I returned home at 3:30. The deserted courtyard was empty. I went to the kitchen on the east side to get lentils. I hid on the stone pier under the shade of the Chinese toon tree in the middle of the courtyard and picked lentils one by one. I knew how to cook, but the fried dishes were not as delicious as my parents, so every time I washed and cut the vegetables in advance, and waited for my parents to go home to put them in the pot.

Dinner is fried with lentils and cold purple cabbage.

While eating, my mother was muttering as usual: "Now I feel a headache when I hear the word "marriage". Why do you have to get married? Just a bachelor is a bachelor. Can you die if you don't get married?" Hearing this, I almost spit out a bite of food, "Hmph, what, a small colleague in our Finance Department is going to hold a wedding ceremony in a few days, and the invitations are all here. Tell me, how much is the right amount of money I will give her?"

Dad said, "Isn't it enough to give one hundred?"

My mother curled her lips: "One hundred? Can I take it? They give at least two hundred!"

"You're going to do something about slapping the swollen face and pretending to be fat!" My father said angrily: "Our family spends money every month, and there's no money left at all. Can face be used as a food?"

My mother slapped the table and glared: "Don't talk about me! You have also been a fat man in the unit!"

"Dad, mom..." I put down my chopsticks and went back to the room to get a paper bag, "Well, I want to say something."

"What's this?" My mother snatched the object wrapped in yesterday's Beijing Morning News without saying a word. When she opened it, she was stunned: "So much money? Where did you get it? One, two, three, four, five... What a good guy! It's nearly twenty thousand yuan!" My father also looked stunned, and his gaze hit me in the face, "Say, what's going on?"

I said as I said, "That's right. Today, I saw several migrant workers digging out a Ming and Qing brand from the ground at a construction site not far from the school. It was of good quality. I exchanged it with the watch for 180 yuan, and then sold it with the Liuli Factory. This is the only 18,000 yuan."

My mother took a breath: "A hundred times more? Good son! You are so capable!"

I feel very satisfied to be able to share some difficulties for my family.

But my father was not as happy as my mother. He looked a little bit: "Xiao Jing, I didn't tell you clearly before, but today you listened to it. This is the first and last time. In the future, you are not allowed to touch antiques. There is so much knowledge here that you can't play with it."

I uttered casually.

Perhaps seeing my disapproval, my dad sternly said, "I didn't joke with you! Did you hear it?"

My mother winked at me, "Your dad is right, don't touch these messy objects in the future."

"I understand." I replied seriously.

The reason why my father is so serious is also traced back to my grandfather's generation. My grandfather started by selling a few ancestral antiques. After that, he embarked on the road of collecting, buying at low prices and selling at high prices, which makes him feel a bit like doing business. But when I walk by the river, how can I not get wet my shoes? I took a few strokes and made my grandfather lose all his money, almost falling into a state of pennilessness, and ended up in depression.

Before leaving, my grandfather left a family motto: Don’t touch antiques.

My father is a filial son. Since then, he is very interested in collecting, so he has only looked at it and never bought it. He has never taken it home.

I didn't want to get involved in this topic, so I hurriedly told my mother about meeting Zou Yue'e and she were going to rent a house during the day.

"Oh, I'll call Aunt Liu to ask her to ask."

But my dad frowned: "Zou Yue'e has a bad reputation in your company, right?" He looked at me and didn't say anything more.

I understand what my father means. Indeed, Zou Yue'e sometimes gives people a feeling of being unconditional in lifestyle.

"Multiple people, multiple roads." My mother doesn't seem to like her very much. "If you can, please help me, maybe one day when I will use it."

After chatting for a while, my mother's eyes finally fell on the stack of famous coins and looked at me in a fake way: "Xiao Jing, you are still young, mom will save this money for you for the time being, for you to graduate and get married in the future."

Ah? Then you have to leave some for me, right? But I said, "Okay, it was for you."

Dad knocked the edge of the bowl with chopsticks: "Take the child's money too! Look at your promising prospect!"

My mother was anxious: "What's wrong with me? What's wrong? Isn't it okay for my son to be filial to me? No?"

After arguing for a while, my mother reluctantly pushed 8,000 yuan to me and told me: "Don't spend it randomly, I won't give you the living expenses for the next semester."

I was speechless for a while.

The sun and the moon alternate, and the evening breeze is gentle.

Lying on the mat, I was stunned to the ceiling. My father strictly prohibited me from touching antiques, but I wanted to be a rich man and let my parents live a good life. Then, it is inevitable to get in touch with antiques. After thinking for a long time, I still didn't plan to tell them to my parents and were going to continue secretly. It's not that I was unfilial. On the contrary, I think I am a very filial child, but my father and I have different understandings of filial piety.

I think that following the rules is not equated with the word "filial piety".

I'll hide it first, and then tell my parents after I earn a lot of money. At that time, the situation was already done and I could only be beaten.

The next day.

I went to Huangcun in Daxing according to the incident recorded in my notebook. The source of this news was a shop in Antique City who likes to talk about the mountains. It is said that he had returned from Huangcun to a porcelain from the previous dynasty. The specific time is tomorrow and next two days. But I went to the address he described and asked many family members, but I could not see the shadow of the porcelain.

After struggling all day, I was exhausted and returned empty-handed, thinking that it must be the shopkeeper who was bragging.

After dinner in the evening, I unwilling to let go of my sore body and went out again at dawn.

This time I went to the moat of You'anmen, seven or eight kilometers away from my home. A few days later, an eleven-year-old boy named Liu from the courtyard of No. 23, our Hutongkou would catch a cricket. He was big and beautiful. It was hard to believe that the insect came from Beijing. I liked it very much and had asked him carefully, so the information I knew was quite complete.

How much is a cricket worth?

There are a few cents, hundreds, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands.

In the evening, there was a cool breeze sweeping by the river bank, which was very comfortable.

Walking slowly along the moat, I pricked up my ears and listened hard to the chirping of the crickets below. If they churned one by one, I'm afraid it wouldn't be able to find it tomorrow morning. After all, there are too many crickets here, so I can only distinguish them by sound. The sounds that are light and weak, sharp and harsh are often not good insects. The real good insects are thick and full of sounds that are similar to the bell.

After walking back and forth a few times, the road was more than ten meters long, and it was said that it was big or small.

Suddenly, my ears moved, which were bitten by mosquitoes.

I stopped and stood on the busy street and listened again as if I had confirmed the sound of the engine. A slight roar of insects mixed with the sound of the engine made me happy.
Chapter completed!