Xinjiekou Street is about ten years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, by the merger of Qianmao Street and Fusuijing Street, the scope is not small, located in the west of the old city of Yanjing, there are many alleys during the period. And the place where Gao Zili invited Zhang Wei to eat was one of the many alleys in Xinjiekou, called Luo'er Hutong.

Luo'er Hutong is full of old houses, there are many shops along the street, and in the north near Xinjiekou East Street, there is a door face with a roller shutter all the year round, and no one comes to do business. This location is considered a prime location, no matter what small business is opened to open the door, it should not be difficult to make a little money, so many people have asked the people around whether this door face is rented, and the answer can be that the main house of the door face does not mean to rent and sell, and the main home of this door face is high self-reliance.

Zhang Wei came to Luo'er Hutong when it was dark, and found the door face of the perennial roller shutter according to the house number given by Gao Zili, there was already a middle-aged woman waiting at the door, and when she saw Zhang Wei coming, she invited Zhang Wei to this small storefront. The small shop is not big, it is more than two meters wide, more than four meters long, the whole area will not exceed ten square meters, and there is a small kitchen inside, and there are six small tables compactly placed by the position of the door. Looking at the tables and mottled menus on the walls of the store, Zhang Wei knew that this small shop had been around for many years.

Before he was seated, Gao Zili walked out of the kitchen wearing an apron and a towel hanging over his shoulder. Seeing Gao Zili again, he still had a somewhat sick look on his face, but his spirit was much better.

"Come here, you sit down first, I'm stir-frying in it, I'll cook some home-cooked food for you today, try my craft." Gao Zili greeted Zhang Wei warmly, and his tone was relaxed and natural, as if he was cooking at home to entertain friends.

This kind of treatment made Zhang Wei a little embarrassed, and he hurriedly said: "Mr. Gao, you are too polite, let's just find a place to eat, how can I bother you to do it yourself." ”

"It's okay, I come to this place from time to time to cook some home-cooked food, eat and drink by myself, and wait with peace of mind." Gao Zili wiped his sweat and returned to the kitchen.

I only heard the fire inside, the pot and shovel "jingle" sounded, it seemed that Gao Zili was busy inside, Zhang Wei wanted to help, so he stood up and walked to the kitchen. Opened the curtain of the kitchen door and saw Gao Zili turning the pot and stir-frying, so he asked, "Mr. Gao, do you want to help?" ”

"No, no, you go out for some tea, that's fine. Gao Zili drove Zhang Wei out.

Zhang Wei had no choice but to go back outside to drink tea and wait. After a while, Gao Zili's secretary brought out the dishes one by one, shiitake mushrooms and greens, home-cooked tofu, shredded green pepper pork, sweet and sour carp and a pot of pork ribs and winter melon soup.

Gao Zili walked out from the kitchen with two bottles of Niulanshan Erguotou, took off the apron on his body, and said to Zhang Wei: "One bottle for each of us, the food and wine are average, which makes my brother smile." ”

Zhang Weike did as he pleased, nodded, and agreed. Gao Zili personally cooked Zhang Wei unexpectedly, but this also fully proves Gao Zili's sincerity in apologizing to Zhang Wei.

"Brother Zhang, you must be very curious why I chose such a place to cook for you, there is actually a story in this. After Gao Zili drank two glasses of wine with Zhang Wei, he opened the conversation.

"My hometown is a very poor village in the northeast, my parents died when I was eight years old, my grandfather pulled me to the age of thirteen and died of illness, I followed my second uncle again, who knows that within two years, my second uncle also had an accident in the mountains and passed away. This series of things made the people of the forest farm say behind my back that my life is too hard, and the people around me are too hard, so no relatives dare to take me in, a colleague of my father took pity on me, so he gave me twenty yuan, and sent me to the county town to beg for a living, I was only fifteen years old that year, but fortunately, the people at that time were simple, and I met good people, and I did not starve to death. After several tosses, when I was sixteen years old, I came to Yanjing, in a restaurant to do an apprenticeship, because of the willingness to endure hardships, and hard work, with the master chef to learn some cooking skills, at the age of twenty-two, in this small façade opened a small restaurant, here I met my current wife, she was not good at that time, can not get married, this is committed to me, we both got up early and ran this small restaurant for nearly ten years, before earning the first pot of gold. In the early 90s, Yanjing was engaged in construction, and I was also lucky, I knew a fellow who was engaged in construction, and slowly pulled up a team as a contractor to make some money, and then came to this day step by step. After that, the more money I made every month, I bought this small restaurant and the house behind it, and I rented out the house in the back, but I was never willing to rent this small restaurant to others. Whenever I am in a difficult situation, I will go back to this small restaurant alone to clean up, fry two dishes by myself, reminisce about the hard work of the year, and remind myself that everything is hard-won today, this is a habitat in my heart, which always makes me feel stable.

Now there is no shortage of money, but people are very tired of living, market competition, peer crushing, intrigue and entertainment, make me tired, so I always think, if one day I can't hold on, I will sell all the company, come back to continue to run this small restaurant, not trying to make money or not make money, is to return to the original way, for a stable and joyful life. ”

Gao Zili said these words very emotionally, and it didn't take long for him to speak as if he was babbling, and his face was full of memories.

Zhang Wei didn't know how to answer, so he said: "It seems that Gao is always a nostalgic person." ”

"Hehe, I can't say nostalgic, I say this in fact, in order to explain one thing to you, and my own experience just now is the background of this matter. You all know my experience, there are three important people in this part of my life, the first is my second uncle, the second is my father's colleague who gave me 20 yuan, and the third is the teacher who taught me the craft of cooking. Needless to say, my second uncle took me in when I was most helpless, although I was not his own child, but he treated me as his own and never let me suffer any grievances; my father's colleague, he brought me to a bigger world, so that I had more choices and outlets; as for my mentor, he taught me the art of eating, so that I had a foothold. It can be said that without the kindness of these three, I might have died a long time ago, and even if I hadn't died, I wouldn't be able to get to where I am today.

So after I became developed, I went back to my hometown, found my second uncle's widow and children, bought them a piece of land in the county town, built a big supermarket, and specially recruited people to manage it, so that their mother and daughter would have no worries about food and clothing in the future. And when my father's colleague waited for me to look for him, he learned that he had passed away, leaving behind three children, and the three brothers were all bitter haha, and worked hard to make money, so I gave five million to each of them, and also bought two storefronts and a house in the county seat for each of them, so that they could also have a livelihood. As for my teacher, his wife left early, and he had no children or daughters, so I sent him to the best nursing home in Yanjing to live for a long time, no matter how busy I was every week, as long as I was in Yanjing, I would inevitably do my filial piety, and if I wasn't there, I would also let my wife go to see the old man and treat him as a father. ”

Gao Zili finished talking about the process of repaying his kindness with a flat expression, raised his glass and touched a glass with Zhang Wei, one or two more wine in the two wine glasses, drank it all, and continued: "I am telling you this, not to advertise how much conscience I have, I just want to tell you that I gave you a house to repay your life-saving grace, I am not a good person, but I must do this in order to repay my kindness, this is the principle I believe in in this life." My bastard son is used to being, and I used to be busy with work and neglected to discipline, so this time I had a project in the south, and I arranged him in the engineering team, all bank cards and financial resources were cut off, and there was no management position, only a handyman's job was arranged, and a special person was sent to keep an eye on it, as long as he didn't work, there was no food, if he dared to borrow my name to say something, he didn't want to get a cent of my family property, and I didn't give him all the donations. ”

Speaking of this, Gao Zili poured himself another half glass of wine, raised his head and drank it all, but he was choked and coughed again and again.

"Mr. Gao, you're drinking a little violently like this, hurry up and press it down. Zhang Wei hurriedly persuaded and explained: "Actually, there is no need for this, he has already received a lesson that day." ”

Gao Zili took a sip of tea, suppressed his cough, and said: "Don't get me wrong, I didn't do this to show you anything, it's just that he, as my son, not only did not give respect and return to my life-saving benefactor, but spoke ill of each other, which touched my bottom line." At the same time, this is also to sharpen him, let him know the hardships and difficulties of life, so that he will not be doing anything all day long, and still feel good about himself. ”

As soon as these words came out, Zhang Wei couldn't say anything more, Gao Zili made it clear that this matter was not directed at him, but just Lao Tzu taught his son a lesson, that was someone else's family matter, and he had no position to say more.

"Brother Zhang, we have eaten and drunk, and I have made it clear to me. If you don't accept it, it's okay, I'll sell it to you, and I'll hit your account with a lot of money, if you don't want to collect it, then you can arrange to donate it, anyway, if you don't accept this house, I won't keep it, or even if I die tomorrow, I won't be able to close my eyes. "Gao Zili's alcohol consumption is a little poor, and he is obviously a little drunk at this time, and his speech is also very straightforward, not at all as exquisite as usual.

"I said Mr. Gao, I've heard of ......"

"What Mr. Gao! I've always called you brother, can't you call me Brother Gao? Even if you look down on me, my age is here, you should call Brother Sheng, right?" Gao Zili poured himself a drink or two.

It was only twenty minutes before and after, and Gao Zili's wine bottle was already empty, so he directly took Zhang Wei's wine bottle and poured it for himself.