"Buy England and play Paraguay, one to zero."
When Jiang Wang returned to the sports lottery station, there were still three or four people who gathered here to drink tea and play cards in the morning.
Someone recognized him and waved familiarly: "Brother, come and give me a fight."
"No," the man took out all the remaining change and pushed it in front of the old man without counting, "buy England."
"Teng Bo, you are still complaining about the bad business." The uncle sitting next to the fan lit a cigarette and laughed: "When the World Cup comes, don't say that my brother sneaked over to watch the football, and saw a lot of new faces. .”
Teng Bo recovered the money much faster, and he did not forget to look up at Jiang Wang while passing the money detector.
The young man had been a soldier at first sight.
With eagle eyes and sword eyebrows, there was also a hostility of being out of gregarious.
"From the provincial capital?"
Jiang Wang took the Nanjing handed by a stranger next to him, and said casually: "It's not important."
The man who handed the cigarettes heard that he had won the bet this morning, and now he followed suit and bought England, waiting for the result with great interest.
June and July are hot flashes, and the big fan on top of the small shop is running slowly, while the small fan is blowing and sweating profusely. The card players are obviously not interested.
Everyone in the small town knew each other, and whoever's family was fighting with another's, and which girl was married to another province, all of them could become a snack for the townspeople.
Tossing and chewing to the point of getting bored, it is necessary to stir up some good things a few times, so that the neighbors and relatives can find some new jokes.
Jiang Wang glanced at their prying eyes, took a puff of cigarette and sat down beside the card table.
"I don't know anything else," he said slowly. "For fortune-telling, I learned from the master in the Taoist temple. I don't need more than fifty-one hexagrams. If it doesn't work, I will pay ten times."
He is short of rent money.
Houses in small places are cheap, and a decent two-bedroom apartment only costs a few hundred a month, and we can get it all together before the sun goes down.
As soon as the words were put to this point, several people in the store were obviously interested.
"Fifty is so expensive?" The middle-aged man with a shiny face pretended to be offended: "It's only twenty to go to the temple to draw lots."
Jiang Wang glanced at the black and white screen, but did not answer.
"This buddy guessed right this morning, and now he's gone," the thin man said with a smile, "I just won a few hundred, come on, play for a while."
He flicked the whole hundred by the card table directly in front of Jiang Wang, twisted it with his fingers and shook it.
"If you fake it, you will pay ten, you said."
Seeing that the money was not picked up, Jiang Wang said calmly, "The surname is Shen, right?"
The thin monkey-like man was taken aback for a moment, a little speechless.
"Your daughter-in-law is having an affair with someone else, go home."
"No—what's wrong with you—" The surname Shen immediately got anxious, stood up and pointed at his nose and cursed: "I think you're so respectful, what the hell are you doing?!"
Jiang Wang leaned on the chair and moved his knuckles, and said lazily, "If it's later, I won't be able to catch anyone."
There was no sound in the lottery shop for a while, the thin monkey blushed and scolded him, and left without taking the money.
As a result, I never came back in the afternoon.
A poker player in the middle tentatively made a phone call, and there were swearing and a woman's faint cry from the other end.
When everyone was stunned, the old man sullenly took out a stack of red notes.
"England one to zero, done."
Jiang Wang took the money in his pocket calmly, and when he looked at the others, he found that there was a little more fear in their eyes.
They look at him again like they're looking at a cuckold detector.
"I'll come tomorrow." He smiled: "See you later."
With one thousand and two in hand, four hundred will be deducted from the rent, and one hundred will be exchanged for a cheap second-hand PHS, and the rest will be kept as a business reserve.
In 2006, as long as more than a dozen houses were hoarded, the rent collection alone would be enough to support the whole family for a lifetime in the future.
The landlord is in her fifties and is called Sister Zou by the neighbors. It was the first time she saw such a straightforward person who inspected the house. She hurriedly signed a contract and counted the money.
"My house is in a good location. The bus station is just outside the door, and the school is a diagonally across the street. Many teachers live in this community. You can earn money!"
Jiang Wang looked at the dark and dirty house like a rough-made house, and didn't sign immediately.
"Is it powered on?"
"It's all right, the socket is there, you have to go to Telecom to get online," Sister Zou hurriedly said, fearing that he would regret it, "I have water and electricity, and you can live well if you pack it up. .”
"Don't look at the lack of a bed or refrigerator in the room, but the lighting is good!"
Jiang Wang cursed with a smile in his heart, and finished writing his name in two strokes.
"However, there is a saying first," the fat woman's expression suddenly became solemn: "I don't care about your occupation, don't bring any dubious people into the house, understand what I mean?"
"I don't have that hobby."
There are two types of houses in Tongzilou. He lives in a small two-bedroom house in the corner. The large windows are good for lighting but poor for sound insulation. You can hear the hawkers’ horns even if you close the windows.
The house has not been decorated at all, the floor is so dark that barley can be grown, the wiring on the ceiling looks hideous like arteries, and the only furniture is a small light bulb glued to the wall.
The smart touch screen machine was soaked in water for too long and lost the chance of rescue. It was thrown into the drawer of the small broken table and almost poked a spider's nest.
Thinking about it carefully, he has to accompany him to finish elementary school in this house, and maybe he has to save money to pay for his college education.
…I provide for myself, fuck.
Jiang Wang rubbed his brows, picked up the key and went out.
The gates of Hongshan Primary School opened at 4:30 in the afternoon, and a group of muddy children rushed out chattering.
When Peng Xingwang came out with his homework in his arms, he poked his head around, and when he shook his head, he saw a tall, dark-faced man among the gray-haired grandparents.
"Teacher Ji—he's here!" Peng Xingwang quickly shook his hand, signaling the teacher behind him to look over there.
Jiang Wang was originally quarreled by a group of bastards with excess energy and wanted to use a machine gun. When he heard Peng Xingwang's voice, he raised his head and realized that the child was leading a young teacher over, so he reflexively took a step back.
"So here you are, are you Peng Xingwang's family?" The young man let the child hold him tightly, and when he smiled, dimples appeared on his cheeks: "I am his English teacher, my surname is Ji."
Jiang Wang refused to look into his eyes, and nodded without looking away.
"Let's go, go home."
"Wait a minute," Teacher Ji said gently, "this child has been lacking...care, is it convenient to leave a contact information."
Peng Xingwang watched the two of them exchange contact information, and he was quietly relieved.
In this way, even if I am sold, the police uncle can find me, okay.
A group of children took turns saying hello and goodbye to the teacher like SpongeBob SquarePants. Jiang Wang said a few words of goodbye, and led Peng Xingwang into the crowded small stationery store next door.
Children's attention is not on the spicy stick ice cream spinning top.
"Are you afraid of Teacher Ji?"
Jiang Wang glanced at his young and immature face, and his voice was very low.
"Not afraid."
"Teacher Ji is the best-looking teacher in our school!" Peng Xingwang said with a happy face, "He sings very well, and he never hurts us!"
...so you cling to people all day long.
Jiang Wang narrowed his eyes, but didn't say anything disgusting.
"Go pick out a schoolbag, if you lack a book or ruler, hurry up and buy it."
But Peng Xingwang refused to stop this topic, and said very seriously: "Brother, I really like Teacher Ji. You like him too, okay?"
"..."
When leading Peng Xing back to the guest house, Jiang Wang looked at the garbage truck several times.
It's weird, I usually don't talk when I don't talk, so I picked the wrong person for my chatterbox
The kid didn't notice the adult version's urge to throw someone away. He bounced around for a long time with his new schoolbag on his back and his little yellow hat on. When he was waiting for the traffic lights, he thought of something and suddenly let out a hey.
"If we didn't live in a guest house, wouldn't we be like a family?"
He felt that the elder brother was actually not bad.
Anyway, going anywhere is better than going back to my father's place, at least I won't be beaten.
When the red light turned green, Jiang Wang stretched out his hand to distort the straight little yellow hat he was wearing, and strode forward.
"There is already a house."
"I'll pack it up tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and you move in here."
The two of them drank dumpling soup and fried dumplings with cabbage and pork downstairs in the guest house together, and continued to live with the rent for the whole day.
The table in the guest house is also equipped with a lamp, which is much better than the children's previous learning conditions.
Peng Xingwang babbled while doing arithmetic, while Jiang Wang sat behind him flipping through the newspaper.
Turned a few pages and put it down again.
"How about changing your name in the future?"
When he was just born, his family named him perfunctorily, but his name was actually Peng Xingwang.
The meaning is to look forward to the continuous incense of Lao Peng's family and the prosperity of the ancestors for generations.
Still, relatives who have studied couldn't stand it, saying that it was just a peasant called this stupid name, and they chose the two characters a little bit to become Xingwang.
Then when he was fifteen years old, he joined the army ahead of schedule, and found out that he was a criminal.
When I was born, the hukou was loosely controlled, and small towns didn't particularly care about it, so I just got a new form and completed it.
He didn't have the slightest memory of this city or his own origin, so he lied and said that his mother's surname was Jiang, and changed the name one more time.
Forget it, it's best to forget it cleanly.
Peng Xingwang was still struggling with the four arithmetic operations, fingering back and forth, and it took him a while to react.
"Ah? Change it to what?"
Jiang Wang suddenly laughed.
"They call you Wangzai at school, aren't you angry?"
"Don't be angry." Peng Xingwang sat on a high chair and swayed his feet, he was skinny and lively like a little Labrador: "They all think I smell bad, so it would be great if they could call me by my name. "
Just as Jiang Wang was about to teach him a lesson, the PHS in his pocket rang beep beep beep.
There is a number stored on this phone.
Jiang Wang's eyes sank, and he went to the balcony.
"Hello, is this Mr. Jiang?"
"Um."
"I'm Teacher Ji, we met in the afternoon."
Jiang Wang looked down at the distance smeared by the dim light, and remained silent for a long time.
"What happened to Peng Xingwang's family... You said you basically understand it."
"If it's convenient, please take him to the hospital for a physical examination to make sure he's healthy."
The man's voice was clear and embellished, as if he would always be kind to the world.
"I've always missed him."