The summer day has become longer. When my master and I came to the bell and drum tower, the towering eaves above it were bathed in the sunset. The master, as agreed last time, wanted to invite me and Yin Hong to dinner. He booked this treat at the best "Red Guard Hotel" in the county town br         />

"Master, you've really spent money to go to such a good hotel." This is my first time in a hotel, and I'm in such a high-end hotel, so I can't help but feel very nervous.

"I'm not asking you alone." The master said casually.

In the late 1970s, the people were not rich, and the government agencies had no public funds to eat and drink. Moreover, it was another weekend, and everyone went home to have dinner, so the lobby of the hotel was deserted. The master asked a fat girl who had just permed her hair if there was a private room. While wiping her hands with her oil-stained apron on her body, she responded lazily and led us through the lobby and to the backyard.

The backyard is not large in size, and there is a small house with incandescent lamps along the north wall. There are cloth door curtains hanging on the door that are no longer visible, just like the secondary rooms on both sides of our large workshop. The master seemed to be familiar with this place, so he picked up the door curtains in the room on the far right and waved to greet me in.

There was a square table with oily oil in the private room, surrounded by four equally oily benches. The master asked me to sit opposite him. Instead of picking up the menu handed over by Fat Girl, he ordered a few dishes casually and asked for a bottle of the "Canal Daqu" produced by the county winery.

"When someone will come later, it's a woman. If she asks if there is someone named Lu here, you can bring her to this private room." The fat girl was about to go out, the master ordered her.

Two cold dishes came first, a plate of peanuts and a pot of cold-smoked belly shredded. The master used his teeth to "click" and opened the iron lid of the "Canal Daqu" and poured the wine into three large white bowls in the middle like he did at the guesthouse last time. The pungent smell of alcohol immediately became a little scared.

The master pushed a wine bowl in front of me. Seeing me looking at Baijiu with a bitter look, I couldn't help laughing: "Why do you still look like you haven't grown up with your parents? You just drink a sip of wine? You can't admit defeat?"

"I didn't admit defeat, and I wasn't afraid of drinking." The master's provocation made me feel a little uncomfortable and muttered in dissatisfaction.

"Right, it's like a brass mill electrician!" The master picked up a peanut and threw it into his mouth, chewing it with a "crack" chew.

"When will Sister Hong come?" I took my own wine bowl and looked up at the master.

"I told her yesterday, and she said she would come over after get off work, and she should be here soon." The master glanced at the watch on his wrist.

"Master, your watch is very special and very beautiful." I have never seen a master wearing a watch before, and it was a bit strange when I saw it.

"Working in the agency, you need to have a concept of time." The master answered casually, his eyes began to glance into the yard, "You said this watch looks good, but it has its origin. It was distributed to my father by his superiors, an authentic Omega watch."

I don’t know what “Omega” is, and I have no idea about watches. I just looked at the dishes on the table and said again in a panic: “Master, I have to invite you once.”

"Why are you still thinking about this? Well, when you have money, as long as I'm still here at that time." The master smiled and threw another peanut into his mouth.

"Master, you... are you leaving our cotton mill?" The master's last words touched my heart, and I looked at him in confusion and asked.

The master was stunned when he heard my words, and stopped his hand playing with the wine bowl. He pondered for a while before speaking, "As the saying goes, soldiers who are fighting in the camp and flowing in the water, and people go to the high places and flow to the low places. No one can say that they will work in this factory for the rest of their lives, right? Maybe you will leave that day in the future."

"Where can I go? If I can come to our factory to take over, the villagers think that my ancestor Lin Qiuyan is coming." I kept shook my head, not daring to think about this matter at all.

"Hey-Yin Hong lives in the guesthouse recently, everything is still fine, right?" The master changed the subject and showed a serious look on his face.

"She..." The master suddenly mentioned the bright red, and my heart was shocked, and the terrifying nightmare immediately enveloped my heart.

"What's wrong with her? Nothing happened to her??" The master's sword eyebrows stood up and stared at my eyes a little anxiously.

"Nothing..." I lowered my eyes, pretended to be fine, and let out a short sigh, "She...is pretty good."

"That's good." The master did not notice the change in my face, and looked into the yard through the gaps in the door curtain.

"Master, do you... do you like Sister Hong?" I lowered my head and looked at the wine in the bowl.

"Why did you think of this problem?" the master asked softly.

"Do you like her?" I raised my head and asked stubbornly.

"I like it." The master did not make any perfunctory comments anymore. When he answered, his face showed a rare shyness.

"I'll go out and see if Sister Hong is here?" I stood up, opened the curtain, and walked out.

The evening breeze blows gently, whistling the leaves of the sycamore tree, and the starry sky is bright, scattering a layer of silver lights on the high ancient bell tower. Under the dim street lights, boring pedestrians come and go, and the music from the cultural center opposite comes from the other side. The weekend dance of Monkey Face and Xiao Guo and others begin.

My eyes were empty and my heart was churning violently. Should I tell my master what I saw together, so that he could stop his infatuation with Yin Hong? If the master knew all this, would he go crazy with extreme disappointment? Will he settle the score with Lao Cui, and will he hurt Yin Hong... I dare not think about it anymore, and my heart was in agony, and a nameless fire emerged.

"Why, Yin Hong hasn't come yet?" At some point, the master came to me.

"Why are you here outside? Are you still eating? Our chef can't wait. If you don't serve hot dishes, he will get off work." The fat girl found her and stood behind us, urging angrily.

"We are waiting for a woman." I turned around dissatisfiedly and yelled at her.

"If you don't come yet, you shouldn't come." The fat girl saw me getting angry and her voice was low, but she was still muttering, "It's all hot and hot, I've seen it."

We returned to the private room in the backyard. Before we could sit firmly, the fat girl hurriedly came in, stir-fry a plate of green peppers and fried fat intestines, and put it on the table with a bang. The splashed soup burst onto the master's sleeve. The master complained to her unhappily. The fat girl didn't even turn her eyelids and turned around and left impatiently.

"This fat girl is still impatient." The master smiled bitterly and took out his handkerchief and wiped his sleeves, "Let's drink first."

"Sister Hong is not here?" I was a little unwilling to give up and asked again stammeringly.

"No more wait, she will talk about it when she comes." The master's face turned a little blue, and he picked up the wine bowl in his hand, "Come on, for you, for me, for us, for a better tomorrow, drink wine-"

"For...Tomorrow..." I picked up the wine bowl, my heart beat hard, my hands couldn't help but shake twice, and gritted my teeth and squeezed out the word "tomorrow".

When the bitter and spicy liquid rushed into the esophagus again and slowly flowed into the stomach, I felt my whole body start to burn. Under the half-comfort and half-force of the master, I was like a roving machine being refueled, pouring it into my stomach, making me dizzy, feeling uncomfortable, and the sky was dark. I listened to the master's constant chatter, and the voice became smaller and smaller in my ears. From the initial discomfort to the later numbness, my eyelids became heavier and heavier, until I was confused and lost consciousness.

On this early summer night, I was drunk, absurdly drunk, and was drunk in a mess. In the end, I was exhausted, exhausted, and fell asleep at my desk, but Yin Hong never showed up.
Chapter completed!