Chapter 341 (The End) This is your magnificent life...
The Shangpu Textile Factory has been demolished. The "Flying Swallow Splendor" sign at the entrance and the old machines from the Republic of China era that were once displayed there—many stories have been lost in the ruins.
All around me was the roar of machinery. The factory had become a construction site. The buildings I remembered had completely collapsed. Demolishing a factory was such a simple thing.
Qin Xiangxiang stood in front of the construction site, a trace of memories flashing in her eyes. This still made her somewhat sad.
Fourteen years have passed since 1978.
Throughout her life, she seemed to have an inextricable connection with the textile industry and textile factories. She grew up in a textile factory, later entered a textile factory, and eventually founded her own textile factory. Unknowingly, she has been engaged in the textile industry for more than 20 years.
I have witnessed the glory of the textile industry, and I have also seen it decline and fall.
"Many people probably didn't expect this, but several old cotton mills have smashed their spindles..."
You could just close the textile factory, but instead you had to hold a ceremony to smash the spindles, smashing the spindles that had surrounded you for most of your life in front of all the female workers.
Qin Xiangxiang, a textile worker in her early twenties working in the fine yarn workshop of the 316 Textile Factory, probably wanted to smash the yarn spindle more than anyone else.
The newspaper in my hand reports on the details of the ceremony where old cotton mills in Shanghai were shut down and their spindles were smashed. The newspaper says that the era of the textile industry has come to a complete end, and the era of the automobile industry is coming.
Feiyan Textile Factory survived the test of time, but it is no longer the focus of Feiyan Group's work.
Emerging auto parts, toys, daily chemical products, leather bags, and fashion apparel companies, Feiyan Industrial Group has absorbed a group of laid-off female textile workers.
Walk a little further ahead, and you'll find yourself at the construction site in Lujiazui, where a bustling construction scene unfolds. The headquarters building of Feiyan Group is about to rise from the ground here.
Qin Xiangxiang looked at the planning map and imagined what Lujiazui would look like ten years from now.
Ten years later, in 2002, she was 55 years old and reached retirement age.
The small Western-style building on Fuxing West Road has been renovated. The three-story building has a beige wall, a red roof, and a lush green space under the arched windows.
The garden has been planted with the latest variety of pink Ponsa Rose, which now blooms into a waterfall of pink roses, filling the air with a rich fragrance.
Beside the magnolia tree, there were rattan tables and chairs, with several teacups still in use on the table.
The stained glass windows in the house still shine brightly in the new era, but the furniture inside has been replaced. There's a soft sofa with an orange kitten sleeping on it.
Above the fireplace in the living room, two new items hang side by side: one is the medal Qin Xiangxiang received for being a "National March 8th Red Banner Bearer," and the other is the "Order Letter for the Rank of Rear Admiral" newly conferred by Li Jianzhi.
Qin Xiangxiang thought it was a bit silly to display it like that, but the "old man" in the family thought it was better to display it out and let it collect dust than to stuff it in a drawer and let it get moldy.
That's all we can do, just leave it there like this, looking silly.
The photo wall next to them, and the photo frames on the cabinet, from black and white photos to color photos, these photos pasted on the wall and in simple frames, are a microcosm of the couple's life journey.
Li Jianzhi stepped off the military vehicle and stood in the garden, surrounded by flowers. He was wearing a newly changed beige military uniform with dazzling gold stars on his shoulder insignia. The bright white uniform was pressed perfectly, and the new uniform made him look dashing.
Time has left its mark on him. Under the sunlight, his posture is upright. The habits from decades of military service have long been ingrained in his bones. The sharpness that once lingered between his brows has transformed into a reserved and profound charm, giving him a unique mature allure that makes it hard to look away.
He tilted his head back, lifted the brim of his hat to look up, and the sunlight illuminated his entire straight nose.
Qin Xiangxiang covered her eyes from upstairs: "Your clothes are blindingly bright!"
"You old geezer, come up here quickly!"
Li Jianzhi: "..."
"Do you know the difference between young seniors and old seniors? Young seniors refer to people between sixty and eighty years old, while old seniors refer to people over eighty years old."
"And I, even if I become a young old man, will still be ten years away."
Li Jianzhi strode upstairs and when he saw the woman on the second-floor balcony, the coldness on his face melted instantly, and his eyes revealed a tenderness and tacit understanding that had been brewing for a long time, like aged wine.
The slightly rising tone was a sound never heard in the command room before.
"Why are your clothes so white? How do you manage to wash them all the time at sea?"
Li Jianzhi solemnly explained: "Times have changed. When the warship sails, the officers and soldiers tie their clothes together on a long rope and throw them into the sea. The warship moves quickly, and these clothes float up and down with the waves, just like in a washing machine, getting them very clean and white."
Qin Xiangxiang was stunned: "Really?"
Li Jianzhi: "It's fake."
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
"Actually, I don't usually wear such white clothes. But when I go to a new country, I soak them in bleach overnight."
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
"Old man, you're still quite handsome." Qin Xiangxiang held his face and looked him up and down. The man didn't look old, especially his short hair from the army, which was so short that you couldn't even see any gray hair.
"Where did you learn to be an 'old man'?"
Qin Xiangxiang: "When I play mahjong, all my 'mahjong buddies' talk about their old men, and I can't escape that either."
"You can be unconventional."
"Let's go, Commander." Li Jianzhi placed the military cap on her head, his tone carrying a subtle mix of mockery and respect reserved only for the person before him. "The fleet is ready; please inspect it."
The couple took a boat back to the naval family compound in Dinghai. More than 20 years have passed, but the compound is still the same as before. The three-story building that was newly built back then looks old and dilapidated after so many years of weathering.
The residents of the family compound have all changed, and many of the people I remember are now just black and white photos on the wall.
"The vegetable garden from back then is all gone, replaced by buildings. Do you still remember the bread oven you built with Little Fatty?"
"They build one and it breaks; they're really useless."
"I think my comrades have eaten quite a bit of what I grilled."
"It smells better than baking it in the oven."
...
The two chatted, while most of the young family members around them didn't recognize them and just looked at the two distinguished visitors with curiosity.
The long, side-by-side apartment on the second floor where she used to live is now occupied by another family. She can only look at it from the outside. The corridor on the second floor has long been blackened by smoke. Qin Xiangxiang seems to still remember the scene of her neighbor next door smoking cured meat.
"Do you remember your neighbors from back then? When we first came here, the middle apartment was occupied by a woman named Huang who seemed to be pregnant, and the apartment across the street was occupied by Zhou Lu? The one who borrowed five hundred yuan from Zhuang Xiaoman! The one with the chocolate beans!"
“Upstairs, there’s Chen Ruifeng, Zhao Yangyang, and… Xiao Ye, and her husband, is it Jiang Changtian? I remember the watch, a Rolex…”
"Chief of the Intelligence Department, Sister Gao, is no longer here."
"The Gou family who live downstairs, the old lady pretending to be lame and sitting in a wheelchair, typhoons, cobras... I remembered so many things!"
...
"The marks that Little Fatty drew back then are still there. Kids can be really destructive."
Her tone carried a hint of unexpected surprise as she reached out and gently traced the dark marks, as if confirming that those vibrant years had truly existed.
Li Jianzhi followed her gaze, his eyes softening even more. He reached out and gently took her hand in his. His palm was warm and firm.
The two met some old friends in the family compound and then took a car to Feiyan Textile Factory. The car drove in a familiar direction, on the old road that Qin Xiangxiang had walked for many years, and he could hardly recognize it.
In my memory, this road was always muddy and slippery, muddy on rainy days and dirt on sunny days. Now it has been transformed into a smooth cement road, and on both sides of the road, there are many green plants and shrubs whose names I can't recognize.
"There are oleanders and hibiscus, and here are forsythia, magnolias and azaleas."
The pale yellow petals and snow-white trumpet-shaped flowers bloom vibrantly in the salty sea breeze, contrasting against the distant sky, like a colorful oil painting.
Upon arriving at the factory gate, the textile factory, which once lacked even a proper signboard when visited by a Khmer prince, has now been replaced by an impressive electric retractable gate, flanked by granite pillars and a bronze plaque hanging above it.
"Feiyan Industrial Group Textile History Exhibition Hall"
Qin Xiangxiang raised her hand and touched the bronze plaque. "Back when the factory was being built, I even had Sui Sui come and touch it all."
"Looking back now, it was really superstitious!"
The daughter's age is about the same as the textile factory's age. Twenty years have passed, and Sui Sui is now in college.
Right here in this textile factory, she spent her golden twenties. A twenty-year-old young woman, suddenly became the factory manager of a textile factory. Arts performance competitions, Canton Fair, Xianyu T-shirts, poplin, wave yarn, Mawangdui, the movie "Blue Sea Silver Shuttle", typhoon, spruce wood rehearsal hall, champion's coat...
Countless memories flooded her mind at this moment, the surging past overwhelming her like a tidal wave, causing Qin Xiangxiang to sink into her memories for a moment.
Then, snapping out of her reverie, she suddenly felt a surge of anger:
"My hectic life began with the establishment of this textile factory!!!"
She had promised to come to the island to lie down and live a life of leisure with the army, she had promised to be a mama's girl and cling to her mother's coattails, she had promised to have her relatives in Hong Kong help her buy a house... In the end, Qin Xiangxiang turned a textile factory into the behemoth Feiyan Group; she became the factory manager before her own mother, and was the first to ride in an imported car, leading the factory workers with the economic boom; now her relatives in Hong Kong overseas are even returning to the country to cling to her coattails.
Of all the wishes I had back then, not a single one came true.
Li Jianzhi couldn't help but chuckle: "This is the starting point of your magnificent life."
Thank you everyone for your continued support! [Lop-eared rabbit head][Lop-eared rabbit head][Lop-eared rabbit head]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com