Chapter 38: Zhou Ke

On the other side of the courtyard, after the meeting broke up, Xu Damao sauntered over to Li Aiguo, cracking sunflower seeds as he grinned.

“Well, Aiguo? How was that double act? Smooth, wasn’t it?”

“When it comes to clever people in our compound, Brother Damao, you’re number one.” Li Aiguo gave him a thumbs-up.

“Of course. Add all their brains together, and they still wouldn’t be a match for me.”

Praised to the skies, Xu Damao could barely keep his mouth shut.

Li Aiguo took out a cigarette and tossed one to him.

“Just got it from our section chief. It hasn’t even warmed up in my pocket yet.”

“You’re doing pretty well for yourself. You’ve started smoking Broadblades.”

Xu Damao caught the cigarette, struck a match, and lit Li Aiguo’s first before lighting his own.

He drew in a deep breath, gave a thumbs-up, and praised it with unconcealed envy:

“Division commanders ride the Taihang, regimental commanders sit in the engine cab, battalion commanders strike the golden bell, company and platoon commanders wield the broadblade, and ordinary revolutionaries are sunflowers.”

“You’re up to company-and-platoon standard now, kid.”

As for good cigarettes, Xu Damao truly wasn’t short of them.

Under the pretext of showing concern for his elders, he could usually rummage half a pack of China cigarettes out of Lou Zhenhua’s office.

But Broadblades were not sold to the public. Lou Zhenhua might have money, but without the proper rank, even he couldn’t buy them.

Xu Damao took several deep drags and made up his mind.

“Come on, let’s go home and have a drink. My old man got two pounds of sweet-potato liquor from one of the rural communes.”

“No, I’ve still got something to do.”

Seeing that it was already late, Li Aiguo remembered that he was supposed to visit Zhou Tiehu’s family and declined.

Xu Damao seemed to understand. He patted Li Aiguo on the shoulder.

“You’ve got important business, so I won’t hold you up. Next time, the two of us will have a proper drink.”

When Xu Damao returned home, Xu Jixiang had just come back from showing films in the countryside.

His canvas bag was bulging.

The moment Xu Damao entered, Xu Jixiang opened the bag and announced proudly, “Son, look what good things I managed to bring back.”

As he spoke, he began pulling things out.

Red dates, wild walnuts, millet, sweet potatoes... and a pair of bright-red underpants.

The underpants were women’s. They were already frayed, stained, and filthy beyond description.

Xu Damao: “...”

Xu Jixiang: “...”

Xu Damao’s mother, who had been preparing dinner nearby, stopped in her tracks. Her expression darkened visibly.

Xu Jixiang stared at the scarlet underpants for a moment, then looked up at his wife.

“Old woman, if I say I found these on the road, will you believe me?”

“What do you think?”

Madam Xu reached out, seized Xu Jixiang by the ear, and hauled him up from his chair.

“You good-for-nothing Xu Jixiang! I told you to steal things while showing films, not to steal women!”

“Ow, ow...” Xu Jixiang grimaced.

“Smack!”

The instant he finished speaking, he received a resounding slap across the face.

“Xu Jixiang, you’re forty or fifty years old already! How can you still be so shameless?”

“Old woman, I was wrong. It was all those young women’s fault. They seduced me.”

“They? More than one?”

Invisible flames seemed to rise from Madam Xu’s head.

Xu Jixiang: “...”

Xu Damao watched the spectacular one-woman beating while eating the mountain produce from the bag.

Crack!

Huh? Why did this red date taste faintly fishy?

Night fell like a velvet blanket over the entire capital, leaving the streets especially quiet.

Li Aiguo rode his bicycle to Zhou Tiehu’s home, carrying five pounds of enriched flour.

When Wang Cui’e saw the flour, her eyes went wide.

Once she recovered, her expression turned displeased.

“You child, we’re all family here. What are you doing bringing this?”

“The railway section awarded me several dozen pounds. I can’t eat it all by myself, so I brought some for everyone to try.”

Li Aiguo chuckled.

Wang Cui’e wiped at the corner of her eye and gave him a light punch.

“You really know how to make things difficult for me.”

“Oh, right. Zhou Ke came home from his shift today.”

At that moment, a voice came from inside.

“Aiguo’s here?”

A young man of seventeen or eighteen rushed out from the inner room.

He was about five feet eight, tall and well-built, dressed in the uniform of the railway police with a peaked cap on his head.

Unlike the yellow-brown uniforms worn by police-station officers, railway police uniforms were deep black, making their wearers look especially sharp.

This young man was Zhou Tiehu’s son, Zhou Ke, who currently worked at a railway police station.

The sight of Li Aiguo clearly delighted him.

“Aiguo, Dad told me you got perfect scores in both subjects?”

“Of course. Do you even know who you’re talking about?”

Li Aiguo’s former self had been close friends with Zhou Ke. They had grown up together and, in Beijing parlance, were childhood buddies. Around him, Li Aiguo had no need to put on airs.

Zhou Ke suddenly seemed to remember something. With a mysterious air, he brought a dark object out from the room.

“Aiguo, look. I was issued a gun today.”

Under the lamplight, the black pistol gleamed with cold points of light. Li Aiguo’s eyes went straight to it.

“Come on, let me take a look.”

“Be careful. Don’t touch the safety.”

Li Aiguo accepted the pistol and weighed it in his hand.

It was heavy and solid, giving him a reassuring sense of security.

No wonder people often said that a pistol was a man’s courage.

With one in your hand, you really did feel considerably braver.

Seeing how interested Li Aiguo was, Zhou Ke became even more pleased with himself.

“Aiguo, do you know what kind of pistol this is?”

“A Type 51 semi-automatic pistol. Seven-point-six-two-millimeter caliber, eight-round magazine, a rate of twenty-five rounds per minute, and an effective range of fifty meters.”

Zhou Ke stared at him blankly.

“How do you know all that?”

Li Aiguo glanced at the words on the system panel: Pistol Marksmanship: 70.

For a moment, he was speechless.

Originally, he had assumed that the previous owner’s pistol-shooting skill was merely a figurative description—some ordinary skill like threading a needle.

After all, how could a technical-school student have had any opportunity to handle a pistol, let alone raise his marksmanship to a score of seventy?

But the moment he held the pistol, Li Aiguo suddenly remembered many things.

He had misunderstood his predecessor.

This pistol-shooting skill really did mean shooting pistols.

At the railway technical school, live-fire shooting and grenade-throwing drills were important parts of physical education.

The previous owner seemed to have possessed a genuine talent for military training. He had scored highly in both disciplines.

“Hey, I’m older than you. I’m your big brother, so naturally I know more.”

Li Aiguo teased him.

Zhou Ke took the pistol back and rolled his eyes.

“You’re only two months older than me.”

“Two months older is still older. Hurry up and call me Big Brother!”

“Go play somewhere else. I’m an honored railway police officer now!”

As the two of them were fooling around, Zhou Tiehu returned, carrying a large watermelon in his arms.

“Aiguo’s here too? Perfect timing. The railway department handed out benefits today. Come and have some.”

In those days, the railway department’s benefits were quite generous.

Employees could ride the train without a ticket; all they had to do was show their work identification.

In winter, they received coal briquettes and firewood. In summer, they received ice pops and watermelons.

Female employees could even collect toilet paper.

The watermelon was a local variety known as the Old Fool melon. Its rind was green, streaked with dark green stripes.

Once cut open, its juice ran everywhere, and it tasted almost like honey.

After eating two or three pieces, Li Aiguo—who had already had dinner—felt rather bloated.

Wang Cui’e brought out another plate of sunflower seeds and placed it on the table.

“Here, Aiguo. Have some sunflower seeds.”

Beside her, Zhou Ke pouted.

“Mom, I’ve been craving these sunflower seeds for ages, but you kept hiding them and wouldn’t let me eat any.”

“How come you bring them out the moment Aiguo arrives? Am I still your son or not?”

Wang Cui’e glared at him.

“That’s right. You’re not my son. You’re my daughter. Happy now?”

Zhou Ke: “...”

Watching mother and son bicker, Li Aiguo ate sunflower seeds with a warmth spreading through his heart.

So this was what people meant by a family atmosphere.

Once he officially started working, perhaps he ought to consider settling down himself.

By the time Li Aiguo returned to the courtyard house, it was already past ten at night. The compound lay in complete darkness.

He went inside, washed up hastily, and lay down on the bed, but sleep would not come.

Heh.

Golden Dragon Coiling the Pillar!