Although Fatty’s words were a bit exaggerated, Ethan Foster did have a good appearance. The lines of his face were originally a bit rugged, but paired with Ethan Foster’s extremely pure eyes, he gave off a very gentle and sunny vibe.

“What entertainment industry? Is it just singing?” After hearing Fatty’s words, Ethan Foster asked curiously, “I’m just an average singer, I can’t make it in that field…”

“Don’t listen to that dumb Fatty trying to fool you…” Jack said with a smile. “Even if you were a great singer, you couldn’t get into the entertainment industry. That world is way too far from us. I say we should just find something solid to do and make a living first…”

“If you hadn’t mentioned it, I’d have forgotten why we came here…” Hearing Jack’s words, Fatty suddenly shouted, “You called us over for a meal, so let’s eat first before anything else…”

Not mentioning food was fine, but as soon as it was brought up, both Ethan Foster and Fatty’s stomachs started growling. Especially when they saw the six dishes and one soup on the table, they couldn’t hold back any longer. They sat down at the table, and Fatty immediately reached for the bottle of liquor.

“Hey, Jack, you’re only giving us Fenjinting to drink? Aren’t you being a bit stingy?” The Fenjinting Fatty mentioned was a cheap local liquor, very popular in the early and mid-1990s, but by the year 2000, it was considered rather low-end.

“I’ve been dating lately, and I don’t even have ten yuan left in my pocket. Being able to bring out this liquor is already something…”

Jack looked a bit embarrassed and his face turned red. In fact, he had originally brought two bottles of Huzhou Laojiao from his home in the city, but accidentally broke them on the way. Seeing he didn’t have much money left, he could only spend a few yuan at the village shop to buy two bottles of cheap liquor.

“I still have a bit of monkey wine left at the bottom of a bottle. If I mix it with some other liquor, it’ll do. The three of us brothers will just drink this today…” Seeing Jack’s awkwardness, Ethan Foster took out a wine gourd from the box. As soon as he pulled out the stopper, even though there were only a few drops left, the aroma of the wine filled the room.

Chapter 9 Homemade Firecrackers (Part 1)

“Heh, Ethan really knows what’s good. I haven’t had monkey wine in years—even the dregs are fine…”

Smelling the long-missed scent of monkey wine, Jack’s eyes immediately lit up. He snatched the wine gourd, opened his own cheap liquor, and poured it in. After shaking it a few times, he took a sip straight from the mouth of the gourd. But Jack knew this wine was strong, so he didn’t dare drink too much.

“Damn it, you disgusting Jack, are you trying to make us drink your backwash?”

Seeing Jack drink straight from the gourd, Fatty was furious. He snatched the gourd from Jack and also took a swig. To be honest, when they were kids, the three of them could share a single lollipop, so Fatty didn’t care at all that Jack had just drunk from the gourd.

“You two, what can I even say…” Ethan Foster was speechless watching from the side. But since he was the one who brewed the monkey wine, he’d had more of it over the years than Jack and Fatty, and didn’t care for the dregs, so he didn’t bother fighting them for it.

“Hm? Jack, where’s the fish you fried?” Ethan Foster shook his head, picked up his chopsticks, and was about to grab some food when he suddenly froze. There was chicken, duck, and meat on the table, but no fish.

You see, Ethan Foster grew up in the mountains and would often set traps to catch small animals, so he wasn’t that interested in wild game. But he especially loved fish. Since there were no fish in the mountains, every time he ate fish, it was brought up by Fatty and Jack.

“Huh? Brian Cooper, you’re really not being thoughtful…”

After hearing Ethan Foster’s words, Fatty also noticed there was no fish on the table and immediately got angry, pointing at Jack and saying, “You know Ethan likes fish, so why didn’t you make it? If you can’t afford it, you could have gone to catch some…”

“I really couldn’t afford it, though I did want to go catch some fish…”

Jack gave a wry smile. He’d been spending a lot lately on his girlfriend, and just buying a set of clothes for Ethan Foster in the city cost two or three hundred yuan, using up all his demobilization allowance. The dishes on the table were all brought from his parents’ house.

Originally, Jack had planned to go to the reservoir at the foot of the mountain to catch some fish, but he hadn’t expected the local police station to set up a post by the reservoir. There was a policeman in uniform with two security team members there all day. No matter how bold Jack was, he didn’t dare throw his homemade explosives in.

“Now that you mention it, I really did forget about that…”

When Jack mentioned the new police post by the reservoir, Fatty was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, “There’s been a lot of redevelopment in the new city lately, and all the water comes from our reservoir. To prevent sabotage, they set up a police post…”

The reservoir in Weijia Village is surrounded by mountains on three sides and covers a large area. It has always served as a backup reservoir for Jinling City, so after the new city redevelopment, this reservoir, which had been built for over thirty years, was naturally put into use.