Ma Houwen's place was not far from the bus station. It was just a turn after three main roads. The room was not big, about ten square meters, rectangular, and was just enough for two people to walk side by side. The room was very clean, so clean that there was nothing valuable in sight. There was a bunk bed, a student table, and two pairs of smelly leather shoes behind the door, covered in dust.
Ma Houwen was sleeping on the lower bunk. He threw his shriveled black leather bag onto the table and laid down on the bed. Before Qiao Liansheng could ask a few questions, he closed his eyes and started snoring.
Pushing open the dusty window in the room, Qiao Liansheng touched the frame of his glasses and looked out at the bustling street outside. It was unfamiliar, very unfamiliar. Lugou Village was very quiet all year round. It was only when they went to Ma Jiawan to pick up the ancestral temple that there was such a bustle. Firecrackers rang non-stop in every household, and chickens and ducks were carried to the old ancestral temple to worship. After paying his respects, he took the kitchen knife and happily cut the necks of the chickens and ducks in front of the statues.
Qiao Liansheng had also done this before. He plucked the feathers off the chicken's neck, stuck the knife to the meat, and slashed hard. Blood dripped onto the ground, bright red. Qiao Lian Sheng had a joyous expression when doing this.
Looking at the people outside the window who were all smiling happily, Qiao Liansheng suddenly felt like he was a chicken in someone else's hands. He stretched his neck forward and was at the mercy of others. He began to sympathize with the chickens that he had chopped off with a kitchen knife.
This street was the busiest street in Liuliqiao. Most of them were foreigners, especially those who set up stalls. They were from all over the country. Ma Houwen said that he would take a nap and start collecting interest tomorrow. As for how to collect it and why, Ma Houwen did not say. Qiao Liansheng didn't ask. He wasn't in a hurry to know what he knew the moment he opened his eyes.
He took out the last two cold steamed buns from his backpack and began to eat them. After eating, he closed the window and placed his backpack on the table like a monkey. He took off his shoes and climbed into bed.
Qiao Liansheng didn't dare to take off his clothes. He had the remaining 190.80 yuan in his pocket, which was all his assets. He could tell that Ma Houwen wasn't honest. Qiao Liansheng didn't care about anyone but Ma Houwen.
Lying on the upper bunk and touching the green ring on her thumb, Qiao Liansheng opened her eyes wide and couldn't fall asleep. The half-blind woman said that the ring was his, and Qiao Liansheng was wondering who had given it to her. After thinking about it, it could only be left behind by Qiao Xianjing.
Qiao Liansheng knew that Qiao Xianjing was his father, his biological father, but for as long as he could remember, Qiao Liansheng had never called him that. He felt that Qiao Xianjing was not worthy. A man who only knew how to write and draw all day, and who would get drunk and sing Peking opera when he had nothing to do was no different from the bachelor at the village entrance, Madman Zhang. He was not worthy of Qiao Liansheng shouting that word.
Qiao Xianjing had never paid a single cent for Qiao Liansheng and Qiao Lianxiang's tuition fees and living expenses. The money he earned from writing and painting had been used to go crazy with alcohol. It could be said that the siblings were relying on the money that the half-blind woman made from knitting sweaters.
When she saw Qiao Xianjing's body, Qiao Liansheng was still very sad. She felt that the simple house was missing something invisible and untouchable. She moved her lips, but she didn't call out. Even under the stern urging of the half-blind woman, Qiao Liansheng still bit her lips tightly.
The half-blind woman didn't force him anymore. She just sighed and said that she wouldn't be able to see anyone shout when she wanted to. Even now, Qiao Liansheng was very sure that she would not say that word. This was the only thing he felt that the half-blind woman had said wrongly.
Thinking of the half-blind woman, Qiao Liansheng thought about what he should carve on the clean stone tablet on Dog Bone Mountain. The half-blind woman had never told anyone her surname, and Qiao Xianjing had never called anyone who knew her.
Qiao Liansheng felt that he still had some conscience. At least he knew that the half-blind woman was called Ziyi, but he didn't know her surname. Closing her eyes, Qiao Liansheng silently recited in her heart: He had to find the half-blind woman's surname in Beijing. When he returned to Lugou Village, he would carve the half-blind woman's name on the clean stone tablet.
At dawn the next day, under Ma Houwen's shout, Qiao Liansheng reluctantly got up from bed. He was dreaming of himself in a suit pulling Qiao Lianxiang, who was dressed in beautiful clothes, around the glittering Forbidden City. Just as he was about to sit on the dragon chair in the Universal Palace, he was woken up by Ma Houwen's shout.
After casually washing up, he put on the black sweater that the half-blind woman had knitted before she died and followed Ma Houwen out the door.
The street south of Liuliqiao in Beijing was very lively. Early in the morning, breakfast was sold. The hot fog could not be considered polluted, let alone civilized. After breakfast, all kinds of stalls were set up all the way until night. It was very noisy.
Anyone who had woken up early in the morning in this area would notice something interesting as long as they had sharp eyes. Other than the fixed shops on the street, there were also stalls that were set up from noon to night, let alone the breakfast stalls that were set up early in the morning. All the stall owners had not changed their positions. Those who were more attentive could even notice that there was no deviation in the distance between the stalls.
"These shops and stalls are all managed by people.”Leading Qiao Liansheng along the noisy streets, Ma Houwen carried his shriveled black leather bag and started to talk like an old Beijinger who had been in this area for years.
"On the 5th of every month, from early in the morning to midnight, two people will collect money from each stall owner, which is to collect interest.”At this point, Ma Houwen took a bite of the meat bun he had just bought and turned his head to smile ambiguously at Qiao Liansheng. At the same time, he tightened his grip on the shriveled leather bag in his arms.
Qiao Liansheng didn't have the habit of eating breakfast, but he had not touched rice for two days in a row, so he was really hungry. Ma Houwen bought three meat buns, and seeing how he was enjoying them, it was obvious that he didn't get any for himself. After hesitating for a moment, Qiao Liansheng gritted his teeth and took out a crumpled note from his pocket. He steeled his heart and bought five of them, wolfing them down.
He had just bitten the third one. He was puzzled when he heard Ma Houwen's words." Collect interest? Are those two people from the tax bureau?" Even though she didn't go out much, it was written in the books that Qiao Liansheng wasn't a blockhead and understood this.
"The tax bureau? Haha…cough cough…"
Ma Houwen could not catch his breath and spat out the meat bun in his mouth. He even coughed out tears and shook his head with a bitter smile. He patted Qiao Liansheng's shoulder and forced a serious expression on his monkey face. It was very comical, but he still spoke in a serious tone,""Brother, let me tell you the truth! Do you see this street?"
Qiao Liansheng looked around and saw that the narrow street was full of people but was five hundred meters long. He subconsciously nodded. Qiao Liansheng didn't know what Ma Houwen wanted to see from this street. From afar, he couldn't see clearly, but from close, he could only see the expression of the stall owner who was selling breakfast. Behind the joy was deep fatigue, and there were also thick wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.
He saw it, saw it clearly, but he couldn't understand it. He could only nod subconsciously in a daze.
"Brother, let me tell you!" Ma Houwen threw the bag of breakfast on the ground in a very rude manner. He hugged Qiao Liansheng's shoulder and pointed at the street, saying slowly,""There are five or six streets like this in Fengtai District of Beijing. The traffic on each street is comparable to the traffic in the city center. Tell me, with such a large flow of people, is the main business of these stalls good?”
"I don't know." Qiao Lian had never run a business before, so he didn't know how to calculate the standard of a good business. He knew that the half-blind woman could knit one sweater every two days, or fifteen or sixteen sweaters a month, but not all of them could be sold. If they couldn't sell, the siblings would wear them as New Year's clothing, looking very happy.
"Of course it's good! And it's not just any good!" The monkey script sounded like it was playing the lute to a cow, but when he saw the green ring on Qiao Lian Sheng's left thumb, he patiently explained," It's good, but they can't make a fortune. This was because, in addition to paying taxes to the tax bureau, they also had to pay the local government monthly.”
"The local duke?"
Ma Houwen nodded and looked around. He lowered his voice and said,"Fengtai District is the most densely populated area in Beijing. There are people and snakes here, and it's not easy to manage. However, in recent years, it had been orderly. The main reason was that Fengtai District was divided into regions, and each region was controlled by different people.”
"Who are the different people?" Qiao Liansheng was like a child with an innocent face, asking endless questions.
"For example, the area around Liuliqiao is under the control of the Northeast faction, the area around Yuquan Camp is under the control of the Sichuan faction, and the area around Xinfadi is under the control of the Jiangxi faction. Did you see that? There were the most people in the northeast at Liuliqiao because it was their territory.”
Ma Houwen said they, not us. He was deliberately drawing a line between them. His long and narrow eyes flickered with sharpness from time to time. No one knew how much scheming was going on.
"What do we have to do with this?”Qiao Liansheng sensed a sense of danger. She touched her glasses and turned her head to look at Ma Houwen. She wasn't afraid or panicked, she just wanted to understand.
"Of course it's related! " Hehe…" The speed at which Ma Houwen changed his face was definitely not inferior to a professional actor who changed his face on stage. He grinned and immediately put on a wretched smile.
"Every day, there are stall owners who are forced to leave this street because they can't pay the monthly payment. The new stall owners are a little stupid, especially those who are not from the northeast. They don't know who is collecting the monthly payment. If he did it well, he would be counting money every day until his hands cramped!”
Ma Houwen's saliva splattered everywhere, and his eyes lit up. He was already imagining lying on a bed made of banknotes and covering himself with a blanket made of banknotes.
Qiao Liansheng chuckled and stared at Ma Houwen." Hehe, a fox using a tiger's might. Aren't you afraid of retribution?”
These words stunned Ma Houwen for a moment. Then, he put on a wretched smile and waved his hand."Don't we have two legs? We were born to run. What else do you think we're doing? Then how the f * ck will we be able to eat?"
Qiao Liansheng smiled but did not say anything. He agreed with Ma Houwen's words. Among the people who went to school in Lugou Village, the poorest family was the Mao family, and the one with the most pocket money was Qiao Liansheng. Because he was crafty, he had done many things like using a fox to intimidate a tiger, so he had run around a lot.
"It's settled then! Let's go. We'll wander around during the day and find a few targets. We'll make our move at night.”
Ma Houwen rubbed his palms in a wretched manner. He hunched his back and took the lead to walk in front. He stuck his head out and looked around. He chatted a little with one stall and chatted with another stall. It seemed that he was not careful. Qiao Liansheng, who was following behind Ma Houwen, knew very well that when this kid was doing the act of a weasel paying a New Year's visit to a chicken, his monkey face was smiling the most brilliantly, and it was also when he looked carefree.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。