In 1959, what's wrong with me pedaling a tricycle?

When everyone got off work that evening, they all rushed to Wang Xing's house, especially his uncles and cousins. He was catching up on sleep the night he got back, and Er Gouzi came over the second night, so no one got to say more than a few words to him.

Everyone was very happy when they learned that Wang Xingguo would be working in Beijing and wouldn't be traveling around as often.

Wang Xingguo is their backbone; as long as he's there, they have nothing to fear.

Wang Yongchang brought over a jar of liquor and said to Wang Xingguo, "This is sweet potato liquor brewed by the clan itself. It's really good. I originally wanted to bring back more, but Uncle Twenty-One said he wanted to save some to give to you for the New Year. That guy is really biased."

Wang Xingguo laughed and said, "Aren't you being biased? This wine jar is clearly unopened. Were you just waiting for me to come back before opening it?"

Everyone laughed. More and more people were leaving get off work, and some were going home to ask their wives to prepare snacks for them to eat and drink with tonight.

Those who were younger or of lower seniority could not sit inside the house and had to go to sit next door at Wang Xingbang's place.

Before long, they started drinking. Now that resources are much more plentiful, everyone's lives are getting better.

One restaurant frys an egg, another makes a fish; the table is piled high with dishes.

"Come on, let's celebrate that we won't have to travel so much anymore, and let's wish our country continued strength! Cheers!"

"We absolutely have to drink to that!"

"Hey, let's do it!"

The atmosphere became lively, and everyone raised their glasses to drink.

Wang Xingguo was also very happy to see that everyone's complexion had improved, which made him very gratified.

We had a great time drinking, and no one knew how much we drank. Anyway, we were all happy and drank until almost nine o'clock before we started to leave and go home.

Wang Xingguo's face was flushed from drinking, but his older brother couldn't handle it; he wasn't a good drinker and had already gone home to rest after getting drunk.

Wang Xingning helped clean up the mess, while Wang Xingmin held Wang Niannian and played with her.

Unfortunately, Wang Niannian can't call him yet. She can only say simple words like "daddy," "mommy," "eat," and "candy."

However, she already recognized him, so when her familiar uncle Wang Xingmin teased her, she would smile at him.

Only Li Laishun, Director Zhao, and Wang Xingguo remained in the room. The three lit cigarettes, and Wang Xingguo asked, "Dad, isn't Wenlong almost old enough to get married? Is he dating anyone?"

Li Laishun shook his head and said, "This brat has been set up on two blind dates, but neither of them worked out. The girls thought he was dishonest and unreliable."

Wang Xingguo frowned and asked, "What's going on? Has Wenlong gone astray?"

Li Laishun shook his head somewhat awkwardly, then explained, "It's not that he's gone astray, it's just that this brat doesn't know how to talk. He always tells girls that his brother-in-law is a cadre and how powerful he is. But this silly boy, when the girls hear him say that, they think he's unreliable and not the kind of person who's honest enough to settle down, so they don't want to continue seeing him."

Wang Xingguo was stunned. He said, both amused and exasperated, "Is Wenlong stupid? How could he say something like that? People are going on blind dates with him, and instead of talking about his own strengths and advantages, why is he talking about me, his brother-in-law?"

Li Laishun was somewhat helpless because his son was too unreliable.

The girl is on a blind date with him, not with his brother-in-law. Why does he keep mentioning how amazing his brother-in-law is? Doesn't that just make him look incompetent?

Some things are really speechless.

Director Zhao laughed and said, "Old Li, next time tell him not to mention Xingguo. If he has to mention it, he should mention me. Just say that there's an old man who's the director of the neighborhood office. Maybe people will pay more attention then. What's the use of mentioning Xingguo? It's a classified unit. If someone asks him what unit his brother-in-law works for, and he can't even say the name of the unit, then people will think he's bragging and is an unreliable person."

Wang Xingguo nodded in approval, "That's good. Let's do it my uncle said. At least that way it sounds more reliable to people. My workplace can't be mentioned to outsiders, so it's normal for people to think he's bragging."

Li Laishun looked at Director Zhao and asked, "Director Zhao, do you have any suitable girls you could introduce?"

Director Zhao paused for a moment, then laughed and said, "No, Lao Li, you're in too much of a hurry. I'm a very busy director of the subdistrict office. Do you want me to be a matchmaker?"

Wang Xingmin said with a smile, "Uncle, could you introduce a reliable matchmaker to my Uncle Li?"

Director Zhao nodded and said, "That's no problem. I'll go back and ask the women's affairs officer to see which matchmaker is more reliable, and then I'll recommend one to you, Lao Li."

Actually, it's not that difficult. Li Wenlong's job is not bad; in fact, he's quite popular in the marriage market.

However, Wang Xingguo didn't want to worry about these things. He was just asking casually, after all, it was only right for a brother-in-law to show concern.

After everyone finished their cigarettes, they dispersed and went back to rest.

Wang Xingguo had his arm around Li Xiuping, but unfortunately their daughter was with them.

The son sleeps alone in his crib, but the daughter can't; she prefers to sleep with Li Xiuping.

The little girl is quite insecure; she cries and fusses whenever she opens her eyes and can't see her mother.

There's nothing we can do; the child is still so young, it's hard for the couple to even have a moment of intimacy.

It's not that there's no way, it's just that the toilet area isn't very spacious...

The next day at noon, after having lunch, Wang Xingguo took a bucket and went out to buy fish to raise.

My daughter mainly likes to eat fish porridge or minced meat porridge.

He planned to bring back more fish to keep in the tank, so that Li Xiuping could easily kill and cook the fish for her daughter, remove the bones, and then cook porridge for her.

There was nothing Wang Xingguo could do; he admitted that he was somewhat biased towards his daughter.

No brat is as sweet as a daughter.

In November, Beijing is actually quite cool, but with the midday sun shining, it's still quite comfortable.

Wang Xingguo took a stroll and didn't come away empty-handed. He bought dozens of bottles of wine and put them in his spatial storage. He didn't have much wine left and needed to stock up.

Moreover, alcohol is not expensive now. Moutai is five yuan a bottle, Wuliangye and Fenjiu are three yuan a bottle, and Erguotou is only two yuan a bottle.

In other words, the person reselling alcohol doesn't have that much stock, otherwise he would want to buy more and hoard it.

There wasn't anything missing at home, so after looking around, Wang Xingguo bought a few candied hawthorns and rode his bicycle home with the fish.

As soon as he returned to the gate of the compound, a security guard pulled him aside and whispered, "Director Wang, Director Li from the compound is back looking for you. You should go home right away."

Upon hearing this, Wang Xingguo felt a headache coming on. Was Grandpa Li trying to drag him back to work overtime again?

He's only on his fourth day off, and he really doesn't want to work overtime...