In the winter of 1992, when I was seventeen years old, I watched "A Better Tomorrow" with my brother Zhao Tiejun in the video room at the back door of his factory.
That winter was extremely cold, and the snow in Songjiang City seemed to be free of charge. The coal chimneys spewed out yellow smoke one after another. People breathed a sigh of relief, and their eyelashes were covered with frost. At that time, my brother had just returned from the army and was assigned to the No. 2 Machinery Factory as a security officer. He earned 128 yuan a month. He wore a white-washed military coat every day and carried two frozen pears in his pocket, which made him feel windy when he walked.
My brother has a problem. He doesn't like to see others being bullied. When I came out of the video room that day, it was bright and clear. On the road at the back door of the factory, Lao Li Tou, who was selling popsicles, was surrounded by several half-year-old children. The leader's name is Er Biaozi, a son of a textile factory. His father is a boilermaker in the factory, and his family is very poor. But this kid started collecting "management fees" from Old Li Tou at the age of fourteen or fifteen, which was five yuan a month.
