The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 543 Show off!!!

"Wow, Xu Damao, your car is not cheap, right?" Sha Zhu ignored Xu Damao and looked around the brand new Crown 122, touching it from time to time.

Liu Guangfu smiled and said to Sha Zhu: "Brother He, this car is imported from Japan, it costs more than 700,000 yuan."

When Sha Zhu heard this, he was stunned: "What? A car worth 700,000? Wow, it's more valuable than my restaurant!"

At this moment, Xu Damao finally got his wish and showed off. He was secretly proud of himself, but pretended to be nonchalant on his face and said, "It's nothing, just normal!"

At this moment, Qin Huairu, Liu Lan and other acquaintances came out to watch the fun.

"Wow! Xu Damao, you are so awesome now!" Qin Huairu was stunned.

Liu Lan also said: "The cars of the leaders of the Red Star Factory are probably not as high-end as this one!"

"Of course not, my brother Xu is the best in the south!" Liu Guangfu gave a thumbs up and praised.

Xu Damao acted like a big boss, leisurely lit a cigar, and said to Sha Zhu: "Zhu Zi, want one?"

It's not that Sha Zhu has never seen the world. He knows about cigars, but he has never tried them.

“Then have one…” Sha Zhu took the cigar and just after taking a puff, he choked and started coughing: “Cough cough cough… This is too strong…”

Seeing this, Xu Damao burst into laughter: "Hahaha..."

The prank was successful!

Xu Damao looked rich and powerful, and said to Zhuzi, "Zhuzi, please reserve the two largest private rooms for me tonight. I want to invite everyone in our courtyard to have a gathering.

He felt that if he didn't return to his hometown to show off his wealth, it would be like walking in the night in fine clothes.

"Okay, since your boss Xu wants to treat us, I will serve us the best dishes and the best wine!" Sha Zhu was determined to make him bleed hard to curb his love of showing off, so he immediately said that he would serve him the best dishes and the best wine.

Xu Damao has made a fortune in the past two years and his net worth has reached tens of millions, but other people don't know it, and he really doesn't care about this little money.

Nanluoguxiang Siheyuan.

There are not many old neighbors living in this courtyard nowadays.

There is also a deaf old lady in the backyard, Liu Zhonghai and his wife, and Xu Damao's family moved out two years ago and lived in Dahose.

In the middle courtyard, there are still the three families, Sha Zhu, Yi Zhonghai and their spouses, and the Jia family's three daughters.

In the front yard, only Yan Bugui and his wife are left. Liu Zhiye's east wing is still preserved, and the Liu family will occasionally come back to stay for a while.

The Ge family lives in the east courtyard.

The west wing is now occupied by Yan Jiefang, while the houses in the back wing all belong to Liu Guangtian.

The rest of the old neighbors either moved to other places or sold their houses and moved to other places.

Since moving out of Yard No. 95, Lou Xiao'e has completely returned to the life of a wealthy lady and wife.

In order to kill time, she enrolled in a tea art class to learn the tea ceremony, and dressed up with jewels every day.

He Qiu was successfully admitted to high school, and Xu Damao intended to send him to study abroad so that he could broaden his horizons.

The deaf old lady didn't have many days left. She lived to a very old age and had no children. She was completely taken care of by her neighbors, but she was already content with this.

After Liu Haizhong retired, he completely gave up his unrealistic ideas and spent his days eating and drinking.

Among his three sons, the eldest was not around, but the two sons who were disliked by him since childhood became his support.

Hey, these two guys are doing pretty well. One is the deputy director of the workshop at the Red Star Factory, and the other one is following Xu Damao to make a living. Their annual income is nearly 100,000, which is a huge sum of money in those days.

Apart from Xu Damao's family, the family that has changed the most is Sha Zhu's family.

After several years of development, Shazhu has become a well-known brand in Dongcheng.

His wife Wang Qiuju is a leading cadre in the bureau, and his son He Qiu has joined the army.

Yi Zhonghai's family is still the same. His son Yi Yuanchao is filial. Both he and his wife are soldiers. Now that they have a child, they are responsible for taking care of the child.

The old Jia family also quieted down.

Ever since that ungrateful little bastard Bang Geng went to his daughter-in-law's house, both the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law have been completely disappointed.

Xiaodang has been married for several years. She and her partner settled in Liujiazhuang. She is better off than her brother and often comes back to visit.

Only Huaihua is still around. Now she graduated from a technical secondary school and works as a clerk in a state-owned enterprise.

Awesome!

Let’s not talk about the jokes!

Just pretend he doesn't exist!!!

The old Yan family in the front yard should be the most stable family in No. 95 Courtyard in recent years.
His family members are either civil servants or teachers, so they are neither better than others nor worse than others.

The difference is that Old Yan's family has more children. When school is over, the whole yard is full of Old Yan's children running around.

Yan Bugui has retired completely. Apart from taking care of his grandchildren, he spends his days either fishing or walking his birds.

Liu Zhiye sometimes feels that this is the real life of a big shot in Yanjing.

Nowadays, there are many old people playing with birds on the streets of Yanjing. In parks, alleys, roadsides, and under the shade of big trees, you can often see three or five old men carrying bird cages, shaking them in their hands, and strolling around in the early morning. People in Beijing call them bird-walking uncles.

The bird-walker usually gets up very early and goes out before the first bus.

Walking the birds is also called "bird meeting". As the name suggests, it means that the birds have a meeting and learn a few tricks from each other, which is called "yakou".

There is an old saying in Yanjing: "Raising and walking birds, you are walking the birds, but you are exercising the people."

Birds are hanging on the trees and singing to each other, while bird walkers are playing cards and chatting under the trees, everyone is having a great time.

Raising birds, or playing with birds, has been a popular trend since the Tang Dynasty, but it really reached its heyday during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.

By the time of the Qing Dynasty, the Manchus had entered the country for a long time, the world was peaceful, and life was rich and comfortable. From the royal family to the Eight Banners, everyone had more leisure time and hobbies, and raising birds was one of them.

The bird-walker makes a cloth cover according to the size of the birdcage, which comes in white and blue.

The blue ones are mostly big birds, mainly thrushes and larks; the white ones are mostly small birds, mainly redbirds and yellowbirds.

When walking birds, most people follow the principle of "birds of a feather flock together". Those who raise thrushes stay together, those who raise larks stay together, and those who raise redbirds stay together. They all chat about this and it becomes a common practice.

People can chat freely, but the bird cages are hung neatly and never cross the line.

There are many rules for bird-walking, such as "walk the redbird for the gentle one, and walk the thrush for the martial one", "walk the thrush all over the street, and never let go of the lark".

When walking a red bird, you have to take three steps at a time, very slowly; when walking a thrush, you have to hold your head high, chest out, and swing your arms, and make the birdcage swing like a pendulum.

Liu Zhiye remembered that when he was a child, his sister Liu Zhiruo also raised a bird, but that bird was not so precious, it had no cage and was not taken for a walk.

At that time, his home was not in Nanluoguxiang. One summer day, Liu Zhiye went up to the roof of a house to rob bird nests and found a nest of sparrows for his sister.

The sparrow is very small and has no feathers yet. It feels soft and plump in your hand.

His father Liu Jingzhai also found a cardboard box and put some cotton in it to make its nest.

Every day, Liu Zhiruo would use his hands to roll whatever food he wanted into worm-sized rolls and feed it to the dog.

Later, three of them died for unknown reasons, and Liu Zhiruo cried so sadly.

When one of them was almost able to fly, Liu Jingzhai put it far away and lured it with food, and it would flap its wings and jump over to eat.

Later, when feeding, Liu Jingzhai would throw it onto the roof or a tree, and it would come back when he called it, making the three brothers Liu Zhiye very happy.

The bird's wings had grown hard. One morning, Liu Zhiye got up, opened the door and threw it onto the jujube tree in the yard. In the blink of an eye, the bird flew away.

Liu Zhiruo was so anxious that he cried.

In the evening, a family was having dinner in the yard when suddenly they heard a sparrow chirping above their heads.

All sparrows look the same. Liu Jingzhai tried to call out with his hand, and the bird flew directly into his hand. The whole family was delighted and began to believe that sparrows also understand human nature.

Later, it flew out to play every morning and flew back home to eat and sleep at night.

This went on for half a year and added a lot of fun to the family.

Finally one day it flew away and never came back. Every evening Liu Zhiruo would look for it around the jujube tree with his head raised, chirping with his lips pursed out until his lips were sore, but he still didn't see it.

Liu Jingzhai said that it might have given birth to a bird, but Liu Zhiruo was more worried that the bird would be eaten by a cat.

In the blink of an eye, nearly forty years have passed. Every time the brothers and sisters get together, they always reminisce about their childhood.

At that time, they had nothing but the laughter of the whole family.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Liu family finally reunited.

Liu Zhiye returned from the grassroots, and Liu Zhiruo and her husband Li Shengli also returned to her parents' home with their two children.

"Aunt!" When Liu Shuxian saw her aunt Liu Zhiruo, whom she hadn't seen for two years, her eyes became red and tears were about to burst out.

"You're a grown-up girl who's about to get married, why are you still crying?" Liu Zhiruo said it lightly, but she had been away from home for more than two years and had not returned to Beijing. She missed her family very much.

"I haven't seen you for more than two years. How dare you say that to me..."

"Okay, okay, aunt, I was wrong. Look, this is the local specialty I brought you..." After Li Shengli had established himself in a certain place, Liu Zhiruo's job was also transferred.

Liu Zhiye looked at this scene and rolled his eyes at Li Shengli, "Why are you still standing there? Come and sit down!"

"Hey!" Li Shengli, who is the top leader of a certain place, was still a little scared when facing his brother-in-law. "Brother, what kind of tea do you want to drink?"

Liu Zhiye sat there carelessly, pursed his lips, "Drink that pack, you're in for a treat today, this is Da Hong Pao, be economical, I don't have much here..."

Li Shengli's eyes lit up, "Brother, could it be that this is from the mother tree?"

Liu Zhiye nodded and said with some distress: "What do you think? Hey, I say, stop it, kid, leave some for me, don't spend it all at once."

"Got it!"

Liu Zhiye glanced at his brother-in-law Li Shengli and asked, "How do you feel about working in the local area? Are there any difficulties?" He really cared about his brother-in-law. At the age of forty, he had a promising future.

Li Shengli handed his brother-in-law a cigarette and continued, "Now everything is sorted out. Our area is an old industrial city, and the situation has changed a lot in the past few years..."

Liu Zhiye nodded. The power of reform and opening up gradually affected all aspects of society.

Let’s not talk about far away places, let’s just talk about the old city of Yanjing.

Although the city of Yanjing at that time was still within the Second Ring Road and there were no Third or Fourth Ring Roads, most people lived in courtyard houses and alleys.

The existence of hutongs has become a symbol of life in old Yanjing. From Dongsi No. 13 to Dongsi No. , there are hutongs distributed in Dongcheng.

The social atmosphere is obviously different.

The children are also much happier than before. There are trams and buses right outside their homes, and they always rush to the canteen after school.

Big bubble gum, small bags of instant noodles, and before every semester I would go to Tianyi Market and Hongqiao Market to buy book covers and stationery!
"80-inch iron donkey", bird cages, small stools, brick walls covered with neighborhood committee notices, warnings, propaganda slogans and small advertisements, this was the urban life of old Yanjing in the s.

Video halls, industrial exhibition halls, watch shops, trust companies, Meifa Film House, Peace Theater, and street posters everywhere.
There are stalls everywhere on the roadside.

There was a clothes stall not far away, with two huge billboards erected above the stall.

The above content is the promotional posters of the movies "Family Trivia" and "Yellow Earth".

On the street, there was a young man squatting at a magazine stall, waiting boredly for business to come.

The wall behind his stall is covered with all kinds of magazines and novels.

There are more snacks and drinks.

A wide variety of bottled drinks are displayed on the simple wooden stalls.

The prices were written on a small sign: 0.25 yuan a bottle of soda, 0.35 yuan for a Coke, and a bag of chopped apples for only 1 yuan.

The most popular one is the old brand "Arctic Ocean" soda.

Transparent glass bottle with yellowed cap.

The sweet taste in your mouth when you take the first sip becomes the collective memory mark of a generation.

Such stalls can be seen everywhere on the curb.

In the first few years, there were many idle young people at the entrances of the streets and alleys, ranging from teenagers to over 10 years old.

What they have in common is that they have no jobs, plenty of time and endless nonsense to talk about.

He was idle all day, squatting on the roadside at the entrance of the alley, smoking the lowest quality tobacco and talking about the mountains.

The government gave this group of people the name "unemployed youth."

The older ones are those who came back to the city after working in the countryside, and the younger ones are those who graduated from high school and couldn’t find a job.

The word "unemployed" sounds better than "unemployed". Unemployment seems very desperate, while unemployed is full of hope.

In fact, they are all the same.

It would be a blessing if I could get an apprenticeship or temporary job on the street after waiting for three to five years.

Although I can only earn fifteen or sixteen yuan a month, it is much better than eating idle meals at home.

And most people are still...waiting for the job they want.

Nowadays, more and more people are running their own businesses.

Many unemployed young people are no longer unemployed forever and have started their own businesses as middlemen.

The newspapers called these people self-employed individuals, and the people of Yanjing called them "traders".

Most of the so-called businesses are reselling. In the minds of many older people, they believe that doing business is the speculation that has always been cracked down on.

Nowadays, people's minds are not open enough.

Most people think that those who run their own business are helpless, and are bad people who take risks and evade taxes!
Opening a restaurant requires capital and hiring people. No one has the capital, can't pay the wages, and doesn't have the skills.

They are a lost generation.

Not to mention skills, historical knowledge all comes from storytelling, and geographical knowledge is all heard from the news. Everyone is similar and no one has any special skills.

So I can only do it with empty hands. Do you have the goods?
Do you want the goods?

All they do is make a profit from the price difference as an introduction fee, relying on their many friends and unconventional methods.

After making some money, he started to wear more strange clothes.

Needless to say, suits are the standard for successful businessmen.

But most young people still like bell-bottom pants and floral shirts, and bat-wing shirts were also popular among girls for a while.

Some people ride their bicycles with their arms outstretched, feeling like they can fly.

It seems so romantic, but if you look at it from the perspective of the future, it seems so tacky!
Just like Qin Hao in the movie "Qinghong",
A big side part, frog-eye glasses, a suit collar jacket, a yellow shirt with turned-out pointed collar, plaid flared pants, and pointed leather shoes are the most fashionable outfits these days.

If you hold a cigarette in your mouth and say "fuck you", "fuck you", and fight to the death,

If he can also do some disco dancing while shaking his hips to the beat of the dance, he will be able to capture the hearts of many girls.

As more and more people do business, many farmers' markets have sprung up in Yanjing.

It is called a farmers' market, but it not only sells radishes and vegetables, but also clothes, but the most famous one is Xidan.

The clothes here in Xidan are more fashionable and lead the fashion trend in Yanjing.

This year, the first KFC opened at the northeast corner of the intersection and it is always packed.

This KFC is a foreign company, and all the waiters are pretty girls from Yanjing.

The service attitude is full of the characteristics of Yanjing foreign companies. Two sentences can choke you to death.
"Please stop yelling. I know you are hungry, but don't I have to go to you one by one?

Don’t you have to queue up when you go to the cafeteria to eat?

I've been busy all afternoon and haven't eaten yet. I'm hungry. Who can I go to?
Did you see me yelling? What's going on? Do you have any objection?"

The waiter handed you a small book on the table and said, "Here is the complaint book. Write down everything you are dissatisfied with! Don't hold it in!"
You just finished writing your opinion, and she took it and tore it down with a swishing sound.
Once they put the money in their pockets and leave, no matter how much you call them, they will ignore you. You still have to wait.

Further north on the roadside is the Te Bie Te Shoes City, which was opened by Li Chengru, a friend of Yan Jiecheng's junior fellow student Ma Weidu.

This relationship is complicated!
Turning further north is Quanyechang, where there are hundreds of individual stalls selling clothing and snacks.

Nowadays, if you are a Yanjing resident and you say you have never visited the stalls in Quanyechang, then you must be from the suburbs or an outsider who has come from somewhere, and not a city dweller.

Most of the people setting up stalls here are locals from Yanjing.

In cities these days, household registration, food coupons and non-staple food books restricted population mobility, and there were very few outsiders in Yanjing City.

Therefore, many people in Yanjing run various street stall businesses, and some people do make a lot of money from it.

But after a few years when outsiders came, few people in Yanjing engaged in small business anymore.

There's nothing we can do. In this field, we old Yanjing people really can't beat outsiders.

Nowadays, bicycles, mechanical watches, sewing machines and radios have become symbols of ordinary people's homes.

Private cars were not yet popular, and my father’s bicycle was the carrier of happiness.

Buying a car worth hundreds of thousands of dollars like Xu Damao did would be explosive news.

Martial arts novels, cola drinks, bell-bottom pants and jeans became popular, and fashion was changing.

During this period, changes in Yanjing surged like a tide.

The appearance of the city is constantly changing, and some people have started using computers these days.

Although there was no Windows system at the time and the use of DOS system seemed a bit awkward, it marked the arrival of the technological era.

Liu Shucheng, one of the four great generals of the Liu family and the head of the "Liu Financial Investment Group", has already turned his attention to the fields of computer software and hardware and the Internet.

The Internet has been around since 1969, but it is still immature and has not yet been fully commercialized.

These few years have been a critical period for the birth of the global Internet.

At that time, the Internet was used by several universities to communicate for the convenience of scientific research, and supercomputers were used for communication.

It will be a few more years before the social destination Internet emerges.

Of course, there will be commercial destination ISPs.

There is no doubt that this is the trend of the future!

(End of this chapter)