Chapter 75 Blind Date
After the Little New Year, it is almost New Year’s Eve.

The countryside is very lively in the twelfth lunar month. Perhaps the more rural the place is, the longer the original ecology can be preserved; the older the era, the stronger the New Year atmosphere becomes. Every household is happy to make things and likes to communicate; they take the trouble to make traditional food, not because it is expensive, but because it is time-consuming and laborious.

With the help of Zhang's mother and the abundant New Year's goods bought from the city, the Zhang family's preparations for the New Year are substantial and lively. A few days ago, the family was already busy, slaughtering the New Year pig, making tofu, frying twisted dough sticks, making glutinous rice cakes, steaming vegetables and meat...

Among these farm specialties, Zhang Yunqi's favorite is glutinous rice cake. The freshly made glutinous rice cake is fragrant and soft, and you can chew it to taste its sweetness without dipping it in sugar. The beaten glutinous rice cakes can be kneaded into balls one by one and soaked in cold water. They can be stored throughout the winter. When you are hungry at night, you can roast them on the stove until soft, and eat them with sugar while watching TV.

Ever since Lao Zhang's family got a color TV, every night has been very lively, but the channels that can be received are extremely limited, there are only four channels, CCTV1, Mango TV in southern Hunan Province, and the local Jiangchuan TV Station and Fengyang TV Station.

After dinner that night, the whole family was watching TV in the main room. It was the 86 version of Journey to the West, starring Liu Xiao Ling Tong. This episode happened to be the Three Strikes on the White Bone Demon. Chunlan and Xiaoxiao were watching with great fascination, and they were discussing the development of the plot enthusiastically while watching.

Zhang Yunqi wanted to give a spoiler, but thought better of it. Fortune tellers are all blind. This story tells us a profound truth: spoilers will only lead to bad consequences.

I got so tired of watching "Journey to the West" in my previous life. It was broadcast on various TV stations during winter and summer vacations. Zhang Yunqi yawned while watching it. He seemed out of place among his two sisters who were watching the show intently.

He simply ran to the kitchen and fried dumplings with his eldest brother. Dumplings are a specialty food in Fengyang County. They are made by mixing eggs, flour and water, wrapping a meatball inside, and then throwing it into a pan and frying it until golden brown. The shape is similar to the beef balls, but the taste is different, with a softer texture and a fresher taste.

While frying dumplings, the two brothers chatted about random things, and they were still talking about Zhang Yunqi selling handheld game consoles while he was studying in the city.

Zhang Yunfeng was very interested in this.

Because it makes money, a lot of money.

Although he now earns a good income from driving a tractor for transportation, and if he works hard, he can easily make three or four hundred yuan a month, but compared with his younger brother Yunqi, that is really a drop in the bucket.

When he went to the department store to purchase goods some time ago, he saw his younger brother spending thousands of dollars without blinking an eye in order to let his family have a prosperous new year. While he was happy for his brother's magnanimity and understanding, he also felt a little ashamed. However, he was still very young, and the thing he had the most was ambition. With such a capable younger brother in the family, of course he wanted to follow suit and move forward.

Zhang Yunqi half-jokingly and half-seriously said to his elder brother: "Why don't you come with me to the city to do business after the New Year? Staying in the village, you'll be stuck in some shitty things all day long, and there's no future for you."

Perhaps because he had more and more confidence in his brother's ability, Zhang Yunfeng was very interested and asked, "What can I, a farmer, do in the city?"

Zhang Yunqi said: "You can do anything. The economy is so good now, and there is money to be made in anything. If you don't know how to do it, you can start with a small business, learn how to do it, step by step, and accumulate experience."

Zhang Yunfeng asked: "Do you think I can do it?"

This question was asked a little too cautiously.

I'm not stupid, and there's no such thing as whether a business can be done or not. But the fact that my brother asked this shows that he still has this idea in his mind.

This is something worth celebrating. After all, if we want to bring the whole family to the city, we must first find a career for the eldest brother in the city. Going out will be good for the eldest brother's vision and experience. In the future, the Zhang family will be big and the eldest brother needs to grow. Zhang Yunqi said, "It's not a question of whether it can be done or not. As long as you are willing to do it, you will definitely be able to do it. When we were selling flue-cured tobacco half a year ago, you didn't know how to do this business, but later you became very skilled at it."

Zhang Yunfeng felt that these words made a lot of sense.

Of course, these are just small talk, and there is no definite number yet. Zhang Yunfeng doesn't have the time or energy to think about it. Now it is getting closer and closer to New Year's Eve, and he has a lot of things to do. What's worse is that Zhang's mother has arranged a series of blind dates for him.

As the year was about to pass, Zhang Yunfeng was one year older, from 23 to 24. Every time Zhang's mother thought about this, she was extremely anxious. She felt more and more sorry for her son. Other people's sons at this age already had children, but Yunfeng was still single. Twenty-four years old was not considered old for a government official, but for a farmer, it was already too old. If she didn't hurry up, she would miss out on her son's life.

No! We have to do this quickly.

In the past, the family was poor and could not afford the dowry, and girls from other families also looked down on the Zhang family. But now it is different. As long as her son likes a girl, she is willing to give any dowry.

Zhang Ma then informed Aunt Liu and asked her to make an introduction. Aunt Liu was a famous matchmaker in the area. When she heard that she wanted to introduce Zhang Yunfeng, she agreed without a second thought and said, "Based on your family's conditions, I guarantee you will find a virgin girl with black eyebrows, big eyes, a big butt and a plump bottom."

Aunt Liu kept her word and did a great job.

She introduced four girls to Zhang Yunfeng in succession. In Zhang Yunqi's opinion, their conditions were all pretty good. Either they came from wealthy families; or they made it clear that they did not want any dowry and only wanted Zhang Yunfeng as a person; or they were good-looking and had a well-developed body, which was exactly the kind of woman that farmers dreamed of. But in the end, none of them worked out.

Because Zhang Yunfeng felt it was inappropriate.

In fact, ever since Zhang Ma arranged a blind date for him, Zhang Yunfeng's heart has been churning. He knew that this would happen sooner or later. He is indeed not young anymore. People of his age in the village already have wives and children. Seeing young couples being affectionate with each other, he can't help but feel a little confused. However, he is not willing to go on a blind date.

Aunt Liu was at a loss, and she said directly to Aunt Zhang who came to her house: "I can't do this introduction anymore, Yunfeng's mother, logically speaking, with your family's current conditions, Yunfeng is such a good young man, you can pick whoever you want, but the problem is that he doesn't pick anyone, he says he's not suitable when I introduce one, and he says he's not suitable when I introduce another, so how can I introduce him?"

After hearing this, Mother Zhang was so angry that she went home and yelled at Zhang Yunfeng. Chunlan and Xiaoxiao were so scared that they didn't even dare to watch "Journey to the West". Zhang Yunfeng just squatted at the gate of the yard, puffing on his cigarette without saying a word.

Zhang Yunqi, who was peeling winter bamboo shoots to prepare lunch, dropped his work, walked over and pulled Zhang Ma aside, and smiled and told her: "Brother already has someone he likes, don't arrange a blind date for him, it can't be forced."

******
　It's the 29th day of the lunar year, and I have a bad cold. I forced myself to stay up until 3 a.m. to update you all.

　　Everyone, please add some collections and recommendations.

　　Tired, went to sleep.

(End of this chapter)