Back to 1978

Chapter 112 Must be passive
When taking a shower in a public bathroom, Xie Hushan rubbed almost half of the soap on his body.

When he returned to the room, Zhu Youjun was already dressed neatly and had just returned from the women's bathroom. She was standing in front of the window wiping her wet long hair with a towel.

Xie Hushan walked over, took the towel from Zhu Youjun's hand naturally, and wiped her hair.

Zhu Youjun was frightened by Xie Hushan's action, and stood still as if he had been acupunctured.

Xie Hushan looked out the window at the gradually darkening sky and said to Zhu Youjun:
"Come with me to the cafeteria to eat later. Act like you don't know me well. I will finish eating first and go back to my room. You should eat slowly. If someone talks to you after I leave, no matter if they are male or female, no matter how friendly they are to you, remember, just say that you and I are just comrades who were escorted from the same place. There are no other rooms, so we have no choice but to live together. You are also an escort and a food delivery person."

"If someone tells you that if you spend some money, he's willing to take you away, you should pretend to be moved, then stand up and say you'll think about it, then go back to your room. Han Lao Er and I will be waiting for you in the room."

When Zhu Youjun heard what Xie Hushan said, he raised his head and looked at Xie Hushan:
"Aren't we going to Hong Kong Island?"

"Yes, isn't it more convenient for us to be deceived and abducted by those criminals than to find the way slowly by ourselves?" Xie Hushan said righteously.

Zhu Youjun was a little shocked, and let Xie Hushan grab the towel with both hands and rub his head: "Ah?"

"Don't be afraid. I know how to get rid of a donkey after it has done its work. I won't do it in the mainland. I'll do some ideological work on these human traffickers after we get over there. I'll see their attitude and then decide whether they should turn over a new leaf or start a new life." Xie Hushan threw the towel back into the basin and said:
"As a militiaman defending our country, if you find bad people among the people, you can't just stand by and watch. You must remember to act bravely and eliminate harm for the people. Just remember to do what I say."

Zhu Youjun nodded, Xie Hushan pushed her body aside, and stood in front of the window to light a cigarette:
"Next time, don't open the window to dry your hair. My wife told me when I left, saying that if your hair isn't dry, it's easy to get a headache if you get exposed to the wind."

After a while, Han Hongbing pushed open the door and told Xie Hushan that they had all gone to the cafeteria to finish their meal.

Xie Hushan nodded and signaled Han Hongbing to leave. Then he said to Zhu Youjun, "Let's go to the cafeteria to eat."

"What does it mean to be not very familiar with you?" Zhu Youjun pursed his lips and asked Xie Hushan softly.

"You and I are very familiar with each other, otherwise we wouldn't be familiar with each other!" Xie Hushan patted Zhu Youjun's face:
"Don't play these little tricks. Your sister's gentleness is real and her eyes can't hide it, but deep down, you are not a gentle and virtuous woman. So don't pretend to be pitiful. Even if you beg me to have a fight now, I can't stay in capitalist Hong Kong Island. I stand firm. This time I went to Hong Kong Island purely to get some capitalist wool for our commune. Hurry up and leave. The canteen will close soon!"

Zhu Youjun's ambiguous thoughts were shattered by Xie Hushan's words. He glared at Xie Hushan with a tense face, but finally couldn't help but said, "How do you know my sister is gentle..."

"Look, even your own sister has to compare you. Am I right in judging you? How should I know? While your mother and you were crying, I was sleeping with your sister in the car! How could I know? It must have been your sister who told me, so silly." Xie Hushan smiled at Zhu Youjun with disdain and walked out of the room first.

As soon as he walked out of the room, Xie Hushan showed Zhu Youjun the cordiality and courtesy of a revolutionary comrade, neither too close nor too distant. It was as if he was trying to find a topic to talk about between colleagues when there was nothing else to talk about. He actually chatted with Zhu Youjun about the reservoir project without understanding the situation, and enthusiastically told Zhu Youjun about what happened to a group of men working at the reservoir while they walked.

This made Zhu Youjun confused. She didn't understand how this guy could be chatting with her about his sister with a smile on his face one second, and then speak in a gentle and polite tone the next second as he stepped out of the door. This made her look a little confused. It seemed as if Xie Hushan was not familiar with her, which made her feel a little strange.

Because of Xie Hushan's deliberate delay, when they arrived at the canteen of the guesthouse, the peak period had passed and there were not many people buying meals and eating, only about ten or twenty people.

To eat here, you only need to show the meal ticket you purchased separately when checking in at the guesthouse. You don’t need the national food coupons, and the food prices are not high.

After all, the food is mainly aimed at militia escorts who come from afar, so the main dishes are large in quantity, uniform in taste and monotonous in menu.

The staple foods are only rice, steamed buns, and noodles, four hot dishes, two stews and two stir-fried dishes, one meat and one vegetable.

As for drinks, there are only soda and beer produced locally in Pengcheng, which are uniformly priced at 35 cents a bottle. If you return the bottle after drinking it, the customer can get a refund of 15 cents as a bottle return fee.

Xie Hushan bought four steamed buns and a meat dish, and ate them ravenously, occasionally speaking to Zhu Youjun. He quickly finished his food, while Zhu Youjun ate more slowly, with most of the food still left in his bowl. Xie Hushan stood up and said loudly:
"Take your time eating. I'm going to go back and play cards with them."

After saying that, without waiting for Zhu Youjun's response, he walked towards the room anxiously.

Less than two minutes after Xie Hushan returned to the room, Han Hongbing walked in from outside, opened a glass of white wine, and sat on a stool with Xie Hushan to drink, eat broad beans, and chat.

About ten minutes later, Zhu Youjun pushed the door open and walked in. He closed the door first, then looked at Xie Hushan and wanted to speak.

Xie Hushan shook his head at her, made a hushing gesture, waved at her, motioning her to come over, and then glanced at Han Hongbing again.

Han Hongbing, who had already received instructions from Xie Hushan, walked out of the room with a bottle of wine, stood at the door of the room, and cursed at Xie Hushan in the room, urging him:

"The ladies are back, why don't you go to my room to drink? How can a grown man be so pretentious? It's normal for a room to smell a little when there are so many people! Come on! Follow me to my room and continue drinking, so that the ladies can have a good rest! If you don't go, I will stand at the door and drink the whole bottle of wine you bought, and I won't leave a drop for you!"

He was outside the room, urging Xie Hushan to go drink with him, and he also served as an observation post for Xie Hushan. After making sure that there was no one in the nearby corridor, he winked at Xie Hushan, who motioned for Zhu Youjun to sit on the stool left by Han Hongbing:

"You can say it now."

Zhu Youjun whispered to Xie Hushan about his experience in the cafeteria:
"Just after you left for a while, a female comrade who said she was also an escort came over with food next to me, chatted with me and asked me where I came from. Then not long after we chatted, another woman came over and said a few words. Suddenly, she lowered her voice and asked me and the female comrade if we wanted to run away. If I gave her some money, she would take us there." "The female comrade wanted to run away, but she said she was timid and wanted me to go with her so that the two of us could take care of each other. She also said that she had relatives over there and it was so good over there. She also said that if I didn't have enough money, she would be willing to give me more money. I listened to you and said I would go back and think about it, then I got up and ran back."

She stared at Xie Hushan with her beautiful almond eyes and asked in surprise:
"How do you know everything? Before it happened, you told me everything as if you had seen it with your own eyes."

On the way back to his room from the cafeteria, Zhu Youjun thought of a question: why didn't he feel nervous at all when he heard someone taking him there? Instead, he wanted to laugh.

It was not until she opened the door and saw Xie Hushan that she realized that this guy gave her the confidence that made her not care whether what he said was true or not. He had already told her that he would help her arrange it.

Xie Hushan laughed and put a cigarette in his mouth:
"You are so beautiful. If I were a bad guy, I would also want to kidnap you. I specially asked you to take a good bath because I guessed that a bad guy would like you. You are valuable."

"Is she prettier than your wife?" Zhu Youjun picked up a match, struck it, and passed it to Xie Hushan to light it.

"You are far worse than her. My wife is a little thinner, has smaller breasts, yellower hair, and a smaller face... but my wife can whistle well!" Xie Hushan lit a cigarette and then told a bunch of truths. He felt that telling the truth would affect Taozi's image, so he had to describe Taozi's advantages to the outside world.

So he thought of a reason why he was most satisfied with Taozi, and boasted to Zhu Youjun:
"Most people can't brag as well as she does. It will definitely be useful to coax children in the future."

Seeing that Zhu Youjun still had an expression of disbelief, Xie Hushan persuaded him:

"Give up, you can't be better than her. She was raised by my grandmother. Even though she only has a second-grade education, her brain is more than enough to deal with a first-grade dropout like you."

Seeing that when Zhu Youjun heard him talking about peaches, this woman actually looked at him with relish as if she was listening to a story while peeling broad beans for him, Xie Hushan patted the table, picked up his wine glass and took a sip:
"Let's talk business. Why do female comrades like to listen to other people's gossip so much? Our most urgent task is to first clear up the matter of the fat sheep... no, the criminals forcing us to go to Hong Kong Island, and then talk about my wife."

"In a little while, there will definitely be someone selling foreign goods coming in to solicit our business. The foreign goods will not be brought into the room in large bags or small bags, but they will show samples. If you like any of them and want how much you want, you can go outside with him to get it."

"If I'm not mistaken, when the foreign goods vendor and I open the door and go out, the female comrade from the cafeteria who wants to go out with you will definitely pass by our door. She will be surprised to find that you live in this room and pretend to meet you by chance again."

"After she sees me walk out, she will come in and continue chatting with you and trying to persuade you."

Zhu Youjun looked at Xie Hushan intently: "Did you guess all this?"

"No matter how many times the bad guys change their tricks, they only have a few tricks. It's not difficult to guess. Besides, since the Spring Festival, Han Laoer and I have been collecting intelligence from other militiamen who have performed escort missions, and we have focused on analyzing and studying various possibilities." Xie Hushan said to Zhu Youjun:

"You don't have to worship me too much. The main reason is that there are too many idiots like your mother and you. Otherwise, why do you think the country is working hard to eliminate illiteracy?"

"I used to admire you, but after what you said about my mother and me, I no longer admire you." Zhu Youjun was not angry and said with a smile.

Xie Hushan continued:
"If you tell that woman that you haven't made up your mind yet, she will definitely persuade you to wait until the next day, and ask you to go with her now, or simply scare you, saying that she has already registered you and paid the money, and they have your name on the list, and if you don't go, you will be arrested."

"Then what should I say to her?" Zhu Youjun felt a little scared after hearing what Xie Hushan said. She didn't expect that the other party would use the trick of killing first and reporting later to scare her. She imagined that if Xie Hushan hadn't reminded her, she would probably panic and agree to run away with the other party.

Xie Hushan said:
"You said you would wait for me to come back and asked me to send a message to my family, telling them that I would be back a day late to buy some foreign goods. They would also understand and ask her to knock on the door again in two hours to look for you, and then you could go with her."

"Are you really going with her?"

"What are you thinking about? What's the name of the lesbian who said she wants to run with you? Is she pretty?"

"She said her name was Li Hongmei, and she was from Yangcheng in this province. She was very fair-skinned and had a pleasant scent on her body." Zhu Youjun recalled the woman who had chatted with him and said to Xie Hushan.

"Then I must go with her. She looks like a typical slut and a bad person who deserves to be punished." Xie Hushan's eyes lit up when he heard Zhu Youjun's evaluation of the woman:
"I will get rid of the foreign goods dealers as soon as I leave. When the female comrade leaves your room, Han Lao Er and I will take turns following her and find out how many people there are. I don't think there will be too many people. After all, this is the mainland, and too many people will be too conspicuous. Ninety percent of them are a small but elite gang."

"If you go over there, you're going to do that to her..." Zhu Youjun found it difficult to speak out and didn't say anything else, but her expression clearly indicated that she was guessing that Xie Hushan was planning to follow her and then act like a hooligan.

Xie Hushan said to Zhu Youjun righteously:

"Don't think too much. I'll just look at the number of people and then consider whether I should be accidentally exposed and finally be forced and intimidated by them and passively taken to Hong Kong Island."

"Being forced by them and being passive?" Zhu Youjun was stunned again. Why does this guy always think differently from others?

Xie Hushan said earnestly: "You don't understand, this matter must be done passively."

(End of this chapter)