"Good afternoon, young comrade."
The old man smiled kindly and waved to Ning Yuan. His voice was as gentle as a spring breeze across a lake, warming one's heart.
But what about Ning Yuan?
She froze on the spot, as if struck by lightning.
My brain went blank with a "buzz," completely shutting down. All thoughts and reactions ceased to function! I just stood there, frozen, like a wooden puppet that had been acupunctured.
The middle-aged secretary noticed Ning Yuan's unusual behavior.
He frowned slightly, about to ask the girl what was wrong and if she was feeling unwell.
Before he could even utter a word, he froze.
He subconsciously looked at Mayor Qiao, his tone tinged with doubt and reproach: "Old Qiao, what's going on? What happened to the young lady? You...you didn't bully Comrade Xiao Ning, did you?"
What... what's going on?
Mayor Qiao panicked when he saw Ning Yuan: "I...I didn't! Oh dear, Comrade Ning, what's wrong with you?"
Ning Yuan slowly came to her senses. She subconsciously raised her hand to wipe her cheek, her fingertips damp.
She actually cried?
Ning Yuan was startled herself. When did she start crying? How come she didn't feel anything at all?
Ning Yuan frantically wiped away her tears, but they seemed to flow like a broken string of pearls, no matter how much she wiped, they wouldn't stop.
She didn't know why she was crying, but seeing the old man's face, standing so vividly before her, looking at her with concern, she suddenly couldn't help but shed tears...
Looking at Ning Yuan, who was crying uncontrollably, the old man asked gently, "Child, what's wrong? What's wrong? Tell Grandpa. Did someone bully you?"
His kind and gentle tone was like that of a concerned elder.
Upon hearing this, Ning Yuan felt as if something had suddenly blocked her heart, causing a sour, bloated, and extremely uncomfortable feeling.
All the hardships, grievances, confusion, and hesitation I had experienced... rushed to my mind all at once.
Her tears inexplicably started falling even more heavily.
She was just an ordinary woman who had been reborn and wanted to change her own and her family's fate.
She never imagined that she would have this day!
My own petty selfishness and my slight unwillingness to admit defeat actually allowed me to stand before this old man after my rebirth.
The dialogue with history has become tangible at this moment.
Ning Yuan frantically wiped away her tears while hiccuping intermittently: "No one bullied me... I'm just... just excited... hiccup... and I feel a little uncomfortable, I can't get it up... I'm just crying... hiccup... I'm sorry..."
She felt so ashamed that she inexplicably burst into tears, feeling incredibly embarrassed!
The middle-aged secretary and the elderly man exchanged a glance, both seeing a knowing look and a smile in each other's eyes.
The middle-aged secretary walked over to Ning Yuan, handed her a cup of hot tea, and said gently, "Young lady, have some water, calm down, don't be nervous. The old man came to the meeting this time and met some overseas Chinese. He heard that you invested in the largest factory, so he wanted to talk to you and see if you have encountered any difficulties at work."
The old man looked at Ning Yuan with an encouraging and kind smile in his eyes.
Ning Yuan held the teacup, and it took her a long time to recover before reason finally returned to her mind.
She silently warned herself: Ning Yuan, you've already died once, can't you be a little more dignified? Don't be so shameful!
The elderly gentleman was concerned about the progress of the bridgehead construction. He himself was one of the Hong Kong businessmen with such a large industrial investment in Shenzhen, so it was only natural that he was called in to inquire about the situation.
calm!
We can't afford to lose face any longer!
Ning Yuan could only force herself to calm down, and calm down again and again...
"...Hello...I...my name is Ning Yuan..."
The old man looked at Ning Yuan with a smile in his eyes: "Young lady, don't be nervous, sit down, let's chat."
He pointed to the sofa next to him.
Ning Yuan sat down obediently on the sofa like a well-behaved primary school student, with her hands neatly placed on her knees and her back straight.
She secretly raised her eyes and quickly glanced at the old man opposite her.
She clenched her fists so tightly that her nails almost dug into her flesh.
But……
But……
Ahhh, I actually met the real person!
I'm so excited!!
The old man in front of her was smiling gently at her, and the kind look in his eyes when he looked at the child suddenly reminded her of her grandfather, Mr. Tang.
The same kindness, the same gentleness, the same... that makes people feel warm and at ease.
Good heavens, that dead mouth of yours, speak up!
Ning Yuan suddenly blurted out, "Thank you, Grandpa! You look so energetic!"
Rash and naive.
The old man was taken aback at first, then exchanged a glance with his middle-aged secretary and Mayor Qiao, and they couldn't help but laugh.
A hearty laugh, like a spring breeze, dispelled the last trace of tension in the room.
The old man chuckled, his tone full of teasing and indulgence: "Haha, this little girl is really interesting. She was crying just now, but now she's become bold again. She's definitely capable of great things!"
Ning Yuan's face flushed red to her ears, and she chuckled, revealing a set of small white teeth.
...
More than half an hour later, Ning Yuan followed Mayor Qiao out of the room, feeling dizzy.
She felt like she was walking on cotton candy, light and airy, with no sense of reality at all.
Even now, she still can't believe that she actually met that old man! And that she talked to him for so long!
Since her rebirth, all the pain and crises she has encountered, those moments when she was driven to the brink of despair, those days when she gritted her teeth and persevered...
At this moment, everything seemed like fleeting clouds, vanishing without a trace.
It's like receiving recognition...
Compared to what their generation experienced and endured, what she encountered was nothing!
Mayor Qiao, seeing her lost in thought, couldn't help but remind her, "Xiao Ning, be careful, there's a wall ahead."
Ning Yuan then came to her senses, looked down, and saw that she had indeed been walking unsteadily and had bumped into the wall.
Several guards not far away had serious faces, but they were suppressing laughter in their eyes.
Ning Yuan turned around awkwardly and went downstairs unsteadily.
Reaching the first floor, she suddenly let out a long sigh: "Uncle Qiao, why didn't you say so sooner... I have so many things I want to say and ask..."
She felt that her performance just now was absolutely terrible!
At first, she cried her eyes out, like a fool.
Although I stopped crying later, I felt lightheaded, as if I were dreaming.
She had so many questions she wanted to ask the old man, so many things she wanted to ask him, but when the words came to her lips, she didn't know how to say them.
Mayor Qiao couldn't help but laugh at her annoyed expression: "If I could have reminded you, I definitely would have done so beforehand. The old lady was just chatting with you; there's no need for such formalities. What exactly did you want to ask her? Why did you take so long to finish?"
Ning Yuan opened her mouth, subconsciously wanting to speak. She wanted to tell the old man about the everyday life of people decades later, about what the world would look like decades later, and about the various gloomy and dark aspects of the future.
She also wanted to ask him, after experiencing so much hardship and setbacks throughout his life, how he single-handedly drew up this groundbreaking blueprint. Was the old man satisfied, or did he have many regrets?
But……
She looked at the azure sky, simply shook her head gently, and whispered, "It's nothing..."
Each generation has its own tasks to complete.
What good would it do to tell you? These events of the past forty years cannot be fully recounted in a single day.
Besides, I could only see a small part of it in my past life, so how can I guarantee that I won't be biased?
The old man and his companions, having traversed countless trials and tribulations, have devoted their lives to doing everything in their power to create a better future for the younger generation.
There's no need to disturb or alarm them any further.
What remains is for each generation, in their ordinary and insignificant lives, to use their meager strength to see the world that the elderly and their ancestors never saw.
From muddy fields and utter poverty, calculating nuclear bomb data by hand, even tanks were carried onto ships, to today's towering buildings, aircraft carriers at sea, and the White Emperor and the Black Bird soaring in near-Earth orbit, overlooking the human world...
At that moment, she suddenly realized that even just working hard, studying hard, or even just living well...
They were already writing history, looking at the tomorrows they couldn't see, one tomorrow after another...
...
Ning Yuan turned her gaze away from the blue sky and looked at Mayor Qiao, suddenly asking, "Uncle Qiao, I have something I want to ask you."
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