In the summer of 1983, Lu Erbao was beaten with a cane by Lu Changzheng, which made him give up the idea of running away from home to learn Kung Fu in Shaolin Temple.
However, after the fight, Liu Meiyu was afraid that he would be too obsessed, so she was considerate and enrolled him in a martial arts training class in the capital, which was the most difficult and tiring one.
After practicing horse stance for two months, Lu Erbao never mentioned learning Kung Fu again and just followed Grandpa Shao to practice calligraphy.
In the summer of the same year, Xiaobao defeated Xu Zhenye in the "Flying Cup" Children's Table Tennis Competition and won the singles championship in the national junior group.
Coach Chu was surprised at Lu Xiaobao's explosiveness and desire to win, as he was able to defeat an opponent he had never defeated before in the competition.
What surprised Liu Meiyu was that after Xiaobao won the match, he turned around and took the person home, treating him as a good friend.
According to him, before we lost, we were rivals, but after winning, we became good friends!
“…”
Liu Meiyu couldn't quite understand her son's way of thinking when it came to making friends. She was also worried that Xu Zhenye might misunderstand that Xiaobao was showing off because he had won.
It turned out later that these two were indeed good buddies while competing with each other.
It's like that. If you get up at 6 o'clock to practice today, then I have to get up at 5:30. If you practice an extra hour at night, I have to sleep one hour less during the day...
Anyway, for a long time, these two were inseparable and neither would give in to the other. They fought to the death for first place in the competition, but in private they could drink from the same bottle of soda.
When it comes to making friends, my younger son is very straightforward and most of his friends simply love playing table tennis as much as he does.
The second brother is sweet-talker, has lots of clever ideas, and knows how to please girls. Besides Zhou Tiantian, there are many other little girls who like to play with him.
Only the eldest son, Liu Meiyu, is more worried. She really doesn’t know whose personality this child resembles.
There is no doubt that she loves to study and is smart, but she doesn't like crowds, is afraid of noise, dislikes dirt, and is picky. It seems that neither she nor Lu Changzheng has these shortcomings.
As for Erbao and Xiaobao, she was worried that they could not keep up with their studies. As for Dabao, she hoped that he could be exposed to more things other than studying and make more friends.
As a result, when he entered junior high school, I found that this boy became more of a loner. The names of his classmates that I heard from him were either the second or third in their grade.
According to him, having two stupid younger brothers and teaching them their lessons is already a headache, and he doesn't want to be friends with stupid people.
“…”
Liu Meiyu was relatively okay. She was an outstanding graduate of Huaqing University. When her son had problems he couldn't solve, he would come to her for help and then praise her by saying "Mom is so awesome." But when it came to Lu Changzheng, the picture changed completely.
"Your mother is drawing, don't disturb her. If there's anything you don't understand, I can show it to you."
Lu Changzheng closed the door of the study room, and on a whim took the initiative to take on the task of tutoring his eldest son. As a result, he looked at the math problems handed to him by his eldest son and worked on the manuscript paper for a long time, but could not get the correct answer.
Lu Dabao looked disgusted and said, "Dad, you calculated this step wrong. You didn't prescribe the right medicine."
"Really? Let me recalculate it and see."
After a while, Lu Changzheng had used up two sheets of draft paper. Dabao sat next to him, looking at his watch in boredom, and sighed: "Dad, don't try it. After your wrong demonstration, I have already figured out the correct solution."
"Really?" Lu Changzheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief, handed the manuscript over, and said seriously: "Then let me see if you did it right."
Dabao quickly wrote down the steps to solve the problem.
Lu Changzheng took it and looked at it carefully. After a while, he nodded and said seriously, "Well, not bad. Son, if you have any problems in the future, think about them yourself first. You see, if you think about it a few times, your mind will be broadened, right?"
"Dad, stop pretending. I know you don't understand." Lu Dabao exposed him mercilessly.
Lu Changzheng forced himself to explain: "Who said I don't understand? I'm teaching you to try it yourself several times before you encounter a problem, so that you can have a deep impression."
"Oh," Dabao nodded, turned a page of the book and handed it to Lu Changzheng, saying lazily, "Dad, there are a few more questions at the end, can you help me check them out?"
“…”
"Well, go look for your mom. She should be almost done. I just remembered that your mom has washed the clothes but hasn't dried them yet. I'll go dry them first."
Lu Changzheng found an excuse to leave the bedroom and went out to watch TV for a while. He didn't go back until he saw his eldest son returning to his room with his textbooks.
"Have you explained the topic to your son?" Lu Changzheng asked.
Liu Meiyun turned over the quilt: "What else?"
"Are the math problems for junior high school students so difficult nowadays?" Lu Changzheng stopped pretending in front of his wife. He really didn't understand the math problems that Dabao brought over.
Liu Meiyun: "That's a high school question, and it's from the Mathematical Olympiad. It must be difficult."
Lu Changzheng wondered: "Isn't he only in the third year of junior high school next semester? Why is he already reading high school knowledge?"
"He was in the third year of middle school and he finished learning on his own last summer."
“…”
In 1984, Huamei Clothing Store expanded from a dozen franchise stores in the previous year to nearly 30 stores across the country, and the franchise fee increased from 80,000 yuan at the beginning to 100,000 yuan.
Liu Meiyun can make a seven-digit net profit a year just from franchise fees and store purchase orders.
Not only that, after more than three years of investment in cherry planting, there was finally a bumper harvest this year. Each cherry was juicy and sweet. Zhong Xingguo and Li Tiedan drove to the gates of schools, factories, and units in the city to sell the cherry at 1 yuan per pound. A whole truckload of cherry was basically sold out in less than a day.
The temporary workers who help pick cherries in the mountains are busy all day.
Of course, with so many cherries, they can’t just be sold in truckloads. That would be too exhausting for Li Tiedan and Zhong Xingguo.
Selling fruit is different from selling clothes. It is not something that can be done by just putting up advertisements. At that time, cherries were not yet grown on a large scale in Beijing, and many people may not have even eaten them. Even if they saw advertisements, they would at most express curiosity.
"Director Hao, these are cherries that I grew myself. I brought them here for you to taste."
Director Hao put down his teacup, his eyes lit up: "Did you grow the cherries yourself?"
"Well, I contracted a piece of land a few years ago. The produce just came out this year, so I quickly brought a box over for you to try. If you think it's good, I'll send you more after you finish eating it."
Looking at a box of bright red cherries, Director Hao's face was full of colorful expressions.
His wife just bought a few pounds at the university gate a few days ago, and the children at home said they were not full, so Liu Meiyu sent a box over. The market price outside is one yuan per pound, so this box is not cheap.
"Thank you, but you gave us too much. Are your children having enough to eat?" Director Hao said politely.
Liu Meiyu smiled and said, "It's enough. They eat it every day and are tired of it. There are still a few boxes outside. If Director Hao likes it, he can give some to his friends."
Director Hao was also a smart man. He immediately understood what Liu Meiyun meant. He asked in surprise, "How much did you contract?"
He originally thought that Liu Meiyu died from farming just one or two acres of land, but from the tone of her voice, it doesn't seem likely?
Liu Meiyun: "Not much, just over 500 mu. I'll release 100 mu this year."
“…”
Good guy, Liu Meiyu not only has a thriving clothing business, but she also contracts to grow fruits. Director Hao has been dealing with Liu Meiyu for two years and has nothing but admiration for her.
He used to look down on the self-employed business owners, but now with the money they have earned in the past two years, they are probably enough to buy a factory directly.
"Don't worry, I'll deliver it to your friends in other factories after get off work." It was just a small favor and he could do a favor for both sides. Director Hao was happy to help Liu Meiyu.
"Thank you, Director Hao. I will take care of your cherries this year."
Liu Meiyu is also generous. Regardless of whether Director Hao can introduce business to her, they have been working together for so long, she definitely cannot be stingy.
Director Hao was not trying for that little advantage. He just felt that Liu Meiyu was straightforward and frank in her words and deeds, and that she was really smart. When dealing with such a businessman, you would feel that she deserved to make so much money.
"By the way, you told me before that you could take over the factory. Is that true?"
When Director Hao saw Liu Meiyu today, he mainly wanted to talk about this matter.
The workers' wages were delayed again and again, and their morale was low. Only Huamei's two production lines were still running. His superiors asked him to come up with a solution every day. He was so tired that his hair turned bald, but he couldn't think of any good way to turn the loss into profit.
Not long ago, Liu Meiyu brought a newspaper to him, pointed out some contracting cases in other provinces and cities, and asked him if she could contract the factory over. He had never thought about contracting before, but now he has no choice but to think about it.
The factory could not survive, and thousands of employees were waiting for their wages and food. Liu Meiyu's people were able to grow crops successfully by contracting a piece of mountain land. Director Hao gritted his teeth and decided to just pass this hot potato to Liu Meiyu.
"It's true." Liu Meiyu's expression was calm and serious, but she was thinking in her heart that she had finally waited until the factory could no longer hold on.
"Director Hao, if the conditions are right, there is no problem with me contracting it out. You see, nowadays, state-owned hotels are contracted out to run canteens, and guesthouses can be contracted out to individuals to run as hotels. If you contract the factory to me, we can share the profits and keep the losses as mine. Isn't that better than the current situation?"
Liu Meiyun is patient and persuasive.
Director Hao thought about it for a long time, and finally made up his mind and said, "Tell me the details so that I can write a report and submit it to the meeting on Monday for discussion."
"Okay."
Therefore, Liu Meiyu sent some fruits and also put the plan of contracting the state-owned factory on the agenda.
In addition to Director Hao, Lu Wanjun also helped to deliver the cherries.
In the early stage, it seemed that the cherries were being given away for free everywhere, but after a few days, word of mouth spread and there was an endless stream of people coming to order cherries.
Moreover, there are many wealthy people in Lu Wanjun's circle, and people also want to give gifts, so they just order several boxes at a time.
Factory Director Hao was also very helpful and helped him contact several large factories with good performance. They directly purchased hundreds of boxes of goods as employee benefits.
This year, Liu Meiyun also made a lot of money by selling cherries.
Not only can you make money, but the family also has a place to go in the summer and can go up to the mountains to experience the fun of picking cherries themselves.
During the summer vacation, Liu Meiyu also invited Liu Yongnian and his wife from Shanghai to Beijing to play for half a month. The whole family stayed in the village for a few days and almost ate so many cherries that they almost vomited.
Zhou Huiru listened to her daughter and opened a stationery store at the entrance of a school in Shanghai, and now it is making a lot of money.
At the beginning of the year, when the landlord wanted to sell the shop, she bought the shop herself before informing Liu Meiyun. Not only that, she is now thinking of buying two houses in Shanghai!
One set is for my son Bowen to live in when he returns to China and gets married, and the other one is naturally for my daughter.
Anyway, if my son has it, my daughter should have it too.
Even though their daughter currently lives in Beijing and has her own house, Zhou Huiru and her husband still insisted on buying two houses, hoping that they would appreciate in value in the future.
Ever since Zhou Huiru started making money from her stationery store, she feels like she has lived a new life. In the past, because of her poor background, she had dragged down her family and was always afraid of this and that. But after the reform and opening up, not only could she open her own store and do business, she also had some spare money and was no longer afraid of owning real estate. Moreover, with money in hand, she dared to dream of more things!
Her daughter said she liked the small Western-style building in Shanghai, so she worked hard to make money. Anyway, the current policies are good. Zhou Huiru felt the joy of opening a store and making money, and she also planned to open another stationery store in other places by the end of the year.
Zhou Huiru, who was thinking about making money to buy a house for her children, returned to Shanghai after playing in Beijing for half a month. She had to go back to find a shop.
In 1994, Lu Xiaobao spent his summer vacation at the National Youth Table Tennis Training Base. His family thought it was just an ordinary training camp.
As a result, when the training camp was over, Coach Chu personally brought Xiaobao home to congratulate him, saying that Xiaobao had passed the selection and officially entered the national table tennis youth team and became a professional athlete!
At the same time, Dabao, without saying a word, suddenly appeared in the newspaper.
He built some kind of mechanical automation device from the rags and butter of his home and entered it into the National Youth Technology and Science Competition, where he won first prize. Reporters even came to interview him, and only then did Liu Meiyu find out about his participation in the competition.
When I asked him about it, he said arrogantly, "I just joined for fun. I didn't expect to win a prize."
“…”
Dabao and Xiaobao were both silent in giving her such a big surprise. Erbao was very well behaved this summer vacation. He didn't win any awards and didn't make any trouble. Every day after dinner, he went to Mr. Shao to learn calligraphy on time. He made better progress every day and it was obvious that he was very focused.
I just feel like this guy has gotten a lot tanned recently.
Liu Meiyu thought he was going to Mr. Shao's house to practice calligraphy and was exposed to the sun on the way. After all, the distance was not close, so she bought him a baseball cap so that he could wear it on the road to at least block the sun.
Until this day, when the summer vacation was almost over, Liu Meiyun was checking accounts in the store. Chen Lili, who was on vacation for a blind date, suddenly came to the store and said to her in surprise: "Sister Meiyun, why did I see your second son selling popsicles at the entrance of the cinema?"
“…”
Liu Meiyun rushed to the cinema and saw Lu Erbao and one of his classmates. They were selling things in a foam box under a big tree.
Lu Erbao was wearing the baseball cap that she had reminded him to wear when he went out that morning, and he was standing lazily under the big tree, shouting at the top of his voice: "Milk popsicles, 20 cents each! Come and buy them, they are sweet and quench your thirst! There are also big red fruits, you take half and I take half, 10 cents for two, it's a good deal!"
This rhyme is quite catchy. There are many vendors selling soda and snacks at the entrance of the cinema, but there are quite a few people standing in front of Lu Erbao and his friends' foam boxes.
One of them was shouting and the other was collecting money, and order was maintained very well.
Liu Meiyun stood there for a while, and only walked over when the movie started and few people were buying popsicles.
Lu Erbao was counting the inventory when he felt another customer coming. The edge of his skirt fluttered in the wind. He shouted without raising his head, "Sister, do you want to buy some popsicles? The milk popsicles are so sweet!"
As soon as the words fell, the familiar and angry voice of my mother suddenly came: "Lu Yunhua!"
"Mom?" Lu Erbao was startled. He looked up and saw that it was his mother. He instinctively wanted to run away, but he thought that if his father knew about it, he would be beaten. So he gritted his teeth and said with a smile on his face: "Mom, don't be angry first, listen to my explanation."
"I'm listening, you explain." Liu Meiyu fanned him with his hat, without saying whether she was angry or not.
Lu Erbao swallowed his saliva and said hurriedly, "Grandpa Shao also agreed for me to sell popsicles. I finished writing the calligraphy in advance before I came out. In addition, Grandpa Shao also invested in our business and he also got dividends. It was not just my idea. If you don't believe me, go home and ask."
Sharing the risk was the only way Lu Erbao could think of to make his mother less angry.
And he didn't lie. The foam box in front of him was prepared for him by Grandpa Shao.
Liu Meiyu didn't quite believe that Mr. Shao had the time to play with Erbao, so she went home and called him to ask.
"Haha, Meiyun, I can't guarantee that your second son will be able to write well in the future, but he must be good at business. He painted big cakes for me for a month, and I was really tempted. He let me get a "technical dividend" without paying a penny. It seems that if I don't cooperate, I will lose a courtyard house!"
"Mom, see, I didn't lie to you." After returning home, Lu Erbao was much calmer.
“…”
Liu Meiyun, who knows her son well, figured it out and realized that Lu Erbao didn't just need that foam box. He just wanted to drag his grandfather Shao into the water! Just at this moment, she backed him up!
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