In early April 1945, the U.S. military bombed the Japanese mainland on a large scale, followed by the Soviet Union's announcement of the abrogation of the Soviet-Japanese neutrality treaty, and soon declared war on Japan.

At that time, the people of Beiping were panicked, and there were military police patrols driving three-wheeled motorcycles all day long in various urban areas, especially on the border of Beiping, where several gendarmerie soldiers with guns could often be seen walking by, and the children would deliberately hide far away when they saw the gendarmerie people, for fear that they would accidentally be shot by the devil.

At the back of the second-grade classroom of Qiantang Town Primary School, Xiao Wu heard Zhao Dahai's words, his expression was shocked and puzzled, and he asked in disbelief: "Are you sure you saw it with your own eyes?" ”

"See it with your own eyes." Zhao Dahai nodded and said, he saw Xiao Wu frowning, so he continued to ask, "Do you want to tell Jiang Sheng?" ”

"Don't, don't tell Jiang Sheng." Xiao Wu said. "Let's treat it as if nothing happened, rot this secret in our stomachs, otherwise Jiang Sheng will die of sadness if he finds out."

Mr. Zhang did not find out who stole the class fee, and Xiao Wu and Zhao Dahai did not tell anyone, but I happened to walk to the back of the classroom and heard their conversation outside the window.

The weather in Beiping is getting warmer, the wheat is bearing ears, wild flowers and weeds grow on the roadside, sometimes you can see flocks of butterflies, sometimes you can see grasshoppers the size of palms, and weasels also burrow out of the soil nests.

His father has been abandoning himself for more than half a year, his mother has ignored him, and the people of Sanlitun have ignored him like an animal when they see him. Perhaps my father himself was bored, so he carried a hoe to our soybean field one morning to hoe weeds and remove insects.

When my mother came home in the evening, she saw her father lighting a fire in front of the pot, so she quickly put down the bamboo basket and said, "Why don't you wear shoes, your feet can't catch a cold." ”

As she spoke, the mother helped his father into the house, brought him a basin of hot water to wash his feet, and when she saw that his trouser legs were covered with mud and leaf pulp, she asked, "Why did you go to the field?" ”

The father said: "I went to the soybean field today to hoe the grass and catch some bean worms, you see that they are fried in oil for Jiang Sheng and Jiang Rong to taste at night." ”

Mother nodded and said, "You can eat, I heard Xiao Wu say that Niu Aihua fried a few for him to eat, it was very fragrant, but the bean worms are too wasteful of oil, and now the price is rising so fast, the family can't afford to eat oil, I'll go and see how much oil there is." ”

Mother got up and walked outside, tears streaming down her face as she turned her father's back.

After a while, the mother came in from outside, smiled and said, "Why did you catch so many bean worms, but there is still half of the oil in the oil drum, and the children have something to eat at night." ”

The mother said and squatted down and washed the mud off the father's legs, and the father lifted the hair from the mother's ears, and the mother was stunned for a moment and said, "You are hungry, drink less wine in the future, it is not good for the stomach, I will scramble some tomatoes and scrambled eggs for you at night, and it will be appetizing." ”

The father hugged the unprepared mother to the kang and kissed the mother frantically, the mother turned crimson and said, "It's still daylight, Jiang Rong should see it in a while, you bear with it and wait for the evening." ”

At that time, a group of children in Sanlitun were still on their way back from school, and there were a lot of grasshoppers on the road, and we caught a lot of them, and each one of them was dressed with dog tail grass.

These grasshoppers can be eaten at night when they are roasted under the stove for a while, the taste is particularly fragrant, and it tastes better if you put some fine salt on it, Jiang Sheng, Xiao Wu and Zhao Dahai catch grasshoppers in addition to catching fish in the morning after school.

At that time, the crops were not ripe, and some people in the village would go to the fields to catch grasshoppers and fry them at home.

In the evening, our family of four sat at the dinner table, Jiang Sheng's expression was indifferent, and he was about to go to the courtyard with his rice bowl, and his mother said, "Jiang Sheng, sit down." ”

In the past few months, Jiang Sheng had to go out with a bowl almost every time he ate at the same table with his father, because he hated the smell of sake lees in the house, and because he hated his father.

Jiang Sheng took the bowl and looked back at his mother, who motioned for Jiang Sheng to sit down again, and Jiang Sheng had to sit down and bury his head in eating.

"Your dad caught some bean worms and fried them for you to eat, try them all." As my mother spoke, she gave Jiang Sheng a bean worm that had been fried and flattened, and I took a bite, it was very crispy, and the bean worm was dripping with oil.

"It's delicious." I giggled and picked up the dish with the bean worms and pulled it into my bowl.

"Jiang Rong, it's not pleasing again?" My mother glared at me and said.

"Leave some for your brother too." Father said as he pulled a few bean worms in Jiang Sheng's bowl.

"I don't like to eat." Jiang Sheng said and pulled all the bean worms in the bowl into my bowl again.

"Why don't you just eat dry rice, and you're not afraid of choking." The mother pulled the scrambled eggs with tomatoes into Jiang Sheng's bowl, and personally sandwiched a few bean worms for Jiang Sheng. "Eat a little, it's fragrant, you see how stubborn you are as a child."

That night, I heard the sound of the night that I hadn't seen for a long time, and my father whispered, "Xiumei, I'll go to the town tomorrow to see if there's anything else I can do, even if I go to wash the dishes in the restaurant." ”

Mother said: "You are a big man who goes to wash dishes and laughs, and it doesn't cost much to wash dishes, I won't go to work tomorrow to accompany you to the next big kiln village to see your legs, if you can work, I will go to Zhao Fugui at night, apologize to others, and let Zhao Fugui get you into the factory." ”

"No, you are busy with your going, I can walk by myself, and you don't need to go to Fugui's side, I'll just find a time to drink with him." Father said.

"Enna, you can do it yourself." Mother said.

After a while, his father said: "Jiang Sheng and Jiang Rong are not small, you see Jiang Sheng's height growing so fast, could it be that he has developed?" ”

"What nonsense are you talking about, he's only a little older, just ten years old." Mother said.

"The children in the city are well raised, not necessarily, I want to give him a bed these days." Father said.

The mother said: "It's okay, but our hall is too crowded, I'm afraid we can't fit a bed, or clean up the room next to it, let Jiang Sheng and Jiang Rong move over, you snoring and noisy, save the two children from suffering." ”

My father and mother talked for a long time that night, and they were still talking until Jiang Sheng and I were asleep.

When I went to school the next day, many people in the class did not come to class, because there was a fight on Beiping Street last night, and many people died.

No one knows the specific reason, some say that Uncle Qin's hall and the people at the police station clashed, and some people say that Uncle Qin's people fought with the gendarmerie, Guanghe Restaurant was bombed, and Uncle Qin's son died.

When Jiang Sheng heard that Uncle Qin's son had died, he put down his schoolbag and ran out of the classroom.

Half an hour later, Jiang Sheng came to the front of the Guanghe Restaurant on Hutong Street, and saw that the courtyard of the Guanghe Restaurant was broken, and there was a group of people cleaning up inside. ”

Jiang Sheng had come to the restaurant twice with Mr. Zhang for banquets before, and Qin Changqing told the shopkeeper Yu in every possible way to remember Jiang Sheng's appearance, and if Jiang Sheng had something urgent to ask for, he must report it to him.

Jiang asked angrily, panting, "What about Changqing?" ”

Shopkeeper Yu said: "The third young master is not in the restaurant, he should be at the entrance of the hall at this time, do you have any trouble, I will help you solve it if the matter is small." ”

Jiang Sheng ignored it, turned around and ran out of Guanghe Restaurant.

Inside the hall, Uncle Qin sat on the upper seat, and below there were the hall stewards of various urban districts, all of whom were well-known figures in Beiping City, and the person who spoke at this time was Qin Changqing, who had just turned sixteen.

Qin Changqing said: "Father, uncles, what Changqing said is not alarmist, throughout history, every war in ancient times would lead to currency depreciation. The state treasury is empty, the people's taxes can not supply the demand, once the financial resources can not keep up, it is inevitable to order the mint to mint a large amount of money, and the silver bill is to accelerate the speed of this currency depreciation, now several currencies are circulating in the market, the only one that does not depreciate is gold. At present, the war between the national army and the devils has reached the most critical juncture, if my guess is correct, once the devils withdraw, the next thing is a civil war, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cannot shake hands and make peace, no matter which side wins, the currency market must be the first to be rectified to regulate economic development, so even if we are losing money now, we must exchange all the money in the bank and various money banks for gold. ”

"Although the third young master is young, it is reasonable, and I agree with his statement." One of them said.