The booming era begins with the director of the Propaganda Department!

Chapter 356 There’s something fishy! !

Those present were all brothers who grew up together with Li Youbing.

Li Dabing is a talkative person. He even achieved a record of getting drunk and chatting with a pug on the side of the road for a whole night.

At this moment, I saw a few young people who I had seen grow up here. They walked around the eight-immortal table with their hands behind their backs.

"Uncle Li is back. Do you want to have a drink with us?" Zhang Shenfei understood what he meant and immediately greeted him. He looked at the food on the table and said, "It's just that we have eaten all the food now. How about you sit down first and I'll ask Fatty to go out and buy some more?"

As he said that, he motioned to the fat man to stand up. The fat man usually liked to argue with Zhang Shenfei, but he also listened to his orders and immediately stood up to go out.

"It's already past nine o'clock, don't go out to buy it." Li Dabing was waiting for this sentence, and immediately pulled a stool to sit down, "They are all my children. When you were young, I ate your half-eaten oil cakes. What's there to dislike?

Zhang Shenfei gave up the main seat and took a new cup to pour wine for Li Dabing: "Uncle Li, please sit over here. It's been a long time since we last met. Let's have a good chat."

Li Dabing looked at him with a smile and sat down obediently.

In the early years, whenever he had dinner with Zhang Shenfei and others, Zhang Shenfei always let him sit at the table.

Only ten years have passed.

Zhang Shenfei had grown from a young man who had just joined the steel mill as a propaganda officer to the deputy director of the steel mill and a student at Yenching University. His background was also a legitimate hired farmer, much higher than that of a small handicrafts owner like him.

He didn't expect that he could still keep his original intention at this moment.

"Uncle Li, come, let's have a drink." Seeing that he didn't have to run out, the fat man sat down happily again, raised his glass and toasted.

"Come on, come on, good children, we are all good children." Li Dabing clinked glasses with him, and the two cups made a crisp sound of porcelain colliding.

After drinking for a while, Wen Ruanruan left first because she wanted to coax her two children to sleep.

Zhou Yueling and Li Youbing had not yet married, and their home was curfew, so she said goodbye to everyone and left accompanied by Li Youbing.

Xian Lingling was going back to Dongjiaomin Lane, so she left early as well.

At last,
Only Zhang Shenfei and a few others were there, eating peanuts in small bites while listening to Li Dabing's old story about how Emperor Tongzhi and those left-wing officials and assistant officials ate their oil cakes.

He had no idea how many times he had said these words. Everyone's ears were callused from hearing them, and now he was even less interested.

Only Zhang Shenfei was moved, and took the opportunity to ask: "Uncle, you always talk about how those officials love to eat your fried cakes, and you always deliver them. Why don't the husbands in the palace like to eat fried cakes? Or do you have a principle that you don't give Li's fried cakes to people without a handle?"

Li Dabing raised his cup and sneered: "What a bullshit principle! We are open for business, it doesn't matter who we feed, as long as we pay, we are our customers!!!"

"Of course those eunuchs love to eat our fried dough cakes. Who said our fried dough cakes taste so good?
When you mention this, I remember that when I was a kid, in 1923, wasn't Puyi driven out of the Forbidden City? The people who drove him out also drove all the eunuchs out of the Forbidden City and sent them all to the Huguo Temple. "

"At the same time, there was a senior eunuch named Li who lived in Courtyard No. 2 of Luoquaner Hutong.

The eunuch had been living in the palace for so many years and had lived a very extravagant life. He lived in a nice courtyard and even had to tear it down and renovate it. He even built a pond in the courtyard and raised goldfish there that were as fat as piglets..."

"It's not uncommon to raise goldfish in the yard." Zhang Shenfei nodded and commented.

There are many literati and elegant people in the city of Sijiu, and even more who claim to be romantic figures. As long as conditions permit, many of these people will build ponds and raise fish. Zhang Shenfei has seen more than one or two of them.

Unexpectedly, Li Dabing shook his head when he heard his words: "Da Fei, you are still young and only know one side of the story.

There are some rules for building a pond in the yard, usually it is built about 1.5 meters wide and 2 meters deep. Firstly, this depth is enough, and secondly, it is safe.

But how extravagant was that old eunuch? ? His pond was more than five meters deep, and after it was dug, it had to be sprinkled with lime... I had never seen such a deep fish pond, and I was curious at the time and asked the Longji workers who were responsible for repairing the fish pond. "

"The person who led everyone to work was Long Ji's head, Long Lao San. He was tight-lipped and only said that the old eunuch had brought in rare koi from other places and that he had high requirements for water quality, so he processed it this way."

Speaking of which,

Li Dabing took a sip from the wine glass, and after feeling the hot wine rushing down his throat into his stomach, he sighed, "Isn't this just a lie to fool idiots? I was young and ignorant at that time, so I was fooled by him."

He was only eight years old at the time. What did a kid know? Now that I think about it, there must be something fishy going on.

At this point, thinking of the rumors in Sijiu City, Li Dabing lowered his voice and said, "Hey, have you heard about it? There is a rumor in Sijiu City that the old eunuch Li collected a large number of treasures from the Forbidden City, but their whereabouts are still unknown!!!"

Everyone understood Li Dabing's hint, but no one took it to heart.

There is no other reason,

This guy is just talking nonsense. His family sells oil cakes, but he likes to get close to emperors and officials and act pretentiously.

He once said that he knew about the treasure of Zuo Ling and the treasure of the Prime Minister, but in the end it turned out to be just nonsense.

But Li Dabing was the elder after all, so people couldn’t scold him in person, so they could only smile fakely.

The fat man winked at Siyan and thought that it was only because Li Youbing was not present. If he was, he would have to fight with his father and ask him to stop talking nonsense.

The two of them didn't take it seriously, only Zhang Shenfei asked in a serious tone: "But if there really is a treasure under the pond, why would your old eunuch's people be so careless and let you in?"

What kind of good person would allow others to watch while digging for treasure?? ! !
Not to mention that if the pancake sellers can enter the construction site at will, then the firewood sellers, water sellers, vegetable sellers, and meat sellers can also enter at will? ? ?

With so many people watching, there's no point in digging for a secret treasure trove. It might as well be better to just open the curtain like a street stall on a flyover and let everyone see it.

Seeing that everyone was not interested, Zhang Shenfei still asked this question, which clearly showed that he did not believe him. Li Dabing was immediately unhappy: "Wasn't I young at that time? They didn't take me seriously. The place was strictly controlled. There was a guard every three steps and a sentry every five steps. Others couldn't get in even if they wanted to.

The gatekeeper saw that I was a child, carrying a large basket filled with fried dough sticks and fried dough sticks, and only then did he let me in..."

At this point, as if to confirm his words, he added: "It was Long Da Niu, the daughter of Long Ji's third son, who was only five years old at the time. She was playing with stones beside the pond when they were repairing it.

I remember you were quite familiar with her son-in-law Wang Mantang, right? If you don't believe me, go ask your aunt. "

At that time, Tang Danniu saw him carrying a basket full of fried cakes and her mouth was drooling with greed. He couldn't bear it, so he tore off half of the fried cake and gave it to her.

"That girl Long ate my fried dough cake and boasted more than I did when we were playing together. She said her family made red-top decorations for the emperor and they had a lot of silver, all wrapped in cowhide... She also said it was called silver shell. She said that when Longji was at its peak, silver shells were piled up like a mountain and they used large yellow croakers as toys."

Silver shell? ? The fat man was immediately amused: "Uncle, you said before that the silver shell was a way for your Li family to save money. How come now you have heard it from others???"

"I told you, can selling oil cakes earn silver wrapped in cowhide?" Siyan also said, knowing that although Li Dabing liked to brag, he did not act like an elder.

Ah, this... Li Dabing's eyes suddenly flashed with embarrassment: "I was bragging before, but I heard about this silver shell from Long Da Niu. It's absolutely true!!"

"Uncle. You have been deceiving us for more than 20 years. Can we believe you if you say this again now?" Siyan'er still didn't believe him and said, "Have you heard the story of the boy who cried wolf? You have been deceiving us for more than 20 years. It's much more cruel than the boy who cried wolf." This... he has boasted too much and can't make up for it.

Fortunately, fortunately my future daughter-in-law has left by now and didn’t see him like this, Li Dabing thought to himself.

Seeing that Siyan and Fatty were squeezing Li Dabing, Zhang Shenfei remained silent.

Just now when he heard Li Dabing mention that Long Danniu was also present at the scene, he suddenly recalled the day when he was standing on the wall of the No. 2 courtyard of Luoquaner Hutong and looking into the courtyard.

Could it be that... there is something in that ordinary-looking pond???

It’s better to be safe than sorry!! If that doesn’t work, I still have to find a chance to go to Dengzhan Hutong to look for Wang Mantang and his wife.

Only after he had an idea in his mind did Zhang Shenfei have time to rescue the besieged Li Dabing.

Li Dabing got a chance to catch his breath and felt relieved. He escaped using the excuse of needing to pee.

As soon as he left, the three brothers continued drinking.

It has been a long time since I last got together with my brothers since food became scarce. Zhang Shenfei was happy today and drank a little too much.

After leaving Li Youbing's house and feeling the cool summer evening breeze, he planned to go to Qianmen to see Zhang Handong and talk to Chen Xueru about some serious matters.

He didn't ride a bicycle when he went out, but fortunately Juer Hutong is not far from Nanluoguxiang. He returned to the courtyard with a not very clear step, but did not go home. Instead, he rode his bicycle out again.

It was already past ten at night. In the past, there would be few people on the street. But the economy has been in a downturn in the past two years, and there are fewer factories hiring workers.

Those hutong dawdlers who had no jobs and were waiting for street assignments became impatient. They wandered around the streets for no reason, and social order became visibly disturbed.

It only takes a short while along the way.

Zhang Shenfei encountered four or five groups of alley urchins, but these people were just wandering around and didn't do anything out of the ordinary, so Zhang Shenfei pretended not to see anything.

When they were about to reach the intersection of Qianmen Street and Yunju Hutong, Zhang Shenfei saw three or four young men surrounding a girl and pulling her.

The girl had two pigtails and couldn't bear being entangled. She lowered her head and tried to run, but the young men surrounded her. How could she escape? ?
He stretched out his arms to stop her while still mumbling dirty words.

"Girl, don't run away. Let's talk."

"Why are you pretending to be serious? You're wandering around the streets in the middle of the night. I don't think you're a good person."

"Are you dating? Look at me, I'm pretty good looking. How about we get married tonight? Maybe you don't know this, but my thing is as delicious as a roasted sweet potato."

"Hey girl, have we met before? Why do I feel like I'm compatible with you the moment I see you? Come, hold your hand..."

The one with the biggest face tried to pull the girl while speaking.

The girl couldn't stand it anymore and slapped him on the fat face: "You, you two get out of here!!! You shameless bastard!!!"

"Fuck, you are tired of living, you dare to hit me!!!"

The fat pig covered his face in anger and raised his hand to fight back.

Zhang Shenfei was really fed up with this. Although he and Fatty had flirted with women many times when they were young, they would just pester them at most and never make dirty jokes, let alone resort to violence.

Zhang Shenfei really despises people like this who get angry and even hit women while talking.

Seeing that the slap was about to hit the girl in the face, Zhang Shen took the gait of a dragon and a tiger, stretched out his hand and grabbed the girl's wrist tightly, then pulled it back.

“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts…” The man’s fat face turned pale instantly.

"Damn it, where did this blind person come from? How dare he delay us from shooting a wife!!!"

"Why are you acting so high and mighty??? You're so big-mouthed!!"

"Ouch, what the hell..."

“My tailbone hurts so much!!!”

Seeing this, his accomplices wanted to step forward, but were kicked to the ground one by one by Zhang Shenfei.

A few people refused to admit defeat and stood up to attack.

But Zhang Shenfei didn't mind at all. He immediately taught them a lesson.

It was not enough to beat them, he took out some hemp ropes from the space and tied them up two by two, by their hands and feet.

Finally, clap your hands to end the battle.

The girl next to him came to her senses at this moment, and timidly stepped forward and asked, "Hello, are you Zhang Shenfei???"

Ouch, you know me? ?
Zhang Shenfei looked over curiously and sized up the girl. He felt that she looked familiar, but he couldn't quite remember where he had seen her before.

Seeing him nod, the girl's eyes suddenly flashed with surprise: "Brother Dafei, I'm Zhuier, don't you recognize me???"

Zhuier? Zhang Shenfei looked at it carefully again.

Isn't it? Isn't this Wang Mantang's second daughter Zhuier? She's very good at studying.

This girl has been living in the school dormitory since she was admitted to junior high school three years ago and has not been home for several years.

Girls really change a lot when they grow up. After three years, she has changed so much.

Seeing the girl's eager eyes, Zhang Shenfei slapped his head and said, "You have grown up so much in the past few years? I still remember when I went to your house to play a few years ago, I always saw you playing with chicken shit at the door...

As your brother, I couldn't bear to see you do that, so I told you not to play, but you still refused to obey. You kept crying and making a fuss..."

When seeing Zhuier, who was a dozen years younger than him, Zhang Shenfei acted like he was visiting relatives during the New Year in later generations, and only talked about things that the younger generation didn't want to hear.

"Hey, Brother Dafei, what are you talking about? I'm in high school now, why are you still talking about the past..." Zhuier felt a little embarrassed when his dark history was brought up.

(End of this chapter)