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....
When Zhang Xuan found out what happened to Wan Feng, these two women actually laughed!
She can actually laugh!
If I really become a eunuch, you won’t even have time to cry.
"I've got the food back. I'll bake your shoes for you and you can go eat."
"You eat first, I'll eat later." Wan Feng sat in front of the stove, preparing to roast the shoes.
Fortunately, I didn’t wear military hook shoes today, otherwise my shoes would be deformed after being soaked in water and then exposed to the heat.
"If I let you go to Kaijiang when you have nothing to do, why don't you call me along?"
"Call you? Fortunately I didn't call you. If I had brought you along, we would have been completely trapped on the boat. Your aunt would have gone to collect our bodies tomorrow."
He Yanfei, chewing a steamed bun while holding his lunch box, said, "Then I'll push you two into the water and bury you."
"Did you hear that? This is your blood-related aunt. She's ruthless and worse than a beast. I suspect He Xiao will die at her hands in the future. She'll never be able to escape the charge of murdering her husband."
He Yanfei choked on a mouthful of vegetable soup and even coughed up tears.
Zhang Xuan brought the lunch box to the stove, and the two of them ate over the stove.
After dinner, when the shoes and pants were dried, everyone went into the workshop. They had to work until eight o'clock in the evening. Three hours was enough for each person to make two pairs of pants, and they would get 40 cents.
As soon as they arrived at the workshop, Zhang Xuan dragged Wan Feng into the warehouse and insisted on checking whether Wan Feng had become a eunuch. He also righteously said in the name of Luan Feng that he would be responsible for Feng Jie.
Are you sure you're not trying to grab at straws?
Wan Feng flatly refused. I told you everything was fine, why are you still checking it? You are trying to take advantage of me.
…
It takes about half a month for the ice in the Longjiang River to completely clear after it opens. When all the ice in the river has cleared, passenger ships can pass through.
The passage of passenger ships is a sign that summer is approaching.
Many major events happened in China in 1984, but there were probably only two that had real impact on the world: China's first participation in the Olympic Games after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1984, and the other was the military parade on October 1st of that year.
During this period, China and Western countries led by the United States were in a honeymoon period, so the Chinese delegation was welcomed by the West when they arrived in Luoshanji.
However, this honeymoon period only lasted until 1986 and then disappeared, and by 1989 it had turned cold as ice.
In addition to these two major events, some things closely related to life also happened.
For example, the first generation of ID cards were issued starting in April 1984.
However, this thing didn't have much effect within the next ten years, and few people took it seriously, so it had no influence at all.
Another thing that attracted people's attention and changed people's lives was that individuals were allowed to open shops, but Wan Feng couldn't remember whether it was in May or June.
It didn't matter that Wan Feng couldn't remember. Anyway, these shops seemed to have appeared on both sides of the avenue that ran through Xiao Wujia Village overnight.
At first, I only saw three or four small red brick houses built on the roadside like fortresses.
When I went to school in the morning, the doors and windows of these houses had just been installed, but when school was over at noon, these small houses had already been turned into shops.
The small shop sells only tobacco, alcohol and non-staple food, and the variety is not much more than that of the supply and marketing cooperative, but its biggest advantage is its long business hours, and it is almost open even at night.
This gives the boarding students in the vocational high school an additional place to play at night.
Especially since there was a little girl with two dimples in the small shop closest to Wan Feng's dormitory, which made the guys in the vocational high school dormitory feel like flies seeing blood.
After all, domestic flowers are not as fragrant as wild flowers. The ratio of male and female students in vocational high schools is more than one to two. With so many flowers in bud, instead of seducing them, they hang around a local girl. This makes Wan Feng very confused.
That girl isn't very pretty except for the two dimples on her face when she smiles!
When the shop opened, everyone in Xiao Wu's family had changed into summer clothes. Although bell-bottom pants were unanimously condemned by middle-aged and elderly people, they still could not withstand the strong impact of the storm of youth.
Anyway, everyone under the age of 25 or 26 on the street wears bell-bottom pants, and more women are wearing them too.
The clothing produced by Xuanfeng Garment Factory is still in short supply. Except for a part of it consumed by the dealers in Wu County, most of the rest is consumed by Qin Suzhen. She now not only does retail but also wholesales. She also sells some of the pants produced by Xuanfeng Garment Factory to Huma and Tahe counties upstream.
This made the garment factory's production task heavy, but fortunately we had the support of those high school interns.
Wanfeng raised the processing fee by five cents.
Women's desire for money is much greater than that of men. When the processing fee of a pair of pants rises to 25 cents, these women in the third year of high school would rather not eat and work day and night to process pants.
They work from morning until ten o'clock in the evening, with only a two-hour break in between. Those with quick hands can make ten pairs of trousers and earn two dollars and fifty cents a day, which means sixty or seventy yuan a month.
In May and June, the average monthly income of these girls was around 60 or 70 yuan.
This was a bit beyond Wan Feng's expectations. He didn't want these girls to work so long, as he wasn't running a sweatshop.
But his persuasion was useless and no one paid any attention to him.
During this period, Wan Feng also taught Zhang Xuan how to walk like a model and how to pose.
Since Zhang Xuan was going to Wahou, and Wan Feng didn't have time to teach Jiang Min and the others how to walk like a cat and pose there, he had to teach Zhang Xuan first and let Zhang Xuan teach Jiang Min when they got there.
In the blink of an eye, it was July and Wan Feng began to pack up to go to Lingji. Before going to Lingji, he wanted to send Zhang Xuan, Wu Junyan and others to Wahou.
Before leaving, Wan Feng entrusted the garment factory to He Yanfei.
Anyway, the garment factory now has an integrated process from raw material supply to sales, so He Yanfei only needs to manage the accounts payable and payable.
Wan Feng promised that she could receive an additional 500 yuan in management fees every month until Zhang Xuan returned.
In fact, Wan Feng was very worried about Zhang Xuan going to Luan Feng to learn. He didn't know if this was a time bomb sent to him, so he repeatedly warned Zhang Xuan not to play any tricks.
Zhang Xuan also promised her solemnly that he would go there to learn clothing processing and get closer to Luan Feng at the same time.
Wan Feng really couldn't figure out whether letting Zhang Xuan into the depression was a stupid move, so he took it one step at a time.
He was also a little afraid to see Luan Feng. After all, he was the one who was sorry for her. If Zhang Xuan could handle the relationship between the three of them, why not let Zhang Xuan try?
If it's okay, everything will be fine. Even if it's not okay, how bad can it be?
On July 10, Wan Feng and his group officially set off. This time the team was much larger than the last time.
In addition to Wan Feng, Zhang Xuan, Li Mingdou, He Xiao and Li Yong, there are Guo Wu, Wang Dong, Li Xin, Wu Junyan and You Mingsheng, a total of ten people.
The journey lasted three days and three nights. We took the last bus to Hongya in Dongdan and arrived in Dalawa at 5 pm on July 14th.