Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 821 Face

Chen Hui said, "Elementary school music is indeed easy; it's something you can choose not to attend."

Xia Maosheng said, "If that's the case, then high school is even easier. Basically, you don't have to go at all. The other teachers will beg you not to go."

Xiao Wei said, "We don't have music classes at all. I have no idea what you're talking about. I've never had one. And art too."

Liu Hongliang casually remarked from the side, "If you had persisted for two more years and finished junior high, you would have had it."

Chen Hui said, "He barely attended any classes in junior high school, so he doesn't even know if there was any music or art involved."

Xiao Wei said, "Really, no, I didn't read it, they read it." He pointed to Ga Zi.

Gazi nodded and said, "We don't have music, art, or physical education classes where we live. Physical education class is just the homeroom teacher leading us around on the playground for a whole period, or we do calisthenics. Most of the time is spent going over test papers."

Xia Maosheng said, "What kind of school is that? It's so unprofessional."

Xiao Wei said, "We were in the village for grades one through four, with one teacher per classroom. We started going to the commune for grade five, and then to the town for grade six. It was a little better where we were. Actually, we were in the county from grade five onwards, which was closer to us."

An Xiaohui stared at Xiaowei with wide eyes: "You guys had it really tough when you were little, no wonder you dropped out of school." Her face flushed, and she stuck out her tongue: "I'm not very good at talking, don't be angry."

Xiao Wei said, "Why get angry when I'm telling the truth? I'm planning to go back and build a school next spring, so that our area can have a complete primary school with music and art classes, soccer games, and each grade's own classroom. I just don't know if it will be easy to arrange the teachers."

Chen Hui said, "It's not worth it. Teachers are hard to recruit. You might as well build a better school in the county, then get a school bus to pick up the village children every day and send them back in the evening. That would only be a matter of hiring a driver, and you'd only need to spend a little on gas. It's more practical than hiring teachers."

Xia Maosheng gave a thumbs up: "Great idea, this is much simpler to implement."

An Xiaohui's eyes reddened, and she said, "Did I say something wrong? If you go back to build the school, will you stop investing here?"

Chen Hui smiled and said, "You just started working, right? How old are you?"

An Xiaohui said, "I'm 21, and I've been working for several months already."

"Brothers, it's fate that we met. Come on, let's have a drink together." A man in his thirties walked to the table with a wine glass in hand. His face was flushed from drinking, and his shirt buttons were undone. He looked down at Xiao Wei and the others, swirling the wine glass in his hand: "Come on, bottoms up, then we're brothers."

Chen Hui sized him up a few times: "Who are you?"

The man raised an eyebrow, glanced at Chen Hui, and said, "I'm Hu Jun'er. Can't I even have a drink with you?"

Chen Hui said, "Do I know you? You just come here and expect me to drink?"

Xiao Wei reached out and patted Chen Hui, then turned to Hu Jun and said, "Sorry, buddy, we don't drink much, so we can't keep you company. Go find someone else who can drink."

That's true. The group is used to drinking champagne and doesn't really drink baijiu (Chinese liquor). Today, they just poured themselves a glass of beer to get by.

Hu Jun looked at Xiao Wei, then at Chen Hui: "You're not giving me any face, are you? Will it kill you to have a drink? I've already come all this way and you won't even give me the slightest bit of face."

Xiao Wei said, "We don't drink, you should go back and drink, okay?"

Hu Jun slammed his other hand on the table: "I'm definitely drinking this glass of wine today, so I'm just asking you one question: are you going to give me face?"

Xiao Wei frowned: "You feel like I didn't give you face?"

Hu Jun said, "If you're going to give me face, I'll do it. I didn't say a word and just turned around and left."

Xiao Wei said, "We don't drink, but you still force us to. Are you giving me any face?"

Hu Jun stared at Xiao Wei and asked, "So you're just not going to give it to me?"

Xiao Wei said, "You're quite an interesting person. You can easily embarrass people, and they still have to give you face. Where do you get that much influence?"

Hu Jun slammed his glass on the table, lifted his shirt, and put his right foot on the stool, saying, "Why? Because I'm rich. Inviting you guys to drink is giving you face, understand? That girl." He pointed at An Xiaohui, "Tell your boss I'm not happy drinking today. If they don't drink this, I won't pay a single penny."

Everyone else had several name-brand dishes on their tables, but Xiaowei's table only had one. Chen Hui had even taken it aside when he was setting out the dishes.

An Xiaohui looked at Xiao Wei, then at Hu Jun, and said, "They are guests too. Are you sure you haven't made a mistake?"

Hu Jun waved his hand: "Stop with the nonsense, are you going to drink or not?"

Xiao Wei asked An Xiao Hui, "What does he do? He looks really rich."

An Xiaohui said, "I didn't know. I was in charge of your table. Oh no, I'm late."

Hu Jun pulled a business card from his pocket and slammed it on the table: "Here, let me tell you what I do. Don't try to act all high and mighty in the future, understand?"

Xiao Wei waved, and Xia Maosheng picked up his business card and handed it to Xiao Wei, saying to Hu Jun, "Dude, are you sure you're not mistaken? We're sitting here perfectly fine, you're the one who came here to show off, aren't you?"

Hu Jun placed his wine glass in front of Xia Maosheng: "Drink it."

Xiao Wei looked at the business card: Bingcheng Tengfei Pelletizing Plant, a sintering company. Bingcheng isn't a very industrialized area, and there aren't many large mines, so sintering plants, using readily available raw materials, are particularly thriving and profitable. In Liaodong, the situation is much worse; there are plenty of mines and large factories, but few private individuals make money in this field.

Xiao Wei put the business card on the table and said to Chen Hui, "I work in sintering, at a pellet plant."

Chen Hui took the business card and looked at it: "Are you this good at sintering around here? Your factory must be pretty big. It seems like there aren't many large private factories doing this back home." He threw the business card back on the table.

Xia Maosheng laughed and said, "Large factories are everywhere, how can private companies compete?"

Chen Hui said, "This thing seems to cause quite a lot of pollution, right? It seems like it's not allowed to be done in many places. It's a major electricity consumer."

Xiao Wei said, "I knew that most of the raw materials for their sintering here come from our area, at 260 or 280 yuan per ton."

Xia Maosheng was taken aback: "It can't be that expensive, can it? I remember a steel cup was only 130 yuan?"

Xiao Wei said, "One hundred and fifteen trains will depart, and the wagons are still owned by Beigang Steel, so we don't need to pay extra."

Liu Hongliang looked at Xia Maosheng and Xiao Wei: "What are you doing? What are you doing? You want to do something else?"

Xiao Wei shook his head and said, "No way, it's pointless. Getting goods requires asking for favors, waiting for railcars requires asking for favors, and making money is too tiring and involves a lot of complicated relationships."

Chen Hui said, "If you calculate it this way, the profit isn't that much. One train car is sixty tons, and even if you treat it as thirty cars at a time, how much is that? Around two hundred thousand?"

An Xiaohui stood up and said to Hu Jun, "Comrade, we are also guests here. It's difficult for us if you do this. Please go back to your own table, okay?"

Xiao Wei shook his head and said, "Not that much. The factory, the railway, the wagons—they all need to share. And how many trips can you make a month? Do you think you're getting all the goods for yourself? The iron powder from Beigang and Angang is all for their own use; it's just that small private mines sell the powder. Why don't they sell it themselves? Why do they have to go through you?"

(End of this chapter)