break out of the ice

Chapter 5 Go to Shanghai

On the second day, in order to adapt to Antonio's time difference, the assembly machine group of seven all appeared in the west factory building at 06:30.

The unpacking was almost done yesterday, and today I started to assemble the machine.

In the next few days, every day, people tried to invite Antonio, a foreigner, to experience the enthusiasm of Chinese people. Every time, Shi Jingqi, a talented student, was asked to save face, and Liu Guodong or Gao Tuanjie were also asked to help each time. To accompany a lively and lively.

In this way, after eating and drinking for a week, the machines were all installed.

On the day when all the machines are installed, Deputy Mayor Zhang will bring the Bureau of Commerce and other brother factories that are preparing for reform to visit and inspect.

Shi Jingqi got up at 04:30. Although Antonio's jet lag is almost gone now, he can go from the guest house to the factory by himself without his daily escort.

But today the deputy mayor Zhang Renli is coming, and Shi Jingqi will explain and operate all the machines in front of Zhang Renli.

Antonio taught it twice last night, and Shi Jingqi thought about doing it again this morning.

When Shi Jingqi arrived at the west workshop, he saw a figure inside, wiping the machine with a dry rag.

Looking closer, it was actually Liu Qinqin. It was the cool early morning, but her face was red, and her forehead was covered with beads of sweat.

Seeing him coming in, he giggled: "Today everyone in the factory has to get up at six o'clock to clean up. The factory manager Yan said that the whole factory should be clean and bright. This workshop is full of treasures. Let us clean it up. .”

While talking, Lin Yuru and Gao Tuanjie also came, and they were cleaning, but Shi Jingqi was not allowed to do it, so that he could get familiar with the machine again.

At ten o'clock, Zhang Renli led a visiting team of dozens of people into the gate of the factory. In addition to the accompanying leaders of the factory, comrades from the city TV station and newspaper office, there were fifty or sixty people.

Shi Jingqi stayed by his side throughout the whole process, operating the machine while explaining, feeling as nervous as a graduation defense, and managed to finish the work.

Zhang Renli still remembered that he had asked for Shi Jingqi from the Personnel Bureau. Seeing that Shi Jingqi had entered work in such a short period of time, he patted Shi Jingqi on the shoulder after the explanation and encouraged him: "Comrade Xiao Shi, please work hard."

Comrade Xiaoshi broke out in a cold sweat nervously.

The visiting group was sent off, and all the machines were installed. Even if the task of Ebner Company was completed, Antonio's work was also completed.

After staying in China these days, Antonio's Chinese has improved a lot. At the farewell banquet, under the leadership of Gao Tuanjie and Liu Guodong, he was able to talk about "tiger, bar and chicken" with the three giants in the factory.

It is impossible to escape a lonely drunk.

On the way to Shanghai, Antonio, who was sitting in the back row, was still complaining of a headache while rubbing his forehead.

Shi Jingqi had a conversation with Antonio, asked him to lie down in the back row and sleep for a while, and told him that he would arrive at the airport when he woke up.

Sitting in the co-pilot's seat, he remained silent.

It was less than a month since he came back from Shanghai. At that time, he took the hard seat of the green leather train back to his hometown. Unexpectedly, this time he came to Shanghai by car.

Although he was favored by foreign friends, for Shi Jingqi, who was riding a car for the first time, he was still excited.

This feeling of excitement overwhelmed the remaining unwillingness in his heart, making him feel a little comfortable.

"Master Shi, I heard that you graduated from Fudan University. You should be familiar with Shanghai, right?" The car was borrowed from the Bureau of Commerce, and the driver was naturally from the Bureau of Commerce.

He was a fat boy with a round face, and he introduced himself as Xiaoqian.

Xiao Qian seldom drives long-distance cars, and at this time he felt a little sleepy, so he thought about talking to Shi Jingqi.

Shi Jingqi smiled slightly: "I'm not familiar with it, our children from the countryside don't have the spare money to go shopping in Shanghai."

Xiaoqian smiled and said, "Then let's see the big airport in Shanghai today."

Antonio needs to fly from Shanghai to Hong Kong, and from Hong Kong to Italy.

Shi Jingqi followed suit with a smile: "Okay."

They drove from Mincheng in the early morning, stopped for a while, and had a simple meal. When they arrived at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, it was already close to evening, and there were no air tickets for that day. The nearest flight to Hong Kong was the first On the morning of the second day.

Shi Jingqi bought a plane ticket with Antonio, and they left the airport. Xiaoqian suggested finding a guest house near the airport to stay.

Antonio knew that Shi Jingqi graduated from a famous Chinese school, and wanted to visit Fudan University. During the past few days, he had already introduced Shi Jingqi as his most important Chinese friend.

Xiaoqian didn't even go to high school, so he became interested when he heard it, and clamored to go with him.

Three people in one car went from Hongqiao Airport to Fudan University.

Although it is still during the summer vacation, there are still many students in Fudan University. Suo Xingshi Jingji is not a celebrity in the school. Few of the students who are still in school know him. He took the two of them around Fudan University. I didn't meet an acquaintance.

This made Shi Jingqi heave a sigh of relief. He is not a person who is good at socializing. If someone encounters and asks him, he wants to be assigned to a half-dead agricultural machinery factory in his hometown that is about to be transformed into a freezer factory, and he will lead a foreign friend to sit. It was a very strenuous task for him to show up at his alma mater with a four-wheeled car and explain clearly.

Just about to lead the two out of the school, Xiaoqian touched his head a little embarrassedly and said: "Brother Shi, can you still eat at school after graduation? My mother always scolds me that I won't be able to eat in college for the rest of my life. I want to eat at a prestigious school." Let her take a look at the meal, it’s okay, I will pay for the meal.”

This made Shi Jingqi a little embarrassed. Although he still had a few meal tickets left in the school cafeteria, he never thought of going back to his alma mater for another meal when he came to Shanghai.

Just as he was suffering from a headache, he heard someone calling Shi Jingqi.

Turning his head, he saw that it was Huang Dezhi, his roommate in college. Huang Dezhi was a graduate student in this school, and he did not leave school after everyone left.

Meeting Huang Dezhi not only solved the problem of Xiaoqian wanting to eat in the school cafeteria, after the meal Huang Dezhi also sent several people to the guest house of Fudan University with his student ID card.

Xiaoqian and Antonio went to bed, Shi Jingqi and Huang Dezhi went back to school together.

On the way to the library, shaded by green leaves and dim street lights, Shi Jingqi told his old friend about his situation after graduation.

In fact, it only takes a few minutes to really open your mouth and talk about what happened to you these days.

Huang Dezhi talked about the books he was reading and the current situation of a few classmates he knew.

When men are together, especially young men, the topic is naturally inseparable from the girls around them.

Huang Dezhi's topic went around and around, and finally it turned around the goddess: "I heard that Bai Ling hasn't gone abroad yet. She loves to be with you on weekdays. Do you know her current situation?"

So you haven't left yet?Shi Jingqi was in a daze for a moment, then shook his head: "They just saw that I was miserable when I went to school, and took care of me. How could they still contact me after graduation?"

Huang Dezhi nodded: "That's right."

Bai Ling is a flower in their physics department. Not only is she good-looking, but she is also good at studying. I heard that her father is also a high-ranking official in a certain ministry, and her family background is very good.

But Bai Ling studied hard on weekdays, and only made friends with a few girls in the class, and kept a certain distance from the boys. Shi Jingqi was one of the few boys who had friendship with her.

However, Shi Jingqi is a poor boy from the valley, and he is not outstanding in all aspects. Everyone never thought that there would be a relationship between the two of them that surpassed the friendship between classmates.

When he arrived at the library, Shi Jingqi picked out a few mechanical books that were not available in Mincheng, handed them to Huang Dezhi, and asked Huang Dezhi to help them borrow them.

Huang Dezhi is a graduate student, so he can borrow the book for a month in the name of a research project. When the time comes, Shi Jingqi can calculate the time and send the book back in advance.

Back at the guest house, it was already eleven o'clock at night, the little girl in front of the counter was dozing off with her head down, when she heard the door knock, seeing that it was Shi Jingqi, she lowered her head and continued to squint again.

Next to the counter, there was a white phone. Shi Jingqi walked over, hesitated for a moment, and tapped the table with two fingers.

The little girl looked up at him again, with doubts in her eyes.

Shi Jingqi hesitated and said, "I want to make a phone call."

"1 cents a minute." The little girl stretched out her hand and pushed the phone in Shi Jingqi's direction.

It took half a minute to pick up the microphone before Shi Jingqi put it down: "Sorry, I don't remember the phone number."

He took out a dime and put it on the counter.

"No connection, no money." The little girl pushed back the dime and continued to squint.

In order to take care of foreign friends, Antonio slept in a room, and he and Xiaoqian slept in a room.

Xiaoqian's snoring sounded continuously, and at this time Shi Jingqi was lying on the bed but couldn't fall asleep because of tossing and turning. It wasn't because of Xiaoqian's snoring, but a series of numbers kept coming to mind.

It was a string of numbers written on half a sheet of white paper and sandwiched in a "English-Chinese Dictionary". The "Dictionary" was given to Bai Ling on the day he graduated.

He knew that the string of seven numbers was the phone number of Bai Ling's family, and it was printed in his mind just by looking at it, but after so long, he never dialed it.

Since he couldn't fall asleep anyway, Shi Jingqi simply got up and turned on the lamp beside the bed. With the dim light on, listening to Xiaoqian's snoring, he actually read half a copy of "American Mechanical Engineering Handbook" all night.

The next day, Shi Jingqi saw Antonio board the plane with panda eyes on his face. Antonio was very reluctant to let him be his first "brother" in China. Before boarding the plane, he wrote him his address in Italy.

(End of this chapter)