Siheyuan's Journey Through the Ages

Chapter 51 The Era of Getting Better

The butler's eyes became brighter and brighter, and he laughed, "You are young, so what are you afraid of? There were so many teachers who were in their teens during the revolution. You just said you don't know anything, but you listed the difficulties one by one. You must be doing that on purpose."

Ma Qing kept refusing, and the butler said, "I understand what you mean. Just be a consultant. The staff will contact you at the beginning. You can make an item based on your idea, and others will do the rest."

What else could Ma Qing say? He could only agree. In the following days, Ma Qing cooperated with the staff who came over and put forward his own suggestions from a modern perspective.
Four months later, in addition to receiving a box of fish luncheon meat, Ma Qing also received the old man's handwritten words "Young Talent". Of course, this was the calligraphy that Ma Qing shamelessly asked the butler for help, but he didn't expect it to be these four words.

Ma Qing finally breathed a sigh of relief. His future was secure. He had obtained the ultimate pass of this era. Ma Qing's goal had been achieved. He had no intention of pursuing a career in politics. He had space and gold. If he didn't have fun while he was young, would he have to struggle for half his life and wait until he was old to enjoy life? That would be putting the cart before the horse.

Now, time has come to September of 62. Ma Qing entered the last year of his four-year technical secondary school. He stopped struggling and studied diligently in school. Apart from inventing a multifunctional ordnance shovel in 61 (as a technical secondary school student, it was reasonable for him to design and improve an ordnance shovel), and secretly providing some help in fighting the Indians, he really did nothing else and became just like everyone else.

On this weekend, Ma Qing woke up in the Bubble Palace in the Dreamland. He played "Billion Zombies" too late last night. When he opened his eyes, it was almost noon. Yes, in the past three years, Ma Qing's space has become fully mature. The food, supplies, and entertainment, the living standard have completely surpassed his previous life. Ma Qing stepped on the wool carpet on the ground and came to his private swimming pool. He first did a 200-meter morning exercise. In the past few years, under Xiaoqi's scientific fitness plan and nutritional regulations, Ma Qing has not only grown taller, but also become stronger. At the age of 18, his body is almost as good as Bruce Lee's, of course, he has the form but not the skills.

Ma Qing patted his eight-pack abs, feeling very satisfied. After swimming, he went to the bathroom, turned on the golden shower, and let the warm water rush down, washing away his fatigue.

Ma Qing came to the open-air balcony and petted the fat orange cats on the cat stand. As for where these cats came from, they must have fallen from the sky. Ma Qing scooped cat food for the orange cat family, changed the water and walked away. As for cats, everyone should have a sense of boundaries to avoid getting annoyed with each other.

Ma Qing came to the dining table on the balcony, bent his fingers, put them in his mouth, exhaled sharply, and a whistle resounded through the space. The grass in the distance began to sway from far to near, and two iron-clad four-eyed dogs came running towards them. Speaking of these two dogs, they were picked up by Ma Qing from the black market.

Yes, Ma Qing still couldn't resist the temptation and took a trip to the black market of that era. He was greatly disappointed. There was nothing he wanted, so he bought these two puppies with Mongolian Mastiff bloodline. They were really cute when they were young, but unfortunately they grew up with their looks and have become two ordinary dogs. When Ma Qing saw these two dogs about to pounce on him and lick him, his face changed immediately because he had just taken a shower.

"Sit down, sit down, don't move." Ma Qing yelled, and took two chicken legs from the table and threw them over, finally stopping his dog's licking behavior. Ma Qing also sat down and took the Chongqing noodles brought by the housekeeper. He was a little tired of eating them recently, so he tried some vegetarian noodles to change his appetite.

While eating noodles and feeding the dog, he would occasionally throw some bread crumbs into the fish pond under the balcony, causing the koi in the pond to jump around. This is life, Ma Qing thought contentedly.

After finishing his meal, Ma Qing left the space, put on his old clothes, took the tooth mug, squeezed some toothpaste, put a towel on his shoulders and went to the backyard. He washed up again in the sink at the back. There was no other way. Ma Qing was such a cautious person. He always had to show traces of his life from time to time, such as washing clothes, washing up in the morning, and taking a bath in the bathhouse. He couldn't let people think that he was a monster who was out of touch with the world.

Ma Qing was brushing his teeth, thinking that he had just finished eating and brushed his teeth again, wouldn't he become a Korean? Then he saw the door of the west room in the backyard open, and Xu Damao walked out in a decent manner. In 62, Xu Damao was already 24 or 25 years old, successfully entering the ranks of older youth. Xu Damao's situation was actually exactly the same as He Yuzhu's. In the Red Star Factory, he was neither a cadre nor a front-line industrial worker, but a film projectionist in the factory workers' auditorium. The female workers in the factory looked down on him, and he could not compete with the young workers. He is still single, which is definitely an older unmarried young man in this era.

However, Xu Damao is better than He Yuzhu because his parents are still alive. I heard that Xu Damao has been going on blind dates crazily recently. Ma Qing looked at Xu Damao's meticulously combed hair and said, "Brother Damao, he is going out."

Xu Damao chuckled, "I'll go out and find you a sister-in-law, haha." He looked a bit showy. Ma Qing thought, it's time for Lou Xiao'e to appear. Should I interfere and make Xu Damao lose everything? Forget it. Xu Damao was still good to me. It was Damao who sent me off when I went out to catch the train. Besides, Xu Damao and Lou Xiao'e were willing to do this. It's none of my business.

After washing his face, Ma Qing went home, put on his green backpack, took out seven or eight boiled eggs from the space, stuffed them into the backpack, pushed his bicycle, and planned to go to the school cafeteria to have a symbolic lunch. There was no other way, as he had many sons to feed in the school.

Ma Qing went out, rode his beloved bicycle all the way to the school cafeteria, got his meal as he was used to, and saw his adopted sons eating their meals in the usual place in the cafeteria.

"Brother Ma is here, please sit down." Seeing Ma Qing was like seeing his real father. Ma Qing walked over and sat down with a swagger. He was quite satisfied with the performance of the adopted sons. He took out eggs from his bag and gave them to each of them. The adopted sons were not polite at all. They peeled the eggs and ate them, praising their adoptive father for his great righteousness.

Ma Qing smiled but said nothing, looking at his adopted sons with great comfort. Ma Qing was not stupid, and he never had high expectations of human nature. The reason why Ma Qing was so generous, and often helped classmates from poor families after school, and occasionally gave them potatoes, sweet potatoes, eggs, etc. to add to their meals, was actually very utilitarian:

First, his classmates are all technical secondary school students and will be future state cadres. Not to mention building their own team or the convenience that this future network of relationships can bring to him, just the current interpersonal relationships are beneficial.

Second, potatoes, sweet potatoes, eggs and other daily necessities are not worth mentioning to Ma Qing at all now. It is worthwhile to exchange the things he cares least about for a little convenience.

Thirdly, and most importantly, Ma Qing's extravagant style provided a cover for some of his behaviors. In the past two years, Ma Qing basically withdrew more than 200 yuan from his family's savings account every month for consumption, and this matter even alarmed his superiors.

From this chapter on, the pig's mentality and behavior will change.

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(End of this chapter)