1980 My Entertainment Era

Chapter 48 Dumplings and the Times

529 Farm, Milan’s grandmother’s home.

Although Milan's family also lived in the Diplomatic Compound, Milan's grandmother did not move into the city.

The supply and marketing cooperative where Milan works now is also nearby.

On this day, snowflakes fell from the sky again. It was late December, the beginning of winter.

Although supplies are still scarce now, ordinary people can only eat a few meals of fine grains throughout the year, especially on farms near the city, which are not as abundant as those in Yanjing City.

But Milan and her grandma still made dumplings happily.

Because today is the 22nd, the winter solstice.

As the saying goes, if you don't eat dumplings on the winter solstice, no one will care if your ears freeze off. Eating dumplings on the winter solstice is also a traditional custom in the north.

Although there are only a few days in a year when we have the opportunity to eat fine grains, we still have to take out some good things to comfort ourselves on similar festivals.

It is also reasonable to use the strong flour that you usually don’t want to use to make dumplings.

But today seems a little special.

Milan has been listless over the past few years, and a festival like this would make it even more depressing.

Because she felt that the holidays were really hard to endure without her parents around.

Grandma saw it and felt sad, but there was nothing she could do and no way to comfort her.

After all, this is how the world is. My grandmother, who came from the cruel old society, has a stronger ability to withstand such things.

In fact, the reason why I have never gone into the city and can now leave a safe escape route for my granddaughter is because of the wisdom accumulated over time and experience.

But Milan didn't, she couldn't accept this.

But a few months ago, that changed, and she finally started to be active and smile again.

Although grandma doesn’t know why this change happened, it’s a good thing.

For example, Milan used to be sad during the Mid-Autumn Festival, Winter Solstice and Chinese New Year. But now she happily makes dumplings with her grandma, humming songs with a smile on her face.

Also, kid, aren’t you packing too much?

We’ve made so many dumplings that my mother and I will have enough to eat until the end of the month and New Year’s Day!
In other words, the old lady had made preparations in advance, so her family conditions were much better than those of ordinary families, otherwise she would have to eat up all the fine flour for a year in this meal!
The old lady didn't say anything, because after all, she was an experienced person and still had some guesses.

So, after lunch, Milan started to put dumplings into the aluminum lunch box. It was filled up in no time...

Seeing her grandmother looking at her, Milan smiled and explained, "Yu Beibei said she particularly likes the dumplings stuffed with pork and cabbage that grandma makes, so I packed more and brought some for her."

Yu Beibei’s grandmother naturally knew about it, but she had also seen the precious baby of the old Yu family, who was even smaller than Milan!
If he could eat seven or eight dumplings in one meal, his family would die of laughter. There must be more than 20 dumplings in this lunch box...

Grandma nodded without saying anything: One of the good points of her precious grandson is that he can laugh even when he lies, which is great!
……

"Eat the dumplings quickly, I brought them especially for you!" Milan put a lunch box of dumplings in front of Xia Tian, ​​and even prepared a small dish of garlic sauce.

After all, if you eat dumplings without garlic sauce, you might get locked up~
"Why are you looking at me? Eat! My grandma made it and I rolled the dough. It's delicious~" Milan smiled brightly.

"Then I have to try it..." Xia Tian took out two sets of bowls and chopsticks from the wooden cupboard, "Let's eat together."

Milan naturally didn't refuse and sat down to eat.

But her appetite is average. Although she has a big frame, she doesn't eat much.

She just watched Xia Tian eat the whole box of dumplings with a smile, as if she felt full just watching him eat.

"How about it?"

"Delicious! So amazing!"

"Then I'll bring it to you later."

"Don't, don't bother grandma..."

This is a case of one who should be grateful for what one has received.

Alas, these dumplings cannot be eaten for nothing...

Another major event on this day was the conclusion of a conference in Beijing.

"Reform and Opening Up" was officially implemented.

Domestically, the production quotas were assigned to households, and state-owned enterprises were responsible for contracting production. Externally, the economy began to open up…

Although this news has been well prepared, many people are still unable to react when it is officially implemented.

The People's Commune collapsed...

In 78, the country attracted US$78 billion in foreign investment throughout the year.

About half of the amount was signed in the short 12 days from December 20 to the end of the year. This is a bit like attracting investment for political purposes.

Many projects that were signed in a rush were later forced to be canceled or postponed because the country lacked the ability to pay at the time.

Such achievements were due to the international environment at that time. The oil crisis in the 70s caused economic recession in Western countries. The United States was a little powerless in the Cold War and wanted to find new economic growth points. Therefore, China's opening up to foreign investment at this time was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them, so European and American countries almost rushed in to grab territory.

Although the country has opened its doors, it can bring in a huge amount of foreign investment. But the question is, can you handle so much money? Are you ready?
Therefore, we should first improve our internal strength. Only when internal reforms are completed can we open up to the outside world in the true sense.

Therefore, the top leaders quickly changed their strategy and began to focus on the reform of state-owned enterprises, hoping to stimulate the production enthusiasm of enterprises by delegating power and reforming them.

No one can predict the future, as no one has been reborn.

So we cross the river by feeling the stones, quickly trial and error, and then quickly correct.

Time waits for no one, and the only window of opportunity is actually very short and full of dangers.

……

And on the second day of the winter solstice, Xia Tian and Da Chun met a group of people at the gate of a university.

Yesterday, during the winter solstice, there was a heavy snowfall, which had already covered this ancient city in silver.

The weather was not warm at this time, and every breath produced a puff of white smoke.

But there was a group of people gathered at the school gate, about thirty or forty of them, all young people in their teens or twenties.

Xia Tian and the other three were also curious, especially Yan Jing. He had a genuine yearning to go to college, as that was the expectation left by his deceased father, so when he saw this situation, he couldn't help but move forward.

It was not until the summer came that they got closer and discovered that this group of people were actually braving the severe cold to discuss literature at the side of the school gate!
Specifically, it should be called poetry!

A young man who looked very lively and energetic was reciting aloud poems from a simple booklet.

The booklet was really simple, the paper quality was very poor, the printing quality was also poor, and it was a very thin book.

The shortage of supplies at that time was no joke, even paper was not abundant.

But this humble publication is called Today!
On the way back, Xia Tian sorted out the information that appeared in his mind.

On December 78, 12, the inaugural issue of Today was published.

This poetry publication, which later became very symbolic, was actually an "illegal publication" printed privately by an individual.

At that time when material and spiritual resources were extremely scarce, people's spiritual pursuits were unimaginable in later times.

Especially... the oppression of people.

Now that this repression has disappeared, the incomparable spiritual pursuit and creative desire have erupted like a flood.

In this year full of fanatical hope, a worker in a paper mill, Jiang Shiwei, later named Mang Ke, borrowed paper from his workplace and, together with a man named Bei Dao, founded the poetry magazine Today at Peking University.

A few days ago, several like-minded people worked non-stop for three days and three nights in a small courtyard near the Liangma River in Yanjing using a borrowed mimeograph machine, and this resulted in the simple first issue of Today that they and many college students see this summer.

In the "To Readers" of the first issue, they wrote:

History has finally given us a chance. It is our generation that can sing out loud the songs that have been buried in our hearts for ten years without being punished by thunder. We will no longer wait.
This simple, thin folk poetry publication will be a collection of the essence of the Misty Poetry School.

The original Today was copied and circulated in various colleges and universities in Boston in the form of an underground tabloid.

From 69 to 78, after nearly a decade of preparation, underground literature matured, with poetry achieving the highest level of achievement.

Many novels were circulated underground, such as "Nine-Level Waves", "The Fourth Visit", "When the Hibiscus Blooms", etc., but they were much weaker than poetry.

……

In these last few days of 78 years, things are still happening.

First, educated young people began to return to the city in large numbers, and every day there were excited young faces getting off the trains.

They carried large and small bags of luggage and ran towards their loved ones and homes with mixed feelings and tears in their eyes.

On the 25th, the Annan monkeys launched an aggressive war against their neighboring democratic simple monkeys.

This is definitely not a small matter, it can be said that it is a very big matter.

Annan Monkey now thinks he is the third in the world...

On the 26th, our earliest batch of 52 young scholars going abroad to study boarded a plane to the other side of the ocean.

The country screened through various outstanding universities in the country, and finally 14717 people participated in this meaningful selection examination.

These 52 people stood out from more than talents and are undoubtedly the elite among the elites.

There were more than 50 people, with only 50 US dollars in total on them, which was in the team leader's pocket.

After returning to China, 52 of the first batch of 17 overseas students became academicians.

Later statistics showed that from 78 to 2015, the total number of our students studying abroad exceeded 400 million.

In the record of this blue planet Earth, there has never been a country that has produced so many international students in the past 40 years.

At the same time, at the end of the year, the chief engineer proposed "letting some regions and some people get rich first."

The first one is Pengcheng, where he drew a circle.

Thanks to the book friend Tai Shang Daluo Tianxian Wanshou Emperor for the 1500-point reward!
Thanks to book friend Pai Gu Mi Mian for the 100-point reward!
Thank you~
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(End of this chapter)