Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 802 Major Business

Xiao Wei said, "Okay, I've got it. Don't worry, there are plenty of us here."

Aunt Wang glanced into the pavilion: "Are you all going?"

Xiao Wei said, "Let's all go. None of us have been there before. It's a good opportunity to visit. Or you and my mom could come too."

Aunt Wang hesitated for a moment, but Xiao Wei's mother said, "Let's go. It's not far. Let's go on a trip."

Aunt Wang said, "Is that okay? Did you throw it away at home?"

Xiaowei's mother said, "We still have these people at home. Can they manage taking the child out? Let's go instead. I'm not comfortable with it. Old Xia's family hasn't moved here, and Uncle Chen and his wife can't move, so it's just the two of us."

Aunt Wang turned to look at Xia Gengsheng, thought for a moment, and said, "Alright, that's true."

The butcher came out with a bamboo basket and a carrying pole. Xiaowei's mother paid and said, "It's only a short distance, and I still bought so much meat from you. It costs five yuan to deliver it. I'm never buying anything from you again."

The butcher chuckled as he took the money, saying, "Sister, I'm just doing this little business to make ends meet. I'm only doing my job. Your place looks well-off, so what's five yuan to you?"

Xiao Wei's mother was quite dissatisfied. Even after the butcher left with his tools, she was still grumbling about the five yuan. Aunt Wang said, "Xiao Wei, when will your pigs be ready for market? They should be almost ready by now, right?"

Xiao Wei turned his head and asked, "Hongliang, my mom asked when our pigs will be ready for market."

Liu Hongliang said, "It'll be soon. The first batch will be next month. There won't be many this year, so we need to save seeds. Next year will be better."

Xiao Wei's mother said, "This local pig is delicious, but it's really slow-cooked. It can't compare to other pigs."

Xiao Wei said, "We'll be fine once the pig herd grows up, then we can take over. We're not making money from this anyway."

Chen Hui asked from the side, "Xiao Wei, are you going to the Longcheng relocation?"

Xiao Wei said, "Brother Long went back, I'm not going, it's nothing."

Xiao Hong asked, "When our own pigs are ready for market, we'll have to send them to Anton, right? How will we send them? Won't they just rot by the time they get there?"

Chen Hui said, "We've ordered a truck, a refrigerated truck, so it will be delivered to the restaurant and frozen directly. The old soup will also need to be refrigerated."

Xiaowei's mother and Aunt Wang came into the building and said, "Isn't everything alright right now? Go outside and invite them over, so they won't sit there anymore. Ask if that girl's transfer has been arranged yet, and if not, you can go and help run errands for her."

Xiao Wei agreed and said to Xiao Hong and the others, "You guys sit down, I'll go check on Huang Suo's family."

Chen Hui said, "I'll go too." Liu Hongliang followed, and the three of them left the courtyard.

Just as Xiaowei stepped outside the gate, his phone rang. He glanced at the number and answered it.

"Is this Xiaowei? This is your Uncle Liu."

Xiao Wei said, "It's me, sir. What's up?"

Grandpa Liu coughed a few times and said, "Come to my office now, you should be able to find it, right?"

Xiao Wei said, "Yes, sure, I'll be right there." After hanging up the phone, he said to Chen Hui, "My Uncle Liu wants me to come over now."

Chen Hui looked upstairs and said, "Let's go up and tell them first. Who knows when we'll be gone?"

The three continued upstairs and arrived at Huang's house.

Wang had already helped them get their household registration and grain rations sorted out, and they had also gone to the school. The family was sitting together talking.

People at that time didn't have the habit of closing their doors when they went inside; if someone was home, the front door was usually left open. Xiao Wei knocked on the door: "Uncle Huang, are you home?"

Huang Jianzhong immediately came out to greet him: "Hey, hey, come in."

The three people went into the house, and Xiaowei said, "Have you taken care of the household registration and stuff? I took care of the Lahu this morning and forgot about the child's schooling."

Grandpa Huang stood up and said, "It's done, it's done. Director Wang brought it over. They're all good comrades. They led us around the grain station area and found the right place. They even went to the school. Now it's so close. We'll go back there tomorrow to get the stamp."

Xiao Wei said, "It's okay, we'll take our time with the paperwork. Tomorrow, I'll have my wife take the kids to class so their studies aren't disrupted. Um, my mom said you guys shouldn't cook tonight; everyone should come over to my house for a get-together and get to know each other properly."

Grandpa Huang said, "We've already bought them, so don't bother. We appreciate your kind gesture. This is fine enough."

Xiao Wei said, "We have to go tonight. There are quite a few people here, and all these families. It's a good opportunity to get to know each other, and then we'll all be together. My mom has already started cooking. I have some things to do here, so you guys can just go over there around 5 o'clock. It's in the yard downstairs, so my mom won't have to come over."

Chen Hui said, "Sir, we're not strangers, there's no need to be so polite."

Grandpa Huang thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay, go ahead and do your work. We'll take care of it ourselves in a bit."

Xiao Wei and his two companions got off again and drove to the taxi company in the courtyard.

In 92, there weren't many taxi companies in Fengtian, and all of them were managed by a head office. Private taxi companies hadn't yet emerged; most taxis were operated by privately owned vehicles under affiliation. In those days, taxi drivers were still a high-income group, among the first to become wealthy.

The most common type of cement office building in this era was dilapidated and dirty, with a large courtyard and a gate made of welded iron pipes, rusty and leaning against the wall.

Mr. Liu is the chief engineer and deputy general manager; his office is on the third floor.

The three of them told the security guard and went upstairs to Grandpa Liu's office.

He knocked on the door, and when he heard someone call him to come in, he pushed the door open and went in: "Sir, did you need something?"

Grandpa Liu sat behind his old desk, glanced at the three people who came in, and pointed to the chair against the wall: "Sit."

The three men walked over and sat down. Grandpa Liu took a document and handed it to Xiao Wei: "Take a look at this. The company's Party Committee has already made a decision."

Xiao Wei took it and saw that it was a decision to replace taxis.

In accordance with the spirit of the relevant municipal party committee meetings, and after deliberation by the company's party committee, it was decided to replace all existing taxis in the city over a two-year period, phasing out the existing Lada, Polonaise, and Volga models. The replacement will be carried out in ten batches, with three brands proposed for replacement: Jetta, Xiali, and Shenlong Fukang. Differential pricing will be implemented for taxis based on brand.

In the 1990s, Fengtian began to implement differentiated pricing for taxis. The highest price was 20 yuan for Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and the lowest was 5 yuan for Xiali and 7 yuan for Jetta. Soon after, the price in the lower area was unified at 7 yuan, and the price in the higher area was raised to 30 yuan.

Fengtian had the earliest taxis in China, starting in the 1930s. By the time the People's Republic of China was founded, Fengtian, Xidu, and Bingcheng all had very formal taxi services. The predecessor of Fengtian Taxi Company was a company run by foreigners, but at that time, ordinary Chinese people could not afford to ride in them; they mainly served foreigners.

Mr. Liu asked, "We need 1,200 Xiali cars this time. Can you supply them?"

(End of this chapter)