Ba Zhi of Peak Child

  At the time when the factory leaders were calculating the money in Lin Zhenhua's pocket, Lin Zhenhua was visiting Lan Wufeng who was injured at his home in Lujia Alley. The day before, Lan Wufeng went to a neighboring county to sell small commodities and on his way back encountered highway robbers who robbed him of his money. In order to protect the few hundred yuan in his pocket, he fought with several thugs and got injured all over his body with more than ten wounds, including a slash on his leg.

  "Look at this, how did you get beaten up like this?" Lan's mother said, holding a cotton ball soaked in bruise medicine, wiping her son's wounds while tearfully muttering to herself.

  "Mom, it's nothing. When I was fighting with someone in Yunnan, I got hurt even worse than this." Lan Wufeng was very dissatisfied with his mother's nagging, feeling that it made him lose face in front of Lin Zhenhua.

  "Old Lan scolded: 'You got into a fight with someone in Yunnan and never mentioned it when you came back?'"

  "The wound has healed, what else can be said?"

  "How can you still not get rid of your bad habit of loving to fight? You're almost 20 years old, and yet you still don't let me have a peaceful mind."

  "Mom, this time I'm not fighting for the sake of fighting. This can be considered as protecting national property, right? If I didn't fight them, they would have taken away these few hundred yuan."

  Lin Zhenhua said: "Fengzi, I would rather have these few hundred yuan stolen than see you get hurt."

  "Lin Ge, I'm a bit injured, what's that? This money is ours, everyone's. Even if I die, I won't let others take it away."

  "How can the social atmosphere be so bad now?" Lin Zhenhua asked with a frown.

  Xiong Lijun replied, "It's all the same everywhere. There are many young people who have nothing to do and no money, so they do whatever they want. Those with little courage just gamble or steal things, while those with more courage directly rob people. The highway buses are what they rob the most, as the people on the bus don't know each other and dare not resist. They rob and then run away, and even the police can't do anything."

  Lan Wufeng said: "Actually, if Lin Ge hadn't pulled me up, I'd probably still be doing this now."

  Lin Zhenhua said: "Since it's like this, you all don't have to always run outside the county, just guard the market of Fenghua County."

  Xiong Lidao said, "Little Lin, you don't know, our Xinxin store was just starting to get hot for a few months, but these past few months have been getting worse and worse. The store's sales are only around 10,000 yuan per month. I've been carrying bags around the county to various units to sell, but I can barely sell a few thousand yuan. I'm really worried that if things keep going like this, we'll have to close down."

  "Hmm, this is market saturation, I suppose." Lin Zhenhua said, "We seized an opportunity earlier on when everyone hadn't seen foreign goods before. We brought them in and everyone was interested, so sales were high. Now that everyone's gotten used to it, they don't think it's novel anymore, and naturally sales have come down. Although Fenghua is a big county, purchasing power is still limited after all."

  Xiong Lijun said, "I also knew that, so I discussed with Fengzi and decided to take the goods to surrounding counties for sale. Our products are relatively complete, and some individual businesses in surrounding counties cannot get such goods. We directly wholesale them to these businesses, and they sell them to ordinary people. After running for a period of time, the income is still good."

  "But this is too dangerous. You're running around, and those little hooligans probably recognize you now, knowing that you have money on you. What if they specifically target you to rob in the future, it's not a good thing."

  "I've thought about it, when I was selling goods, I got to know some people from the unit's vehicle team. I let them have the opportunity to go out of town and drive, so they called me up. I took a batch of goods on their car and went over, then brought the money back on their car, in between giving the driver one or two packs of cigarettes was enough. This way it's much safer." said Xiong Lijun.

  "Old bear, you really have a set." Lin Zhenhua praised.

  "What can I do? I need to make money and marry a wife, so I have to think more!"

  "What's going on, got a crush?" Lin Zhenhua asked curiously.

  "We just talked about it," said Xiong Lijun with embarrassment, "the eight characters are not even written yet."

  "What's wrong?"

  "The person in charge of the power transmission and transformation construction company is an office worker, her parents are also engaged in power transmission and transformation work, and her father is a mid-level cadre." Reported by Xiong Lijun.

  "Not bad, how did you meet?" Lin Zhenhua came with gossip spirit, he was very happy that Xiong Lijun could find a girlfriend. He was originally worried that after Xiong Lijun resigned from his public office, he wouldn't be able to find an object of affection.

  Xiong Lidong said: "I went to deliver electricity and sell calculators. She asked me to teach her how to use it, and we got to know each other like that."

  Lan Wufeng exposed: "Lin Ge, don't listen to him, he obviously thinks you're pretty and runs to your place every day, saying there's a new product for you to try."

  "You're saying me? Aren't you the same?" Xiong Lijun counterattacked.

  "Huh?" Lin Zhenhua turned his head to look at Lan Wufeng, "What, you've also got one?"

  "No, no." Lan Wufeng hastily denied it. Fortunately, his mother had already gone out to buy vegetables and didn't overhear their conversation. Otherwise, if she knew her son was seeing someone, she would immediately grab his ear and make him bring the girl home to meet her.

  "This is really a case of making a mountain out of a molehill." Lan Wufeng explained, "Others just ran to the store a few more times, and Old Bear started talking nonsense."

  "What's going on?" Lin Zhenhua asked Xiong Lijun.

  Xiong Lijun's spirit was lifted: "That girl, she's really too beautiful. Compared to her, my wife is just a plain Jane. That girl works at the Commercial Bureau, I don't know how, but she and Fengzi hit it off. She often comes over to listen to music in our store. Ask Fengzi, every time I go to Guangzhou to buy goods, he forces me to buy cassette tapes for him, like Li Guyi, Su Xiaoming, and some other weird stuff."

  "What's the girl's name and how old is she?" Lin Zhenhua asked Lan Wufeng.

  "She's called An Yan, and she's the same age as me." Lan Wufeng replied honestly, his secret had already been exposed by Xiong Lijun, so he couldn't hide it from Lin Zhenhua anymore.

  "What do her parents do?"

  "Her father is the vice mayor of our county," said Lan Wufeng. "Actually, I knew An Yan in the past, we were desk mates in elementary school. Later I went to join the production team and she stayed in the city and entered the Commercial Bureau."

  "As a high-ranking official's child, would your parents agree to your affair?"

  Lan Wufeng hastily said, "Lin Ge, don't listen to Lao Xiong, we haven't reached that point yet. It's just that we're together playing around, she likes listening to songs, and since Lao Xiong often runs to Guangzhou, he can buy some new tapes, so she comes over frequently. When we're together, apart from chatting about our past classmates, we also listen to music, nothing else."

  Lin Zhenhua said: "You must grasp it tightly, it's not easy to meet a girl who is childhood friends with you. If you think it's suitable, try to persuade her parents and settle the relationship as soon as possible. I'm worried that your individual identity, her family being a cadre family, may not be able to accept it. However, if you improve your temperament a bit, bring some gifts every time you visit, maybe even Tai Shan will like you."

  Lan Wufeng hastily interrupted, "Lin Ge, this matter is still early. By the way, that electronic shooting range you mentioned, is it ready? When you go to the Public Security Bureau for testing, can you take me with you? I've liked playing with guns since I was a kid, but I've never actually fired a real one."

  Lin Zhenhua said: "It's all set, I'll be leaving in two days. Can you get up with your current condition?"

  "It's nothing, I'm fine." Lan Wufeng suddenly jumped off the bed, "Lin Ge, look, I can leave with you anytime."

  "Alright, I'll call you then." Lin Zhenhua said, turning his head to ask Xiong Lijun: "Old Bear, how about you? Are you interested in taking a look? That's the product of our Hanhua Industry."

  "Never mind, I'm not interested in fighting and killing. My wife saw a set of combined cabinets in a magazine, and I have to accompany her to find a carpenter to discuss whether it can be made. She said that after the combined cabinet is finished, we can get married. By the way, Xiao Lin, you have a good relationship with Hu Yang, can you help me ask him if he is willing to do it for me? Money is no problem."

  "Cut it out." Lin Zhenhua kicked him and said, "Old Hu is not willing to do this for you."