Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 39 Pattern
My grandfather used to say that good handwriting is like a good-looking face. Actually, Yan Hui's handwriting is pretty good; at least it's not bad. He'd been taking notes and memorizing numbers for the past six months since he came to Fengtian, so his math and handwriting had improved.

Now Yan Hui can calculate density and price very quickly.

Seeing that Yan Hui had no intention of joining any club, Ma Junliang enthusiastically found his classmates in the calligraphy club and taught Yan Hui how to write calligraphy with a brush.

The calligraphy here is basically based on brush writing.

The calligraphy club displayed dozens of works by outstanding seniors, ranging from regular script to official script, cursive script, and running script. Yan Hui couldn't tell the difference between the good and the bad. He still thought the regular script was the most beautiful, and he couldn't understand the cursive script at all.

"I don't understand calligraphy either. I also think regular script looks good, but it's too slow to write, so running script is also good." Ma Junliang said a lot of nonsense.

"Yeah," Yan Hui didn't care what Ma Junliang said. He mainly stared at the student who was recruiting people, watching him move the pen, hold the pen, and write.

"How about it? Why don't you try it?" asked a classmate from the calligraphy club.

"Forget it." Yan Hui shook his head and refused.

Yan Hui and Lao Guo had a great time on this trip. The university and the timber market are completely different places, but for some reason, Yan Hui felt a little distance away from Ma Junliang this time.

No one deliberately kept a distance, but there was always something different.

After wandering around the school for a while, Yan Hui suddenly thought of something: "Oh, Junliang, I have a friend who got admitted to a university in Fengtian this year. He told me he's in military training and will be able to visit after October. The address of this school is 83 Huanggu Tawan Street. What university is that?"

"What about the princess?" Ma Junliang frowned.

Although he helped out in the Student Union and occasionally communicated with other schools, he was not familiar with many universities. However, Fengtian was not like the capital, and there were only a few good universities. Generally speaking, places that he had never heard of were not very popular.
"Wait a minute, I'll ask my seniors." They were right where the various clubs were recruiting, and there were many seniors. Ma Junliang quickly found two or three of them, asked them, and then ran back to tell Yan Hui, "I found out, it's the Criminal Police Academy!"

"Ah? What kind of place is that? College? Being a policeman?" To be honest, Yan Hui was not very interested in this profession.

A guy like him who was naughty and loved fighting since childhood did not think this profession was so good, otherwise he would not have raised the price to buy Qu Xiaoqin's ginseng in front of the police last time.

"Yeah, very impressive. He's relatively independent in the university circle in Fengtian, but he's one of the best in the police academy circle."

Ma Junliang thought about it and nodded in admiration: "Your friend is amazing."

"She actually went to a place like that to attend college," Yan Hui snorted twice. "In that case, I won't go to play with her anymore."

"What's wrong? Are you feeling guilty?" Old Guo laughed heartily. "You must have done something wrong recently!"

"What wrong could I have done?" Yan Hui immediately started cursing in his hometown dialect.

Old Guo also got excited when he heard this, and the two of them started swearing happily.

After cursing for his pleasure, Yan Hui invited Ma Junliang to come to the market when he was free, and Ma Junliang readily agreed.

It was already afternoon when they returned, and Yan Hui and Lao Guo talked about blind dates.

Lao Guo is indeed a little older than Yan Hui, and he is indeed old enough to go on blind dates in his hometown, but for the teenagers, this is the first time after all, and they are nervous and excited.

"I remember you told me before that there was a girl you liked in your hometown. How is she doing?" Lao Guo's voice came from the side while riding a bike.

"Ah?" Yan Hui was stunned for a moment, "When did I tell you?"

"Last time when we were drinking."

"Oh, I remember now," Yan Hui didn't think it was a secret. "She probably hasn't gotten married yet. I'll go home for the New Year. Well, I want to ask her then."

"So, in the year you've been here, have you ever written to her?"

"No." Yan Hui shook his head.

The autumn wind blew by, and Yan Hui's hair fluttered as he rode on the bike, as if waving countless fragments of light.

"What else is there to say? There's no hope." Lao Guo laughed, "Watch me tonight!"

"Okay, I'll wait for you in the house. Remember to bring me some delicious food." Yan Hui didn't care whether Lao Guo succeeded or not. He just wanted Lao Guo to eat, and it was a good opportunity to take away the food.

"Okay, no problem." Lao Guo wasn't stingy. He was just simply poor.

"You'd better pack me an elbow."

"Shame on you! You have no vision!" Old Guo was unhappy, thinking that Yan Hui was taking advantage of his blind date to ask for exorbitant amounts of money.

"I was just kidding," Yan Hui said immediately when he saw that Lao Guo took it seriously. "By the way, their sweet and sour pork is delicious. I suggest you order one."

"Okay." Lao Guo nodded.

"Wait, next month when I get the foreman's salary of 400 yuan, I'll treat you. Call Old Wu and Old Song, and we'll go order some pork elbow." Yan Hui made up his mind.

"That's pretty good!" Lao Guo's Northeastern dialect became more and more fluent.

When the two returned to the market, they immediately returned the borrowed bicycles. Yan Hui didn't see his second brother in the store, but since no one was busy, he stayed in the store for a while.

"I heard you became a foreman," Wang Bo took the initiative to chat when he saw Yan Hui. "This is a good thing. You have to continue to perform well."

Uncle Wang is a non-confrontational person and has always had a good relationship with Yan Hui. Yan Hui also respects Uncle Wang the most: "Don't worry, Uncle Wang, the position of foreman is not important. I will just work hard with everyone."

"Everyone came to me today and asked me to tell you that from now on, your salary will be the same as everyone else's. In fact, you could have caught up a long time ago. Everyone has wanted to change it for a long time, but you didn't mention it, and no one else would bring it up."

"Thank you, Uncle Wang," Yan Hui nodded gratefully. He knew that the others were afraid that Yan Hui would make things difficult for them, but Yan Hui was still grateful to Uncle Wang.

"That's nothing. By the way, how's your leg?"

"Uncle Li took me to the hospital yesterday for an X-ray. The doctor said there was nothing wrong. It was just that I was sitting in the cooler yesterday and it caused the problem."

"Your right leg has never been in good condition. You have to take good care of it." Uncle Wang and Yan Hui have been carrying wood for so long, how could they not know this.

"Well, the doctor said that as long as you don't catch a cold, you'll be completely recovered next summer."

"That's good."

Yan Hui rarely interacted with the other porters. When he came over, no one except Uncle Wang would talk to him. Interestingly, Yan Hui actually had a good relationship with the shop owners and porters around him, mainly because he was always polite.

Whenever Yan Hui had free time after work, he liked to go out and inquire about other shops' lumber information. This information was nothing to keep secret; sometimes, the owners of other shops would tell Yan Hui directly, "The price hasn't changed in the past week." After saying goodbye to Uncle Wang, Yan Hui went to his fourth uncle's shop to see if there was any recent mail. Instead of seeing any mail, he saw his fourth uncle.

Fourth Uncle was rarely in the shop. When Yan Hui saw him, he immediately approached him and asked, "Uncle, what's the current price of No. 1 larch planks?"

"Go check the purchase order yourself later, don't keep asking me questions," Fourth Uncle was obviously in a good mood. "I heard about what happened yesterday. You're really lucky."

"Ah? Uncle, you heard about it too?" Yan Hui was a little uneasy.

He also didn't know whether his fourth uncle would be happy with him being the foreman at his second brother's place.

"The second brother told me that you have been promoted to foreman. This is because he likes your luck. This is a good thing. It will be good for you to get some training over there." The fourth uncle gave an affirmative answer.

Yan Hui breathed a sigh of relief and then asked a question he had always wanted to ask: "Uncle, when are you short of help? I can come and help you anytime."

"I am planning to open a new factory, but I haven't started planning it yet. You can come and help me when the factory is ready. Now all I need are drivers, cranes, and forklifts, which you can't learn now. You can get a certificate later, which is very popular." Fourth Uncle explained.

"You're going to open a new factory, that's awesome! Okay, I'll go over there once you've got it up and running!" Yan Hui was still a little disappointed.

He must be feeling lost, especially Lao Guo, Lao Song, and Lao Wu, who all came with his father. He only has one cousin, and he hasn't started working for him yet.

In fact, as long as Yan Hui works for his fourth uncle, no one will dare to bully him no matter what.

He had been working for his second brother for half a year before he finally got a normal salary.

Forget it, don’t think too much, just rely on yourself.

"By the way, since you're here, I'll call your uncle. I mentioned you when I called him today, and he said he wanted to chat with you." said Fourth Uncle.

"Ah? My uncle?" Yan Hui's eyes suddenly lit up.

Uncle is a legendary figure in the Yan family and the person who shocked Yan Hui the most.

Two years ago, those earning 10,000 yuan were still rare. But in just two years, from 1993 to 1995, many people had already made thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan. While 10,000 yuan households were still impressive, they were no longer rare.

But two years ago, my uncle came back from another place with a sack of money.

It was really a sack, full of money, which was the money my uncle earned from business.

Yan Hui still doesn't know how much was in that sack, but it was a huge shock to him at that time.

The uncle had taught the children about business, and the concept of information asymmetry was also mentioned by the uncle. Yan Hui was gradually understanding this term.

What he and Song Zhiyuan were doing was actually about information asymmetry. He was now collecting as much information as possible about wood, precisely to exploit this information asymmetry.

Yan Hui was just thinking about it when his fourth uncle took out his mobile phone and called his uncle.

My uncle naturally also has a mobile phone, which makes it very convenient to get in touch with him. We are so close to each other!

Fourth Uncle said this briefly and handed the phone to Yan Hui. Yan Hui took out a pen and paper.

"I heard from your uncle that you have performed very well in the past six months and have been very down-to-earth. It's a good opportunity for me to call you and tell me what you have been doing recently," the uncle said with concern.

In fact, for the uncle, he has many nephews and nieces, and he can't care about all of them. Yan Hui has been here for half a year, and this is the first time he has contacted him.

Fourth Uncle was of course aware of Yan Hui's business of bargaining with customers, so Yan Hui focused on this matter. It was a simple matter, and it took just over a minute to finish.

"That's good. You have brains. Your uncle also praised you for being more cautious than your peers. Take it slow, suffer a few losses, and you'll succeed!"

Yan Hui didn't understand why his uncle wanted him to suffer more losses, but he still took note of this sentence and wrote down the three words "suffer more losses" in his notebook.

"Do you have anything to ask me?" asked the uncle.

"Yes!" Yan Hui suddenly thought of what happened this morning and briefly explained it.

Phone calls were expensive, so he spoke quickly, but my uncle understood immediately.

Yan Hui always felt that he had done something wrong when he went to the construction site in the morning.

He didn't know whether it was right to lie to the foreman, "I came to get something from Mr. Wang." He didn't even know whether he should drink the tea that Mr. Wang asked him to drink, or whether he should finish it if he did.

"Xiaohui, you are too worried!" In fact, the uncle had already known about this from the fourth uncle. After all, the fourth uncle also knew the whole process from the second brother.

Today's phone call was because this matter aroused my uncle's interest and made him want to chat with Yan Hui.

"When dealing with people and doing things, one must have a pattern. Do you know what pattern means?" asked the uncle.

"Should we be more generous? Consider the overall situation?" Yan Hui was a little confused, but still tried his best to think about it.

"It's not that complicated. The key is to be able to distinguish between the primary and secondary contradictions of things." The uncle was in a good mood. "You may not know this principle, but you've done a good job! Go back and think about this."

"Hmm," Yan Hui quickly wrote down the words "major and minor contradictions".

"Okay, listen to your uncle over there. Chinese New Year is coming soon. We can talk slowly when we get home."

"Ok!"

After his uncle hung up, Yan Hui handed the mobile phone to his fourth uncle and asked, "Uncle, what do my uncle mean by the primary and secondary contradictions?"

"As for what you just said on the mobile phone, what is the most important thing? Of course, it is to hand over the envelope that the second brother gave you. Nothing else matters. Of course, your uncle didn't say it clearly. It doesn't mean that minor contradictions are not important. After all, details determine success or failure. Both sentences are correct. It depends on how you understand it. For something like what happened to you today, it would be best if you come back to think about it, ponder it, and then take care of the details in the future. But if you don't do small things well but keep thinking about it and wasting time, it means you have no vision." Fourth uncle explained.

Yan Hui became even more confused after hearing this.

It’s not that he didn’t understand, but he felt it was contradictory.

Is it necessary to pay attention to details? Is there a conflict between paying attention to details and having a broad vision?
"Nothing in the world can be done perfectly. You have to tolerate the mistakes of others, as well as your own." Fourth Uncle said again.

Yan Hui now understood, wrote down the words, said goodbye to his fourth uncle, returned to his residence alone, and then began to recall every detail of the past six months.

When Yan Hui returned to his residence, he saw the notebook and slapped his thigh. Oh no, he forgot to check the purchase order!

(End of this chapter)