Reborn during the early days of China’s reform and opening, the narrator finds himself in the 1980s countryside. In this setting, the past is still a cold reference, yet it is also a fresh start....
The reason why Wan Feng sighed about how beautiful the world is is that from a musical perspective, the 1980s was a golden age, with shining stars and golden songs. During this period, a large number of classic golden songs and representative figures appeared, whether it was U2 or Bon Jovi, or Michael Jackson and the Louis Brothers who debuted in the mid-1980s, and a large number of bands that sprang up like mushrooms after a rain. They created a large number of works worthy of being recorded in history. Most of these appeared in "He Dong" and "Warrior" in the late 1980s, setting a record for sales.
Especially the first two episodes of "He Dong" and "Warrior" have too many classics, such as "Cold as Ice", "Dead Dog", "Tonight", "It's Up to You", "I Found the Secret"...
Although Hong Kong and Taiwan mostly sang covers, they also produced a large number of outstanding singers. Tam and Cheung competed for supremacy, Mei and Yeh competed for supremacy, until the four kings unified the industry...
For music, the 1980s was a peak era with a flourishing of various arts, but after the "high tide" came the low point. After this era, the music scene fell into a complete slump and began to become silent. Although there were two or three big cats in the middle, there was no longer the glory of the 1980s.
And when we enter our twenties, it’s even worse than the old one – each generation is worse than the previous one.
In his previous life, after 2010, perhaps due to age and the generation gap, Wan Feng had hardly heard any songs that caught his ear. The music scene was filled with too much garbage. He couldn't understand how the composers of such terrible songs had the nerve to produce them. Weren't they embarrassed listening to them themselves?
The window of Luan Feng's room was open, and the sound of music poured out from the room like waves. Even though the volume reached Wan Feng, he could still hear it clearly.
These leg-shaking songs are very addictive.
Wan Feng thought about it and turned around and walked back. He wanted to remind Luan Feng and the others to keep the volume down. If this kind of music was spread improperly, it might cause unnecessary trouble.
After entering the house, Wan Feng reminded him not to listen to the tape in vain, but to listen to it secretly at night to avoid trouble.
Although Luan Feng was extremely reluctant, she still took down the tape, put it in a box and kept it carefully.
After giving the instructions, Wan Feng returned to the roadside to wait for the bus.
Yang Hong felt strange when he saw Wan Feng from a distance. Didn't he go to the street in the morning? Why was he going there again?
He parked the car next to Wan Feng and said, "I'll be on the street again in the afternoon."
"I forgot something this morning and have to make up for it this afternoon." As he said this, he climbed into the car.
This time, Wan Feng did not get off the bus halfway but took the bus directly to the construction site.
When they were about a hundred or two hundred meters away from the construction site, Wan Feng exclaimed, "Fuck."
Outside the construction site gate, there were more than a dozen young men stumbling about, all with their chests exposed. They looked like bad people, and two or three of them looked to be in their twenties.
There were people here that Wan Feng knew and people he didn't know. The two people who were about the same age as Xia Qiulong were the first time Wan Feng had seen them.
Xia Qiulong was leaning against the wall and puffing out smoke.
Wan Feng jumped out of the car, took out a pack of 1.7 yuan cigarettes from his backpack and threw them to Liu He: "Give some to the brothers. If it's not enough, tell me."
Coming to Xia Qiulong, he said, "These are the direct brothers you summoned."
Xia Qiulong grinned and said, "Don't worry, these are all real brothers. There are also brothers who have seen blood together when the eldest brother was fighting for the country. Second brother, third brother, come here!"
The two men who were about the same age as Xia Qiulong walked up to Wan Feng.
"These two were my brothers who swore by my side when I first started out in the underworld. They've been through the same old traps, wearing dunce caps and parading through the streets."
Being paraded through the streets? What year did that happen? Wan Feng remembered that the parade was at least before 1976.
"After they got married, they didn't hang out much anymore, so I called them here today." Then he patted Wan Feng's shoulders at the two men.
"You two have been at home with your wives and children for a long time, so you probably don't know who he is. Wan Feng, our brother. If it weren't for him, Lao Wu and I would probably have died in the woods by the Hongshui River a few days ago. Let's meet him!"
Wan Feng's face was full of smiles: "Hello, second brother, third brother!"
The two guys looked Wan Feng up and down and nodded.
"Brother! Did you ask us to come here just to introduce us to a brother?"
"Brother Wan Feng asked me to gather the closest brothers. I don't know what this guy is going to do."
"Brother, we don't care about the underworld anymore. We have families to support and jobs to work. If there's nothing serious, we'll go back."
These two old thieves don't look down on me.
Xia Qiulong was a little embarrassed.
Wan Feng coughed, and it was his turn to speak.
"It's not a big deal, but I wonder if you two brothers are interested in getting rich? If you are not interested in getting rich, then you two brothers can go home and keep your warm bed." Damn, if you keep your warm bed now, how can you not die of heat!
The two old guys seemed unconvinced: "You can make us rich? I don't believe it."
"Whether you believe it or not is your business. Let's go over there. Don't gather at the gate of the construction site. If someone doesn't know, they might think we're here to cause trouble."
A group of people moved to the corner outside the compound wall.
Wan Feng picked up a brick and threw it on the ground and sat on it. Xia Qiulong sat next to Wan Feng, and the others surrounded them.
Wan Feng looked up at the group and said, "National policy is now relatively relaxed. The last two newspapers published something like: 'Encourage and support the appropriate development of the individual economy, allow different economic forms to compete on the same stage, and all law-abiding individual workers should be respected by society.' This tacitly allows individuals to engage in appropriate self-employment and will not be liquidated. Do you understand what I mean?"
No one raised their head and no one shook their head.
"Brother, what's the point of talking to these idiots about this? Just tell me what you want to do. I believe in you!"
Come to think of it, if gangsters were educated, wouldn't the world be in chaos?
"I've got a batch of goods back, and I need you to go down and spread them out, which means to sell them."
The gangsters looked at each other, not knowing how to answer.
"Selling things is actually very simple. It just requires finding the right person and having the courage to speak and be able to communicate. In simple terms, it's about tricking them into buying our products. I know most of you haven't done this before, but don't worry, you'll get it with practice."
"Brother, what exactly do you want to sell?" Xia Qiulong was full of confidence in Wan Feng. His wife had made a lot of money selling Wan Feng's clothes recently, more than a thousand yuan a month, and this was not a small amount. He now had a blind confidence in Wan Feng.
"Have you ever heard of electronic watches?"
The thugs around nodded and shook their heads, half of them were in agreement.
Wan Feng rolled up his sleeves, revealing a white electronic watch on his wrist.