Chapter 704 Retirement Life
After Gu Changjun passed away, Song Yuanchao flew to Shancheng the next day with a few people from Lao Nandu to attend his memorial service.
Among those who went were Lu Baogang, Lao Tang, Guo Baosheng, She Liang, Zhan Linhong, Yue Shan, and even Xu Wei went along.
All of them came from Nandu. Some of them were Gu Changjun’s old friends, and more of them were his former subordinates and colleagues.
On the day they arrived in Shancheng, Song Yuanchao and his friends went to the Gu family to pay their respects and met the eldest and second sons of the Gu family and other relatives. After attending the memorial service, it was already the third day after arriving in Shancheng. Song Yuanchao came out of the auditorium and felt very uncomfortable. When he went to pay his respects to the deceased, Song Yuanchao's ears echoed with Gu Changjun's words to him and his expectant eyes looking at him.
"Mr. Song, please have some sugar water..." Guo Baosheng took a cup of sugar water and said to Song Yuanchao. Song Yuanchao said thank you and took it. The hot sugar water diluted a lot of people's sorrow. Guo Baosheng asked Song Yuanchao softly whether he would return to Jinling tomorrow. If he returned tomorrow, he would arrange the trip immediately.
"You should go back tomorrow, or take a plane. We have been out for a few days, and the company probably has a lot of things piled up." Song Yuanchao thought for a while and said, "I won't go back to Nanjing. When you go back, tell General Manager Ruth that I will go to Shanghai first and then Hong Kong for a few days to deal with some things. If there is any situation, ask her to contact me directly by phone . She knows how to find me."
"Understood. I'll book a ticket for you now."
"No need. I'll go to the airport now and buy the ticket directly at the airport. You can ask the branch's car to take me there." Song Yuanchao said so. Guo Baosheng quickly agreed and trotted away. After a while, he came back to tell Song Yuanchao that the car was ready.
He shook hands with the Gu brothers again and said goodbye, said a few words of comfort, and told them that they could contact him at any time if they needed anything in life or work.
The Gu brothers shook hands with Song Yuanchao with great gratitude, thanking him for seeing their father off for the last time and for bringing their father's old colleagues and friends along. If their father in heaven knew about this, he would definitely be very happy.
After saying goodbye, Song Yuanchao got on the branch company’s car and headed to the airport, arriving in Shanghai in the evening of the same day.
After returning to Shanghai and walking out of the airport, Song Yuanchao took the airport bus to the city. After getting off the bus in the city, he subconsciously walked towards home, but not long after he walked, he suddenly remembered that there was no one at home.
Lin Yan and the children went to Hong Kong some time ago. Zhang Jianguo usually brings people to clean the house in Huhai on Sundays. Why would they go home so deserted?
The melancholy from attending the memorial service during the day was still lingering in Song Yuanchao's heart. He was in a bad mood and really wanted to find someone to talk to and have a drink.
But he didn't want to call Luo Yang, nor did he have the idea of going to Zhang Jianguo's home, mainly because he didn't want to disturb Luo Yang and Li Xiaoyun at this time. As for Zhang Jianguo, his mother would definitely be worried if she saw his mood, so Song Yuanchao hesitated at the intersection, turned around and walked in another direction.
More than half an hour later, he arrived at Ma Xun's home.
Ma Xun has retired and is now living a retired life. In fact, since handing over the school-run factory to Li Daqi, Ma Xun has actually retreated to the second line. After the Tengfei Factory was transformed from a collective enterprise into a state-owned enterprise, Ma Xun, the old factory director, only held a position in the factory and basically did not take care of anything.
After working hard all his life, he can finally spend his old age in peace. This is also a good thing for Ma Xun. In addition, the school-run factory has been transformed in his hands, from a small enterprise to a well-known clothing factory in Shanghai, which is not a pity.
Although the development of Tengfei Factory has entered a stagnant stage in the past two years after Li Daqi left Tengfei Factory, since Tengfei Factory was regarded as the first clothing enterprise in Shanghai, it not only has new factory buildings and equipment assembly lines built when Li Daqi was there, but also has the foundation laid.
Even though the cooperation between Xiangjiang Shenghua and Tengfei Factory expired and the authorization of the clothing brand was withdrawn, Tengfei Factory is still regarded as the leader of Shanghai's clothing companies. Moreover, because it is a state-owned enterprise, Tengfei Factory has received support in some policies. Relying on these foundations, it obtained a batch of export orders at the Southern Trade Fair. Coupled with the assistance of Shanghai Import and Export Company, the current performance of the entire factory is still acceptable.
But these were very unsatisfactory in Ma Xun's eyes, because in his opinion, the Tengfei Factory should have been better. Unfortunately, just when the Tengfei Factory was about to soar, problems with the restructuring arose, which hindered its progress.
But Ma Xun could not solve this problem. He was just the director of the school-run factory, the predecessor of Tengfei Factory. His rank was not high, and he had been promoted to the second line. Although the later leaders respected him very much, this respect was only for old comrades, and he had no say in the factory.
After retiring, Ma Xun simply turned a blind eye and lived a very regular retirement life. Just like today, he got up before six in the morning, went to a nearby park to practice boxing, came back around eight to have breakfast, and after breakfast played chess or something with a few neighbors at the entrance of the alley.
After lunch, I usually sleep for two hours. When I wake up from my nap, I go out for a walk. There is no fixed direction for the walk, I just walk around and look around casually, and I don’t go home until the evening.
After dinner, I either chat with people, read the evening paper, listen to the radio, etc., and go to bed after nine o'clock in the evening.
Such a regular life is very leisurely, and it makes Ma Xun look much better than before, and he has also gained a lot of weight.
“Master!”
"Yuanchao? Why are you here?" When Song Yuanchao came to Ma Xun, Ma Xun had not eaten yet and was fiddling with something in the house.
Ma Xun was very surprised and extremely delighted to see Song Yuanchao coming.
"I just returned to Shanghai, so I didn't miss you. So I came to have a drink with you. Are you welcome?" Song Yuanchao smiled and raised the things in his hand. There were two bottles of good wine and some cooked dishes that he bought from the delicatessen he just passed by.
Ma Xun immediately laughed: "You kid, you're still planning a surprise attack. Welcome, I welcome you anytime!"
As he said that, Ma Xun asked Song Yuanchao to wait and pour himself some water, while he returned to the table and put away the things he had been fiddling with.
"Master, do you collect stamps?" Song Yuanchao had sharp eyes and immediately saw the stamp album, tweezers, magnifying glass and other things on the table, and asked curiously.
"Haha, just playing around." Ma Xun said with a smile. He told Song Yuanchao that he was retired and had nothing to do. He would go out for a walk every afternoon. Some time ago, he happened to pass by the Mushroom Pavilion and saw a large group of people gathered there. Ma Xun ran over to take a look out of curiosity. It turned out that they were all philatelists exchanging stamps there.
Ma Xun has used stamps too many times in his life. Although communication has developed now, writing letters is still the choice of most people, not to mention in the past? Writing letters is the best way to contact people. Even if you live in the same city, you will often write letters to each other.
It is normal to use stamps when writing letters, but it was the first time for Ma Xun to know that there are people who collect stamps.
When he saw the philatelic enthusiasts at the Mushroom Pavilion holding thick stamp albums and exchanging and appreciating stamps with each other, Ma Xun watched with great interest. Through the conversations and dialogues with others, he realized that the hobby of philately has existed for a long time, and there are quite a few people in this group.
After discovering this interesting phenomenon for the first time, Ma Xun often went to the Mushroom Pavilion in the following days. He became interested in stamp collecting and began to dig out a lot of old envelopes at home. He learned how to soak the stamps on the envelopes with water, peel them off with tweezers, and then put them into stamp albums bought from the post office after drying. He then became a novice stamp collector.
The 1980s to 1990s were the springtime for philatelic enthusiasts and also the most popular period for philately.
Seeing that Song Yuanchao was interested in his stamps, Ma Xun happily showed them off to Song Yuanchao, pointing at the stamps he had collected and exchanged and explaining them to Song Yuanchao. Especially when he turned to one of the pages, Ma Xun was even more proud. He deliberately pointed at several stamps from special periods on this page and told Song Yuanchao that these stamps were very rare. He had found them with great difficulty from old envelopes. When he brought them to the Mushroom Pavilion, many philatelists wanted to exchange them with him for other stamps, and some even offered to buy them with money, and the price they offered was not low.
"You didn't agree to sell them?" Song Yuanchao asked with a smile.
"I'm not stupid. How could I not understand that things are valuable because they are rare? If I didn't understand this, could I still be your master?" Ma Xun replied, which made Song Yuanchao burst into laughter.
I helped Ma Xun put away the stamp album. Ma Xun put it carefully into the drawer like a treasure and even locked it with a padlock.
Song Yuanchao never expected that his big and strong master would develop such a hobby after retirement. But this is also good, having something to do is better than doing nothing. People always need something to rely on, especially for retired elderly people, it would be bad for their health if they do nothing every day. After careful consideration, stamp collecting is a good hobby and it is quite suitable for him.
After putting the cooked dishes Song Yuanchao brought into the bowl, Ma Xun cooked two more dishes himself. After a while, he sat down and opened the wine glass. Song Yuanchao picked up the wine glass and said to Ma Xun, "Master, I have been busy in Jinling and have not had much time to visit you over the years. I apologize to you here."
"You kid, are you so ignorant of your master?" Ma Xun was immediately unhappy and glared at Song Yuanchao: "Now is a good time for you to work. Do you think I will be happy if I ask you to put down your work and come to see me every day?"
"Boy, if you do your job well, I will be happy. I would not be happy if you come to me every day. Besides, didn't you come here once before the New Year? Just keep your master in your heart."
Song Yuanchao nodded and continued to raise his glass, saying, "Thank you for your understanding, Master. Come, let's have a drink. I wish you good health!"
"Haha, that's fine, cheers!" Ma Xun happily picked up the wine glass and clinked it with Song Yuanchao's, then drank it in one gulp.
