My Realistic Simulation Game

Chapter 23: Mother's Worry When Her Son Is Away

While storms raged on Shanghai Beach, a thousand miles away in Yanjing, a familiar courtyard house deep in Cherry Hutong presented a completely different scene.

"Dad! Mom! Something terrible has happened!"

Qin Yuan's younger brother, Qin Ming, a boy who had just started junior high school, rushed into the yard like a cannonball without even taking off his schoolbag. His face was pale, he was panting, and his voice was trembling with sobs.

Zhang Guilan, the mother who was busy cooking in the small kitchen in the yard, and Qin Jianguo, the father who was sitting on a small stool under the eaves smoking his pipe, were both startled.

"What are you yelling about! Is the sky falling?" Qin Jianguo frowned and scolded, but seeing his son's panicked look, his heart skipped a beat.

"It's...it's my older brother!" Qin Ming stamped his feet anxiously. "I...I've found out! My older brother...he's not in Yanjing at all!"

"Not in Yanjing?" Qin Jianguo's heart skipped a beat.

Qin Ming said with a sob in his voice, "Yeah, he's not here at all. I've asked around among his friends, and they all say they haven't seen my brother in a long time."

"Some people even said they saw them board the train! To...to Moscow! To the Soviet Union!"

"What?!" Zhang Guilan dropped the spatula in her hand with a clatter, her face instantly turning deathly pale. "They...they went to the Russians? My God! I heard it's chaotic there, with robberies and murders on the streets!"

"He...he's got a death wish?!"

Zhang Guilan grabbed Qin Ming's arm, her voice trembling, "Your brother... your brother he..."

A tremendous sense of panic instantly spread through the heart of this ordinary mother.

The Soviet Union, that distant and unfamiliar behemoth, still carries the chill and mystery of the Cold War era in the minds of ordinary people, not to mention the terrifying rumors about border chaos and highway robbers.

"It's all your fault!"

Zhang Guilan suddenly turned to Qin Jianguo, tears streaming down her face, her voice trembling with sobs and resentment.

"If you hadn't said such harsh words that day and kicked him out, would Yuanzi have run away so far in a fit of pique? The Soviet Union! Is that a place for a human to go?"

"If anything were to happen to him... I... I wouldn't want to live either!"

She pounded on her husband's arm, completely breaking down emotionally.

Qin Jianguo was being beaten by his wife, his face was ashen, and he was gripping his pipe tightly.

His mind was also in turmoil, with worry and fear emerging almost subconsciously.

But as the head of the family, as the father who personally kicked his son out of the house, he couldn't bring himself to admit his worries, and he was even less willing to show weakness in front of his son.

"Kicking him out is for his own good!" Qin Jianguo said, his voice rough as he tried to hide his inner turmoil.

"Look at him! He idles away his days, never finding a proper job! Everyone in the alley knows he's a scoundrel."

"He still dares to touch the jade ruyi that your mother left you. It's our family's heirloom, a keepsake to be passed down through generations."

"If he dares to even think about this, what else wouldn't he be capable of?"

"Staying at home will only bring shame to the Qin family sooner or later! Going to the Soviet Union... going to the Soviet Union was his own fault!"

"You asked for it? He's your son!"

Zhang Guilan cried out.

"Face, face! All you care about is face! What good is face if your son is gone!"

"Mom! Mom! Don't panic!"

Seeing his parents arguing, Qin Ming was both anxious and scared, and quickly interjected, "I... I also found out something else, Brother Magan is still here, at Brother Bin's house, and he's the one who told me this!"

"Hemp Stalk?" Zhang Guilan grasped at a straw, wiping away her tears. "Yes! Yes! We're looking for 'Hemp Stalk'."

"Xiaoming, hurry up and go ask Magan'er when your older brother and the others will be back? Is there any way to contact them? Is it safe on the road?"

Qin Jianguo also pricked up his ears, and although he didn't say anything, his eyes were fixed on his youngest son.

"Brother Prickly Pole said..."

Qin Ming swallowed hard, trying to recall, "He said that my older brother went with Brother Binzi, Brother Gangzi, and Old Zhang from the alley entrance."

"Four people, carrying a ton of goods, worth... worth over ten thousand yuan!"

"Brother Prickly Pear also said... he also said that when Big Brother comes back this time, he'll become a millionaire with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars..."

"More than ten thousand yuan?!" Zhang Guilan and Qin Jianguo gasped simultaneously!
This number is astronomical for families like theirs!

Zhang Guilan's legs went weak, and she almost collapsed to the ground.

"Nonsense!"

Qin Jianguo was the first to react, shouting angrily, "More than ten thousand yuan? Where did he get ten thousand yuan? Did he steal it? Rob it? Or... or did he borrow it from loan sharks?!"

The moment the words left his mouth, the terrible thought startled him.

If he really borrowed money at exorbitant interest rates to risk his life in the Soviet Union, the consequences would be unimaginable!
What if I lose everything? What if I'm detained there?
If you can't pay back the money, the interest will snowball and ruin your family!

Overwhelming fear instantly overwhelmed his previous stubbornness and pride.

Qin Jianguo suddenly stood up, his face turning extremely grim: "No, we have to think of something right away. Guilan, how much money do we have at home? Take it all out! What about the savings book? I'll go borrow some from Lao Liu and Lao Wang!"

"What if... what if this brat really loses everything? We have to plug the hole first! We can't let him be driven to his death by loan sharks!"

Zhang Guilan also panicked, and upon hearing the words "usury," she was terrified and completely lost her composure.

She staggered back into the house, rummaged through drawers and cabinets, and finally, trembling, pulled out a long, rectangular box wrapped tightly in red cloth from the deepest part of the most hidden cabinet.

She opened the box with trembling hands, and inside lay a warm, translucent jade ruyi with exquisite carving.

“His father…” Zhang Guilan looked at this only memento her mother had left her, tears streaming down her face, her voice choked with sobs.

"This...this was originally meant to be used as an emergency measure during times of great disaster..."

"If...if Touko truly owes a debt to the King of Hell that she can't repay...then she'll have no choice but to...no choice but to pay with her life..."

Qin Jianguo looked at the jade ruyi in his wife's hand, then at her grief-stricken face. His throat bobbed, and he couldn't say a word. He just sighed heavily, his eyes filled with complex emotions.

"Xiaoming!" Qin Jianguo turned to his youngest son, his tone more serious than ever before. "Go now! Go to Binzi's house in Nancheng, find Magan'er! Find out exactly when your older brother is coming back, and if there's any definite news!"

"Ask again... about that batch of goods, what... what exactly happened!"

He didn't dare ask if he had been compensated or not; he only hoped to get news of his son as soon as possible.

"Okay! I'm going right now!" Qin Ming replied, turned around and ran out of the courtyard.

In the southern part of the city, there is a small courtyard house.

This used to be Binzi's house, but now it's being used as a warehouse, with bags of jeans piled up in every corner of the room.

The southerners figured the goods had already been ordered, so they might as well save on warehouse costs. The day after Qin Yuan left, they moved all the goods here.

Ma Gan'er was squatting by the well, gnawing on a cold, hard steamed bun, his eyes warily watching the courtyard gate and the occasional passerby.

He has been guarding this place for almost twenty days, enduring wind and sun, and has lost weight, but his eyes remain unusually persistent.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise.

Several men wearing floral shirts and speaking with a distinct southern accent escorted a relatively well-dressed middle-aged man carrying a briefcase as he pushed open the door and walked in, their faces showing obvious impatience.

"Young man!"

The man in the floral shirt, speaking broken Mandarin, was the brother-in-law of the factory manager of Hexin Garment Factory. "We can't wait any longer! The factory is pressuring us like a death knell; this batch of leftover stock must be cleared out immediately!"

"We'll pay you back for the warehouse. Consider the previous deposit as payment for the goods! The deposit you placed is more than enough to buy these several thousand items!"

"We're clearing out our stock at a loss! Unlock the doors, and we're taking our goods and leaving!"

Upon hearing this, Ma Gan'er jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. His small body suddenly burst forth with astonishing force. He took a step forward and blocked the doorway, his neck stiff and his eyes wide open:
"No way! Twenty days is twenty days!"

"My older brother said that the money and goods will be settled in twenty days. The time hasn't come yet, so you can't touch the goods inside!"

He spread his arms wide, shielding the house behind him, his voice hoarse but unusually resolute: "A deposit is a deposit, and goods are goods! Want to move the goods? You'll have to step over me first!"

The atmosphere in the courtyard instantly became tense!
Qin Ming, who arrived panting, happened to witness this scene.

Looking at the thin yet stubborn figure of the boy, his young face was filled with worry and helplessness.

He almost instinctively ran to Ma Gan'er's side, pushing aside a man in a floral shirt in front of him: "This is my brother Binzi's house, you can't just barge in!"

"Hey, where did you come from, you bastard?" The man in the floral shirt slapped him across the face. "Get out of my way!"

(End of this chapter)