Section 003: The Cruel Price

  Jin Hu originally wanted to tease the woman, but unexpectedly, she thought for a moment and nodded: "Okay!" Jin Hu was stunned, looking at the woman with a bewildered expression.

  The woman in the darkness took a step towards Jin Hu, slowly stretched out her hand, seemed to think for a moment and then withdrew it, saying with a hint of embarrassment: "Is it pay first or pay later? I'm not quite sure."

  One sentence made Jin Hu laugh, and he stuffed the money in his hand into the woman's hand: "Take it!" Then he turned around and prepared to leave. He had only taken two steps when he heard footsteps behind him, and when he turned his head, he saw that the woman had caught up with him: "Is there anything else?"

  "That's not for food," the woman said as she walked up to Jinhu and stuffed the money back into his hand.

  "Wow! This woman's brain is probably messed up: 'I didn't think you were begging for food! Can't we just pretend I've had enough?' After saying that, she stretched out her hand to the woman again. Seeing the woman slightly lower her head and refuse to shake hands, she shook her head and laughed, saying: 'Today, brother has really seen it, you're a really interesting person! How about this? You accompany me for a chat, and this will be your payment for chatting, right? If not, I'll really have no choice.'"

  The woman nodded and took the money from Jinhu's hand: "Follow me!" After finishing, she led Jinhu to walk into the alley.

  About ten meters away, in front of a small grocery store that was about to close, I saw a little girl who looked like she was around three years old sitting on a small stool eating a lollipop. When she saw the woman walking over, she happily stood up and ran towards her with small steps while shouting: "Mom! Liu Nainai gave me candy!"

  The woman bent down and patted the little girl's head: "Got it, did you say thank you to grandma?" Seeing the little girl nodding her head, she smiled at the old lady who was about to close the door and said: "Thank you!"

  "It's nothing!" The old lady smiled at the woman and then glanced at Jinhu behind her, softly sighing as she continued to close her door.

  The woman pulled Little Swallow to walk in front, Jin Hu took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, following behind. Little Swallow walked while occasionally turning her head back to look at Jin Hu, smiling each time she saw him, before quickly turning her little head back around.

  She walked through a narrow and dark alley in Shanxi, went upstairs to the second floor. The woman opened the door, turned on the light and pressed down the air conditioner as soon as she entered.

  "Oh! The air conditioner is on!" The little girl looked at her mother opening the air conditioner and happily shouted. Jin Hu threw away the cigarette in his hand before entering the house.

  The woman poured a cup of water for Jin Hu and handed it over.

  "Thank you!" Jin Hu took a sip and put it aside. He looked around the ordinary rental house in the city. A simple large bed, a small bed next to it, and a desk by the window, but now the desk had been converted into a stove by the woman, with an electric induction cooker on top. The room was quite tidy, apparently this woman was also a diligent person.

  The woman held the little girl in her arms, after all it was already late at night. The little girl closed her eyes and started to doze off, and soon fell asleep. The woman put the child on a small bed and said to Jin Hu: "Do you want to talk about something?"

  "What's your name?" Jin Hu thought for a moment and asked: "Are you alone with the child? Where is the child's father?"

  Listening to the boring story of a woman named Yu Qian, a country girl came to the city to work as a nanny for a family, was raped by a corrupt official, and then became the corrupt official's underground mistress. Next, naturally, the corrupt official fell, justice was upheld, the corrupt official was punished, and the mother and daughter's downfall story.

  As a veteran among several old clients, Jin Huo frankly said that he didn't quite believe in this matter. In their words, everyone can hear the story they want to hear from these women's mouths. Actually, there is usually only one truth: making money quickly and effortlessly is the only reason for them, as they are lazy and dislike hard work.

  "Have you ever thought of finding a job?" With nothing better to do, Jin Hu casually asked.

  She smiled wryly and said, "I'm not educated, I couldn't find a job as a waitress or something because no one would watch the kid, my family thinks I'm working abroad, they don't know I have a child. The landlord is pressing for rent, so this was the fastest way to make money that came to mind. I know it's shameful, but..." She glanced at Jinhu.

  "I'm just a bricklayer, what's there to look down on? Using what you have to exchange for what you don't have is better than being a corrupt official. Taking something that isn't yours to get what you want!" Jin Hu shook his head and suddenly remembered that the construction site was still short of a cook. He tentatively asked Yu Qin, "If you're willing to come to the construction site to cook, we are indeed missing one. However, this job is very tiring, three meals a day for over 20 people. You can bring your child with you." As soon as Jin Hu spoke, he regretted it, thinking that he had misspoken and was probing into Yu Qin's business unnecessarily.

  Yu Qin thought for a moment and said happily: "Then I'm willing to do it, my cooking is pretty good".

  You're so garrulous, I'd like to give your face a slap. Hanging out with Lao Qi and his gang for too long has made you mouthy. But then he said, "Do you have a phone? I'll tell the boss's wife to notify you."

  Yu Qin hastily said to Jin Hu: "You call Xiao Mai's department phone number" and then reported a phone number.

  Looking at Jinhu holding his phone, Yuqin asked: "I've been talking for half a day, you say something about yourself".

  "Me?" Jin Hu looked up at Yu Qing and said, "What's there to say? I grew up in the mountains, went to college and got into fights with others, got kicked out of school, and ended up working on a construction site. That's it."

  "Why are you fighting with others and making a fuss over your girlfriend?" Yu Qin asked. Looking at Jin Hu staring at herself, she quickly said: "I just said it casually."

  Jin Hu smiled: "No, just a small matter!"

  It's actually a small matter, a tiny thing that can't get any smaller, and it all started with a free soup in the university cafeteria. Jin Hu has been living in the mountainous area of Tunshan since he was young. This place is just one word: poor! The local customs have always been fierce, and the villagers are used to being surrounded by mountains and wild beasts. In times of prosperity, they produce elite soldiers, and in times of chaos, they produce bandits. Before liberation, it even became a den of bandits. After liberation, during the great turmoil, the rebel faction brought more than 20 guns and over 300 people to struggle against the black descendants of the bandits, leaving behind more than 20 corpses before fleeing. Later on, the villagers managed their own affairs, and no one was willing to come to this mountainous area to be a village head, not even if they were the village head of another village. To manage these villages, you either rely on prestige or clan force; you must have at least one of these two things.

  Jin Family Village, it sounds like there are many people with the surname Jin, but in fact, it's just Jin Hu and his family. There are over a dozen different surnames in the village, and the village head isn't even called the village head, the villagers call him "Big Boss". Jin Hu's great-grandfather was once the leader of a small bandit gang, luckily they hid in their little bandit den and escaped the campaign to suppress bandits during the early years of liberation.

  There are dragons where there are tigers. Jin Hu had an older brother, and when he was 16 years old, studying in the county town at the foot of the mountain with a dormitory fee of over 50 yuan, he encountered four city thugs who wanted to borrow money from Jin Long to spend lavishly. In the end, it escalated into a fight, and one thug stabbed Jin Long's abdomen with a dagger resembling a military bayonet. Jin Long pulled out the dagger, covering his intestines that had flowed out with one hand, and swinging the dagger with the other, killing two on the spot, one seriously injured, and one escaped quickly. Jin Long lost too much blood and couldn't catch up. This case caused a sensation at the time, with three deaths and one injury.

  When twelve-year-old Jin Hu heard about his brother's death, he immediately grabbed the axe from home and said to his father, Jin Guangfu: "There are still two alive!" Before he could finish speaking, he was kicked to the ground by his father and locked in the house. From then on, whenever Jin Hu got into a fight with someone, Jin Guangfu would hang him up and whip him with a donkey driver's leather whip, targeting areas with more flesh like his thighs and buttocks. People who have lived in the countryside have seen the leather belt on the flour mill machine, which is as thick as a thumb and has a T-shaped cut. Country people use broken belts like this to tie onto sticks to drive livestock, and one lash will immediately show results, guaranteeing comfort for over ten days.

  Under Lao Zi's whip education, Jin Hu became the first college student in the village. Who knew that after entering university, without Lao Zi's whip, Jin Hu would revert to his old ways and become violent again. One time while queuing for food in the cafeteria, a couple in front of him were talking about how strong the dish soap smelled in the sink. The boy carelessly picked it up and rinsed it twice in the free soup. Jin Hu got angry at this sight, as he was looking forward to drinking that soup to soothe his throat, given that his monthly living expenses were very low compared to city kids. He pointed out the couple's mistake, but the three men accompanying them were not a match for Jin Hu and were knocked down in less than three minutes. Who knew these three had connections? The four of them got into a fight, with the other three getting a major demerit, while Jin Hu was expelled. It didn't end there; he also got locked up in jail for fighting. That night, the other three came to visit him, chatting with Jin Hu as if nothing had happened, but Jin Hu's hands were cuffed to the iron bars.

  When Jin Hu was beaten, he just smiled. He was beaten for ten minutes and smiled for ten minutes. His two eyes were swollen, and his mouth and nose were bleeding, but the three people who beat him felt a chill in their hearts. It wasn't until one of them, wearing a uniform, couldn't take it anymore that they finally stopped. Within ten days, Jin Hu was beaten twice. The second time, one of them said to Jin Hu, "Your father, Jin Guangfu, came to my house and knelt down for me." In Jin Hu's eyes, these three people were already dead men. When he was a child, his grandfather had told him that the men in the Jin family die standing up, not kneeling down.

  As soon as he got out of the station, he saw his old man waiting for him at the door. Without saying a word, he followed his father to their lodging place, where they sat on a long bench in a nearby residential area. The old man was so stingy that he didn't even want to spend money on a small inn. His dark forearms were covered with red mosquito bites.

  Jintiger only asked a few questions, why not stay in a 15-yuan big bed for one night? This thing I didn't do wrong, why should I kneel down to others. The old man's answer suddenly made Jintiger change from a fierce tiger to a cowardly dog.

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