Zhou Zhihan said: "That's right! Not to mention that you have been away from your hometown for so many years and don't speak much of your hometown dialect. I have just arrived in the United States for less than half a year, and the hometown dialect you speak now is a bit different.
But this is normal. We Chinese and overseas Chinese have to use standard Chinese when meeting each other, and we must use English to communicate with foreigners, so we usually speak very little in our hometown. Over time, if you don’t pay attention when speaking, it will make people feel a bit weird. tone. "
"It's so similar!" Cheng Xiping said in awkward Zhejiang dialect, "How can a generation of people remember Ga Township? The generation waiting for me or the generation after me probably don't even know what Zhejiang Gang is!"
Zhou Zhihan smiled, took a wine glass and filled it: "Uncle Cheng, have a drink and have a chat. I saw you were busy and I didn't have the nerve to call you."
Cheng Xiping was not polite and said with a smile: "Brother, what you said is so right. Now I speak in an incoherent way. Anyway, we are all Chinese. No matter what dialect we speak, we are all Chinese." It’s Chinese!”
"Yes, yes, what uncle said is so reasonable. People speak Chinese wherever they go, and they are Chinese everywhere." Zhou Zhihan handed a cigarette to Cheng Xiping, "Uncle, my name is Zhou Zhihan, you can call me Zhihan." It’s cold.”
"Zhihan! Okay, okay!" Cheng Xiping said, tilting his face, and lit the cigarette on the flame handed over by Zhou Zhihan, "Oh, by the way, Zhihan, why didn't your friends come today?"
"Today I went to the beach with my friends and wanted to eat dumplings. When I came back, I passed by your place. They were all busy and didn't come." Zhou Zhihan lit the cigarette himself, took a puff and squinted, "Uncle Chen, Are you opening a shop here as a family?”
Cheng Xiping looked at Candy Duff who was praising her dumplings, and then said to Zhou Zhihan: "I am the only one here, my wife and son live more than 100 kilometers away from here.
My son has now integrated into American society. He is working here, getting married and having children. My wife helps take care of the grandchildren at home. As for me, I can’t sit still at home, so I like places where there are many Chinese and overseas Chinese. I learned how to cook from my father before, and I also I could cook a few side dishes, so I opened a small shop and hired two shop assistants. "
"Uncle is absolutely right. I always come to Chinatown every time I have a break. I feel it's so friendly. Talking, eating, and drinking are all Chinese customs and customs. It's so real!" Zhou Zhihan said and praised Chen Xiping again. Wine, "Uncle, it's not easy for you to live here alone. Come on, let me toast you!"
"I'm used to it!" Cheng Xiping drank the wine. "Most of the people who come here to eat during the day are Chinese. Listening to Chinese and chatting about home life, I feel comfortable. After a busy day during the day, I have two glasses of wine with my waiter at night. Then he closed the shop door and slept until dawn.
I usually go back often to see my wife, son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. It feels good to live a solid and comfortable life this way. "
After chatting for a while, Zhou Zhihan stood up and asked, "Uncle, is there a bathroom in your restaurant?"
"Yes, you go upstairs." Cheng Xiping pointed to the stairs and smiled, "That's you. If it were an ordinary person, I would just let him go to the big pit outside."
Zhou Zhihan also smiled and got up and went upstairs and came back in five or six minutes.
"I occasionally heard you chatting a few words yesterday, and I, an old man, was deeply touched! It would be great if we in China could have more passionate young people like you. Oh, by the way, Zhihan, I heard you chatting about the performance of 96 yesterday. , and they were talking about the Japanese fighter jets, I was very curious, but I didn’t have the nerve to ask at the time, tell me, are our Chinese fighter jets better, or are the smaller Japanese fighter jets better?”
Zhou Zhihan blushed a little after drinking: "Uncle Cheng, I won't tell most people about this topic."
"Oh~" Cheng Xiping's face showed disappointment.
Zhou Zhihan burped from wine, smiled, handed Cheng Xiping a cigarette, and helped light it: "I won't talk about ordinary people, but Uncle Cheng, you are an ordinary person, so I will talk to you about fighter jets! Hey, Uncle Cheng, I will talk to you You talk about Chinese and Japanese fighter jets, but this is a secret, you must keep it secret!"
"Hey, you kid!" Cheng Xiping said, gently pushing Zhou Zhihan's shoulder, "I didn't expect you to trust your Uncle Chen so much. Just for this, I'll give you a toast!"
The two drank the wine, and Cheng Xiping turned to the waiter and shouted: "Xiao Liuzi, bring me my bottle of old wine, and cut two braised pig tails for Erhuazi to come." A scrambled egg with acacia flowers. If a guest comes, let him fry some vegetables and I will drink a few cups."
"Okay! Uncle Cheng!"
At first glance, Xiao Liuzi looked like an honest young man without any scheming. He was not tall and relatively thin. He turned around and went to get the wine and prepare the dishes.
In a short time, the waiter Xiaoliuzi brought up a bottle of aged Xifeng wine, a plate of chopped pig tails, and a plate of scrambled eggs with acacia flowers.
Candy Duff didn't know what the two were talking about, and she didn't want to know. She was eating dumplings and drinking beer, thinking that she had bought so many beautiful bikinis today and had to show them off in front of her good friends when she got home.
"Uncle Cheng, let me tell you, the performance of our Chinese fighter jets is much worse than that of Japan. Take the Japanese Type 96 carrier-based aircraft as an example. Its performance is completely superior to our Yi-15 Yi-16 fighter jets. The engine of the carrier aircraft can reach an astonishing 620 horsepower, exceeding the 520 horsepower of the P26, and the Japanese airborne weapons are also much more powerful than ours."
Cheng Xiping nodded with a solemn expression: "Is there a solution?"
"We have already figured out a way. Yesterday, the two elder brothers and I were talking about fighter jets. This is of course confidential. I have never told anyone else except you.
As for some performance data of fighter jets, you won’t understand them, so I won’t say more. "Zhou Zhihan drank a little too much, his face turned red, and he stuttered a little, "Come on, Uncle Cheng, I'll toast you with another drink." "
"It's cold, drink less. Drunkness will harm your body."
"No...it's okay, Uncle Cheng, I...I...it's still early, I..."
It was almost six o'clock when the meal was finished. Zhou Zhihan wanted to pay. Cheng Xiping said that he couldn't accept it no matter what this time. When he comes next time, he will get you a bottle of Shanxi Laofen wine to try and stew the ground pot chicken with pure Chinese flavor. You will definitely do it again. Bring your girlfriend.
Zhou Zhihan saw that Cheng Xiping refused to accept the money, so he stopped making any concessions. He stood up and said goodbye. He drove Candy Duff back to the hotel and brought two bottles of the best Yanghe Daqu from Cheng Xiping. Go back and give it to the old cowboy.
I wonder if Yanghe Daqu mixed with ice will have a different taste.
There are no police checking for drunk driving at this time, mainly because there are few private cars at this time and the road seems wider. At night, there are not many cars on the road, not even a policeman.
At half past seven in the evening, when the last table of guests left, the restaurant closed its doors.
As usual, after all the guests had left, Cheng Xiping and the two boys quickly cleaned the restaurant inside and out, then cooked a few side dishes and drank a few cups with the two boys.
The work ended late today, and it was not until after eight o'clock that the two waiters left the small restaurant. Chen Xiping closed the door and bolted it.
After closing the store door, Cheng Xiping rechecked all the doors and windows upstairs and downstairs to make sure they were correct.
Using the hot water from cooking rice during the day, Cheng Xiping took a hot bath in the bathroom, and then smoked cigarettes one by one downstairs for half an hour. After making sure that no one would come again, he The lights in several private rooms were turned off, and he went upstairs with a Chinese oil lamp and walked into the bedroom.
At this time, Cheng Xiping's face under the shadow of the oil lamp looked very calm, so calm that it was a bit gloomy and terrifying.
Putting the oil lamp on the table and not turning on the lights upstairs, Cheng Xiping closed the thick curtains, then opened the lampshade of the old-fashioned pendulum clock on the wall, and fiddled with the hour hand to turn it back one and a half times, pointing at 11 o'clock. , then rotate the minute hand forward two and a half times, stay at the 35-minute position, stretch out your thumb, and press it slightly hard in the middle of the clock. With a slight "click" sound, a small black dark window appears on the wall. superior.
