Volume 4: The World of Great Conflict Chapter 0516 Pressure Cooker Furnace
"Van Halen, heavy metal, is it suitable for you to listen to?"
Although Nan Yi said this, he still picked up the tape and handed it to Liu Zhen.
"I don't like rock music, but my roommate likes Van Halen very much. When I lived with her, she played it almost every day, and I was forced to listen to a lot of their songs. Weren't they very popular? Why are they out of fashion now?"
"Why do you say that?"
"The album tape has been torn." Liu Zhen said, shaking the tape in his hand.
"Well, pirated tapes have little to do with whether or not the album is stale. It can only be said that the sales estimate of the distribution company exceeded the actual sales. There were too many recordings to sell, so the remaining ones were disposed of."
As Nan Yi spoke, he looked through all the tapes on the stall. Most of them were tapes of singers and bands developing in China. These foreign rubbish should have been shipped from China.
"Boss, how much is one plate?"
"Four."
The stall owner, who was busy changing the mount for the cassette, said this without even looking up.
"Make it cheaper, three bucks, and I'll buy a few more boxes."
"Three pieces are fine, but I won't give you the outer box." The stall owner looked up at Nan Yi and said.
"If you don't give me a box, then I have to pay ten dollars for four boxes, otherwise I'll be at a loss."
"Starting at twenty."
"Okay, twenty is twenty."
Nan Yi thought that what he wanted was basically more than eight boxes, and twenty would definitely be more than that, so he would have to round off the number later.
He continued to pick out the tape while squatting. When he found the one he wanted, he would put his finger into the circle of the tape and turn it a few times to see if there were any creases. If there were creases, he would discard them as they would easily get stuck.
He slowly picked out a few boxes, then took a few boxes that Liu Zhen wanted, and finally took ten boxes. After a while of bargaining with the stall owner, he bought them for twenty-three yuan.
"Nan Yi, we're already at the gate of Peking University. Let's go in and take a look." After buying the tape, Liu Zhen said, pointing at the gate of Peking University.
"Okay, let's see if Classmate Ren is here. If she is, we can follow her to eat in the staff cafeteria."
"What's the name of Class Manager Ren? We should call her Section Chief Ren now. She has been transferred to the Student Affairs Office."
"Then call him Lao Daban. You see, in the army, no matter how high a superior is promoted, he should still be called Lao Company Commander. It sounds more intimate, doesn't it?"
Ren Xia is no longer a counselor. Instead, she has been transferred to the Student Affairs Office, where she is responsible for employment matching. This is an office similar to the "Employment Guidance Center" of later generations. If graduates want to get a good job, they have to look for her to lobby for it.
Of course, only those students who are not qualified to be assigned to good positions need activities. Good seedlings are being scrambled for by various units, and the units have to go to Ren Xia to negotiate just to get a few good seedlings.
When you walk into the campus, you can see students stranded on campus everywhere.
Some stayed to study hard, and some wanted to go back but were unable to due to the reality of the situation.
Although most farmers no longer have to worry about food and clothing, they still don't have much money in their pockets. The contribution that a college student studying away from home can make when he returns home during the summer vacation is not as great as the money saved on round-trip tickets.
Save the money for train tickets and send it back home, and you will basically have a solution for the money for pesticides and fertilizers for the year.
Students who live far from home usually don't go back home during the summer vacation, and they may not even go back during the winter vacation. It's not uncommon for students to not go back home once during their four years of college.
The family is in difficulty, and the students themselves are in difficulty as well.
Compared to when Nan Yi and his classmates were in school, the subsidies for universities today have not increased much, but the prices have increased a lot.
In the past, student subsidies were not only enough for one’s own use, but also enough to support one’s family. Today, the subsidies are barely enough for one’s own use, and if one is able, one’s family will send some extra money.
Not only are the prices different, but the atmosphere has also changed.
If you were to wear patched clothes on a university campus now, you would be labeled a heretic in no time. It turns out that being poor is not glorious, but you will not be discriminated against outright. Now, poverty is not far from being the original sin.
"Nan Yi, look, the suit that student is wearing, I've seen it in the department store, it's 120 yuan a set." Suddenly, Liu Zhen pointed at a female student not far away and said.
Nan Yi took a quick look and said, "The material is imported, so it's quite expensive. It costs nearly sixty dollars to make a garment, and the factory price is seventy-five dollars. Why, you don't have this garment?"
"No, I can't wear it now, so I asked Wenchangwei not to send it to me for now."
"Oh, I thought so."
Whenever Wenchangwei Garment Factory launches a new style, they will send a set to Liu Zhen. This does not fall into the category of welfare and Nan Yi needs to pay for it himself. It is just a kind of sentiment between husband and wife.
In fact, there is no such thing as relying on the factory to eat the factory in Wenchangwei. The finished products of the village enterprises will not be distributed to the villagers. No matter whether it is clothes or snacks, only children can receive them for free on a regular basis.
Moreover, this free service is not provided by the village enterprises, but by the Wenchangwei Education Fund paying the village enterprises. The children’s welfare is actually provided by the education fund.
Although it seems like a redundant move to put money from the left pocket into the right pocket, Nan Yi is obsessed with doing it this way.
Nan Yi hates misappropriation. Budgeted funds must be used for specific purposes. Even if he has to watch the companies in Wenchangwei go bankrupt, he will not agree to misappropriate funds from the education fund to help village companies tide over difficulties temporarily.
Flexibility that does not stick to the rules may seem like it can create miracles, but it will ultimately fail because of being too flexible.
Because this kind of workaround will only give rise to "special treatment for special matters". This way can be special, that way can be special, and in the end, everything is special and the rules can only be used to cover up one's mistakes.
"He is Yaodong's brother-in-law."
"Okay, special approval."
"He is the new son-in-law who came to the village."
"Well, ah, there is no order without rules. Don't try to find loopholes. Just follow the village rules."
"Nan Yi, look, those white sandals are very nice, and they have waterproof platforms."
As soon as Nan Yi's thoughts drifted away, he was pulled back by Liu Zhen.
"That's not a platform, that's a height-increasing pad. Well, I say, we're walking around the campus, don't just look at what others are wearing, look at the books they are holding."
"They look good. Students nowadays are much more fashionable than we were back then. Back then, the clothes we wore were all pretty much the same, except for Xu Qian and the other overseas Chinese, and the students from the compound who wore different clothes. Now, they are all colorful and showy."
“In fact, it’s good to be the same. Without comparison, people can live more easily. Now it can be different. There will be comparisons, but how many people can win? Most of them can only be losers.
I guess, in the next ten years, people will start to search for the meaning of happiness, and later, they will start to search for the meaning of life.”
"Nan Yi, you are too pessimistic. Aren't people's lives getting better day by day ?"
“Have you ever seen a pressure cooker?”
"The kind from the factory?"
"No, the kind in the kitchen."
“Yes.”
"It's good to have seen it. Let's put it this way, our growth process is like stewing bones in an aluminum pot, slowly stewing them in a coal stove. The stewing time will be relatively long, and there are several steps involved, such as scooping out the foam, adding seasonings, poking with chopsticks, etc.
But the current generation is different. After being washed, they are directly thrown into the pressure cooker, and all the seasonings are added first. Then they are put on the fire to stew. The pressure cooker cooks things quickly and it will be done in a short while.
When the pressure drops, the pressure cooker is opened, and the bones are poured into a bowl called society, where they are left to bounce around on their own."
Liu Zhen thought for a moment and said, "Your analogy is not appropriate. We should say that we are like weeds, growing freely and having to face the wind and rain on our own. The current generation is planted in a refined manner. We are first planted in a model, and then one day we will change the model or transplant them into the wild."
"Well, it's almost the same idea, Zhen'er, your wisdom is like a tofu bucket, your neck is like an ivory tower, and your eyes are like..."
"You are the tofu bucket, can you speak?"
"You're making me feel so wronged. 'Tofu bucket' is a nice word. Just think about it, a tofu bucket can hold so much. I'm praising you for being so wise."
"The dung vat can hold more. How about I praise you as the dung vat?"
Nan Yi shrugged and said, "Whatever you want to say, you can call me a manhole. Let's walk faster. It's time for food. Let's find Class Boss Ren and go to the cafeteria to eat something hot as soon as possible."
"Hurry up, hurry up, eat something delicious. I'm tired of eating maternity meals. I feel sick every time I eat them."
"Just be happy. Your pregnancy has cost you a house in Mid-Levels."
"Humph, it's not like I want to eat it, and you didn't prepare it."
The two of them were arguing with each other as they made their way to Ren Xia's office. After many twists and turns, it took them more than ten minutes to finally see Ren Xia.
"Big Boss, how come your belly is so big?"
When Nan Yi met Ren Xia, Ren Xia also had a big belly.
"Liu Zhen, please control your husband. He speaks without restraint." Ren Xia was very happy to see Nan Yi and his wife.
"Hahaha, Daban, you're not even five months pregnant yet, and your belly is too big." Nan Yi said with a laugh.
Ren Xia’s belly was bigger than that of most other pregnant women. She was either carrying a giant baby or at least two.
"Stop talking. I'm so annoyed. I went to the hospital for a check-up and the doctor said he heard three heartbeats." Ren Xia said with a frown.
"Really? Teacher Ren, congratulations on becoming a mother of three children all at once." Liu Zhen congratulated sincerely, then lowered her voice and asked, "Have you had an ultrasound?"
[Domestic B-ultrasound equipment made a major breakthrough in 1983, and a large number of imported B-ultrasounds were introduced in 1984. However, it was not until around 1995 or 1996 that they became popular.]
Ren Xia also lowered her voice and said, "I've taken the scan. The doctor said there's one boy and two girls. But he said it was a little early, so it might not be accurate. He asked me to go take another scan later."
"That's great. Whether your in-laws like boys or girls, they've got it covered. I still don't know if I'm pregnant with a boy or a girl, but Nan Yi won't let me check, saying he likes both boys and girls."
Liu Zhen said this while stroking her belly.
"Is this true? Is Nan Yi trying to reassure you on purpose?" Ren Xia said in disbelief.
Preferring sons to daughters is still the mainstream nowadays. More than 95% of families want to have a boy, or a boy first and a girl as a second child. There are very few families who simply want to have a girl.
"Boss Ren, I can hear you..."
