Fengzhi who wanted to argue with him and said, "Fengzhi, don't fight. Just curse back."

This time, Fengzhi listened to her brother, looked at the little boy seriously, and commented sincerely: "No matter how ugly my kite is, it is not as ugly as yours." Just such a simple sentence made the little boy break down. If he hadn't had the kite string in his hand, he would probably have rushed over to give Fengzhi the opportunity to "win people over with virtue."

But Tang Zhitong didn't give him such an opportunity and shouted over there, "Hey, whose child is that? Watch him carefully, don't let him cause any trouble here."

The little boy was stunned by Tang Zhitong's confident voice. He held back his words and didn't dare to say anything, but his face showed obvious dissatisfaction.

Tang Zhitong didn't care whether he was convinced or not, and urged Fengzhi, "You are sweating all over, go find your sister-in-law to wipe it off and drink some water."

On the other hand, no one said anything to the little boy. The person accompanying him, either his grandmother or the nanny, glared at Tang Zhitong.

Tang Zhitong returned the gift in kind. The old man and the young boy were obviously from a wealthy family. They were dressed neatly and their little leather shoes were polished to a shine.

The matter ended there. The other party didn't say anything, and Tang Zhitong didn't speak again. Both sides were concerned about their own affairs.

After a while, Fengzhen handed the thread to Tang Zhitong and said that she would go back and call her sister-in-law to come and play for a while.

Classmate Xiao Wang did not come empty-handed, but brought a bottle of water. When he handed it to Tang Zhitong, Tang Zhitong's hand slipped and the bottle fell to the ground with a crisp cracking sound.

"Don't move, be careful not to scratch your feet." Tang Zhitong didn't care about the kite at this time. He bent down to see if Xiao Wang was injured. The kite swayed and fell down.

The little boy got excited again and started to make a noise: "Oh, the kite fell and the bottle broke."

Not only that, the old woman who accompanied him also took out an exquisite kettle and fed him water.

Tang Zhitong didn't believe that the old man and the young boy didn't do it on purpose.

Tang Zhitong ignored them, but did not intend to let them go. The kite was drawn by Xiao Wang himself. Not only did he say it was ugly, he also gloated over his misfortune.

Tang Zhitong came up with an idea and quietly said to Xiao Wang: "I'll pick up the glass, you go get the apples."

Student Xiao Wang smiled and understood what her husband meant.

Tang Zhitong put down the kite string and concentrated on picking up the broken glass. He picked up the big ones and held them in his hands, and used space to scoop up the small ones.

Nowadays, only a few people can afford leather shoes. Most people wear cloth shoes or even no shoes.

No one comes to the Temple of Heaven without shoes today, but May Day is coming soon, and many units and even communes will issue tickets to visit the park. If the management staff here do not clean up in time, it is possible that people's feet will be pierced.

Tang Zhitong threw the glass into the trash can. When he came back to collect the kite, Xiao Wang also came over with his two sisters-in-law.

The three of them were not empty-handed, they all held apples in their hands. Xiao Wang gave one apple to her husband, and the four of them started eating with big mouthfuls in front of the little boy.

Fengzhi not only ate, but also smacked her lips deliberately, while smacking her lips, she deliberately exclaimed: "So sweet! So delicious!"

Now it was the little boy's turn to be dumbfounded.

Apples are scarce in this season. Due to improved varieties and storage conditions, fruit companies would release small quantities for sale in previous years. But this year, there are basically no apples on the market because most of them are used to make applesauce.

At the moment, if there is one thing that is most tempting, it must be food. The scarcer something is, the more it can arouse people's desire.

The little boy stopped provoking and stopped flying the kite. He let go and turned to the old woman next to him, asking for an apple too.

The old woman obviously couldn't produce an apple, and was helpless. She looked in Tang Zhitong's direction several times with a complicated expression, five parts resentment, three parts hesitation, and two parts struggle.

In the end, the old woman put aside her pride, took the little boy's hand and came to Tang Zhitong, wanting to use the money to buy some apples.

"That's all. I just took these." Tang Zhitong shook his head. This naughty kid would not sell apples by himself even if he was given more money today.

"Then where did you buy it from?" The old woman was not giving up and planned to follow the wheel tracks to buy some for the little boy.

"Oh, that's not close. You know Deshengmen, right?" Tang Zhitong asked seriously.

"I know, I know, is there any for sale over there?"

"No. You just need to know Deshengmen. Listen carefully:
Starting from Deshengmen, cross Qinghe River and Shahe River and enter Changping County.

Go south to Kou Town, pass Qinglong Bridge and Kangzhuangzi, and arrive at Huailai County.

Along the way, we passed through Shacheng, Baoan, Xiahuayuan, Xuanhua, crossed Yuling, Zhangjiakou, and reached Chaigou, Xiwan, Tianzhen, Yanggao County, and continued northward to Julebao, Zhoushizhuang, and entered Datong.

"It's good to be in Datong. Datong is great. The apples in Datong are big, round and sweet. If you go there, you must buy more."

God knows whether there are apples in Datong, but this does not affect Tang Zhitong's deception. In other words, he cannot memorize the "Geographical Map", otherwise Tang Zhitong could make the old lady run further.

At this moment, Tang Zhitong hoped that the old lady would believe it.

"Are you making fun of me?" The old lady obviously didn't believe it.

"Hey, you old lady, you are unreasonable. I am telling you this with kindness, but why are you cursing at me? Believe it or not!" Seeing that she didn't believe him, Tang Zhitong didn't bother to pay attention to her. Fortunately, he didn't say more about this passage, otherwise it would have been a waste of saliva and he wouldn't have gotten the ticket.

The old woman was disappointed and dragged the little boy away cursing at her. Tang Zhitong then worked with Xiao Wang to reel in the kite string.

It is not easy to buy thread nowadays, so you can roll it up and continue to use it whether you continue flying a kite or putting it on a sewing machine.

The kite was rotten and there was a big hole on half of its wing, so it was obviously impossible to fly it.

Tang Zhitong felt very sorry about this: "I said I would take you out to fly a kite, but it broke after you had only pulled it a few times. Let's go back and make a new one and take you out another day."

"It's okay. I'm an adult now and I don't like flying kites anymore. I'm just happy to come out and play with you." Xiao Wang smiled sweetly. What mattered to her was not whether or not to fly a kite, but her husband's love for her.

Although Xiao Wang said so, Tang Zhitong still took the damaged kite in his hand. Even if he didn't fly it, he could repair it and hang it on the wall as a decoration.

We couldn't fly the kite, but the 50-cent ticket price per person was worth it. Fortunately, in addition to the woods and several buildings, the Temple of Heaven also has a children's playground.

Now that we are here, we must make this spring outing experience worthwhile.

(End of this chapter)