Chapter 738: Encounter at the Noodle House
Thinking of this, Song Yuanchao couldn't help but give a thumbs up to his own idea.
He still supports Luo Yang's idea of entering the film and television industry, but it is a bit difficult to make a breakthrough at the moment. It would be an opportunity to use a documentary approach.
Song Yuanchao remembers that in the 1980s, 1990s and even the 1970s, there were very few documentaries of this kind in China. Apart from street scenes shot by some amateurs, there were also documentaries shot by some professional documentary producers from abroad who came to China to shoot them.
It is a bit embarrassing to say that if we want to find excellent documentaries with a sense of the times in the future, Chinese people can't produce any, but we have to watch the content shot by foreigners. Today, Song Yuanchao suddenly thought of this, and maybe he can change this situation through Luo Yang.
Strolling on the street, Song Yuanchao walked neither fast nor slow, watching the scenes passing by in front of him with the eyes of a bystander.
After crossing two streets, Song Yuanchao turned to the alley on the right. There was much less traffic here and it seemed a little quieter.
When he was about to get home, Song Yuanchao suddenly remembered that he was alone at home and had to cook for himself when he got home.
Song Yuanchao stopped and thought for a while. It would be okay to go to Zhang's mother's house for dinner at this time. However, after thinking about it, he decided not to go because he didn't inform Zhang's mother in advance. Based on his understanding of Zhang's mother, she would definitely prepare two delicious dishes for him if he went there.
This would actually cause more trouble for the old lady. As the years went by, although Zhang's mother was in good health, she was getting older after all. So Song Yuanchao thought it would be better for him to find a place outside to live.
Song Yuanchao did not continue walking towards home, but chose to head east.
He remembered that there were many small restaurants on the street to the east where it intersected with Xiafei Road. Since he was alone, he might as well just find one and make do with it.
After about ten minutes, Song Yuanchao came to this street. Just as he was looking for a restaurant, he smelled a faint fragrance. Song Yuanchao walked forward following the fragrance. After about twenty meters, he saw a new noodle restaurant that had opened at the entrance of an alley.
This noodle restaurant is located at the bottom of the overpass at the entrance of the alley. The so-called overpass is a building with a door on the side of the alley close to the road. The door is in an inverted U shape. Below is the entrance to and exit of the alley, and above is the residential building.
This structure is very common in Shanghai, and such overpasses are usually quite deep, generally around seven or eight meters, and at least four or five meters wide.
This noodle shop is located on the ground floor of such an overpass, and is built with wooden boards and glass. If Song Yuanchao guessed correctly, this was specially approved by the neighborhood committee for an individual. Because the problem of educated youth who returned to the city in the past few years has always existed, and many have not been solved until now, in order to solve their employment problems, Shanghai has now adopted the policy of supporting these educated youth who returned to the city to start their own businesses and become self-employed. Building such a place can be regarded as a facade for doing business.
What surprised Song Yuanchao was that this noodle restaurant was not the Su-style noodles commonly seen in Shanghai, but a ramen restaurant.
In later times, ramen restaurants of all sizes could be seen everywhere on the streets of Shanghai, and ramen was not uncommon. But now, ramen restaurants are very rare in Shanghai, and there are only a few of them in the whole city.
This ramen restaurant seemed to be doing pretty good business. The few tables inside the narrow shop were all occupied by people eating noodles. There were even several tables in the corridor outside the shop, with many people sitting there either eating or waiting for their noodles to be served.
Close to the inside is the ramen operation area, where a man about the same age as Song Yuanchao is making ramen. The fist-sized dough is changing in his hands, and then he pulls out noodles that . Beside him is a large pot of beef bone soup cooking. The soup is thick, and a lot of curry powder is added to it. An enticing aroma wafts around, which increases one's appetite.
This is how the fragrance Song Yuanchao smelled at the intersection just now came from. As soon as Song Yuanchao stopped, a woman asked Song Yuanchao if he wanted to eat noodles. If he wanted to eat noodles, he should find a seat first. When there was a seat, he just needed to say hello.
While greeting people, she neatly cleared away other people's dishes and served the noodles the man had prepared to the customers. If Song Yuanchao guessed correctly, this woman should be the man's wife.
He found a random seat nearby and waited for a while. After the person in front of him finished eating, Song Yuanchao sat down.
Then he asked the woman for a bowl of curry beef ramen with a poached egg. After paying, he waited patiently, and the steaming noodles were served in a moment.
I picked up the noodles with chopsticks and took a bite, then drank a sip of the soup. Maybe it was because I hadn't eaten ramen in a long time, or maybe it was because the ingredients of this ramen restaurant were good, the noodles were surprisingly delicious.
Song Yuanchao started eating with big mouthfuls. He sniffed as he ate because of the difference between hot and cold noodles. After the hot noodles went down his stomach, he felt warm all over.
"Hey, Song Yuanchao? Why are you here?" Just as he was eating happily, a familiar voice sounded in his ears. Song Yuanchao looked up and saw that it was his classmate, Du Wenting who worked at the Second Food Store. Not only Du Wenting was there, but there was also a man in his thirties and a little boy of seven or eight years old beside her.
"What a coincidence!" Song Yuanchao laughed immediately and looked at Du Wenting and the man and little boy beside her: "Old classmate, why did your whole family come here to eat noodles? This is your wife, right? This is your son?"
"Yes, this is my wife. Let me introduce you to Song Yuanchao, my old classmate. My wife is Guo Tao, and this is my son Guo Liang."
"Hello, hello." Song Yuanchao stood up and shook hands with Guo Tao, saying with a smile, "Du Wenting and I are old classmates. We lost contact later when we went to work in the countryside. We happened to meet before the Spring Festival last year. I heard that she came to see you in advance. She was very happy to meet you."
"Haha, I know you, Song Yuanchao. You and our Wen Ting were deskmates back then, right? Hahaha! Wen Ting told me about you when she came home that day. This world is really small. It's fate that you two meet just when you buy sugar-roasted chestnuts." Guo Tao is a cheerful person. He is not petty at all. He shook hands with Song Yuanchao with a smile and made a joke at the same time.
Song Yuanchao had a very good first impression of Guo Tao. At the same time, he glanced at Guo Liang who was looking at him curiously. Guo Tao touched his son's head and said, "Why don't you call for help?"
Guo Liang smiled embarrassedly and said "Hello, uncle" crisply. Song Yuanchao greeted him with a smile.
"You three are coming to eat noodles too?"
"Yes, Wenting's company took a day off today, and I happened to have nothing to do, so I took the kids to the park. I just came back and I was too lazy to go home and cook. I heard that there was a new ramen restaurant opened here and the food is delicious, so I came here to eat." Guo Tao said with a smile.
At this time, two customers at Song Yuanchao's table had just finished their meal and stood up. Du Wenting was quick to take their seats and let her husband and children sit down.
"Song Yuanchao, why are you eating here too?"
Du Wenting asked the proprietress for three bowls of noodles, and then asked Song Yuanchao.
"It's the same as you guys. My wife and kids are not at home for the New Year. I'm too lazy to cook by myself, so I just wandered around and saw a new noodle shop that's doing good business, so I decided to make do with it."
As soon as Song Yuanchao said this, Guo Tao smiled knowingly. Just as he was about to speak, his eyes swept across the noodles that Song Yuanchao had not finished eating, and he said apologetically: "Look, I was too busy chatting. You should eat the noodles first. If you don't eat them, you will die."
"Haha, then I won't be polite." Song Yuanchao didn't act pretentiously. He smiled and nodded and continued to eat noodles. When he finished eating, Du Wenting and the others' noodles arrived. Song Yuanchao saw that there were people waiting for a seat over there, so he stood up and gave them his seat, saying that he would go over to smoke and they could talk again after they finished eating.
He ran to the side, lit a cigarette and smoked it slowly. A few minutes later, Du Wenting and her family of three finished their noodles.
"Song Yuanchao, are you okay for a minute?"
"Nothing, what's wrong?"
"Why don't you come to my house? My house is just in front. You haven't been there yet. Why don't you have a cup of tea?"
"Is it convenient?" Song Yuanchao asked hesitantly.
Guo Tao smiled and said, "It's convenient. What's inconvenient? You are Wen Ting's classmate, not a stranger. Come on, come on, come to my house and sit down. I have some good tea there."
Song Yuanchao thought that there was nothing to do when he went back, and since it was not far away anyway, he readily agreed.
They crossed the street and walked eastward, and arrived at Du Wenting's home a moment later.
Du Wenting's home is an old-style apartment, with a better structure than the Shikumen where Song Yuanchao lived before. Their home is not small in size, with a separate bathroom and kitchen. Although the two bedrooms are separated, one of them is more than ten square meters, plus there is a large balcony, which gives it a quite petty-bourgeois style.
Seeing Song Yuanchao looking around after entering the house, Du Wenting said proudly, "How about it, old classmate, my home is pretty good, right?"
"Not bad, really not bad!" Song Yuanchao nodded and praised. This was not a compliment. Du Wenting's living conditions were far better than most people in Shanghai.
Du Wenting's husband Guo Tao was very enthusiastic. He made two cups of tea and invited Song Yuanchao to sit down.
After arriving home, Guo Liang went into the house to read. Although it is winter vacation now, children also have winter vacation homework, and it can be seen that Du Wenting and his wife are very strict with their children.
"Is Guo Liang from your family doing well in school? I remember he just started school last year. There aren't many kids his age who are so self-motivated in their studies."
"Haha, his grades are just so-so. He ranked second in his grade in the midterm exam. Children like to play, and self-discipline needs to be cultivated slowly by following rules. It's a sign of growth from a young age. If we don't cultivate his study habits now, it will be difficult to develop them when he grows up." Guo Tao said.
Nodding slightly, it seems that Guo Tao is a typical example of a man who wants his son to be successful. However, as a parent, he must be proud of his child's sensible and motivated character.
Song Yuanchao drank tea and smoked while chatting with Guo Tao and Du Wenting.
Besides talking about their past studies, they also talked about their children. Parents are like this, and they are very excited when talking about children's education, and they have endless topics to talk about.
"By the way, I heard from Wenting that you are working in Jinling now? So your wife and children stay in Shanghai? It's inconvenient to live apart like this, right?" After talking for a while, Guo Tao remembered this and couldn't help asking.
"It's OK. Our company also has a branch in Shanghai. The leaders of my company take care of me and allow me to go home once a week. Besides, the train from Jinling to Shanghai is also very convenient. I can go home after one night's sleep and wake up the next day."
"The leaders of your unit are really good. It's rare to find leaders who are so considerate of their subordinates." Guo Tao sighed and shook his head.
"Brother Guo, do you work in a hardware factory?"
"Haha, Wen Ting told you, right?" Guo Tao nodded, then shook his head: "It's still there for now, but it may not be the case in a few days."
"What's wrong?" Song Yuanchao heard something different from his words and asked curiously.
Guo Tao was about to speak but stopped talking. Du Wenting on the side could not help but said, "Yuan Chao is not an outsider. Besides, the mess in your factory has nothing to do with Yuan Chao. It doesn't matter if you tell him."
"That's true, but..."
"If you don't say it, I will. I've been holding it in for several days." Du Wenting has a hot temper. Seeing that her husband had concerns, she couldn't help but talk about it. Guo Tao didn't stop her. It seemed that although he didn't say it directly, he had some doubts in his heart.
Only after Du Wenting finished explaining the situation in detail did Song Yuanchao understand what was going on.
It turns out that Guo Tao was a cadre of a state-owned hardware factory. He started from the grassroots level and worked his way up to workshop director. A few years ago, he was promoted from workshop director to deputy factory director.
Considering his age, although it is only a department-level state-owned hardware factory, it is not an exaggeration to describe him as a young and promising person to be the deputy factory director. Moreover, Guo Tao has both technical skills and culture. Although he has not been to university, he graduated from a technical secondary school, which is very good in this era.
Moreover, Guo Tao is a capable person with a good base among the masses. When he was the workshop director, he was in charge of production and no one disobeyed him. Later, he was promoted to deputy factory director because of his outstanding performance. After serving as deputy factory director, he was still in charge of production and kept the production in the factory in good order.
Last year, Guo Tao, as the deputy factory director, proposed a plan to build a "garden factory". After the plan was approved by the factory and the higher authorities, Guo Tao took the lead in implementing it. In order to complete the construction of the garden factory, Guo Tao spent a lot of energy and worked hard to build it himself.
After the success of the Garden Factory, the hardware factory was rated as a national model factory that year, which won great honor for the factory and its superior unit. At the same time, Guo Tao was also awarded the title of outstanding cadre because of the success of this project.
At the end of last year, the old factory director was about to retire, and the higher authorities decided to select a suitable person to take over the old factory director's position. Guo Tao, who was in the limelight, was the deputy factory director and had a high prestige in the factory. In addition, he had just won honors for the factory and became an outstanding cadre. He was the most suitable candidate no matter how you looked at it.
But who would have thought that this time, the leader suggested not to select the factory director through nomination within the factory, but to adopt a method where several competitors compete together and the decision is made by mass voting.
Guo Tao, who was determined to get the position of factory director, did not take it seriously after hearing about it, because he felt that based on his situation, the position of factory director would be his even if he was voted in. However, he never expected that the final result would make him disheartened.
