A hundred flavors of life

Chapter 1472 Don't be so alarmed when classmates spar! (Please subscribe!)

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A week has passed in the blink of an eye, and Friday is the day of the class reunion. After her daughter Cui Mengmeng left for school in the morning, Hua Shier took out a casual suit that she bought last year, put it on, looked in the mirror, and was very satisfied with her self-image.

Li Xiaozhen stood with her arms crossed, looking on in bewilderment:
"Where are you going to go showing off with that gaudy outfit?"

"I'm going to a class reunion after get off work today!"

After Hua Shier finished explaining, he said with a smile:

"Honey, you weren't this harsh before, what's wrong?"

Li Xiaozhen laughed in exasperation:

"Don't you know what's wrong with me? I was wondering why. It's been over a week, and I've been hinting and making it clear, but you haven't reacted at all. Are you waiting for the class reunion?"

"I've heard all sorts of things said. People our age never go to class reunions for anything good. They say 'class reunions are just a way to find love.' Are you planning to meet up with someone?"

Hua Shier was both amused and exasperated, only then realizing that Li Xiaozhen's anger stemmed from her temper.

The saying goes that one is like a man in his thirties, and Li Xiaozhen is in her early thirties, which is the prime of her life, so it's normal for her to be a little hot-tempered.

These days, Hua Shier and Li Xiaozhen only share a bed, and he ignores all her overt and covert hints and glances.

Well, although he is Cui Guoming now, he still has some mental hurdles to overcome, so it's definitely not possible for him to take the initiative, unless the other party forces him.
Ahem, as everyone knows, it's normal for scholars to be physically weak. Hua Twelve has read a wide variety of books, making him a proper scholar!

Li Xiaozhen continued, "Don't think I don't know, lots of girls in your class like you!"

"That's a lie! Every girl in the school likes me!"

Hua Shier corrected Li Xiaozhen's mistake.

Li Xiaozhen seized the opportunity: "Look, how can you blame me for overthinking? Just tell me, haven't you been saving up your energy these past few days, planning to unleash it?"

Hua Twelve couldn't help but laugh:

"You're underestimating me. With my excellent physical condition, why would I need to hold back if I wanted to make a mistake? I was just conserving my energy... no, you've completely misled me!"

"I'm learning from the experts. Before a big battle, I need to clear my mind and adjust my mentality. Then I'll wait for the weekend's billiards tournament, win the championship, and bring the motorcycle back to you. You can hold it!"

He waved with a smile and said, "Bye-bye!"

After saying that, he smiled and walked out of the house.

"Failed to be promoted to senior engineer!"

Nightclub performance attempt: a failure!
Setting up a chess stall was a failure!
Failed the bar exam!

Writing a novel? A failure!

My business venture (selling pinhole glasses) failed!

The development of a multi-speed bicycle failed!
The attempt to contract Dingqinglou was a failure!

Border trade, a failure!
Speculating on stamps resulted in losing both his wife and his money—a complete failure!

He did make money running the clothing store, but it was all secondhand clothing. Before he could even finish, he ruined everything. It's like he surrendered and lost half the battle.

It was 3:30 p.m. when Hua Shier sat in his office, waiting to get off work and go to a party.

With the thought that he might as well do something since he was idle anyway, he recalled all of Cui Guoming's failed attempts in the original story and wrote them down on paper. When he compiled the list, wow, it was all so upsetting.

At that moment, Hua Twelve made a decision.

The system task only stated that if Cui Guoming successfully completed three things that he had previously failed at, he would be considered to have met the target.

But he figured that since he was already here, he might as well fix all these frustrating things. After all, as the old saying goes, success is always the best policy!
Jingle Bell!
The phone rang in front of him, and Hua Shier casually picked up the receiver and put it to his ear:

"Technical Department!"

The call was made by Zhao Hailong from the workshop.
"Brother Cui, Liu Ye and I can't handle that old, broken machine in Workshop One. We'll have to get you to come over here in person!"

"Okay, wait for me!"

Hua Shier put down the phone, tidied up the paper on the table used for taking notes, and was about to head to the workshop when the phone rang again.

He picked up the phone: "I was already planning to go, can you stop rushing me, Brother Li? It's okay, I thought it was my colleague. The number of people who signed up has exceeded two thousand? That's great! Congratulations on your fortune, Brother Li! Yes, I'm rich too, congratulations to you!"

This call was from Brother Li, the owner of the billiard hall. He had two purposes: first, to share the good news that the number of registrants had exceeded two thousand, which meant that the registration fee revenue had exceeded two hundred thousand yuan, half of which belonged to Hua Twelve.

The second purpose was to remind Hua Shier not to forget the competition this weekend. If Hua Shier didn't go, then the 'Fiery Chariot' would be taken away by someone else.

Hua Shier smiled and said he couldn't forget it, then hung up the phone and went to Workshop 1.

The old, dilapidated machine in Workshop 1 was imported from Russia during the Soviet era. Almost thirty years have passed in the blink of an eye. The machine is aging and often has problems. If it's a minor problem, Zhao Hailong and Liu Ye are enough to handle it. But if the problem is a little bigger, you have to rely on Cui Guoming. Besides him, even if Russian experts came, it would be useless.

This is why the old factory director treated Cui Guoming like a treasure when he was in office.

Of course, the old factory director considered Cui Guoming a treasure, but that was the old factory director's own opinion and what others said, or rather, Cui Guoming himself originally thought so too. But when it came to Hua Shier, he didn't agree.

In Hua Shier's view, the old factory director's indulgence of Cui Guoming was actually just a way of taking advantage of him. If he were really a treasure, how come someone like him, a senior technical talent who graduated from Harbin Institute of Technology, has been working for more than ten years and was an engineer when he first entered the factory, and is still an engineer now?

Why hasn't the senior engineer title that the old man of the Cui family has been longing for been given to Cui Guoming?
You can't just say you're nice to someone and then only talk the talk without doing anything in return.

So, in Hua Shier's eyes, both the old factory director and the new factory director, who was destined to be disliked by Secretary Zhang, were birds of a feather and nothing special.

He'll have to figure out how to get his senior engineer title himself.

Upon arriving at Workshop One, facing the Russian machines that Zhao Hailong and Liu Ye couldn't figure out, Hua Shier quickly fixed them and then shouted outside:
"Push the gate!"

A worker pushed the switch, and under the expectant gazes of the workshop director and all the workers, a few seconds later, with a loud bang, the machine successfully started and began to operate normally.

Hua Shier stepped off the machine and was greeted with enthusiastic applause from everyone in the workshop.

The workshop director came up and shook hands warmly: "It would be useless for anyone else to work on this machine; it has to be Engineer Cui!"

Zhao Hailong and Liu Ye weren't angry when they heard this. They weren't very capable to begin with, and it was good enough that they could help maintain the machine. In critical moments, they still had to rely on Brother Cui.

Cui Guoming smiled and said to the workshop director:

"Director Wang, stop with just words of praise and get something concrete. When the factory meeting starts, mention it to the new factory manager and ask him to help me get my senior engineer title!"

The workshop foreman readily agreed, promising to put in a good word for him with the factory manager.

After coming out of the workshop, Zhao Hailong and Liu Ye, like two happy idiots, sang and danced around Hua Shier. A tricycle carrying scrap passed by, and a few pieces of paper fell down when the wind blew it down.

Hua Shier glanced at it, picked it up and looked at it, and saw that it was written on it:

"The factory has a total of 42 old machine tools with a failure rate of 65%. It is recommended that the factory sell one-third of its land to recoup funds and purchase new imported machine tools."

Zhao Hailong glanced at the contents: "Brother Cui, isn't this the suggestion you wrote for the new factory manager?"

Hua Shier didn't mind; he had already anticipated this scene, and smiled.

"I told you we shouldn't have sent it up. We were just throwing our charms at a blind man!"

After saying that, he casually tossed the paper aside, and several sheets of paper filled with effective suggestions for the factory were scattered by the wind.

After getting off work that evening, Hua Shier met Guo Dapao in front of the agreed-upon restaurant.

In the original storyline, Guo Dapao was late for the gathering because he was questioned by Uncle Hat. Now, Hua Shier helped him miss the 17th and didn't get involved in the murder case, so he arrived on time.

"Old Cui!"

Guo Dapao opened his arms from afar, smiling as he came up to give Hua Shier a warm hug.

After they parted ways, Hua Shier looked at Guo Dapao, who had changed into a suit, and jokingly said:
"Wow, with this makeover, I thought Guo Dapao had turned into Aaron Kwok! You look quite dashing, young man!"

Guo Dapao also joked:
"Of course! But you're not bad either. There's a saying, 'A person who's both good and bad.' You're a person who's good, and I'm a person who's bad. Let's form a duo and call it the 'Good and Bad Duo'!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the two of them burst into laughter.

At that moment, Hua Shier glanced at Guo Dapao's face and exclaimed, "Hmm!"
Guo Dapao's face was faintly tinged with misfortune, and his forehead was tinged with a bluish tinge, clearly indicating that he was about to have bad luck.

Hua Shier was puzzled. It was clearly past the 17th, so why did he still look like this?

Just as they were wondering whether to go inside and do some calculations, a car sped up and braked sharply to stop next to them.

Right where the car was parked, some water had accumulated and was splashed towards the two of them by the car tires.

Hua Shier dodged in time, splashing water all over Guo Dapao. The former then realized he hadn't been mistaken; this was where he was supposed to be, and immediately felt relieved. Guo Dapao, naturally unhappy about the dirty water on his suit, yelled at the car, "Get the hell out of here! How do you drive? Do you even know how to drive?"

The car window rolled down, revealing a chubby man with a grinning face.
"Isn't that Guoming and Dapao!"

Guo Dapao bent down and glanced into the car, then said irritably:
"Yang Dajian? How could you drive like that? You splashed water all over me, my clothes are soaked!"

Yang Dajian grinned slyly:
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't drive well. I'll toast you both later!"

Seeing that it was his classmate, Guo Dapao could only let it go. It was a class reunion, and he couldn't afford to fall out over such a small matter.

The three of them went into the reserved private room together. Many classmates had arrived, and the eyes of the female classmates who had already become old ladies lit up when they saw Hua Shier.

This person said, "Guoming, you've become even more handsome!"

The person said, "That's right, we're all getting wrinkles, but look at Guoming, he seems to be getting younger and younger!"

Surrounded by several female classmates, Hua Shier felt a little guilty thinking about what Li Xiaozhen had said, so she quickly greeted them and went to chat with her male classmates.

A short while later, the retired high school homeroom teacher walked in, and all the students came up to greet him. The teacher was also very enthusiastic.

When Yang Dajian saw the teacher arrive, he called the waiter to serve the dishes. The teacher sat in the main seat, and Hua Shier, who was one of the top students in the class, sat to the teacher's left. Yang Dajian, because he had made a fortune, had some social standing among his classmates and sat to the teacher's right.

As Guo Dapao was ranked last that year, he could only sit at another table.

After the banquet began, these old classmates, who hadn't seen each other for over a decade, all stood up with their glasses in hand to toast their teacher and wish him good health.

The teacher smiled and drank the toast offered by the students, then waved his hand:
"Please sit down, please sit down. It's been over ten years since we graduated, and the Guo family has developed rapidly. We used to talk about having upstairs and downstairs houses, electric lights and telephones, but now everyone has those, right? Tell me, what are you all doing now, and how is your family doing?"

He pointed to a rather pretty female classmate and asked, "Zhang Xiaoxia, what are you doing now?"

Zhang Xiaoxia smiled radiantly: "My husband and I run a clothing store! On good days, we make two or three thousand yuan, and on bad days, we only make a little over a thousand!"

The teacher smiled and nodded: "Not bad, not bad!"

Then they asked each of them one by one, and they were all doing quite well. Even Li Dayong, who was the most honest in the class back then and didn't do very well in school, is now driving a taxi and earning three or four thousand yuan a month.

When the teacher asked Yang Dajian, he patted his expensive suit and said, "Then I'm the worst. My business isn't always open."

The teacher was somewhat surprised to see him dressed so smartly and carrying a mobile phone, and when he said he didn't always keep it on, she was taken aback.

"and you."

Hua Shier stopped him, saying, "Teacher, he's just trying to trick you. If you ask him anything, he'll start showing off!" The teacher was still too naive and didn't understand Versailles.

The students all laughed, with Guo Dapao laughing the loudest.

Yang Dajian felt terrible because he couldn't pretend, so he just said it himself:
"I opened one last month, and the net profit wasn't much, only around 100,000 yuan!"

The income of over 100,000 yuan instantly drew gasps of astonishment.

The teacher turned to Hua Shier: "Guoming, you are my most outstanding student. How are you doing now?"

Hua Shier smiled and said, "I'm an engineer at the factory, and I'll be promoted to senior engineer soon. It's all fixed salary, but I'm just serving the people and building up the Guo family!"

The teacher nodded and smiled, "It's good to be a tech person. You were the best student back then. Our Guo family is changing rapidly and needs technical talents like you!"

Yang Dajian curled his lip and said:

"How much does a senior engineer earn a month? Eight hundred or a thousand? That's not even enough for me to take a shower or have a meal!"

Guo Dapao was already furious from being splashed with water, and now that this guy dared to attack his good buddy, he was immediately displeased and retorted sarcastically:

"That's still better than yours; yours is all dirty money."

Yang Dali immediately retorted, but he didn't dare to argue with Guo Dapao directly. Instead, he turned to his teacher and said:
"Teacher, do you know what Guo Dapao from our class is doing now?"

The teacher looked at Guo Dapao: "Guo Dalei."

Guo Dapao himself said, "Teacher, I'm selling meat!"

Yang Dali immediately laughed and said, "Teacher, you don't know? Guo Dapao is a celebrity now. He got arrested at a hair salon last time and it even made TV."

He stood up and made a handcuffing gesture with his hands: "Let me show you, this is what Guo Dapao said back then."

He perfectly mimicked what Guo Dapao said during the interview, and the girls in the class all looked at Guo Dapao with disdain.

Guo Dapao immediately flew into a rage and strode over to make a move, but Hua Shier grabbed him and pulled him back.
"The teacher is here, what are you making a fuss about? You can make a fuss later, there's no rush."

Hua Shier turned to Yang Dajian and said with a smile:

"Dajian, if I were you, I wouldn't even dare to imitate Dapao. Have you forgotten that you were arrested last time for running a hair salon? Dapao was one of your customers. You don't know how to be grateful, and you can't even eat your food and then criticize the cook. Your character is terrible!"

Before Yang Dajian could say anything more, Hua Shier continued:

"I heard you're involved in smuggling now? Is it because Uncle Hat is cracking down hard this month that you haven't made any sales?"

As Hua Shier spoke, his gaze fell on a high school classmate, who was also another good friend:

"Da Zeng, you're Uncle Hat, do you think it would count as meritorious service if I reported Yang Dajian for smuggling?"

The students burst into laughter, but Da Zeng's expression turned serious:
"If you're serious, then even if it's just for the sake of being classmates, I'll still arrest him today. Guoming, are you serious?"

The scene immediately fell silent.

Yang Dajian was sweating profusely and looked to his teacher for help.

The teacher sighed:

"Today is a class reunion, so let's keep things simple and reminisce about our school days. Don't bring your social issues to the reunion. Dajian, I have to criticize you. Everyone has their ups and downs in life. Whether you're doing well or not, you've been classmates and friends with us for three years. What you said earlier was a bit much. Apologize to Guoming and Guo Dalei!"

Hua Shier clapped his hands: "Great, teacher, you're absolutely right!"

Yang Dajian knew he had messed up, and he awkwardly raised his glass.

"Guoming, Dapao, I just had a couple of drinks and I didn't know what I was doing. Don't be like me. I'll finish this drink, you two can drink as you please!"

He then downed the drink in one gulp.

The atmosphere lightened up again.

The teacher was getting on in years, and after a few rounds of drinks and a full meal, he said goodbye to the students and left early.

By the time the drinking session was halfway through, some of the female students had left, leaving only five or six people in the private room.

At this point, Yang Dajian, perhaps a little tipsy, pulled Hua Shierfei aside and asked him to sing a song, even offering to pay him. He was treating Hua like a street performer.

This happened in the original storyline. Hua Shier didn't want to pay attention, but Guo Dapao took action directly.

Seeing others taking action for themselves, Hua Shier naturally couldn't stand idly by. He turned to a screaming girl and said:

"Don't make a fuss when classmates are practicing martial arts!"

As he spoke, he stepped forward and delivered a black kick to Yang Dajian's crotch, instantly ending the fight.

By the time Da Zeng realized what was happening and tried to stop them, the battle was already over.

Guo Dapao didn't see Hua Shier kick, but he was stunned when Yang Dajian suddenly screamed. He stood up and saw the other man clutching his crotch. He shook his head.

"Trying to scam me, huh? I didn't hit your thing. Don't play dumb with me. Get up now, stop yelling like a girl."

The class reunion ended badly. Hua Shier and Guo Dapao pushed their bicycles back together. On the way, they saw a flyer for the "First Donglin City Karaoke Competition" posted on a telephone pole.

Hua Shier glanced at it. First prize, a prize of 30,000 yuan, and the organizer also promised to record a song for free!

He was determined to win the championship. He would succeed at what the original owner of this body had failed at, and he would make even greater success at what the original owner had succeeded at.

When he parted ways with Guo Dapao, he took one last look at Guo Dapao's face. The dark, bluish tinge on Guo's forehead had dissipated considerably.

Hua Shier took out a yellow talisman:
"Big Cannon, you've had a lot of bad luck these past two years. This talisman is a peace charm I got from a temple. Keep it close to your body and don't go out around too much lately. After this year, you'll be fine, understand?"

Guo Dapao let out a burp: "Alright, I'll take it then. Maybe I can get a 20% discount on the shampoo!"

"You little rascal, I told you not to run around!"

"Okay, okay, whatever you say! Hehe, I was just kidding!"

The two talked for a while, then parted ways and went their separate ways. Hua Shier didn't notice that after he left, the bluish-green aura on Guo Dapao's forehead instantly intensified.
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