Development Plan

There weren't many fun places in the countryside, and it was too cold outside, so after dinner, the group lined up to watch TV again.

Previously, the dining table was a small table that could only seat four people. After the reunion of Yu Chunsheng and Li Youlan, Song Weidong "voluntarily" added a large table to their home, and the original small table was piled up in the corner of the kitchen.

Now that a TV has been installed, this little table has come in handy again. The table is placed on the wall separating the living room and bedroom, and the TV sits on top of it.

Li Youlan sat alone at the foot of her bed, next to Li Yutao's bed; Song Weidong, Li Yutao, and Li Qingmang each carried a small stool and sat at the foot of Li Yutao's bed; Xu Tangmian sat next to Li Qingmang, with Zhi Meizi in between.

Yu Chunsheng wasn't very interested in watching TV, but he arrived late and was the last to eat. He wasn't used to sitting down right after eating, so he didn't go back to his room to draw printing patterns.

Seeing that the trash can between the two beds was full, he felt he should clean it up, but his peripheral vision was drawn to a piece of paper on the table.

The paper was torn from an ordinary exercise book, and it had a few lines of delicate handwriting on it, clearly the work of a woman.

"Where do you come from, my friend? You are like a butterfly, flying into my window. I wonder how long you will stay. We have been apart for far too long."

"Where do you come from, my friend? You are like a butterfly, flying into my window. Why have you left without a trace, leaving only longing in my heart?"

Startled, Yu Chunsheng immediately slapped the paper back. Fortunately, a fight scene was playing on TV, and no one noticed him.

His gaze lingered on the back of Li Youlan on the right bed, his heart pounding.

In his past life, he did express his desire to date Sister Li, but that was only because he was proud of her dedication to her job as a cleaner, coupled with some hormonal impulses from his first love; he didn't actually like her.

Xu Tangmian once told him that Sister Li spent her whole life clearing his name, and the debt of gratitude he owed her was already beyond repayment based on what he saw and heard.

He had always regarded this kindness as kinship, and if Sister Li needed anything, he would treat her and her family the same way she treated Kong Lin. But what does this poem mean now?

Does Sister Li still have feelings for him?

Putting aside the fact that they both have families now, just the age gap alone... wait, wait, wait!

Yu Chunsheng shook his head, forcibly erasing all sorts of chaotic thoughts from his mind. This was really terrible!

He crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it into the trash can, then took the can outside to empty it.

In the afternoon, the group set up a mahjong table. Because there were children present and they were worried about them having a negative influence, and also because pregnant women shouldn't get emotionally agitated, they specifically removed the pregnant woman, Xu Tangmian, from the table so she could tutor Zhi Meizi.

Since it was the last two days before the Lunar New Year, Yu Chunsheng gave all the factory workers a holiday, so he had to carry out some of his ideas himself.

After resting for a while, he had to go to the factory again.

Seeing that Yu Chunsheng was all dressed and ready to leave, Xu Tangmian quickly waved and called out to him from the window.

"Come in and talk."

Yu Chunsheng then turned around and went back into the house.

Xu Tangmian patted Zhi Meizi's head to reassure her and let her do her homework. Then she came out of the bedroom and went to the low table between the two beds, only to find that the table was empty. She was immediately confused.

She turned to Yu Chunsheng and asked, "Did you see a piece of paper here?"

Yu Chunsheng looked surprised. "Huh? You wrote that?"

“Yes.” Xu Tangmian held out her hand. “Where’s the paper?”

Yu Chunsheng awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Haha, I thought it was waste paper, so I threw it away."

Xu Tangmian: "...It's okay, I remember. I'll just write another one."

She slightly parted her legs and bent down to pick up the paper, but a pair of large hands stopped her.

Yu Chunsheng blocked her way, helped her sit on Li Yutao's bed, and bent down to speak to her gently, "If it's inconvenient for you, let me do it. But if it's for writing that poem, you don't need to. I've already remembered it."

"Remembered? Then recite it for me." Xu Tangmian didn't believe he had a photographic memory.

Thirty seconds later... he actually repeated it word for word.

Xu Tangmian was not only amazed by this person's amazing memory, but also vaguely envious, but that was not the main point!

She asked, "Do you know what a lyric book is?"

The man nodded. "Does copying quotes from great figures before count?"

“Fine…” Xu Tangmian directed him to take out a notebook, and then randomly drew a few circles on it to indicate, “Leave the middle area for writing lyrics, and here, here, and here, you can put celebrity stickers here, we can print some more celebrity stickers and posters.”

“The notebooks we have now are a bit too ordinary.” Xu Tangmian thought of the dazzling array of notebooks in the stationery store, and then said, “Big cities are more economically developed and are paying more and more attention to aesthetic education. We can put some effort into stationery.”

"Like the popular 'One Fire' sticker from last year, you can make stickers of Fei Xiang, as well as movie and TV series stickers, such as 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes' and 'Journey to the West', and print them all on. Kids really like these."

Yu Chunsheng listened with great interest, occasionally interjecting, "Did you do this when you were in school?"

"Oh, no, not at all." Xu Tangmian said casually, "When I like someone, the uncles and aunties just take me backstage to meet them. I don't need to wear these stickers."

Yu Chunsheng: "...It's a shame you had to come here."

"What else can we do since we're already here?" Xu Tangmian ignored him and continued, "We can also design a card collection activity, with the cards featuring the eighty-one tribulations from Journey to the West and special characters."

"We'll make some simple settings for the card attributes based on the characters in the original work. For example, the White Bone Demon has the ability to disguise herself, and the Yellow-Eyebrowed King has the ability to disarm, which means confiscating the cards."

"If you draw a hidden card, such as the four disciples and the white dragon horse, Guanyin Bodhisattva, Buddha, Bodhi Patriarch, etc., you can go to the purchase area to receive a limited edition poster and a set of exquisite stationery."

Yu Chunsheng understood what she meant, and after thinking for a while, he said, "I had thought about it before, but such a large-scale distribution seems to have the suspicion of infringement."

"Are you stupid!" Xu Tangmian flicked his forehead. "Why do you have to draw exactly like the characters in the TV series? You can refer to them and then draw these characters yourself. Copyright? Go talk to Wu Cheng'en about it!"

Yu Chunsheng shook his head, still unwilling, "That would be exploiting legal loopholes. I think it's better to be down-to-earth."

“By the time you earn money honestly, my child and I will be starving.” Xu Tangmian rolled her eyes. “Don’t even mention now, even in my time, there weren’t many businessmen with a conscience.”

“I…” Yu Chunsheng frowned and was about to retort, but Xu Tangmian pinched his face and continued, “But I know you are different from others, so I allow you to retain a little conscience.”

Xu Tangmian picked up the exercise book in her hand and waved it. "Didn't you want to print test papers for Hongxing Elementary School for free? I've also been trying to compile teaching materials recently. Once the factory makes money, we can not only provide these exercise books and textbooks to the children for free, but also set aside some money to reward those students with excellent grades."

Seeing that Yu Chunsheng remained silent, she continued, "If the factory does well, we can expand the scale and extend this policy to the entire Huaifeng Town. We will provide scholarships to all students from the town who are admitted to universities."

Yu Chunsheng listened quietly, a slight smile playing on his lips. After she finished speaking, he said shyly, "The idea is good, but it sounds like it will cost a lot of money."

“Yes, so we need to make money first.” Xu Tangmian said bluntly, “I can tell you very clearly that at least in my time, we did not achieve common prosperity.”

Yu Chunsheng nodded, looking somewhat dejected. "I could have guessed."

“If you don’t make this money, someone else will, so,” Xu Tangmian lifted his chin, forcing him out of his dejected mood, and said calmly and forcefully, “we can take the initiative, stand at the poker table, and do what we can to advance this beautiful dream when we have the ability.”

"Are you planning to... rob the rich to help the poor?" Yu Chunsheng joked.

“It’s not about robbing the rich. We’re just businessmen, we can’t do that.” Xu Tangmian said with a smile, “Notebooks and stickers are just cheap little things. Making money depends on volume. Rather than robbing the rich to help the poor, it’s more like a small way to address the contradiction between people’s growing need for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development.”

Yu Chunsheng was nodding when he heard the last sentence. Suddenly, he narrowed his eyes, crossed his arms, and scrutinized her, saying in a low voice, "This doesn't sound like something you would say. Besides, isn't it 'the contradiction between the ever-growing material and cultural needs and the backward productive forces'?"

Looking into his inquisitive eyes, Xu Tangmian's heart softened. She thought about how this person died in a special era in his previous life, when policies were vastly different from those of modern times. Yet, he had been reborn into the present, didn't know popular songs, and barely watched television, yet he understood the content of this certain conference, showing that he had been paying attention to this issue.

Her gaze towards him grew increasingly complex. Xu Tangmian was lost in thought. Her eyes moved from his resolute face to his faded, slightly wrinkled collar. She reached out and straightened it for him, speaking gently as she said:

"That's a slogan from this era; the one I'm referring to is from 2017."

Seeing a hint of confusion in Yu Chunsheng's eyes, she smiled and pinched his cheek, patiently explaining to him: "Back then, productivity was already sufficient, and a 'poverty alleviation' policy was introduced, so no one would starve to death."

"Really?" Yu Chunsheng's eyes lit up instantly, then dimmed again, as if he remembered something, and he lowered his head and said, "Anyway, it's pretty good. It's not easy to do this."

“Yes, that’s pretty good, so we can’t hold him back.” Xu Tangmian pulled his hand and gently placed it on his lower abdomen. “You’ll be 53 years old then, and your child will be almost 30. If you move quickly, you should be able to hold your grandchildren or great-grandchildren.”

Yu Chunsheng chuckled and waved his hand, saying, "I didn't think that far ahead."

Xu Tangmian could tell from his expression that he had fallen into his old habit again, becoming sentimental and nostalgic when the topic of the future came up. Although he had a child, because he was not too old, he still retained the mental state of his previous life, never considering that he had a new identity, or even that he would grow old one day.

If it were someone else, juggling family responsibilities and managing the entire factory's operations, they would likely have a real sense of age and life goals. But this person had come from a life of hardship, experiencing both poverty and wealth, so doing these things was as natural as eating and drinking; they had never even considered becoming a father.

She was somewhat dissatisfied, "You have to think about it. Not to mention the distant future, in a few months when the baby is born, you'll have to worry about its eating, drinking, toileting, and sleeping. And that worry will last a lifetime."

"Oh, right." Seeing Yu Chunsheng's conflicted expression, Xu Tangmian, realizing she wasn't the only one tormented by the child, finally felt a little satisfied and continued:

"You probably haven't retired yet in 2017."