Chapter Fifty-Four Are You Going To Jump Or Not

  The snow fell intermittently for a whole morning, and by noon it had accumulated to more than half a foot. The three of them trudged through the snow to Old Zhang's house, where they repaid the money they owed him for buying coal. At noon, the three of them ate lunch at Second Sister's place. In the afternoon, Zhuo Xiaofei and Wu Mei went out somewhere, and Hei Zi returned alone to the farmhouse courtyard.

  I slept very soundly and had many dreams. Hei Zi dreamed that his father was wielding a cleaver to chop him, dreamed of countless thugs waving knives to chase him, his back kept getting stabbed, and when he got anxious, he turned around to fight back, as if the whole world was red, everywhere was blood.

  The mixed child disappeared, the icy and snowy southern Tibet, the sacrificed comrades, A San special soldier was chasing after him, bullets whizzing past his ears, he only had a reconnaissance knife in his hand, no weapon, no comrade, the sky was very cold, everywhere was a vast expanse of white.

  Hei Zi woke up with a start, breaking out in cold sweat. The room was very cold and the sky had already completely darkened. The fire had gone out long ago. Hei Zi sat up wrapped in his quilt, thinking about the scenes from his dream, fighting with his father, all of which had happened in the past in the icy lands of Zang Nan. In his short twenty years of life, Hei Zi had experienced a great deal. When he was six years old, his mother died and he alone took care of his mentally ill father, fighting with him every day. In the past, Hei Zi never thought about pursuing a good life, as long as he could survive it was fine.

  Although I have tens of thousands in my hands this time, the reality in front of me is still very cruel. To quickly rise up, this money is far from enough. Now it's a commercial society, everything has a clear price tag, including relationships and friendships, nothing can be done without money.

  Hei Zi felt that their career was about to start, with many opportunities available, but they lacked money. As a rogue himself, he knew that stealing and robbing were out of the question. Making money through legitimate means had its limitations, and some officials and underworld figures would become jealous upon seeing him succeed. These people were more troublesome than bandits, and to deal with them, one needed to have both money and a stick in hand. His own wealth was currently increasing, and it would continue to grow at an accelerating rate, but the other hand's stick was not yet ready.

  Xiao Fei and Wu Mei pushed open the door to find that the lights were not on inside, and it was very cold. They both thought Hei Zi wasn't there, but when they turned on the light, they saw Hei Zi sitting around the quilt in a daze. Both of them burst out laughing.

  Xiao Fei put a chicken and two packs of cooked meat on the kang, saying: "Lao Wu, it's so cold outside, why don't you light a fire? Aren't you afraid of freezing to death?"

  "Hei Zi chuckled and said: 'Just woke up, where are you guys going?'"

  "We?" The two of them looked at each other and smiled, without saying anything further.

  Hei Zi didn't want to ask more about this matter, he shook off his quilt and said: "Come on, Xiao Fei, let's have a drink first."

  They put the wine and dishes on a small table, and started drinking. Wu Mei lit the stove while grumbling that Heizi should find someone to take care of him, otherwise he would freeze to death one day with no one by his side.

  This time Xiao Fei didn't help, he knew that Heizi couldn't put down Tan Mei in his heart, and this knot wouldn't be untied until Heizi fell in love with another woman.

  After the Lunar New Year has passed, everyone is back to their usual business. Hei Zi bought a second minibus and hired a driver and ticket seller.

  Hei Zi's car has a good reputation, departing on time, and is always full every day. Hei Zi and his family have started to earn a fixed income of 1,700 yuan per day.

  Heizi specifically let Er Cheng be in charge of driving the car, and didn't need to worry about anything else.

  After being discharged from the hospital, Yin Le'er rested for a few more days before coming to find Hei Zi. Seeing that his injuries had almost healed, Hei Zi gave him a task, telling him to take advantage of the current lull in activity and bring two younger brothers to learn how to drive.

  Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei were left with only Da Kui by their side. The most urgent task now was to go back and pull the coal first.

  Three people ran to each unit and learned how much coal each unit's coal storage yard could hold. He wanted to bring back all the coal they needed at once, ending the winter coal-pulling task. The iron mine uses less coal in the summer, and pulling it again in April or May would be enough for the whole summer.

  This time when buying coal, Hei Zi and Zhuo Xiao Fei took Da Kui together. He wanted to let Da Kui get familiar with the whole process and know Zhou Shi brothers, so that in the future, it would be easy for Da Kui to come and pull coal.

  Three people arrived at the train station and met Qian Yu and Xiao Bao. They were very well-behaved, not only did they not hold a grudge, but when they heard that Hei Zi and the others were going to Tongda City, Qian Yu took out money and had a younger brother buy a pile of wine and meat for them to take on the road.

  Still taking the night train, when other passengers were all drowsy and sleeping, three people who had nothing to do started eating and drinking.

  All three of them liked drinking, and after two cups of wine, they had a lot to say. Their noise attracted disapproving glances from others.

  Just as they were about to drink, Hei Zi saw two police officers walking by with a little kid, who was holding a big bag that looked like it had a lot of things inside.

  He didn't care about things that had nothing to do with him, and after finishing the wine in his cup, he felt an urgent need to urinate. He stood up and said to the two of them: "You guys keep drinking, I'll go take a leak."

  There weren't many people on this train, and the aisle wasn't crowded either. Hei Zi walked along the aisle to the bathroom door, but it didn't open when he pushed it - someone was inside. Hei Zi had no choice but to lean against the wall beside the police rest room and wait.

  "Alright kid, let's not say anything else, as usual, are you going back to your dorm or leaving on your own?"

  "Big brother, spare me, take your things and I won't say anything."

  It sounds like a police officer interrogating a prisoner. It seems that the short guy who just walked by stole something from someone's house.

  "Huh, you've jumped before, have you forgotten the rules? Either hand over the stuff or it's none of your business. Once you hand it over to the higher-ups, we can't control it anymore. You haven't stolen less in these years, and 10 or 8 years is not something you can run away from."

  "Big brother, spare me, I still have an old mother to support, she's paralyzed in bed, if I go in, she can only wait for death."

  The sound of footsteps accompanied the voice as it spoke.

  Hei Zi felt surprised, police interrogating prisoners wouldn't make such a sound, what were they doing?

  Hei Zi was acting strangely, he stuck his ear against the door of the police rest room and listened carefully.

  "Are you going to jump or not? Hurry up, I still need some rest."

  Jump, what's there to jump? In this house, the only thing you can jump is a car.

  Hei Zi felt that something was going to go wrong, he knew that if the two traffic police officers knocked on the door and came in, they wouldn't recognize anything, and the thief would definitely not dare say that someone had forced him to jump off the car, so this way Hei Zi wouldn't be able to help anyone and would also get into trouble.

  Hei Zi wanted to leave, but before he could lift his leg, another sound came from inside the house.

  "Big brother, I don't want to die."

  Hei Zi remembered his mother's words: "Child, be a good person and help others when you can."

  Hei Zi knew that being a good person was no longer possible, but helping others might still be okay. He took a step back and suddenly used his shoulder to crash into the door of the police rest room.

  With a loud crash, the door was kicked open and Hei Zi stumbled in.