Chapter 277 Quiet Night
In the early morning, Zhang Yunqi arrived in Jiangchuan.

After he sent Ji Ling home, he went straight to Hongshan Lane.

The night was already dark, with dim lights in the windows on both sides of the road. The wind was stuffy, with hot air, and there were occasional cries of babies. The doors of low-rise houses were open, and the elderly were lying in rocking chairs fanning themselves to cool off. On this hot night in midsummer 1994, who knows how many people would have trouble sleeping all night.

Arriving at Chu Jian's house, Zhang Yunqi parked the car and walked in. He met his father, Old Man Zhang, who was sitting at the gate of the courtyard enjoying the cool air. When he saw that it was Zhang Yunqi who came in, he stood up and said, "Third brother, you are back from the provincial capital."

Zhang Yunqi nodded: "It's so late, Dad, why are you here?"

Old man Zhang sighed, "The funeral hall is not ready yet. This family is full of orphans and widows, and there is not even a capable man. Dapeng's wife has fainted from crying several times. Your mother is worried, so she asked me to come and keep watch for one night."

Zhang Yunqi patted the dirt on the door edge and sat on it. Seeing his father holding a pipe, he grabbed a handful of local tobacco from Yunxi Village and rolled a cigarette stick with a cut newspaper. However, he tried several times but couldn't roll it well. When Old Man Zhang saw this, he took the pipe of tobacco, rolled a cigarette in two or three strokes and handed it to him: "You are young, so smoke less."

Zhang Yunqi nodded and agreed: "When will the burial be held?"

Old man Zhang smoked his cigarette and said, "The body is in the freezer of the crematorium. It will be cremated tomorrow and put in the mourning hall. Dingxian will be buried next Saturday."

Zhang Yunqi nodded.

Old man Zhang said, "My son, please analyze this for me. Is Dapeng's lottery ticket real or fake? I'm confused now. The city sports lottery center insisted that Dapeng's winning lottery ticket was fake, and even held a special press conference on the city TV. But...if it was fake, why would Dapeng behave so abnormally? Oh! Now he has lost his life."

Zhang Yunqi dusted off his cigarette ashes and said, "Dad, I'm not wise after the event. Now that it has happened, don't think too much about it. It's his own fate. I just think you should have called me earlier to tell me about this."

Old man Zhang sighed again, "Who said it wasn't true? It's just that no one believed Dapeng at that time. They all thought his lottery ticket was fake. Even his wife advised him to stop making trouble and live a good life. Besides, you were busy over there at that time. Who would have thought... it would be like this."

Zhang Yunqi asked: "What happened to the car accident?"

Old man Zhang said, "This is all by accident. Dapeng has been staying in the casino these days and has made himself look half-human and half-ghost. He got drunk last night and fell on the road. That's when he got into trouble. He was already dead when he was sent to the hospital. After the police inspected the scene, they determined that the driver did not violate any driving regulations and compensated him with 1000 yuan for the funeral expenses."

Zhang Yunqi thought for a moment and said, "Has the driver been released?"

Old man Zhang nodded.

"Yunqi?" a voice came from behind.

Zhang Yunqi turned his head and saw Chu Jian appear in the courtyard.

He put out his cigarette, stood up and said to Old Man Zhang, "Dad, there are still many things to deal with tomorrow. How about I take you home to rest first? I'll stay here tonight and you can come back tomorrow morning. By then, we have to discuss the matter of setting up the funeral hall with the neighborhood committee here."

Just as Old Man Zhang was about to speak, Zhang Yunqi said, "You are old and can't stand the night, and there is no place to sleep here."

Old man Zhang thought about it and finally nodded: "Then I will go back first. Your mother is in the house with Dapeng's wife. You are older and more sensible. Please take care of her. Don't send me off. The way is not far. I will walk there by myself and come back tomorrow. Call me if you have anything."

Old man Zhang gave a few instructions and left with his hands behind his back.

Zhang Yunqi and Chu Jian sat on the threshold of the courtyard without speaking for a long time. Under the dim light, he looked at her. The girl's seemingly calm face was a little pale. For a moment, Zhang Yunqi seemed to have returned to the night of the 88th anniversary celebration of the No. 16 Middle School in the city, the night of the girl's th birthday, in this shabby courtyard, chewing on the misery of the world alone.

"Just got back from Ritsu?"

"Yes, I just came back. I was a bit busy over there, so I didn't have time to buy you a gift. Summer vacation is coming soon. How about we go to Lijin for a walk then?"

Chu Jian smiled, nodded and said, "You haven't eaten yet? I'll make you a bowl of noodles." Zhang Yunqi smiled and nodded.

The noodles were cooked very quickly. Chu Jian boiled a small pot of water, beat two eggs, put in a small bunch of noodles, and when they were soft, he added oil, salt, soy sauce and MSG. He then took the noodles out, put on some chopped green onions, and called Zhang Yunqi, who was talking to his mother in the room, to eat the noodles.

The noodles tasted fragrant. Zhang Yunqi was really hungry. He just listened to the intermittent crying in the room and looked at Chu Jian who was sitting next to him. He felt unhappy. He took a chopstick of noodles and smiled at Chu Jian who was sitting quietly opposite him: "What are you thinking about?"

"When you were not around, I thought a lot." Chu Jian pursed his lips and said to himself: "When you were here, I didn't think about anything."

Zhang Yunqi stuffed the noodles into his mouth and smiled: "Then don't think about anything, everything will be fine."

There were only two rooms in Chu Jian's house. Jiang Feng and Zhang Ma slept in one room, and Chu Jian and Chu Xin slept in another. Fortunately, the weather was very hot, so after eating noodles, Zhang Yunqi found a recliner, lit mosquito coils, and slept under the eaves of the courtyard.

The sleep was not very good, there were a lot of mosquitoes.

He was just too tired from running around for days and fell asleep soon. In a daze, he always felt that there was someone beside him, and it seemed like he was in a dream. The person in the dream looked like Chu Dapeng, a driver with a blurry face was instructed by someone to drive his car and kill him!

Zhang Yunqi woke up as soon as the sky began to lighten.

He washed his face with well water with his bare chest. While pouring the water, he found his short-sleeved shirt hanging on the clothesline under the courtyard wall. It had dried after a night of wind. He took it down and put it on. He smelled a faint fragrance, the first scent of grass on his body.

Zhang Yunqi drove straight to Liansheng.

After arriving at the office, he called Li Jilin and asked him to come to the office.

During working hours, employees came to Zhang Yunqi for signatures one after another for reimbursement, business trips, procurement, etc. Of course, they had to reach a certain amount before they could ask him to sign. For example, for reimbursement, they had to ask him to sign when it reached 500 or above. It was just that he had been away for such a long time and had accumulated a lot of money.

After everything was signed, Li Jilin came.

The two chatted about placing advertisements on Xiangnan TV and introducing production lines, and reported on the growth of canned food sales last month. Finally, Li Jilin said, "Now the business of our cannery has improved. Mayor Yang plans to come to the cannery for inspection on the 24th. You may need to take time out to accompany him then."

Zhang Yunqi nodded: "I have contacted a reporter from the Xiangnan Provincial Newspaper. I will invite her to come and take a look. It would be nice if she can do a report." After a pause, he asked, "Old Li, how do we cooperate with the Municipal Sports Lottery Center?"

Li Jilin didn't know why Zhang Yunqi suddenly cared about this specific business: "We are cooperating with lottery sellers. The Sports Bureau helped us to say hello. The lottery sellers are also under great pressure from the cost of prizes. It is beneficial to both parties. We hit it off immediately."

Zhang Yunqi didn't know what was going on: "Has the city sports lottery center's lottery sales been completely contracted out?"

Li Jilin nodded: "The higher-ups don't want to take on the risk, and not all lottery tickets can be sold, so they can easily lose money. So they just contracted out the lottery sales business and just sit back and collect 35+1 income."

“Who is the contractor?”

"Mr. Lin Yongqiang."

"Are you familiar with this Lin Yongqiang?"

"Just an acquaintance."

"Make an appointment with him. I want to treat him to a meal. Oh, and the leaders of the Municipal Sports Lottery Center."

(End of this chapter)