Gangnam Saibei Ren Pingsheng (45)

Hengtaixiang is both a lianjia store and a wholly-owned store, so almost no stores are divided. Things in the store are things in the family, and things at home are also things in the store. This is the case in daily residence, and it is even more so in eating, anyway, it is the business of these few people. If you treat your confidant Chen Susan differently from my nephew, a good friend, it will be inconvenient and easy to have problems. So the boss guys and family outsiders ate together at a table. Rubbing vegetables in a bowl with the boss, what the boss eats, there is really some democratic and equal meaning, which is very different from the practice of Sheng Ji and other shops, completely different. Talking about the second grandfather, talking about the second grandmother, Chen Susan and I am a fixed person at the dinner table, the daughter-in-law, the little granddaughter, and Aunt Cha, sometimes eat at the same table, sometimes in the kitchen with two servants. This mainly depends on the quality of the dishes. Although lunch is four dishes and one soup, two meats and two vegetarians. But what the content of the meat dish is and what ingredients are used, it is still very different. A plate of braised carp is certainly not as good as a plate of stir-fried eel shreds, and a plate of crab is definitely more delicious than a plate of snails. A pot of turtle soup is much more expensive than a pot of crucian carp soup, and a sea bowl of braised wild duck is naturally much stronger than a bowl of ordinary braised pork. When they encountered a rare good dish, and only one of them was made, the second master always had to greet them: "Come, come, eat together!" "If it's an ordinary meat dish and you do a lot of it, then listen to it, and love to eat at which table."

In addition to the sumptuous lunch dishes, two meals in the morning and one night are also very affordable, so I will not elaborate. During my time in Hengtaixiang, it is the season from spring to summer, gradually long days and short nights. Three meals a day will become four meals a day, and there will be one more afternoon tea, also called evening tea. Evening tea does not have to be busy in the kitchen, most of it is taken by me. Start by boiling water and brew a large pot of good tea in a porcelain teapot. Tea leaves are packed in the iron bucket under the bed of the boss's room upstairs, all of which are good green tea, and the tea brewed is light green, and the tea fragrance is quiet, not only nourishing the eyes, but also looking at the gods, smelling is even more refreshing. After making tea, go to the bakery shop to make a baked cake with ingredients, and pack it back in a basket. Everyone tasted fragrant tea and chewed on the shortbread, not only enjoying the food, but also enjoying life and enjoying leisure. I am now living to be eighty-seven years old, looking back at the various stages of my life course, the period when I ate the best and even had good food to taste, that is, the days when Hengtai Xiang was an apprentice. This is something worth thinking about and playing.

Of course, life cannot be so leisurely and calm. Just when I was thinking of being a good apprentice and not living up to my mother's expectations, the government of Zhuhu Town, where Hengtaixiang is located, sent a notice to the store, because Hengtaixiang is a wholly-owned store, stipulating that the monthly salary of trainees (apprentices) is paid at a discount of two buckets of rice. According to the old rules, the shop only eats for apprentices and does not give money. Give up to some pocket money for bathing and haircuts. At present, in order to protect the rights and interests of employees, the New Fourth Military Government has changed the name of apprentices to trainees, and has also made specific provisions on salary payment standards. It's not that hard, just pay for it. Then came the notice that the town had set up a "trainee picket", and the trainees in the store must participate and move on time. That's okay, just do it. In the face of the government notice, where does the second master dare to say a word, he can only be the only one. From then on, my primary school apprentice, who was employed by Tan Erye, had to obey the orders of the town government and the trainee pickets they had organized.

There were 30 to 40 trainee pickets in the town, divided into four squads based on similar shops, each with a range of 10 to 8 people. There are two squads on each north side of the street south of the street, and each of the two squads is a squadron. HengTaixiang is in the south of the street, and the squad I am in is the first squad. What I never expected was that I would be designated as the squad leader and be given a medium-sized 79 rifle and two bullets. Several of the rest of the squad were given large knives, while the rest had to use their bare hands. The squad leader was an apprentice surnamed Wang from a grocery store not far from me, older and taller than me, capable, witty, and we were very good at spleen and stomach. The weapon he was rationing was a small pistol, and I didn't ask him how many bullets he had. It's amazing equipment. If it were not for the "unprecedented victory in central China", the New Fourth Army would probably not be so generous.

When I returned to Hengtaixiang with a gun on my back, the second grandmother's face turned white with fright. I smiled and said to her, "It doesn't matter, I didn't load the bullets." Saying, he took two bullets from his pocket and showed her to reassure her. When she saw that there was a bullet, she dodged backwards, but she was even more frightened. I hurriedly hid the gun in the storeroom where I slept, lest she see her heart pounding.

Since then, it has not stopped, and from time to time it has been ordered to go to where to carry out the mission. During the day, many people set up cards to check documents and road strips; stood guard for the venue to maintain order; followed the town government cadres into households to check the household registration, or confiscated drug smoking equipment. At night, it is guarded and patrolled at night, often ending in the middle of the night. Whenever there is a task at night, it is not my business alone, and I have to say hello to the maid and leave me at the back door. Once patrolling at night, I didn't disband until dawn and went home, exhausted. After returning to the store, I put away my gun, didn't even bother to get on the bed, and fell asleep on the rattan recliner. Talking about the second grandfather and the second grandmother could not bear to alarm me, let me sleep until noon, and then woke me up to eat lunch.

The town also selected young activists of men and women among the residents to organize propaganda teams to propagate the revolutionary principles and mobilize the masses to actively participate in various activities by means of teaching singing, local broadcasting, drumming, dancing rice songs, and so on. A powerful revolutionary upsurge is rising in the street market.

Our trainee pickets were particularly effective in catching big smoke, confiscating the smoking equipment of five or six big smokers. One afternoon, the squad leader Xiao Wang came to me in the shop and said, "There is a mission." I said hello and walked out of the store with him, and he told me the content of the mission, to go to an old smoker's house to raid. I said, "I'll take the gun." He patted the pistol in his waist and said, "No." There is this. So we went straight to the smoker's house. The door of the smoker's house was on the back street parallel to East Avenue, and from an alley on East Avenue there was a back door to reach his house. Whether you enter through the back door or through the front door, you have to pass through several houses. Each house is inhabited by a different family, and it is a real deep house compound. When we entered, there were several soldiers of the New Fourth Army living in each hall of the house, and they certainly had a considerable understanding of the situation of the owners. Seeing that the local comrades had come to search for opium smoking equipment, he immediately quietly told the leading Xiao Wang that the smoking equipment was hidden in the old prayer mat under the eaves of the opposite porch. Receiving the information, Xiao Wang was overjoyed, and took aim under the eaves of the corridor, and sure enough, there was an old prayer mat standing obliquely on the stone steps at the base of the wall. No one told, who would have thought that an old thing in that humble corner would hide a secret? I followed Xiao Wang, and I didn't hear what the warrior had said to Xiao Wang. Xiao Wang already had a number in mind, but still pretended not to know, and led me into the smoker's room.

The smokers are a couple in their fifties, saying that old is not old, that small is not small. The family was well-off and had been smoking opium for many years. The last time I confiscated the smoking utensils, it was Xiao Wang and me who executed them. They were also hidden, but not too secretive, and we found a smoking gun in the cupboard and in the clock, and we did not search any further. At that time, Xiao Wang educated the couple, and they promised that they would no longer take drugs. We felt that we had successfully completed the task, and we were happy to report the situation in the town, and we were praised by the town leaders for the results of the battle- two smoking guns. Unexpectedly, there were reports from the masses that the family was still smoking opium. The town leader sent Xiao Wang to collect it again, and Xiao Wang called me as a helper to make a surprise attack on the smokers.

Xiao Wang asked the two men, "I heard that you are still smoking opium?" The two replied in unison: "No smoking, no smoking." Xiao Wang asked, "Do you still have a smoking gun at home?" "No, no." The wife shook her hand and answered. Xiao Wang asked again, "Is there really no more?" The wife pretended to be very sincere and replied, "There really isn't!" Xiao Wang said, "Then we will check again." After saying that, I looked at the bottom of the bed, the cabinet drawer, the corner of the toilet, and behind the frame. I went to the opposite room and opened the grandfather clock and looked at it. It's all the old roads from the last search, and of course you can't find them. The two men followed behind, not in a hurry, thinking that there was nothing wrong. After walking out of the door of the hall, Xiao Wang took an arrow step and went straight to the old prayer mat at the foot of the opposite wall. Quickly pulled the filled straw from behind the prayer mat and pulled out a smoking gun. The wife saw Xiao Wang pounce on the old prayer mat, and she knew that it was not good, and she also hurried over. When Xiao Wang took out the smoking gun, it was as if he had plucked out her heart and liver treasure and sacrificed his life to snatch it. Xiao Wang raised his arm to dodge left and right, not letting her grab it. I hurried forward to grab the wife, and Xiao Wang got out and ran away. At the same time greeted me: "Go! I immediately let go and trotted behind Xiao Wang, through the hall, from the gate to the back street. Those soldiers of the New Fourth Army saw us scrambling and running away, neither speaking out nor helping, for fear that the landlord would have an opinion on them. However, it was they who pointed out the targets for us that made the seizure a success. Otherwise, it will really run in vain.

We took the captured victory and went to the town government to make a detailed report to the leaders. The leader praised us again. On the one hand, he summoned a cadre and asked him to write a ticket, punish the two smokers, make six large knives, and send them to the town government. In order to punish the two people for not quitting opium, they even dared to rob the smoking gun with the confiscators. Within ten days, six large newly built knives were delivered to the town government. With these knives, the town government further equipped the trainee pickets. Those two men lost their smoking guns and were punished, and whether they quit opium in the future, we did not ask again. Later, I learned that this smoker was a relative of tan erye's family. I feel sorry that the second grandfather has such a relative, but I have never thought about how such a relationship will affect me.