Chapter 137: Night Drinking

Sun Yong and Jiang Xiaoli initially went to the homes of Village Chief Zhao and Brigade Leader Liang, but unfortunately, the two men gave them the cold shoulder.

These two were far too shrewd; they were certainly not going to offend their fellow villagers and clansmen over an educated youth whose relationship with the village would only last another half year.

Besides, they had handled this matter strictly according to the rules and regulations, and it had passed through a public vote by the village branch members. Even if they argued their case all the way to the ends of the earth, they were in the right.

Those educated youth could not hold any grudges against them because the decision belonged to everyone.

That was why they had to resort to visiting the other educated youth one by one, though heaven alone knew how much effect it would actually have.

After seeing Jiang Xiaoli off, Han Li returned inside, where he and the Yun sisters had already cleaned up all the pots and bowls.

Yun Yingying: "It looks like tomorrow's quota will be decided by a vote. Who do you plan to vote for?"

Han Li: "It doesn't matter to me. Which one do you two plan to vote for?"

"Jiang Xiaoli, of course. Compared to Sun Yong, I feel women deserve this opportunity more because life in the countryside is simply too bitter."

Hearing Yun Yingying's words, Han Li smiled. Under Yun Jingjing's watchful gaze, he ruffled Yun Yingying's hair and said,

"Then I'll listen to you and cast my vote for Jiang Xiaoli tomorrow."

Yun Yingying said in a low voice, "My sister is right here."

Han Li smiled and withdrew his hand, thinking to himself that another day he would take Yun Yingying deep into the mountains for a short getaway; would Yun Jingjing still be able to enforce her long-arm jurisdiction then?

However, Yun Jingjing showed little reaction to Han Li's gesture. Sitting on the edge of the brick-bed (kang), she said with utter calmness,

"What Sun Yong said just now clearly sounds a bit unhinged. A person like that is capable of doing things others could never imagine. Even if we intend to vote for Jiang Xiaoli tomorrow, we should wait for others to show their stance before making a move. Otherwise, sticking our necks out like the early bird will easily make us targets of resentment."

Han Li nodded after hearing this and said, "Ever since the news about the worker-peasant-soldier college enrollment quota came out, Sun Yong has been desperately trying to show off. He even declared that no one would stop him from getting this quota. Later, the incident at the educated youth quarters shattered his hopes once. If another twist happens this time, he's very likely to do something foolish. So being on guard against him is the right thing to do."

While the three of them were talking, Li Red-xia unexpectedly showed up as well. Perhaps realizing she couldn't compete with the two brigade leaders, she had a somewhat fatalistic attitude coming over this time, leaving her fate to the heavens after doing all she could.

Consequently, her mood was quite good, and as they chatted, the conversation drifted toward her fiancé.

After Li Red-xia left, looking at the time, the Yun sisters also needed to head home.

At this point, one older educated youth still hadn't shown up, and Han Li wasn't sure if he would come at all. Therefore, he readily let Yun Yingying go back with her sister. Besides, Han Li hadn't walked his dogs yet today, so it was a good excuse to walk them home.

Watching the sisters latch their courtyard gate behind them, Han Li went to the edge of the fields to let his dogs relieve themselves and burn off some energy.

Sitting on the ridge of the field, watching his dogs expend their vigor, Han Li's thoughts began to wander. He thought of kind-hearted Wei Chunlan, then shifted to Sun Yong, Jiang Xiaoli, and the others, as well as the various complaints and grievances in the letters from his former classmates. If he didn't know that the college entrance examination would resume in 1977 and that the educated youth would return to the cities in large numbers by 1978, would he have become as anxious and impatient as the rest of them? Following that, he smiled and shook his head; there was simply no comparison. Even without knowing the future course of events, he was a man with a golden cheat-finger—how could he ever degenerate into that state?

Sun Yong, meanwhile, was burning with fury. He hadn't expected Village Chief Zhao and Brigade Leader Liang to refuse to see him altogether.

This left him feeling extremely insecure; now, all his hopes rested on the other educated youth.

However, trying to win votes from the other educated youth relying purely on empty words was proving somewhat ineffective.

Therefore, Sun Yong ran to the home of a villager he had a decent relationship with, spending a hefty sum to buy an old laying hen, and then purchased some loose, unrefined white liquor from another villager who loved to drink.

Sun Yong had thought it all through: the hosting location for tonight would be at Han Li's house.

Not only could he use Han Li's firewood and seasonings, but the leftover bones could also be generously handed over to Han Li to feed his dogs.

As long as he won over Han Li, the two votes from the Yun sisters would naturally follow. This was truly killing multiple birds with one stone.

Once he finished purchasing the items, he began inviting everyone over for meat and drinks. However, Qi Ruying and Yuan Hongying had already been roped in by Jiang Xiaoli, who shared their room, and flat-out refused to attend this drinking party.

As for Hao Hongmei, Yang Xiuying, He Mi, and Qi Zhaodi, he couldn't even find them because, at this hour, they had already latched their courtyard gates and gone to bed. How could a grown man like him go knocking on their doors at this time of night? The gossip would be disastrous.

Fortunately, Wu Lili's courtyard gate wasn't latched yet, which allowed Sun Yong to successfully invite her.

At this point, Sun Yong wanted Wu Lili to help him knock on the courtyard gates of Hao Hongmei and He Mi, but to his surprise, she refused outright.

To top it all off, Han Li wasn't even at home. Zhang Xiangjun mentioned that Han Li took his dogs out to the fields at this exact time every single day.

This almost drove Sun Yong to despair; he felt like everything he touched today was going against him.

Yet he couldn't just leave everyone standing out on the street; otherwise, if Jiang Xiaoli happened to see them later, she would surely stir up trouble.

Right then, the dogs finished exhausting their energy and trotted back to Han Li's side. He stood up, patted the dirt off his clothes, and walked back toward his house.

As Han Li neared his home, his dogs bared their teeth and let out low growls toward the front.
Han Li saw a hurricane lamp glowing brightly by his doorway, and in its faint light, several figures were moving about.

Before Han Li could take a closer look, Sun Yong's voice drifted over from that direction.

"The wind is blowing a bit cold, and standing out here on the street isn't working. Since we have the time, how about we go over to Comrade Zhang Xiangjun's place to get things ready?"

Zhang Xiangjun: "How about we wait a little longer? I figure Comrade Han Li will be back shortly; it never takes him too long to walk the dogs every night."

Sun Yong: "This night wind is genuinely chilly. Let's head over to your place to prep first, and I'll come back to fetch Comrade Han Li later."

Amidst some murmuring, Han Li watched them walk toward Zhang Xiangjun's house. What on earth was Sun Yong trying to pull at this hour?

Could he be organizing people to head to the village committee right now? But that didn't seem right either; among those people, there didn't seem to be any female educated youth.

Then it must be treating everyone to meat and drinks, seizing the opportunity to cultivate favor so they would vote for him tomorrow.

Yet at this hour, everyone should already be sleeping. What had he been doing earlier?

Sun Yong's behavior was a form of pressuring for power, not some pathetic banquet invitation.

No, only those with the ability to threaten others could call it pressuring for power; what he was doing was hugging Buddha's feet at the very last minute, cleaning his gun right on the battlefield.

Upholding the principle that more trouble is worse than less trouble, Han Li decided to stay hidden for the time being. He stopped his dogs from growling and stood quietly within the shadows. Only after everyone had filed into Zhang Xiangjun's house did he lead his dogs back into his own courtyard.

After bolting his courtyard gate and finishing his evening wash, Han Li was just about to go to bed when Sun Yong's voice rang out from outside.

"Comrade Han, open the door please. It's me, Sun Yong."

"Damn it, this guy actually came knocking."

Although Han Li detested this sort of thing, making a blatant display of being uncooperative and offending people was unwise, so he had no choice but to open the courtyard gate.

"Team Leader Sun, is there an urgent matter this late?"

"Nothing much. Since the autumn harvest is over, I wanted to invite everyone for a couple of drinks tonight, and I even spent a hefty sum to buy an old laying hen. But you know how crowded and inconvenient it is over at the educated youth quarters, so my original plan was to borrow your place. It just so happened you weren't home, so we moved it over to Zhang Xiangjun's place to stew it. Figuring you should be back by now, I came to invite you over. The chicken is almost out of the pot now, let's head over quickly."

Han Li: "Then I truly appreciate Team Leader Sun's generosity. I happen to have a bottle of sixty-five-degree Beidahuang liquor right here; I'll bring it along so everyone can have a taste."

The liquor Sun Yong bought this time was ordinary loose spirits, and the quantity was sparse. He had been worrying it wouldn't be enough to drink, so hearing that Han Li was willing to bring out a bottle of fine liquor instantly filled his heart with joy. Wearing a wide smile, he said,

"Then hurry just a bit, I'll wait right here for you. The old hen is about to be dished up."

Han Li nodded, turned around, and went back inside to grab the liquor. Yet he chuckled inwardly; bringing liquor was simply his way of avoiding owing Sun Yong any favors, ensuring that even if Sun Yong failed tomorrow, he wouldn't be able to vent his anger on him.

The two arrived at Zhang Xiangjun's house. As soon as they stepped inside, the rich aroma of chicken wafted over.

Zhang Xiangjun and Zhou Guo'an were tending the stove, and presumably, this old hen was their handiwork.

"Han Li, you're here. At a glance, I can tell this bottle of Beidahuang liquor is straight from your personal stash."

Zhang Xiangjun was quite familiar with Han Li and greeted him immediately upon sight, while Zhou Guo'an also nodded with a smile.

Han Li: "Team Leader Sun is being generous tonight, so I can't be stingy either. You two master chefs are the ones who truly did the hard work. This culinary skill is top-notch; I smelled the fragrance the moment I walked in."

"Haha, Han Li, go sit on the kang with Team Leader Sun for a moment. This chicken will be ready in no time."

Entering the inner room, Han Li found Xiong Xianjin's presence quite normal, but seeing Wu Lili, a female educated youth, sitting there as well felt somewhat peculiar.

However, his relationship with Xiong Xianjin was ordinary, and he had previously had an unpleasant falling out with Wu Lili, so a brief, perfunctory greeting between them sufficed.

Naturally, Sun Yong knew about the conflict between Han Li and Wu Lili, but Han Li represented three crucial votes.

Meanwhile, Wu Lili was currently his only hope for winning over the female educated youth, and tomorrow morning he would still be counting on her to lobby the other women.

Therefore, Sun Yong tried his utmost to ease the atmosphere in the room. It worked slightly, but it didn't last long before conversation dried up completely.

Han Li sat down next to Xiong Xianjin and picked up a book titled *Song of Youth* that Zhang Xiangjun had left on the kang.

It was a book that could be read openly and without reservation in this era. Without commenting much on the plot, it was absolute perfection for passing the time.

Xiong Xianjin was flipping through his Little Red Book, while Wu Lili sat on the kang knitting a sweater. The room lapsed back into silence, prompting Sun Yong to scurry outside to help stoke the fire.

Cooking an old laying hen in an iron pot with firewood was actually quite fast. Before Han Li had turned many pages, people outside were already shouting to grab their utensils.

A large basin of stewed chicken mixed with mushrooms, along with enamel mugs, bowls, and chopsticks, were successively brought onto the kang table.

At this point, Sun Yong delivered a lengthy speech about fostering camaraderie and then invited everyone to eat and drink.

Han Li ate meat frequently, so he only picked up a single chopstick of chicken just to go through the motions. The others, however, didn't have such refined table manners; Sun Yong in particular wielded his chopsticks like flying arrows, as if trying to eat back the entire cost of the chicken.

The single basin of chicken was quickly devoured down to the bottom under the onslaught of their chopsticks, and Sun Yong began urging everyone to drink.

Han Li had an ordinary alcohol tolerance, so each time he merely took a tiny sip to play along.

To Han Li's surprise, Wu Lili had a rather impressive tolerance for alcohol; she was actually able to gulp it down in large mouthfuls.

They say alcohol is a fine medium for adjusting the atmosphere, and sure enough, after a few cups, the room gradually grew lively.

Everyone was talking and laughing, and Wu Lili even broke into a rendition of *The Boatman of Wusuli*.

Before long, however, Han Li put on an act of being completely overwhelmed by the liquor. No matter what anyone said, he responded with nothing more than simple murmurs of "uh-huh" and "ah."

Seeing that Han Li possessed such a pathetic tolerance for alcohol, the look Wu Lili cast his way carried a trace of thinly veiled contempt.

Zhang Xiangjun looked at Han Li with eyes full of envy. The two of them had shared drinks a few times and he knew the other man's capacity wasn't nearly that pathetic. If they weren't at his own house, he would have loved to fake drunkenness too, because Sun Yong was now beginning to circle around and demand verbal guarantees.

Acknowledgments:
Thanks to Youfang Daoshi Yousifang for the tip of 500 points.
Thanks to Xiaose Neiwai for the tip of 100 points.
(End of this chapter)