Suddenly, everything seemed to be the same as before.
Yang Xia said this righteously, as if she was explaining the teasing of her friends at the dinner table earlier. She mustered up her courage when she said this. She had a stern face at first, but it was ruined when she spoke to Cheng Ran.
In addition to bursting out laughing, the people around him also started to make a loud noise. When all these words were put together, it was inevitable that they would divert Yang Xia's speech.
So Yang Xia glared at Cheng Ran fiercely.
In the eyes of everyone, including Yang Xia, Cheng Ran's joke melted away the last layer of estrangement caused by their different circumstances when they first met Cheng Ran.
Cheng Ran still seemed to be the naughty boy who once climbed a tree to dig out a bird's nest and was hit on the head by bird droppings, who wrapped cut-up ping-pong balls in tin foil and threw them into the honeycomb coal stove, making the whole building full of smoke and causing others to almost call the fire department.
It was the same time when for a long time, everyone in the unit knew that he liked Yang Xia, but he would find all kinds of faults in front of her, saying that she had a bad figure and a bad head shape and that she got so tanned this summer, which made the girl angry. It seemed that he was still the boy who would rashly confess his love to her and flirt with her at the art festival, causing the girl to hit him with a hairpin and become the focus of everyone.
It seemed that since arriving in Chengdu, Yao Beibei had witnessed the pressure brought to her by the change in Cheng Ran's family situation, and it finally disappeared at this moment, so she said, "Cheng Ran, our Xia Xia meant that she didn't take the exam because she saw you got into No. 10 Middle School. She didn't take you as a benchmark. Yang Xia just has the ability!"
Yu Xiao next to him frowned, "Yao Beibei, you think the emperor is not anxious but the eunuch is... Didn't Cheng Ran get into No. 10 Middle School based on his real ability? Can you get in? Besides, he is now second in the grade at No. 10 Middle School. How many points did you get in No. 1 Middle School this time? Tell us about it... I heard from your mom that it was around 530, not too much, just about 200 points behind Cheng Ran."
Yao Beibei's face turned pale instantly, and she stammered, "I'm not saying that his grades are bad..." She stared at Yu Xiao and said in a stronger voice, "Cheng Ran's grades have improved because he is not with you. Look, now that you are together again, who knows how you will interfere with each other!"
"Bullshit! Cheng Ran was able to get into No. 10 Middle School because of my selfless encouragement... I encouraged Cheng Ran at the cost of my own poor grades."
Yu Xiao made a convincing argument, but Yao Beibei rolled her eyes at his so-called "sacrifice for justice".
Seeing that the two were about to choke each other to death after arguing like this, Liu Ying tried to smooth things over, "Okay, okay, let's go sing."
After the hotpot, we went to the popular KTV. We sang until eleven or twelve o'clock, and only stopped at the urging of the phone and pager at home.
When we left, some of us lived in Fulong Courtyard, some of us rented houses or lived with relatives, such as Yang Xia. We went our separate ways. Before leaving, some asked if we could meet again in a few days, but we didn't agree. We had just moved to Chengdu not too long ago, and everyone had something to do recently, so we postponed it for the time being.
Liu Ying and Yao Beibei had the most sparkling eyes and said that they had been invited by a friend recently. At the end, they asked Yang Xia if she wanted to go to the performance on Thursday at the Provincial Grand Theater in the city center, and introduced their friends to her.
Many of Shanhai’s friends have relatives in Chengdu. In the past, they would only visit Chengdu during holidays or when others came to Shanhai for tourism. Now that they have moved to Chengdu to settle down, they have to start expanding and maintaining these relationship networks and social connections.
Not to mention the complicated family relationships of some people here, Yao Beibei also visited some relatives and friends with her parents after arriving here. Some of them were officials, some were businessmen, and some were small families. The differences in how her parents dealt with them were all lessons. Aren't many ways of dealing with people and others learned through such circumstances
At the same time, along with this family migration, we witnessed the development and construction of various human relationships. Now that they are entering the legal age of adulthood, everyone seems to have grown up and become sensible all of a sudden.
Yang Xia shook his head. "I have something to do that day, so I won't go. You guys just have fun."
Liu Ying and Yao Beibei nodded and did not call anyone else. They knew their own business. Both of them transferred to No. 12 Middle School and used the connections on Liu Ying's mother's side. The other party was someone who had a say in the Provincial Education Workers Committee. She was the only daughter in the family and her name was Shen Xihua.
During the family dinner that day, Liu Ying, Yao Beibei and Shen Xihua had a very pleasant conversation. On the one hand, it was because of Liu Ying's mother's appearance and the connections she made. The other party also saw that both Liu Ying and Yao Beibei were decent girls and not troublesome students, so he helped to get the matter done.
Both Liu Ying and Yao Beibei felt the importance of social skills from this transfer and their parents. The next step was to build a good relationship with Shen Xihua. Through conversation, they learned that many of Shen Xihua's friends were children of cadres or businessmen. Shen Xihua's original intention was to bring them along to play. Liu Ying and Yao Beibei both had the intention to integrate into this level of circle in Rongcheng.
After all, parents are also building their network of contacts. There is ladies’ diplomacy in some occasions, and there is no shortage of good relationships among children, which promotes the integration of the adult circles.
Of course, this kind of thing still needs to be done on a small scale. After all, the more private the relationship is, the better. I just want to pull Yang Xia into this small group, but Yang Xia still declined for now. But it doesn’t matter, there are plenty of opportunities.
Yu Xiao said, "You are so mysterious, what kind of performance are you going to see..."
Yao Beibei said, "Go play games with your Cheng Ran. Why are you interrupting when adults are talking?"
Yu Xiao was furious, "Who cares to know."
Yao Beibei snorted and continued to whisper with Liu Ying.
When Cheng Ran looked over, Yao Beibei and Liu Ying waved at him again and said with a smile, "Go home and have a rest quickly, or your mother will start urging you to do something. Aren't you afraid of being hit by the clothesline? Yao Beibei and I have something to discuss, and we live nearby, so let's go slowly."
After saying goodbye to Cheng Ran and his group, Yao Beibei and Liu Ying strolled towards the family's rented house nearby to summarize today's gathering. Most of the friends who used to be in the same courtyard have grown up, but in fact, everyone's personality can still be traced. The two people's impression of Cheng Ran is almost the same as before, but the difference now is that Cheng Ran's grades are unexpectedly good. He has become a top student who is often mentioned by his family for his hard work and enterprising spirit.
Therefore, Yao Beibei and Liu Ying inevitably feel a gap between themselves and Yang Xia and Cheng Ran. In fact, they can't really tell what they are feeling in their hearts. Maybe they are even a little envious, because their grades are good and it seems that they will have more opportunities to choose themselves in the future.
But it is not the case for them. Even to get into No. 12 Middle School, they need to rely on their family connections to pave the way for them. This makes them realize in advance that this may be the path they will take in the future. With their current grades, their parents don't want them to go far away from college, so as long as the road can be paved in advance, if they can do well in the exam, they can safely enter a second-tier university. At the very least, they can use their connections to find a third-tier university or a school with places for associate degree to bachelor's degree, and after graduation they can be arranged into a good company and a good position.
Therefore, their parents often taught them to make more friends with children of cadres like Shen Xihua, which was actually preparing them to make new friends.
So they felt that they had seen the world more clearly than their friends Shanhai and even Cheng Ran, and knew how some unspoken rules worked...
But these cannot be said openly to others, so looking at Yu Xiao and Cheng Ran, who got along well with Yu Xiaoru as before, one would feel that they are still in a simple world... and have not yet awakened and grown up.
…
In fact, Cheng Ran was very happy with this meal, and he was in a better mood than ever before. It just changed the life trajectory of the people he knew in his previous life. Would it cause some hidden dangers? But Cheng Ran thought, who cares? At least one thing is that in his previous life, these guys were still in Shanhai Courtyard at this time, and they didn't have the awareness of taking welfare housing or buying houses in Rongcheng. Now, one or two of them have houses in Rongcheng. When the housing prices rise in the future, they don't have to rush to get loans like in their previous lives.
Thinking of this, Cheng Ran felt that this was a very good thing.
After the gathering dinner, everyone went about their own business for a while. Although now, before the welfare housing is renovated, everyone's families are temporarily renting houses and are not in the same place. But after the renovation of Fulon's welfare housing is completed, they will live in the same community again, which will be a good thing.
The next day after the party, Cheng Ran turned on his computer and received messages from everyone on CQ. Everyone was talking about the fun of yesterday's party and chatting. Even Yu Xiao and Yao Beibei, who didn't get along with each other, were bickering with each other on CQ. But after the bickering, they would say to each other "I won't talk to you anymore 886" and "Let's argue again tomorrow, 886!"
Cheng Ran also received a message from Yang Xia. First, Didi sent a line, "When you got in the car and left last night, I was watching you the whole time."
Cheng Ran's heart skipped a beat and he stared at the computer in a daze. After a while, another beeping message came out, which made people laugh and cry. "Then I remembered that we were going the same way."
Cheng Ran smiled and typed a reply, "Ah, why didn't you say so earlier..."
"I remember I said this at the dinner table..."
"That was my oversight."
"Forget it, forget it, it's still the same, I'm used to it-_!"
Cheng Ran scratched his head and typed, "What do you mean by old fashioned?"
Yang Xia responded with a laughing emoticon.
Zhao Qing came to see him in the afternoon. Cheng Ran wanted to know about the situation in Fulong. It was said that in the recent rectification movement, some things had surfaced, exposing some old-fashioned practices. For example, some OEM factories did not have sufficient qualifications, but because of their good relationship with some senior executives of Fulong, or perhaps because of intentions from government departments, Fulong took over and suffered some unnecessary losses.
"For example, Tenghua Electronics, their FCB0453 circuit system and some of the microelectronic components they produce are not of very good quality. When we use their products, our defective rate is very high and not very stable. The logistics and maintenance personnel have complained a lot, and sometimes they have to go to the door to inspect and repair them while being scolded by customers. But there is nothing we can do. They are a state-owned factory, backed by the Bureau of Commerce. Deputy Director Yan Chongming of the Bureau of Commerce hopes that we will give them orders to help this factory complete the bureau's phased plan... So there are products on the market that meet the quality standards better than Tenghua's products, but it's useless... Several CEOs of related factories came to us to ask for orders to show their strength, but they were always stuck before."
Cheng Ran nodded.
Cheng Ran had no intention of getting involved in these internal affairs, but the recent developments had caused quite a stir, so he went to Zhao Qing to ask about the reasons.
Fulong is getting stronger and stronger, but in fact there are some deep-seated problems inside, and even the shortcomings of the practices in the previous stages have always existed. And these are not something that can be cut off in a short time.
We need to consider the relationship with government departments and the personal relationships of some senior members of Fulong. When it comes to doing things, it is not always possible to implement them just because you know they are right. The gap between theory and practice is sometimes always separated by huge mountains.
Therefore, doing practical things is the most difficult thing.
…
Two days later, it was their cousin Gao Shijin who invited them to dinner. After knowing Cheng Ran's family status, Gao Shijin called them every few days to invite them to dinner. After refusing several times, Xu Lan and Cheng Feiyang finally felt that it was not good to refuse any further, so they set the date for this Thursday at noon.
After eleven o'clock in the morning, Cheng Ran's family arrived downstairs. Chen Wenguang drove a Santana to take them to the famous Tan Chicken Chinese restaurant in the city center where Gao Shijin had booked a private room.