Flip the table and divide the family property! Take his wife and daughter into the mountains and eat

Lifting the thick, blackened cotton curtain, a warm breeze carrying the heat of a coal stove rushed towards me.

Director Li took off his woolen overcoat, which was covered in snowflakes, and hung it behind the door. He then walked to the red-hot coal stove and rubbed his hands together.

The curtain to the inner room was lifted, and Lin Xiu came out carrying two chipped enamel teacups.

The gunpowder ash on her face had been washed off, but her complexion was still a little pale, clearly indicating that she was still shaken by the fight.

"Boss, please have some hot tea to warm yourself up." Lin Xiu stepped forward and handed over the tea respectfully.

"Oh, thank you, sister-in-law. I'm sorry to trouble you so late at night." Director Li politely accepted the gift with both hands.

Lin Xiu turned around and handed another cup of tea to Zhao Shanhe.

Zhao Shanhe took the teacup without saying a word, and then grabbed Lin Xiu's still slightly cold hand, rubbing the back of her hand twice with his calloused thumb, and then gently squeezing her palm.

Feeling the warmth of the man's palm, Lin Xiu's fierce demeanor that she had been putting on outside instantly turned into grievance and reassurance.

She squeezed Zhao Shanhe's hand back, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw Director Li standing next to them, holding a teacup and smiling at them. Her face flushed red to the roots of her ears.

She quickly pulled her hand back and hastily wiped it on her apron: "I...I'll go to the backyard to see if Niu Niu is awake."

After leaving those words behind, Lin Xiu lowered her head and fled into the inner room as if escaping.

Watching her retreating figure as she went inside, Director Li took a sip of hot tea and let out a hearty laugh.

"No wonder."

Director Li, holding a teacup close to the stove, looked at Zhao Shanhe and sighed, "No wonder you were so angry outside just now, not giving an inch. Seeing how loving you two are, if it were me, I would have fought those people to the death too. You're a man who dotes on his wife."

Zhao Shanhe casually took out a Marlboro from his pocket and handed it over, then lit one for himself, struck a match, and lit it for Director Li.

"Director Li, please excuse my poor appearance."

Zhao Shanhe exhaled a puff of smoke, watching the flickering flames, and said earnestly, "I used to be a bastard. She's been with me for so long, and she's suffered so much in the past few years, never having a single good day. And my daughter, she used to never even have a decent meal. If I can't protect them now, what kind of man am I?"

Director Li took a deep drag of his cigarette, listened to the bleak white wind outside the window, and nodded in agreement.

"On such a cold day, nothing beats a wife, kids, and a warm bed."

Director Li, with a cigarette between his fingers, pointed at Zhao Shanhe and started chatting like an older brother: "Old Jin often drinks with me, and he's told me everything about your family. To be honest, I feel sorry for you because of your biased mother and all the messes your whole family has made."

Director Li tapped his cigarette down, definitively affirming Zhao Shanhe's iron fist: "You've carried that broken family since you were a child, and you've already paid off all the debts you owed! As a man, you did the right thing. You have to be tough on those bloodsucking relatives, protect your own family, and be worthy of your wife and children. That's what a real man does!"

"These are just trivial household chores, please excuse my poor appearance."

Zhao Shanhe smiled, flicked away his cigarette ash, and smoothly changed the subject: "Director Li, you said outside that you had some great news to discuss with me. What is it?"

Director Li laughed heartily, tossed the half-smoked cigarette butt into the coal stove, and listened to the sizzling sound of the flames licking the tobacco.

The smile on his face gradually faded, and his eyes instantly became sharp and deep.

"Old Jin spilled the beans to you at the municipal party committee guesthouse, didn't he?"

Zhao Shanhe nodded and casually flicked the tobacco ash from Daqianmen cigarettes into the furnace pit.

"I said so."

Zhao Shanhe spoke calmly, revealing a candid honesty: "Boss Jin said that I've been buying up furs like crazy these past few days, making quite a fuss. Several county supply and marketing cooperatives have been turned upside down, and they can't even get a single gray squirrel pelt. Some older comrades and cadres don't quite understand, saying that I, a small business owner, am overstepping my bounds and disrupting the rules of the unified purchase and sale system. It's even caused workers at the tractor factory to take sick leave to go into the mountains to catch rats, creating a very bad social impact."

"It's not just bad, the complaints are practically reaching all the way to the provincial level."

Director Li sighed, picked up his enamel mug, took a sip, and his tone revealed deep helplessness and exhaustion: "Those old comrades have spent their whole lives following plans and are used to doing things step by step. Now you're taking large sums of cash to the countryside to buy up goods, turning the existing system upside down. In their eyes, you're blatantly undermining socialism. This kind of sentiment, which involves fundamental principles, must be taken into consideration by the municipal party committee, and even I have to avoid confronting it. But..."

Director Li suddenly changed the subject, slamming his teacup heavily onto the mahogany coffee table with a dull thud.

"But we have to grit our teeth and continue our foreign trade business with the Soviets!"

Director Li stared at Zhao Shanhe, his eyes filled with an intense sense of urgency. His rough voice echoed in the room: "Without enough foreign trade to earn foreign exchange, how will our city buy heavy machine tools from the Russians? How will we exchange them for special steel and car chassis? Are we just going to talk the talk?"

The atmosphere in the room instantly became extremely heavy due to these few harsh and realistic words.

The coal in the stove made a faint crackling sound.

Director Li stared intently into Zhao Shanhe's eyes, lowered his voice, and dropped his bombshell, saying each word clearly: "Shanhe, this isn't a new idea I came up with today about how to break this deadlock in our city's foreign trade. Ever since I was transferred here in 1977, this matter has been weighing on my mind for far too long."

He waved his cigarette in the air, his tone revealing a do-or-die determination: "A few days ago, regarding your leather smuggling business, Lao Jin, a high-ranking official in the city, and I locked ourselves in the office and discussed it repeatedly, completely exchanging information and understanding each other. In order to save the foreign trade business and to find you a strong backer, we came up with a bold plan."

Zhao Shanhe tightened his grip on the cigarette between his fingers slightly, and raised his head to meet Director Li's burning gaze.

"What method?"

Director Li took a half step closer, his voice not loud, but it stirred up a thunderclap in the small room.

"You'll become the factory manager of the Red Star Machinery Factory."