Chapter 2: Forty-Five Pieces

  Everyone finished eating, put their bowls and chopsticks into the iron bucket, formed a circle and started playing rock-paper-scissors. After the first round, Old Qi seriously counted: "Alright! Those who played paper can leave, those who played rock and scissors stay."

  Jin Hu walked away with a smile, leaving behind seven or eight people to continue playing. They played two more times, and finally the last two unlucky ones reluctantly picked up the iron bucket and left.

  Back in the dormitory, what was called a dormitory was just an empty room inside a small building under construction, without even windows installed. Seven or eight folding beds were randomly placed inside. Jin Hu walked to his bed and hung the mosquito net on the hook, then sat down at the edge of the bed with a swing of his hips.

  Gong You Tian shouted: "Tiger!" Jin Hu raised his head and saw a white cigarette flying over, hurriedly stretched out his hand to catch it, held it in his hand and took a look: "Hong Jiang Lin! Good smoke" After saying that, he touched the lighter in his pocket and lit it up, taking a nice puff.

  "Little brother-in-law gave it" Tian Yougen sat on his bed, also lit one for himself and put it in his mouth.

  Jin Hu looked up at Tian Yougen, a man in his fifties, whose body was slightly hunched: "Your eldest child is about to graduate, right? Once they start working and get paid, you can take it easy with your wife. At that time, bring them together to enjoy life in the city." Tian Yougen's two children were both studying at universities outside their hometown. For the sake of these two kids, the couple worked hard, one on a construction site and the other as a nanny for someone else's family. Despite living only half an hour's drive apart, they could only see each other once every two or three months.

  Tian Yougen's old face, full of wrinkles, was beaming with smiles, clearly tickled by Jin Hu's words. He waved his hand: "No need to worry about that! As long as the kids are happy, that's all that matters. Eldest son has a girlfriend in school, but city girls don't want to live with us old folks, and they can't get used to the new place either. It's better here in the countryside, more convenient to move around! Now the two of them are planning to buy a house, so my wife and I will help out with some renovation money while we're still able."

  "Lao Tian, you're really something! Your two kids are so competitive with each other. The youngest daughter is still studying at a university in the capital city. Who else's daughter would be willing to spend money to send her to school? It's unbelievable that she made it all the way to high school without being completely clueless!" Another coworker, Zhang Changchun, said with a laugh.

  Tian Yu Gen glanced at Zhang Chang Chun: "If the girl's grades were just a little worse, it would be fine. But year after year she's always first, how can I open my mouth? Can't the girl be flesh and blood from our bodies? This person has no suffering that can't be endured, what's more unbearable than the three years of famine when we couldn't eat? Just grit your teeth and it'll pass!"

  Listening to Lao Tian's ideological and political class for a while, he finished smoking a cigarette. Jin Hu took off his long pants, only wearing shorts, picked up his own basin, went out of the house to the faucet, filled it with water, and put his head in. A cool feeling spread comfortably all over his body through his scalp. He lifted his head from the water, grabbed the towel inside and draped it wetly on his body, raised the basin and poured the water from his head down.

  After taking a bath, Jin Hu returned to his bedside, put the basin under the bed, and directly took off his wet shorts, changed into dry underwear, lay on the small bed, and fell asleep in no time.

  In the dazed and confused sea of consciousness, that scene appeared again: in the dark space, a huge metal chair with a metallic luster, and there seemed to be a voice calling softly in my ear: Commander! Commander!

  He opened his eyes, and the images in his mind immediately disappeared. All he saw was a light blue mosquito net, and through it, a gray ceiling board. "Damn! I had that stupid dream again!" Jin Hu flipped over on the bed. When did he start having this stupid dream? He rubbed his temples. It seemed to be when they were digging the foundation at the construction site, he found a shiny stone pheasant egg and thought it was pretty good, so he casually put it in his pocket. The next day, when he reached into his pocket again, no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find it. Could he have been possessed by some evil spirit?

  "It's time to get up! Everyone go and collect your wages!" A loud voice rang out, immediately followed by a chaotic noise that disrupted Jinhu's thoughts. He got down from the bed, put on his pants and followed everyone else as they walked out of the dormitory.

  When he arrived at the iron-roofed house downstairs, Jin Hu just wanted to go in, but heard a small accountant's voice coming from inside: "What are you all crowded here for? Go outside and come in after being called by name!"

  "Big niece! You have air conditioning in here, isn't it hot outside?" Old Qi's voice came from inside the house.

  "Get out, didn't you hear?! If you don't leave now, your salary will be issued tomorrow!" The little accountant's voice rose another octave.

  Jin Hu happened to find a cool spot in the corner of the wall and crouched down, while Lao Qi and his gang were chased out of the house like a swarm of bees. Seeing Lao Qi squatting beside him, Jin Hu shook the cigarette box in his hand towards Lao Qi, who took one and lit it: "This girl is getting more and more reckless!"

  "Jin Hu!" The small accountant's voice came from inside the house.

  He took two fierce puffs, trampled the cigarette butt under his foot, stood up from the shaded corner of the wall, pushed open the door, and a gust of cold wind blew in, as if every pore on his body had opened up. The air-conditioned room was damn cool!

  The little accountant looked at Jin Hu and said, "Close the door, the cold wind has all run away." After finishing speaking, he threw an envelope on the table: "Four thousand two! You'd better count it carefully."

  He walked into the house with the door, picked up the envelope, poured out a thick stack of tickets, made a beautiful fan shape, pressed it several times: "No mistake!" Put away the tickets and stuffed them into his pants pocket.

  The little accountant took a look: "Are you just pretending to count the money or have you really figured it out? Your brick-pushing skills are truly impressive, and in one month you can make over a thousand more than others."

  Jin Hu raised his arm: "On the one hand, it's about strength, on the other hand, this old man pushing a cart also requires skill, with skill comes endurance! Others just..."

  Before Jin Hu could finish, the little accountant's eyebrows turned upside down: "Take the money and get out of here quickly!" As he saw Jin Hu walk to the door, he whispered: "A toad wants to eat swan meat! You don't even look at your own virtue! A rotten person like you."

  Jin Hu thought that the girl just wanted to listen and didn't mind, so he smiled and closed the door, walking out. Behind him, he heard the small accountant's voice: "Tian Yougen!"

  "Tiger! Wait a minute and let's go together. Everyone just said they'd go have a couple of drinks." Tian Yougen said as he walked past Jin Hu's side.

  He nodded and Jin Hu crouched down in the corner again. When Tian Yougen walked out of the house, his first sentence was: "You're teasing Xiao Kuaiji again, aren't you? The little girl looks like she's been shot with a gun."

  Tian Yu sighed and said, "If you really like her, then just stick to her. As the old saying goes, a good girl is afraid of being entangled by a rogue! If there's an opportunity, how can you be so careless!"

  "That girl's got a high nose! How can she look down on us migrant workers?" Old Qi chimed in from the side.

  Tian Yougen gave Lao Qi a look: "You don't understand anything! A good man doesn't have a good wife, and a poor husband marries a fairy. The key is in these words, if you knew, you old bachelor wouldn't be so arrogant!"

  Seeing Old Qi raise his eyebrows, Jin Hu immediately changed the subject: "What are we going to eat tonight?"

  Lao Qi was immediately taken out by Jin Hu: "What else can we have, the usual three!" The usual three that Lao Qi mentioned were: sour fish soup, boiled meat slices, and small fish pot stickers. A group of people always had these every time.

  Waiting for everyone to get their salaries, five or six people walked together towards the small restaurant they often went to. Taking advantage of everyone ordering food, Jin Hu went to the bank next door and transferred 3,000 yuan to his father's account, with the rest going into his own account, leaving less than 100 yuan on him. Although there was no phone in the countryside, every time his father rushed to the market, he would go to the bank in the town to check.

  Back at the restaurant, a group of people naturally got drunk. Everyone finally went Dutch and left the restaurant, some returned to their workplaces, others went out to have fun, while Jin Hu stumbled into an internet cafe and watched a movie.

  As he watched, the wine took effect and he fell asleep with his head tilted to one side. The metal chair appeared in his dream once again, with the same voice and tone. It wasn't until he heard a different voice by his ear that he woke up: "Dude! Are you going to get on the plane or not?"

  Jin Hu opened his eyes to see the internet cafe manager standing in front of him, with a young man waiting for a computer behind him. The screen in front of him had already switched to the login interface, and his five yuan was gone. He took off his headphones, stood up from his seat, walked out of the internet cafe, pulled out his brick-like 5210 phone, and saw that it was almost midnight. A gust of wind blew, making him feel refreshed. He rummaged through his pocket, found a cigarette, used his hand to shield the wind, lit it, took a satisfying drag, and started walking towards the construction site.

  He walked a few steps and felt his own surge of protest, looked up at the surrounding bright streetlights, and it was really embarrassing to take out the thing. He quickly walked two more steps to a dark corner of a small alley, just unzipped his pants, and saw on the wall a line of words: "Those who urinate here are little dogs!" He chuckled lightly twice, faced this line of words and started firing away, the sound of rushing water was particularly loud in the quiet night. He swayed his hips, each word got a splash, and finally, he deliberately sprayed a bit more on the dog character. Only then did he feel satisfied, shook off twice, and put the thing away.

  Just as he was about to leave the alley, a woman's voice came: "Big brother! Do you want to play?" The voice had a hint of shyness, and if it weren't for the quiet of the night, Jin Hu might not have heard it.

  Jin Hu looked at the woman standing about two meters away from him, dressed in very ordinary clothes, not only was her figure good, but she also had a pretty face, without any hint of vulgarity. He scratched his head and thought: Is it popular for streetwalkers to dress like respectable women nowadays?

  Looking at the beautiful woman standing in the shadows, he had a flirtatious thought, took out money from his pocket, counted it back and forth in his hand, and then said to the woman: "I only have 45 yuan on me now! Can't afford to play!"