How desperate was the situation?
"Listen to your mother," she said, "take your brother to your workplace and let him take over your job. Then, we’ll go to the village chief and have your household registration removed from our family. After that, go to the police station and make a record for yourself. That way, you’ll have your own separate household, and they won’t dare to depend on our family anymore."
"Then have the village chief write you a letter of introduction, and you take off for a few days to hide from the storm. If they can’t find you, they’ll leave by themselves, and then we won’t have to pay them any money!"
"Dad, Mom, how could that work? If I give up my job to my brother, what will I do when I come back? Also, I don’t have any money to go anywhere, how could I leave without money?"
"What about the money you earned for New Year’s? I’ve made inquiries, and you got twenty yuan, didn’t you? Did you spend it all that quickly?"
"Don’t I have to celebrate New Year’s too? I’ve worked hard for a whole year, without even any new clothes for myself, can’t I have something good to eat? No, you have to give me one hundred yuan, I won’t leave without money!"
"Ah? You scoundrel," they exclaimed. "How can you have no shame? Asking for one hundred yuan, how dare you!"
"Then I won’t leave. After all, you are my father, and you have to pay compensation to those people. I have no money. In the worst case, if they go to my workplace and cause a scene and I lose my job, so much the better,"
"You!" The couple exchanged a look and hesitated upon realizing their second son was not as foolish as they thought. They knew that if they really lost the job, finding another one would not be easy. While he was there, they could give the job to Third, and he could eventually earn back the one hundred yuan. By giving him the one hundred yuan, things like getting married or building a house in the future would have nothing to do with them.
On one hand, they faced paying money to outsiders; on the other, they were giving money to their own son. Content originally comes from NoveI(F)ire.net
On one side, they were making room for their youngest son; on the other, they were severing ties with their second son.
The couple quickly weighed the pros and cons, analyzing the conditions most favorable to them.
Fearing that Long Gang might change his mind, they purposely went to the village chief to draw up a disownment paper in triplicate, with one copy for the production team and one for each party to keep.
Afterward, Long Gang went to the factory and transferred his job to Long Qiang. In this era, that was possible, and aside from some reluctance to part with Chang Youwei, Long Gang was indifferent to the rest.
As the job transfer happened, watching his family fawning over the work permit now in Long Qiang’s hands, he clutched the hard-earned one hundred yuan, turned around, and left—and of course, he returned to Mr. Zheng’s house.
In the evening, Mr. Zheng came back with people. They were a group of five who had extorted ten yuan from the Long Family.
Long Gang also gave them ten yuan for hush money and went out drinking. After that, he accompanied Mr. Zheng to the village chief’s house and gave five yuan as a bribe. As for the village chief of Long Gang Village, Long Gang had already slipped him some money when he went to the police station to handle his separate household registration.
Because Long Gang’s household registration was directly transferred to Mr. Zheng’s name, Mr. Zheng had taken Long Gang as his grandson and even changed his surname to Zheng Long.
Of course, these maneuvers couldn’t be accomplished in one day. It took the entire first month, but in the end, it worked out well. Long Gang successfully changed his name to Zheng Long. The reason he was named Zheng Long and not Zheng Gang was that Mr. Zheng felt it was fitting to retain his previous surname.
In just three months’ time, Long Gang had taken on a new identity. Truly, fate plays odd tricks!
"You also shouldn’t resent me for changing your surname. Only by changing it could we sort this matter out, understand?"
Actually, Zheng Long didn’t care at all what he was called. "Grandfather, what are you saying? I’ve already severed ties with them. Why would I continue to carry their surname?"
"Good that you understand. Then, this February, we set out for Hei Province, and I’ll take you to visit some relatives."
Mr. Zheng took out an old letter from an iron box, flipped it over in his hands, then put it back. It was a letter from bygone days, and it remained unclear what kind of relatives he was planning to visit with him.