Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 750 Getting Beaten Up Every Few Days! The Chang Brothers' Confessions

Xu Ning had a detailed plan in mind. He was very experienced in doing business and his main strategy was to strike unexpectedly. He had long planned to open a car repair shop. Now, he had all the advantages in the world, so it would be difficult for him not to take off.

After asking a few questions, Yang Yusheng quickly understood Xu Ning's capabilities. Although Xu Ning was young, he was very decisive in his actions. As soon as the higher-ups revealed a little bit of information, Xu Ning quickly seized it. The others in the city had no time to react and were even less aware of Xu Ning's true intentions in opening the car repair shop. If someone in the city knew the importance of this car repair shop, would Xu Ning still have a chance?
To put it simply, there are quite a few people with strength and resources, and any one of them could crush Xu Ning to pieces. The reason Xu Ning is in such a hurry is because he is afraid of this.

However, with Yang Yusheng helping him out, his pressure will be much less, and he can just keep his head down and keep working.

February 12, 1985, the 2rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the Little New Year.

Xu Ning, Yang Yusheng, and Xu Long arrived home yesterday evening in a Jeep 212, while Li Fuqiang and Yang Shuhua had returned three days earlier, bringing back some supplies for the New Year.

Starting around 6 a.m., Liu Lizhen and the others got up, rubbed their faces, and began to busy themselves with steaming rice cakes, making offerings, wrapping dumplings, and so on. It wasn't until around 8 a.m., after everyone had finished breakfast, that they finally had a moment to rest.

Today, the Xu family didn't invite everyone to dinner. They only invited Ma Liu and his wife, Da Laba. People like Yang Jun and Sun Cuiping went to Li Feng's house for the holiday. Their family has seven people in total.

For example, Guan Lei, Sun Lianfang, and Meng Quezi, a family of three, would definitely spend the festival at Lao Xu's house, because they were related and not outsiders.

On the eve of the Lunar New Year, everyone eats a reunion dinner. They busily look for work to do, chatting as they work, each gathering at their own stall, enjoying a harmonious atmosphere.

Xu Laonian couldn't stand not having something to do, so after finishing his meal, he cut the chives he had planted in the second room on the west side. He then ran up to Liu Lizhen, as if to boast, and said, "Zhen, look how tender these chives are! We'll make some chive and egg soup for lunch..."

Liu Lizhen frowned and said, "I was thinking of saving these chives to make dumplings for the New Year. Why did you have to cut them for me like that?"

Xu Laonian was stunned for a moment and said, "Oh Mom, I don't know either. I was thinking of eating it today."

"Get lost! You're useless at everything and only make things worse! Why don't you pick the chives and make some chive dumplings for dinner?"

Liu Lizhen didn't scold him today because it was a holiday. Xu Laonian knew he had done something wrong, so he squatted down where Liu Lizhen could see him and picked chives, which amused a group of old women who covered their mouths and chuckled.

Xu Ning, Wang Hu, Guan Lei, Li Fuqiang, and others sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) in the west room, happily shelling peanuts and picking soybeans. With the end of the year approaching, there wasn't much for them to do; they spent their days figuring out what to eat and how to eat it...

It was close to noon, around 11 o'clock.

Xu Feng and Li Jinyu staggered back home, took out a handful of popcorn from their pockets, and were about to stuff it into Xu Ning's mouth.

"Hey, second brother, popcorn, it's delicious!"

"I won't eat anything you've touched. Look at you, a grown woman, why are your hands all black and grimy? Did you go digging in the stove?"

Xu Feng rolled her eyes in annoyance and said, "Why do you always complain about me? Aren't I your real little sister?"

Where did you get the popcorn?

"A traveling merchant came to the front street, set up a pot on the road near the village, and went from house to house carrying corn to be chopped."

Xu Ning took out 5 yuan from his pocket and said, "Take this money and go scoop some corn kernels from the second vat this afternoon. You can also cook a couple of pots."

"Alright, thanks, Second Brother! Hehe, let's go, Jinyu..."

Xu Feng happily accepted the money and strode out the door. Xu Ning stared at her back and said, "This little girl is quite cunning."

Li Fuqiang said, "No matter how much she has, she's still our Xu family's aunt. We can't let her suffer a loss no matter where we go."

The loudspeaker said, "Hey bro, it's almost Chinese New Year, shouldn't I give Lao Jin something?"

"You don't need to bring anything. Biao has already taken care of everything for the two of them. The three of them together bought Lao Jin two bottles of Wuliangye liquor, a pack of Yingchun cigarettes, and two boxes of face cream for Lao Jin's wife. That's all."

"Ah, Biao has really grown up now, he's become quite capable."

Wang Hu curled his lip: "He's just copying what he sees. He sees my second brother doing it this way, so he does it too."

"Hahaha……"

Xu Ning brought 20,000 yuan with him when he went to the city, but when he returned home, he only had 4,000 yuan left. In just three or four days, he had spent 16,000 yuan!

Where did the money go? It's self-evident.

When Xu Feng returned, she and Li Jinyu carried two sacks of popcorn, laughing as they shared it with her brother, sister-in-law, uncle, and aunt. She had also borrowed money from Xu Ning to give back to him.

"Second brother, I've heard something!"

Xu Feng sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) making a big fuss, popping popcorn one after another, and said, "I heard that Gao Yanhong and Zhang Yan are back..."

"They're back? What's going on?" Lou Ba's heart skipped a beat. His information was outdated, which made him feel a sense of urgency, so he looked at Xu Feng and hurriedly asked.

"Just last night, Gao Yanhong and Zhang Yan brought back several of their brothers from their maternal family. They pinned the Chang brothers down on the kang (a heated brick bed) and beat them up. I heard the kang was covered in blood. Oh my god, it was terrifying!"

The loudspeaker trembled as it exclaimed, "What happened last night? That can't be!"

"Why not? They left right after the beating! The Chang brothers are still lying on the kang pretending to be dead. I didn't understand the specifics, but I heard from others that the Chang brothers went to see Gao Yanhong and Zhang Yan a few days ago, thinking of bringing their wives and children back. It's almost Chinese New Year, and if their wives and children stay at their parents' house, wouldn't that make them a laughing stock?"

The loudspeaker clapped his hands and said, "My goodness, are these two brothers afraid of being laughed at? The things they've done have already made them a laughing stock."

"Absolutely!" Xu Feng nodded in deep agreement.

Xu Ning, Wang Hu, and the others sat quietly to the side, not intending to interrupt, because the loudspeaker had already asked all the questions they wanted to ask.

"The Chang brothers must have had a fight with the bride's family when they went to pick up their wives and children. Last night, Grandpa Yu heard the commotion. One of the men was yelling and cursing Chang Xifeng for being nothing. He was supposed to be picking up his wife, but he took his anger out on the children!"

The loudspeaker stared wide-eyed and said, "The Chang brothers went to pick up their wives, but the wives wouldn't go with them. So they asked their child to come along, but the child also refused to go with them, so they beat the child?"

"Pretty much! Brother, your guess is quite reasonable; I didn't even think of that."

Upon hearing this, Xu Ning waved his hand and said, "Go away, stop babbling on. You haven't even fully understood the situation before coming back to relay the message. You haven't even figured this out yourself."

Xu Feng said, "Nobody else understands either. If I did, would I need to come back and speculate? Second brother, how can the Chang brothers still have the face to stay in the village? The village can't tolerate them. They were even kicked out of their father-in-law's house. They're disliked wherever they go..."

"Don't worry about it, hurry up and go outside to get the plates. Has your brother Biao come back yet? Let them go downstairs to get the table."

Xu Feng clapped her hands: "Alright!"

Immediately afterwards, she and Li Jinyu left the house.

Li Fuqiang frowned and said, "The Chang brothers are really nearing the end of their lives; they're annoying people wherever they go."

"The more you mess things up, the worse you become."

Guan Lei rubbed his chin and said, "Brother, we'd better be careful."

Xu Ning laughed and said, "Afraid they'll do something desperate? Don't worry, they don't have the guts."

They certainly didn't have the guts. What were the Chang brothers doing right now? Lying on the kang (a heated brick bed), grimacing and chatting.

The cause of the incident was exactly as the loudspeaker had predicted: the two men went to pick up their wives and incidentally aborted their child, which is why Gao Yanhong and Zhang Yan were angry and brought their brothers back that night to beat the two men so badly they couldn't get out of bed.

Chang Beifeng, puffing on his cigarette, said, "Brother, I didn't kill them back then. If I had, they definitely wouldn't have escaped!"

"Stop bragging! We beat you so badly you were crawling under the covers, and you didn't even dare fight back. Now you're trying to act all high and mighty with me." "But you didn't fight back either, did you?"

Chang Xifeng turned and glared at him, saying, "Don't you want to live a peaceful life anymore? If you fight back, how can you expect to live a peaceful life? Tomorrow, we'll go and admit our mistakes and make them calm down. Otherwise, where will we go in the future?"

Chang Beifeng pondered for a while and said, "What you said makes sense. We'll just stay here and refuse to leave no matter how much we try to get us out of the house."

"Well, let's bear with it, otherwise we won't know where to eat during the New Year... North Wind, I've been thinking about it these past few days, and I feel that the things we did in the past were really messed up."

Chang Beifeng was taken aback and asked, "Why are you regretting it?"

“I don’t regret it, but the villagers don’t accept us anymore. Your sister-in-law and Yan’er are too ashamed to bring the child back. Let’s go to Daqingshan after the New Year.”

Chang Beifeng frowned and asked, "What are you going to Daqingshan for? To hunt livestock?"

"Why bother hunting livestock? There's a forest farm over there too, and nobody knows us. Let's sell this house and go develop our business in Daqingshan."

"Oh my god, this is really difficult. We still have land in Qing'an, but there's nothing in Daqingshan..."

Chang Xifeng said, "Are you stupid? Look what Lao Jiang and Da Laba are doing now, selling livestock meat! Although we don't have farmland in Daqingshan, we have a skill. We can kill the livestock and sell them. How can we not make money? How much can you earn by farming for a year? Killing a black bear is equivalent to four or five years' salary for a forestry worker!"

"That makes sense, but what about the children's schooling?"

Chang Xifeng pondered for a moment and said, "Let's go find Lao Du and ask him to give us a letter of introduction and a certificate from the school. That will get the child's transfer halfway done."

"What about the other half?"

"The other half is whether the Daqingshan Forestry Farm School can accept it. Let's spend some money and give some gifts. If we continue to do things like we used to, hogging everything, we won't be able to get ahead in the future."

"I'll listen to you... Big brother, I've done pretty bad things all these years, and I really regret it..."

The two brothers repented in the room for almost half an hour, and then Chang Xifeng suddenly said, "It's almost lunchtime, where are we going to get something to eat?"

Chang Beifeng chimed in, "Let's go to Wang Changhai's house and mooch another meal!"

"Let's go, I'm starving."

Chang Xifeng quickly got up, put on his shoes, and turned around to ask, "Do you still have any money in your pocket?"

"You only have six or seven dollars left, right? You're out of money?"

Chang Xifeng nodded: "Your sister-in-law didn't leave me any money. Go check the clothes in the closet; there should still be some left."

The two brothers rummaged through the house and eventually found more than 30 yuan. They then washed their faces, put on their clothes, and went out.

Fortunately, it was a holiday and there weren't many people on the streets, otherwise the Chang brothers would have had to waste some more breath.

They rushed to Wang Changhai's house, where three or four people were gathered, chewing peanuts and drinking sorghum liquor on the kang (a heated brick bed).

"Hey my god, what are you two doing here? What happened to your faces? Didn't the bruises from last time heal?"

Wang Changhai deliberately brought up a sore spot, making Chang Beifeng a little exasperated. Chang Xifeng waved his hand and said, "Xiao Shang, you guys are drinking."

"Oh, you two want some drinks too?"

"Want some drinks? Why is nobody coming over to play?"

Wang Changhai went to the outer room to get bowls and chopsticks, then turned around and said, "They all have families. Who doesn't spend the holidays at home? Only a few of us don't have families... Come sit on the kang (heated brick bed)."

Apart from Wang Changhai, the other four people on the kang (heated brick bed) also looked down on the Chang brothers, so they didn't say a word.

The Chang brothers have a great advantage in that they are thick-skinned; they can endure any kind of environment.

"Any plans after you finish drinking today?" Chang Beifeng asked.

"Probably not. They went back to sleep after they finished drinking. You two want to play?"

Chang Xifeng remained silent, while Chang Beifeng laughed and said, "Anyway, it's not very interesting, let's play for a while."

Wang Changhai sighed and said, "Then I still have to gather people, especially during this big holiday..."

At this moment, one of the people drinking on the kang (a heated brick bed) said, "I heard that Lao Guo from Beitun is organizing a gathering today. Why don't you guys go to Beitun to have some fun?"

Wang Changhai waved his hand: "It's too far, I don't like to move."

Chang Xifeng was intrigued and asked, "Who went to the gathering that Lao Guo organized?"

"How could I know that?"

Chang Beifeng said, "Old Wang, shall we three go take a look? If we get there, we won't even play, we'll just be left to peek at each other's work."

"There's no point in going under someone's eyes, I'm not going. Don't go running around during the holidays."

"Hey, it's not fun for the two of us brothers, and it's no fun for you to stay at home by yourself! Once you win some money, I'll treat you to a meal at the butcher shop. Old Zhang's wife in Beitun is so nice, and Old Zhang even guards the gate for you."

Upon hearing this, Wang Changhai immediately became interested. He was a bachelor and sometimes felt restless.

"You're paying? I don't have spare money to play with."

"I'll treat you, you just need to play matchmaker for us."

"Okay, but I have to be back tonight."

"Why come back? It would be much better to just stay in Beitun."

"No, we really have to come back, otherwise this house will freeze to the bone, and some people are coming over to play tomorrow."

Several old bachelors drank in the house until after 2 a.m., then dressed neatly and went to Beitun.

At this moment, the Xu family had been feasting for half an hour, and the atmosphere was reaching its peak amidst laughter and chatter. Old Xu tapped his wine glass with his chopsticks and sang a little tune to the rhythm.

"At the first watch, the moon shines over the flower-covered wall, and I, your humble servant, am filled with sorrow..."

After Xu Laonian made a complete fool of himself, the people in the room didn't laugh at him. Instead, they clapped enthusiastically and praised him for singing well.

Xu Feng interjected, "My dad's peak performance was always when he was having sex with Diao Chan at night! Oh my god, I'll never forget that blood-covered face..."

"Hahaha..." Upon hearing this, everyone grinned and couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Old Xu curled his lip and said, "Your dad is always at his peak, you know? This little thing will be a famous story passed down by word of mouth when my grandson is born!"

"Absolutely, brother. With your magnanimity, you truly deserve to be my brother."

With his eyes glazed over, Old Xu said, "Your older brother will always be your older brother, remember that!"

(End of this chapter)