Training the Heavens

Chapter 71 Land of Hope
From the 1980s to the early 1990s, the most popular people on university campuses were writers, poets, singers and other literary and artistic stars. They could be warmly welcomed by college students simply by their fame, and getting free food, drinks and accommodation was not a problem at all.

When Ai Dajin and Lao Lang went to Hainan to make a living together but failed, they ended up in Xiamen. He relied on his fame to be supported by the girls from Xiamen University for a while. Even many years later, he still misses that time very much.

So in the movie "When the Flowers Bloom", people recall the good old days with reluctance: the university at that time was like the brothels in the Tang and Song dynasties, where wandering poets, singers and painters were often successful.

This line comparing the university to a brothel is indeed inappropriate, but it also indirectly reflects the aesthetic preferences of college students at that time.

As a nationally renowned writer of youth literature, Gao Jialin was naturally warmly welcomed by Sun Yat-sen University when he came there, and soon met the student leaders who stayed behind during the summer vacation.

This is normal. Nowadays, transportation is inconvenient, and many students from ordinary families or who are keen on studying will stay in school during the winter and summer vacations. For example, Song Yunhui in "The Great River" only went home once or twice in four years of college.

Sitting in the dormitory of Chang Jianhui, vice president of the Sun Yat-sen University Student Union, the dormitory was packed with students who rushed there after hearing the news. They listened to Gao Jialin's conversation and when it was time for lunch, everyone took Gao Jialin to the cafeteria for a delicious meal.

After returning, he took a nap in Chang Jianhui's dormitory. After waking up, Chang Jianhui heard that Gao Jialin wanted to see the changes in Guangzhou during the reform and development period, so he contacted several local classmates in Guangzhou and took Gao Jialin to visit the city.

Gao Jialin saw pedestrians rushing on the streets and a constant flow of cars, full of vigor and vitality. There were obviously many more people doing business than in inland cities. People either set up stalls in crowded places or pushed carts and shouted, and each of their faces was full of yearning for a better life.

Tired of walking, Gao Jialin invited them to have tea at a roadside tea stall. A small detail caught Gao Jialin's attention. He saw a striking banner hanging under the ceiling of the tea stall, which read "A reward of 50 cents will be given if the tea cup is found to be unsterilized."

In stark contrast to the warnings in other places that say "Do not beat customers without reason", Guangzhou has now realized that service awareness is the key to the survival of the service industry.

After seven or eight o'clock in the evening, most inland cities have quieted down, but Guangzhou is still bustling. Small vendors set up stalls under street lights, displaying goods such as jeans and sunglasses, and shouting gimmicks such as "export and return to domestic sales", which immediately attracts a large number of customers to come and buy.

When they were selecting, they would occasionally mention the names of Hong Kong and Taiwan stars. Due to their geographical location, Guangdong people can be said to be the first group of people to be exposed to this information.

While people in other places were still fascinated by Gong Xue, Zhou Liqing and Tang Guoqiang, they were talking about Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat, Teresa Teng and Xu Xiaofeng.

After visiting the street stalls, Chang Jianhui took Gao Jialin into an alley in a mysterious manner. Each of them paid fifty cents and went in to watch a video. As soon as he saw Gao Jialin, he was no longer sleepy. The figures of Li Lizhen, Qiu Shuzhen and others kept lingering in his mind.

Unfortunately, the movie broadcast today was not the kind he wanted, but a martial arts film starring Ti Lung. There was a line in the film that opened Gao Jialin's eyes.

The protagonist played by Ti Lung raped the heroine played by Lin Zhenqi. After waking up, the heroine said aggrievedly, "When I first saw you, my whole heart was already yours. Why did you rape me?" Ti Lung wiped his sword coldly, "I'm used to it!"

Gao Jialin slapped his thigh after seeing these four words. These lines are so amazing. Who on earth came up with them?
After touring Guangzhou, he took a train to the Special Economic Zone, got off the train and went straight to Shenzhen University. He used the same trick again and found a group of free guides to accompany him around the tour.

The vitality here is more vigorous than that of Guangzhou. Slogans such as "Time is money, efficiency is life, everything is under management, and everyone has a job to do" can be seen everywhere. There are bustling construction sites everywhere, and the whole city changes almost every day.

Even the public toilets are different from those in other places. In addition to men and women, there are words like Gens and Lady on the toilet doors here. I think there must be foreign guests who went to the wrong toilet. Being able to notice such small details and correct them in time may be one of the reasons why the Special Administrative Region can take off so quickly?
When passing by the Special Zone Middle School, Gao Jialin happened to see students leaving school. He looked for a while longer, but unfortunately he didn't see the boy named Teng Teng. Otherwise, he would have asked him for directions and heard him call him uncle. It would have felt good.

I toured during the day and returned to the dormitory at night to quickly record what I saw and heard. I planned to organize these materials into articles in the form of documentary literature after the tour and asked Zhang Lifeng to help submit them to suitable newspapers and magazines.

He did not intend to be just a writer, he had other ambitions, and this article was just a stepping stone.

After visiting the special economic zone, we went to Hainan. Hainan has not yet been established as an independent province and is still under the jurisdiction of Guangdong. However, its administrative level is relatively special. Unlike other regions, it is not managed by a regional administrative office, but is integrated into the Hainan Administrative Region.

Now the whole island is in a frenzy, and local people are frantically chasing car permits. As long as they can get a permit and resell it, they can make tens of thousands of yuan.

No one went to class or worked. No matter whether they were kindergarten teachers or government officials, everyone was scrambling for approval documents and reselling cars. Even some college students got involved, and they didn't even have time to attend classes. Many students failed their final exams.

After staying in the south for a whole month, Gao Jialin boarded the train back to Shanghai. Lying on the hard sleeper bed, Gao Jialin looked through the materials he had collected during this period and began to wonder what name he should give to this article.

After thinking for a long time, Gao Jialin took out a pen and wrote four words in his notebook - "Land of Hope".

It takes thirty-six hours to return from Guangzhou to Shanghai. During this day and a half, Gao Jialin spent his time sleeping and organizing the outline of this article. By the time the train arrived at Shanghai Station, the outline was already completed.

Gao Jialin was a little tired after sitting on the train for more than 30 hours. After getting off the train, he simply took a taxi. When the driver heard that Gao Jialin was coming back from the Special Economic Zone and Hainan, he immediately became excited and kept asking if it was really easier to make money there than in Shanghai?
When he got off the bus, he was reluctant to leave immediately, so he forced a business card on Gao Jialin, asking Gao Jialin to take him with him if he had the opportunity to make money.

When he walked to the front of the house, Gao Jialin saw that it had changed a lot compared to a month ago.

(End of this chapter)