Back to my 1980s

Song Xueping's aunt was very unhappy.

But nobody cared. After the engagement banquet, all the red envelopes and clothes were given away.

The engagement ceremony concluded successfully, taking Zhao Hua six or seven hours. The main part was waiting for lunch, but most of the time was spent chatting.

It was only a little past 2 p.m. when he left. The tractor driver was still waiting under the shade of a tree. Zhao Hua asked him to go inside and sit down to rest for a while, but he refused, worried that the villagers would "pick up" the things on the tractor if he went out.

Zhao Hua understood perfectly. The villagers these days weren't really that simple and honest. His own child went to the educated youth settlement every night to keep watch.

After a brief farewell to the Song family, I went home. This was a small engagement ceremony; after that, there would be a larger engagement ceremony, and only after that could we get married.

Actually, small and large deposits are pretty much the same, but large deposits require more things to be given, such as betrothal gifts, which are given during the large deposit period.

As the tractor left the village, Zhao Hua looked back.

Suddenly, Song Xueping, who had gone out with her mother to see Zhao Hua off, waved her hand. The wave was small, but she really was waving goodbye to herself.

Zhao Hua smiled; she must be quite satisfied with her future husband.

Thinking of this, Zhao Hua smiled slightly again. After all, in his previous life, he completed the entire process in about ten days, and his life was quite good at the beginning.

Half an hour later, the car arrived home. The matchmaker was reporting to Zhao's mother on the progress of the engagement today, but of course, she didn't mention a word about Song Xueping's aunt.

Zhao Hua didn't pay any attention to them; she would just do whatever they decided to do.

After resting inside for a while and feeling the effects of the alcohol subside, he got up and went to check on the educated youth settlement. Only two walls of the kitchen had been built, and there were enough materials for the time being, so he didn't need to worry about it. After wandering around for a while, he went home and then rode his bicycle straight to Xu Qian's house.

I bought two cans of food on the way and gave her another thirty yuan. The cans were the same as Jiang Yue's, so I had to give her more money.

"Have you been drinking?" Xu Qian wrinkled her little nose and sniffed.

Zhao Hua smiled and said, "I had a little bit of a drink at noon." As he spoke, he put all the gifts he was carrying on the table and said, "Why didn't you go to play with Jiang Yue? I was thinking on the way here that when I got to your house, you might not be home and might have gone out to play."

Xu Qian glanced at the table and said, "I originally planned to go, but it was too hot and there wasn't much to do, so I didn't go that early and took a nap at home."

"Let's go then, let's go over there together and talk about the workshop. It's been delayed for quite a while."

Xu Qian looked at Zhao Hua in surprise and said, "Are you really going to do it? I thought you'd given up after all this time since there was no news."

Zhao Hua laughed and said, "Sure, I've had this idea for a long time, but my family has been building a house and I've been working on the formula, so it's been delayed until now."

"What's the recipe?"

"Let's talk about it later, so we don't have to repeat ourselves."

Xu Qian nodded, got up and went inside to change her clothes, then went out and walked with Zhao Hua towards Jiang Yue's house.

"Huh?" Jiang Yue asked in surprise upon seeing Xu Qian and Zhao Hua, "Did you two run into each other?"

Zhao Hua smiled and said, "I need to talk to you guys. I'm going to Xu Qian's house first."

Jiang Yue nodded and led the two into the house. She then poured them a cup of tea and added some brown sugar to each cup.

Zhao Hua pursed his lips and said, "Don't be so polite. Come and sit down. You're making me feel embarrassed every time I come here empty-handed."

Jiang Yue chuckled softly, "Then you can just bring something every time you come over, since you have money anyway."

Xu Qian, on the other hand, laughed it off and didn't seem to care.

Zhao Hua rolled his eyes. It wasn't that he couldn't take something with him each time, but the meaning would be different. Arriving empty-handed meant they were friends, but bringing gifts every time would have a slightly transactional feel to it.

"Sit down, stop busying yourself, I have something to tell you." Zhao Hua called out to Jiang Yue, who was still putting sugar in the pan.

Jiang Yue glanced back, then screwed the sugar jar back on, picked up the two cups, and waited for Zhao Hua to take them before sitting down and saying, "Speak, what is it?"

Do you know the soft drink factory in the county?

Jiang Yue and Xu Qian nodded at the same time.

Zhao Hua continued, "Good to know. I want to start a beverage factory. Do you have any way to help me get the equipment for the factory?" As for asking them to help poach people, Zhao Hua hadn't even considered it. People working in factories have permanent positions. Who would give up their jobs in the city to come to a small private factory in the countryside and mess around with him?

Some people who work in the city even feel ashamed to run a small shop at home, but their attitudes change soon after they see others bringing TVs and radios into their homes.

After Zhao Hua finished speaking, Jiang Yue and Xu Qian exchanged a glance but neither responded immediately.

The room was quiet for a moment, with only the brown sugar at the bottom of the enamel cup slowly dissolving in the hot water, creating ripples.

Xu Qian spoke first, her tone much more serious than usual: "The equipment in the soda factory? You mean the machines on the production line?"

"Yes." Zhao Hua nodded. "The most basic set will do. I don't need a large production volume; a few hundred bottles a day will be enough."

Jiang Yue lowered her head and thought for a moment, then said softly, "Actually, my family wanted to arrange for me to work at the county's soda factory. We went there to take a look, but there were too many people there, and a lot of people with connections in the factory, so we didn't go."

Zhao Hua secretly scoffed, thinking to himself, "You're acting like you're not related by connections," but he didn't show it on his face and quietly listened to Jiang Yue continue.

As expected, Jiang Yue paused for a moment and said, "There don't seem to be many machines inside, just a filling machine, a capping machine, and some bottles and jars."

He looked at Zhao Hua with a puzzled expression and said, "But I heard those machines are quite expensive. It would be a waste to buy them and not be able to use them. Are you sure you can handle it?"

Zhao Hua nodded. He admitted that he wasn't very good at it, but there were plenty of talented people in the village. Some of the older folks even knew how to make things like sour plum drink. If all else failed, he would ask the person who had asked for the recipe to come and make the drink for him.

He didn't plan to expand too much at the moment. He would just use the traditional method to brew it and sell it in the surrounding villages. How much skill was required? If he wasn't worried that people wouldn't recognize the water as plain water, he would have just boiled the water, filled it up, and sold it directly.

The tea sold in ancient inns and the big bowls of tea in big cities today are all made this way, but he even added some flavor!

As for future development, he is not in a hurry. Right now, he can only run a small workshop. He can't even set up a decent factory. Even running a small workshop is quite difficult.

The only thing to worry about is that if he makes money and people around him see it, then suddenly a whole bunch of beverage factories will spring up around the area. But Zhao Hua isn't in a hurry; he may not have eaten pork, but he's seen pigs run.

When he watched TV shows and movies in his later life, those GG videos weren't just for show.