Back to 1978

Chapter 136: I'm Lucky ( monthly tickets plus extra)

Er Taoer was fiddling with the music box piggy bank that Xie Hushan gave her. All she had to do was wind up the music box and open the box, and a little plastic swan would swim and dance on the mirror surface to the music.

At this time, Ertao was putting the little savings he had into the piggy bank.

In addition to the music box and piggy bank in her hands, she actually also had a few strings of cheap plastic sequined jewelry, but she hid them away as if they were treasures and would not let anyone touch them.

Those things are actually not worth much, but they are the most popular items sold by foreign goods vendors at Sungang Railway Station to the female militia escorts. It is difficult for girls to refuse these shiny plastic jewelry.

To be honest, when Xie Hushan was in the guesthouse and heard the foreign goods dealers say that these plastic jewelry were mainly sold in Hong Kong to black people in Africa, he suddenly thought of a question.

In the eyes of Hong Kong people in 1979, the mainland was as backward as Africa. People there had never seen the world and would foolishly buy cheap jewelry and clothes that the Hong Kong locals disdained from them at high prices to dress themselves up.

But in 2024 of the previous life, Africa seemed to be still stagnant in 1979, continuing to maintain its love for these cheap things, while Chinese children no longer even touched such things.

Because parents think that wearing this thing for a long time may not be good for children's skin.

However, in just three or four decades, earth-shaking changes have taken place in the mainland.

From a developing country where many farmers still needed to dig wild vegetables in the spring to fill their stomachs, and a country that was cautious and looked up to the people from Hong Kong Island, to a big Eastern country where people eat too much meat and need to dig wild vegetables to lose weight, and which can challenge the world's number one superpower head-on.

No wonder Hong Kong people’s attitude towards the mainland has changed. This is a typical case of someone losing their mindset after playing games so many times.

It turns out that the mainland uses three trains to supply them with cattle, mutton, and fresh vegetables at a low price. They take it for granted: Screw your mother, mainland, I have money!

At that time, people in the mainland also felt that their attitude was justified. It was a capitalist society. They had money and we made money, so it was not shameful.

But later, when mainlanders went to Hong Kong Island to buy some cheap milk powder and greeted them with the tone of voice they learned from Hong Kong Islanders: Fuck your mother! Hong Can, I have money!, some people in Hong Kong Island could not bear it anymore and began to jump out to accuse mainlanders of snatching the welfare of local people.

They want to prove that unlike people in the mainland, they can continue to stand proudly and make money.

However, people in mainland China in 2024 no longer indulge in and praise it as they did in 1979.

However, although the people of Hong Kong Island have some fucked-up personalities, we have to admit that they are also very smart, such as the toys in Kim Jong-un's hands at this moment can prove this point.

The toy in Kim Jong Un's hand at this time is very strange and very representative of Hong Kong Island.

In one word, bastard.

Of course, the toys don’t look weird now. Kim Jong-un’s left hand is a toy model of China’s Monkey King, and his right hand is a toy model of Batman from the American DC Comics.

But when Xie Hushan bought these two toys at a roadside stall in Hong Kong Island, these two superheroes who had nothing in common were strangely placed in the same toy box.

If the buyer wants to buy, he must buy two, and the shapes are not the Monkey King and Batman in Kim Jong-un's hands now.

The toy model of the Monkey King originally had Batman's head and cape on top, which made Xie Hushan believe that it was misspelled by a careless worker when it was shipped out of the factory.

But soon Xie Hushan discovered that there was no spelling mistake, but the factory did it on purpose.

He even thoughtfully gave this hybrid hero a name.

The Chinese name is: Flying Monkey King, and the literal translation of the English name is: Flying Bat.

As for the Batman next to him, he has the monkey head of Sun Wukong, wears a red cloak, and holds the Ruyi Jingu Bang in his hand. His Chinese name is: The Super Monkey, and the literal translation of his English name is: The Powerful Monkey.

As long as the buyer disassembles and reassembles the parts, he can seamlessly transform his toy model from the Monkey King and the Wonder Monkey King to the Monkey King and DC Batman, whose appearance is slightly different from the original but the difference is hard to spot without a close look.

These are ideas that toy manufacturers came up with after they failed to obtain authorization and wanted to make money by pirating.

They would publish a crude comic book that didn't care much about sales, use the comic book to create a few hybrid superheroes, give them some messed up names, and then start mass-producing toy models of these so-called copyrighted heroes.

Buyers can simply adjust and assemble the models to get two best-selling American superhero models and two mythological figures from China or India.

Look, apart from Hong Kong Island, which has been influenced by both Chinese and Western cultures, where else in China can come up with such a pirated toy business?

Although they had already had dinner, the kang table in Xie Hushan's room was still full of people.

Taozi did not wear the fashionable clothes that Xie Hushan brought back for her. Instead, she changed into the blue slanted-collar buttoned jacket and blue trousers that her grandmother made for her. At this time, she was sitting opposite Xie Hushan across the kang table, sewing shoe soles by the oil lamp while listening to Xie Hushan talk about the strange things he encountered during his time in Hong Kong Island.

Han Hongzhen sat next to Taozi, helping the Zhongping militiamen who didn't know how to sew to mend the holes in their clothes that were torn while working, chatting with Taozi from time to time. As for Ertao and Sanpang, they sat on the left and right of Xie Hushan, listening attentively to Xie Hushan's story about how he changed trains in Yanjing when he came back and had a roast duck meal. He described the whole process vividly, and the two of them kept drooling.

"You are really patient." Han Hongzhen bit off a thread and whispered to Taozi, "I heard that the man had a letter of introduction with another girl and stayed in the same room in the guesthouse, but you acted as if you didn't hear anything."

Taozi took off her thimble and flexed her sore finger joints. She glanced at Xie Hushan who was describing to Sanpang what a train looked like, and said to Han Hongzhen with a smile:

"Didn't Third Brother say that he asked the girl to tear up the letter of introduction?"

"You're not angry even though we live in the same room?" Han Hongzhen saw Taozi's nonchalant expression and reminded her, "You can't just accept whatever he says. You have to control him."

"Let's sleep in the same room. Third brother has nothing to hide. If he has something to hide, he will act like a tough guy on a blind date. Forget about confessing to me. Even if I torture him with the tiger bench and pepper water, I can't pry his mouth open." Taozi smiled and whispered to Han Hongzhen:

"Grandma taught me how to tell whether Third Brother is lying or not. She said Third Brother's problem with speaking is that he only reports good news and not bad news. If you ask him about something he didn't say, and he tells you lightly, he must be lying."

"He said it was pitch black in the middle of the night and the three of them just ran over there by accident. That's definitely not true. If it was that easy, wouldn't everyone have run over there?"

"But he doesn't want to talk about it, so I won't ask. It's better for him to come back safely than anything else. As for the rest, let him do it. He knows what's going on."

After listening to Taozi's well-reasoned explanation, Han Hongzhen said with some emotion:
"Sixth Grandma has a good eye."

Taozi stretched her fingers, put the thimble back on, and continued to sew the sole of her shoe with her head down. She smiled and said, "I'm lucky."

As people were chatting in the room, footsteps were heard outside the yard. However, since Dahei, who was lying in the main room, did not make any noise, it was obvious that the person who came in was an acquaintance.

Sure enough, the door curtain was lifted, and Jin Mancang and Jiang Datong walked in from outside.

Taozi quickly put away her needlework and called Ertao and Sanpang, who were still preparing to continue listening to Xie Hushan talk about roast duck: "Go back to your room and sleep, don't delay the third brother from talking about business with the team."

"Go ahead. I'll take you two to Yanjing to eat Peking duck later. I keep my word." Xie Hushan also promised.

After the group of women and children left, Jin Mancang and Yakou Production Team 2 Captain Jiang Datong sat down next to the kang. Old Jiang saw Xie Hushan, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, and greeted him with a grin:
"Third brother."

Jiang Datong is a typical honest farmer. He is loyal and upright. He is well-known in Yakou and has good moral character. After becoming the captain of the second production team, he has been very diligent. In addition, the brick factory jointly established with Zhongping is booming, and the team has income, which makes everyone convinced.

"Uncle Jiang, just call me Hu Saner, don't be polite." Xie Hushan said with a smile.

Lao Jiang said to Xie Hushan:

"It's good to call you Third Brother. I'm used to it. Now when our team hears the name Third Brother, everyone knows it's you. Well, Third Brother, Brother Lao Jin and I have something to discuss with you... Let me make it clear first, you can't get angry. At most, just pretend I didn't say anything..."

Xie Hushan glanced at Jin Mancang who was sitting next to him. His father-in-law took the initiative to confess after being looked at by Xie Hushan:

"The brigade called us to a meeting. The secretary said that other members of our brigade also wanted to run a brick factory, but they didn't want to steal the business from Zhongping. We are not conscienceless people, but..."

"Want to discuss with me about building a few more kilns so that other people in the team can come in and earn some subsidies?" Xie Hushan said.

During dinner, Jin Mancang had already told me about the recent situation of the Yakou Brigade. Every spring, when there is a shortage of food, is the most difficult season in Yakou.

Every day, dozens of elderly people would take their children and walk twenty or thirty miles to other communes and production teams to beg for food. When they entered the door, the children would kneel down, kowtow and sing begging songs.

When Taozi's grandparents were alive, they took Taozi and Ertao to beg for food. Taozi still remembers how to sing the begging song at the cliff.

"Drinking bitter water, eating vegetable bran, sons won't marry girls from the West Mountain, daughters won't marry men from the Cliff Mouth, uncle, aunt, please be kind and give me something to eat!"

Jin Mancang had just finished dinner with Xie Hushan when Lao Jiang hurriedly called him to leave. He just came back now, so Xie Hushan had roughly guessed where the two of them had gone.

Although there are still people in Yakou who take their children out to beg for food due to lack of food this year, their mood is different because almost no one from Yakou Production Team 2 goes out to beg for food, and those who beg are all members of Production Team 1.

The reason is that the people working in the brick factory are basically from the second production team, and they can earn a subsidy of 1.5 cents a day, which doesn't sound like much, but after saving from winter to now, which is more than two months, everyone has saved more than ten yuan.

Don't underestimate ten yuan. Not to mention buying buckwheat noodles, even if you buy black noodles, which are considered a luxury by the people in Yakou, you can buy dozens of kilograms. With so much extra food at home, who would be willing to let their elderly and children go out to kowtow to others and beg for pity?
No need to ask, it must be that the new brigade secretary of Yakou knew they were coming, so he asked the two of them to go over for a meeting and then come back to ask if the brick factory could open a few more kilns so that more Yakou members could come to work in the brick factory and earn some subsidies.

The two nodded repeatedly after hearing what Xie Hushan said. Lao Jiang said to Xie Hushan:

"Seeing that our family eats wild vegetables, and other families eat buckwheat noodles and black noodles, everyone can't sit still. The newly elected brigade secretary has no friendship with you, so he is embarrassed to come directly to your house. So I asked Brother Lao Jin and I to ask Brother San to see how we can make sure that everyone can have enough food to eat. Even if the adults don't eat, it's okay to earn enough for the children. The brigade secretary said that as long as Brother San can help find some work, we will do whatever we ask us to do, and it's okay for him to come over and bow to you."

(End of this chapter)