The year 1999 arrived so quietly.
Of course, in this 1999, there was no interstellar battle in which Europa was destroyed by a single shot, the moon was pierced by an alien warship, and 80% of the world's post-80s people were killed.
But life itself is a series of battles, and it is longer than an epic.
The world situation was generally stable this year, local wars continued to occur frequently, and the international military situation was still a "one superpower and many strong countries" pattern led by the United States, which continued to influence future generations. The euro was officially launched in January, which meant that European integration had taken an important step. No one knew that this process would always be ups and downs, and even the Brexit referendum that no one dared to write about would happen in the future. Various waves of thought emerged in the era, which were invisible and elusive, but profoundly affected people in all aspects.
Of course, ordinary people may also be concerned about whether the predicted doomsday will come
After New Year's Day, things gradually got back on track. With the arrest of Lei Wei and Wang Ligang, the outside world's clamor had just begun, but Cheng Ran's mood had already calmed down. He believed that if he took another exam this time, he would be able to move up a little from the 38th place. After arriving at No. 10 Middle School, Cheng Ran discovered how fierce the competition was.
It's not surprising. Last year, Chengdu No. 10 Middle School had 16 students who were admitted to Tsinghua University and Peking University in advance, 70 students who were admitted to the top key universities in the country in advance, and 109 students who were admitted to first-class international universities in developed countries such as the United States and Britain in advance. The total number of students admitted to Tsinghua University and Peking University in 1998 was 60, which is the level of the top ten middle schools in the country. This is completely different from the situation in many regions where schools will publicize themselves all over the world if they have one student admitted to Tsinghua University or Peking University. It can indeed be said that it is the best in the province.
Unlike junior high school, which is all about subject foundation, many subjects in high school really test people's understanding and learning talent in the subject. If you don't have enough qualifications, you have to work hard and persevere to stand out. Otherwise, there are many people who go to various cram schools and are happy if they can improve their ranking by ten or twenty points.
At the level of academic masters, each subject is basically "easy to learn but difficult to master". In high school subjects, even the strongest students are rare to get full marks. Even if there are some, luck plays a big part. To really achieve balanced leadership in all subjects, this is not only a matter of knowledge comprehension and reserves, but is also closely related to the mental state on the day of the exam, which is already in the realm of metaphysics.
Therefore, if Cheng Ran had his mind distracted and wanted to outperform the top students in the ten middle schools who were fighting for every inch of land, it would be impossible.
However, Cheng Ran felt that the determination, endurance and understanding brought by his two souls had enabled him to reach this point and join the pyramid of the most intense fighting among the top students in the province, which he could only look up to in the past... He still felt a little proud when he thought about it.
After Lei Wei's case, a huge mess was left behind. Although he was imprisoned, the damage caused was still far-reaching. Cheng Ran handed a file to Cheng Feiyang that day. Cheng Feiyang took a look and asked, "Where did you get this information?"
Cheng Ran gave him a copy of the relevant information and improvement suggestions for the Jingcheng Design and Manufacturing Factory owned by Qin Songyuan, Qin Qian's father. It contained a very detailed list of the factory's equipment, personnel, and organizational structure.
"Zhao Qing was responsible for inspecting our Fulong foundry. These are the data I got from him. Here are some of the calculations I made..."
If anyone had told him this in the past, Cheng Feiyang would probably have just told the relevant people to handle it, as he no longer needed to do everything himself. But the person in front of him was his son, and Cheng Feiyang believed that Cheng Ran would not bring up such a trivial matter of a factory, so Cheng Feiyang said, "Well, I've seen it, do you think we can invest in this factory and upgrade their equipment? To meet future equipment upgrade needs?"
Cheng Ran smiled and said, "Dad, I'm trying to win back the people's hearts for you. Wang Ligang and Lei Wei of Beituo have made many factories miserable. But before, they dared not speak out and were controlled by them. Now it's different. Lei Wei has fallen, and these factories have been freed. Some of them are facing funding problems. We have money now, and we can take this opportunity to talk to them about shareholding cooperation... Just like this Jingcheng factory, their boss is the father of my classmate. When he was attacked by Lei Wei, the boss sold all the valuables in his home and paid the workers first, even though he continued to be threatened by the underworld. This move touched the workers greatly. Now they say that if the boss wants to make a comeback, they would rather take the lowest salary, remember the boss's kindness, and are willing to work for him and live and die with the factory. This person is trustworthy. This is the first point."
"Secondly, I have read the information of this factory. Although the equipment is generally old, the advantage is that the management model is very superior and the foundation is good. As long as we invest money and help them upgrade their product line, it will be equivalent to having a tailor-made production line in the future. If we expand this model and introduce it to other OEM factories, we will have a strong backup production capacity in the future. Cost reduction has always come from large-scale production. In the future, it will also be beneficial for us to reduce costs and we will firmly grasp the price as a favorable weapon!"
Seeing that Cheng Feiyang was obviously moved, Cheng Ran added one last beat.
"Besides, Dad, didn't you say that we need to make our partners stronger? Only when our allies are strong can we be stronger in the future."
Cheng Feiyang smiled, stretched out his hand and scratched Cheng Ran's nose fiercely, causing a stinging pain on his nose bridge. "Well, you have learned to flatter your father! A stone from another mountain can be used to polish jade, and you want to use my words to break through me? This model has been decided, and I will let the people below do it tomorrow."
Cheng Ran was silent and then said, "That's it?"
Cheng Feiyang asked curiously, "What else do you want? I can't refuse you emotionally or logically, so let's do it!"
But then Cheng Feiyang added, "The top students from No. 10 Middle School... are just different."
Seeing his father's unconcealable pride, Cheng Ran felt relieved. It seemed that always maintaining top grades was the only way to make his father believe that he was knowledgeable beyond his age. It was very simple. When you have a child who can get into the best high school in the province and has excellent grades, his so-called maturity and knowledge can naturally be explained in terms of academic ability, and he doesn't need to waste any more words to explain it.
Qin Qian's family situation, which had originally been the subject of much discussion and sympathy at No. 10 Middle School, seemed to have suddenly taken a turn for the better.
Just like the information was initially leaked by a student of his father's partner, the partner was well-informed and it was said that someone found his father and, seeing that their factory had a good foundation, was willing to invest money to improve the equipment and help them overcome the difficulties.
After Qin Qian's friends got the news, they confirmed it with Qin Qian immediately. Qin Qian said that her father didn't reveal too much, just that they were still discussing it, but the situation was similar. When she said this, her complexion looked much better. It seemed that the family's recent situation had turned from bad to good. The haze that had lingered around her seemed to have faded, and she could already see the clear sky.
Of course, Cheng Ran's proposal to Cheng Feiyang to invest in upgrading the equipment of Qin Qian's father's factory was because he thought it was a good opportunity to make money. Lei Wei and Wang Ligang's evil deeds actually brought an opportunity. If it were usual, it would not be so easy to make these factories obedient and work together for his own benefit.
According to the future development plan, Fulong has established a modern and powerful production and manufacturing base, which is the irrefutable way to master the strong internal strength. The most important and core of this is a group of experienced and skilled technical workers.
This will allow them to be included in Fulong's sphere of influence without bloodshed. In the future, Fulong will have a group of regular manufacturing companies that truly master core technologies and grow together with the company. How many related companies dream of this? Now a great opportunity is in front of Fulong.
While thinking about these things in the cafeteria, Cheng Ran was suddenly bumped by Zhang Ping beside him.
There are a lot of people in the cafeteria at this time, and everyone is eating here at noon.
Cheng Ran looked over and saw Qin Qian's group of people over there, Lu Huiqun, Zhang Xiao, Wang Hongying, and a boy named Du Zishan from Qin Qian's dance team, who was good-looking but a little effeminate and liked to hang out with women. Following Zhang Ping's suggestion, Cheng Ran saw Qin Qian in the crowd, looking at him.
When Cheng Ran looked at her again, her eyes were no longer on him. Instead, she was listening to her friends at the table talking and laughing. She rested her hands on the table to support her head and laughed along with others.
Zhang Ping's voice came from beside his ear, "I noticed it just now. She kept looking at you for at least three minutes!"
"What happened between you two? Why did you make up again?" Zhang Ping looked suspicious.
"The general trend of the world is that long-term unity will eventually lead to division, and long-term division will eventually lead to unity."
Cheng Ran said with a smile, Zhang Ping had already punched him from the side, "You're the one pulling this trick!"
Qin Qian and her friends had finished their meal and were preparing to leave. It must be said that in a place like the cafeteria, girls like Qin Qian stood out from the crowd. Even though she was wearing the same blue and white school uniform as most people, she still had a refined temperament. Some young-faced boys who usually didn't dare to talk to girls, at this moment, just looked at her and quickly lowered their heads and blushed. Some of them kept staring at her, trying to hide that they were not deliberately glancing at her.
Guo Yi and his group watched from afar in the corner. Ever since Qin Qian suddenly rejected Guo Yi, Guo Yi had pestered her several times. After so many times, Guo Yi stopped greeting Qin Qian because of his face. However, seeing Qin Qian regain her vitality and look even more charming, and hearing the news that her family was getting better, Guo Yi was probably burning with anger. It was like you almost had a beautiful jade treasure, but you missed it, and you had to pretend to be magnanimous.
Just before Qin Qian and his group left the cafeteria, Qin Qian suddenly separated from the crowd and walked straight to the long white table where Cheng Ran was, holding a bottle of boxed milk with the logo of "Jule", a famous milk company in the province.
Qin Qian stood in front of Cheng Ran's table. At that moment, it was estimated that the noise that was originally floating in the air in the cafeteria decreased by 30%.
Everyone thought Qin Qian was going to say something to Cheng Ran, but she just suddenly reached out, placed the box of "Ju Le" milk in front of his table plate, then turned and left.
Zhang Ping, who was shoveling rice nearby, had rice grains falling from the corners of his mouth.
Cheng Ran then noticed a note on the box of milk, "38th place, congratulations!"
This is a scene that happened in the huge cafeteria of No. 10 Middle School this winter.