Chapter 227 If the child hadn't told anyone, who would have known this was a textile factory? ...
Human joys and sorrows are not shared.
While Qin Xiangxiang and her husband were restless, Xue Xiaolin, Yin Pingping, and others watched with tears in their eyes, deeply moved.
"This program is so touching!"
"This perfectly expresses the feelings of our factory director!"
When Qin Xiangxiang caught these words in her ears, she felt a wave of dizziness. Her mind screamed: Who's been working day and night? I just want to sleep! I sleep perfectly well! ...Those so-called good ideas are just for slacking off! Besides, she and Li Jianzhi never said so many mushy things! What is all this nonsense?
Having seen much of the world, Li Jianzhi had already composed himself. He shamelessly said, "Wife, the organization needs a role model like you, so... just bear with it?"
Qin Xiangxiang said without any mercy, "Go to hell."
Li Jianzhi felt it was a pity to see the "great love" between himself and his wife being sung on stage, as he could only watch others perform it and not the two of them perform it themselves.
Looking back, Captain Li was still single at the age of 36. Now, he really needs to cherish his hard-won wife and children.
The program received a strong response from the public after it ended. "The Military Wife and Factory Director Write a New Chapter" received a lot of support from the public. The members of the art troupe said that they would continue to create programs and stage them in the military region system and local propaganda system.
"Let everyone know about Director Qin's deeds!"
Qin Xiangxiang said, "If this program is not popular, it must be taken off the air and never performed again."
"How could that be! It's clearly very popular! Director Qin, don't be shy. I understand, we all understand. The person involved should be humble. Humility is our traditional virtue."
After the performance, the cultural troupe was about to leave, and Zhao Na and the others were extremely reluctant to part with it. They were reluctant to leave the "pig-raising study room." Before leaving, Zhao Na begged Xue Xiaolin: "I want to have a performance dress custom-made at your factory."
"Could we use your shadow tapestry technique?"
Xue Xiaolin agreed: "Okay, I'll talk to the factory manager about this... If you don't mind my craftsmanship, I'll make a set for you myself."
"Oh?! That's wonderful!"
Zhao Na left happily, and Xue Xiaolin reported the matter to Qin Xiangxiang. When Qin Xiangxiang heard about the Yingcai solo singing dress (lead singer's dress), she was ecstatic.
In the 1970s, only actors from performing arts troupes, local song and dance troupes, and drama troupes were allowed to wear stage costumes, and all cosmetics were exclusively supplied to these artists.
Ordinary people rarely have the opportunity to wear stage gowns or use cosmetics... unless they are students participating in cultural performances on Children's Day and New Year's Day.
Only at artistic performances can one wear beautiful clothes.
Qin Xiangxiang said with a righteous air, "I'll design a lead singer's dress for Zhao Na... However, to test its practicality, I'll also make one for myself. I'll try it on myself to see if it works well. I'll also make a few performance costumes for the factory so that everyone can wear them when they perform."
"That's wonderful, Factory Manager! You've thought of everything."
Qin Xiang thought to herself: I want to make myself a beautiful outfit! A beautiful dress! And I want to make one for my little girl, Sui Sui, too!
She sketched on the paper, deciding to design an orchid pattern with ink wash painting effect on one shoulder to waistline using the "shadow tapestry" technique. From afar, it appears as an elegant gradient, but up close, the delicate texture of the tapestry is truly astonishing.
Such clothing is extremely elegant, full of oriental charm, and far surpasses others in style.
Qin Xiangxiang designed a pinafore dress for her daughter and overalls for her son, saying it was to make choir costumes for the factory's "children's choir," also using shadow tapestry to weave patterns such as twinkling stars and the moon.
Thanks to the hard work of everyone in the factory, the clothes were quickly made and sent to Zhao Na, while the factory kept a batch for itself.
"These clothes are so nice! Can we wear them for our factory's cultural performances in the future?"
"The factory manager even designed choir costumes for the children, they're so beautiful! Every child of the factory's employees can buy one."
"This... is too expensive."
"The factory's cultural propaganda team needs to make a batch of performance costumes. The factory manager said that we ordinary employees can rent the clothes."
"Can we borrow the clothes for a photoshoot?"
"yes!"
When Zhao Na received this outfit, everyone in the troupe stared in disbelief, especially Bai Xuemei. Her performance costume was full of ostentatious sequins, which was originally considered beautiful and outstanding, but compared to the long silk dress, her own clothes looked like those of a cheap nouveau riche.
"This outfit is truly artistic and incorporates our traditional culture!"
"What beautiful clothes!"
Bai Xuemei's face flushed red and then turned pale.
At the military-wide performance, Zhao Na, dressed in a solo gown, resembled a traditional Chinese ink painting. Under the lights, the effect of the embroidery was fully brought out, creating a scene that was both poetic and picturesque, and deeply moving.
The judges and audience exclaimed, "This outfit is so beautiful! It has both revolutionary passion and artistic merit!"
Zhao Na's performance won first place thanks to her outstanding singing voice and stunning costume.
"I'm so glad I went to Feiyan Textile Factory. Their pigsty was the best karaoke room I've ever been to! It was intoxicating. I want to go to Feiyan Textile Factory to practice singing again sometime!"
Bai Xuemei's face turned extremely ugly when she saw Zhao Na surrounded by a crowd. The piece she had carefully practiced in the practice room was no match for Zhao Na's, and Zhao Na even claimed that she had practiced it in the "pig-raising room".
"What pigsty? How can you rehearse a show in a pigsty? Sing with pigs?"
"Bai Xuemei, don't talk nonsense if you haven't seen it with your own eyes. Do you know what kind of place that is? That's a rehearsal hall decorated with spruce wood, all made of high-grade imported Nordic spruce wood. Their factory even makes a batch of spruce violins for children. Those are simply the best violins I've ever seen..."
"Their factory makes incredibly high-quality musical instruments! It's truly astonishing! Who would know this is a textile factory if they didn't tell you?"
Spruce wood? A violin made in a textile factory? A pigsty?
These words, put together, left Bai Xuemei completely bewildered. What exactly was going on with this textile factory?
How much did she miss by not going to Feiyan Textile Factory?
Qin Xiang thought about how she put on the modified silk tapestry dress. Standing in front of the mirror, she inexplicably felt that the dress was a little tight and that she had gained a little weight.
Something's not right.
She rubbed her face, a guess forming in her mind. When she went to the factory hospital, she had a blood test and an ultrasound. The results came back quickly, showing that she was pregnant.
She wasn't particularly surprised by the result; it seemed to be within her expectations. In her dream, she had given birth to several children... Now, the dream and reality were completely different things.
Her son, Xiaopang, has grown into a hardworking and aspiring young man. She also has a beautiful daughter who looks just like her. And then there's Lin Xiuqin, the female lead in her memory, who still hasn't found a "new male lead" to this day.
Chen Ruifeng, the former male protagonist, and his wife Zhao Yangyang lived upstairs from them. For five years, the two families lived peacefully, keeping to themselves.
Qin Xiangxiang inexplicably became the director of a textile factory, inexplicably became a "model worker," and even more inexplicably became a typical military wife...
"I hope I don't have another daughter?" Qin Xiangxiang couldn't help but start making a wish. She made a beautiful little starry sky dress with suspenders for her child by hand. She also wanted to make a lace princess dress for her daughter, or a pink swan cake dress, or a blue mermaid dress!
"Now I've even learned the art of kesi weaving. If I don't make clothes for my daughter, it would be a huge waste of my grandma's money."
Anyway, we're not short of money, raising another child is just a matter of adding another pair of chopsticks.
Two little girls surrounded her, calling her "Mommy!"
Just imagining that scene makes my heart race.
"When I get a little older, I'll have two beautiful daughters... I need to take good care of my face so that people will say my daughters and I look like sisters!"
After Qin Xiangxiang returned home, she told Li Jianzhi about her pregnancy. "You damned man, you're going to have another big soldier under you. I'll build you soldiers, so thank me quickly."
Li Jianzhi was stunned for a moment, "Wife, you've worked hard."
A smile played on his lips: "One more child would be nice, it would make things lively."
Before the millennium, when commercial housing was not widely promoted nationwide, housing was mostly allocated to employees or built by their work units. Ordinary people did not have much pressure, did not have to take on a 30-year mortgage, and did not need to buy a house to get married, as their work units would allocate housing. The monthly rent and utilities were only a few yuan, which accounted for a very small percentage of their salary.
Without the burden of a mortgage, raising children is much easier now. There are many children in the compound, so there's basically no need to take the kids out for walks or be careful when taking them out to play. With so many children of all ages gathered together in the compound, they just kill each other's energy.
"Kids these days have it easy. They can play with each other without adults having to spend time with them."
Qin Xiangxiang said, "Shouldn't children play together? When I was a child, I only played with children, and when we were having fun, I didn't want to go home."
Li Jianzhi: "Yes, children at this age are fortunate. There aren't many adults constantly surrounding you, watching you every moment. Your every move is under their observation. They monitor you 24/7, constantly pointing fingers and giving instructions. They want to guide you in everything you do, making you feel incredibly suffocated from a young age..."
However, freedom and security are also a paradox. Future metropolises will be too terrifying for young children, with elevators falling from buildings and neighborhoods being run over by cars...
At this time in the compound, the children get injured either by accidentally falling and scraping themselves while playing, or by being hit by a car—usually a bicycle. The most dangerous thing is swimming in the river in the summer. Every year, we only hear of a few children drowning, and there aren't many other accidents.
Qin Xiangxiang: "Do you think this is the emperor? With so many adults watching over him all the time?"
Li Jianzhi: "The children of the future will be more honorable than emperors."
Li Jianzhi thought of one of his comrades, who, along with his wife, spent hundreds of thousands of yuan a year on various tutoring classes for their child, including three different extracurricular classes. School district housing, tutoring classes, extracurricular classes... these create social anxiety, with everyone scrambling to be superior, afraid of falling behind others, afraid that their children will lose at the starting line, ruthlessly reaping the profits from parents.
With the rise of social media, there are now many fabricated posts flaunting wealth and bizarre, unfounded opinions online. As soon as the college entrance exams are over, some people post that they've been accepted into vocational colleges and want to buy new phones, computers, and tablets, costing 30,000 to 40,000 yuan in total. If their parents disagree, it's because their family's financial situation is too poor; others say that 2,000 to 3,000 yuan a month for university living expenses is simply not enough; people earning 6,000 to 7,000 yuan a month are not qualified to have children; some have hundreds of thousands in savings and four fully paid-off houses, but dare not have children for fear of not being able to afford them… Li Jianzhi suspects many of these posts are fabricated, but they create an atmosphere of anxiety for many young people and their parents.
Seeing others with such good conditions complaining and feeling anxious on online media really hurts many people.
"After the baby is born, our family will go beachcombing, pick bamboo shoots and wild vegetables in the mountains in spring, and pick bayberries in June..."
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