"Factory manager, your friend is waiting for you."
As usual, the teachers' meeting at Hongxing Primary School was held on Monday. Once everyone was present, Principal Ding coughed twice and began to speak, referring to the documents in his hand.
"We received a notice from above that an inspection team will be coming from Beiping. We don't know exactly what they're doing, but they will also be there to investigate whether Yilin City is qualified to build a cable-stayed bridge, together with the provincial team."
"Regardless of what their mission is, the city requires us to strictly instruct students to be mindful of their words and actions during this period and to ensure that they do not make any mistakes."
After finishing speaking, Principal Ding glanced at the audience, coughed twice, and said, "Now that I've finished explaining what I was told, I'd like to say something that can be said behind closed doors."
“Our Hongxing Primary School is just an ordinary rural primary school. It’s highly unlikely that a high-ranking official from Beiping would come here. I’m not worried about that.”
"But just in case, when you go back and talk to your students, try to keep it simple. It's best to tell them not to talk to strangers. The more you say, the more mistakes you make; the less you say, the fewer mistakes you make."
He paused, "No place dares to guarantee that there are no problems on their territory; times have changed. Many of the teachers here are locals who can only go home on weekends, and they have to take a boat back, which is quite troublesome, isn't it?"
Principal Ding's humorous and down-to-earth remarks ignited the atmosphere, and many teachers smiled knowingly.
He took a sip of tea and continued, "To be honest, ever since I was transferred to this school, I've been hoping to build a bridge across this river. I think about it every day, and I get seasick too!"
"Now that this bridge is up, it will be more convenient for people from the city to come here, and it will also be more convenient for us to go to the city. This is a good thing for both the local area and for us as individuals."
After Principal Ding finished speaking, the teachers spontaneously began to applaud, and Xu Tangmian, as one of them, was no exception.
She had known about the bridge construction for several days. She had mentioned it to Yu Chunsheng while chatting after get off work, and he had excitedly shouted "Good!" which startled the child awake.
In the past, whether you drove or rode a bicycle to get to the city, you had to take a long detour. If you wanted to save money, you had to put in more effort and transfer between buses and boats.
She herself had taken a boat to the city several times for errands, and each time she felt nauseous. The bridge makes it easier for people on both sides of the river to travel, and it also makes logistics and transportation much more convenient.
As the saying goes, "To get rich, build roads first." Taking Yu Chunsheng's printing factory as an example, once the bridge is completed and opened to traffic, the annual logistics costs alone will be reduced by a large sum.
If one factory is like this, then the area near Huaifeng Town is a planned "industrial zone" in Yilin, where many more factories will be built in the future. Once the cable-stayed bridge is in place, it will definitely attract another batch of companies.
Overall, building a bridge is definitely a great thing that benefits the local area. However, it seems that some things happened when public security was poor back then, which has caused many livelihood projects in Yilin City to be unable to get approval from higher authorities since then.
The new leadership was transferred from a developed region and brought their own connections. Upon assuming office, he actively promoted the implementation of many projects, including the construction of this cable-stayed bridge.
It is said that this project is the most expensive, so the approval process was very strict, and each department checked it.
Yu Chunsheng had heard about building a bridge when he was first reborn, and now that he has a child, he finally sees a glimmer of hope.
No one doesn't love their hometown. Hearing that the inspection team was coming, all the citizens of Yilin City were united in their efforts to leave a good impression on the visiting officials.
On this fine, sunny day, several sixth-grade students from Hongxing Elementary School took advantage of the weekend to ride their bikes to the riverbank to play.
To get down to the riverbank, you have to cross a high, trapezoidal embankment. There's a steep slope on one side of the embankment, and even though the ramp has been extended as much as possible to reduce the angle, riding down it still feels like taking off.
Luo Hui is one of these children. He is eleven years old this year and will graduate from elementary school next year.
He secretly rode the bike out of the house while his father was playing cards. Watching his friends ride their bikes down the slope, Luo Hui swallowed hard and gripped the brakes tightly.
"Hurry up, Xiaohui! We're waiting for you!" His friends below the slope jumped up and shouted at him.
Luo Hui lowered his head and resolutely pushed the cart forward a few steps.
"Get off! Get off! Don't be afraid! Hold the rear brake, not the front brake, or you'll flip over!"
Luo Hui still didn't dare to ride it up, and silently pushed the bike up the slope.
After passing the initial section and reaching the downhill section, the wheels seemed to have an engine installed, and they slid down the slope with a whoosh. Luo Hui, being small, couldn't control the front of the car, but he didn't dare let go either, and his legs couldn't keep up with the speed.
The vehicle sped downhill, and Luo Hui tried to swing his legs in circles, but he couldn't keep up. He tripped and fell down the slope, and the vehicle rolled straight down the slope along the tire tracks before coming to a stop. The basket flew off the vehicle.
"Oh no, oh no..." Luo Hui patted the dust off his clothes and stood up. Ignoring his scratches, he quickly ran to check on the car.
His friends surrounded him, offering words of comfort. Before Luo Hui could process the panic in his heart and think about how to explain things to his parents when he got home that night, and whether he would get a beating, a cry came from the shore.
"Chief! Don't flail around, you'll get a cramp!"
The children all turned to look at the riverbank fifty meters away. Luo Hui, forgetting about the car, ran over with his friends.
Several simply dressed middle-aged people were seen standing on the riverbank, bustling about in a chaotic mess. Some were looking for bamboo poles, some were calling the police, and some were even taking off their clothes to go into the river.
A middle-aged man in his forties was waving his arms in the river. He didn't seem to be a swimmer. The water, which had initially reached his chest, slowly submerged his mouth and nose...
The man who was about to jump into the river had just taken off his coat when a colleague grabbed him, saying, "Are you crazy! You don't know anything about the water level here and you're jumping in? Aren't you just courting death?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a "plop" was heard, and a lithe figure jumped off the bank.
Several elementary school students shouted anxiously, "Xiao Hui! Xiao Hui!"
Rescue workers arrived quickly, and adults in the vicinity who could swim also jumped into the river and pulled up the bureau chief who had been pushed to the shore.
Xu Zhilian was soaking wet. He spat out a couple of mouthfuls of water and wiped his face with his hand. Suddenly, he turned his head in a panic and pointed into the river, "Quick! There's a child! Hurry!!"
As if to prove he wasn't lying, the children jumped around anxiously, some even crying, "Xiao Hui! We can't see Xiao Hui anymore!"
Everyone then turned their attention back to the river, where the surface, which had been churning with water, had returned to calm, leaving only ripples.
Several hours later, rescuers pulled Luo Hui's body from downstream.
Upon hearing the news, Luo Hui's parents rushed over and were already in tears. The other children's parents, fearing trouble, had already taken their children away as soon as they received the news.
Xu Zhilian hadn't changed his clothes and stood quietly beside the family with his head down.
The police officer who was temporarily transferred here, the same male officer who attended Xu Qiushi's 100-day celebration, recognized Xu Zhilian and went up to ask him a couple of questions.
"How did you fall into the water? Tell me the time and what happened."
Xu Zhilian calmly explained, "I wanted to survey the construction conditions of that body of water. The moss on the rocks was too slippery, and I accidentally fell in."
"Surveying?" The police officer frowned, somewhat annoyed. "The sign over there..."
"Comrade!" Seeing that the situation was not right, the accompanying staff member quickly interrupted him in a low voice, "This is Director Xu from Beiping."
"Beiping..." The police officer paused, "You're here for an inspection..."
"I'm so sorry about the child," Xu Zhilian said, looking down. "This child sacrificed himself for me. I will pay all the compensation. You must do a good job of comforting the family."
The police officer was moved and sighed, saying, "Please rest assured, this is all part of our job."
Xu Zhilian nodded, then looked at the calm lake in the distance and suddenly asked, "Are you in charge of this area? Then I'd like to ask you about someone."
The police officer smiled and said, "I'm not responsible for this area, but you can tell me if you have any instructions, and I'll do my best to arrange them."
Xu Zhilian waved his hand and said casually, "It's not really an instruction, I just have some personal business with him."
"Oh? Has the leader visited Yilin City before?"
“I worked in the countryside here almost twenty years ago.” Xu Zhilian’s gaze gradually deepened, as if he were recalling the past.
The police officer, as if struck by a sudden inspiration, said with a slightly ingratiating tone, "Then I know, you must be looking for your old 'comrade-in-arms' from back then, right?"
"More or less," Xu Zhilian said casually. "He opened a printing factory in Huaifeng Town, named Yu Chunsheng."
"Yu Chunsheng?" the police officer repeated.
"What, you know him?" Xu Zhilian narrowed his eyes and asked sharply.
"No, I don't know him." The police officer chuckled. "But I do know a younger man named Yu Chunsheng. He seems to work at the printing factory. I just attended his daughter's 100-day celebration a few days ago."
"He has a daughter?" Xu Zhilian asked eagerly.
"Yes, your daughter is just over 100 days old and very beautiful." After saying that, the police officer added, "But this Yu Chunsheng is a young man, not even 25 years old this year. He shouldn't be your comrade-in-arms."
Xu Zhilian nodded in understanding, then asked, "Do you know where he lives?"
"I don't know that," the police officer continued, "but I do know that the printing factory where he works is not far from here; it's only a 20-minute drive away."
"Could you please give me an address?" Xu Zhilian grabbed his arm.
The police officer hesitated for a moment before saying, "Okay, okay."
"I'm leaving the cleanup here to you," Xu Zhilian said, then took the address he had just received and left with the driver.
On the other side, at the printing factory, although Yu Chunsheng hired professionals to manage the factory, he was still the owner of the printing factory and couldn't possibly not come to work at the factory all day long.
After the factory became more profitable, the first thing he did was buy a car so he could take his wife and daughter out for fun. Worried about the noise and ink smell from the factory causing pollution, he made a special detour to the school to hand Xiao Qiushi over to Xu Tangmian.
As soon as I entered the factory, a human resources employee who was getting water came up to me mysteriously and said, "Boss, someone who claims to be your friend has been waiting for you in the office for a long time."
Yu Chunsheng walked towards the office with a puzzled look on his face: "My friend?"
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