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....
Wan Feng gave each person the remaining popsicles, but he didn't eat them. So there were still two popsicles missing out of the eleven people and twenty popsicles.
Jiang Jun immediately took out three popsicles, gave two to those in Luan Feng's group who did not get a share, and gave the other one to Wan Feng.
"No, I feel cold. Is this what I'm doing these days?"
"Hey, I'm just sitting here doing nothing, so I have to make back the money I paid for your broken car, right?"
"Broken car? Do you know how much effort I put into modifying this car? I'm not bragging, but this car's big frame can carry 500 kilograms without any problem."
"I know that, but the tires and spokes can't handle a large frame, so what good is it even if it can carry a thousand pounds?"
Haha, that’s true.
"You only sell popsicles and nothing else?"
"With the sea closed, there's no fish to sell, so I can only sell popsicles."
"Where the hell is your spirit? Our team has a shoe factory and a clothing factory, but you don't sell them instead of selling this stuff. If you're not a dog head, who else can you be?"
Jiang Jun began to scratch his head: "Oh, that's right, why didn't I think about it?"
What made Wan Feng dumbfounded was that this guy actually slapped him in the face cleanly and neatly.
Hit me two more times.
"Tomorrow... Which episode is tomorrow?"
"You don't even know which episode this thing is from, and I don't know either!"
"Tomorrow is July 15th."
"Fuck! I'm not going anywhere tomorrow just stay at home."
Tomorrow is July 15th, so today must be July 14th.
Wan Feng couldn't help but recall a Hong Kong movie he had watched called "The Fourteenth of July", and he couldn't help but get goose bumps all over his body.
In superstition, July 14th is Ghost Festival. At midnight, the gates of hell open wide and the streets are filled with wandering ghosts.
"Wan Feng, I don't plan to study when school starts. I've already told my family, and they agree."
There are so many children in rural areas who don’t go to school, it’s not surprising.
"Are you ready to do business at home?"
"That's what I think. Mainly because I'm not good at studying and I'm not cut out for it. I think business is more suitable for me."
"This idea is worth encouraging. If you can't study well, there's nothing wrong with doing business. Just don't do business with no capital."
"While I'm still young, I'll try this for a year. If it doesn't work out, I'll go work in your factory next year."
Wan Feng knew very well what Jiang Jun was like in his previous life. Before he was fifty, he spent longer time in prison than outside, and he didn't marry a divorced woman until he was forty. He hoped that he would not go down that path in this life.
The woman he will marry in the future is also a descendant of the Wa family, but she is only ten years old now and is still in the third grade.
However, Wan Feng did not tell Jiang Jun that his fate had changed. How could he know that he would not marry a virgin?
Jiang Jun went somewhere else to continue selling his popsicles.
The movie was still the "405 Murder Case" that was released last night. Wan Feng did not watch the plot tonight, but instead thought about the acting skills of the lead actor Zhong Xinghuo.
Zhong Xinghuo's most famous film role is not the policeman Lao Chen in "405 Murder Case", but Li Shuangshuang's husband Sun Xiwang in the 1960s movie "Li Shuangshuang", and he left behind a popular idiom: Li Shuangshuang cries for her husband - there is no hope (Xiwang).
I don’t know why Wan Feng always wants to laugh whenever he sees this actor, even though he is wearing a white police uniform and looks tough.
This was all caused by Xiwang. Ever since seeing Li Shuangshuang, Zhong Xinghuo left Wan Feng with the impression that he was always smiling, which was very comical.
"Why are you always laughing secretly? How can you laugh at this kind of movie?" Luan Feng, who was close to Wan Feng, finally noticed the slight shaking of Wan Feng's body, and thus discovered that Wan Feng was laughing.
"How many movies can you remember that this actor has starred in?"
“Has he been in many movies?”
Oh well! Forget that this woman is careless. You might as well ask your own knees.
"You can't remember any of them?"
Luan Feng shook his head.
"I'm really doubting that if I'm out on business for a long time in the future, you'll forget about me."
"Hehehe, no, you definitely won't forget."
"Have you seen the movie Li Shuangshuang?"
"Ah, I remember now. It's that good-tempered, smiling old man."
He was playing a young man at that time, so how come he became an old man?
Luan Feng stopped watching the movie and started discussing with Wan Feng what kind of movies Zhong Xinghuo had acted in.
Finally, Luan Feng finally remembered what movies Zhong Xinghuo had acted in. In fact, Luan Feng had seen all the movies that were currently released, but she just didn't remember people.
By the time she remembered it, the movie was over, but the next problem arose.
"He always plays good guys in movies, but who is the bad guy in this movie? Who is the murderer?"
Wan Feng scratched his head vigorously: "Didn't you ask them last night?"
“They didn’t tell me.”
"Look at you, the factory manager. Your employees don't take it seriously. Just dock their wages! See if they dare not tell you!"
Luan Feng suddenly realized: "That's right! If they don't tell me tonight, I'll deduct ten dollars from each of them when it comes to expenses!"
So, even though it was dark, Wan Feng clearly felt ten murderous gazes.
Tsk, I don’t even take July 14th seriously, so why would I be afraid of some women’s gazes.
Having said that, Wan Feng quickly got into bed when he returned to his grandma's house, and made up his mind that if he had to hold his urine in the middle of the night, he would not go out to relieve himself even if he wet the bed.
After running to the river early in the morning and crawling around for a while, Wan Feng came back to have breakfast and went to the team headquarters.
There seemed to be nothing to do today, so he planned to go to the machinery factory to watch Xiao Dexiang make farm tools.
The manufacturing of agricultural tools looks simple but is actually very complicated. For example, the pear blade of the Lianghua plow for turning the soil cannot be made of cast iron like the plow handle pulled by a horse. The one pulled by a tractor must be made of steel and durable.
Steel parts involve a problem of deformation and quenching. If the problem is not solved properly, the pear slices will not be wear-resistant or strong.
Wan Feng didn't know much about this. There weren't many rural jobs he hadn't done, but he hadn't had much exposure to blacksmithing either. He had only helped others swing a sledgehammer for a few days.
So he wanted to see how Xiao Dexiang would solve the problem of carburizing and quenching the steel plate after it was heated and deformed.
But as soon as I walked into the machinery factory, I saw Xiao Jun hooking a trailer to his tractor.
He had been running in his tractor with an empty head for a whole day yesterday, so it’s time to attach a truck bed today.
Anyway, I have nothing to do today, so I'll let Xiao Jun run in the tractor.
When Xiao Jun heard that Wan Feng had nothing to do today and wanted to help him run in the tractor, he was naturally very happy.
After hooking up the trailer, Wan Feng set up the tractor and Xiao Jun sat on the wing, and the two of them drove the tractor out while chatting.
"Where are we going today?" Xiao Jun asked.
"Of course I'm going to the city, so I'll just take a walk around the county town."
Of course Xiao Jun had no objection. It was just a run for fun, so it didn't matter where he went.