Reborn in the red age

The train arrived at Harbin Railway Station in good time, and a group of three people got off the train carrying their suitcases.

Li Qingfeng and his wife were fine. Although they didn't get a good rest on the train, they managed to get a night's sleep.

Wang Weimin was not so good. As soon as he woke up during the day, he kept complaining that the hard sleeper on the train was not clean and was much worse than the soft sleeper.

There was a mixture of unknown odors in the bedding, including smelly feet, and there were fleas and lice on it. He was so disgusted that he couldn't sleep much that night.

"When we set out, I told you to bring some new sheets and quilt covers, but you didn't listen. When we get there, find a bathhouse to take a shower and change your clothes to avoid getting any skin disease," Hu Jiabao took two steps away from Wang Weimin and said with a look of disgust.

As the wedding was approaching, Ma Wenhui had a lot to do, so the three of them did not ask Ma Wenhui to pick them up. Instead, they asked for her address and prepared to take a taxi.

There were many stalls near the train station. While waiting for a taxi, they saw a stall selling mountain products nearby. Hu Jiabao hadn't eaten mountain products from the Northeast for many years, so he left the two of them and went to the stall to pick hazelnuts, walnuts and other things.

"How many?"

Seeing a taxi coming, Li Qingfeng was about to raise his hand to stop it when he heard Hu Jiabao's exclamation from behind.

After hearing this, Li Qingfeng turned around and ran towards Hu Jiabao without caring about the approaching taxi, and Wang Weimin followed closely behind.

"What happened?"

Hu Jiabao looked at the stall owner in front of him with an angry face. When he saw Li Qingfeng coming, he pointed at the white-haired old woman with a bag of hazelnuts and said angrily: "For such a small amount of hazelnuts, she asked me for more than 30 yuan."

Glancing at the three or four kilograms of hazelnuts in Hu Jiabao's hand, Li Qingfeng frowned and said to the kind-looking old lady in front of him, "Auntie, hazelnuts are not valuable. Isn't it too much to charge more than thirty yuan for something worth only three or four yuan?"

"Young man, look at what you are saying. I, an old lady, always have clearly marked prices when doing business. Your wife just asked about the price. Now the things have been packed and weighed. You can't deny it and bully an old lady like me." The old lady still had that kind look on her face, as if Li Qingfeng and his wife had bullied her.

Hu Jiabao was very angry at the old lady selling mountain products: "You are talking nonsense. I asked you how much it was per pound, and you clearly said one dollar."

"My daughter, you remembered it wrong. I said one dollar for one tael." The old lady raised her chin.

Hu Jiabao was so angry at the old lady that he couldn't speak and his chest heaved up and down.

Li Qingfeng and Wang Weimin, who were standing by, finally understood that this was a case of forced buying and selling.

It's not just in the Northeast, this is the case in train stations all over the country. Some stalls are so outrageous that you can't even ask the price or buy anything. As long as you stand in front of a stall, you can't leave unless you pay dozens or hundreds of dollars.

Wang Weimin looked around vigilantly. If things went as expected, if the talks failed, seven or eight people would soon surround the three of them.

Pulling the angry Hu Jiabao, Li Qingfeng said with a smile: "Old lady, hazelnuts and walnuts are unshelled mountain products. They are not gold. How can they be sold for less than one yuan per tael?"

"Young man, I don't care about other people, but in my case, I sell them by the pound, a total of thirty-four dollars, you should pay the money quickly, so as not to affect my business."

Although it is said that a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall, and the money is not much, if Li Qingfeng really paid the money, he would feel ashamed no matter how he thought about it.

Seeing that Li Qingfeng was reluctant to pay, the old lady changed her tone and started to threaten him: "Young man, you are all from other places, you can't bully others when you are away from home."

"What do you want to do? What's wrong with us outsiders? I don't believe you dare to do anything in broad daylight." Faced with the threat, Hu Jiabao was not afraid at all. He took the initiative to step forward and spoke angrily.

Seeing this, Qingfeng Li shook his head and pulled Hu Jiabao behind him again.

Hu Jiabao has been too well protected. He has never suffered any hardship since he was a child. He has not had much experience until now and does not understand the real situation of the outside society.

Now that the relationship has been torn apart, the next thing that should happen is a group of ferocious-looking people coming up to threaten them.

Li Qingfeng and Wang Weimin surrounded Hu Jiabao and looked around vigilantly.

Just as the two of them were staring at their surroundings warily, the old lady selling mountain products let out a cry, and her whole body fell directly from the small stool to the ground, hugging Li Qingfeng's thighs and crying: "Come and see, someone is bullying an old woman like me, buying my things but not paying for them, and even beating people up."

Qingfeng Li: "."

Hu Jiabao: "."

Wang Weimin: “Ah???”

I originally thought he was a gangster, but it turned out to be an old scoundrel.

The old woman hugged Li Qingfeng's thighs tightly, rolled over and slapped the ground with her hands, which soon attracted a lot of onlookers from the passengers.

Hu Jiabao tried to reason at first, but it was useless. He quickly shut his mouth, too lazy to waste words.

The old lady didn't listen to your advice and kept repeating how they bullied the elderly, not only didn't pay for the things they bought, but also beat people, just like a tape recorder.

Faced with this kind of situation, it probably requires an old lady who is good at cursing to resolve it. After all, only magic can defeat magic.

Just when Li Qingfeng and the other two were getting extremely annoyed by the old lady, a railway police officer on duty nearby squeezed in, squatted on the ground and said helplessly: "Auntie Liu, that's enough, stop making trouble. You've made trouble three or five times today. That's enough. The ground is so cold."

"No, I won't get up if you don't give me money."

The railway policeman looked up at Li Qingfeng and the other two and said awkwardly, "Comrades, look."

"No, even if we spend the whole day here, I will only give you 3.6 yuan, not a cent more." Before Li Qingfeng could say anything, Hu Jiabao spoke first.

Li Qingfeng was about to say something, but seeing that Hu Jiabao had already spoken, he had no choice but to shut his mouth.

The railway police saw that both parties were in a stalemate and they could not persuade them, so they just gave up and continued to do what they had to do.

"Auntie, I see your face is pale from the cold. You'd better get up. The ground is quite cold."

The two sides had been maintaining the same posture for more than half an hour. It was still quite cold in Harbin at this month, and there were small piles of snow in some shady places. Aunt Liu, who was lying on the ground, was shivering with cold.

"No, no, I won't get up unless you give me money."

Aunt Liu, who was shivering with cold, wiped her nose and wiped it on Li Qingfeng's pants. She still had a hard mouth and refused to get up unless she was paid.

After looking at the trouser legs covered with snot marks, and then at Aunt Liu who was so pale from the cold, Li Qingfeng suddenly felt that it was not impossible to give the money. If the old lady really got sick from the cold, the cost of sending her to the hospital would be more than thirty or fifty yuan.

In the end, I couldn't outlast Aunt Liu. Seeing that the old lady's face was getting worse and worse, I had no choice but to pay the money and leave. She was really forcing me to buy with my life. When I was getting rid of the trouble and waiting for the train, the two railway police came over again and said, "Comrade, don't feel that you are losing out. Aunt Liu's family is not easy either. Thirty yuan is not much. Don't you have more than three kilograms of hazelnuts?"

"That's right. We still follow the rules at this exit. There are still two or three hundred people at the west exit. Just take this as a lesson. Don't buy things randomly near the train station in the future," another police officer echoed.

"."

Carrying the luggage, I hailed a Lada taxi on the roadside and headed to Ma Wenhui's home.

Because of what happened just now, Hu Jiabao didn't say much in the car along the way, but Li Qingfeng and Wang Weimin were chatting happily with the taxi driver.

They talked about everything under the sun, from the economic situation in Big Brother to the reform and opening up in China, and finally he talked about his wife who was a flight attendant.

It's obvious that this guy is just bragging about the political economy, but his wife is a flight attendant, which is true.

What is popular these days is for taxi drivers to marry flight attendants. Driving a taxi is definitely a high-income profession, and flight attendants are beautiful and have high incomes. Many people consider the marriage between taxi drivers and flight attendants to be a perfect match.

"Oh my god, why did you three come so late? I was thinking the train might be delayed and wanted to ask someone to pick you up, and here you are."

Ma Wenhui happened to be standing at the door. When she saw Li Qingfeng and the other three arriving, she quickly smiled and helped open the car door from the outside.

Tomorrow is Ma Wenhui's wedding day. Hu Jiabao did not tell Ma Wenhui about what happened at the station. He got off the car with a smile on his face and held Ma Wenhui's arm: "Something delayed us on the way. After all, people are in high spirits when they are happy. Wenhui, you look so good."

"Oh my god, your accent has changed, why do you speak like corn again?" Li Qingfeng teased as he got out of the car.

"Get lost, I'm from the Northeast, it's not right for me to speak in the Northeastern dialect, doesn't your wife also speak with a southern accent?"

"No, I don't have an accent in my Mandarin."

After paying the driver and getting off the car, Wang Weimin, who was carrying the luggage of three people, said with a smile: "I think that's enough. Didn't you see I'm still carrying the luggage? Let's go inside and put the luggage down before we talk."

"Oh, I forgot about Comrade Weimin. Come in quickly, come in quickly," Ma Wenhui said as she quickly welcomed the three people in.

The house of Ma Wenhui's family is a small Soviet-style villa, which should have been bought by Ma Wenhui for her family after she earned money.

The decoration of the room had not changed. It had an exotic feel and was very retro. Qingfeng Li kept looking around.

"How about it? Beautiful, isn't it? The Russian style looks good, right?" Seeing Li Qingfeng looking around the room, Ma Wenhui walked over holding Hu Jiabao's hand.

Taking his eyes away from the closet, Qingfeng Li nodded: "Not bad, not bad, how much did you buy this house for?"

"It's not expensive. I only spent more than 10,000 yuan in total. The housing prices in our Gada are cheap. This kind of Western-style building is expensive. You can buy a shabby house outside for a few hundred yuan. It's much cheaper than the housing prices in the old city."

“That’s really cheap.”

In 87, housing prices in all cities except the former capital, Shanghai, and the Special Administrative Region were very cheap.

At the Ma family, Qingfeng Li met Ma Wenhui's parents and brothers for the first time. They all looked very genuine and were very enthusiastic in asking Qingfeng and the other two about their well-being.

As the wedding was approaching, Ma Wenhui had too much to do and had to constantly greet the relatives who came, so she really couldn't take care of the three of them.

Seeing that Ma Wenhui was busy, Li Qingfeng and the other two felt awkward in the room, so they simply suggested to Ma Wenhui that they go out for a walk.

In response, Ma Wenhui quickly found the eldest brother of the Ma family, who was chatting with relatives, and asked him to drive the three of them out for a ride and act as a tour guide.

The Lada was driving on the central street of Harbin. Brother Ma slowed down the car so that the three of them could take a closer look outside. He also acted as a tour guide and explained the history of the buildings outside.

The streets are paved with small square stones, which are polished to a shine and have a sense of age.

The streets are lined with European-style buildings, which bring together Western architectural styles such as the Renaissance, Baroque, Eclecticism, Art Nouveau and Classicism, among which Soviet-style buildings are the most numerous.

There are endless pedestrians on the road, and many buildings are filled with cars. The streets are very lively, and there are a large number of white faces among them, which is a scene that cannot be seen in other cities in the country.

Looking at the prosperity outside, Hu Jiabao sighed: "It's really prosperous. The Bund in Shanghai is just like this, right?"

"Indeed, Harbin is known as the Little Paris of the East, and it's true." Wang Weimin nodded, agreeing with Hu Jiabao's sentiment.

Li Qingfeng did not share the same sentiments as the other two. After all, he had seen many such scenes, and the prosperity here was just like that.

The eldest brother of the Ma family was very dedicated as a tour guide. He visited Hagia Sophia, Tatar Mosque, and the Old Synagogue.

He didn't go home for dinner in the evening, but took the three of them to a barbecue restaurant and ate grilled lamb skewers.

Each skewer of meat costs one cent and tastes good. The four of us ate it till our mouths were drooling.

The night economy in Harbin was good at this time, and all kinds of restaurants and dance halls were packed.

Especially in front of the dance halls, there were many cars parked, including imported luxury cars such as Mercedes-Benz.

Wang Weimin looked at the brightly lit dance hall and the long line of cars at the door and took a deep breath: "There are so many cars. Even Beijing is not so prosperous."

"That's not true. Harbin is now carrying out housing reform and demolishing houses everywhere. There are more jobs and more incomes. People have money in their hands and like to go out and spend money at night."

"Also, you outsiders don't know how popular our border trade in Northeast China is right now. It's really easy to make money with the Russians. You can earn a Mercedes-Benz by doing business with the Russians for a week. There are many people around me who do business with the Russians. If you have money, you should make it."

When talking about this, Brother Ma's face was full of pride, and he kept on introducing the economic situation in Northeast China to the three people.

Hu Jiabao and the other man kept nodding their heads, admiring the prosperity of the Northeast at that time.

Faced with the discussion of the three people, Li Qingfeng did not join in, but stared at the scenery outside in a daze.

At that time, people in Northeast China would never have imagined that this would be the last glory of the Northeast economy.

In two years, Northeast China will fall into an era of worker layoffs that will last for more than ten years, and will never recover for the next twenty years.

But speaking of the hot border trade over there, Qingfeng Li had some ideas. The Russians have a lot of good stuff now. (End of this chapter)