sinovels Chapter 1683 My Family Keeps Trains
Chapter 1683 My Family Keeps Trains
Chapter 1683 My Family Keeps Trains
When Zhao Jun returned to his room, Ma Ling had already prepared the foot bath water for him.
This life is simply wonderful!
Seeing Zhao Jun come in, Ma Ling smiled and asked him, "What are you chatting about with Dad?"
"Ah, hehe..." Zhao Jun chuckled and said, "Shall we talk about finding that thing?"
"What are you looking for? What did you lose?" Ma Ling asked curiously. Zhao Jun smiled and said, "I'm looking for Shan Cai."
"Shan Cai?" Ma Ling's big eyes lit up. Whether it was her big eyes or her money-grubbing nature, she was very much like the Wang family, probably inherited from Wang Cuihua.
"Find a big club." Zhao Jun sat down, took off his socks, and said to Ma Ling, "A big club can sell for a lot of money."
"When are we going to go?" Ma Ling asked eagerly, "Just call me when the time comes, and I'll go with you."
“Hehe…” Zhao Jun was amused by Ma Ling. Seeing Zhao Jun’s laughter, Ma Ling blinked her big eyes and said, “What are you laughing at? That… Uncle Yongli Lao Niu San, his family is full of bastards, right? Both the eldest sister-in-law and the youngest sister-in-law are involved.”
Zhao Jun knew that Ma Ling was telling the truth, but as his family's wealth grew, Zhao Jun didn't want to be too selfish when it came to making money.
Not to mention the old saying that one should not keep all the profits from mountain travel, the key point is that these days, whether in the mountains or in the city, you can't keep money without influence.
It's great that several families eat, drink, and make money together every day. If anything happens, everyone shares the burden and contributes together.
"Honey, it's fine who goes there," Zhao Jun said to Ma Ling. "The key issue now is that we don't know where that stick is."
"Don't you know roughly where it is?" Ma Ling asked. Zhao Jun thought for a moment and said, "It's either in the southeast or in the north."
"That's easy." Hearing Zhao Jun's words, Ma Ling took off her shoes and got onto the kang (a heated brick bed).
"Hmm?" Zhao Jun looked at Ma Ling suspiciously, only to see Ma Ling take out a deck of cards from her dowry cabinet.
It's not tarot cards, it's playing cards.
Then Ma Ling sat cross-legged on the kang (a heated brick bed) and started shuffling the cards.
After shuffling the cards, Ma Ling laid them out directly on the prepared deck.
Four cards are laid out horizontally and four cards are laid out vertically, making a total of sixteen cards.
Then, for every four cards arranged in two rows and two columns, place one card on top of each of the four corners. In this way, nine cards are placed on top of the sixteen cards.
Continuing to press upwards, the third layer consists of four cards. All twenty-nine cards are face down, and then Ma Ling flips over one card, placing it face up between the four cards in the third layer.
Thus, a square pyramid appeared on the mattress.
Ma Ling then threw out cards one by one, eight cards in a row, which were placed in the center and corners of the four sides respectively.
At this point, the pagoda became a turtle with six legs, a head, and a tail.
Ma Ling continued to throw cards, and another eight cards landed on the head, tail, and six legs of the turtle.
All sixteen cards were face down, making a total of fifty-four playing cards. Ma Ling had eight cards left in her hand, which she flipped over and placed on the turtle's head, tail, and six legs.
Watching Ma Ling arrange the cards, Zhao Jun pursed his lips to stop himself from laughing out loud.
Ma Ling's move was called the "Turtle Formation," where there were nine cards face up. If the nine cards could form a pair, the pair would be picked up and placed aside.
Then, the card that was directly pressed down can be turned over.
Continue picking up pairs; failing to get a pair means you've lost. If you can pick up all the cards to form pairs, in the local dialect it's called "broken," meaning the "turtle formation" has been broken.
Zhao Jun had spent over ten years with Ma Ling in his previous life. He knew that whenever Ma Ling encountered a problem, she liked to test its success using the "turtle formation" method. If the turtle formation didn't work, she would go to Old Mrs. Han.
Zhao Jun had previously managed to persuade Ma Ling to change her ways considerably, and she never went to see Old Mrs. Han again. As for setting up a maze, it didn't cost any money, so Zhao Jun let her do as she pleased.
"Huh?" At this moment, Ma Ling raised her hand and patted Zhao Jun's arm twice, then pointed to the turtle head corresponding to due north and said, "Look, it seems like it can be opened to the north."
As she spoke, Ma Ling picked up the two "2"s at the beginning and end and put them aside.
Zhao Jun watched with a smile as Ma Ling flipped over the cards, but the smile on Ma Ling's face disappeared after the cards were revealed.
Two cards were turned over, leaving nine cards face up. But none of these nine cards were a pair.
"Let's start over, let's start over." Ma Ling smiled at Zhao Jun, shoved the cards together, and rearranged them into a Turtle Formation.
When the last card was turned over to the young couple, Ma Ling was stunned.
There are nine cards, none of them are the same.
"Let's start over, honey." Zhao Jun forced himself not to laugh out loud.
Ma Ling forced a smile, picked up the cards, and reshuffled and arranged them.
This time it's pretty good. The top card in the middle of the turtle shell matches the card on the leg, and all four cards on the third layer of the turtle shell are flipped over.
Ma Ling was busy with her hands, but the cards on the turtle shell had to be flipped over without any of the four corners being pressed down. The cards on the second layer were difficult to flip, and there were three cards in each of the turtle's head and legs; flipping them over meant losing one face-up card.
Therefore, this turtle formation is very difficult to break.
So, after Zhao Jun poured out the foot bath water and finished washing all the socks, Ma Ling was still there, arranging her formation in a chaotic manner.
Seeing his wife's serious expression, Zhao Jun couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"What are you so happy about? It's not going to be played again." Ma Ling was very unhappy, but Zhao Jun came over, swept the cards aside, and said, "Fine, if it's not going to be played, let's go to sleep."
After saying that, Zhao Jun added, "I didn't get involved in all the commotion the day before yesterday and yesterday."
……
After a long day of running around and a lot of fussing before bed, Zhao Jun quickly drifted off to sleep.
But I had a bad dream that night; I spent half the night looking for the murderer and the other half looking for the culprit.
The next morning, Zhao Youcai didn't get up early to feed the dogs. Without him causing trouble in the backyard, Ma Ling slept until five o'clock, and Zhao Jun slept until five-thirty.
Wang Meilan got up early as usual. She took the soybeans to the tofu shop to exchange them for large tofu, came back and stewed tofu soup, and then heated up the leftover pancakes from yesterday.
The new house is big, and the outer area is spacious enough to easily fit two tables. So since we arrived here, we've always eaten in the outer area.
As the family and Xing San were eating in the outer room, the door suddenly slammed shut, startling them all.
"What the hell?" Zhao Jun, who had been on edge lately because of the murderer, suddenly stood up. The movement was so big that it knocked over the four-legged stool behind him.
"Clang..." Immediately afterwards, the sound of the iron basin falling to the ground rang out from outside the house.
Zhao Jun strode over, and as soon as he opened the door, he was nearly knocked over by Black Tiger.
"Go away!" Zhao Jun slapped Black Tiger across the face. Black Tiger was unharmed, but Zhao Jun's hand went numb instantly.
"Damn it!" Zhao Jun instinctively lifted his foot, and Black Tiger turned and ran. After running two steps, Black Tiger came back, grabbed the dog food bowl from the door, and ran off again.
"What's wrong?" Wang Meilan asked. "What's Hu Zi doing?"
"Are you hungry?" Zhao Youcai said with a smile. "I usually finish eating a long time ago, but I haven't eaten today."
Dogs can't read a clock, but they're incredibly accurate at keeping track of time. Once they get into the habit, they won't be off to the second, but they'll be pretty close.
Normally, Zhao Youcai would put the dog food in the pan around 4 a.m. and feed the dogs before 5 p.m. Today it's already 7 p.m., and Zhao Youcai still hasn't put the food in the pan. Qinglong and Heilong are getting impatient and whimpering, while Heihu is practically barging into the house.
Hearing Zhao Youcai's words, Ma Ling glanced at Zhao Jun. At this moment, Ma Ling felt a little embarrassed, feeling that it was because of her that the dog had gone hungry.
"Hurry up and eat," Wang Meilan said to Zhao Youcai. "After you finish eating, go and eat your food."
Zhao Youcai responded, while Wang Meilan turned to Zhao Jun and asked, "Son, you're not going to work today, are you?"
“Even when I’m not working, I’m still busy,” Zhao Jun said. “The police station is coming down soon to investigate the relatives of the Xu and Song families, and I think I’ll have to go with them.”
"Tsk!" Hearing Zhao Jun's words, Wang Meilan shook her head and said, "Son, don't take this matter to the next level, don't offend anyone or anything."
"Don't worry, Mom," Zhao Jun said. "I'll just show you the way, and I won't say a word when we get there."
"So it has to be a relative?" Zhao Youcai suddenly interjected. As soon as he finished speaking, Xing San said, "The kid already reminded Old Xu so much, and yet someone still finds a place to stay in a shack, who could it be?"
After saying this, Xing San paused slightly and then added, "If it were me, before I met this kid, if I encountered this situation, I wouldn't let anyone in. The only ones who would be able to move in are my second brother and my two nephews."
“Right,” Zhao Jun agreed, but Zhao Youcai frowned and said, “I feel something’s not right. I’ve talked to Xu Changming and Song Laowai. They don’t have any relatives left. Just the Song and Xu families in our village. Those two families aren’t rich, but they’re not short of money either.”
"Clang... clang..."
The sound of the dog smashing its bowl kept coming from outside. Wang Meilan urged Zhao Youcai, "Don't worry about the money, hurry up and eat. The dog is getting impatient."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Youcai picked up his bowl, drank the remaining soup in one gulp, and then got up and left the table.
Just as Zhao Youcai reached the door, the telephone rang from the small east hut.
"Mom, I'm going." Zhao Jun thought it was a call from the forest ranger providing information, so he left the table to answer the phone.
"Hello, this is the Xishantun headquarters." Zhao Jun answered the phone with this first sentence, and the operator on the other end connected the call after hearing it.
"Hey, Zhao Jun." Zhao Weipeng's voice came from the other end of the phone.
"Ah, Uncle." Zhao Jun suddenly remembered that the old man had run off with hundreds of thousands of yuan of his money. He had been too busy lately, busy having a baby and busy solving cases, and had forgotten about Zhao Weipeng.
"Haha..." Zhao Weipeng laughed on the other end of the phone and said, "It's convenient that this place has a phone. You don't have to wait. You can get through as soon as you want to go over."
"Uncle, cough! cough! How about that thing?" Zhao Jun quickly changed the subject, coughing twice on purpose and speaking vaguely about the matter.
Because in those days, the two phone calls were connected by a courier at the exchange. Once the call was connected, the courier could hear everything the two sides said.
“It’s done.” Zhao Weipeng said, “The first train will arrive in Fengtian in two hours. Your brother Jin Hui will go there with the train.”
"Oh, that's great!" Zhao Jun was secretly delighted. Business would pick up as soon as the wagons arrived, and money would flow in steadily.
"Jun, our train car is still stuck in Shenzhen and hasn't been delivered yet." At this moment, Zhao Weipeng said on the other end of the phone, "It will take me a few more days to get over, and then I'm wondering what to do. Every day we're delayed means we're short of pay, so I was thinking of asking you, could you take over this matter for now?"
“No problem, Uncle.” Zhao Jun agreed without hesitation, then asked Zhao Weipeng, “Um… when will the car arrive?”
"We can't wait until the day after tomorrow," Zhao Weipeng laughed. "The car is slow there."
"Hehe..." Zhao Jun laughed upon hearing this, "This is really tough on my brother."
“What’s there to suffer for?” Zhao Weipeng said, “He’s gotten so fat. Let him exercise, let him get some exercise.”
"Hehe, okay." Zhao Jun smiled and said, "Uncle, then I'll get the people in."
"Hurry up, quick, stop right there!" Zhao Weipeng uttered three urging words in a row, saying, "Let's try to get the first train out before the second train arrives."
"Okay, Uncle," Zhao Jun said. "Don't worry about it here."
"Yeah, I trust you to handle things." Zhao Weipeng said, then started chatting with Zhao Jun about family matters, asking, "Is everything alright at home?"
"That's fine," Zhao Jun replied, then Zhao Weipeng pressed, "Um... are you still waiting for me to go back and offer sacrifices at the mountain?"
Even a courier would be dumbfounded by these words.
"Uncle, um... I didn't wait for you." As soon as Zhao Jun said this, Zhao Weipeng's roar came from the other end: "What? You didn't wait for me again? Didn't you say you'd wait for me to come back?"
"Uncle, I'm out of ideas," Zhao Jun said hurriedly. "If we wait any longer, the bull's head and all that stuff will go bad."
Hearing Zhao Jun's words, Zhao Weipeng on the other end of the phone was silent for two seconds, and then said, "Then when I get back, we'll prepare some things to offer to it again, to feed the mountain god well, so that he can bless us to get rich."
"Ha ha……"
……
After Zhao Jun hung up the phone and came out of the house, he said to Wang Meilan, "Mom, our train car will be coming up the day after tomorrow."
"Really!" Wang Meilan was very happy to hear this. At this time, Zhao Youcai went out to feed the dog, leaving Xing San, Ma Ling and the two little girls at home.
The family kept the fact that they had booked a train car a secret from the two girls. They weren't worried about anything else, but mainly they were afraid Zhao Hong would write about it in her essay.
Back when the meeting was held, Ma Ling hadn't married into the family yet. But when the young couple were chatting in bed, Zhao Jun told Ma Ling about it.
Ma Ling is very proud and honored to run her own freight car business.
These days, people own cars: some own buses for long-distance travel, some own private cars like sedans and jeeps, but how many own train cars?
"I'm going out to set off some firecrackers and call Brother Jie and the others over." Zhao Jun said as he walked out. Just having the wagons wasn't enough; they needed loaders and unloaders.
Zhao Jun estimated that there were three groups of stevedores: one group was from Xishantun, one group was from Kaoshantun, and the other group was from Xie Zhong's hometown.
When Zhao Jun came out of the house, he saw Zhao Youcai pumping water into a bucket.
Remembering something, Zhao Jun went over to Zhao Youcai and asked, "Dad, why do you want to find Bai Sanzhi?"
"Huh?" Zhao Youcai was taken aback, then Zhao Jun pressed on, "Didn't you say he was just digging with a shovel when he was out in the mountains? Why are you still looking for him?"
"Can't we just keep digging with a shovel all the time?" Zhao Youcai winked at Zhao Jun and said, "How many years has he been messing around like this? Hasn't he learned anything yet?"
After saying that, Zhao Youcai added, "That guy has some really interesting ideas. You see, he lifts a stick every year."
After hearing Zhao Youcai's explanation, Zhao Jun asked expressionlessly, "Dad, then why did you come to me?"
"Huh?" Zhao Youcai was taken aback by Zhao Jun's question and said, "What did you say?"
"Something's not right with you," Zhao Jun said, staring at Zhao Youcai. "Why did you bring this up with me yesterday?"
"So what if I said it..." Zhao Youcai noticed the strange look in Zhao Jun's eyes and immediately changed the subject, saying, "Damn it! Anyway, I've told you, whether you want to go or not!"
After saying that, Zhao Youcai picked up the two large water buckets with a carrying pole and walked to the back of the house.
(End of this chapter)