In his previous life, Cheng Ran had struggled and tried to make up for his regrets. He had even been noble. For seemingly beautiful sentiments and wishes, he had invested in people and companies that did things like that, done charity work to help build schools and deliver books and supplies to poor areas. Even if he made no money, saw no returns, or even tasted bitter fruit, he was willing to do so, because he no longer had the energy and spirit to pursue his dreams after wasting half his life. All he had left was envy from across the wall.
With more experience, you will understand that the moon and sixpence are indispensable. But the truth of the world is like this, it is easy to talk about it, but it is extremely difficult to make even a little progress.
Who doesn't want to look at the beautiful and bright moonlight every day, leaning against a young lady and counting handfuls of money in his hands? But in fact, most of the time no one can help but bow their heads and serve the powerful. Most of them have to bury their heads and kneel down to earn six pence at their feet in order to survive.
Moons are vague and extravagant things. They shine brightly at night, only into your eyes, drawing you to them, but never over you.
Blind pursuit will lead to someone like Strickland, the protagonist of the book, abandoning his family and children, giving up the secular life simply to pursue the "moon", and finally living in isolation from the world and dying of leprosy.
Therefore, in this familiar yet strange time and space, Cheng Ran does not seek to travel by night or rush, but only seeks to be solid and see every step.
Meeting Jiang Hongshao was inevitable in his life, but further interactions with her became accidental. In the past, Huatong Company was next to the government compound and the municipal party committee compound. In those years, there were no walls or electronic fences like in later generations. You had to register to enter, and most of the places were open environments.
In order to go to school on the back streets, he often took a shortcut through the Municipal Party Committee compound. He would pick fruits in other people's compounds and catch fish in the pond of the Municipal Party Committee building. Occasionally, someone would come to see him while he was fishing, and joke with him that shrimps could be eaten raw. Then he would chew them raw, but they were shrimps from the pond with a strong fishy smell, so he would spit them out, and the old man would laugh. Later, Cheng Ran saw that man giving a serious report at a conference on the city TV station.
He would also go to the roof of the government building to pull the hand-cranked air raid alarm, and play police catching thieves in the evening in the government courtyard, with a group of little followers behind him. Many years later, I learned that the grandfather of a little boy who followed me with Guapitou turned out to be the deputy secretary of the municipal party committee, and his father had been promoted to district head. Guapitou later became sunny and cheerful, and still called me Brother Cheng as always when he saw me, but more out of politeness and nostalgia for the past. But a few years later, I heard that Guapitou's father was investigated, and the trial was held in the Chengdu Intermediate Court. He was sentenced to several years, and he was said to have gone to Australia. I don't know how he is doing now.
For example, Li Jingping's daughter Jiang Hongshao was also a frequent visitor to the old Huatong compound. However, every time Liu Ying invited her, she would feel honored and protect her very well. Old Jiang was not averse to people and was more friendly to everyone. However, at that time, she did not treat him, Cheng Ran, differently from other people.
At that time, no one mentioned her family background, but occasionally they would comment on a student whose family was a big boss in the school. When they talked about the other party's wealth and superior family background, Jiang Hongshao listened nearby, her eyes flashing with curiosity and excitement of listening to gossip. Perhaps that was why she liked to come to the compound and play with them at that time. There was no such close group of friends in the government compound who could talk about all kinds of messy things and play any boring games that seemed boring to outsiders.
My memory of Jiang Hongshao in those years stayed in that amazing period of time, but I didn't get to come to Rongcheng No. 10 Middle School with her like I do now.
Cheng Feiyang developed Fulong. This year's disaster prevention and early warning system has effectively saved many lives. A chip research institute opened in Santa Clara, USA. Old Cheng has the reputation of "flying into the sky to capture Dadong" and was commended for flood fighting. Although he was only listed in the category of scientific and technological workers on the front line of "paying unlimited respect to comrades who participated in the struggle on all fronts", he accepted the Contribution Award Medal from the Provincial Government on behalf of Fulong at the commendation meeting of Sichuan Hotel after returning to Chengdu.
This was something Cheng Feiyang could brag about for a while, but after this trip, Old Cheng had a higher vision and a higher ambition. When he came back, he told Cheng Ran that Fulong would aim to become a first-class domestic and even international enterprise. The implication was that your father was so good, and you, the top student in the top ten middle school, should praise me. Cheng Ran laughed at the time and said, Dad, maybe you can build an empire.
The torrent of time roars forward, and the river of everyone's life also flows endlessly, with ups and downs, slow progress, twists and turns, and calmness.
Old Jiang's father is Li Jingping, and from her usual clues, her mother's position is only higher than Li Jingping's, but Cheng Ran doesn't need to ask about the specific level, because he doesn't want Jiang Hongshao to be under pressure. Because she has repeatedly deliberately not mentioned her family, Jiang Hongshao's family is probably very far away from the scope of normal people.
Cheng Ran didn't think it was so incredible. Those great people weren't great from the beginning. For example, before Cheng Feiyang was put on the spot by himself, his subordinates, and even Fu Long, who had to eat and drink soup, wasn't he also a middle-aged man who had been scratching his head for the school selection fee and encountered a career crisis.
It's just that Jiang Hongshao specifically told him that her grandfather was coming over and asked him to accompany her as a classmate and good friend. The amount of information revealed here was quite large, and Cheng Ran couldn't help but analyze it in detail.
He remembered that Jiang's mother's friend who drove the Mercedes-Benz car completely ignored him when they had dinner together and shared an umbrella. The other party's level should be someone who would suddenly understand when his name was mentioned. However, from his behavior, he still couldn't guess the attitude of the head of the family behind Old Jiang towards him. To be frank, Jiang's mother's attitude was difficult to guess. But Cheng Ran didn't need to guess and could know the general idea.
On the eve of his junior high school graduation, he took Jiang Hongshao to chase the criminals, went deep into the tiger's den, and dealt with the armed bandits. If this gets out to others, I'm afraid no one will be happy with him, and they will probably have to stay away from them.
Especially since Jiang Hongshao had to transfer schools because of this. The decision-making turmoil behind the transfer was probably the conclusion of a turbulent debate that engulfed the entire family.
In this situation, Cheng Ran's extraordinary wisdom and courage, which were not in line with his age, were probably not considered to be his strengths... In the eyes of her whole family, he was probably classified as a dangerous person.
At the beginning, Li Jingping was able to look at him with a sullen face instead of chasing him out of the house with a broom. This was enough to show the tolerance, patience and grace of a mayor.
Just endure, always just endure.
As a mother whose daughter is the apple of her eye, Cheng Ran felt that if they ever met, the other party would be able to kill him with just a look.
So while his grandfather came to the province for recuperation, he let him meet Cheng Ran. Perhaps Lao Jiang wanted to get to know Cheng Ran better through the connections of the big shots in his family and clear him of suspicion of being a dangerous element