The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 456 "Spring of Science"

After Laba Festival in the north, the festive atmosphere becomes stronger and stronger.

Although ordinary people do not live a rich life these days, they truly look forward to and love the New Year.

Some families start preparing for the Chinese New Year at least two months in advance.

I gathered up the money I had saved over the year, rolled it up one by one, and tied it up with a rubber band. I couldn't wait to count it every day when I got home, and I looked forward to using the money on New Year's Day to buy all the New Year's goods.

Not only is it difficult to get a ticket to buy New Year's goods, but even if you have a ticket you may not be able to exchange it for anything.

Therefore, young and old get up early and line up in front of the grocery store to buy New Year's goods, which is also a must-see scene before the New Year.

By the end of the 70s, the quantity of most goods in the Spring Festival market had increased overall, but it was still far from abundant.

In the city of Sijiu, each person is entitled to 4 liang of peanuts, 3 liang of melon seeds, and 2 jin of marine fish, including half a jin of yellow croaker...

It is true that food is the most important thing for people.

It can be said that everyone, from a family to an entire city, is busy preparing for the New Year in order to "eat well". Every time there is one more thing at home, they feel more at ease.

Moreover, the Spring Festival is the time when people visit relatives and friends most frequently, so giving gifts to each family has become a part of the New Year's goods.

When visiting relatives, bringing a bag of tea, two bottles of wine or a box of snacks is definitely an indispensable etiquette for New Year's greetings.

The tea must be jasmine tea, which is what people in Beijing love to drink. You can’t drink Qianmen big bowl tea during the Chinese New Year.

When it comes to liquor, apart from Red Star Erguotou, most people would choose to buy Yanshan or Taihang, which are both presentable and reasonably priced.

The wine produced by "Yeshan Wine" is very prestigious whether it is drunk by guests at home or given as a gift to relatives.

In Beijing, the most famous one is Daoxiangcun. Ox tongue biscuits, sachima, date cakes, etc. are indispensable for family reserves and gifts to relatives and friends.

In addition to buying New Year's goods, what children look forward to most during the Spring Festival is wearing new clothes.

It is very happy to buy some new fabrics during the Chinese New Year and buy new clothes for the children at home.

In Liujiazhuang area, it is a different scene. On the eve of the Spring Festival, the Liujiazhuang commercial district looks particularly prosperous. Many shops have been newly decorated and the shelves are filled with a wide variety of merchandise. Many shops have also resumed selling traditional goods.

From morning till night, the streets are bustling with people happily buying clothes in preparation for the New Year.

Today, Liujiazhuang Commercial Street is no less prosperous than the Wangfujing Street in old Beijing.

No matter where it is, the busiest place before the New Year is definitely the barber shop.

Before the New Year, if you wanted a haircut at a barber shop, you had to queue up.

Over the years, business here is the best before the Spring Festival.

On the one hand, there is an old saying that "If you don't get a haircut in the first month of the lunar year, your uncle will die." On the other hand, in order to get lucky and make a fortune, one must start from scratch.

……

Although the Liu family has no shortage of food and drink, the children in the family still cannot resist the temptation of the New Year.

As soon as the college entrance examination was over, Liu Shuxian was like a wild horse that had broken free from its reins, releasing all the joy that had been suppressed for so long.

In stark contrast to those candidates who were anxiously waiting for their college entrance examination results and were feeling uneasy, Liu Shuxian appeared to be exceptionally calm and confident, as if everything was under her control.

Liu Zhiye was always worried about his daughter's test results, so he asked around and finally got the test papers for the college entrance examination.

The family estimated Liu Shuxian's score, and to their surprise, the result was quite high.

Except for the subjective question of composition, which is difficult to estimate the score accurately, Liu Shuxian's estimated scores for the other four subjects are at a fairly impressive level, and the total score is likely to exceed 400 points.

Seeing this estimated score result, Liu Zhiye finally felt relieved.

He vaguely remembered that when he was browsing the Internet in his previous life, he saw that the admission score for the first enrollment after Kyoto University resumed the college entrance examination was above 300 points.

According to this standard, Liu Shuxian's performance is already solid.

As for political review and physical examination, there are no problems at all.

Since Liu Shuxian had no worries about going to college, the Liu family simply ignored her and let her do whatever she wanted.

When I'm playing, I feel that time passes the fastest.

In a blink of an eye, it was New Year's Eve.

By this year's Spring Festival, Xia State had undergone earth-shaking changes and its people had a new life.

The Spring Festival Eve of this year was particularly lively. Every family sat at home, warming themselves by the fire and eating New Year's Eve dinner. With the sound of snowflakes falling outside the window, a new year of rapid development officially began.

People feel that the New Year’s Eve dinner on the table is much more sumptuous than in previous years.

In Sijiucheng, there are more fresh products and specialties on the market. Old products such as large walnut chocolate and plum candy have resumed production, and 11 new products such as egg-flavored biscuits, crispy biscuits, special cakes, and chocolate sticks have been arranged for production and supply.

What makes children most happy are the colorful lanterns, the melodious "diabolo", various firecrackers, facial makeup, etc.

On the 30th day, every household pastes new window paper, puts up Spring Festival couplets, window flowers and colorful New Year pictures, and the joy of the New Year is immediately everywhere.

At night, amid the crackling sound of firecrackers, we quietly replaced the light bulbs with 100W ones, and celebrated the New Year with bright lights.

How could rural substations withstand such overload operation these days? Power outages occurred one after another. At this time, the loudspeaker of the noon station began to shout, "Members, please pay attention and replace the light bulbs quickly..." and began to "check the lights" from house to house.

After finding out, I got scolded a few times, then I changed the light to a small one, and changed it again after the person left. This happened every year, and it was a pleasure every year.

……

"Have you taken the college entrance examination?" This is the first greeting that educated youth, workers, students, and demobilized soldiers use when they meet acquaintances during the Spring Festival.

At this time in the train station, educated youth from different places were talking about the college entrance examination.

The college entrance examination, which was resumed more than a month ago, has given millions of educated youth who went to the countryside the opportunity to change their destiny through fair competition.

During the Spring Festival, many people are anxiously waiting for their admission letters.

As for the first batch of college students - Class of 77, they enrolled in March or April after the Spring Festival.

But most people are nervous because they are not well prepared beforehand.

Some people secretly made up their minds that it doesn’t matter if they failed the exam, and they planned to take the exam again next year.

Because this June is the first real college entrance examination.

This turned out to be true. Since the admission rate of the first college entrance examination was too low, most people failed.

However, they were not discouraged.

This group of young people who failed the college entrance examination retook the exam in June this year and poured into the university area.

As a result, the society is prosperous and full of joy.

Although life was still poor and difficult, there were still some changes during the Spring Festival in 78.

From this year on, the atmosphere of the Spring Festival began to become lively again.

There are cultural performances, concerts and sports competitions during the Spring Festival.

You can even see old domestic films such as "Ashima", "Peach Blossom Fan" and "Li Shuangshuang" reappearing.

In Dongfeng Market, Wangfujing and other commercial circles, some traditional games such as ring tossing and shooting have reappeared, and riddle lantern festivals are unprecedentedly popular.

On New Year's Eve on February 2, CCTV, then still known as Beijing Television, resumed broadcasting the Spring Festival Gala.

At that time, there were only about 100 million television sets in the country, and they were all black and white.

People can only watch it collectively in government agencies or a few "rich" families.

During the same period, the household television penetration rate in Country M was 70%.

This was the first time that a cartoon related to television appeared in Renren Daily. At that time, Chinese people still lacked the proper imagination for this lifestyle of watching movies at home.

But just five or six years later, televisions began to enter ordinary people's homes and changed their lives.

Nowadays, although some "rich" families already have televisions, apart from this small number, most families do not have televisions, let alone watching the Spring Festival Gala.

People are more interested in the open-air movies organized on New Year's Eve, but the screen is not only small but also very blurry.

But even so, people still braved the cold wind and heavy snow to crowd in to watch the movie. Some people even climbed up trees in a hurry because they couldn't get a seat. It can be said that this year's New Year was a carnival for everyone.

What makes people even happier is that before the Spring Festival of this year, employees who had not seen a salary increase in more than ten years will get a raise, and everyone will get a share. This is undoubtedly the most exciting thing in more than a decade, and it also makes the New Year's Eve dinner table a little more sumptuous.

This year's Spring Festival, Beijing Department Store set up a New Year's goods stall in the square in front of its door for the first time.

During the day, there are colorful flags flying here, and at night, there are brilliant lights. The shopping malls on each floor of the department store are also decorated with lights, and for the first time, a huge spring couplet is hung in the lobby on the first floor.

The styles of clothing for sale have also begun to expand, including traditional cheongsams and various children's clothing.

This is the first time that Beijing Department Store has carried out a holiday marketing campaign since...

In Nanhe Zhengcheng, you can see dragon dancing, lion dances, and land boat races on Jinshui Road, and children often run for a long distance following the teams.

The first lantern show after… was held in Jinling Zijingshan Park.

A lantern festival was held in Yibin People's Park in Sichuan Province. During the short 9-day Spring Festival, more than people bought tickets to watch the lanterns...

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the Xiaguo football team participated in the Xiangjiang Spring Festival Cup Football Tournament.

Moreover, the performance was good, and the Chinese national football team defeated the Hong Kong United team 4:1.

The national football team players participating in the competition include Rong Zhixing, Chi Shangbin, Li Fusheng, Shen Xiangfu and others.

There were very few matches broadcast in the country at that time, so few people paid attention to football.

But just three years later, a football fever would sweep the country.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, the countryside once again began to perform “operas at doorsteps”.

The erotic drama came to the stage.

The audience was bustling with people walking on stilts, dancing the yangge, and racing on land boats...wishing for a good harvest in the coming year.

This Spring Festival, the rich and mellow flavor of the New Year has begun to return.

The changes are still going on quietly.

This year, the music coming out of the street loudspeakers was no longer model operas or GM songs, but songs like "Waves of Honghu Lake" and "Why Are the Flowers So Red" as well as novel series like "The Position of Love".

Love, this long-lost worldly emotion, is finally no longer seen as something shameful, and lovers can openly walk hand in hand in the park or on the street.

The cinema even showed "Homesickness", a Japanese film that reflects life in a J-hospital.

The impact it had on the Chinese people was incomparable to that of "Lust, Caution" 30 years later.

The Beijing TV station even broadcast a forum with citizen representatives. Some people said that there could be more pornographic scenes...

This year, perming, which was once denounced as a bourgeois lifestyle, began to become popular in cities. Perming a "chicken coop" became fashionable, and the place with the longest queues in Beijing was the barber shop.

In the 1949 area, Liujiazhuang was undoubtedly the most developed, and therefore accepted new things earlier.

The young people here have long been at the forefront of fashion and have unique insights into fashion.

Look, there are young guys all over the street, wearing frog-eye glasses and bell-bottom pants, dancing to the disco rhythm.

The girls, on the other hand, had their hair permed into a "chicken coop" style and wore big shiny earrings, showing their youthful vitality.

This fashion trend is getting stronger and stronger, not only sweeping the streets and alleys, but also quietly blowing into the school gates...

"Liu Shuxian! Look at what you have done to your hair?" When Gan Ning returned home, he saw that his daughter's hair had become a "chicken coop" with two big silver earrings on her ears.

Gan Ning felt that her worldview was about to be ruined. She immediately became furious and shouted, "I'm telling you, go get your hair straightened! Otherwise, I'll make you pay. Do you hear me?"

"Why are you so old-fashioned!...Wow!" Liu Shuxian couldn't argue with her mother, so she had to run to the study room crying to ask her father for help.

Faced with this situation, Liu Zhiye had an expression that was neither funny nor sad.

In his heart, he actually felt that perming was not a big deal. After all, young people in later generations were already accustomed to perming and dyeing their hair, and some even dyed their hair blond, white, or green.

But then again, in their family, everything regarding disciplining the children is up to Gan Ning.

Liu Zhiye thought for a moment, then gently patted his precious daughter Xiaoxian who was lying in his arms, and said earnestly: "Xiaoxian, I think you should listen to your mother in this matter!" After that, he glanced cautiously in the direction of the living room, then lowered his voice and added: "We have to go along with her. There is no other way. Your mother may have reached menopause and has a very bad temper. I really don't dare to provoke her..."

"Dad, you don't even help me!" Liu Shuxian really couldn't bear to part with this "chicken coop head", she hadn't liked it enough!
Liu Shuxian stamped her feet in anger, and ran to the backyard like a gust of wind to seek support from her grandmother.

In the living room, Gan Ning sat on the sofa, the anger in her heart growing stronger and stronger.

She waved her hand suddenly and placed the coffee cup in her hand heavily on the coffee table. With a crisp "click!" sound, the coffee splashed slightly, leaving a few drops of brown marks on the table.

She didn't even drink her favorite Malay coffee and got up to cause trouble for someone!

Speaking of drinking coffee, this was one of the New Year gifts mailed by the Liu family who developed in Hong Kong to Liu Zhiye and others a few years ago.

In addition to coffee, there are also some high-end red wines produced by the French Lafite Winery.

Liu Zhiye never liked this thing in his past life or this life, but Gan Ning liked it very much.

Looking at his wife with a gloomy face, Liu Zhiye couldn't help feeling a little scared. The emotions of a woman in menopause are really unpredictable and they don't play by the rules at all!
"Liu Zhiye! I'm only going to the Party School for further studies for a few months. Can't you help take care of the children?" There was some dissatisfaction and helplessness in her tone.

"I have to worry about all the big and small things at home. Don't I feel tired?" Her words revealed deep fatigue.

Seeing this, Liu Zhiye quickly stood up and carefully comforted her: "Oh, honey, don't be angry, it's all my fault. Don't get angry and get sick, it's not good for your health..."

Just then, two young men dressed quite avant-garde rushed in.

They wore exaggerated frog-eye glasses, fashionable bell-bottom pants, and had long hair, looking a little unruly.

This sudden change made the already tense atmosphere even more tense.

Gan Ning was almost mad when he saw their bad behavior, and immediately shouted: "Liu Wen! Liu Wu!..."

The two little brothers were so scared that they turned around and ran away!
Gan Ning was chasing after him...

Seeing this, Liu Zhiye shook his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"Hey! Things are really different now!"

Then, Liu Zhiye's gaze turned to the distance, and the scene of thousands of lights came into view. His eyes gradually became firm and bright, as if he was thinking about something.

……

In the same year, Coca-Cola entered the Xia country market, but at the beginning, Xia people were not interested in this beverage that cost 4 cents a bottle and was similar to Chinese medicine soup.

But just two years later, the first workshop in Beijing specializing in the production of bottled "Coca-Cola" beverages began mass production in Liujiazhuang.

The earliest Coke bottles produced were gourd-shaped, with a very small bottom, a small bulge in the middle, and a small center with the Coca-Cola logo.

When I first started drinking Coke, I felt it had a medicinal flavor and I didn’t want to drink it for quite a while.

But over the years, with the improvement of living standards, I had more and more opportunities to drink Coke, and gradually accepted this drink. I would buy big barrels of Coke to drink during the Chinese New Year.

The revitalization of the market has brought about revolutionary changes in the dining tables of Beijing residents.

Large barrels of cola and foreign liquor enriched the family's dining table.

However, Beibingyang soda is still commonly seen on the dining tables of ordinary people in Beijing.

Glass bottles, tin lids, pure orange flavor, icy taste... For many Beijingers, the Arctic Ocean has long been deeply rooted in their daily lives.

Since Liujiazhuang Beverage Company has had cola as its main product, it has been making a lot of money.

From then on, it became a fashion for young people to get together and drink Coke.

Young people not only like Coke, but also seem to be fascinated by bell-bottom pants, frog-eye glasses and foreign imports such as "The Chase" and "Atlantic Man".

Of course, what fascinates them even more is the "melodies" like Teresa Teng's.

In the past, people would only hear these few intermittent sentences in movies that portrayed the decadent life of the Kuomintang and their dance parties.

If anyone could own a brick-sized Japanese Panasonic tape recorder and a few tapes of Teresa Teng, it would definitely be a symbol of status and fashion.

The influx of new and trendy things and the replacement of old things have become the unique symbols of this era.

Wall calendars were originally used as old items to remind people of time, and are analogous to the "three big items" in the home.

Nowadays, when you turn a page of a fashionable calendar, you can catch a glimpse of a prosperous corner of the capital. When you turn another page, you can see a modern girl on the street, which vividly presents the development of the capital and the changes in people's life concepts.

It was also in this year that the self-reliant people of Xiaogang created the Xiaogang spirit of "daring to think, dare to act, and dare to be the first in the world."

In early spring in February, everything comes back to life.

On this day, President Guo of Xiake Institute cheered enthusiastically in the Closing Speech of the General Science Conference: "The Spring Equinox has just passed, and Qingming is about to come. 'The river flowers are redder than fire at sunrise, and the river water is green as blue in spring.'

This is... spring, this is the spring of the people, this is the spring of science! Let us open our arms and warmly embrace this spring! "

This year, people began to admire Chen Jingrun, the mathematician who solved the "Goldbach Conjecture".

(End of this chapter)