Nowadays, when attending a refresher course, Huang Jingping usually leaves after class, as she did in the past. Today was no different. She packed her textbooks, said goodbye to her deskmate Xiao Su, and walked towards the door.
As she reached the door, Fang Yingzhi, who was riding a bicycle, caught up from behind and called out, 'Xiao Ping!'
Huang Jingping didn't want to pretend she hadn't heard, so she had to stop and wait for her.
'Why haven't you been hanging out with us lately? We've been going out singing a lot.' Fang Yingzhi was very familiar with Huang Jingping and pushed her bicycle along while walking shoulder to shoulder with her.
'I've been busy lately, with a lot of things going on, I really don't have time.'
'Oh, that's right, your little boyfriend is in his senior year now, he is pretty busy.'
Girls are naturally sensitive to these things, so Huang Jingping of course wouldn't take the initiative to tell him that Feng Yiping was troubled by work. 'Right.'
'You see, study and leisure must be combined. It's already autumn, and the maple leaves over there in Nanlu are already very beautiful. It's just too far away. When it's time to go back to school, can we hitch a ride with you and go together?'
'I'll go back and discuss it with him,' Huang Jingping was afraid that Feng Yiping would wait too long. High school students were different from them, and they also had to attend evening classes. There wasn't much time to waste.
Fang Yingzhi saw Huang Jingping get into the ugly silver-grey car, and some unspeakable emotions flashed in her eyes.
After that, she had deliberately asked her cousin, who worked in a bank, and heard that the car cost more than 2 million yuan. She didn't believe it and thought her cousin was joking, but her cousin told her very seriously that it was more than that, and even asked her where she had seen the car.
She was a little confused at the time, and now when her parents chat, they will also talk about the acquaintances they had before, who made a lot of money in the south, but what they said was that the most they had was a hundred thousand or so, and now suddenly there is someone around her who drives a car worth a couple of million, and is at least three years younger than her, and she feels a little bit of everything at once.
After paying for the purchase of her father's self-built house, her family only had a few thousand dollars in savings. They had moved into their new house more than two years ago, but it still hadn't been decorated. A few million, this amount of wealth was beyond her imagination. And his car alone cost more than two million, so how much money must his family have, 10 million? She didn't dare think about it.
She stopped at the school gate, thinking that he would say hello to her over there, but she didn't expect the car to roll away without even rolling down the window.
Huang Jingping saw Fang Yingzhi standing at the school gate looking over, and she felt vaguely displeased. 'Do you remember which Yingzhi from last time?'
'Who?' Feng Yiping really had no mind for such things now, but his reaction made Huang Jingping very happy. 'Nothing, are you tired? Or did you run into something annoying again?'
'I'm a little troubled, but it's fine.'
'Yes, I believe you can handle it.' Huang Jingping still believed in him as always, "I'll tell you what, there's crab tonight, just steam it when you get home, happy?'
Since she noticed that Feng Yiping liked seafood, she had told the seafood shop owner at the farmers" market who said he was from Zhoushan to always save her some of the freshest catches.
Yes, it's autumn, and now is the perfect time to eat crabs.
Feng Yiping went into the kitchen and saw that there were four green crabs soaking in the pool. He flipped them over and said, 'Not bad, they're quite fat!'
Seeing the crabs still opening and closing their claws, Huang Jingping was a little afraid and hid behind Feng Yiping. "I added salt and white wine to the water as the person who sold them said to do," she said.
'Yes, that's good,' Feng Yiping said, picking one up, removing the two large pincers, and then using a brush to carefully clean the shell of any dirt. He handled each one carefully before steaming them directly in a pot.
To match the occasion, dinner was eaten on the balcony, which happened to be at sunset, when the sky was red with the setting sun and the river sparkled with golden light. The scenery was beautiful, the crabs were delicious, but time was running out. He didn't even have time to savour the claws before it was time for class.
He pushed the crab legs towards Huang Jingping, 'You take your time, I have to hurry.'
In this world, you have to pay for what you get. This is an unbreakable truth. With the mayor's connections, they had opened a gap in the city, and they had to take the mayor's repeated insistence seriously.
On a weekend afternoon, Feng Yiping disguised himself as a little follower and followed a group of people from the company to the city aluminium products factory for the first time.
It was a factory that had been around for a while, located in a fairly central area. The main building was the grey type common in the 1950s and 1960s, with green paint on the window frames, but it was badly faded.
They were greeted by the factory's only remaining deputy factory manager. Zhou Xinyu declined the offer to sit in the office and, accompanied by a few accountants drafted in, went from one workshop to the next, looking at every piece of equipment and carefully noting down the information on the nameplate.
Workshop 3, which had collapsed, was still in the same state. Of course, all the equipment inside had been removed, and ropes were strung around the area to keep people away. God knows if the remaining part of the building will collapse.
After looking around the factory, Feng Yiping went to the staff quarters for a look. It was a bit shocking. Feng Yiping couldn't bear to watch. It was just like the staff quarters in the movie 'Crazy Stone'. As soon as the deputy factory manager poked his head out, a lot of old people gathered around him, 'Director, when will our reimbursement be approved?'
Some wives with children stopped him directly, 'Director, our family is on the verge of bankruptcy. Can we get paid, and when?'
After finally breaking through the siege, the deputy factory manager said apologetically, 'I've made a fool of you. We haven't paid wages for half a year.'
After his visit, Feng Yiping was full of emotion. Apart from being urbanites, these workers at the aluminium products factory were actually no better off than those in the countryside. There are indeed hardships in the countryside and difficulties in the city.
As the old saying goes, there are seven things you need to get by in life: firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea. Living in the city, you have to pay for all these things. Many families have to support their parents and children, and if they don't get paid for a few months, it's really hard for those families with a small income.
Of course, there is also a problem of attitude. Nowadays, as long as you can lower your expectations and find a job to support your family, it's not that difficult. But as long as the factory hasn't completely closed down, most people still have a wait-and-see attitude.
'Why don't you guests go upstairs and have a seat?' The deputy factory manager warmly invited them. Feng Yiping looked at the three cars parked in front of the building—a Pajero, a Fukang, and a Santana—and shook his head slightly. Zhou Xinyu said, "No, let's go back and hurry up with the research.'
Zhou Xinyu took Feng Yiping's car, and Li Jia and her senior sister sat in the back row. Feng Yiping asked them, "What about the equipment?'
Li Jia's senior, Li Lin, a certified public accountant, remained cold, 'The exact amount can only be determined when we get back. However, more than 70% of the equipment is older than us and generally poorly maintained, so I don't expect the total amount to be too high.'
Zhou Xinyu glanced at Feng Yiping, "Yiping, I personally feel that it would be good to have this opportunity to cultivate a good relationship with the city, and the transformation of the aluminium products factory to produce shelves is also a good idea.'
Li Jia also said, "Exactly, we should seize the opportunity to curry favour.'
In the van behind, Zheng Lezhi asked Gao Zhiyi, who was driving, with a puzzled expression, 'Who is that young man?'
Gao Zhiyi smiled and said, "You always ask who the boss is, don't you?'
'He is the boss?" Zheng Lezhi looked full of disbelief.