Chapter 27

"Alright, since you're not short of money, if you want to build a greenhouse, go ahead!" Second Uncle's statement was always the final decision in the family. Uncle had always supported the idea, and Second Aunt and Mother's opinions were ignored. Immediately, Wang Yong contacted Manager Li, who had built the greenhouse for him last time, and told him that he wanted to build twenty more greenhouses and planned to entrust the job to their company again. Manager Li readily agreed and asked him to choose the location, promising to send people over to check the site in three days.

After hanging up the phone, the family had a hearty meal. In the afternoon, with nothing to do, Wang Yong thought he should get a computer. He didn't want to use his phone to look up information anymore, as it was not only expensive but also slow. The internet had long been available in the village, so at four in the afternoon, Wang Yong called the local telecom customer service. Upon hearing that it was for the village chief of Banship, the manager of the local telecom company immediately agreed to send someone over. Sure enough, less than twenty minutes later, a Jinbei minivan drove into Wang Yong's courtyard.

The first person to get out of the passenger seat was about 1.75 meters tall, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, a bald head, and a big belly. The more Wang Yong looked at him, the more familiar he felt. He quickly sent a command to Xiaoguang to check the person's information. Soon, the information appeared in Wang Yong's mind.

"So it's you! Xiaozi, you're still as chubby as ever! Haven't lost an ounce. Still going up the mountain to hunt pheasants?" Wang Yong teased with a smile.

"Hey, Wang Yong, you're making fun of an old classmate right after we meet. I heard you've been quite busy since you came back. Elected as village chief, got into a fight at the market, sold your greenhouse vegetables at sky-high prices, and even grew jujubes as big as eggs. By the way, give me some of those jujubes to try, don't be stingy!" The fat man's mouth was watering just thinking about the jujubes. He had always been a foodie, willing to go up the mountain to hunt pheasants or dive into the sea to catch fish for good food. He had quite a story.

The fat man's name was Liu Xiaolong, a classmate from the neighboring village who was the same age as Wang Yong. His father was a butcher, and the family often slaughtered pigs and sheep to sell meat. In Wang Yong's childhood, they were considered the rich kids in the village. Perhaps because of eating meat and bone soup every day, the kid had been fat since he was young. By the third grade, he weighed nearly 90 kilograms, a real little fatty, and was often ridiculed. He vowed to lose weight, but he was a glutton and couldn't go a day without meat. Wang Yong told him that wild pheasant meat was fragrant and wouldn't make him fat, which was perfect for him. After hearing this, the kid ran to the mountain every day after school. He didn't catch many pheasants, but he did lose some weight. However, this lazy guy found that going up the mountain was too tiring, so he asked Wang Yong if there was any other meat that wouldn't make him fat. Wang Yong told him that fish wouldn't make him fat, so the kid started targeting the fish in the river. Especially in summer, there were many fish and shrimp in the pond connected to the river. For the sake of eating fish, the kid suffered a lot and almost drowned. Later, to show off, he often boasted that he could hunt tigers on the mountain and catch dragons in the sea.

"Still eating? You must weigh 250 pounds, right?" Wang Yong asked, looking at the kid's round body.

"Don't talk nonsense, where are the jujubes?" The fat man asked without any politeness.

"They're on the mountain. If you want to eat, go pick them yourself." Wang Yong glared at him.

The fat man ignored him, told the three workers to start working, and said to Wang Yong without turning back, "I haven't gone up the mountain to hunt pheasants in a long time. How about it, do you want to go with me? I'll share one with you."

"You? Hunting pheasants? The old hens at your place could chase you around the yard!" Wang Yong laughed. The three workers didn't understand what was so funny, but the fat man flipped Wang Yong off and hummed "The Love of the Boatmen" as he ran up the mountain to pick jujubes. Wang Yong laughed for a while, then told the three workers about the time the fat man was chased by a chicken.

After Wang Yong told him that eating wild pheasant wouldn't make him fat, the kid knew that catching pheasants would be difficult with his body type. He couldn't think of a good way, so he came to ask Wang Yong after class. Wang Yong, who had many clever ideas as a child, immediately came up with a plan. He told the fat man that TV martial arts experts were so strong because they had good masters and secret manuals, and they practiced hard. Since the kid had no master or manual, he could only practice hard. So, he should let the old hen out of the coop every day and try to catch it. Domestic chickens were easier to catch than wild pheasants, and he could start with the easier task and gradually improve.

The fat man, convinced by Wang Yong, imagined himself becoming a famous chicken-catching expert. He thought about being a renowned expert who could catch any chicken with ease, spending money freely, eating meat in large chunks, and drinking wine in big bowls. When he got home, he threw his schoolbag and ran to the yard to catch the old hen in the coop. Unfortunately, the hen was sitting on her eggs. Before the kid could touch the hen, she thought he was trying to steal her chicks and pecked his hand. The kid yelped and pulled his hand back, his hand turning blue from the pain. But thinking about becoming a chicken-catching expert, he wiped away his tears and tried again. He bit his lip and reached out to catch the hen. This time, he learned from his mistake and moved quickly. The fat man succeeded, and in that moment, he felt the spirit of his ancestors, the Japanese, and the traitors, all embodied in him. He represented the long history and tradition of chicken-catching experts, and he was not alone in this battle.

The fat man proudly pulled the hen out of the coop by one wing. The hen, enraged, flapped her wings and hit the kid's hand. The kid's grip loosened, and the hen flipped over and landed steadily on the ground. The angry hen fluffed up her feathers and screeched, "Fatso, I'll fight you to the death!" She jumped a meter high and aimed for the kid's face. The fat man, still basking in the joy of his first successful chicken catch, was caught off guard and got pecked on the nose. He cried and ran into the house, trying to avoid the hen's attacks. The hen, determined to finish the job, kept pecking him.

The kid's sister, who was cooking in the house, came out and laughed so hard that her stomach hurt as she chased the hen away with a broom. The kid finally escaped from the hen, his nose and face bruised, and went into the house. After being saved by his sister, the kid developed a habit of eating chicken, especially chicken heads. However, this became a topic of ridicule for the fat man.

After hearing Wang Yong's story, the three workers who came with Xiaozi laughed heartily.

By the time the fat man came back from the mountain, Wang Yong and the others had finished working and had a pot of tea. The fat man, to get more jujubes, had taken off his T-shirt and wrapped a large bundle of jujubes.

Wang Yong looked at the fat man, who was sweating and enjoying the jujubes, and said, "Can't you have a bit of ambition? Why didn't you use your pants too?"

The fat man glared at Wang Yong and told the three workers, "You can go back now. I'll stay for dinner. Oh, tell my dad in town. And these jujubes, take three each, no more. Hey, Xiaoer, I said no more, but you're the fastest!"

Wang Yong was really impressed by the fat man. But it was only right to treat an old classmate to a meal. After sending the three workers away, the fat man sat on the sofa like a lord and ordered Wang Yong, "Go make dinner, I'm starving from being on the mountain."

"Hungry, but you won't die. I'll make you a bowl of noodles, and you'll eat in ten minutes," Wang Yong said, glaring at the fat man. The fat man didn't even look at him, just waved his hand, meaning "shut up and cook."

Wang Yong looked at the fat man lying on the sofa watching TV and went to the kitchen to prepare a few dishes. Of course, all the vegetables were from the small world. The fat man, who had been lying lazily on the sofa, started complaining that everything was vegetarian and demanded meat. But after tasting the stir-fried radish, he immediately transformed into an animal similar to his body type. By the time Wang Yong brought out the last dish, a bowl of carp and tofu soup, the table was clean, with no soup left.

Wang Yong had no choice but to use his lazy man's trick and made a famous foreign dish, which is called a salad abroad and a cold dish in China. He mixed cucumber, radish, scallions, tofu, and seaweed into a bowl of cold dishes and placed it in front of the fat man, saying, "Eat!"

The trick worked, and the bowl of cold dishes was almost empty, with only a small amount left. After clearing the table, Wang Yong chatted with the fat man, who was lying on the sofa.

"Fat man, how did you end up in telecom? Didn't you go to study computer science after high school?"

The fat man, one hand on his belly and the other holding a cigarette, took a puff and said, "Do you remember Xiao Qiao?"

"Of course, she was the dream girl of many in high school, known as Big Qiao with the previous year's Xiao Ying. You used to call her name in your sleep."

"She's my wife now!" The fat man proudly patted his chest, looking smug.

Wang Yong was so shocked that he almost burned Xiaozi's arm with his cigarette. This news was as unbelievable as Japan claiming the Diaoyu Islands.

Wang Yong sighed, "Good cabbage is always eaten by pigs. Truly, a beautiful flower is stuck in cow dung." Imagining the cute Xiao Qiao with the 250-pound fat man made Wang Yong dizzy.

The fat man tried to sit up and hit Wang Yong but failed and gave up.

"What happened? Tell me, how did you win Xiao Qiao's heart?" Wang Yong asked, curious.

"What's the big deal? I'm handsome and charming..."

"Slap!" Wang Yong hit the fat man's head, "Be serious. Our policy is leniency for those who confess and severity for those who resist. Joking around will get you castrated."

The fat man grumbled and explained the story. Wang Yong had to admit the fat man's luck. After graduation, his father got him a job at the county telecom office. As he got older, his family started arranging blind dates for him, which he found unbearable (though Wang Yong thought this was just an excuse, as the fat man probably enjoyed the chance to see beautiful girls). His uncle, who was the principal of a middle school in the town, introduced him to a female teacher. When the fat man met her, he was surprised. "It's you!" They hit it off and started dating. After marriage, the fat man applied to transfer to the town to be with his wife.

Wang Yong pouted, "Don't exaggerate. A good girl like her is ruined by you. Heaven and earth! But it's good, I save on a gift. When did you get married?"

"We got married last May Day. Now my Feifei is pregnant. When the baby is born, you can give the wedding gift then." The fat man lay back on the sofa, "You can't avoid this expense."

"Your wife, I won't go back today. Yeah, old classmate! Alright, I know. I'm not a kid anymore." After getting his wife's permission, the fat man sat on the sofa with a cup of tea in one hand and a cigarette in the other, watching TV. He was so comfortable! Since his wife got pregnant, his life had become a tragedy. First, he had to do all the housework, but he was smart and brought his mother over to help, officially to take care of his wife, but in reality, to help him. Second, he couldn't smoke or drink, especially smoke, which was strictly forbidden at home. This was hard for the fat man. Finally, he wasn't allowed to bring friends home, a command from his mother and mother-in-law, who took turns living with him to supervise. His status in the family plummeted, almost to the point of being dispensable. Today, the chance to eat and drink freely and smoke with an old classmate was rare.

"Life is good!" the fat man sighed.