Chapter 355 Her Proposal: Let's Dig a Canal

Comrade Chen Yanqiu is indeed a kind and compassionate person.

The night before, he was extremely disgusted with the puppy and wanted to give it to his neighbor.

But then she heard that her Russian neighbor had to go on business trips frequently and couldn't stay home every day, so she gave up on giving him the dog.

The next morning, when Wang Xiao and the others got up for breakfast, the puppy was already there, lying down by the bowl and drinking milk little by little.

Goat milk, fresh goat milk, because Ms. Chen heard that goat milk is good for puppies.

Ivanov kept winking at Wang Xiao, and taking advantage of the fact that they were alone at the table, he whispered in her ear, "You really want your mom to keep a puppy?"

Wang Xiao ate her porridge with a salted duck egg and nodded frankly: "That's right. If she can't even take care of a puppy, how can she prove that she can take care of a child?"

Ivanov skillfully soaked the fried dough sticks in the porridge, his worry growing: "But what if your mother takes good care of the dog?"

He believed in the abilities of all the Madamamites; even the most dying creature, as long as it had a breath left, could be fattened up by them.

She looks great.

Wang Xiaoqi asked curiously, "Isn't it good that it's healed?"

Ivanov understood what it meant to be more anxious than the emperor; he was genuinely worried for Wang Xiao: "Doesn't that prove she can raise a child well?"

"If you can raise it well, then raise it," Wang Xiao argued. "If you raise a child, what will you do with the puppy? You'll be fickle, falling in love with every new one, right? If you can't guarantee one irreplaceable love, what's the point of raising it?"

Ivanov was speechless for a moment, not knowing how to respond.

This is a paradox.

For Ms. Chen to prove that she can raise a puppy well, she must guarantee that the puppy is the only treasure in her heart.

But if that's guaranteed, it means she shouldn't accept other babies.

So, after all that busy work, Ms. Chen is destined to be busy for nothing.

Ivanov warned Wang Xiao, "You'd better watch out, Madama always has a way of making you submit."

Without saying a word, Wang Xiao had already made up his mind: "I'll get a tabby cat later, and then we can have her be the referee for the cat-and-dog battles every day. She won't have the energy to think about anything else."

Ivanov wondered, "Will Ms. Chen agree?"

Wang Xiao was adept at finding excuses, and even when she was in the wrong, she was still confident: "She can't even manage a cat and a dog, yet she has the audacity to think she can manage a conflict between two children?"

What a joke! She's being extremely filial; she's thinking about Ms. Chen's physical and mental health.

That way, she won't become naive as she gets older and think that raising a child is some wonderful thing.

The sound of the neighbor's television drifted in through the window: "Ah...ah...ah...ah...the beautiful scenery of West Lake in March..."

It started with the classic "The Legend of the White Snake" and its early tours on major television stations.

Wang Xiao said in a serious tone: "Look, Lady White Snake is the envy of every mother in the world. Her child was born, and then, snap, she was locked in Leifeng Pagoda for some peace and quiet. Eighteen years later, the child became the top scholar and came to Leifeng Pagoda to pick up his mother."

Ivanov was completely dumbfounded. Could it be interpreted like that? He had thought the White Snake Lady was a tragic figure from ancient China.

"She was forced to separate from her child for eighteen years!"

Wang Xiao chuckled, "This is clearly something someone who has never raised a child would say."

Is it really happiness to bind a mother and child together for eighteen years?

A roar came from the kitchen: "Are you finished eating? How many hours does it take to eat a meal?"

This is never going to end!

Ivanov winked at Wang Xiao, as if to say, "Look, you've been rejected, haven't you?"

You're in your twenties, and you can't even appease your elders. Aren't you ashamed?

Look, I'll show you a model!

He cleared his throat, a charming smile on his face, and began to whine, "Mommy—"

Before he could even vent his anger, Chairman Chen's wrath was directed at him: "You too! Finish your meal and leave, you're making me waste time cleaning up!"

Look at the kind of people they are, hanging around Xiaoxiao all day long, all for nothing.

What a waste of such a big guy, what a waste of that face.

What a useless person! Xiaoxiao still won't have a child with him. What good is he?

Crack—

A bolt of lightning struck from a clear sky! Ivanov felt as if his world had been swept by a raging storm.

He stared incredulously at Ms. Chen Yanqiu's dirty face, unable to believe his eyes.

No, isn't he Ms. Chen's favorite little Ivan?

When Ms. Chen goes to the market to buy groceries, she always takes him along to carry her bags.

Wang Xiao sighed, pulled the unlucky guy, who looked like he'd been struck by lightning, out the door, and comforted him: "Try to think positively. Love comes and goes quickly. If you can't fulfill her dream of becoming a grandmother, then you're useless to her."

Haha, who dares to say that a woman's love is unrealistic?

As Ivanov got into the car and fastened his seatbelt, he suddenly looked at Wang Xiao seriously and said, "It's a pity I can't have children, otherwise I would be willing to have a whole football team of children for you."

It has to be admitted that having a good-looking face is a huge advantage.

Ivanov's beautiful, almond-shaped eyes looked at even dogs with deep affection. And in the confined space of a car, staring at you so closely—it would be illogical if the air wasn't thick with hormones.

So Wang Xiao looked at him seriously and nodded: "Yes, men can't have children."

Anyone can be generous with hypothetical situations.

I promised to donate 100 million yuan to the people in the disaster area because I don't have 100 million yuan.

I dare not say I am willing to donate 10,000 yuan, because I actually have 10,000 yuan in my pocket.

Let's wait until the man is able to get pregnant and have children before saying such nice things.

Lyuba, standing nearby, sensed her unspoken meaning, and only thanks to the strong will she had cultivated during her KGB training did she manage not to burst out laughing on the spot.

That's right, anyone can say sweet words.

If the Zimu River really existed, how many men would be willing to drink it?

Ivanov awkwardly touched his nose.

His greatest strength is that he never overestimates himself; he cannot guarantee that he will still be willing to take the risks of childbirth when that day comes.

He could only touch his nose and then sigh, "It's a pity that people can't be incubated like chicks and ducklings in artificial incubators. If that were the case, there would be no worries at all."

Look at their farm, so many chicks and ducklings can pop out all at once, each one fluffy and adorable.

Wang Xiao immediately dispelled his illusions: "Don't even think about it, something terrible will happen."

She pointed out the window to Wangcai and Mimi running and playing by the roadside, "How many pet cats and dogs will be abandoned tomorrow? Love comes quickly and goes quickly."

She sighed, "Sunk cost. If there isn't enough sunk cost, it's hard for people to have the patience to raise a kitten to adulthood. If the kitten comes too easily, then halfway through raising it, if they feel dissatisfied, they are very likely to just abandon it and raise another one. Just like raising a kitten or puppy again."

Ivanov found himself unable to refute.

He had heard a saying in China: "If you have a stepfather, you'll have a stepmother."

This statement is actually universal, and the fundamental reason is that it is women who get pregnant and give birth, and women bear more responsibility in raising children.

Men who don't invest much or invest very little are naturally more likely to let go.

Ivanov sighed: "Survival and reproduction are indeed the eternal questions for all living things."

"Don't think too much about it," Wang Xiao reminded him. "When you get to Xiaozhou, be patient and whatever you do, don't argue with the Ukrainian experts."

Why bring this up in particular?

Because at the end of last year, in December 1994, Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom signed a diplomatic document in Hungary, namely the famous Budapest Memorandum.

In this document, the Ukrainian government agreed to relinquish its arsenal, the world's third largest, which includes approximately 1,900 strategic nuclear warheads.

At the same time, the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom pledged to provide security guarantees to Ukraine.

Undoubtedly, this incident brought a quiet sense of relief to the entire world.

Besides Ukraine, especially Ukrainian military experts.

Don't get me wrong, Wuzhou Group recruits scientific and technological talents from CIS countries to work, and it really is following the civilian route.

The problem was that the Soviet Union's military and civilian industries were inseparable. It's no exaggeration to say that its civilian industries were mostly done as a side job by the military enterprises.

Its scientific and technological personnel are naturally mostly military industry professionals.

No one understands better than Ukraine's military experts what abandoning nuclear weapons means for the country.

It is said that on the day the news broke, Ukrainian experts in Xiaozhou got into a fight with Russian experts.

Then the two embraced and wept bitterly, drinking more than a dozen bottles of vodka.

But after both sides sobered up, the Ukrainian expert refused to talk to my Russian expert.

After hearing about this, Wang Xiao could only pretend that he knew nothing.

What can she do? Can she go over and mediate?

When she transmigrated, Da Mao and Er Mao were locked in a fierce battle.

I wonder if the Soviet Union's eldest and second sons have finished fighting after all these years, and what the outcome was.

Now that Ivanov, the Russian, is going to inspect the work as the boss, he definitely needs to be extra careful. What if he accidentally says something that causes a dispute?

Ivanov was also a little guilty: "Your Majesty, why don't you come with me?"

As a loyal subject of the Soviet Union, he always felt a strange sense of unease when facing people from other CIS countries.

Because Russia was the largest part of the Soviet Union, it's often said that Russia was the eldest son of the Soviet Union.

So the eldest son should bear the heaviest responsibility. But instead of keeping the family in order, he led the way in breaking the family apart.

As a Russian, how could he not feel guilty?

But Wang Xiao coldly refused: "No, let's each do our own work. I have to go to a meeting."

What can be done? Naturally, those who need to get off the bus and take a plane should do so, and those who need to take a bus to the Great Hall of the People should go to the meeting.

Despite Ms. Chen Yanqiu's complaints about their slow eating, Wang Xiao actually arrived quite early, even having time to chat with Sister Miao, whom he met there.

Indeed, Ms. Miao Xiuli is an outstanding representative of scientific and technological workers in the province and also a member of the Provincial Political Consultative Conference.

Wang Xiao chatted with her about lithium batteries for a bit, and then one of Miao Jie's acquaintances came over and asked her, "What kind of proposal are you planning to submit?"

Without hesitation, Sister Miao said, "The issue of promoting schooling for migrant workers' children means that their children should go to school wherever their parents work. Otherwise, it's not good if the family doesn't live together year-round and the children aren't with their parents."

The reason she wanted to submit this proposal this year is very simple: the year before last, in 1993, the country officially abolished the grain coupon system.

Since grain rations don't follow people and there's no need to plan grain consumption, people should be free and not bound by household registration.

Wang Xiao was genuinely surprised.

She didn't expect that people would start thinking about the issue of left-behind children as early as 1995.

She had assumed that it was only after China joined the WTO after the millennium and its manufacturing industry developed rapidly that the right to education for the children of migrant workers, or rather, the children of migrant workers from other places, became a matter of social concern.

Clearly, quite a few people have been thinking about this issue.

At least one of Miao Jie's acquaintances who came to ask the question shook her head: "I don't think your proposal is very realistic. If all the children of migrant workers come to the city to study, how can the schools accommodate them? To tell you the truth, it's very difficult to allocate education funds these days."

It's not just education; healthcare and other urban public finance expenditures are also facing severe funding shortages.

The reason is obvious to everyone.

The tax reform has led to increased spending at the central government, naturally straining local finances.

An acquaintance sighed, "The school is already struggling to stay afloat. If we cramm so many more kids from rural areas into it, the school will explode. And also—"

This veteran high school teacher had some deep thoughts: "All the children are going to the city. What will happen to the schools in small rural areas? With fewer students, schools will definitely have to shrink. But if they shrink like that, rural schools will go out of business. The experienced and good teachers will leave, so what will happen to the rural children who can't go to school in the city? This will further exacerbate the urban-rural gap in our country."

Sister Miao frowned: "But we can't just ignore the children of migrant workers, can we? It's not good for the children's physical and mental health if they don't have their parents around. Their rights should not be ignored either."

Another voice came from the side; this time it was someone Wang Xiao knew.

I met Director Li last time, on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, at the same Great Hall of the People when we held a commendation meeting for poverty alleviation work.

He initiated the conversation, shaking his head and saying, "Your idea is certainly well-intentioned, but I don't think migrant workers would necessarily want it."

He explained, "We conducted a survey and found that migrant workers' income is still relatively low compared to urban workers."

This is a well-known fact.

Migrant workers are able to find jobs in the city because they are more hardworking and because their wages are lower.

To be blunt but objective, it's simply high cost-performance.

Director Li added, "Furthermore, migrant workers don't get housing in the city. Most of them live in makeshift shelters while they're at work. But if they were to bring their children to live with them, they would definitely need to rent a place. And that rent would be a significant financial burden for them."

People must first survive before they can talk about quality of life.

According to Director Li's observation, the most important thing for migrant workers and their families right now is to survive.

He even called out Wang Xiao's name: "Mr. Wang, don't you think so?"

Wang Xiao touched his nose and honestly shook his head: "I don't know much about this kind of thing."

Director Li wasn't angry; instead, he laughed and said, "I still agree with your previous point of view: the key is to let everyone stay and develop in their own areas, and to build up each place well."

Actually, Wang Xiao wasn't thinking about this at all at the moment.

She was thinking that the problem of school enrollment for migrant workers' children was not so easy to solve.

As long as there is a sufficient supply of migrant workers in a city, the city will not consider the schooling of their children.

Unless people decide they don't want to have children anymore, and the population declines, cities with a huge siphon effect can no longer attract migrants. Only then will city administrators be forced to lower their standards and use children's education as leverage to attract more migrants.

But now everyone is being completely open and honest, considering issues only from an objective perspective.

It seems inappropriate for her to talk about the subjective, cold rejection from the city.

So in the end, Wang Xiao just smiled politely and said nothing.

Director Li was quite curious: "So, Mr. Wang, what kind of proposal have you prepared?"

Before Wang Xiao could answer, the leaders had already entered the room.

The top three leaders of the province all attended the meeting.

Everyone, please put down your chatter, sit down properly, and get ready for a serious meeting.

First, the leader will definitely give a speech, and the content of the speech is nothing more than the same old thing.

Anyway, although Director Li and Sister Miao took notes, they were just listening.

The question that everyone is more concerned about is, what kind of proposal will Wang Xiao put forward?

Director Li thought the proposal she mentioned at the poverty alleviation meeting about building a branch campus of a university in the north was quite practical. It was a proposal that would satisfy all parties and would be relatively easy to implement.

This is rare; it's a rare mindset among managers.

Whether a plan is good or not is not determined by how advanced it is, but by whether it is feasible.

No matter how grand or sophisticated you make something unrealistic, it's all in vain.

Unfortunately, Director Li's expectations were dashed.

Because after the group meeting had discussed the Secretary's speech, the CPPCC Standing Committee report, the government work report, the government budget, and the reports of the two courts, it was time for the group to speak.

In this segment, everyone can talk about their own proposals. It's not about consulting with others or getting their support; it's just about speaking freely.

Wang Xiao then presented his proposal, which shocked Director Li so much that he almost jumped up.

Because her proposal wasn't to build roads or bridges, but to dig canals.

My goodness! When it comes to digging canals, the first thing that comes to everyone's mind is Emperor Yang of Sui.

The Grand Canal!

Have you seen the TV series "Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin"? The Grand Canal was completed, and the Sui Dynasty came to an end.

This is not a bad thing. In fact, the Grand Canal has profound significance for the entire history of China.

But digging a canal is too expensive; the province probably can't afford it.

Although the CPPCC members in the group meeting presented their proposals without needing to solicit the opinions of others, Director Li still couldn't help but emphasize, "President Wang, your idea is not bad, but the investment is too large, and we can't afford it."

Wang Xiao, however, argued vehemently: "If you want to gain something, you must first give something. The most important thing to connect the southern and northern parts of Jiangdong and achieve common prosperity and development is transportation. And the most cost-effective and efficient way to transport goods is by water."

"The matter of digging a canal—" she emphasized earnestly, "does seem a bit beyond the scope of what we're supposed to know. But we're not without a foundation."

She held up her finger, "Firstly, the Grand Canal has played such an important role in history, and it should be put to use now to further explore its potential. Secondly, there's the water conservancy project in the north. Decades of water conservancy construction and the excavation of artificial irrigation canals have created a crisscrossing network of waterways in the north. If these can be connected with the Grand Canal, they will surely play an even greater role."

She also emphasized, "Moreover, everyone is talking about global warming, rising sea levels, and the danger to coastal cities. But if the entire inland area is connected, with waterways running through the whole country and allowing water to flow through, coastal cities can be protected, turning the crisis into an opportunity."

The CPPCC members at the group meeting all gasped in surprise.

It's not that her ideas are particularly shocking.

Sigh, if you've ever attended a CPPCC meeting, you'll find that there's no proposal that no one can't submit; there are only proposals you haven't thought of.

Everyone's imagination can be as boundless as it wants.

What's really interesting about this proposal is that the people involved have genuinely thought about it quite deeply.

"In addition, the massive infrastructure investment in digging the canal itself can provide a large number of jobs. Now that the country is focusing on supporting large enterprises and letting go of small ones, what will happen to the employees of so many small and medium-sized enterprises after they are laid off? They will definitely need to work to earn money to support themselves and their families."

She sighed, "At this time, the best approach is to expand the manufacturing sector and create jobs through it. But whether the manufacturing sector can develop depends on orders. This is not something the government can solve overnight."

Some people in the group are already nodding in agreement. This is a harsh reality and the most troublesome thing for leaders and officials.

If so many people lose their jobs and can't find work, it could really cause a major disaster.

Wang Xiao emphasized: "The New Deal of Roosevelt has been effective for more than half a century, and that's why. Our country's ancient work-for-relief program also came about in this way."

Afterwards, she summarized and elevated the event, saying, "The direct reason why the Sui Dynasty dug the Grand Canal was to connect the north and the south, allowing the barriers between the two places to be eliminated with the flow of water transportation, and thus creating a glorious history of thousands of years."

"Today, as we excavate canals and connect more waterways, we are also establishing a moral compass for heaven and earth, securing a destiny for the people, continuing the lost learning of the sages, and ushering in an era of peace for all generations." (Note ①)

Director Li and the other group members looked at each other, feeling that what she said actually made a lot of sense.

It's just burning money; I don't know how much money it will cost to dig a canal.

The government is going to have a headache.

Wang Xiao didn't care about any of that; she was a member of the CPPCC, not the director of the Finance Department.

She was only responsible for submitting proposals.

Whether the proposal will be approved or where the money will come from are not things she should worry about.

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Note ①: "The Four Sentences of Hengqu" is a famous saying by Zhang Zai, a great master of the Northern Song Dynasty. It was summarized and named by the contemporary philosopher Feng Youlan. The original text is "To establish a heart for heaven and earth, to establish a destiny for the people, to continue the lost learning of the past sages, and to open up peace for all generations", which comes from Zhang Zai's "Hengqu Sayings".

In addition, I specifically consulted a reporter who had covered numerous provincial CPPCC meetings. The reporter learned that CPPCC members submit proposals directly, and then the CPPCC has a proposals group responsible for reviewing their rationality and suitability for filing. This group invites government officials to review the proposals. Group meetings discuss the Secretary's speech, the CPPCC Standing Committee report, the government work report, the government budget, and reports from the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate. During group discussions, participants can express their own proposals, but it's not a discussion; it's purely free to speak as they wish, with no requirements. [Shrug]