1. In the blink of an eye

The willows are hanging with green silk to fish for the water and the moon, and the wind shakes the feather fan to enjoy the withered lotus

In a blink of an eye, it has been three years.

When Zhao Ze returned to Beijing, it was just in time for the New Year's Eve. On that day, the sound of firecrackers and drums were loud, and the atmosphere of the festival was very strong. During the day, the streets were full of people, and the restaurants and tea houses were full. There was a good play in the Cailou peng. Hundreds of onlookers were hundreds of people, and even the wind and moon places such as the brothel was full.

The bustle continued until the evening. The starlight appeared, and there were much fewer pedestrians on the street. Because New Year's Eve was approaching, the bells of Xiangguo Temple would ring 108 times at that moment.

This is the custom of the Song Dynasty, and it is also the law set by the ancestors. The people of Bianliang will sit around the stove at that moment, and they will not be able to stay up until dawn.

Before the arrival of the third year of the Qingli calendar, Zhao Zeduan sat in the study of Kaifeng Xiangfu Zhaofu and wrote a diary.

This precious manuscript was later left in the folk. A few centuries later, it appeared in an antique shop on the streets of Yangzhou and was bought by a woman surnamed Yimo, and her whereabouts have been unknown since then.

At the beginning of the third year of the lunar calendar, the first month.

Zhao Ze wrote in his diary:

When I was a child, I loved learning very much. My dream was to be an astronaut, drive an interstellar spaceship to explore the unknown world, and become a great explorer and a great patriot. If possible, I also want to be a great strategist, a great strategist, a great interstellar master and a loyal defender of the empire, just like the legendary Marshal Lu Boyan recorded in the history textbook.

At that time, it was a difficult time. The empire's resources were exhausted, the economy was very difficult, and the whole planet was in trouble.

The legendary economic depression has once again swept my country. There are people in the city who are unemployed every day, and enterprises close down every day. Even schools can't open classes normally, because the Ministry of Finance of the Empire has no money to pay salaries to teachers, and even the principals of various schools are scolding the wine bags of the Ministry of Finance. Rice bag, their inaction is a crime, so a strike is inevitable.

It was at this time that I left the lovely city high school and returned to 'Liaolei Country Farm' and planted the land with my father.

When the crisis intensified, the rich people became poor overnight, and the bank deposits of ordinary people became nothing overnight. The bankrupt families could be as large as the empire's fleet. The park is full of homeless people. There is a long queue in front of the Red Cross 24 hours a day in the city, and boxed lunches will be distributed for an hour every day. Wanderers can be taken care of by the Red Cross with valid certificates issued by the governor's office. Sick people can also enjoy free beds for a week in the church hospital. .

It's really scary in the city. Fortunately, I ran home.

There is only an old color TV in the hometown of Liaolei Rural Farm. My grandfather bought it when he was alive. My mother was still watching it when I came home from school. I once asked my mother why she didn't buy a new one. How much did a projection TV cost? She talked about a lot of potatoes, but my mother told me: Your father said when he would buy it when he died, as long as he couldn't think about it for a day.

His father is still the same. His mother said that he was a stingy man, but she praised him for never spending a penny indiscriminately as a piggy bank and a good husband. But I know that she is comforting herself that her father is a drinker, and the money spent on imported spirits can open a TV factory.

My sister and I often say bad things about my father secretly. Although he heard it several times, he has been silent and has never scolded us or argued with us about it. Farming when it's time to farm and sleep when it's time to sleep. The machine on the farm is his partner. He rarely communicates with us until the day of the Star Wars.

He looked at the broken TV in surprise and said to me excitedly, "Son, it's time for you to go out for a while!"

"But it's me"

At that time, I doubted my strength and whether my father was crazy. He should hide in the war. Why did he ask me to leave my hometown? My friends around me thought so. When we had dinner together half a year ago, we also mentioned this matter. They all agreed to hide in the countryside and hide their names and didn't want to go to the front line. I don't want to be cannon fodder for others.

"But, Dad," I said to him, "What if I die in battle!"

Guess what he said, "Oh, my child, you are dead and your sister. Your mother and I will not be alone. Don't worry."

That's what happened. Early the next morning, before dawn, I picked up my backpack and sneaked out of the house. I climbed on the first steam train and left the Liaolei Farm to start my new life.

Maybe no one knows that I have done those jobs, not even my mother, because every time I reply to her, I will tell her that I have been promoted. From the tea apprentice of the newspaper to the trainee reporter, she is very happy that I can have a mouthful of food in wartime. Someone appreciates me and specially urges me to work hard and open a pub in the future. Be angry with your father.

To be honest, I didn't want to write this life in my diary, but I'm worried that one day I will suddenly disappear in this world. No one knows that I have existed or been here, which is the saddest thing, so I will try my best to write it down and leave a memory for future generations.

The winter of the empire is cold, and it always makes people feel a little desperate. I don't know whether it is even the ration of drinking water or the pain caused by unemployment.

When it comes to my first job, it's actually not very glorious. It's not a tea apprentice in the newspaper, but a can collector. It's called so on the street, and only those tramps are called to pick up garbage.

My mother gave me five gold coins. I spent two to rent a house, one looking for a job, and the other two to eat. Because I didn't like to live in a cheap apartment with a large group of homeless people, I found a college student apartment and lived with an unemployed female student.

If it hadn't been for the sake of helping her pay her rent for a year, she wouldn't have let me move in, even if the administrator wouldn't agree.

But a cannonball helped me solve all the problems. Yes, it is indeed a cannonball. The panic caused by unemployment is spreading like a weed. I don't know which classmate made a cannonball to teach the mayor a lesson. He took advantage of the middle of the night to shelling the mayor's mansion, but the amount of medicine was a little large, and only one shot at the mayor. My house went up to the sky. When the police came, they saw a sea of fire in the whole block and dust fragments flying all over the sky.

From that day on, no one dares to provoke college students again, which is exactly called unemployed college students. Even newspapers have published the headlines on the front page: The anger of unemployed college students, the shelling incident! In fact, this is the beginning of the turmoil.

I found this newspaper in the garbage can on the street. After reading it, I took it back to the apartment and showed it to the girl in my room. She said that she had heard about it a long time ago, but she didn't agree with this violent practice. She had to live on her own strength and perseverance until she found a job. .

In the year when the Star War broke out, it was more difficult to find a job than to go to the toilet. Not to mention the waiters in restaurants, even if they don't want to polish shoes for others, because famous people have long turned away the later people. In order to survive, I have also encountered similar embarrassing situations, not to mention that I haven't even studied in college. I haven't graduated from high school yet.