Xing Baohua waved his hand at Liu Quan, saying, "Don't say anything now, ask me when we eat later."
Judging from Xu Shuai's appearance, he must have walked all the way back. What exactly happened to make Xu Shuai so disheveled?
He's usually a pretty clever person, so why did he get so fixated on this?
While Xu Shuai was washing up, Xiao Bomei also returned with her clothes. Xing Baohua delivered them to him.
Afterwards, I had dinner with him alone in the office.
"Tell me, what exactly happened?" Xing Baohua asked, looking at Xu Shuai who was eating.
Xu Shuai put down the steamed bun in his hand and went to his pile of tattered clothes to find a few pieces of paper. There were many words written on them.
Give it to Xing Baohua to see.
He took it, glanced at it casually, put it aside for now, and said to Xu Shuai, "I'll look at it again later. Tell me about it?"
Xu Shuai started by recounting his journey from leaving central Shandong, mentioning that he had planned to first visit the capital of a neighboring province. He did indeed inquire about and inspect many electronics factories.
It was stolen on the way. Aside from a few coins, nothing was left.
Fortunately, my notes are still there.
I wanted to send a telegram to Xing Baohua, but when I looked into it, I realized I didn't even have enough money for a telegram.
Xu Shuai was already thousands of miles away, and life had taught him another valuable lesson.
He can't even get a meal. People say he's got hands and feet, so why is he begging at such a young age? Nobody pities him.
The child went hungry for two days and found odd jobs, earning 80 cents a day, paid daily, carrying cement.
Before we started working, we were given only two dry, hard steamed buns to fill our stomachs. In the end, we were charged one cent for each of the two buns.
I worked there temporarily, made money for half a month, and then quit. If I didn't quit, my back would break.
I've never suffered like this before, nor have I ever done this kind of work since I was a child.
I ran away, but I didn't even have enough money for the fare home! I only had five or six yuan on me. When I saw a smoking chimney, I went over and asked if they were hiring.
Of course we'll recruit; we'll recruit anyone with the strength.
Xu Shuai hasn't been eating well lately and has been working hard, so he's become quite thin. But he's also become more muscular, with some muscle definition.
The brickyard saw that he was doing alright and agreed to pay him 1.1 yuan a day, which was settled in a month.
Xu Shuai said he only wanted to earn enough for travel expenses, and he was willing to accept lower wages, just pay him daily. In the end, he received 90 cents a day, paid daily.
You don't know how hard it is until you go down into the kiln; once you're in, you realize it's even more tiring than carrying cement. Although everyone else looks relaxed, it's mainly because Xu Shuai has never experienced hardship and hasn't put in the effort!
I gritted my teeth and persevered, hoping to save up money for the trip home.
The workload at the brickyard was enormous, requiring people to get up early and work until late every day. After a few days, Xu Shuai was already feeling exhausted.
Exhausted, he even considered sending a telegram to Xing Baohua or writing a letter to his father to come and pick him up.
But one thought made him give up: when he got into trouble, his father told him, "You're already a man of integrity, and you have to shoulder some responsibilities yourself."
When Xu Shuai had saved up a dozen yuan, he sent a telegram to Xing Baohua saying that he was going back.
The remaining money is enough for him to eat on the road. When he runs out of money, he can find a place to do hard labor.
And so, Xu Shuai continued his journey, inquiring about the electronics factory as he went. He actually managed to gather some information.
There were several factories listed on the back of that piece of paper; we found out about them at the last minute.
After hearing about Xu Shuai's ordeal, Xing Baohua said, "Even if you just wrote me a letter, it would be better than you suffering like this."
"After you finish eating, go home and rest for a couple of days. The factory needs some hand drills. Teach them how to wind motor wires," Xing Baohua said.
After settling Xu Shuai in, Xing Baohua continued working on his patent drafts. He went straight back to his hotel to rest after work.
Redding had been waiting for Xing Baohua. When he saw him return, he came over and asked, "Xing, do I have a protest against what you said?"
"What?" Xing Baohua asked, stunned.
"You said you'd find someone to show me around this ancient city, but where is the person you arranged?" Redding continued, his tone tinged with dissatisfaction. "I've been waiting since this morning, and no one has come looking for me."
"Okay! Was this my mistake? I'll go back and ask them, but nobody speaks English. I'm afraid you might misunderstand because of the language barrier," Xing Baohua said, making it up.
“I know a little Chinese, so language communication isn’t a problem,” Reading said in Chinese.
Xing Baohua thought to himself, "Holy crap!"
"You speak Chinese, why didn't you say so sooner! How was I supposed to know you speak Chinese if you didn't tell me? This is a huge misunderstanding. Okay, I'll arrange it for you tomorrow." Xing Baohua said, still complaining to Redding. If he had known you spoke Chinese, he wouldn't have said so many things.
"You didn't ask, did you? And you didn't communicate with me in Chinese?" Reading said with a shrug.
Okay! That was indeed Xing Baohua's mistake. That old fox hid it very well.
During the meal, Redding said, "The big shots at headquarters have already boarded the plane."
"When did Ericsson's people start acting so quickly?" Xing Baohua asked.
"This is what you won the bet. You know, it took me more than two hours of talking to them last night to convince them?" Redding said.
Xing Baohua didn't hear anything else clearly, but the phone bill for more than two hours made his heart skip a beat!
"Damn it, I really shouldn't have used the free phone service in the future. They were really just using it for fun!" Xing Baohua said with heartache.
However, he had done something similar when he was young in his previous life. The nearly two yuan phone bill allowed him to make calls freely from the office.
Back then, there were paging services and customized communication services, which basically involved young women chatting with you.
The young women earn their wages by accumulating phone bills. Xing Baohua, having nothing to do during her night shift, would use the company phone to make calls—it was the switchboard anyway. The call log only showed one number; she had no idea who called.
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