"It's a holiday! It's a holiday!"
A group of children ran and shouted, their faces full of joyful smiles.
Today, all the children in the courtyard are on holiday, and the entire courtyard is like a bustling market, with noise rising and falling.
The front yard, Sun Zheng's family.
Sun Zhengguo is working hard to translate some documents and materials, hoping to finish them all before the Chinese New Year.
The door was suddenly pushed open, but Sun Zhengguo didn't even look up and continued with what he was doing.
Sun Zheng'an entered the room. Seeing that Sun Zhengguo didn't even raise his head, he hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"Brother, you're busy again. I need to talk to you about something."
"Tell me, what's wrong?"
Sun Zhengguo said as he wrote.
"Then you can't get angry when I tell you! The 'hush money' you promised me when you bought the silver dollars a while ago, does that still stand?"
Sun Zheng'an spoke hesitantly, his voice clearly lacking confidence.
Sun Zhengguo put down his pen after hearing his brother's words, looked at Sun Zhengan, smiled, and then said.
"What I said goes, so tell me, what's on your mind?"
"I've got my eye on a pure wool scarf, but I'm a bit short on cash; I'm still 20,000 yuan short. What do you think...?"
After Sun Zheng'an finished speaking, he rubbed his fingers together, gesturing as if he were counting money.
"Don't you already have a scarf? It's only the beginning of winter, and Mom already bought you a new scarf. Why do you need to buy another one?"
Sun Zhengguo asked, puzzled.
"Um, um, that..."
Seeing that Sun Zheng'an was stammering and couldn't give a coherent answer, and his face was even red, it seemed that his younger brother also had his own little secret.
“I’ll pay for it, but you have to tell me why you’re buying this scarf.”
Sun Zheng'an understood that if he didn't explain the matter clearly today, Sun Zhengguo wouldn't give him the money. He was in a bind, so he might as well tell the truth.
Next, Sun Zheng'an recounted the whole story to Sun Zhengguo.
It turns out that a while ago, when Sun Zheng'an had his birthday, a female classmate gave him a fountain pen. Now that it's her birthday, Sun Zheng'an is planning to give her a scarf as a return gift.
Upon hearing his younger brother's description, Sun Zhengguo exclaimed inwardly, "Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, little brother, how old are you this year?"
Seeing his brother's shocked expression, Sun Zheng'an knew that his brother had misunderstood, and solemnly declared that their friendship was purely between classmates.
Sun Zhengguo said, "I don't believe you for a second. Pure friendship? What kind of era is this? It's an era where even holding hands between men and women is considered lewd. If there weren't mutual feelings, how could they exchange gifts?"
In the end, Sun Zhengguo still gave his younger brother the money, while also telling him, "It means you're still young and can't handle things well. Your main task now is to study."
As for how much of what Sun Zheng'an listened to, only heaven knows.
Sun Zhengguo didn't pay much attention to this little anecdote in his life, after all, his younger brother was growing up and would be 15 years old after the New Year, and had his own ideas.
After this incident, Sun Zhengguo continued to work diligently and finally completed all the translations before the end of the year.
The festive atmosphere of the Lunar New Year is growing stronger, with laughter and joy filling the streets and alleys. People are busy buying New Year's goods, cleaning their houses, pasting paper-cut window decorations, and hanging lanterns to welcome the New Year.
The Sun family was no exception. Sun Zhengguo and his brother were busy writing couplets, Sun Zhenghong was cutting paper snowflakes, and Sun Dajiang and his wife were preparing New Year's Eve dinner.
As night fell, Sun Dajiang's family was happily enjoying their New Year's Eve dinner together.
After the meal, the three siblings wished Sun Dajiang and his wife a Happy New Year in advance. After receiving red envelopes, they stayed up all night to welcome the New Year.
The next morning, the first day of the Lunar New Year, everyone was exchanging New Year's greetings, creating a lively atmosphere. The following days were filled with visiting relatives and friends.
The New Year celebrations aren't truly over until factories reopen, workers go to work, schools reopen, and children go to school.
…………
One month later.
"Dajiang, the meeting is at 7 p.m. tonight. Be there on time."
In the front yard, Yan Bugui was informing Sun Dajiang.
"Okay, Uncle, I understand. I'll be there on time tonight."
After Sun Dajiang agreed, Yan Bugui went to notify the next family.
"Dajiang, is there anything to discuss in the meeting tonight?"
Lin Wencui asked.
"I didn't ask. Whatever it is, getting to work is the priority."
After finishing his sentence, Sun Dajiang tidied up and prepared to go to work.
In fact, Sun Zhengguo already knew in his heart that it was probably about the issuance of the second set of RMB banknotes, but he didn't care too much. He would find out when he got back tonight and attended the meeting.
After thinking all this through, I pushed the cart and prepared to take my younger siblings to school.
It was 7 p.m. in the middle of the courtyard house.
Once everyone was present, Yi Zhonghai coughed, and Liu Haizhong, as a qualified straight man, immediately got into character, imitating him by coughing as well, and then began the performance.
"Quiet down. Today's hospital-wide meeting is to convey a national policy. As you all know, the currency we currently use has large denominations, often in the tens of thousands, which is very inconvenient. Therefore, the country has introduced a new version of RMB specifically to solve this problem. To facilitate circulation, please go to the bank to exchange your currency as soon as possible..."
Before Liu Haizhong could finish speaking, the people below started whispering and saying all sorts of things.
Liu Haizhong had to stop and let everyone digest this information.
"Second Uncle, how exactly do you change it?"
Wang Jianjun, who was in the backyard, suddenly asked a question, which was of course something that most people wanted to know.
"The neighborhood office notified us that 10,000 yuan would be exchanged for 1 yuan."
As soon as Liu Haizhong finished speaking, a loud "boom" was heard from the crowd below, and everyone was stunned.
“10,000 to 1 yuan, can you imagine how much money 10 yuan can be exchanged for? No, no, I’ve never been to school, I can’t do this math.”
Seeing the chaos, Yi Zhonghai quickly stood up and shouted.
"Everyone, please be quiet and listen to me."
Once everyone had quieted down, Yi Zhonghai continued.
"Although it's 10,000 to 1 yuan, the value is the same. For example, if you used to buy a chicken for 10,000 yuan, now it only costs 1 yuan. So don't panic. Go to the bank to exchange it as soon as possible. Otherwise, after a while, this old money will be useless and become a pile of worthless paper."
Upon hearing Yi Zhonghai's words, the crowd quieted down. It's understandable; the gold yuan notes issued during the Kuomintang era had instilled fear in people, and most of those present had likely experienced them firsthand, suffering greatly from being exploited.
Seeing that no one had any questions, Yan Bugui said a few more words to show his presence, and then announced the adjournment of the meeting.
On the way home, Sun Dajiang asked about Sun Zhengguo.
"Son, how much money do you have now? Do you need Dad to exchange it for you?"
"Dad, I used some of it a while ago, and I still have about 8 million left. I'll go and exchange it myself when I have some free time."
Sun Zhengguo didn't lie and answered his father truthfully.
"Hmm! Dad doesn't care what you buy, you just need to know what you're doing. You should change it as soon as you have time!"
The father and son chatted as they walked, and soon arrived home.
As he lay in bed that night, Sun Zhengguo thought of another question: these first sets of RMB banknotes would be quite valuable in the future, so should he keep some?
After thinking for a long time, Sun Zhengguo finally decided to pick a few newer sets and replace the rest.
As he pondered these thoughts, Sun Zhengguo drifted off to sleep!
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