Chapter 318 Birthday Celebration
As soon as Xia Zhizhi saw the expression on her cheap grandfather's face, she knew what he was thinking. She didn't care about it. She was doing it on purpose to piss off the old man.
The leader asked Xia Bangguo, "Is this your eldest child?"
The leaders have met all the children of the Xia family, but Xia Zhizhi is not among them?
Xia Bangguo briefly told the leader about Xia Zhizhi's situation. The leader was silent after listening. No matter what, it was a great joy that the child was found safely and grew up so well.
The leader looked at Xia Zhizhi seriously and said, "She is indeed your child. I think she looks like Comrade Zeng Zelan when she was young. Comrade Xia Sihua was also a good writer. This child is like her father in this respect. A good father will have a good son."
Other leaders came over one after another, and Xia Bangguo introduced his children to them.
President Zhou still remembers this courageous girl. Although leaders have to meet a lot of people every year, it is rare to see someone as shameless as her.
The old man even joked with them, saying that Xia Zhizhi was a little Xiangxi.
Xia Zhizhi looked proud rather than ashamed, and began to take out her bag with a grin: "Hey, look at what you said, I also prepared a gift for you, isn't this a gift between us?"
"Oh?" He didn't advocate big birthday celebrations, let alone so-called gifts, but he felt that with Xia Bangguo watching, Xia Zhizhi wouldn't really give him anything expensive, so he asked curiously, "What gift did you prepare for me?"
What could Xia Bangguo know? It was all Xia Zhizhi's own idea. Xia Bangguo was confused as well as him.
Xia Zhizhi took out a large envelope from her bag, filled it bulging with things and handed it over.
The old man took it and opened it. It was a thick stack of papers, with two lines of large characters written on the top sheet.
I wish the leader a happy life with good health and a carefree life.
May our motherland prosper and become strong, and the Chinese nation unite and prosper.
Long live the People's Republic of China!
Congratulations from students in Beijing.
At the bottom are the signatures of everyone, and Xia Zhizhi's name is the first one on the first line.
There was a thick stack of letter papers, each one of which was sent by a city's anti-blindness team.
The leader looked through the cards one by one with a complicated expression. He didn't want everyone to make a big fuss to celebrate his birthday, but in fact, everyone doesn't want others to wish them a happy birthday.
This is the kind of thing that takes a lot of effort but doesn’t cost much, and the meaning is good.
On the thick stack of letter papers, there are densely packed names, each of which represents the new forces of China. They support the leader and are part of the people's wish.
No one can resist such flattery.
The leader reached out and patted Xia Zhizhi on the head: "It's just a birthday. We celebrate it every year. Why are you calling everyone to make such a fuss?"
All old people are like this, they say one thing and do another but act honestly.
How could Xia Zhizhi not know this?
She touched her head with both hands, stamped her feet, and shouted in protest: "You think too highly of me. This was organized spontaneously by classmates. I played the role of a postman at most. I can't stop everyone from getting close to you, right?"
Seeing her true nature exposed, the old man looked disdainful and said, "Alright, alright, you are old enough, stop making such a fuss."
Can Xia Zhizhi remain calm? She must be able to.
She did it on purpose. "Noisy" doesn't seem to be a good word. What does it represent? It means that she is simple-minded and straightforward. This can quickly narrow the distance between her and the leaders and make them treat her as a close junior.
If I say there are no shortcomings, there are definitely some.
If there is an important task, I would probably doubt whether she can do it.
Xia Zhizhi didn't want anyone to assign her any tasks, so she naturally didn't have this concern.
Xia Zhizhi took out another photo and a tape from her bag and handed them over: "There's more. Listen to this one."
The photo shows members of the blindness-elimination team holding up their congratulatory messages.
As for the tapes, she specially bought a new all-transistor tape recorder to record them.
There is a machine in the leader’s room, you can put it there directly.
The energetic young people said in unison:
"Congratulations to the leader, I wish you a happy life and good health.
May our motherland prosper and become strong, and the Chinese nation unite and prosper.
Long live the People's Republic of China!
Sing the national anthem!
Get up——
Preparation
Get up, don't want to do..."
A loud singing voice rose up.
In every city where there was an anti-blindness corps, everyone would go to the gate of the Revolutionary Committee to sing the national anthem and congratulate the leader on his birthday. They would then take a group photo and send it to the local newspaper to be published.
He will definitely show up in the next issue. After all, this kind of content in this era cannot be suppressed.
Xia Zhizhi didn't say anything about this, but the leader will know about it when the time comes.
Zhong Lanhai has a reception desk for visitors, and before the recognition, she had intended to use this channel to claim credit.
But now there is a better option, which is to put it directly into the hands of the leaders, so why not do it.
After listening to the song, the leaders present had complicated expressions.
Probably thinking of the past.
They have come through that era and have experienced so many ups and downs, the hardships they have endured are far beyond what can be expressed in a few simple words.
After listening to this, the old man thought for a while, looked at the photos again, put the photos on the table, and invited everyone to eat.
It was still four dishes and one soup, with noodles and a pot of steamed grains.
There was a dish of fried small fish and dried shrimp on the table. It was rather hard and fine for young people, but it was not a good dish for the leader of his age.
But the leader said this was a specialty of his hometown.
After dinner, several leaders lit up their cigarettes and started puffing. Except for Mr. Zhou, all of them smoked, and soon the room was filled with smoke.
Xia Zhizhi was not happy to breathe secondhand smoke here, so she went out for a walk under the pretext of going out to digest her food.
Fearing that she might get lost, the leader asked a police officer to follow her.
As soon as she left, the leaders started to discuss things. Xia Zhizhi had good legs and walked around everywhere she could before someone came to find her.
After she passed by and everyone else went back, the leader patted her on the head, knowing that she was free now, and told her to come over and play when she was free.
Xia Zhizhi readily agreed, and when she returned, she took away some small fish and shrimps that were a specialty of her leader's hometown.
On the way back, Xia Bangguo didn't say a word, just stared at her, probably waiting for her to be unable to bear the scrutiny of his eyes and then confess.
How thick-skinned is she to care about this?
Her eyelids drooped, and Ge You slumped in his seat, looking contented and satisfied, not caring what Xia Bangguo thought.
Finally, Xia Bangguo couldn't hold back any longer and asked, "Can you bear it?"
Xia Zhizhi calmly replied, "Of course not, this is the first time you know about it?"
Xia Bangguo: ...
This child is so annoying.
Forget it, he was too lazy to care, so he went back and talked to his wife and asked her to teach her a lesson.
Xia Zhizhi hadn't eaten enough, and as soon as she entered the house she started shouting, "Grandma, I'm hungry!"