Rebirth: 1977

Fang Minghui poured some warm water from the thermos. There were a few dry pastries on his mother's shabby bedside table. He was so hungry that he wolfed them down.

What he was looking for must be hidden in this chest of drawers.

Fang Minghui knew that although this chest of drawers looked large from the outside, there was actually not much space inside.

There is a compartment in the middle.

A few years ago, he stole a painting and an antique seal from it and sold them for a fortune.

At that time, he spent money lavishly just to please Yun Tingting. Even though his parents gave him a lot, plus his own salary, it was not enough for him to eat, drink and have fun.

The money from the sale of the painting and seal supplemented his pocket money for several months.

Fang Minghui knew that after his father was arrested, their home was searched and many valuable things were confiscated.

At that time, he was extremely upset and hated his parents for pretending to be poor and being stingy with him.

As a result, it was confiscated and no one knows who got the benefit!

I also hate myself for being so timid. Why don’t I get more in my own hands?

Otherwise, I wouldn’t be so poor now that I don’t even have money to have a good meal.

As time passed, he was helpless in the face of the closed chest of drawers.

Everything went wrong today and he had to go back empty-handed. He stared at the keyhole and gave up was impossible.

I made up my mind that I had to find another way.

He tidied up the mess and was not afraid that his mother would know he had been there.

He had come in several times with a stolen key, and Fang Minghui didn't believe that his mother couldn't see through it.

"A thief never leaves empty-handed." Every time Fang Minghui sneaked home, he would take away some of Zhu Mingzhu's salary that she had kept at home.

Fang Minghui looked at his mother's hard pillow, rummaged inside the pillowcase for a while, and took out nearly two hundred yuan in his hand.

He hesitated for a moment, took out five big unity notes, two of which were five yuan each, and stuffed the rest back.

He looked at the alarm clock on the chest of drawers and realized that his mother was about to get off work, so he smoothed the pillowcase on the pillow with shaking hands.

You know his mother will find out the money is missing sooner or later, so try to delay it a little. Since he didn't take it all, don't change the lock on the door.

Half an hour after Fang Minghui left, Zhu Mingzhu went home from get off work.

When she opened the door, she frowned. There was a faint smell of cigarette smoke in the air. "You little bastard, you sneaked back again!"

She slammed the door shut, walked straight to the bed, took the pillow, and found it had been moved, which made her even angrier.

"Every one of them is a troublemaker!"

She counted the remaining money. Even though she took away half of it, it was not easy for her to save up a hundred or two hundred yuan with her current meager salary.

She took the remaining money and saw that it was not easy to hide something in such a small place.

Zhu Mingzhu went to the bathroom and opened the toilet lid. In a groove inside, there was a small key.

She picked it off and wiped it clean, then opened the door of the chest of drawers, pulled out a drawer, took out a stack of money inside and counted it, fifteen hundred yuan.

Zhu Mingzhu hesitated for a moment, then took out the small amounts of one, two, five, and one or two cents in her hand.

I put all the rest into the drawer and then stood there staring at the clothes inside.

He sighed and locked the door again.

Put a little glue on the key and put it back to its original place.

"That little bastard, like his damn father, has brought harm to our Zhu family!

They have caused me to lose face in the workplace. They are all debt collectors!"

Zhu Mingzhu no longer received her cadre benefits and her salary was reduced a lot, but considering her length of service, her salary was still a little higher than most people.

She took out half a roast duck and two steamed buns from her bag. They were cold, the roast duck had lost its fragrance, and the steamed buns were hard, but she was too lazy to heat them.

I wanted to pour a bowl of warm water, but found that the thermos was empty, and started cursing again:

"Debt collector, why don't you just die!"

She went and put a kettle of tap water on the stove to boil and poured it into the thermos.

I opened a bottle of Erguotou and started eating the roast duck with a sip of the wine and hot water steamed buns.

Fang Minghui had a good meal that night, went to a familiar video hall, and got the drugs from a familiar drug dealer.

Coincidentally, he met a drug addict who needed drugs. They were acquaintances, so he made a deal.

Earn what you want.

At night, the hotel he stayed in was much more comfortable than usual. After smoking a cigarette in it, he felt relaxed all over.

The next day, Fang Minghui found an old man who made keys at the vegetable market and called him to Zhu Mingzhu's door.

"After you enter, you are not allowed to look around. You must do whatever you are told to do and you are not allowed to ask nonsense questions. Do you remember?"

When Fang Minghui opened the door and went in, he gave instructions again with a stern face.

“Don’t worry, sir. Our craft relies on word of mouth. We just make some hard-earned money. Once we meet the customers’ requirements and satisfy them, we’ll be done once we get paid.

We won’t say a word about anything else.

If we break the rules, who will come to us in the future?"

The master who made the keys lowered his head and made the promise.

Not to mention not looking around after entering the door, even when he is outside the door, he will not look around randomly.

The reason why Fang Minghui came even when he had money was because he was worried that his mother would find out that he had taken her money and change the door lock in anger, which would be troublesome.

The moment he opened the door lock, Fang Minghui was overjoyed.

"come in."

He brought the locksmith in and immediately closed and locked the door.

"I don't know what you want me to do?"

The locksmith asked doubtfully.

Fang Minghui clearly told him that his keys were lost and asked him to come and unlock the house. They often encounter such business.

But he saw that the young man had the key to open the door himself, so what was the point of asking him to do it?

"Help me unlock the chest of drawers."

Fang Minghui didn't say a word of nonsense and pointed at the chest of drawers and gave instructions to the locksmith.

"Sir, this must be your own home, right?"

The locksmith asked cautiously.

"Nonsense, if it's not my house, then is it yours? Open it quickly, don't damage the keyhole, and give me a key."

The locksmith felt relieved when he got a positive answer. He could enter the house openly in broad daylight, so it must be this young man's home.

He had good skills and opened the lock after just a few tries. Fang Minghui looked at the keyhole and the surface of the lock and was satisfied to find that there were indeed no marks left.

"Hurry up and help me make a key. I have something to go out for."

Fang Minghui blocked the locksmith's eyes, fearing that it would cause trouble if he saw that the dimensions inside and outside the cabinet were different.

For such professional locksmiths, door locks like the one in his mother's house are the most ordinary locks and are not taken seriously at all.

When Fang Minghui was satisfying his drug addiction, he became more considerate.

Half an hour later, a new key was in Fang Minghui's hand.

"Sir, please try and see if you want to fix it?"

The locksmith reminded him responsibly.

Fang Minghui tried it a few times with "click, click" and was very satisfied. He took out two fifty-cent bills and handed them to the locksmith.

"Take the money and leave immediately. Remember, don't tell anyone about what happened today."

He warned in a stern tone.

Fang Minghui's words were a bit superfluous.

Hearing this, the locksmith shuddered all over. He suddenly became worried whether he was helping the evil.

Could this young man in front of me be a thief?

He immediately suppressed this thought. How could it be possible?

How could there be such a bold thief in broad daylight?

"Don't worry, sir. This is our job. Keeping secrets for our guests is the bottom line we must abide by!"

He still felt something was wrong, so he left in a hurry carrying his suitcase.