A hundred flavors of life

Chapter 1240: Laying out the plan, preparing to turn against each other! (Please subscribe!)
PS: Don’t go away, there will be another chapter after midnight!
On the other hand, after Hua Shier was expelled, Qu Xiuzhen and Ma Shouchang went to his house to talk to him. In fact, they just wanted to comfort him, fearing that he would feel wronged and depressed.

Qu Xiuzhen comforted:

"Bingkun, you should be more open-minded. That old Hao is just that kind of person. I know what he wants to do. He wants to make a big fuss right from the start. He wants to use him as an example to establish his authority. Even though you are related to him, this is not your advantage. On the contrary, if you make a small mistake, he will punish you first!"

"Do you know why? This is the only way to show his integrity. No matter if you are a relative or not, no matter how much merit you have made, if you make a small mistake, you will be fired directly. Look, his prestige will be established. Who dares not to listen to him?"

Ma Shouchang was at a loss whether to laugh or cry:
"Old Qu, don't be emotional when you speak. Old Hao is a bit rigid, but he is principled, which is a good thing. He is not as bad as you say!"

Qu Xiuzhen snorted:
"Yes, he is acting like a real boss. I admit he is good at fighting, but governing a region? Does he have that ability? Running a business? He knows shit! Bingkun is such a good leader, and he started the business right away. What do you think he wants to do?"

"What about the misappropriation of the public bus? Does Old Hao dare to say that he has never done that? And as for the sanatorium, they say you embezzled public funds, but those were all unplanned income of our group. What's wrong with doing it for employee benefits? Is Old Hao really that clean? Is there nothing wrong with him?"

Ma Shouchang made a helpless gesture to Hua Twelve:
"You see, I can't argue with her, and the more I talk, the more excited she gets. But you just need to listen to what she says, and don't get upset with her!"

In fact, Hua Shier felt that what Qu Xiuzhen said about Lao Hao being incompetent made sense.

He knew his father-in-law Zhou Bingyi. Whether in the original plot or in the world he lived in, Hao Dongmei's father really had no political achievements.

Before the wind started, when the old man came down to inspect, he made a big promise that he would transform the Guangzi films. However, until the wind started, he failed to fulfill any of his promises.

When the old man was reinstated, he always said that the Guangzi Pian was his heart disease. But until many years later, when he died of a sudden illness, the Guangzi Pian was still the Guangzi Pian.

It can be said that if Hua Twelve had not existed in this life, the Guangzi piece would have to wait until 2004, more than years later, to be relocated. It would have been a long time since the flowers had withered.

Also, although the gradual decline of Northeast China as an old industrial base after the reform and opening up is an inevitable trend, during his tenure, Hao's father neither promoted industrial transformation nor introduced new technologies, let alone any reform and innovation.

Under his rule, the economic vitality of the entire Jichun has become increasingly sluggish, the performance of state-owned enterprises has been declining year after year, and the wave of worker layoffs has intensified. This is enough to show that Hao's father really does not have this ability.

Ma Shouchang comforted Hua Twelve again, and the latter laughed:

"Just put your mind at ease. Do you think I'm angry at all?"

"To be frank, I can live without Red Star Group, but Red Star Group cannot live without me. I'm putting it this way: it's easy to invite a god, but it's hard to send him away. It's easy to let me go, but it's hard to get me back!"

Ma Shouchang thought that this was just the arrogance of the young man and the boasting. He smiled and patted Hua Shier on the shoulder, but Qu Xiuzhen sighed, because only she knew that what he said was probably true.

Qu Xiuzhen opened her mouth, wanting to ask Hua Twelve to help the Red Star Group, but when the words came to her lips, she was too embarrassed to speak.

You just fired someone, and now you ask him to let bygones be bygones and repay evil with kindness. Isn't that bullying? She has a straightforward personality and cannot say such things.

Time flies and the summer vacation is over in a blink of an eye. Hua Shier and Zheng Juan have to go back to Beijing to go to school, and the problem of Li Suhua needing someone to take care of her arises again.

Coincidentally, Sun Ganchao, Xiao Guoqing and others invited Hua Shier to drink that day, during which Sun Ganchao complained that his wife Yu Hong was being ostracized at work.

Yu Hong was originally Chun Yan'er's apprentice, giving pedicures to people in a public bathhouse. Later, she came to Hua Shier and was arranged by him to work in the health center of the sawmill.

After training, when the clinic was expanded into a health center, Yu Hong became a head nurse of the health center.

She was doing well at first, but when the incident with Hua Shier happened, Zheng Juan went back to college, and Yu Hong, as a direct descendant of the former factory director's wife, was also implicated and was removed from the position of head nurse.

After hearing this, Hua Shier's eyes lit up and he suggested that Yu Hong resign and come to Zhou's house to help take care of Zhou's mother. He promised to pay her double salary.

He also specifically pointed out that this was not the kind of employment as a landlord's long-term worker. If Yu Hong agreed, it would be a great favor between friends. As for Yu Hong's job, he promised that there would be arrangements for her after he graduated.

Yu Hong was still reluctant to give up her job, but Sun Ganchao understood clearly:
"Your sister-in-law has already resigned. What are you afraid of? With Bingkun here, there won't be any less work for you in the future. Just go if you are asked to. Bingkun and his wife are not at home. His mother is just like our mother. We don't want any money. We are just helping!"

Although people say so, Hua Shier can't do it. Before the new semester starts, he paid double salary to Yu Hong. This way, Sun Ganchao's family increased their income, helped their friends, and Zhou's mother had someone she could trust to take care of her. Everyone was happy.

A few days after returning to school, Hua Shier ran into Zhou Bingyi on campus, who was a little embarrassed:
"Bingkun, something happened at school, so I came back early and didn't wait for you. Don't take it to heart!"

Hua Twelve sneered:
"Zhou Bingyi, you are so awesome. You only come home twice during the summer vacation. Are you trying to avoid suspicion with me? I don't even want to bother with you!"

"But I didn't expect you to be so inhumane. Have you ever thought about who will take care of our mom after your father-in-law closes the Red Star Sanatorium? Have you ever asked?"

Zhou Bingyi blushed instantly. He was indeed trying to avoid suspicion, and it was his father-in-law's idea that he distanced himself from his brother Zhou Bingkun so that he would not be affected by his expulsion from the government in the future.

He was so worried about this that he completely forgot that his mother Li Suhua needed someone to take care of her.

"Bingkun, listen to me!"

Zhou Bingyi hurried to explain.

Hua Twelve interrupted directly: "Don't explain yet, I want to ask you something, have you ever been to the hospital to have your tonsils checked?"

Zhou Bingyi didn't understand why he suddenly said this, and was a little confused: "I have seen it, what's the matter!"

"How do you see it?"

"The doctor told me to open my mouth, and I did." He opened his mouth and imitated it quite well.

Hua Twelve took advantage of the moment when he opened his mouth and said, "He, tui!"

Then, as Zhou Bingyi turned around and vomited, and amid the shocked eyes of the onlookers, Hua Twelve patted his chest and walked away with a smile on his face:
"I haven't spitted at anyone in a long time. This time I feel much better! This is so insightful!"

Without a job, Hua Shier could no longer spend money lavishly while in school, otherwise he would have no way to explain the source of his income.

He had never thought about thriftiness, and it was not his style, so Hua Shier decided to find a way to make money as a cover.

After a little thought, he realized that he seemed to have not been a plagiarist like most of the protagonists of time-travel novels.

Hua Shier decided to submit an article to People's Literature as soon as he thought of it.

Soon, Hua Shier selected his target from the database he had prepared earlier, the novel "Heavy Wings", which won the Mao Dun Literature Prize and was written by writer Zhang Jie!
The content of this novel mainly reflects the industrial reform in the early stage of reform and opening up. It was actually created in 1981 and is very appropriate to use now.

Of course, Hua Twelve couldn't copy it exactly. After all, the timeline of the story was different. If it were published now, many places would need to be modified. Also, this novel only had more than 200,000 words, which was not enough for him.

Hua Shier decided to expand this novel, and set the initial length at one million words. Let’s just keep writing it!

Since it is an adaptation, Hua Shier simply changed the title of the book:
“Let’s call it The Age of Takeoff.”

During class, he did not take notes, but wrote furiously on manuscript paper and began to make a comprehensive adaptation of the original work to suit current political circumstances.

The submission process went smoothly. Hua Shier even received a fee of 7 yuan per thousand words because of the excellent quality of his novel and his status as a Yan University student. This price was considered high in that era.

Soon "The Age of Soaring" was published in "People's Literature". Hua Shier also gave himself a pen name, Zhou Guang, um, the word "Guang" means "light"!

The novel had the Mao Dun Literature Prize as its foundation, so there was no possibility of failure. As expected, it became a hit. The editorial department received a large number of letters from readers every day, and Hua Shier's royalties also increased, rising to eight yuan per thousand words. Well, it was just an increase of one yuan.

That day, Professor Wu, who taught economics, called Hua Shier to his office. As soon as he entered the office, he saw the latest issue of "Economic Research" spread out on Professor Wu's desk.

I have also read this issue of Hua Shier and know that it contains Professor Wu’s article "On the Relationship between Commodity Economy and Planned Economy".

However, Professor Wu did not touch the Economic Research but took out a copy of People's Literature and pointed at the novel:
"This "Age of Takeoff" was written by you, right? You are this Zhou Guang, right?"

Hua Twelve was a little surprised, but did not deny it. He smiled and asked back:

"How did you know that, Professor?"

Professor Wu laughed and said, "How should I know? Bah, can you please control your Northeastern accent? It's so contagious. I'm from the South, and I speak like this now."

After he finished speaking, his face darkened: "You never take notes in my class, you write this stuff every day. A few times I walked behind you and watched you write. How do you think I knew it?"

Hua Twelve smiled awkwardly. Of course he knew there was someone standing behind him, but he was so engrossed in writing at that time that he didn't have time to care who it was!

Professor Wu waved his hand:
"Don't worry, your grades are always the best in the class. It doesn't matter whether you take notes or not. What I want to say is that your novel is well written. I've read it, and many of your ideas are very novel. Have you also studied economic reform?" Hua Shier had nothing to do, so he started chatting with Professor Wu. For the next two hours, Professor Wu's eyes sparkled with joy as he listened to many of his mature ideas about reform and opening up in later generations.

After that, Hua Shier became Professor Wu's frequent guest, and the two often discussed economic reform and the international economic situation together.

That day, Professor Wu called Hua Twelve and insisted on taking him to meet someone.

Hua Shier didn't care at first, but when he arrived outside a courtyard with an absurdly high security level, he had a vague guess in his mind.

Sure enough, after entering the courtyard, I saw a familiar figure reading a newspaper under the grape trellis.

When the old man saw someone coming, he put down the newspaper and looked at Hua Twelve with a smile:
"Oh, aren't you the singing boy? We even took a photo together. So you are the fired factory director and writer. I've read your novels. They are very interesting!"

The old man finished speaking and waved enthusiastically:
"Come and sit down. Comrade Xiao Wu told me that you have some unique insights into reform. Let's have a good chat today!"

After he sat down on a stone bench nearby, the old man asked him to speak again, and Professor Wu also said that he could speak boldly here.

Hua Twelve was not shy either:
"You asked me to say it, so I'll say it. I think the key to reform is to break up the big Guo meal. Just like our Red Star Group, in the past, workers got paid the same amount no matter how much they worked. They earned the same amount whether they worked hard or lazy. Many workers were passive and lazy!"

"Later, I implemented piece-rate wages in the group, and production efficiency immediately quadrupled, and the most difficult quality issues also improved!"

The old man's eyes lit up, and he took out a cigarette and handed it to him:
"That's a good example you gave. Go on."

That day, Hua Shier was invited to dinner by the old man. They chatted a lot and Hua Shier also mentioned enterprise reform.

Now many loss-making enterprises have become a long-standing problem in the local area. Hua Twelve proposed that these enterprises with serious losses could be subject to the contract management responsibility system and shareholding reform.
In fact, he said this out of selfish motives. If the Red Star Group became a mess, Qu Xiuzhen would definitely come to him. He couldn't just work for nothing again and again and then wait for others to reap the benefits. Instead of being controlled by others, it would be better for him to make his own decisions.

He first took out the two plans and let the old man think about them, so that he could speak when the day came.

When he was about to say goodbye, the old man suddenly said:

"You've done a great job in your business. The Red Star Group you founded has set a good example for many other companies and is worth learning from. I'm sorry that you've been wronged by Jichun's situation."

Hua Shier felt warm in his heart when he heard this, and as an old man, since he was told that he had been wronged, this matter would naturally give him a satisfactory answer.

After meeting the old man, Hua Shier resumed his normal life, going to school and writing every day, and replying to readers when he had time. One of the readers who wrote to him was Shao Jingwen, the editor-in-chief of Jichun's "Golden Land" magazine.

In the letter, Shao Jingwen said that he was a loyal reader of the novel Heavy Wings and heard that the author was also from Jichun, so he wanted to ask Hua Shier to write an article and publish it in a publication in his hometown.

Shao Jingwen also said that he knew that literary creation was not easy, and if Hua Shier didn't have time, even a short poem would be good.

When watching the original plot, Hua Shier thought that this old man was good. Seeing the sincere words in his letter, he copied another modern poem and wrote it in his reply. The poem he chose was Gu Cheng's "A Generation": The night gave me black eyes, but I use them to look for light!
Not surprisingly, this poem became popular. Once published, many publications reprinted it. When Hua Shier walked on campus, he could hear classmates reciting this poem.

Time flies, and a semester has passed in the blink of an eye. Hua Shier had a very fulfilling semester. However, there was one thing that made him feel strange: he didn't see Zhou Rong on campus. He wondered if the other party was guilty and was deliberately avoiding him.

As soon as the school was on vacation, Hua Shier took Zheng Juaner back to Jichun. As for Zhou Bingyi and Zhou Rong, since they were not the same kind of people, they should not force themselves to go together. They had no conversation and he would be annoyed if they looked at each other for even a second.

As soon as she returned to Guangzi Pian, Zheng Juan felt that the atmosphere was not right. At this time of year in previous years, Guangzi Pian would be filled with the sound of children setting off firecrackers, but this year it was surprisingly quiet.

When I entered the house, Zhou's mother was chatting with Yu Hong. The old and the young were talking and laughing, and they got along very harmoniously.

When Yu Hong saw Hua Twelve and Zheng Juan, she quickly stood up and greeted them:

"Brother Bingkun, sister-in-law, you are back from vacation. These past two days, godmother has been talking about you being on vacation soon!"

Hua Twelve was a little confused: "Yu Hong, what does this godmother mean?"

Mother Zhou took Yu Hong's hand and said with a smile:

"You were not at home, so this girl was the only one who kept me company and took good care of me. I have already recognized Yu Hong as my goddaughter. From now on, we are mother and daughter!"

Yu Hong was a little embarrassed, but Hua Twelve laughed:

"That's great. She was my brother's wife before, and now she's my sister. We are even closer!"

The fact that Li Suhua is satisfied with Yu Hong proves that she takes good care of her. Although she is also paid, she is much better than Zhou Rong, her own daughter.

In the evening, Hua Twelve prepared a table of dishes and invited Sun Ganchao, Gong Bin, and Xiao Guoqing and his wife to his home for dinner. During the meal, Zheng Juan asked about the Guangzi tablet:

"I feel like the Guangzi Film Festival is much quieter than last year. It's almost Chinese New Year, and there's not even anyone setting off firecrackers!"

Speaking of this, Sun Ganchao, Xiao Guoqing and others all sighed:

"All the people living in this apartment are employees of our Red Star Group. We haven't had any expenses for two months, and we don't know how to celebrate the New Year. Who would be in the mood to buy guns for the kids to play with?"

Hua Twelve smiled but said nothing. He already knew about this, so he was not curious. However, Zheng Juan did not know, so she asked quickly:

"How is that possible? Our Red Star Group is the best enterprise in Jichun. It makes more money than those state-owned enterprises. How can we not be able to pay out?"

Xiao Guoqing has the worst temper:
"Don't mention it. It's all the fault of the new factory manager. At first, he said that we could export our products to Su'e, saying that we could circumvent international patents. But when we sold our modular furniture and new down jackets to them, a company there directly issued a law."

Hua Twelve reminded: "Lawyer's letter!"

"Yes, that thing. Anyway, it's just a lawsuit. It turns out that the Hong Kong Island company also cooperated with Su'e. Not only did they apply for the Su'e patent, they also got some kind of patent authorization. Anyway, they lost a lot of money that time."

Xiao Guoqing sighed after he finished speaking.

Sun Ganchao had been holding it in for a long time. When he saw him stop, he immediately took up the conversation and continued:
"Our group was ruined in an instant. Several profitable factories turned into loss-making factories. We lost all the money we used to buy raw materials, which resulted in the inability to complete domestic orders!"

"I heard that the factory director went to see your eldest brother's father-in-law. I don't know what he said, but the finance department above allocated a sum of money to our group, saying it was a loan."

"Originally, with this money, as long as we complete the orders, we can maintain the domestic market and our group won't be in such a bad situation. But that new factory director is a waste of money!"

"He insisted on applying to go to Hong Kong Island, saying that if Zhou Bingkun could negotiate the deal, there was no reason why others couldn't. Then he took the money and went to Hong Kong Island. But when he got there, he met a scammer who defrauded him of more than three million!"

Sun Ganchao spread his hands:

"Now, we haven't reached an agreement with Hong Kong Island, and we lost more than three million. We can't complete domestic orders, and we still have to pay back the grants from above. How can we have money to pay our salaries? Now the employees are making a fuss, and some of them go to work every day, but it's useless."

Hua Shier knew all the things Xiao Guoqing and Sun Ganchao said. It was he who instructed the matter about Big Goose. Knowing how Hao Dongmei's father went to find Big Goose, he asked someone to apply for a patent.

As for the three million, it really wasn't taken by Hua Twelve. It was purely the new factory director's bad luck. He was not vigilant when he went out to do things. Hong Kong was a mixed bag during that period, and this guy believed everyone's words. There was nothing we could do about it.

Hua Shier told Xiao Guoqing and Sun Ganchao that the difficulties were only temporary and asked them to stay calm. If they had no money to spend, they should ask him and not follow others to make trouble.

Several people nodded and said that they were all waiting for Hua Shier to finish college so that they could work with him.

The day after Hua Shier arrived home, Zhou Zhigang came back from the Third Front. When he came back, he first came to Guangzi Pian to pick up Li Suhua and go to the building area.

When Zhou Zhigang saw Hua Twelve, his eyes were a little complicated, but he didn't speak to him. Obviously, he was still acting like a father and didn't want to bother with him, but he greeted Zheng Juan.

That night, sister-in-law Hao Dongmei came to the house and asked Hua Twelve and his wife to come over to their house for dinner.

Hua Shier didn't want to go at first, but was pulled over by Zheng Juan. As soon as he entered the room, he saw that not only Zhou Bingyi was there, but Zhou Rong and Feng Huacheng had also returned and were eating melon seeds around the table.

I haven't seen Zhou Rong for a semester. She seems to have aged a lot. Come to think of it, not only does she have to study, but she also has to take care of three children. It must be a lot of worry. She is only 28 years old, but now she looks like 38.

When Zhou Bingyi saw Hua Twelve, he seemed to remember the last incident with his tonsils. His face looked a little unhappy, but he still smiled and explained:
"Bingkun, we left late this holiday, Zhou Rong and Hua Cheng came back with me!"

Hua Twelve nodded and smiled: "It's good that you two are together. Fish seek fish, shrimp seek shrimp, turtle seek... well, birds of a feather flock together!"

Seeing that the old man was about to overturn the table, he quickly changed his words. It was not that Hua Twelve was afraid of overturning the table, but that this table should be overturned by him. Otherwise, if he turned against him now, there would be no fun.

(End of this chapter)