Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 271 A New Year

There were probably thirty or forty people in the billiard hall right now, making a racket and smoking. Although there were exhaust fans, they were practically useless because there were just too many smokers. Even non-smokers who stayed inside for a while came out smelling of smoke from the inside out.

The dance hall was at the other end of this row of buildings, next to the public toilet.

You can hear music coming from the dance hall as soon as you walk to the middle of the dam. Luckily, it's winter and the doors and windows are closed; it would be even louder in the summer. There are also groups of about twenty people gathered at the entrance of the dance hall, smoking and talking. Smoking is not allowed inside the dance hall, and besides, you don't have time to smoke while dancing. What are you doing, dancing with a woman and smoking a cigarette?

"Damn, what a lousy toilet! I almost fell in. The floor is all frozen solid." A man walked out of the toilet, patting his pants and cursing under his breath.

A few people outside burst into laughter: "Did that woman get you all worked up? What are you doing in there?"

"Yeah, I came out even though I went in after you. You were probably shooting in there, weren't you?"

"That should be about right. We didn't fall when we went in. Our legs just gave way. How pathetic."

"Get the hell out of here! It's because you guys peed everywhere that the ground is all ice. You can't even squat by the latrine anymore, damn it." A few guys threw down their cigarette butts and went back into the dance hall. The door opened and closed, and deafening dance music poured out. To be honest, there wasn't any special dance music these days. It was all popular songs that everyone knew, arranged together according to the rhythm, usually in ten-minute segments.

In this era, dance halls were filled with ballroom dancing, including waltz and quickstep, slow waltz and quickstep, with a twenty-minute disco session in between.

When the men dance, they stick their butts out and puff out their chests, making every move look stylish. Their hip-swaying, waist-twisting, and head-shaking movements are quite exaggerated; it's actually quite funny. If you're interested, search for Da Pan's skit "How Awkward!", which includes a demonstration of the dance moves. It's also a program from the "Happy Meeting Room" show.

Xiao Wei asked Xiao Hong, "Shall we go in and take a look?"

Xiao Wei said, "Where would I go? Don't you teach that at your school?"

Xiaohong said, "There are classes and ballroom dance clubs, but I didn't join. They're too noisy, and besides, the activities are all in the evening. Why did I see a whole group of men come together? Men dancing with men?"

Xiao Wei said, "No, there are women inside, and quite a few women came together. You can just jump over with whoever you want."

Xiao Hong stared wide-eyed and exclaimed, "Ah! It's okay if I don't know you?"

Xiao Wei said, "Okay, some people aren't willing. If this doesn't work, we can ask someone else. There are a couple hundred people inside."

Xiao Hong asked, "Can't there be a fight with so many people crammed together?"

Xiao Wei said, "Of course there will be. It's okay, if anyone dares to cause trouble here, someone will take care of them. Are you cold? How about we go into the karaoke bar, sit for a while, and have some hot water?"

The karaoke room was much quieter. Although it was only separated by a wall, the soundproofing of the old building ensured that no noise could reach this room.

The karaoke bar wasn't as crowded anymore; there were only seven or eight people sitting there. It cost five yuan a song, which was quite a shocking price at the time. Besides these teenagers and a few newly rich people, few ordinary folks dared to enter. And it was winter; in summer, opening the doors and windows might attract some onlookers.

A large projector was playing videos and music was playing. A young man in his early twenties was standing there, belting out Zhang Yusheng's "My Future Is Not a Dream" at the top of his lungs. The singer was Huang Laowu, who now ran the karaoke bar. Lao Hou, with a newcomer, ran the billiards hall, and Hei Zi and three others ran the dance hall.

Xiao Wei and Xiao Hong came in and found a seat. Xiao Wei went to get the thermos and poured two cups of hot water, but didn't make tea. Huang Laowu brought over the songbook and asked if they wanted to sing. Xiao Wei handed the songbook to Xiao Hong. At this time, songbooks were all handwritten; people copied the songs they had at home into the book to show the guests.

Xiao Hong flipped through the list and selected a song by Meng Tingwei called "Actually, I Still Care a Little".

In the 90s, the most popular and widely sung songs were almost all by Hong Kong and Taiwan stars, such as Chang Yu-sheng, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung, Little Tigers, Grasshopper, Meng Tingwei, Paula Tsui, Sandy Lam, Anita Mui, and Sally Yeh. Many of them are still popular today.

While early 90s karaoke bars with individual tables might have been slightly inferior to today's Western-style cafes, they were definitely more upscale than modern teahouses. Higher prices naturally equate to higher class. It wasn't until around 95, when karaoke bars were everywhere but no longer featured live music, that the term "karaoke bar" became commonplace. The idea that karaoke bars didn't feature live music, and hair salons didn't offer haircuts, represents a new industry that emerged in the mid-to-late 90s and continues to this day.

In the 90s, China, once black and white, began to transform into a colorful and vibrant world.

Time flew by and it was 91.

In January, the Longcheng paging service was launched. Pagers began to enter the lives of Longcheng residents. Putting one hand in one's pocket and pulling one side of one's shirt back to expose the pager gradually became a common behavior among young people.

Xiaowei also bought one for his dad, but not the latest model; it was a first-generation motorcycle. Xiaowei's mom didn't want it.

Xiao Wei's dad got the machine and called himself several times using the phone in their living room. Then, beaming, he hung the machine on his waist, stood next to the 100 (presumably a phone model), and had Xiao Wei take a picture. He even took a few pictures with Xiao Wei's mom and Xiao Hong. Finally, under Xiao Wei's mom's two-finger slapping technique, he ran off to the boiler room to check on the boiler. Xiao Wei suddenly realized, to his dismay, that pinching people wasn't a matter of bloodline or heredity; his mother's skill was clearly far superior to Chen Xiao's.

Chen Hui and Liu Hongliang also came over to join in the fun. They drove out three cars and parked them in the yard to take pictures with the food factory and housing as the background. Chen Hui also took a few pictures of Xiao Wei and Xiao Hong. Then they took pictures of the food factory, the classrooms of the chef class, the pastry class, and the Western pastry class, as well as the dormitory and the training workshop. These pictures will be used on Google later.

Then the battlefield expanded, with several older women from the food factory taking photos together, Sister Shang taking photos, and Hao Xiaodong and his wife taking photos.

They kept going until they'd used up the entire roll of film before finally stopping their antics.

The film was handed over to Liu Hongliang to be developed; he needed to deliver the goods to various sales outlets, so he could take it along the way.

The food factory now produces about ten kinds of bulk products, including old-fashioned bread, fried dough twists, oven-baked biscuits, soda crackers, animal-shaped biscuits, egg crisps, old-fashioned cookies, steamed rice cakes, honey cakes, caramel steamed buns, glutinous rice strips, and peanut candy. It has sixteen sales outlets and has basically maintained a balance between income and expenditure. These days, Sister Shang is leading her team to study oil tea.

Oil tea originated from Mongolian barley tea and is made with cooked flour, sesame seeds, peanuts, and sugar. It is very popular in Northeast China. A similar product, sesame paste, exists in the south.

(End of this chapter)