Reborn in the red age

The taxi stopped at the doorstep of eldest sister Li Yumei's home according to the address provided by Li Qingfeng.

Li Yumei, who was washing clothes in the yard on the weekend, heard the noise coming from outside, stopped washing clothes, and went out to check the situation.

"Oh, on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, did you miss your aunt?"

Seeing the two children getting off the taxi, Li Yumei quickly wiped the water stains on her hands on her clothes and walked towards the two children.

"Aunt"

"I thought about you, aunt. I miss you every day at home and have been urging my father to bring me back to see you and uncle, but my father never brought me back."

Chuyi, who listened to the nice words and spoke without hesitation, had a question mark look on his face as Li Qingfeng, who had just paid the driver, looked like an old man.

I don't know who this child learned this nonsense from. Hu Jiabao and I are both honest people. How could we give birth to such a smooth-talking daughter?

"Our Chuyi still speaks so nicely. Aunt loves to listen to us Chuyi speak." Chuyi's nice words made Li Yumei laugh. She kept rubbing Chuyi's little face with her hands to tease him.

Fifteen was silent for a long time, and imitated what Chuyi had just said, and said shyly: "Aunt, Fifteen misses you too. As soon as the summer vacation started, he urged my dad to bring us back."

"Really? Fifteen is so good. Auntie loves you so much." Li Yumei touched Fifteen's head, straightened up, took one in each hand, and walked towards the yard: "Come on, go home with Auntie. Auntie will make delicious food for you."

Li Qingfeng asked Sun Aidang and the others to go to the car dealership and find a way to rent a car for use during this period, and then he personally carried the luggage and went to Li Hongmei's house.

There is no way around renting a car. Li Qingfeng's industries have just started in China and are concentrated in three places: the Special Administrative Region, the capital, and the Northeast.

There are really no industries here in the provincial capital where I come from, and they cannot provide basic help.

Openly revealing your identity can indeed mobilize official resources, but that is even more troublesome. Once your identity is exposed, you will have to wait for the leaders above to come to you one by one to talk to you about building your hometown.

Otherwise, Li Qingfeng would not have just left the airport. The main reason was that he was not strong enough. If he was strong enough, Li Qingfeng would not have left, but would have waited for the police to come and compete with Director Yang in hard power.

That factory director Yang is obviously a local tyrant. Li Qingfeng's only high-end resource in the province is Comrade Lao Yu, who is both the top leader and the second-in-command in Qindao.

Asking him for help can indeed help him deal with Director Yang without revealing his identity, but Li Qingfeng has been annoyed with Lao Yu recently. The old man has called Li Qingfeng quite a lot recently, and always asks Li Qingfeng to invest several hundred million US dollars in him to help speed up his progress.

Li Qingfeng's big projects have already been implemented. Where can he find projects that can invest hundreds of millions of dollars? He can only delay it for a year or two.

Li Qingfeng put the gift he brought on the table and looked around. Seeing no one else at home, he curiously asked Li Yumei, "Sister, where are my brother-in-law and my eldest nephew? Why aren't they at home on this weekend?"

"Oh, isn't it summer vacation? I've enrolled your Xiaoyu in a computer interest class, and your brother-in-law has taken him to the Children's Palace for the class." Li Yumei answered Li Qingfeng's question casually while taking snacks from the cupboard for the two children.

"How old is Xiaoyu? Why is he studying computer science?"

"Even Deng Xiaoping said that the popularization of computers should start from childhood, and we are also responding to the leader's call."

"The child is too young. It's useless to learn this now. He will just play games."

"No matter whether it's useful or not, everyone is learning it anyway, so let's learn it too. You are studying computers, and Hongmei is also studying computers. Our Li family still has this gene."

"Okay, just learn it. When you've learned it well, come and work for me after you graduate from college, and let Xiaoyu earn US dollars too."

Li Yumei smiled and joked: "Why do you have to study hard before you can go to work? If Xiaoyu doesn't study well and wants to work at your uncle's company, can you stop him from going?"

"Make way, make way. The door is always open for Xiaoyu," Qingfeng Li touched his nose and said with a smile.

"That's fine then"

After chatting with Li Yumei for a while, the first-grade student insisted on going to see the Baotu Spring mentioned in the textbook.

It was such a hot day that Li Qingfeng was too lazy to go out, and Li Yumei still had to do housework at home. Annoyed by Chuyi's nagging, Li Qingfeng casually grabbed a bottle of beer from the refrigerator and took the two children out with his bare chest.

"Dad, why is the water in Baotu Spring hot in winter?"

“Because it’s a hot spring.”

“Why is the hot spring called a hot spring?”

“Because the water that comes out from the ground is warm, it is called a hot spring.”

"Then why is the water in Baotu Spring hot, but not in Daming Lake?"

"Ask someone who studies geology. Your dad studies computer science, so I don't know."

Li Qingfeng, who was taking his two children out to play, was really about to collapse. The first day of the new year was like a hundred thousand whys, with endless questions to ask along the way.

"Dad, look, there is a frog on the lotus leaf"

"What's wrong with having frogs? There have always been frogs in Daming Lake. During the Republic of China, someone wrote a poem about the frogs in Daming Lake."

"What poem?"

Facing the curious gazes of the two children, Qingfeng Li cleared his throat and recited the dog-meat general Zhang Dashuai's limerick with great emotion:
"Daming Lake, Daming Lake is big. There are lotus leaves in Daming Lake, and there are toads on the lotus leaves. They jump when you poke them."

"."

After strolling in Daming Lake Scenic Area for an afternoon, Li Qingfeng, whose legs were weak from exhaustion, took a taxi back to Li Yumei's home in the evening with his two still energetic children.

At this time, there were two cars parked at the gate of Li Yumei's yard, one was a black Santana and the other was a domestically produced Xiali.

Sun Aidang, who was in the car, saw Li Qingfeng coming back and quickly got out of the car. He said apologetically, "Brother, the car dealership in Jinan doesn't rent cars. I had to persuade them to rent this Xiali to me after paying a deposit of 10,000 yuan."

"It's okay. It's just a car. I'm not particular about it. As long as it has air conditioning and can keep out the wind and rain, it's fine." Li Qingfeng smiled and patted Sun Aidang's shoulder, saying indifferently.

"Brother, this Xiali was produced in 1991, it's a low-end car."

"so?"

“No air conditioning in the car”

Li Qingfeng raised his eyebrows, looked at Sun Aidang's guilty expression, and said indifferently: "It's all right. Did you see that Santana? It should belong to my eldest sister and her family. I will ride in their car these few days. As long as you two don't mind the heat in the car, it's fine."

When he returned to his eldest sister's house, his eldest sister Li Yumei was still busy in the kitchen. His eldest brother-in-law Zhang Fenzhan and his 13-year-old nephew Zhang Feiyu, who had just returned from the Children's Palace, were each reading a book in the living room. After sending the two children to play with their cousin, Li Qingfeng sat down with his brother-in-law, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, to chat.

"Brother-in-law, I heard from my sister that you have been promoted now? Now you are the technical director of the factory?" Li Qingfeng handed over a cigarette and asked with a smile.

Zhang Fenzhan smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Director or not, it's useless. The factory's performance is getting worse day by day. Last year, the factory's profit was barely enough to pay salaries."

"The salaries of our employees this year are already very low. By the end of the year, we may have to go bankrupt like other factories. If the situation does not improve, our factory will go bankrupt within ten years and I, the director, will be laid off."

After listening to Zhang Fenzhan's complaints, Li Qingfeng did not say anything to comfort him.

Since the end of the 92 Southern Tour, China is no longer a planned economy country in the traditional sense. The factories built in the planned economy era are not adapted to the new market economy.

They want to reform the factory's shortcomings, but they have neither the technology nor the funds. They are controlled by various mothers-in-law, and they have to carry the heavy burden accumulated over the years. There are also various factions fighting against each other within the factory.

As for reform, it can be fully described in eight words: well-intentioned but powerless, and a situation that is difficult to reverse.

Most of the state-owned enterprises in the country can only watch the changes of the times. Their own bodies slowly decay and die in the tide of the times, leaving behind a mess in the end.

After finishing a cigarette in silence, Li Qingfeng looked at Zhang Fenzhan and said, "Brother-in-law, have you ever considered going into business? Since the end of the Southern Tour last year, in just one year, hundreds of thousands of people in the system have gone into business. You have the skills and are not short of money, so you can definitely start a business. Maybe you can earn hundreds of millions."

The group of people mentioned by Li Qingfeng had a famous title in later generations - the 92 faction.

The group of people who went into business in 92 were indeed quite powerful. Most of them were senior intellectuals such as officials and scholars, and ordinary people were a minority. Even among the ordinary people, their educational level was at least a technical secondary school graduate. Pick any one of them out and they would be considered an elite of that era.

They have knowledge, resources, and connections. In just a few years, they have stood out from the crowd of entrepreneurs and knocked the first generation of entrepreneurs to the ground.

"Me? Forget it. I'm already over 40 this year and I no longer have the drive of a young person. I'd better stay in the factory. What if a capable director is transferred from above to revitalize the factory?"

At this point, Zhang Fenzhan paused and said self-deprecatingly: "Of course, the most important thing is that my wife's family is full of talented people. With the subsidies from her family, the family is not short of money, and even has a car. I can live a well-off life by staying with my wife. Why should I go out and make trouble at my age?"

"."

Li Qingfeng looked at his brother-in-law in surprise. He didn't expect that he was such a wonderful person who could describe living off his wife in such a refreshing and refined way.

Everyone has their own way of living, and Li Qingfeng doesn't have the obsession to ask everyone around him to venture into the business world. If others don't want to go into business, then they don't have to go.

After all, he is still a leader. Even if the factory goes bankrupt, the workers will be laid off and look for jobs, and the leader will still be the leader, he will just continue to receive his salary in a different place.

There was a large table full of dishes on the dinner table in the evening. In addition to some of my eldest sister's signature home-cooked dishes, she also went to a restaurant outside and packed up some authentic Shandong dishes.

It was the first time for the two children, who often eat Beijing cuisine and Huaiyang cuisine, to eat Shandong cuisine. The usually picky eater ate this meal with gusto, not to mention the first day of the new year when he accepted all the food.

If he wasn't really full, Chuyi would have wanted to lick the soup in the plate.

After finishing the meal, Li Qingfeng smacked his lips and said, "Brother Yunfei really was honest with me. Since the Animal Protection Law came out, the regular Beijing cuisine and Liao cuisine have become obsolete. Currently, the only northern cuisine that can be eaten on the table is Shandong cuisine."

At night, they stayed in the guest room that their eldest sister had cleaned up. The next day, the couple asked for leave from their work and drove Li Qingfeng's family of three to travel around the provincial capital.

After spending three consecutive days touring the provincial capital's attractions and trying all the local snacks, Li Qingfeng said goodbye to his elder sister and her husband.

Instead of letting them drive, Li Qingfeng and Sun Aidang, who had successfully returned the car, took a taxi to the train station.

"Brother, it seems like someone is looking for someone at the train station."

Wang Hu went to the ticket office to queue up to buy tickets, while Li Qingfeng took the two children to sit on the bench in the hall to rest.

Sun Aidang, who was keeping an eye on all directions and listening carefully, observed the surrounding environment and leaned over to whisper a reminder in Li Qingfeng's ear.

"Ok?"

Looking in the direction pointed by Sun Aidang, Li Qingfeng indeed found that several people were rolling their eyes and observing the passengers at the train station.

They would simply ignore those who were single, but would carefully observe any man with two children.

Seeing this scene, how could Li Qingfeng not know what was going on? He knew with his toes that it was the work of Director Yang.

"Brother, what should we do? Should we hide for a while? Let's go in separately."

"Scared?"

"That's not the case. There are so many of them. I'm worried that if they start fighting, Chuyi and Shiwu will get hurt."

"I'm avoiding them in shame. If this gets out, how can I face people? Wait, I'll make a phone call."

A man lives by his face, a tree lives by its bark. With Li Qingfeng's current status, how could he tolerate such humiliation?

As he spoke, Li Qingfeng stood up and walked to the public phone in the hall, took out the phone book he carried with him, and made a call.

Communication technology was not well developed back then, and there were differences in technical standards and frequencies between different cities. Mobile phones connected to the network in different regions might not be able to access the local network for communication.

If you want to communicate when you go out of town, you still have to rely on a landline.

"Hello, this is the Secretariat, who are you?"

"I'm Li Qingfeng, looking for your leader"

"Okay, Mr. Li, please wait a moment. I will report to the leader now."

Lao Yu had been talking to Li Qingfeng frequently during this period. His secretary also knew something about Li Qingfeng and knew the relationship between the two.

After learning that it was Li Qingfeng calling, he immediately reported the news to Lao Yu without saying a word.

Comrade Lao Yu, who was shouldering all the responsibilities, was very busy at work as he had a meeting to attend in five minutes. However, when he heard from his secretary that it was Li Qingfeng calling, he immediately asked the secretary to answer the call.

As for the meeting in five minutes, it doesn’t matter if it is delayed by ten minutes or so.

The call had just come in, and Lao Yu had just opened his mouth to talk about investment, when Li Qingfeng's voice came from the microphone:

"Forget about the investment stuff. I'm stuck at the train station." (End of this chapter)