Chapter 32

Chapter 33: A deft touch

"Son, give your old man a hand! Help me carry these display shelves over to the shop!" His father, Su Licheng, called to Su Can after assembling the newly purchased shelves below their apartment building.

Su Can came downstairs. The display shelves stood neatly before him, still without their glass panels. Their frames were white, and though they were not as attractive as the supermarket shelving of later years, they were simple and tasteful. They were made from aluminum-alloy uprights fitted together at each joint, making them light and easy to carry once assembled. All that remained was to put the fitted glass panels into place, and they would be ready to display goods for sale.

Su Can rolled up his sleeves. As he remembered it, his father had always been diligent about assembly work and electrical jobs. This was also what his mother liked best about him, though she often criticized his conservative thinking and lack of ambition in other respects.

As he helped his father move the display shelves, plenty of people were coming and going through the work-unit compound. One woman smiled teasingly. "Oh, Su, your family's shop is about to open, then? Father and son moving things together! What, aren't you going to work anymore?"

"I'm just getting a little done during my break. Of course I can't neglect my work." His father's answer was tactful enough to ease the brow of a work-unit supervisor who happened to be passing.

The woman, Wang Xiaocui, was an accountant at his father's Construction Company. The man beside her, Xiao Yazhong, had been his mother's high school classmate. He was usually aloof toward people, but adept at flattering and mingling with the higher-ups. Before long, he had maneuvered his way out of the Construction Company and was now supervising several small building sites himself. Even within the work unit, he always seemed to consider himself a cut above the rest. Seeing father and son carrying the shelves, he apparently found something comical about his father's appearance. "Heh, Su Licheng, how's that shop of yours coming along? It's small, but even if it doesn't make money, you'll have a business of your own, won't you? Come on, take a break and have a smoke!"

As he spoke, Xiao Yazhong took out the pack of Premium Jiaozhi he carried, pulled out a cigarette, and offered it to his father. At the time, ordinary wage earners in Xiahai City could not afford cigarettes like these. Xiao Yazhong was also accustomed to showing off at the company. The thought that even the Construction Company's general manager smoked a different brand gave him a little sense of satisfaction. His tone made it quite clear that he thought little of the Su family's shop.

Setting down the shelves, his father hurriedly waved off the offer and smiled as he reached into his trouser pocket. "Have one of mine, have one of mine..."

Back then, offering cigarettes when people met was a way for adult men to socialize. In fact, it was also a symbol of status, a matter of a man's dignity. In everyday dealings, apart from someone's dress and speech, the brand and grade of cigarettes he smoked could also establish his standing.

"What do you mean, one of yours?" Xiao Yazhong frowned, taking Su Licheng's refusal as a formality. The cigarette in his hand was a luxury for a wage earner like Su Licheng, who had spent his whole life dutifully sticking to his post. He extended it farther. "Take it. You don't often get to smoke these..."

But Su Licheng had already brought out his cigarettes, and Xiao Yazhong was suddenly speechless. It was a white soft pack, which looked rather tacky to Su Can, but the large red characters in regular script spelling "Zhonghua" struck a nerve with Xiao Yazhong.

Su Can knew his father. He was honest and kind by nature, with the good character he had carried over from his army days. He was not putting on any vain display for Xiao Yazhong.

Zhonghua cigarettes were still something of a rarity in Xiahai City at the time. Under its regional protection and restriction policies, the Xiahai Cigarette Factory only approved the production and sale of its own brands. The Xiahai Cigarette Factory was also a branch of the Rongcheng Cigarette Factory, so its best brand was Panda Jiaozhi, which was also the best cigarette available on the market. Cigarettes from other regions or foreign countries were extremely rare then, and the tobacco market was not open.

Su Can did not smoke, but he knew that Zhonghua ranked among China's top brands and was the national cigarette brand at the time. Someone had given his eldest uncle two cartons for New Year's, and by July of this year, he had not even finished one. His younger uncle had pestered him for the other carton for ages without managing to get it. Recently, however, Su Can's entrance-exam results, which had shot up as though on a helicopter, had left his eldest uncle utterly elated. At their last meal together, he had also found Su Licheng increasingly agreeable, and in his good mood, he had casually given the remaining carton of Zhonghua to his father.

His father had inevitably become the object of his younger uncle Zeng Zhaoding's envy for quite a while. Still, Zeng Zhaoding could not swallow his pride and ask him for it. After all, with a pack of Zhonghua in his pocket back then, cultivating contacts and smoothing the way through various connections would have been much easier. People might even have assumed he had some influential backing or connections.

His father had brought out the pack simply out of his honest nature, wanting to share it with Xiao Yazhong. He had not the slightest intention of showing off his wealth. Who could have expected Xiao Yazhong's expression to change at once?

Even his tone turned odd and sarcastic. "Oh, smoking Zhonghua, are we? Su, your shop hasn't even opened yet, and you've already struck it rich!"

Without waiting for his father to explain, he took the cigarette from his hand, gave a snort, and turned to leave.

His father paused in surprise, sighed, then called to Su Can again and lifted the shelves before them.

Watching father and son walk away, his wife, Wang Xiaocui, swayed her hips and withdrew her contemptuous gaze from Su Licheng. Sounding somewhat doubtful, she asked, "Huh, is that shop Su Licheng and Zeng Ke opened really making so much money that he's smoking Zhonghua already?"

Xiao Yazhong resentfully pulled out his lighter and lit the Zhonghua cigarette. "How much can a little business like that make? Anyone could have brought him some cigarettes for him to hand out as favors. What's so strange about that?"

"Pfft! If you're so capable, why doesn't anyone bring you Zhonghua? All you ever do is give things away. You've spent plenty on cigarettes this month, and I still haven't seen you get anything done!"

Xiao Yazhong gave a dry cough and blew out a great mouthful of smoke, choking at his wife's words. But cigarettes like these really did not circulate in their circle. He had always been the one giving gifts to others; there was even less chance of someone giving him a gift, let alone Zhonghua!

Xiao Yazhong had nothing more to say. Thinking it over, Su Licheng had not really embarrassed him much today. That was simply his nature. Perhaps he had not cared at all, which only made Xiao Yazhong seem petty. He smoked in silence, and as he considered it again, though he still felt rather displeased, the cigarette really did taste satisfyingly smooth and strong.

"Dad, that effortless little countermove just now was brilliant!"

Su Can winked at Su Licheng as he spoke, while people inside the snack shops, stores, and clothing shops around the neighborhood watched the father and son carrying their shelves with great interest.

They walked along the road, sunlight filtering through the leaves in scattered patches and falling across their faces. Carrying the shelves was a little tiring, and it made them the focus of passersby's attention, but Su Can felt warm inside.

"I saw Uncle Xiao's face change. He probably never expected you to be smoking Zhonghua!" Su Can said with a smile. He felt that the most important thing in changing his father's honest, kindly disposition was to build his confidence. Unintentionally taking Xiao Yazhong down a peg this time was a small matter, but if something similar happened with someone else in the future, Su Can did not want his father to be looked down upon or put at a disadvantage.

Reborn into this life, he had matured and understood what it meant to cherish people. Su Can felt a powerful urge to protect those close to him, to keep them from suffering even the slightest indignity.

His father laughed instead. "Su Can, you've grown sensible, and you're beginning to understand people and their ways. That's good. But remember, you mustn't be petty, especially with someone like Uncle Xiao. There's nothing impressive about competing with him over pride and attention. Sometimes, if taking one step back doesn't open things up, take another two. Keep your head down and do your own work. Bluster and vanity won't help you at all. Only when you're strong yourself can you truly have the confidence to stand alongside others! It doesn't matter if people look down on me. Your eldest uncle has looked down on me plenty of times, but I don't get discouraged. I have you for a son. My son will accomplish more than I ever did. If my son is strong, let's see who dares look down on his old man!"

Su Can froze. Those words stirred his heart. His father was not as inarticulate as he appeared, nor was he the simple, easily bullied man everyone saw. He understood everything, taking in every last trace of people's mockery and scornful looks. Great wisdom could appear foolish, and great wisdom also came with great tolerance. His mind was simply at peace. He did not care about winning or losing each little battle. His greatest hopes rested on his son, because he knew that one day, no one would dare look upon Su Can with such contempt.

A damp sensation spread around his nose, accompanied by a slight sting. Su Can nodded firmly.

His former self had disappointed his father. Now that he had been reborn, he could not disappoint him again.

Lately, it might have seemed that Su Can had been stealing all the limelight, but that was not really the case. Had Wang Weiwei not appeared at the barbecue that day, Su Can could never have attracted the attention of those people from No. 1 High School, much less seen the regret in Chen Lingshan's eyes afterward.

It was the same now. Had their family not benefited from his eldest uncle's standing, they would not have been treated with respect.

To truly stand on his own, just as his father had said, he needed strength and confidence of his own. He could not spend his whole life relying on other people's protection and reflected glory.

Happiness bestowed by others was always fleeting and insecure. Only by striving for it himself could he live a truly splendid life.

Still, Su Can thought his father was quite formidable. Precisely because of his plain, unassuming exterior and utterly unaffected manner, Xiao Yazhong had felt all the more embarrassed when he brought out the Zhonghua cigarettes, perhaps even a little ashamed, and had found even less cause to resent him.

Su Can saw it clearly: making a petty man suffer a setback without even stirring his desire for revenge was already a very sophisticated way of handling people.

Was his father truly as everyone saw him-tongue-tied, dull, and good for nothing?