Volume 1: The Age of Innocence Chapter 7: The Reversal of Fate

  At night, I couldn't sleep, tossing and turning, with the scenes of the day replaying in my mind. I kept asking myself "Who am I? Where did I come from? What am I doing? What kind of life do I want?" Originally, I wanted to use my extra decades of experience to make life better for myself and my family. But then Uncle appeared, and my wish was granted ahead of time. Now, I can just drift through life, waiting to inherit Uncle's legacy, which will also allow my whole family to live well. And besides, the money Uncle left us last time is already enough for my family to live comfortably for a lifetime.

  But after what happened today and hearing Liangzi's story, I overturned my own thoughts again. I should do something. My friends around me haven't changed their life trajectory because of my uncle. Maybe I should do something for them... It seems that people living in the world should always have a long-term life goal!

  The next day, I got up early and wrapped the tapes and star posters my sister sent from Hong Kong in a broken quilt. I took out the big tape recorder and borrowed Meng Cai's with a very low probability. My sister asked me strangely, "Are you short of money? I can give it to you, I have a lot of pocket money left every month."

  I organized my language and solemnly said to her: "Sister, I am a fan of the German team. I believe that Germany will definitely win the championship in this World Cup. I can't go to Italy to watch the game. But I want to support them spiritually, so I decided to buy football lottery tickets. I hope you and I can support Germany together, and use all your money to buy compound lottery tickets."

  My sister probably believed what I said and agreed to my request. I also told her the content of the guess, from the group stage to the final. Fortunately, my sister knew that I was a football fan and thought I was just randomly guessing for fun, so I didn't need to make up an excuse to cover anything...

  Apart from "Uncle Mira", this World Cup really didn't have any big upsets, and under the tacit cooperation of various football powers, Germany was finally sent to the altar, and Klinsmann, Matth?us, and V?ller almost became overnight idols for Chinese fans.

  As the World Cup came to an end, our newly installed phone rang for the first time. "Xiao Fu, you've struck it rich! Your lottery ticket won 62.2 million!" my sister exclaimed excitedly. "Sis, how much?" I asked her in excitement, I had prepared myself for winning but not this much. "62.2 million, I bought a 30,000 yuan compound bet and got every match right..."

  When I heard this, I was so excited that I couldn't speak properly, and I chatted with my sister for a long time before calming down. At night, I was so excited that I couldn't sleep, having never seen so much money in my life.

  Money is only most exciting when it's going from nothing to something, and after that, no matter how much wealth you have, it's just a number game.

  He had money, helped Liangzi solve the problem of goods supply, and Liangzi started his individual business career. Clothes were very popular in this era, regardless of brand, as long as they looked good, someone would buy them. Hong Kong goods were equivalent to high-end clothing at that time, selling to those who had just become well-off families. By the end of the year, Liangzi had completely escaped poverty and become rich, becoming one of the first batch of people to get rich, and indirectly changing the way people around him looked at him.

  In June 1992, I ended my junior high school life. Because the scores were not enough to reach the self-funded line of a key middle school, Dad took out "silver" and ran around everywhere but couldn't get me into a key middle school, so he had no choice but to let me continue to stay at Tieyi Middle School for high school. Yang Can and Cui Lei's exams were even more miserable than mine, one became a soldier, and the other started mixing with society.

  Because this holiday is quite long, I plan to go to Hong Kong. It's been several years since I saw my sister, so I should go and visit my aunt and uncle with her. But my parents are busy with work, so they still don't have time to go with me.

  A week before I left, Liangzi invited me to dinner. He has become wealthy now and it's said that all the individual clothing stores in Yunzhou get their goods from him, even cities adjacent to Yunzhou have his branches. In these two years, he has changed a lot, his voice is louder than before, and he is much more optimistic than before, perhaps because he has gotten rid of the burden on his mind. It's just that I also wanted to ask him if there was anything I could help him with, after all, all his goods now are found by my uncle in Hong Kong for him.

  The next day at noon, I arrived at Xiao Kou Fu. Liangzi ran over from afar and hugged me tightly. "Yezi, it's been a long time since we last met! I knew you were going to take the middle school entrance exam, so I didn't want to disturb your studies. I heard you got into Tieyi High School?"

  "Ah, didn't do well!" I replied with a bit of embarrassment. "Guess I'll just have to continue muddling along at Ti Yi."

  "Haha!" Liangzi laughed and said, "This is the first time I've seen you like this, isn't it just because you didn't attend school? What's the big deal? With your brain, even if you don't go to school, you're still better than me. Come on, let me introduce you."

  Liàngzi led me to a big guy and said, "This is my brother Bǎochéng I often talk about." I called out "Bǎochéng ge" which was a way of greeting. Liàngzi introduced me saying "Bǎochéng, this is my younger brother Yèzi, he's clever, it was him who made me practice the stall back then, if not for Yèzi I'd still be working in a barber shop cutting hair for others today."

  We sat down to wait for the dishes, chatting while waiting. Bao Cheng is a Shaanxi native, quite honest and doesn't talk much, very easy-going. When all the dishes were served, we clinked our glasses together, Liangzi said to me: "Yezi, Baocheng just returned from Xinjiang, I want him to practice with me, then open another store in Dongcheng, what do you think?" I nodded and said: "Liangge, business is getting better, knows how to expand now." Liangzi smiled awkwardly and said: "One more store means one more share of earnings!"

  Liangzi took a sip of wine and asked me hesitantly, "Do you still remember Gangzi?" I nodded to indicate that he should continue. "Xiao Mozi went out last year and is now in Beijing working as a trader, doing business with the Commonwealth of Independent States. I heard he's doing quite well. A few days ago, he called me and asked if I wanted to make a couple of trips to the CIS. What do you think, will it work?"

  After hearing his words, I muttered to myself a popular tongue twister among the vendors: "One billion people, 900 million are vendors, and 100 million are thinking." Liangzi and Baocheng also burst out laughing after hearing this. Baocheng laughed and said, "Those who made it into high school are cultured!"

  "Are you scolding me, brother?" I said with a smile: "Liang Ge, I think it's okay now. With Bao Cheng Ge helping you, you can take Xia Zhuozi out for a walk without any problem. I heard that clothes are very popular over there, who knows, maybe you'll even bring back an aircraft carrier to donate to the country?" They laughed loudly at my joke, but I didn't laugh. I knew it was true - the commander of Russia's Siberian Military District almost sold off an entire fleet in exchange for food.

  The day before I went to Hong Kong, Liangzi and Cui Lei went to Beijing to find Xiao Mo. Cui Lei didn't want to go to school anymore, he had a coveted BP machine in his waist, and followed his dad to sell steel. It's said that Liangzi was going to the Commonwealth of Independent States, and wouldn't let him go alone, saying he watched too many foreign movies and wanted to find two foreign chicks to practice with, to make Chinese men proud. So the Chinese vendors went together to "Wildly Kiss Russia"...

  The next day, I took a plane from Yunzhou to Shanghai and then transferred to Hong Kong, starting my journey...