After some persuasion (deception) by Ji Changze, he successfully pulled his eldest brother back from the ‘drowning road’.
He was full of himself, saying ‘I’m doing this for your own good’. The brother took Ji Changguang’s shoulder and walked along to the front door of the house alongside him.
“You, don’t always be angry with Mom. You should be soft with her, and then accompany Dad to do some work and say more good things. You’re Mom and Dad’s own child, can they really ignore you for a lifetime?”
Ji Changguang is a large, broad-shouldered man, who is awkwardly being pushed forward by his brother and can’t help but want to retreat. He only manages to force out a few words after a while.
Ji Changze stopped pushing him, and stood still to think.
In fact, Ji Changguang really has nothing to say to his parents, he is honest and had no bad intentions. Even if he really likes his wife, he has never thought of staying away from his parents’ side because of her.
That’s right, he’s not very talkative.
But just now when he was desperate to go home, he had to use his wife’s name as an excuse. If he left his parents to go back for his wife, how could Mother Ji not be mad at him?
If this was Ji Changze, he could settle the matter in less than 5 minutes, but as this was Ji Changguang, a simple, honest man….
Ji Changze thought for a moment, reached out, and patted his brother on the shoulder. “Brother, if you are like this… I’ll teach you a few phrases to say, and when you go in later, you can tell Mom and Dad that…”
The two brothers were standing at the door whispering, when a man passing by carrying firewood saw them and greeted them with a smile from afar.
“Changguang is back, are you seeing your parents?”
Ji Changguang couldn’t speak very well, so he smiled at the man and greeted him, “Seventh Uncle!”
(Tnote: Seventh Uncle = this Uncle must be a distant cousin of his parent’s and is number seven by seniority.)
On the contrary, Ji Changze, who was not called out, was in high spirits all of a sudden. He walked up to the big man in a few steps, reaching out to help him hold the wooden frame in which the firewood was placed, then speaking as his face stretched into a smile.
“Yeah, isn’t my brother on vacation? He just came back with some stuff. Uncle, you’ve just come down from the mountain, haven’t you? Aren’t you tired in the cold? I’ll hold some of your things for you. By the way, Seventh Uncle, the bamboo shoots you gave me last time were particularly delicious, do you still have any at home?”
“Yes, yes, this time I went up the mountain and found a little bit after digging, just inside the basket. You look through it. There is firewood on top. Take it back and eat it quickly.”
Ji Changguang watched his brother’s smile grow, and followed him with special enthusiasm. His brother’s words were so sweet when he said, “How can I take it for free? In this case, Seventh Uncle, I’ll help you hold the back and you can relax, I’ll send you home, just as a thank you for giving us bamboo shoots to eat.”
Their Seventh Uncle’s wrinkled face smiled benevolently, and he looked at Ji Changze with a notably affectionate gaze.
He also boasted, “You are a child who knows how to care for people and is very filial.”
Ji Changguang was watching his brother speak very well, but noticed his brother’s hands were only holding onto the back of the bamboo basket with a little bit of effort.
It was as if he suddenly realized why his Mom and Dad preferred Changze every time when forced to choose between the down-to-earth and capable him and the sweet-talking Changze,.
At the same time, Ji Changguang suddenly had a question in his heart.
Is it possible that Changze was talking to the Seventh Uncle so much in order to teach his brother?
Just as he was thinking, Ji Changze stood ready aside his Seventh Uncle, not forgetting to wave back at Ji Changguang. “Brother, you go back first, don’t forget what I taught you, if you do as I say, it will work.”
After thinking about it, he added, “It doesn’t matter if you can’t. I will definitely put in a good word for you when I come back. Don’t thank me. You are my brother. If I don’t help you, who will?”
Ji Changguang, who was still mulling it over in his head, was immediately touched.
When he was a child, Changze’s body was weak because of him, and when he grew up, Changze couldn’t hope to have any future aspirations. Yet he was still kind and even willing to help his relationship with their parents.
He even complained about Changze before, thinking that Mom and Dad were encouraged by Changze to ask him for money and things.
For a moment, Ji Changguang looked at his brother with guilt.
“Okay brother, don’t thank me, hurry inside, it’s weirdly cold. Tonight we’ll sleep in one room, I’ll tell you about what I said earlier.”
Seeing that Ji Changguang’s gratitude had increased, Ji Changze wasn’t surprised.
Anyway, as long as the older brother doesn’t go out at night and fall into the ditch…
The point now is that he, a poor man who lives off of his Mom and his Dad, was getting married.
Before the original owner asked for money from his parents, and spent it all on food, drinks and movies, Ji Changze felt that it was unacceptable for him to get married in this situation.
And he still owes the older brother’s family a bicycle.
Fools taken care of by fools, no, it’s younger brother taken care of by brotherly love.
Ji Changguang had saved up for so long, so he definitely had to pay it back.
Ji Changze’s mind quickly spun through multiple possible solutions, and he turned his head to follow his Seventh Uncle.
He called the man Seventh Uncle, and this one, of course, also had the surname of Ji, but wasn’t quite Ji Changze’s biological uncle, rather a third cousin. In seniority, he was Ji Changze’s uncle.
These days, even though everyone eats from a big pot, they’re all from the same village, so if you go up to the mountains and get yourself some food, no one will say anything. It’s just that the terrain on their side is very dangerous on the mountain, and it’s only the old Seventh Uncle Ji, who learned some hunting skills from their elders when they were young, who dares to go up the mountain and still manage to get out.
(TNote: everyone eats from the same pot = is a metaphor for the egalitarian in distribution.)
Because he always goes up the mountain, occasionally he would pick up bird’s eggs, mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots and so on. The body’s original owner, who was too lazy to work and had eyes for good food and drinks, pestered the man.
Every time he met the Seventh Uncle coming down from the mountain, he approached him and succeeded in getting something to eat from him.
He is said to have had a wife and a son when he was young, and his son left first when he was 5 or 6 years old, and his wife wasn’t too healthy and followed suit. The man was poor and an emotional mess at the time, so he never sought another.
He was particularly fond of children, probably because he lost his own son too early. Especially when the original owner was white and clean (lazy, no work, no tan), and looked at him (food in his hand), and his sweet mouth said “When he grew up, he would give his uncle a pension (for the sake of free food)”, and the fully convinced Seventh Uncle Ji couldn’t wait to treat this child as his own.
It can be said that the reason why the original owner could grow up so white and clean was 30% as a result of being close to Seventh Uncle Ji.
While the Seventh Uncle Ji regarded the original owner as his own child, the original owner only regarded him as a good fool for believing him.
After eating and drinking, he could still affectionately call him Uncle. When the uncle couldn’t do any more work, and couldn’t go up the mountain to get food, he avoided him and left, the original owner’s memory of that event felt bleak and miserable. In fact, he didn’t think about how much the Uncle wanted the original owner to take care of himself, just hoping to get a descendant’s filial piety, not to mention sending money and food, just to have someone visit him like family.
As a result, the elder cherished the child, but met a white wolf like the original owner.
It’s not like no one in the village had never seen this type of thing happen. After all, the original owner’s behavior simply screams the four big letters of shamelessness.
(TNote: shameless = 厚颜无耻 [hòu yán wú chǐ] = four letters/pinyin characters in the word shamelessness, literally read: thick face no shame.)
When a child wants something, he can still be said to be thoughtless. Now that he’s in his late twenties, he could still shamelessly follow behind an old man who has worked hard to find a bit of food in his sixties, in order to leech food off of him.
The old man’s walk was already shaky, but the original owner still cheats food from him. Even animals wouldn’t do such a thing!
Ji Changze followed Seventh Uncle Ji all the way, and he didn’t feel the disdain of the villagers passing by.
He reckons that all these glances, if they were summed up, would amount to one sentence:
[Look at this shameless man, cheating the old man again.]
Honestly, the average person wouldn’t be able to endure being looked at with such contempt by so many people.
Fortunately, Ji Changze was thick-skinned.
On the way, when people looked at him, he looked at them back with particular confidence, as if to say, ‘I’ll do whatever I want.’
Otherwise, people are very susceptible. When others see him, and he seems guilty, then those suspicions will only get even brighter.
But now, when people look at him, he looks righteously back at them, and the people watching subconsciously look away or down.
Ji Changze held the firewood basket carried by Seventh Uncle Ji in one hand, so he walked gallantly all the way past them.
That self-confident attitude made people who looked at him with disdain involuntarily look away (from their guilty conscience) and pretend that nothing had happened.
They didn’t react until Ji Changze walked away.
No, it’s Ji Changze who obviously did something wrong. What are the people guilty of?
They don’t shamelessly take advantage of the elderly.
This Ji Changze is really getting stinky and shameless.
Ji Changze, who arrived at the Seventh Uncle’s house, was really deceiving the old man. “Seventh Uncle, I took the winter bamboo shoots you gave me to my buddy in the city last time. His wife especially likes to eat them, so she asked me to see if I could bring them to him again. He is willing to spend money to buy them. I’m not sure I can say this just now on the road, but do you think you could sell him these winter shoots of yours?”
Seventh Uncle Ji was cheerfully holding the winter shoots to give him a fill, but now when he heard that Ji Changze actually wanted to pay, he even waved his hand.
“No, you can just take it, what do you need to pay for?”
“Eh, ah, you are my Uncle, and not his Uncle, our uncle and nephew certainly don’t talk about money, but to my buddy, there still has to be a good deal. He won’t feel too good, getting something for free.”
Ji Changze takes money out of his pocket as he speaks, calculates, then takes it and puts it into Seventh Uncle Ji’s hand. “You can keep it, and he doesn’t want it only this time. Next time, Uncle, if you get these wild goods from the mountain again, he will spend money to buy them. Look at your torn clothes! Take the money, buy new clothes that are thick and sturdy. And this bedding, too! Isn’t it cold, sleeping with this?”
Seventh Uncle Ji looked at the money in his hand blankly. “He spends money every time? Isn’t this profiteering? That’s no good, the Leader said that it’s a sign of capitalism, and it will be punished.”
(TNote: China in the 80’s; capitalism was a big no-no, but starting to be discussed in the government.)
Ji Changze actually knows that the country is already trying to change its economic policy at this time, but he had to try it out first. Their party is not fully established, and new laws are probably not going to be passed for a while, and business is still not open and honest.
Who says he is doing business?
Ji Changze said, “Uncle, what are you thinking, that I’m that kind of person? This is not about capitalism, this is my friend, whose wife is pregnant, and every day she wants to eat this and that, but he has no ticket to buy such things. That’s why he asked me to ask you.”
Uncle Ji still doesn’t care. He’s been through the turmoil and knows what a crime it is to engage in profiteering.
The old man kept pushing the money to Ji Changze.
“No, no, it doesn’t work for me. I can’t have this money. Changze, I live in a down-to-earth way, and I can’t take profit.”
“How can this be profiteering?”
Ji Changze followed the steps: “Uncle, let me ask you, you found those mountain goods, and because you care for me, you gave them to me, right?”
“I have a good relationship with my friend. I sent him some mountain products to eat. We have a good relationship, right?”
Seventh Uncle Ji nodded again.
Ji Changze continued, “Then my friend is grateful to me, and doesn’t know how to thank me, so he offered some money for me to spend. It is also because our friendship is good, right?”
Seventh Uncle Ji had a confused look on his face, but he nodded.
Ji Changze clapped his hands, “You see, that makes it clear.”
“Tell me again, what did I give you this money for?”
Seventh Uncle Ji looked down at the money and then at his nephew.
Stared at his nephew, then once more at the money.
Ji Changze smiled and eagerly patted Seventh Uncle Ji’s back.
“Uncle, don’t worry, I will definitely honor you a lot in the future.”