After securing the rental, Li Yi immediately directed a few of his younger brothers to chop wood, haul coal, light the stove, and then clean the place up.
Renting a place back then was a real hassle—nothing like the simple “move-in-ready” process of later times.
Fortunately, Uncle Wen and his wife were very kind. Seeing that these young lads clearly had little experience, they immediately came over to help.
After two hours of hard work, they finally got the place clean.
However, they still couldn’t move in because they had no bedding or pillows.
After that, Li Yi said goodbye to Uncle Wen and took Dongzi and the others to the nearby Dongfanghong Store to buy bedding and other essentials.
The store had plenty of these items, but they required cloth and cotton ration coupons.
Naturally, Li Yi didn’t have these on hand while traveling, so he had no choice but to pay a high price for five sets of bedding and five pillows.
As for straw mats, Uncle Wen had already prepared them, so Li Yi and the others didn’t need to buy those themselves.
In addition to the bedding, Li Yi bought a large iron teapot and three thermoses, as well as a washbasin, toothbrushes, toothpaste, towels, soap, and other essentials.
By the time they left the store, everyone’s hands were full of various daily necessities.
Back at the rental house, everyone busied themselves making the beds. They worked on it until past five in the afternoon, and finally got their living quarters settled!
Seeing that it had already grown dark, and considering that the guys hadn’t eaten anything since finishing their meal around 10:00 that morning, Li Yi immediately suggested they go out for dinner.
Beiguan Village also had state-run restaurants; after all, this was part of the capital, and there were no fewer than ten such establishments of various sizes in the vicinity.
However, these state-run restaurants were all cut from the same cloth—from their business models and menus to their service attitudes—so Li Yi didn’t consider them competitors.
Led by Li Yi, the group soon arrived at a state-run restaurant near the cotton mill!
The restaurant wasn’t very large—just over 120 square meters—and after accounting for the kitchen, there was only room for about thirteen or fourteen square tables.
Since Li Yi and his group arrived relatively early, there weren’t many people in the restaurant.
Once inside, Li Yi ordered five bowls of noodles and a plate of braised pork head!
The total cost came to 5.50 yuan plus 8 liang of grain coupons!
It must be said that the prices here were still quite cheap; even compared to Qing Shan County, they weren’t much higher.
Soon, the large bowls of knife-cut noodles and the rich, succulent braised pork head meat were all served!
Dongzi and the others hadn’t eaten lunch, so they were all hungry and immediately began wolfing down their food.
Young people eat fast; in just a few minutes, they’d polished off a huge bowl of noodles, leaving not even a drop of soup behind.
As for the plate of pork jowl, it was snatched up in just a few bites by those headstrong lads the moment it hit the table.
They say teenagers can out-eat their parents—at sixteen or seventeen, when they’re still growing, they can really pack it in and eat just as much as any adult.
Having eaten their fill, Li Yi was just about to lead Dongzi and the others back to rest. Tomorrow they’d have to scour the streets looking for a place to open their shop, so they had to get up early!
But just as they stood up, the restaurant door was pushed open from the outside, and immediately several middle-aged and young men wearing military overcoats walked in!
When Li Yi saw the young man walking in the center, flanked by the others, he couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth!
A leather jacket under his military overcoat, long pants, dress shoes, and a briefcase slung over his shoulder—that flashy look was something only he, Jiang Longcheng, could pull off; no one else could imitate it!
At that moment, Li Yi’s lips curled slightly upward as he fixed his gaze on him.
Jiang Longcheng hadn’t noticed Li Yi at first, but the people around him sensed something was off and quietly whispered a warning in his ear.
Only then did Jiang Longcheng spot Li Yi!
Realizing that Li Yi was staring at him without moving, he immediately walked over toward him.
“Bro, do we know each other?”
Li Yi shook his head and said, “No, we don’t.”
“If we don’t know each other, then what’s with the staring?” Jiang Longcheng asked again.
“You’re going to meet a violent end!”
“Uh… You little brat, how dare you curse…”
Before he could finish, Li Yi cut him off and said, “Your brow is dark, blood energy surges skyward, and your face bears the mark of an untimely death. Therefore, you’re not just facing a blood-related disaster—your life is in danger!”
“Besides, I’m just giving you a heads-up. I’m not trying to curse you, nor am I after anything from you. Whether you believe it or not is entirely up to you!”
After saying this, Li Yi led Dongzi and the others out of the restaurant without looking back, leaving Jiang Longcheng standing there completely dumbfounded!
……
Once outside, Dongzi couldn’t help but ask, “Brother Yi, what did you mean by all that?”
Li Yi smiled and said, “I told that guy he’s in for some bad luck!”
“Uh… Brother Yi, how did you know that? Don’t tell me you can tell fortunes too?” Qiangzi asked curiously.
“Enough. Mind your own business. Let’s go home!”
Li Yi didn’t explain anything to his younger brothers; instead, he simply led them back to their rented apartment.
But in his mind, thoughts of Jiang Longcheng kept flashing by. Although what Li Yi had just said sounded a bit like a fortune-teller’s ramblings, he hadn’t deceived Jiang Longcheng—the guy really was in for trouble, and this time, he’d lose his life.
The main reason Li Yi had warned him was because the man had done him a favor.
As for Jiang Longcheng’s background, Li Yi knew it all too well!
He was a classic “compound kid”—his parents and uncles were all high-ranking officials. You could say he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
Normally, someone like him would have followed in the footsteps of his parents and uncles, entering the system and eventually governing a region.
But the guy had no interest in politics. With no other choice, his parents had sent him to a cotton mill a few years ago, where he was given the title of deputy director.
As a result, when the old factory director retired last year, the 28-year-old smoothly took the reins of power and became the new director of Beijing’s Third Cotton Spinning Factory.
Don’t let Jiang Longcheng’s extraordinary background, flamboyant demeanor, and penchant for the limelight fool you—he has a chivalrous heart and is always ready to draw his sword to help those in need.
And Li Yi himself had once been the recipient of Jiang Longcheng’s kindness!
In his previous life, Li Yi had been wandering the streets of the capital, ending up in Beiguan Village—he was, in a sense, at the lowest point of his life.
He barely had enough to eat from one meal to the next and was frequently bullied by local thugs.
But Li Yi wasn’t the type to take a beating without fighting back; every time, he’d go all out against them.
As the saying goes, two fists can’t beat four hands; he was no match for a whole gang on his own and was often beaten to a pulp.
One day, when that gang of thugs came looking for trouble again, Jiang Longcheng happened to be passing by. He stepped in decisively and rescued Li Yi from the situation.
After learning of Li Yi’s plight, he immediately took him back to the cotton mill and found him a job as a boiler operator there.
Thus, after wandering the streets for several months, Li Yi finally found a steady job.
But his good fortune was short-lived. Just as Li Yi was entering his second month at the cotton mill, shocking news suddenly broke: Jiang Longcheng was dead!
Li Yi later learned that Jiang Longcheng had been murdered by a group of small-time thugs.
According to police interrogation, those thugs were not locals from Beijing but had come from out of town.
Their motive for killing Jiang Longcheng was primarily financial gain.
Seeing Jiang Longcheng stride confidently with a briefcase in hand, the thugs assumed he was wealthy and set their sights on him.
As it turned out, Jiang Longcheng had a fiery temper. Even though he knew he was outnumbered, he refused to back down, and in the end, he was stabbed to death by those thugs.
After his death, Li Yi could no longer continue working at the factory and was fired shortly thereafter.
Fortunately, by this point, Li Yi had already pulled himself together. Even after leaving the cotton mill, he never returned to the destitute state he’d been in just a few months earlier. Instead, he gradually established a foothold in Beiguan Village and eventually became a local powerhouse!
In his previous life, Li Yi had always been grateful for Jiang Longcheng’s kindness. To Jiang, it might have been nothing more than a spur-of-the-moment gesture—a small favor he hadn’t even given a second thought to.
But to Li Yi, it was a ray of light in the darkness—a gesture of timely aid that was all the more precious!
Alas, he passed away at a young age, and even if Li Yi had wanted to repay his kindness, he never had the chance.
Now that he had been given a second chance at life, Li Yi still remembered Jiang Longcheng’s kindness. That was why he had come to Beiguan Village the very next day after arriving in the capital—he was determined to save him and would never let the tragedy repeat itself.