booktalesy Chapter 49 The Zhang Family
Chapter 49 The Zhang Family
"Beep beep~~~ Beep beep~~~"
The pager kept vibrating on the bedside table, and it took Gu Huai a while to reach for it.
He squinted at the screen.
"Huai'er, are you free tonight? Come home for dinner, Mom."
I glanced at the time; the message was sent at 1:40 PM.
He glanced at his watch; it was already 3:30 PM, and his mother had been waiting for him for almost two hours.
Gu Huai sat up abruptly in bed, put on his slippers, and ran quickly downstairs to the dormitory.
Since it was afternoon, most people in the bureau were busy, and there weren't many people in the dormitory.
Dormitory supervisor Grandpa Feng looked at Gu Huai, whose hair was a mess, and said with a smile, "Little Gu, why don't you sleep a little longer? Dinner isn't served for a while yet."
During the day, news that the team had solved a major case had already spread throughout the bureau.
Everyone said that a lucky general had arrived in the large group.
As a retired man who was rehired, Lao Feng believes that anyone who can solve major cases is commendable.
Gu Huai scratched his head, looking embarrassed, and said, "I'm not going to sleep. I got a message from home, and I need to call them back."
"Oh." Grandpa Feng chuckled, opened the door to the security room, and waved him over. "Then come in and fight."
Gu Huai smiled and thanked Grandpa Feng before dialing his home phone.
A short while later, Zhou Huifen's voice came from the other end of the phone, "Who is it?"
"Mom, it's me. Did I just wake up?"
"Slept until now?" Zhou Huifen's surprised voice came from the other end of the phone. "Don't you have to work today?"
"I just finished a case and stayed up all night."
"Working all night? You kid, you just started reporting for duty and you're already working so hard..." Zhou Huifen started nagging again.
In the past, Gu Huai might have been a little impatient, but now that he hadn't heard his mother's nagging for a while, he even felt a little nostalgic.
"Alright, Mom, I'll be home for dinner tonight."
"Really?" Hearing that Gu Huai was coming back, Zhou Huifen immediately stopped nagging and said happily, "What do you want to eat? Mom will make it for you."
"Whatever, I'll eat whatever Mom makes."
Hearing this, Zhou Huifen's tone became much happier. "Then I'll buy more groceries. Your dad has been talking about you a lot these past few days, saying that you haven't called even once while you're at the Municipal Bureau."
"I'm busy."
"Busy, busy, all you ever do is keep busy, just like your dad." Zhou Huifen muttered a few words, then told Gu Huai to come home early before hanging up the phone.
Gu Huai chatted with Grandpa Zhao for a few minutes, then returned to his dormitory, took a shower, and changed his clothes.
After tidying himself up, he glanced at himself in the mirror.
Although my complexion was a bit poor, I was still in relatively good spirits. After all, I'm still young, and staying up for a few days is nothing.
"Youth is wonderful."
After everything was tidied up, Gu Huai walked out of the dormitory building.
He didn't go home immediately, but instead went to the police station.
Although Wang Weiguo told him to rest in the morning, he still had to inform the bureau before he had to go home.
As he passed by the cafeteria, he caught a glimpse of someone out of the corner of his eye.
Hou Hao.
He sat alone on the steps at the entrance of the cafeteria, a lunchbox in front of him.
He just sat there, a cigarette between his fingers, the ash burning long without being flicked off.
Gu Huai walked over and squatted down next to him. "Brother Hou, why are you here all alone?"
Hou Hao looked up, saw it was him, and forced a smile. "Ah Huai, you're awake? How did you sleep?"
"It's alright." Gu Huai glanced at the lunchbox beside him. "Brother Hou, don't you have any plans for your birthday today?"
"No," Hou Hao shook his head. "My master is busy finishing up, so I..."
Since his family's incident, Hou Hao has been eating with Wu Feilin.
Wu Feilin's home is in the family compound behind the Municipal Bureau, about a five-minute walk away.
When Hou Hao first joined the company, Wu Feilin said that it wasn't good for him to eat out alone, and suggested that he come to his home to eat.
But today was different. At Anzigangpo, Wu Feilin was busy all day.
I need to coordinate with the authorities in Guangzhou, write case reports, report to my superiors, and handle media inquiries.
He simply doesn't have time to go home.
Hou Hao didn't want to eat alone in the cafeteria, afraid of running into other people who would ask him all sorts of questions. So he sat there with his lunchbox, intending to get his food as soon as the cafeteria opened and go back to his dorm to eat.
Gu Huai looked at him and suddenly felt a little uneasy.
In his past life, he had also spent his birthday alone and knew that feeling of loneliness and desolation.
Thinking of this, Gu Huai stood up and turned Hou Hao around.
"Come on, let's go home and eat."
Hou Hao was taken aback by this sudden action. "Huh?"
"My parents are back from their hometown and they want me to come home for dinner. You should come too."
"No...no, I won't go." Hou Hao waved his hands repeatedly. "Why would I join in the fun when you're having dinner at your house?"
"What do you mean by 'joining in the fun'?" Gu Huai took his lunchbox without further ado. "It's just a matter of having an extra pair of chopsticks. Let's go."
"This..." Hou Hao wanted to refuse, but Gu Huai pulled him up from the ground.
"Stop with the 'this' and 'that'. My parents cook so much food that it's all going to waste. You can help finish it off."
Hou Hao was dragged a few steps by him, and finally stopped struggling. "Then...then I should at least change my clothes, right? It doesn't look good in this."
"What's wrong with wearing a police uniform? My parents like it when I wear a police uniform." Gu Huaisheng was afraid that he would escape while changing clothes, so he resolutely refused his request.
Hou Hao looked down at his wrinkled shirt and still felt it was a bit inappropriate, but before he could say anything, Gu Huai had already pushed him out.
The two of them walked out of the city bureau gate and hailed a taxi.
"Master, go to Xixiang, Yongxing Village." Gu Huai gave the address.
"Is your home in Xixiang?" Hou Hao asked.
"Yes, my factory is over there."
"Why didn't you go home the other day?" Hou Hao asked, puzzled.
"Isn't this a busy time?"
Hou Hao simply said "oh" and didn't ask any further questions.
The taxi drove for more than half an hour, heading west from Luohu.
The buildings on both sides of the road became shorter and more dilapidated, eventually turning into fields and construction sites.
Gu Huai pointed out the window, "Can you see that over there?"
Hou Hao looked in the direction he was pointing.
On an open space, surrounded by a metal fence, is a three-story factory building.
Several large characters stand on the rooftop: "Huaiya Clothing Manufacturing".
"Is this your factory?" Hou Hao asked.
"Yes." Gu Huai nodded and said, "My dad organized it. It was filmed a few years ago. It wasn't a big operation, with only about a hundred people involved."
"This isn't big?" Hou Hao asked in surprise. "How much money must a factory with over a hundred employees make in a year?"
It's not that Gu Huai is bragging, it's just that the scale of his factories in his previous life was much larger than this.
"Not much, just enough to make ends meet," Gu Huai chuckled.
The taxi stopped at the factory gate.
After paying the fare, Gu Huai led Hou Hao inside.
The factory area is not large, but it is arranged in a very orderly manner.
On the left is a three-story production workshop, on the right is a two-story office building, and behind it is a separate dormitory building.
Currently, the factory can be used for both factory and residential purposes. However, later, when fire safety regulations become stricter, people will no longer be allowed to live inside the factory area.
As I passed by the workshop, I could hear the sound of sewing machines inside, a rapid, rhythmic clatter like rain.
"Does your business focus on export or domestic sales?" Hou Hao asked casually.
"We have both," Gu Huai said. "At this stage, we mainly focus on domestic sales, supplying goods to shopping malls in the north. However, business has been tough these past two years due to intense competition."
The two walked through the office building and arrived at a small building behind it.
"This is it." Gu Huai pushed open the door. "Mom, I'm home!"