Chapter 159: Hometown
It was early morning of the next day when Song Yuanchao returned to Shanghai. He took Ying Caixia back to the alley and happened to meet Zhang Jianguo who was about to go to work at the entrance of the alley.
Zhang Jianguo was very happy to see Song Yuanchao coming back. He talked to him for a while and said that he must have him come to his house for dinner tonight. At the same time, he looked at Ying Caixia, who came back with Song Yuanchao, with a puzzled look.
Song Yuanchao gave him a brief introduction to Ying Caixia's situation, saying only that she was a fellow educated youth he met when he went to the countryside. She came to Shanghai to stay for a few days because of family reasons and would leave after the New Year.
In response, Zhang Jianguo didn't say much. He smiled, nodded and greeted Ying Caixia. As it was almost time to go to work, Zhang Jianguo didn't chat much.
I went to see Zhang's mother first, chatted with the old lady for a while, introduced Ying Caixia, left the gifts I brought back with her, and took her back to Building 23.
After entering the building, Song Yuanchao pointed to several places in the building and talked to Ying Caixia, giving her a general introduction to the situation in the building. He distributed the gifts he brought to the neighbors, and after a few greetings, he took her directly to the three-story pavilion where Qin Zhengguo had lived before.
Taking out the key and opening the door, Song Yuanchao called Ying Caixia in.
After Song Yuanchao left, his family was asked to be taken care of by the Zhang family. Zhang Jianguo and others would help clean the house every week, so even though he had been away from home for half a year, both the room he lived in and the three-story attic were kept very clean.
After putting down the luggage, Song Yuanchao walked to the dormer window and opened it first. Although the room had been cleaned, there was inevitably some smell in the room because no one had lived there for several months.
Opening the window to let in the downwind wind, Song Yuanchao turned around and said to Caixia, "This is my three-story pavilion. I lived here when Zhengguo came here before. There are all the basic furniture in the house. The bedding and pillows are all stored in the box. They are all clean. I will take them out and dry them in the sun and use them later. It's just that the place is a bit small..."
"This place is nice, it looks great!" Compared to the Ying family mansion, the three-story pavilion is naturally small, but Ying Caixia doesn't care. When she was in the northwest, the conditions were much worse than this, but she came here, didn't she?
Moreover, Song Yuanchao's home was a typical Shikumen building, which was very different from the style of the Ying family mansion. She had never lived in such a house before. Especially when she saw that there was a small platform outside the dormer window, that is, on the roof outside, she went up to take a look with great interest and was even more satisfied with it.
"You know what? Standing up there and looking out, I suddenly remembered the movie Street Angel." Ying Caixia was very happy. Her mood was not very high at first when she left Jinling, but as the train drove towards Shanghai, Ying Caixia gradually relaxed and her expression became more smiling. The cheerful Ying Caixia that Song Yuanchao was familiar with was finally back.
Song Yuanchao smiled and immediately hummed a song: "At the ends of the earth and the corners of the sea, I am looking for a soulmate..."
Song Yuanchao stopped singing after just one line, because the lyrics at the end of the song were not suitable to sing at this time. It would not be a problem if Lin Yan was there, but the person standing in front of him was Ying Caixia .
Ying Caixia was immediately amused when she saw him scratching his head with a conflicted look on his face. She held her stomach and laughed without any hesitation.
Seeing her falling down with laughter, Song Yuanchao felt a little embarrassed at first, and even his old face turned red. But soon he followed Ying Caixia in laughing, and they laughed so hard that they fell forward and backward. The laughter of the two echoed in the small three-story pavilion.
After sitting on the train all night, Ying Caixia must be very tired. After chatting with her for a while, Song Yuanchao let her tidy up her room and take a rest before going downstairs.
After returning to his room, Song Yuanchao put his luggage away, then went downstairs and went directly to the public telephone room at the edge of the alley.
After finding a long-distance phone, Song Yuanchao called Lin Yan's home. The phone rang twice before being picked up, and then Lin Yan's voice came from the phone.
"Swallow, it's me."
"Yuanchao, is that you? Are you home?" Lin Yan asked with joy. Perhaps she had calculated the time and was waiting for Song Yuanchao's call at home.
"Well, I just got home, and I have something to tell you..." Song Yuanchao briefly explained Ying Caixia's situation on the phone, and told Lin Yan that he had brought Ying Caixia out from Jinling, and that she was temporarily living in the three-story pavilion of his house.
Qin Zhengguo and his team will be here in a few days. After Qin Zhengguo arrives, Song Yuanchao will tell him about the arrangements for Ying Caixia. After the New Year, Ying Caixia will go to Guangzhou with Qin Zhengguo and his team.
After listening to Song Yuanchao's story, Lin Yan felt very sympathetic towards Ying Caixia's experience on the phone. At the same time, she also blamed Ying Caixia for not telling them about this earlier. If they had known it earlier, Ying Caixia would not have suffered for more than half a year.
Lin Yan agreed with Song Yuanchao's decision to take her away, but she disagreed with Ying Caixia's arrangement to go to Yangcheng. In her opinion, Song Yuanchao should bring Ying Caixia to Yanjing after the New Year so that the two good friends can reunite, and it would be more convenient to arrange Ying Caixia's work and residence in Yanjing.
Song Yuanchao explained a few words about this and told Lin Yan that he had given Ying Caixia three choices, but Ying Caixia finally chose to go to Yangcheng. Hearing this answer, Lin Yan could only sigh on the phone and expressed respect for Ying Caixia's decision.
The call lasted for a full twenty minutes. It was not until the aunt on the line urged him to do so that Song Yuanchao reluctantly said goodbye to Lin Yan and hung up the phone.
After paying the phone bill, Song Yuanchao thought for a moment and went straight home to take out his bicycle. He picked up his things, got on the bike and rode to the factory.
Half an hour later, Song Yuanchao arrived at the factory. As soon as he pushed the cart in, he heard someone calling him.
"Director Song! Why is it you? When did you come back?"
Looking up, Song Yuanchao saw that it was a co-worker from the factory. He smiled and greeted him, "I just got back. How are you guys? Are you all right?"
"It's okay, it's not that good in the first few months after you left. But the factory got a lot of orders for fake collars some time ago. Look, it's busy again now?" The other person said with a smile. There were a lot of things piled under his feet, in big rolls, and judging from their shapes, they should be the fabrics that had just arrived.
Song Yuanchao nodded and asked if Director Ma and Li Daqi were there. The other party said they were both there. Director Ma was in the office, and Director Li was in the workshop and said he would take Song Yuanchao there.
In response, Song Yuanchao waved his hand and said with a smile that this factory was his mother's home. He was an employee of the factory anyway, so there was no need for him to bring anyone with him. Let them continue with their work and he would go to the workshop to take a look first.
Watching Song Yuanchao walking towards the workshop, the worker called on his colleagues to continue working. At this time, a new young worker who didn't know Song Yuanchao couldn't help but ask who this man was.
"This is Director Song Yuanchao, our former workshop director and also Director Ma's apprentice. By the way, the current Director Li followed him back then, do you understand?" The worker explained cheerfully, and the young worker nodded repeatedly, but then asked curiously, "Why haven't I seen him before? Is he not in the factory now ? Has he been transferred?"
"Why transfer him? Director Song is a college student now, and a student of Beijing University! Director Song is very capable."
"A college student? From the Imperial University of Peking? So amazing?" Upon hearing what his co-worker said, the young worker's eyes widened and he looked dumbfounded.
"Of course. He was admitted to university last year. I heard that his scores were very high. You should study hard and don't be so lazy all day long. If you can learn half of Director Song's abilities, your parents will be very lucky." Patting the young worker on the shoulder, the worker joked with him with a smile. While chatting, the two of them had nothing to do, so they picked up a roll of cloth and walked towards the warehouse shouting.
Entering the workshop, he was greeted by a noisy sound of machines. Song Yuanchao looked around and found that the layout of the entire workshop had been adjusted a lot compared to before he left. Except for the printing workshop he had set up before he left, which remained the same, the other half was now filled with rows of sewing machines. There was a worker busy in front of each sewing machine. Not far from the sewing machine, there was a partition. Behind the partition were the cutting and ironing stations, where many people were also busy.
"Yuan Chao, why are you here? I thought you wouldn't be back until tomorrow."
Just as Song Yuanchao was looking around the workshop, Li Daqi had already seen him. A look of surprise immediately appeared on his face and he walked towards Song Yuanchao quickly.
"I just got home, so I came over to take a look." Song Yuanchao and Li Daqi hugged each other warmly, patted each other on the back, and said with a smile after they separated.
The two good friends had been separated for nearly half a year. Although they had been in contact on the phone during this period, Li Daqi was very happy when Song Yuanchao stood in front of him.
"Has the interior of the workshop been adjusted? It looks good now." Song Yuanchao said with a smile as he looked at the workshop.
"The products we make now are different from before. We had almost lost all the orders for labor protection products, and now we are too busy with the work of false collars, so we simply stopped all the remaining orders. I discussed with my master and replanned the interior of the workshop. The equipment used to make shoes was temporarily cleared out to make room for sewing machines. In addition, you can see that the cutting and ironing stations are also separated. This not only looks fresh, but also improves efficiency."
"Well done." Song Yuanchao nodded. After Li Daqi's arrangement, the workshop now looks much cleaner than the original one and is also more convenient for production and management.
"Let's go, it's too noisy here, let's go out and talk." Li Daqi looked around and reached into his pocket. Song Yuanchao knew that this kid must be craving for cigarettes again, so he laughed and said, "Wait a minute, I brought some things, ask someone to help distribute them to everyone."
As he spoke, Song Yuanchao handed a bag in his hand to Li Daqi. Li Daqi took it, opened it and saw that it was full of Yanjing's specialty fruit leather. Wow, there were probably several big bags of it.
"so much?"
"Nonsense, if you bring less, there won't be enough points."
"Haha." Li Daqi laughed, turned around and looked, then shouted into the distance: "Xiao Qi! Xiao Qi!"
Hearing the voice, Xiao Qi, who was busy, turned around and saw Li Daqi waving at him. And wasn’t that Song Yuanchao standing next to Li Daqi?
He quickly took two steps at a time and came over, and when he got to the front, he asked in surprise, "Director Song, why are you here? When did you come back?"
"I just got back today." Song Yuanchao explained, and then pointed to the bag in Li Daqi's hand: "I brought some local specialties for everyone. Please help arrange to distribute them to everyone. By the way, remember to distribute them after get off work, not during work. They are all food. If they get on the products, it will be troublesome."
"Okay, don't worry, I'll take care of it." Xiao Qi smiled and nodded , taking the bag from Li Daqi.
