Time flies, and the final exam is over in a blink of an eye. This time, Chen Yuanming didn't do anything with the rubbish anymore, but concentrated on attacking the textbooks for a few days. Now he is no longer a teenager full of senseless self-esteem. The world is not fair. If he doesn't want to be discriminated against, he has to show Points make people unable to take things lightly.
After answering the last test paper and carefully checking it twice, he finally exhaled and walked out of the test room after paying the paper. After the final exam, there are two days off for teachers to mark the papers. Chen Yuanming had never had the responsibility of assisting the top students in the examination of papers, so Chen Yuanming started his winter vacation warm-up early.
In the past two days of study, all his attention was devoted to sorting out and sorting out his memory. Although he accepted his identity as a revived corpse now, the memory in his mind was too complicated. The important thing was that Chen Yuanming could not be sure whether the things in his mind were accurate or real. Newsstands are still a rarity these days. The scarcity of newspapers and magazines is destined to be a direct-delivery subscription sales model. I can’t find a newspaper to read. I don’t have a TV at home, and even the radio is controlled so I can’t listen to it on time. I want to match the memory in my mind with reality. Not easy. Without relying on the situation, he would rather spend more time on preparations.
Early in the morning the next day after the exam, without saying hello to anyone, Chen Yuanming put on the keys and worked hard to save two yuan, and walked out of the house.
It hasn't snowed yet this winter, and the whole city looks grey. The main roads in the city are currently only single lanes. Half of the roads are bicycles. Occasionally, a bus with a cable drags lazily past. The 3- and 4-storey residential buildings on the roadside are still bright, and it is estimated that they have only been built in the past two years. L City is also a famous heavy industry city in the Midwest. In addition to bearing factories, factories and mines such as drag factories, steel factories, and copper processing factories are also crowded around the urban area. Large state-owned enterprises have not yet declined. Stock momentum and grand pride.
But for Chen Yuanming, the city is unfamiliar. In another part of his life, after graduating from junior high school, his grades were not satisfactory. After that, he chose to study at a vocational high school in the factory instead of high school. After two and a half years of work-study, he directly entered the factory to work through a relationship. However, in 1994, he was catching up with the market. After the economic system reform, the efficiency of the factory declined rapidly in the following years. After working for less than a year, he resigned and embarked on the road of drifting north. After that, he traveled north to Shanghai and Guangzhou, moved bricks, drove a truck, and sold computers in Zhongguancun. 3 . In 4 years, when the stock market rose and fell sharply, I began to study stocks. For this reason, I also took a night school. In 5 years, I entered the market around 1:00. It took two years to make a name for myself.
In that period of his life, the first half of his life was depressed and depressed, and the second half was volatile, and he had no time to carefully observe the changes around him. Now that he observes the city with completely unfamiliar eyes, he realizes that he has a pitiful impression of his hometown, leaving only the unforgettable memories of snacks during his adolescence. With a sigh, Chen Yuanming turned his head and left before moving, and there was no newspaper column at the entrance to store the city government compound, and walked to the Guangzhou market a few stops away.
In 1991, L City just ushered in the first wave of development boom, a commercial street was built not far from People's Park, and it was also named "Guangzhou Market". It's just that the Guangzhou market has no supporting facilities for later generations, the Youth Culture Palace has not been built, and the Hua Bookstore and Snack Street have disappeared. There is only one three-storey reinforced concrete building standing out in the middle of an open space. Since the disappearance of TV tickets and cloth tickets in the late 1980s, shopping malls have gradually become popular.
Walking into the foyer of the department store, Chen Yuanming looked at the scene in front of him. At that time, the structure of the building was far from that of later generations. The first floor was not a counter for cosmetics and jewelry, but all kinds of daily necessities, which were rigidly displayed on the shelves. Standing behind the counter, the salespersons still maintained the arrogance of the supply and marketing agency era.
Chen Yuanming ignored them and looked carefully along the rows of shelves. The front row is a counter for popular school supplies, such as school bags, pencil cases, cartoon-shaped erasers and notebooks. Further back is the watch counter. A row of wall clocks hangs carelessly on the wall, each of which is polished and shiny, although it can be seen at a glance that the outer casing is made of plastic. There are watches on the counter, half of which are all kinds of electronic watches, and the other half are firmly locked in the cabinet, which looks like quartz watches.
Chen Yuanming looked at them one by one. The price of electronic watches is generally 5-1 yuan, and some are marked with waterproof and buttons are sold directly for 15 yuan. It's past the electronic watch season, but it's still a favorite among teenagers, and one of them was wearing that expensive model when he was fighting with the bastards in the front row the other day. The quartz watch is another look, it is more than 2 pieces cheaper, and a few more expensive, sold for more than 1, with the double lion and Citizen labels on it.
"Look at what?! Can you afford it?"
After standing for only a few minutes, the salesperson behind the counter immediately became impatient and shouted at Chen Yuanming, wouldn't it affect business by letting a poor boy poke in front of the counter!
Chen Yuanming ignored her, still read the entire row of shelves carefully, then turned around and walked to the other counters. There are basically no signs of common brands in the mall later on. Compared with the salary of about 1 yuan at that time, the price of everything was ridiculously high, but it did not fall into the title of "department store".
After shopping around, Chen Yuanming had a hazy idea in his mind. If I remember correctly, from the 1980s to the 1990s, it was a glorious era for individuals and private companies. If you can find a suitable purchase channel...
"Beanie?"
A voice suddenly came from beside him, Chen Yuanming turned his head, and saw a boy standing behind him, about the same as him, but more than half his head taller. Wearing a dark coat, the wool scarf is bright green, but the color matching is quite good, which also makes him a bit cute. The boy's eyes were wide open, his eyelashes were as long and thick as a pony, and he was looking at himself in surprise with a large bag of woolen yarn in his hand.
"Why are you here? Are you helping your family with groceries?"
Who is this? Feeling a little familiar, but unable to remember the other person's name at all, Chen Yuanming stood awkwardly and returned a half-smile to him. Realizing that the other party didn't recognize him, the boy swooped up and hugged his shoulder for a while and rubbed it violently.
"Good boy! Did you forget the second brother after not seeing him for two years?!"
Ah, with this sentence, Chen Yuanming's mind suddenly lit up, "Sun Lang?"
"Nonsense! Who am I?!"
This time, Chen Yuanming really remembered that this boy was one of his former neighbors. He also lived in the staff dormitory with his family three years ago. Later, his parents drew lots according to their working age to build a family area before moving out as a family. There are two children in the Sun family. Sun Lang is the second eldest, half a year older than him. When he was a child, he always called the second brother and the second brother. Only later because of the different social circles, I slowly lost contact.
"What's wrong with your head? You got into a fight with someone? Brother, go get revenge for you!"
A rough hand rubbed the gauze on his forehead, Chen Yuanming gritted his teeth in pain, and patted it back with his backhand. "Accidentally bumped."
"Hehe~~" Sun Lang didn't ask any further, he happily hugged him and dragged him out the door, "Let's go, go home with brother for dinner."
"Wait, I still…"
"Wait someone? Shopping?"
"No, I just walked one floor..."
"Hey~~ The store won't run, so at noon, come home for dinner with me first!"
Being staggered out for several steps, Chen Yuanming showed a wry smile, no longer insisted, and followed Sun Lang out. He pulled out a 28-year-old flying pigeon from the parking lot at the door. Sun Lang shoved the wool into the basket in front of the car with all his hands and feet, and pouted at Chen Yuanming, "Go on, starve me to death~"
Shaking his head, Chen Yuanming jumped into the back seat of the car.
"Hurry up, brother can ride!"
This sentence is not mixed with water at all. It looks like a ball in winter. This product can also drive the car to fly. The family building belongs to the newly developed area, and there is no cement road at all. Chen Yuanming almost missed the car. Fly down, can only firmly grasp the opponent's waist to maintain balance.
It only took about ten minutes on the way to his house, and the two chatted all the way, and the strangeness gradually faded away. Chen Yuanming seemed to have finally found his coordinates of this era, and even his expression relaxed. Parking the car in the carport of the community, Chen Yuanming couldn't help but be a little curious as he watched Sun Lang carry the pile of wool in his hands.
"You're knitting sweaters now?" The threads don't look too thick, and most of them are bright colors. It's just that the sweaters are only knitted at the end of January, so it's still a bit out of season.
"Where~~" Sun Lang smiled and waved his pockets, "Mom picks up the work, the store gives wool, and she knits it according to the season's style, and it costs 35 yuan a piece! I can have three pieces in two months, which is just right. Catching up with a wave of sales in the spring, several of her units have good craftsmanship and will follow along."
It turned out to be processing... I don't need to say more to Chen Yuanming to fully understand that some of the high-end knitted sweaters in the shopping malls are directly distributed to private individuals, which is a lot cheaper than the unified factory OEM, and the fancy style is good. In those days, many idle female workers took up this kind of work, but his mother was relatively clumsy and did the tedious work of loading and unloading, so there was no spare energy to earn it.
"But I'm miserable. Every day I work as a woolen stand, and you can see that my hands have become calluses..." Sun Lang raised his hands and complained to Chen Yuanming, but he showed an uncompromising smile on his face.
"Is the child labor unpaid?" Chen Yuanming couldn't help joking.
"Five yuan for pocket money! Take care of the New Year's money!" This time it was really showing off.
Talking and laughing, I walked to the third floor. The family building is a unified six-story structure. The third floor has a good location. There are ten households in a row, all of which are one-bedroom and one-hall structures. The bathroom and kitchen are all in the house. This kind of 3 or 4 square meters was already a very high-end building structure at the time. When they moved out, the neighbors were very envious.
Knocking on the door, one was a little older, but a woman with delicate eyebrows and a bit of a Jiangnan lady appeared in front of Chen Yuanming. Sun Lang's mother, Liu Yunzu, was a scholar, and she started a private school in the early years. She was a family heirloom, but at that time a few years ago, the family was in decline, and the composition was not very good, so she married later. children of factory workers. However, Sun Lang's father, Sun Jun, was also a good candidate. He had already reached the management of the branch before he transferred Liu Yun to the finance department as an accountant.
"Doudou!" Liu Yun called out with a look of surprise when she saw the boy outside the door, and pulled him into the house directly, "Where did you meet?! Oh, I haven't seen you for so many years, I really grew up! I heard that you are now in the top three middle schools. Class? The grades are good, right? Is your family okay?"
Dududu's series of words had already blurted out, but the caring meaning in it could not be mistaken. Chen Yuanming patiently replied with a smile, until he was snatched back by Sun Lang.
"Who the hell is your son? Is the meal ready? Hurry up and start dinner!"
"It's annoying!" Liu Yun grabbed the pocket from her son's hand, and lifted her chin. "Wash your hands, I'll add a pair of chopsticks! The house is a bit messy, don't take it personally, Doudou."
This room is a bit messy. There are piles of yarn balls on the cabinets in the corners. Many of them only have a few loose loops. Obviously, there are balls of yarn left in the knitted sweater. But after all, it is one room and one living room, and the home is quite warm and comfortable, which is much more decent than the small staff dormitory at home.
Looking at his mother, Sun Lang, who was stinky and poor, and how clean the house was, Chen Yuanming felt a sense of loss in his heart. How long has it been since his family felt so intimate? Since grandma was seriously ill? Or has it started since the family was heavily in debt? It's not yet the era of real polarization between rich and poor, but poverty can take too much away, and people can never get it back...
After washing her hands and sitting at the table with the two, Liu Yun brought out a bowl of hand-rolled noodles, topped with shredded pork and cabbage, and some dried tofu. "Your uncle is working overtime today, your sister is on the day shift for three shifts, and the two of us are at home. We are worried about rolling too much noodles."
Seeing that the bowl of vegetable soup was almost full of pointed dishes and Sun Lang's bowl of vegetable soup was obviously more noodles, Chen Yuanming only felt warm in his heart, hesitated for a moment, but only said "Thank you auntie".
"You're welcome." Sun Lang had already started eating, his mouth was full of snoring, and he stretched his paws to the chili jar, dug out a large spoonful and threw it into the noodles.
"Is a starving ghost reincarnated?!" After scolding her son, Liu Yun pushed the vinegar bottle and chili can forward, "Hurry up and eat Doudou.
"Yeah." It's been many days since he saw meat and fishy, and Chen Yuanming is no longer polite, and gulps the noodles. The hand-rolled noodles are quite strong, and I can't describe how delicious it is when chewing.
Liu Yun started eating without any hassle, and occasionally asked Chen Yuanming a few questions. At the beginning of the staff dormitory, she had a very good relationship with Wang Juan, but she had been working as an accountant in the factory, and after leaving the dormitory, the contact faded away. Now she sees her old friend again. Son, it is true or false to say that you are not happy.
After a meal, Sun Lang was already burping, and Chen Yuanming also took up the bowl and drank the soup in the back. Liu Yun suddenly let out a light sigh, "Doudou, do you have frostbite on your hand?"
Chen Yuanming was stunned, put down the bowl, and looked at the back of his hand, "Well, it's been two years, and it's committed as soon as winter comes."
"It's too cold, ask your mother to buy some ginger to wipe it, it will be better. And you have to wear gloves when you go out, you boys always don't know how to pay attention, how uncomfortable it is to bare hands in a cold weather!"
Listening to Liu Yun's earnest instructions, Chen Yuanming's fingers paused. He suddenly thought of something, and the person in front of him might be a good practitioner. Putting down the tableware, he looked at the woman in front of him seriously.
"Auntie, have you thought about selling something yourself? Knitwear or something..."
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