Chapter 140: Wine and Meat, Humans and Ghosts

  "Want to find a place and have a drink?"

  Yue Tianlu was also a connoisseur, and after driving the car on the airport's auxiliary road for a while, he could basically judge the performance of this uniquely styled car. His appreciation for Zhang Shidong increased by another level, and even his inquiries were made with a bit more caution, as if they were equals.

  Zhang Shidong took out a bottle of wine from the trunk of the car: "Just right, I got a good bottle of wine."

  Yue Tianlu's eyes lit up as he took it in his hand and praised it: "Good stuff, even us Yanjing people can't get a taste of this."

  Something that can make Yue Tianlu praise is really good. A bottle of ordinary Yanjing Erguotou, priceless and unsalable, some people put it at home as a decorative item, guests come to take a look, but can't bear to drink it.

  Zhang Shidong said indifferently, "I won't drink it, it's worthless."

  Yue Tianlu nodded in agreement, the more he interacted with him, the more interested he became, wanting to deepen their interaction, regardless of whether they could become friends or not, he didn't want to be his enemy.

  The night of the fourth day of Lunar New Year is a suitable day for various gatherings, making way for the fifth day of Lunar New Year tomorrow. On the sixth and seventh days, it's another wave of returning home, so many people will take the third and fourth days as good days for gathering.

  The car drove through the city, Zhang Shidong pointed to a small barbecue shop and said, "That one will do."

  Po Jun stopped for a moment, one foot on the brake, and he had also experienced poverty. However, after many years of following the wealthy family, he was used to luxurious days and found it hard to adapt when he returned to his humble roots. On the other hand, Yue Tianluo behaved normally, holding a bottle of wine and walking down from the car with great enthusiasm: "They say that Northeastern barbecue is delicious, but I've never tried it."

  Several taxis were parked in front of the door. Stir-fried noodles with tofu and vegetables, instant noodles with dried tofu, 10 or 8 yuan for a midnight snack, chatting for a while before continuing to work. A few people gathered together, drinking 180 yuan worth of food and drink, sleeping in the car for the second half of the night until dawn.

  The folding table and plastic stools are stained with oil and dust, looking dry and dirty. There are also marks left by the greasy cloth that hasn't been washed clean. To be honest, even if you just put your clothes on it or sit down, they will still leave faint marks.

  Yue Tianlu's exceptional temperament and Po Jun's tough and rugged demeanor completely overshadowed Zhang Shidong, also drawing the attention of the customers and owner in the small restaurant.

  The aroma of the taro made Yue Tianlu forget about the black ash on the skewers, drinking the strong and spicy liquor that was worth enough to buy this barbecue shop, eating the 180 pieces of food that could fill three people's stomachs, feeling the atmosphere of the city, not bad at all. Yue Tianlu ate with relish and drank with gusto, his whole body relaxed. The loud discussions from the next table did not affect his mood, he found a feeling that he had never experienced since childhood.

  No need to be utilitarian, no need to think about gains and losses, no need to consider the interests of each other's circle, willing to sit here, willing to have a ordinary friend who can drink with me, it feels great. Three people drinking a bottle of wine also has its own flavor, until the end, Yue Tianlu didn't say a word. Po Jun thought they would find a quiet place to drink some wine. But Zhang Shidong directly drove them back to the airport, at dawn, there was still a flight from Beijing.

  Zhang Shidong accompanied the two until they exchanged their boarding passes before leaving, leaving a small amount of time for the two. Until they boarded the plane, Yue Tianlu shook his head and praised: "From today on, I dare not underestimate anyone. Zhang Shidong taught me a lesson today."

  Po Jun was completely following the security protocol, not asking questions that shouldn't be asked, even if curiosity had filled his entire body. He still couldn't ask, only when Yue Tianlu himself wanted to say it would he respond: "I don't understand at all."

  Yue Tianlu let out a belch, the faint smell of alcohol and garlic mixed together, the pungent smell instantly spreading around him. Facing some people who deliberately showed disgust, turning their heads or casting sideways glances, Yue Tianlu completely ignored them. Those self-proclaimed elite guys didn't even have the qualifications to offer him a cup of wine in Yanjing.

  "He refused my help and didn't want to owe me a favor."

  "Hmm?" Broke Jun furrowed his brow.

  "I came to help him on a whim, the man who can make both Su Xixi and Ai Ai fall in love at the same time. Previously, I didn't mind giving him a huge favor. But you also saw it, that car explained a lot of things, that bottle of wine, you don't know, right? It's the Ai family's old master's favorite, for decades, there were only a few boxes left, and only some old friends would open one when they came."

  "The car shows off its own strength, the wine shows off the strength of those behind it. If that's all there was to it, I wouldn't have been too interested in him. Taking me to eat at a street food stall tells me that if I want to get along with people like him, I need to be able to connect with ordinary folks. Sending us back is telling me that he can handle things on his own here, and if you come to help me out, I appreciate it - this favor I don't owe. Not sending us off after exchanging boarding passes leaves me with some time to make my own choice, which is also the greatest respect for me, and what I admire most about him. He's got a sense of propriety, neither arrogant nor humble, and in the end, if you show him an inch, he'll give you a foot back. If I had insisted on staying behind, he would have accepted my help, and would have considered me a true friend."

  "Then you... " didn't break through the siege just for him, did you?

  "If that's the case, then our true desires for each other can't be fulfilled, and in the end, we'll just become good friends, which isn't what either of us wanted. True good friends are for sharing hardships, drinking together, chatting nonsense, and exchanging hearts. Ordinary friends unite with sufficient benefits, and what grows is mutual interest."

  Po Jun didn't say anything else. He truly couldn't understand Yuetian Lu's final state. Who wouldn't want to be true friends instead of just drinking buddies?

  There's something that Yue Tianlu didn't say: one mountain can't accommodate two tigers. Zhang Shidong doesn't have wild ambitions but has a domineering heart. To be friends with him means you must either keep pace with him or closely follow behind, which is something Yue Tianlu absolutely cannot allow to happen. He has his pride and his aspirations. Though he doesn't say it out loud, in his heart, he still looks down on the young masters of other wealthy families. I only submit to the young master of an even more powerful wealthy family.

  A word, no need to say a single sentence, all in each other's behavior.

  Relieved and comfortable, because neither of them hides anything from each other, and they both have confidence in each other's intelligence.

  On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the atmosphere outside the Lin's house was still tense, while inside it remained calm. Zhong Mou's conversation continued, and the Deng family's deployment of troops also continued. The mastermind seemed to have nothing to do for the time being.

  Want revenge? No movement.

  Looking for someone to poison? Not qualified.

  Zhang Shidong, who came to Linhu with a strong momentum, became an idle and lonely person in the tacit understanding of Zhong Mou and Deng's family. Everyone and everything were deliberately avoiding him until the moment when the truth was revealed, at which point he would become a laughing stock in everyone's eyes, making a big fuss but ending up being a joke himself.

  Yue Tianlu also saw this situation and temporarily came over from Yanjing. In his opinion, this favor was enough to make Zhang Shidong unable to repay in a short period of time. Zhang Shidong's refusal made Yue Tianlu think all the way back to Yanjing without any explanation. This kind of situation was something he couldn't share with Po Jun, as everyone would subconsciously protect their own weak side. You'd have to beat it out of Yue Tianlu to admit that he didn't expect Zhang Shidong to break through like this.

  ………

  On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the early market was bustling with people. Zhang Shidong parked his car far away and walked into the crowded market. He found a breakfast stall and ordered a bowl of tofu pudding, five freshly fried dough sticks, and watched as people prepared for the upcoming reunion dinner. From time to time, he glanced at some information on his phone. The authentic tofu pudding was hard to come by, and Zhang Shidong followed the elderly men and women in the market to judge which store had good quality and affordable prices. Among a row of soy milk stalls, why did only one store have a long line of customers waiting to buy their soy milk? The entrance was smooth and full of soy milk, thick and rich, far superior to those diluted with too much water.

  The city's culture is always the real stage for logical thinking. You can understand the thinking patterns of ordinary people and analyze the psychological activities of anyone. When Zhang Shidong was at the peak of his career, transforming his body with his unnamed martial arts skills, a plainclothes policeman taught him a lesson about the diverse faces of city life, reading the world's various phenomena.

  Once haggling over the price of vegetables; once buying and looking around, smoking posture chatting state, which pocket has money in it, having a certain amount of consumer desire in a certain place.

  The old policeman told Zhang Shidong that this is not something that can be learned, nor is it something that any master can teach. It's something that one has to figure out for oneself. Over the past few years, Zhang Shidong had been constantly immersed in the most basic urban culture, completely integrating himself into it, becoming an ordinary small-town citizen who doesn't pretend to be someone he's not and doesn't bully others.

  "How was it? Did you feel anything different?"

  Over fifty years old, wearing a thick down jacket, just like everyone else strolling through the morning market, you wouldn't notice anything different about him, just like an ordinary worker on the verge of retirement. He takes off his hat and puts it on the folding table, with the same bowl of tofu pudding and five fried dough sticks. He sets down the cloth bag in his hand, which contains some green beans and pork.

  "Human and ghost." Zhang Shidong lowered his head and took a bite of the fried dough stick, then stuffed a black plastic bag into the old man's vegetable shopping bag.

  "You're about to graduate, now I can tell you one last thing. This is my realm, I hope you can see a higher one, come and tell me when the time comes, I'll definitely treat you to a drink." The old man bent down, lifted up the plastic bag, took a look, and a small greedy smile appeared at the corner of his mouth as he stroked the plastic bag.

  "Alright, let's just say that in your entire life, apart from buying things on official business, you've never had more than 5 yuan in your pocket at any one time. I've known you for so long, and not only have I never gotten a free meal out of you, but it seems like even when I was analyzing cases, I couldn't even scrounge up half a cigarette from you.

  In the military, I met many skilled people, but none that Zhang Shidong would call 'master'. The only one is this old policeman in front of me, who retired early because of his eyes."

  "Haha……" The old policeman chuckled and lowered his head, inserting a sentence in the continuous motion of drinking tofu brain: "I can no longer see people, but I can hear ghosts clearly."