This past month, who knows if it was that speech Miao Tianming gave at the family banquet that set off a whole chain reaction—anyway, one favorable policy after another has been coming out.
Or maybe that’s just how history was going to go in the first place.
At the year-end National People’s Congress they officially announced the country’s modernization drive: we must make use of two kinds of resources—domestic resources and foreign resources; open up two markets—our domestic market and the international market; and learn two sets of skills—the ability to organize domestic construction and the ability to develop foreign economic relations.
In short, reform and opening was picking up pace.
In the dead of the twelfth lunar month, not long after this news came out, the institutional downsizing meeting also stressed realizing a cadre team that is revolutionary, younger, more educated, and more professional.
These messages no doubt put everyone in a much better mood.
At the very least, Yi Jiefang and the others were over the moon.
Heaven knows, they’d just joined their buddy and his wife in stirring up a bit of fun—who could’ve guessed overseas returns would be this high? If this had been a few years earlier, the five brothers would’ve been thrown into the cowshed for sure!
Now it’s great, all aboveboard.
So even in the freezing twelfth month, Beijing still couldn’t lock in their jubilation; they insisted on clamoring to go out of the city for a spin.
"It’ll be New Year’s in a few days. You won’t have time to stay long over there, and it’d be inconvenient to take me along even if you wanted to—I’d just be cold. I’ll stay home and get the New Year supplies ready."
"Really not going?"
Zhou Jiao shot him a reproachful sideways glance. "I’m sure they’re not taking their wives along."
"Hahaha... How could those women compare to you?" Zhang Guoqing didn’t even bother denying he was biased toward his own wife. "Forget it, after the New Year we’ll go off by ourselves and have a little world of two."
He’d barely finished when May 1st shouted from the lounge next door, "Biased! Totally biased. Bro, hurry up and sing ’Little Cabbage.’"
"You dare sing it and I’ll smack you!" Ping’an’s voice rang out. "Right before New Year, don’t jinx it!"
"I was wrong, I was wrong—hurry up, go find Dad, he’s about to slip away."
Zhou Jiao pointed at the door, laughing. "Go on, or the kids are going to turn the place upside down in a minute."
"These little punks!" Zhang Guoqing cursed with a grin, brushed his wife’s cheek, and reluctantly walked to the door, looking headachey at his three sons.
Look at them, all tall and strapping, jammed into the hallway—and still such a bunch of rowdy clowns. Should he send them off on blind dates and hurry up and get them married?
Why is his life so hard?
A gruff father-in-law in front, troublesome sons behind, and his mother-in-law in the middle—just to get a proper hug in with his wife he has to pick his moment carefully, and if he slips up, his nemeses all show up at once.
"Dad, if you’re heading out, how could we as sons just sit around at home stuffing our faces? No way! We’ve got to provide close-up protection for our dear old dad."
"Idiot! Everyone knows Dad loves us three brothers the most—wherever he goes he likes to take us along, right, Dad?" Ping’an said, even blinking deliberately. "As sons, we definitely won’t be separated from you."
Liu Yi fished around in his pocket, pulled out a piece of chocolate, peeled it and stuffed it into Zhang Guoqing’s mouth. "See? Thoughtful, right? With your sons around, you don’t have a care in the world."
Listening to the grand-sounding reasons from the Ping An Brothers, Zhou Jiao’s eyes curved into crescents with laughter.
Chewing the chocolate, Zhang Guoqing squinted at his sons smilingly and just kept silent. Teasing his boys was the best fun.
Liu Yi rolled his eyes and laughed. "Dad, out in the jianghu I’ve got an elegant nickname: ’Living Map.’"
"Hey, what a coincidence. Friends in the jianghu gave me some face—they call me ’Know-it-all.’" May 1st quickly patted Ping’an, who was smiling silently beside him, on the shoulder. "Big Bro, what about you?"
"Me? I’ve got too many, really can’t list them all in a moment. I’ve been mixing it up in the jianghu a bit less lately, but nicknames like ’Jade-faced God’ and ’First in the Palace’ still come up a lot."

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