Chapter 316 Born towards the sun
It was almost 9 o'clock when we finished watching the movie.

Zhang Yunqi and Chu Jian came out of the cinema when Ximen Street was at its busiest. The street was brightly lit, shops were lined up, and dense crowds of people filled the entire street like ants. There was a busy karaoke stand on the street. A few college-looking boys formed a makeshift rock band. They sang and danced in the middle of the night. The song they sang was Zhang Chu's "Sister":
This winter, it won't snow.
Standing on the road without blinking
My heartbeat is still gentle...

……

It was a late winter night in 1994, and it was very cold.

In the biting cold wind, Zhang Yunqi and Chu Jian walked through the surging crowd. Street lights were on on both sides of the road. The light was very warm, and his heartbeat was so gentle that it almost melted his heart.

Compared to Ximen Pedestrian Street twenty years later, this place at this moment is like an old, mottled photo in his memory, old, yellowed, familiar and distant, but he feels at ease in his heart.

Exiting the pedestrian street, the two came to the side of the road at Xiaonanmen, which was filled with various night snack stalls and a variety of grocery stores. Zhang Yunqi remembered that there was a narrow alley diagonally opposite. In the alley, there was a row of neat bungalows that had been converted into a hair salon. There were some girls sitting inside, and it was unclear whether they were getting a haircut or doing something else.

The 90s was the intersection of the 80s idealism and the new century consumerism. The thinking of ordinary people has undergone earth-shaking changes, from paying attention to the world and the fate of the country to paying attention to personal circumstances, and gradually moving away from grand narratives. However, many conservatives are increasingly dissatisfied with this society that is sliding towards commercialization and materialism. They hate the ugliness of the market economy, the degeneration of ideas and the mediocrity of society. Famous ones include Zhang Chengzhi and Zhang Wei, who clearly put forward the proposition of opposing the entire secular society and the masses, and called for a clean spirit.

However, Zhang Yunqi loves these streets full of human life.

There were not many cars in that era, and people mostly used bicycles for transportation. However, in order to occupy a favorable position and grab business, the small vendors on Ximen Street set up all kinds of small stalls that occupied most of the street, causing traffic congestion, garbage everywhere, and difficulty for tourists to travel.

Zhang Yunqi couldn't help thinking that the old Longjingyuan Cannery was not far from here, and it was his idea to build a night market there a long time ago. He could reach an agreement with the government to move all those night snack stalls there, and make unified plans and arrangements. On the one hand, it would change the dirty and messy situation of Ximen Street, Jiangchuan's golden signboard, and at the same time boost consumption.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yunqi said to Chu Jian: "Shall we eat something?"

When I first saw him, I thought Zhang Yunqi was hungry, so I nodded and said yes.

It was getting late, so Zhang Yunqi found a barbecue stall among a bunch of messy stalls that seemed to have fewer customers. This was a time-consuming thing, and it would not be good to make Chu Jian stay up late.

The owner of the barbecue stall was a girl who looked to be in her early twenties. She had long hair tied in a ponytail and was pretty and clean. Business might not be good, so she was trying hard to attract passers-by to patronize her. When she saw Zhang Yunqi and Chu Jian coming over, she immediately followed them with a barbecue order, very enthusiastic: "Hey, do you want to have barbecue with your girlfriend? What do you want to eat? In addition to barbecue, I also have spicy snails, grilled leeks, and weird chicken wings..."

"A serving of spicy snails, three pork trotters, four chicken wings, twenty lamb skewers, two saury..." Zhang Yunqi thought it was too cold to eat outside, so he ordered more, so he took some back for Xiaoxiao and Chunlan to share.

After ordering the skewers, Zhang Yun got up and walked to the grill, handing the skewers list to the girl: "It's getting late, pack it up for me."

At this point, his eyes were attracted by a boy in the barbecue stall. The boy was sitting on a low stool with his back to the barbecue stall, skewering lamb. Perhaps he heard Zhang Yunqi's voice and turned his head to look over.

Zhang Yunqi was stunned for a moment. The boy turned out to be Yang Wei.

What happened next was unexpected. When Yang Wei saw Zhang Yunqi and Chu Jian, his face immediately turned red as if it was on fire, and he subconsciously turned his head away.

In the dark night, there was only a small light bulb hanging next to the charcoal grill on the barbecue stall. It was not on and the surrounding light was dim. Yang Wei probably thought that Zhang Yunqi and Chu Jian did not recognize him, so he turned his back to the two of them and squatted behind the barbecue stall to skewer skewers.

I was stunned when I first saw it.

Zhang Yunqi next to him thought for a moment and said to the girl who was busy grilling, "Boss, your stall and grill are new. You must have just started this business not long ago. How is your business?"

The girl wiped the sweat from her forehead, sprinkled seasoning on the mutton skewers in a panic, and said with an apologetic smile: "We've just opened for half a month, and business isn't very good. The competition is too fierce, and it's not easy to do business. Please take care of our business in the future. By the way, brother, can you eat spicy food?" Zhang Yunqi probably knew that this girl was not cut out for business, and she was a little naive. She didn't hear the hidden meaning of his words at all. He still remembered that Yang Wei had an older sister who studied at Xiangnan College, and it was this girl as expected.

Zhang Yunqi nodded: "It's OK if it's slightly spicy."

The snails and pork knuckles were all prepared in advance, so they only needed to be heated up slightly. It was just that grilling them on the spot took time. After about 20 minutes, the skewers were ready. The girl packed them and handed them to Zhang Yunqi, bending over and politely saying, "If it tastes good, you're welcome to come again next time."

Zhang Yunqi smiled and nodded, took a large bag of skewers, paid the money, and left with Chu Jian.

They had not spoken on the way to the first meeting, and when Zhang Yunqi stopped a taxi and was on his way home, she pursed her lips and asked: "Why didn't you say hello?"

Zhang Yunqi smiled and took a bite of the mutton skewer. The taste was just average. "Why do you have to say hello?"

Chu Jian said: "He is Yang Wei, right? You are my buddy."

Zhang Yunqi said: "Yes, he is my good buddy, but did he say hello to us? He subconsciously dodged to the side when he saw me, so he didn't want to be recognized by us in this situation. He felt that it was embarrassing for us classmates to see him setting up a stall outside. It would be boring for me to call him at this time."

"But……"

"But what?"

"You're right. I felt that, too. I just don't understand why Yang Wei acted like this. I don't think it's embarrassing to set up a stall and earn money with my own hands. Why would he treat his good friend like this?"

Zhang Yunqi nodded, agreeing with this statement.

Is there anything wrong with this statement?
No.

He also knew that Chu Jian was a little troubled, because Chu Jian did not have enough life experience to understand that most young people in the world were not like her, living in a swamp but still growing luxuriantly towards the sun.

Young people are inferior and sensitive. People aged 17 or 18 are most afraid of the damage to their self-esteem caused by poverty. When Zhang Yunqi was in the first year of high school, he carried a snakeskin bag outside to buy handheld mobile phones all day long. How did his classmates look at him? If he did not have a heart that had experienced ups and downs, how could he, a peddler, endure the gossip of others and the sarcasm of those store owners?

This is probably what Yang Wei is like.

He had to set up a stall to make a living, which must be because his family was not well off. When a young man was trapped in some kind of predicament due to poverty, he would be overly self-respecting and would often feel that others were laughing at his poverty. So in such a situation, Zhang Yunqi knew that any action he made towards Yang Wei would be unfriendly, and excessive concern would only turn into pity.

When Chu Jian saw that Zhang Yunqi had been silent for a long time, he asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Zhang Yunqi came back to his senses, reached out and held Chu Jian's cold hand in his palm, and said: "I don't quite understand one thing. I remember that Yang Wei's family conditions should be okay. When I lived in the dormitory in the first year of high school, Kaizi said that Yang Wei's mother seemed to be a small leader in the state-owned enterprise Red Star Electronics Factory. The factory was doing well, so why would she come out to open a stall? Of course, in my opinion, setting up a barbecue stall is much more promising than living a life of idleness in the factory."

Chu Jian pursed his lips and said, "Why don't you ask him at school?"

******
(End of this chapter)