On March 26, 1989, at the age of 25, Haizi committed suicide by lying on the rails in Shanhaiguan, with four books with him: "The Old and New Testaments", Thoreau's "Walden", Haiyadar's "The Lonely Raft of the Ocean" and "Selected Novels of Conrad". In his suicide note, he wrote: "My death has nothing to do with anyone". Although "Facing the Sea, Spring Blossoms" has been praised to the point of flooding in later generations, Zhang Yunqi believes that his death heralds the end of an old era and the beginning of another.

The fiery 80s were idealistic, the new century of entertainment was consumerist, and the utilitarian and secular 90s should be realism. In the words of writer Wang Xiaobo, who died of a heart attack in 1997 at the age of 45, "everything is irretrievably moving towards vulgarity!"

Yes, making money in the vulgar 90s is the main theme, making a fortune is the theme of life for all Chinese people, but this is not worth despising and mocking, a success-oriented society is an upward society, in short, not many people in this era are interested in talking about any great ideals, and the big guys are riveting their efforts to make money.

After a night of consideration, Zhang Yunfeng finally made up his mind to make money as a cigarette dealer.

All morning, he spent the whole morning at home discussing with his brother about becoming a cigarette dealer.

Zhang Yunqi has been planning for a long time, there is a complete plan, now the first thing to deal with is the problem of transportation, Zhang Yunfeng said: "This is okay, Li Da's wife is a little sick, she can't get out of bed, and now she is hospitalized in the city, Li Da has no time to run a car during this time, let's use his car, and give him more rent every day when the time comes." ”

Zhang Yun nodded and said yes.

The two brothers discussed again, had lunch, and went to the countryside to collect flue-cured tobacco.

At present, there are no tobacco dealers in Fengyang, at least Zhang Yunqi has not encountered them, most of the tobacco farmers are carrying their burdens into the city to sell cigarettes, and the tobacco farmers in remote areas are particularly inconvenient, and their enthusiasm for selling cigarettes to tobacco dealers should be relatively high, so he chose Liangjiazhuang, which is located in a remote mountainous area.

The brothers went door-to-door in the village to ask, and the tobacco farmers they met did not mean to sell cigarettes, probably because they did not have the experience of selling cigarettes to tobacco dealers, did not trust, and were afraid of the risk of buying and selling, and finally the brothers wandered around for more than half an hour, making people tired, only to meet a person who had the intention of selling cigarettes, was a widowed old man, who was reluctant to go to the city for trouble, and asked how to sell flue-cured tobacco.

Zhang Yunfeng didn't have a score in his heart.

Zhang Yunqi said that it would be purchased according to the standards of Fengyang Tobacco Station.

The old man didn't believe it, and said to Zhang Yunqi: "According to the standards of the tobacco station, how can you make money?"

Zhang Yunqi smiled: "There are relatives at the tobacco station. ”

The old man put down the smoke pot and took Zhang Yunqi and his brothers to see the flue-cured tobacco: "I have more than 200 catties of flue-cured tobacco, you set a grade." ”

Zhang Yunfeng is a good hand at picking flue-cured tobacco, a total of 243 catties of flue-cured tobacco, he divided 40 catties of middle level 1, 130 kg of middle level 2, 50 kg of upper part of the second grade, and 20 kg of inferior final grade tobacco.

Among these three types of flue-cured tobacco, only the second-level flue-cured tobacco can raise the price at the Jiangchuan Tobacco Station, and the first-level flue-cured tobacco and the last-grade flue-cured tobacco can't make money, Zhang Yunfeng doesn't want it, and said: "Uncle, I want all the 180 catties of second-grade flue-cured tobacco." ”

The old man heard the meaning of Zhang Yunfeng's words: "Don't you want the first and last level?"

"We only buy second-class flue-cured tobacco. Zhang Yunfeng is a little straight, and he directly dug out the old bottom.

The old man was not happy: "Business can't do this, just collect good cigarettes, don't want bad cigarettes, then I am thankful." ”

Zhang Yunqi hurriedly answered: "Come out to do business, just try to be smooth, uncle, let's do it, we all want second-level cigarettes, your twenty catties of last-grade cigarettes are counted as a tie-in, one dollar and one catty, do you fancy it?"

The old man laughed and said, "You baby listens to what you say, but have you done a lot?"

Zhang Yunfeng heard that there was something in the old man's words, and he felt a little unhappy, but he didn't say anything, he believed that his younger brother had his reason for doing this, so he gave the money to the old man.

He brought 1,700, all the belongings, originally planned to repay the debt, the family owed a large amount of coal and fertilizer money alone, the boss has come to urge three or four times, but in order to sell flue-cured tobacco, it can only continue slowly.

After loading the flue-cured tobacco into the car, the brothers left.

On the way, Zhang Yunfeng said the doubts in his heart: "Yunqi, his last-grade flue-cured tobacco and tobacco station sells at most five cents a catty, and he didn't make a profit, let's take a dollar, isn't this a loss to make money." ”

Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "Brother, you go to buy five catties of pork, and the boss will give you a few taels." The 180 catties of second-grade cigarettes can earn 100 yuan at least, and the 20 catties of second-grade cigarettes can be lost to 10 yuan at most. Could it be that this is not a good deal?"

Yun Feng pondered carefully, it was really like this, he scratched his head and said, "I haven't studied, I don't have any eyesight, and I'm not a material for business." ”

"Doing business is like this, taking a big advantage, and it is appropriate to suffer a small loss. Zhang Yunqi pulled a dog tail grass and bit it in his mouth, saying that it was not too early, let's continue to collect cigarettes.

The crops in Liangjiazhuang are obviously not given in vain, on the one hand, they are hospitable, and they invite you into the house without chatting for a long time, but they are also very ghostly.

It wasn't until about six o'clock in the afternoon that he spent the money in his pocket and collected more than 600 catties of flue-cured tobacco and went home.

When he entered the door, Zhang Yunqi unexpectedly saw his mother Liu Yufeng, who was busy in the kitchen, and before he could react, a little Lori with yellow face and thin muscles pounced directly on him with her short legs.

This is the fifth eldest in the family, Zhang Xiaoxiao, six years old.

Zhang Yunqi asked and found out that his mother and the fifth child came back this afternoon, and the fruit hard candy she was holding was handed to Zhang Yunqi like a baby: "Second brother, time, good time, the eldest sister's family took it." ”

Zhang Yunqi doted on the fifth child in the family very much, and held her in his arms and said a small snack, after eating, the second brother Ming'er will buy it for you.

The little girl was overjoyed, and hugged Zhang Yunqi's neck and kissed it vigorously.

At dinnertime, Lao Zhang's house was very lively.

There was no TV, and it was hot in summer, Zhang Yunqi took his two younger sisters to move the table and stools to the yard, and the family had dinner under the cool grape trellis.

During the meal, Zhang Yunfeng told Zhang's mother about being a cigarette seller.

Zhang's mother listened to it and didn't know what to say, now that the flue-cured tobacco has been recovered, this cigarette dealer has to be inappropriate, she said You two look at it, it's a good thing to make money, safety first.

When the meal was almost finished, a girl ran into Zhang's courtyard and shouted Zhang Yunqi.

Zhang Yunqi raised his eyes and saw that it was his next-door neighbor and junior high school classmate Zhang Xiaomei, that is, Ji Ling's cousin, who was short and fat, and said breathlessly: "Why don't you go to school today to check your grades?"

Zhang Yunqi then remembered that today was the day when the results of the high school entrance examination were announced, and he couldn't help but be a little embarrassed: "I forgot." ”

Zhang Xiaomei's face was speechless, this guy is really big-hearted: "The results of the high school entrance examination have come out, you scored 625 points, and you are the top student in our county!"

The Zhang family's courtyard suddenly became quiet.

But Zhang Yunqi didn't feel surprised, he took the high school entrance examination before he was reborn, so he already knew the result and mixed up with a county high school entrance examination champion.

This is not unusual, the old Zhang family didn't think it was strange, he studied well when he was a child, first in primary school, first in junior high school, and never missed.

No way, he is a rural baby, the family is poor, the eldest brother in order to let him study, dropped out of junior high school before graduating from junior high school to work in the family farm, and the mother always said to herself: If you don't study well, go home and raise pigs, it is not easy for the old lady to provide you with a school!

However, because of his poor physique and child's temperament, doing farm work is what he hates the most, so in order to be lazy and lazy, he can only gnaw books frantically.

After coming back from rebirth, Zhang Yunqi felt that he was quite stupid before, he could only read dead books, and he had no energy, and the top student in the county high school entrance examination did not give him any sense of achievement, but he couldn't stop his family from being happy, and Zhang's mother was very happy.

She asked Zhang Xiaomei to sit down and played a bowl of hot rice dumplings: "My second-class goods even forgot the day when the results of the high school entrance examination were announced, and I bothered you to take a trip, just eat rice dumplings at home tonight, Xiaomei, you can taste them." ”

The big fat girl Zhang Xiaomei grabbed the chopsticks and ate the sea, leaving a little space before saying, "By the way, Yunqi, which school did you apply for?"

Chunlan said: "Xianghua secondary school in the provincial capital. ”

The volunteer was filled in before rebirth, and like in his previous life, Zhang Yunqi did not choose a high school and filled in a technical secondary school. Zhang Xiaomei is very envious of this: "Xianghua secondary school is very famous, many people who come out of Xianghua are directly working in state-owned enterprises, but with the results of Yunqi, Xianghua secondary school is also a matter of holding a handle." ”

The pride on Chunlan's face was overflowing: "That's right, in a few years, my second brother will be the one who eats public meals!"

Zhang's mother said with a smile: "This two-ball is so fragrant, why can't it be done, this time it finally gives the face of the old Zhang's parents." ”

Zhang Yunqi choked half to death.

I picked it up, did you bury your own son like this?

Of course, it is not unreasonable for my mother to say this, he has grown so big, it seems that there is nothing to do with the glorious deeds of being able to get his hands on it except for taking the secondary school examination, and the secondary school in that year is indeed very awesome and popular, the tuition fee is cheap, and the work package is distributed.

Now, though, he doesn't want to repeat the same old path.

After graduating from secondary school, he was assigned to a state-owned food factory, and in 98 the food factory closed down, laid off, and then wandered on the rivers and lakes for more than ten years, set up a restaurant, saw such a cloud of beauties, and also accompanied customers full of fat intestines to prostitute themselves, in short, the world is full of all kinds of situations, the rivers and lakes, the ups and downs of life, what should have been experienced have been experienced, but I have not studied high school, I have not gone to college. This is a regret of myself for many years.

Zhang Yunqi knew in his heart that with his high school entrance examination results, it was not a big problem to study in high school, but he didn't have the heart to think about this, he only wanted to make money now, and become a big money as soon as possible, even if he couldn't be it, at least he had to live vigorously, just like what was written in the inspirational book, he got up every day and counted the banknotes in his pocket, and then rushed to more banknotes with a thief's heart.

The next day, Zhang Yunqi got up at 5 a.m.

Although he was very sleepy, he had to go to the Jiangchuan City Tobacco Station to sell cigarettes today, so he had to hurry up, after rinsing his mouth and washing his face, he and his eldest brother Zhang Yunfeng covered the flue-cured tobacco on the car with a tarpaulin, and then started the tractor and set off.

Zhang's mother also got up early, she heated the remaining rice dumplings in the kitchen, heard the sound of the car starting, ran out and handed the rice dumplings to Zhang Yunqi, nagging: "Drive slowly, pay attention to safety, the rice dumplings are hungry on the road." ”

Zhang Yunqi didn't answer: "Leave it to Xiaoxiao and Chunlan to eat." ”

The tractor drove all the way out of Yunxi Village, and the sky was still foggy at five o'clock in the morning, but Zhang Yunqi could vaguely see a dark-skinned and gray-haired woman standing at the entrance of the village, looking at him from a distance, like a lighthouse.

It's not bright, but it's warm.