Zhan Aiping moved into a small courtyard house with her three children. Each child had a room with a faucet in the middle of the yard. The family was used to living in an apartment building, so they were a little uncomfortable with suddenly moving into a courtyard house.
Gu Yuan said: "There is too little water here."
"The tap doesn't produce much water."
It’s not like being in Guicheng, where you are surrounded by mountains and rivers all the time, but September in the capital is when the autumn wind blows, and it’s neither cold nor hot, but very comfortable.
The courtyard of the bungalow used to be seriously infested with rats. Now that every family has surplus food, it has become a paradise for rats. But the rats here are very small and smart, yet look silly.
Walls can keep out people, but they can't keep out cats and mice. Many people have cats at home, and in the afternoon, they lie on the roof or wall and lick their paws.
Little Cotton just stared at a cat, watching it playing with a mouse, and she was watching with great interest.
From time to time, a group of pigeons flew across the sky. Little Cotton was very generous and put a lot of food in the yard to attract pigeons. Her popularity with pigeons was as good as her popularity with people. Several pigeons stopped and landed on her hands to play and frolick with her.
These pigeons are not afraid of people. They are used to being in people's hands and will rub against the back of her hands affectionately.
Little Cotton didn't want to raise pigeons, so she let them fly away. But the next day, even more pigeons came to see her.
"Mom, the pigeons from yesterday are here again!"
Zhan Aiping: “…” These little pigeons really don’t like to be guests.
"Hey, how much can these pigeons eat?"
It's a dove of peace after all.
"Yes." Gu Mian nodded happily: "Mom, can I stay here forever? I can't bear to leave these little pigeons."
Zhan Aiping: "You stay here? Then you will follow your uncle, and you still have to go to elementary school."
Gu Mian: “…” Still have to go to school
She said loudly, "I can't bear to leave my mother!"
Gu Sheng was busy with various work and training matters, so Zhan Aiping and Gu Xiangyi took their children to many places to play. After climbing the Great Wall, the group lay down for a day, and then went out to eat and shop, buying a lot of things.
While climbing the Great Wall, Zhan Aiping met many tour groups, which came from all over the country and included all kinds of people.
"Yes, we came together and stayed in the same hotel. The price was reasonable, much more affordable than coming alone..."
"We live in..."
Zhan Aiping took her son Gu Chen to numerous travel agencies in the capital to learn about the situation. Gu Chen recorded everything in an orderly manner. "Mom, are we going to build a big hotel?"
"If we have money, we will build a big hotel." Their family currently only runs a small hotel, which is far behind those five-star hotels. The motel near the train station has increased its price, and the cheapest one is one dollar a night. How much does a night in a five-star hotel cost now
The cheapest hotel costs at least 600 yuan a night... Many people only earn 600 yuan a year, but this five-star hotel is still in short supply, and there are many wealthy bosses and foreign businessmen.
After visiting several travel agencies, Zhan Aiping sighed, "A lot of people have made a fortune in the past few years."
There are two types of travelers: budget travelers and wealthy travelers. After becoming rich, many people want to experience everything, eat well and dress well. They are afraid that they will not be able to spend the money, and they are also afraid that others do not know that they are rich. So they wear big gold chains to attract envy and satisfy their personal face.
"You can only travel if you have spare money. There will be a huge market in the future."
In addition to visiting travel agencies, Zhan Aiping also visited several Chinese medicine masters in the capital. There are many experienced Chinese medicine practitioners here, and she exchanged experiences with many of them and gained a lot.
Mr. Lin comes from a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and currently practices at the Capital Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic. He is good at treating traditional Chinese medicine internal medicine, difficult and complicated gynecological diseases, and rheumatic diseases. In the past few years, Zhan Aiping has met many rheumatic patients in Guicheng. Zhan Aiping has a lot of treatment experience and the two of them got along very well.
Elder Lin told Zhan Aiping about one thing: "Nowadays, all the patients go to watch qigong performances, which claim to lift objects from the air and cure all diseases... but they don't want to get proper treatment. They queue up every day to wait for the qigong master to perform qigong and cure their diseases."
Zhan Aiping: "Qigong master?"
"Why, you haven't heard of it? There have been several Qigong masters performing recently, and several of my apprentice's patients went to the 'masters' for treatment, which really pissed off my apprentice."
Zhan Aiping said: "I have heard of it, but it's all a scam."
Lin Laodao: "Even though they know it's a scam, there are still countless people who believe in it. They don't trust hospitals or doctors, they just believe these masters can cure all diseases."
Zhan Aiping smiled and said, "In the town where I used to live, few people believed in qigong. A qigong master came here before, but he was also driven out by the villagers."
"Oh?" Elder Lin was curious: "What's the reason?"
"Because I wrote a book called 'Science Stories' before, and the tricks of those qigong masters were also written in it. Isn't it just telekinesis? Who doesn't know how to do it?"
Zhan Aiping said: "As long as you can perform, anyone can become a qigong master."
Lin Laodao: "Let me see the book you wrote."
Zhan Aiping showed the book she wrote to Mr. Lin. She took Gu Chen and others to see the performances of qigong masters. Recently, Master Niu and Master Zhou were performing everywhere. Every place was packed, and they were in full swing in some restaurants and hotels.
Gu Yuan: "Mom, this telekinesis, this X-ray vision... I can do it too! He turned four spoons into fried dough twists, and I turned three pigeons into fried dough twists."
"Mom, look at me, I can make you stay young forever. You will become eighteen years old in an instant!"
After watching several qigong performances, Zhan Aiping had an idea. She collected information about various qigong performances and wrote a booklet - "Teaching Everyone How to Master Qigong Performances".
She is very familiar with writing this kind of thing. In the past, when she was writing science stories, Zhan Aiping had studied all kinds of supernatural tricks, so writing these things is easy for her.
In it, she seriously and carefully breaks down the performance routines of various qigong masters. According to the routines she describes, everyone can become a qigong master.
Mr. Lin flipped through her book "Teaching Everyone How to Perform Qigong", and he was immediately pleasantly surprised. He looked at Zhan Aiping for a long time and was speechless: "You, you... you know too much. If you don't know, you would really think you are a 'Qigong master', teaching people how to perform Qigong step by step."
"Your name is also very interesting. Let's teach everyone how to play it. By then, everyone will become a Qigong master. Who will be deceived?"
While Mr. Lin helped promote this booklet in the Chinese medicine clinic, Zhan Aiping continued to write more than a dozen "scientific stories". She described in great detail how various qigong masters performed their deceptions, and the deceptions were full of twists and turns that made people curse.
Gu Yuan: "Mom, the protagonist of this story is so stupid, so stupid that I want to jump in and beat him up, to wake him up. He can be deceived by this."
Zhan Aiping smiled and said, "It has to be this stupid to have a warning effect."
No one wants to be a fool.
After reading her new science story, Mr. Lin praised her highly: "You, people don't believe you when you say you are a Chinese medicine doctor. You are suitable for education and literature. You are a rising star in the literary world!"
Zhan Aiping: “…”
Lin Lao's apprentice Sun Wenfang said to Zhan Aiping: "The book you wrote, 'Teaching Everyone to Play Qigong Performances - Everyone Can Become a Qigong Master', is so well written that so many people are rushing to buy it. Our Chinese Medicine Hall is almost becoming a bookstore, and there are even publishing houses that want you to publish it."
"What's even more interesting is, do you know? When Master Niu was performing yesterday, many people held this booklet and said they were also Qigong masters. They all wanted to perform, every one of them wanted to perform!!!"
"If everyone becomes a Qigong master, there will be no more Qigong masters. There is no need to find a way to expose them. Wonderful, really wonderful!"
"The methods of those Qigong masters you think of are even better than those masters."
The booklet "Teaching Everyone to Master Qigong Performances - Everyone Can Become a Qigong Master" became popular. This kind of name, which is commonplace in later generations, was very rare in this era, and was comparable to the later clickbait titles. Many people wanted to take a look at it, and after reading it, they understood it.
There are also qigong masters who wantonly insult this booklet. Unfortunately, there are still endless "qigong masters" who emerge according to this book. People have seen so many routines that they have become numb to them. Everyone is discussing the routines, and as time goes by, no one believes it anymore.
There was actually a publishing house that found Zhan Aiping and asked her to add more content, speed up the publication, and make the book a nationwide hit.
"This is a business opportunity! This book will definitely sell like hot cakes!"
Gu Sheng has been so busy during this period that he has lost more than ten pounds. When the military parade was over, he went home and found that his wife had actually started writing a new book.
Comrade Xiao Zhan said, "Now that you have a car, our family has unexpected wealth."
Zhan Aiping also discovered that this book not only helps people dispel superstitions, but may also make money.
"A man cannot become rich without unexpected wealth, and a horse cannot grow fat without wild grass! I, your wife, make money with my talent."
Gu Sheng: “…”
Gu Sheng took off the medals on the new military uniform and put them on Comrade Xiao Zhan's chest, "These are all for you."
Zhan Aiping accepted it happily: "Look, I became rich overnight."
Money and honor are in your hands.
“Buy a car.”
Zhan Aiping: "Buy, let's buy two, let's buy an imported car first, and then we'll buy a Santana in a few years."
Gu Sheng smiled lovingly and kissed her face.
"Wife, don't be too happy too soon. Read your elementary school diary more and calm down."
*
When they went back south from the capital, they did not choose to fly, but took the train as a family. Gu Sheng was on vacation and accompanied his family on a leisurely trip south, and Lu Cheng went back with them.
They bought sleeper tickets for six people, which was just the right size for the upper, middle and lower rows. There were no outsiders, so it was perfect.
Gu Mian, the shorty, has to sleep on the upper bunk. She is only 1.4 meters tall, the shortest little sister in the family. Now Gu Yuan, who is almost 13 years old, is over 1.6 meters tall. She is 1.66 meters tall, not even taller than her mother, making her the second shortest in the family.
Gu Chen is 1.73 meters tall, while Lu Cheng, who was 14 years old, is already 1.8 meters tall. He speaks in a hoarse voice and is entering the voice change period. Gu Yuan laughed at him several times. He has a beard on his handsome and fair face, and there are blue scum on his chin in the morning, which feels prickly to the touch.
Gu Yuan sometimes envied them for having Adam's apples. "Mom, when my brother and his friends talk, sometimes it's unpleasant to the ear, but sometimes it's nice to hear them speak slowly, with a rustling sound and very gentle."
"But when you shout, they are big ducks, two big ducks!!!"
Gu Yuan bought two little yellow ducks as gifts for her brother and Lu Cheng.
As Zhan Aiping watched her children grow up, she felt that the space around them became cramped, especially the boys, who were so tall and standing there, giving people a feeling of oppression.
The family met a woman on the train. The woman's name was Zeng Guixiang. She was going south to do business. When she saw Zhan Aiping and his wife on the train, she looked at them carefully several times and finally recognized them.
Zeng Guixiang said to Zhan Aiping: "You are a doctor, right?"
Zhan Aiping looked at her and felt that she looked familiar but couldn't remember where she was.
Zeng Guixiang said, "More than a decade ago, you delivered my baby on the train... You and your husband seem to have a good relationship."
Zhan Aiping suddenly realized: "It's you, I still remember it."
It was the pregnant woman with difficult labor whom she and Gu Sheng met on the train in 1971.
Gu Yuan asked curiously, "Mom, have you ever met on a train before?"
Zeng Guixiang looked at Gu Yuan, Lu Cheng and the others and said, "These four children are all yours. Your eldest son is already this big now. It's true, so many years have passed."
"Doctor Zhan, you are really young. Your eldest son is going to take the college entrance examination."
The former mother of three children: “… ”
Zeng Guixiang looked at Gu Mian again: "Is this the one you put in my belly when you delivered me?"
Gu Mian: “?”
Gu Sheng said: "Yes, my wife didn't give birth to any more children after she gave birth to that one."
"That's right. I have two handsome sons and two beautiful daughters. If it were me, I wouldn't have any more children."
Zeng Guixiang talked to them for a while. She was very grateful to Zhan Aiping. She also talked about her life over the years. She was divorced and her eldest daughter was married. "Now the national policy is good. I run a small business and my life is getting better and better..."
After Zeng Guixiang left, several children asked Zhan Aiping and her husband, "Mom, what happened?"
"In 1971, you already had three children?"
Zhan Aiping smiled and told the children what happened before. Gu Yuan commented: "Dad is still smart."
Zhan Aiping said: "Of course he is smart. He just got married and is particularly afraid that his wife will run away. He served me tea and water all the way."
Gu Sheng said: "Children, learn from this."
Gu Yuan said to Gu Chen and Lu Cheng in a teasing tone, "Did you hear that? You two should learn from this. Be careful that your wives run away in the future."
Gu Chen: “…”
Lu Cheng: “…”
(End of this chapter)