Siheyuan: The romantic and suave Xu Damao

"From now on, be smarter. Don't just eat and drink all day and become a good-for-nothing drunkard! Spend more time to find out what the situation is like outside."

"You know, in the large-scale anti-bandit campaign in the northwest and southwest a few years ago, nearly a million bandits and mountain bandits were killed."

"Huang Erlu, we can get by doing this business, but if we become bandits who kill people for money, do you hope that we brothers will die early and not be able to live a peaceful life?"

He became more and more angry as he spoke, and his voice unconsciously rose a few degrees.

"Brothers, rest assured. As long as you are willing to follow me, Zhang Ling, and work together, I, Zhang Ling, solemnly promise that I will never treat you unfairly!"

"Let's talk about the two brothers who got into trouble last year. They unfortunately suffered an accident, but please believe me, from now on, all the living expenses of their family will be borne by me, Zhang Ling! I will never let them suffer any grievances!"

At this point, Zhang Ling paused, and with a determined look he swept his eyes over the people present, and then he said, "As for what Brother Li said just now, it is indeed not without reason. We are out here to make money, isn't it?"

"Now that there are wealthy people offering us money, how can we just push it away? If we can earn more, everyone can get more!"

"Of course, some people might worry that this might be a trap. Humph! Let's not talk about anything else. Just look at the weapons we have in our hands. Would we be afraid of those villains?"

As Zhang Ling spoke, he reached out from behind him and skillfully pulled out a shiny Zhongzheng cavalry rifle, and held it carefully in his hand.

Then he took out a piece of clean white cloth and wiped the gun gently and carefully, as if he was treating a rare treasure.

"That's right. We in this business are fearless! As the saying goes, we will fight back if an enemy comes and block the water with earth! If the other party really just wants to do business with us honestly, then everyone will be happy. But if they dare to play any tricks, hmph..."

At this moment, a burly man in the crowd suddenly stood up and echoed loudly.

As he spoke, he quickly walked to the wall and picked up a large knife that was leaning against it and was shining with cold light.

He held the hilt of the knife with both hands and chopped it hard in the air, creating a gust of sharp wind.

"This sword of mine is not a vegetarian! Back then, I used this sword to kill a few nasty Japanese invaders!

If anyone dares to mess with us today, no matter if he is a human or a ghost, we will make sure he never returns!"

"Listen everyone, if there's nothing else, just go away. But be careful, and when you do this business next time, don't forget to bring all our food and belongings with you."

"But remember, no one is allowed to show those things without my order. Hide them in the place that is most convenient for you to use them!"

After the middle-aged man with a fleshy face and a sturdy body finished giving orders in a hoarse voice, he slowly stood up from the tattered wooden chair, stretched, patted his butt, turned around and prepared to leave.

Seeing this, the people sitting around the campfire exchanged glances with each other. One of the older men nodded, then quickly bent down and stretched out his hand to put out the still burning fire.

The others also stood up and dispersed in different directions without saying a word.

The next morning, a strong wind swept in, and the entire sky was covered with a thick layer of yellow sand and dust, with extremely low visibility.

The flying yellow sand made the air turbid, as if the whole world was plunged into chaos.

To be honest, this situation cannot be considered a true sandstorm like the one we saw two days ago. At most, it is just extremely severe smog.

Every winter, such severe weather conditions would occur every now and then in the capital.

As soon as a strong wind blows, these fine yellow sands will come like an overwhelming force, making it impossible to escape.

Before the Three North Shelterbelt Project was built, the capital city looked like this.

Xu Damao got up early, washed and dressed, put on a white cotton mask, and hurried out to the steel mill.

Along the way, he struggled to move forward against the strong wind, thinking to himself: Today is such a terrible day! I guess I can't do the work of the screening normally.

If I continue like this, I will definitely be able to spend the whole day comfortably in the Propaganda Department's office without having to worry about anything.

Thinking of this, Xu Damao couldn't help but quicken his pace, looking forward to the upcoming time of slacking off.

As expected, due to the bad weather conditions, there weren't many important things to deal with today.

So, everyone stayed in the Propaganda Department and waited for the leader to give work instructions. However, in fact, everyone knew that this was just a legitimate "slacking time".

I saw several staff members from the Propaganda Department sitting leisurely in the room, some of them holding cigarettes in their mouths, puffing away smoke; others gathered together, chatting in low voices, and joking with each other.

For a moment, the whole room was shrouded in thick smoke, as if in a hazy world.

At this time, Brother Zhao took a deep puff of the cigarette in his hand and said casually, "A leader will come this morning and ask us to go to the movie room to take charge of the film screening. Who of you is willing to go there?"

He seemed to be asking everyone what they thought, but his eyes were always intentionally or unintentionally glancing at Xu Damao standing beside him.

This is not difficult to understand. After all, in the Propaganda Department, the one with the tallest stature and the most handsome appearance is none other than Xu Damao.

The other people noticed where Brother Zhao's gaze was going, and they naturally knew what Brother Zhao was planning. They lowered their heads one by one, kept silent, and pretended not to understand Brother Zhao's intention.

Xu Damao saw that he would be hard to refuse this time, so he had no choice but to slowly stand up and said, "Okay, I'll go then. I just don't know which movie tape will be shown this time?"

Brother Zhao smiled and flicked the ash off his cigarette, saying, "It's not a movie this time, but the tape is already in the movie room. I'll go over with you to take a look later."

Just as Brother Zhao finished speaking, there was a quick and powerful knock on the door. The sound seemed to be urging something important to happen.