Chapter 17: Being a Guest

"Big brother, your hand is incredibly steady." Li Aiguo leaned in to inspect the sight and gave a thumbs up.

"Of course. My ancestors were eunuch attendants in the purification rooms for generations. To cut away a tiny little thing without leaving a trace while ensuring the person's life is preserved—that is what true precision looks like!"

As the middle-aged man spoke of his ancestors' glorious deeds, his cloudy eyes filled with longing, and the wrinkles on his face smoothed out significantly.

"..."

Li Aiguo looked at the two pounds of bright red pork, fell silent for a moment, and then looked up at the man.

"You never served as a eunuch attendant?"

"Sigh, it's all due to my bad luck. Just when I reached the age where I could finally enter the palace to serve, the Emperor passed away."

"Phew, I actually think your luck is quite good."

Hearing this, the middle-aged man froze for a second, then burst into laughter. "True enough. If I had actually become a eunuch attendant, this meat-selling job wouldn't have fallen to me."

In this era, selling meat was a good profession; it required a good background and excellent skill.

Li Aiguo knew many meat sellers whose families never needed to buy oil.

Before heading home each time, a meat seller would rub their hands against the fat several times.

On the way back, those hands wouldn't touch anything else, and certainly wouldn't touch a latrine.

Once they reached home, they would have their wives bring a basin of water to wash up. The oil floating on the surface of the water was enough to feed the whole family for an entire day.

More importantly, even if the higher-ups found out about this practice, they had no way to criticize it.

After all, for a meat seller, handling meat with their hands was a job requirement.

After bidding farewell to the butcher, Li Aiguo took a stroll through the market. By the time he left, he had two pounds of apples and three pounds of large red dates in his hands.

That wasn't all; Li Aiguo also detoured to the nearby department store to buy two bottles of old Fenjiu liquor and two pounds of eggs.

The Fenjiu was a gift for Zhou Tiehu, while the eggs were for himself.

Zhou Tiehu lived in the railway compound near the locomotive depot, about seven or eight *li* away from the courtyard.

Li Aiguo pedaled his bicycle like a whirlwind, arriving at the entrance of the railway compound in less than ten minutes.

Not knowing exactly where Zhou Tiehu lived, Li Aiguo went straight to the guardhouse.

Before he could even get close, a guard stepped out with long strides. Seeing that Li Aiguo was a stranger, the guard immediately became vigilant.

"Hello, comrade!"

Li Aiguo stopped and smiled. "I'm looking for Zhou Tiehu. Could you help me contact him? He was a colleague of my father."

The residents of this compound were all railway employees, and the security officers were also part of the railway staff, so they were quite familiar with the inhabitants.

Furthermore, since Zhou Tiehu was a train driver and a prominent figure at the locomotive depot, the guard naturally knew him.

The guard scrutinized Li Aiguo again, seeing that he wore an old railway uniform, had thick eyebrows and large eyes, and possessed a decent, respectable appearance that didn't look like a criminal.

Even so, Li Aiguo still wrote his name and home address in the registry.

After being asked a few more questions about Zhou Tiehu's family—which matched what the guard already knew—Li Aiguo was finally allowed into the compound.

The compound consisted entirely of Soviet-style dormitory buildings, with seven or eight of them in total, built by the railway department to house its employees.

As a train driver, Li's father had originally been eligible for an apartment, but at the time, he had shown great character by giving it up to a young person who was about to get married.

Zhou Tiehu's home was on the third floor of the third building.

Reaching the bottom of the building, Li Aiguo took the gifts out of his canvas bag and held them in his hand.

He climbed the stairs to the third floor and knocked on the yellowish wooden door.

The person who opened the door was a middle-aged woman in her forties, wearing a railway work uniform.

Seeing Li Aiguo standing outside, the woman froze for a moment, sized him up, and said with surprise, "You are... Li Aiguo! Oh my, you've grown so tall in the blink of an eye, I almost didn't recognize you. Come in, quickly!"

This woman was Zhou Tiehu's wife, named Wang Cuie. She worked in the crew department and had a very good relationship with Li's mother; she had taken great care of him when he was little.

Recalling the memories in his mind, Li Aiguo called out, "Auntie Wang," and handed over the gifts.

"You child, really! We're family, why bring gifts? You're making us feel like strangers!"

Wang Cuie frowned as she looked at the gifts Li Aiguo had brought.

Just then, Zhou Tiehu walked in from the hallway.

Seeing Zhou Tiehu return, Wang Cuie complained, "Old Zhou, look at Aiguo. He's getting more and more inconsiderate."

Zhou Tiehu was wearing a white undershirt and blue shorts, with a pair of old sandals on his feet. He was carrying an enamel basin containing a towel and soap.

It looked like he had just finished bathing.

In these dormitory buildings, the bathrooms and kitchens were communal. In the winter, drivers would bathe in the locomotive depot's bathhouse.

In the summer, even after bathing at the depot, they would return drenched in sweat. It was often simpler and more refreshing to just head to the public toilets at the end of the hallway for a quick rinse.

Unlike Wang Cuie's complaining, Zhou Tiehu said nothing, merely nodding. "Come inside and talk."

The dormitory units were cramped, with each individual room being about ten or so square meters.

The Zhou family had been allocated three rooms, with a door cut through the partition walls to connect them, making it somewhat similar to a modern two-bedroom apartment, though without a kitchen or bathroom.

The floor was covered in dusty cement, and the walls featured a band of light blue wainscoting. The living room was furnished with an eight-immortals table, backrest chairs, and a small radio.

While Li Aiguo was observing the room, Wang Cuie had already poured tea and brought it over.

"Sit down quickly, make yourself at home."

"Are Zhou Ke and Zhou Lan not home?" Li Aiguo asked casually as he took the enamel mug.

Zhou Ke and Zhou Lan were the Zhou children. Zhou Ke was about the same age as Li Aiguo, and Zhou Lan was two years younger than them.

"Zhou Ke just joined our railway police station this year. It seems there's a major case going on lately; he hasn't been back for almost a week."

"That girl Zhou Lan is in vocational school now; she hasn't finished classes yet."

Mentioning her children, Wang Cuie's face beamed with pride.

However, her excitement was short-lived as she remembered Li Aiguo's situation, and her expression instantly dimmed.

"Aiguo, I heard about your situation from Old Zhou. You really are something—after such a big thing happened, why didn't you come to us for help?"

Feeling her deep concern, Li Aiguo scratched the back of his head sheepishly, feeling embarrassed. "Auntie, I just didn't want to trouble you all."

"Oh, what 'trouble'! When you were little, life was hard. Your mother didn't have enough milk, so I had to feed Zhou Ke and you at the same time. I didn't find it a trouble back then!"

Women who worked on the railways for many years tended to have fiery temperaments.

Wang Cuie shouted, "Now that you're grown up, you're worried about being a trouble. It seems you still don't consider Old Zhou and me as family!"