Chapter 495 - 482: Big Brother
Zheng Changsheng looked at Gu’er and began to speak. "Speaking of Zheng Daniu, even though he starved his own child to death and the villagers all gossip about him behind his back, Zheng Fuzi is on his side, so nothing really happened to him. A while ago, who knows where Zheng Fuzi found her, but he brought back a woman in her thirties or forties. She seems... mentally unwell. He said she was to be Zheng Daniu’s wife. Zheng Daniu was actually grateful. He can’t find a wife now, but he can’t be without a son. He doesn’t care what the woman is like, as long as she can give him a son. So, she ended up staying with the Zheng Family."
Gu’er was stunned. She recalled that he hadn’t finished his story earlier, but she never imagined this was the reason.
"This... isn’t this human trafficking?"
Gu’er couldn’t believe Zheng Fuzi would do something like that.
"I asked about it at the time. The woman had been married before, but her husband treated her poorly. After her child died, she lost her mind and ran away. She’s been wandering for a few years and can’t clearly say where her home is. Basically, she’ll go with anyone who gives her something to eat. Zheng Fuzi offered her food, so she went with him. It doesn’t really count as trafficking. I asked her, and she seemed quite happy about it, saying she’d have food to eat."
Zheng Changsheng sighed. He had asked, but after learning the situation, there was nothing more he could say.
"It’s a sin. That Zheng Fuzi... ugh, none of them are good people."
Lin Shuying also sighed. So much had happened in less than two years. To think that Chang Juhua would abandon her child and run away, and that Zheng Fuzi would find a mentally unstable woman to be Zheng Daniu’s wife... Thinking about it now, Lin Shuying felt like she was in a dream. ’It’s a good thing I brought the children back with me,’ she thought. ’Otherwise, who knows what would’ve happened.’
Zheng Zhongshan and Zheng Xinghua were also speechless. The man at the center of this was their biological father, yet he felt so distant. So distant that they could barely remember what the village looked like. So distant that all these names were just labels to them.
Gu’er had nothing more to say either. She didn’t know if what Zheng Fuzi did counted as trafficking. The woman was mentally ill and had been homeless. Now she was brought to the Zheng Family, and she was happy about it, thinking she would have food and a place to live without having to wander anymore. Gu’er truly didn’t know if staying with the Zheng Family was a good or bad thing for that woman.
"Alright, that’s the whole story. Whether they’re good or bad has nothing to do with us anymore, so let’s not talk about them. Oh, right, I brought you all gifts."
Seeing how heavy the atmosphere had become, Zheng Changsheng quickly changed the subject.
"You shouldn’t have. You came all this way, why bring anything? It must have been heavy."
Lin Shuying said.
"It’s just a small token. I hope you’ll accept it."
Zheng Changsheng got up to get the large bag he had left by the door.
The large bag was very unassuming, even looking a bit dirty on the outside. In a later era, if it were thrown on the street, probably no one but a scrap collector would bother picking it up.
But Zheng Changsheng wasn’t embarrassed in the slightest. He smiled and said, "Don’t let the shabby bag fool you, it can hold a lot. And when people see it, they assume there’s nothing valuable inside, so they don’t give it a second thought. You have no idea, on the way here, so many people had their luggage stolen. But no one touched mine."
Gu’er thought he had a point. This Zheng Changsheng was pretty sharp.
Zheng Changsheng took many things out of the bag. There were clothes, cosmetics, and shoes for Lin Shuying, all of them quite fashionable.
Lin Shuying blushed a little. While muttering "Why did you buy all this?", she accepted the gifts and held them in her arms.
Zheng Changsheng then gave Zheng Zhongshan and Zheng Xinghua a number of things as well. They both smiled and thanked him.
"Gu’er, Jia Ming, this is the gift I brought for you. Guess what it is."
Zheng Changsheng said as he took out another item.
"We get a gift too? Thank you, Uncle Zheng. What is this? Huh?"
Gu’er stared, dumbfounded, at the object in Zheng Changsheng’s hand.
"What is that? Why don’t I recognize it?"
Lin Shuying put her gifts away and asked with curiosity as she looked at the object in Zheng Changsheng’s hand.
Sun Jiaming didn’t recognize it either, and Zheng Zhongshan and Zheng Xinghua both said they had never seen one before.
Zheng Changsheng was grinning. He figured none of them would have seen it before, as it probably hadn’t become popular here yet. He was just about to speak when he heard Gu’er say, "A Dageda? They have Dagedas now?"
’My brain feels a little fuzzy.’ Gu’er recognized the thing Zheng Changsheng was holding. It was a Dageda, an early wireless telephone that looked like a big brick. ’But they exist already?’ In her previous life, she had known about them, but she’d never used one and didn’t know when they first appeared or became popular.
"Dageda? What kind of thing is that? Why does it have ’big brother’ in the name? Is it something for gangsters?"
Lin Shuying didn’t understand and found it very strange.
Zheng Changsheng looked at Gu’er and asked in confusion, "Gu’er, how do you know about this? I was planning to show off in front of you all. Well, so much for that."
"I’ve only heard people talk about it. This is the first time I’ve actually seen one."
’I’m actually really shocked,’ Gu’er thought.
"What can this ugly black thing even do? It’s not nice to look at, either. Whoa, why is it so heavy?"
Lin Shuying took it and examined it. She looked at it from every angle but couldn’t see anything special about it.
"It’s for making phone calls. And it’s extremely expensive. One of these probably costs around twenty thousand yuan."
Gu’er remembered what people in her past life had said about the Dageda. When they first came out, they were a status symbol that only the rich could afford. She recalled they were very expensive.
"What? Twenty thousand for a big brick? Ouch! My foot! That hurts like hell!"
The moment Lin Shuying heard it was worth twenty thousand, her hand trembled, and the Dageda fell to the floor, part of it landing on her foot.
"Let me see, let me see! Are you okay? Do we need to go to the hospital?"
Zheng Changsheng didn’t even glance at the Dageda on the floor. He rushed to bend down and check on Lin Shuying. The others also hurried to help her up. For a moment, the Dageda, which should have been a treasured object, was ignored by everyone, lying forlornly on the ground, looking quite pitiful.
"I’m fine, it just hit me a little. It’s nothing serious. Why is that black brick so expensive? Quick, go check if I broke it."
’If I’d known it was that expensive, I wouldn’t have touched it,’ Lin Shuying thought, her mind preoccupied with the Dageda.
Everyone checked Lin Shuying’s foot. Seeing that it wasn’t a serious injury, they were relieved. Xinghua went and picked up the Dageda.
"This is for making phone calls. With this, you can make calls even when you’re out. It’s very convenient. I heard they first appeared in Guang City back in ’87. With the network connection fee and everything, it was almost thirty thousand yuan. Very few people could afford one. By ’88, you couldn’t even buy one easily with money; on the black market, the price was driven up to forty or fifty thousand. They’ve gotten cheaper in the last two years, so most people with a bit of money can afford one now. I have one in Guang City, too. I was thinking that since Gu’er and Jia Ming are in business, I’d bring one for them. This way, you can stay in touch even when you’re out. It’s convenient. They might have become popular a bit later here, but I figure they should be available by now."