Chapter 37: A normal courtyard?

Old Jiang looked at me and scolded me, “You little brat, you’re so earthy.” But his eyes were full of love. Of course, when he scolded me, he reached out and touched my head, and I got goose bumps as usual.

But I didn’t ask him what we were going to do in town.

The car was fast. It usually took more than an hour to walk on the paved road, but it took only 20 minutes by car.

The 20-minute ride was a precious experience for me, and I was reluctant to get off the bus.

The town was still bustling with activity, with small restaurants, a supply and marketing cooperative, a park, and even a movie theater! Of course, there were also some small carts selling snacks.

I was very hungry, but I asked my cheap master for some. Looking at him, I knew he didn’t have any money.

But my cheap master took the initiative to buy me a bag of fried peanuts. In addition, I drank orange soda for the first time. I drank it so carefully that the boss waiting for me to return the bottle was probably so impatient that he wanted to snatch it away from me and stop me from drinking it.

After drinking the soda, I peeled the roasted peanuts from the pocket of my jacket and let the old man lead me along the way. This cheap master was quite generous, and I found that I liked him a little. Anyway, with snacks in my mouth, I didn’t ask him where he was taking me.

After walking around the town for about 20 minutes, the old man led me into a relatively remote alley. There were many small courtyards with only one house in each. He led me straight to the front door of one of the courtyards, which looked like an office.

In those days, there were many such offices. Anyway, there were the ‘United Front Work Department’ and the ‘XX Office’. By 1974, there were fewer of these so-called temporary headquarters, but there were still some. In short, this courtyard was unremarkable.

Old Jiang knocked loudly on the door, and after a while a lazy voice said, “Who is it?” Then a young man in ordinary military uniform opened the door.

“Who are you?” The man didn’t sound friendly, but he didn’t sound hostile either.

The old man took a dirty object out of his pocket and handed it to him. I could see that it was something without a shell, similar to a household registration book, but it was dirty because of the old man.

The man took it with some reluctance and looked at it carefully. As soon as he saw it, his face changed and he immediately wanted to salute the old man, but the old man stopped him: “Don’t do this, I don’t like it. If it’s not necessary, I’d rather be a free spirit.”

He then took me into the courtyard, which was very quiet. There were two people drinking tea and a few others playing cards. None of them looked like soldiers, but they were all wearing military uniforms. I couldn’t tell for sure, but I felt that everything in the courtyard was a bit magical.

The old man ignored the other people and led me straight to a room. The other people were also doing their own thing and ignored the old man.

It wasn’t until the young man who opened the door for us said something to the others that the expressions of those idle people began to look serious, and their eyes looking at Jiang Laoren were full of something like worship.

The men hesitated for a moment, then one of them, who looked to be in his mid-forties, walked over quickly and said with great respect, “Master Jiang, can we help you?”

“Not for now. I need to use the phone.” The old man’s expression was indifferent, neither condescending nor his usual wretched.

The man didn’t waste any time, following the old man into the office and directly taking out a key to open the small lock on a phone.

The old man took the phone and started shaking it, and then various connections were made.

I was in the office, eating fried peanuts with a mouthful, and I didn’t bother to pay attention to what my cheap master was saying.

However, after a while, a sentence from my cheap master caught my attention.

“Yes, I need Yu Xiaohong’s birth date and time, the more detailed the better.”

What did the master want with Yu Xiaohong’s birth data? Who was on the other end of the phone? What was this place?

I spat the peanut shells on the ground, squatted on a stool, and began to think with my hands on my head.

But that old man Jiang was so annoying. He was talking so seriously on the phone, but he still noticed me. Seeing me in this state, he yelled, “No one is allowed to sweep the peanut shells for him. What kind of behavior is this! Wait a minute, you clean up the peanut shells for me yourself!”

Hearing this, the person who was about to sweep the peanut shells with a broom trembled, then put the broom in my hands, looked at me with sympathy, and left.

What a good boy! I was only seven years old, and you had the heart to make me sweep the peanut shells?

I was furious, but I dared not resist and went down to sweep up the peanut shells. I felt deeply that my cheap master was cheating me by buying peanuts for me to eat! However, now that the peanuts were all gone, I listened with my ears pricked while sweeping the floor to hear what the old man was saying.

“You can look up the population records at any time. Is that difficult?”

“Haha, you inherited the two veins, don’t you have the ability to do this kind of backward calculation? I need the precise birth date and time!”

“Come on, don’t beat around the bush. I’ll owe you a favor. And I want a photo of Yu Xiaohong. Fax it over.”

“Cut the crap, I’m hanging up.”

This old man Jiang really has a temper. He hung up as soon as he said it. I had just finished sweeping the floor and was staring at him, not knowing what to do next.

At this time, there was another person in the office, the one who opened the door for us. He was carrying a cup of tea and had just come in. He had heard the rude tone of the old man, but for some reason, he looked terrified.

“Master Jiang, do you need to use the fax machine?” The man put down his tea and asked carefully.

“Yes, I’ll be back in an hour. I’ll need to use the phone and the fax machine again.” The old man nodded, took a sip of tea, and led me out of the courtyard.

From beginning to end, I didn’t know what my cheap master was going to do, or what a fax machine was.

An hour was a bit boring for me. As soon as the old man left, he bought me another bag of roasted peanuts and another bag of roasted melon seeds. Then he took me to sit under a tree on the busiest street in town and didn’t move.

He looked left and right with a smile on his face, and I squatted next to him and cracked peanuts. After I finished cracking the peanuts, I cracked the melon seeds…

After half an hour, I couldn’t stand it anymore and asked, “Master, what are you looking at?”

“Haha, look over there, is that girl with two braids on her bicycle being good?” The old man pointed to a young girl with great interest and said to me.

“I don’t know,” I replied, spitting out two melon seeds, “in my eyes, a girl is definitely not as good as a toy gun, or even a green army hat.

“Forget it, it’s useless to tell you.” The old man ignored me and continued to look at the tree with a smile. I had no choice but to sit beside him in boredom.

Fortunately, an hour is not too long. I guessed that it was almost time, so the old man stood up, let out a satisfied sigh, stretched, and led me back to the courtyard.

As soon as we entered the office in the courtyard, a man came over and handed Jiang Laoren two pieces of paper, respectfully saying, “Master Jiang, we just received…”

The old man coughed and interrupted him, asking directly, “He called, right? Is this what I asked for?”

“Yes,” the man said quickly.

“That’s good, I’m leaving.” After that, the old man didn’t wait for the man to answer, and he took me by the hand and turned around and left.

After taking two steps, he led me back again: “It’s almost 5 o’clock. How about this? You guys get a car and take us to the intersection of XX Township.”

“Yes!” The man immediately replied loudly, as if he also knew that old man Jiang didn’t like nonsense, and perhaps he was a little worried about something in front of me.

I was excited, I was very excited, I was quite excited.

I never dreamed that I would be able to ride in such a car. This was the most luxurious car I had ever seen, a green military jeep. In my impression, only high-ranking officials could ride in such a car, and I never thought that I would be able to ride in one one day.