50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 700 Returning to Beijing
In this day and age, working in a government office means you don't get to have weekends off; you only get one day off a week, Sunday.

There isn't much of a long Spring Festival holiday during the Chinese New Year; the statutory holidays are only extended to the first three days of the Lunar New Year.

However, on New Year's Eve, after distributing the holiday gifts, if there's nothing else to do, everyone can go home a few hours early.

Otherwise, dual-income families wouldn't even have time to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner.

The kind of good thing that happened later, where you could take a break from New Year's Eve to the Lantern Festival, is something I wouldn't even dare to dream of now.

This year, Lunar New Year's Eve falls on February 8th, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' official holiday period is from the 9th to the 11th.

Because they had agreed to spend the Chinese New Year in Qingdao this year, Sun Hongying had to ask for a few days off in advance, otherwise she would waste time traveling back and forth.

Traveling far from home these days is not safe, so Sun Zhiwei was naturally worried about letting his daughter go out alone.

Sun Zhiwei returned to Beijing this time to pick up his daughter and go to Qingdao together.

On the morning of January 31, Sun Zhiwei arrived at Beijing Airport.

As is customary, after returning to China, he would go back to his unit to see Xu Yimin, and he would also like to report on the resettlement of the first batch of demobilized soldiers.

So, after leaving the airport, he took a taxi directly back to the city.

The number of taxis outside has increased significantly this year. In addition to the Toyota Crown, which was used in foreign-related venues in the past, there are now more Hyundai Excel, Nissan Laurel, and other models.

The "Hyundai Excel" mentioned here is not the Excel spreadsheet software on Microsoft computers, but rather the first self-developed new car by Hyundai Motor Group in South Korea, also known as the Hyundai Pony or Hyundai Pony.

As the first best-selling model to enter the American market, the Hyundai Pony set a sales record of 168882 imported cars sold in the United States in one year.

Unfortunately, it had quality issues, and its sales plummeted the following year, leading Hyundai to be considered a 'bad car' in the Americas market.

Sun Zhiwei only realized the problem after he got in the car, but unfortunately the driver had already started the meter, charging 0.7 yuan per kilometer. In the spirit of not wasting money, he didn't switch cars.

But he soon regretted it; the car broke down on the road before it even crossed Beixiaohe.

The driver kept apologizing to Sun Zhiwei while opening the hood and trying to fix the car's problem on the spot.

Sun Zhiwei knew that this was a design flaw, because the gearbox design made it prone to jerking, abnormal noises, and breakdowns at low speeds.

Seeing the driver's ashen face as he was busy doing nothing, Sun Zhiwei, in order to save time, could only offer some pointers.

"Driver, this is a design flaw in the transmission, but it's not broken. You can try restarting it and maintaining a high speed as much as possible; that should reduce the likelihood of problems."

"Ah? Really?"

"Really, I know about the problems with modern ponies. You'll see once you try it."

Fortunately, the driver was someone who listened to advice. He took Sun Zhiwei's suggestion, got back in the car, restarted the engine, and then kept accelerating.

As it turned out, they didn't encounter any more problems along the way and successfully delivered Sun Zhiwei to the Diplomatic Building.

Because Sun Zhiwei helped the driver discover the problem with the car, the driver was so happy that he gave him a discount on his fare.

When Sun Zhiwei got out of the car, he really wanted to tell him that this was a design flaw in the vehicle that couldn't be fixed and that he would have more trouble in the future.

But seeing the driver's happy face, he didn't say anything. He shouldn't spoil the mood; after all, it was a brand new imported car, and it looked like it hadn't been driven for very long. He didn't want to rub salt into the wound.

A few minutes later, Sun Zhiwei walked into Xu Yimin's office.

He spent an hour giving a detailed report on the work and living conditions of 500 veterans overseas, and also submitted a 50-page report.

This wasn't written in a single day; it contains a lot of information, a summary of Dong Haoyang's team's daily training on Subi Island.

However, he also said that soldiers overseas are not only prone to homesickness, but also easily distracted by the dazzling lifestyle outside.

Ideological issues are never minor matters. He hoped that among the next batch of people, there would be some comrades familiar with this kind of work, so that he could also arm the minds of the soldiers on Subi Island.

Xu Yimin did make a joke about the high salaries of the veterans in his area.

Sun Zhiwei didn't take his teasing as a joke. Xu Yimin was so familiar with him that he wouldn't just casually bring up this topic. Someone in his family must have been saying something strange.

After a moment's thought, he solemnly replied:

"The salary standard I set for the soldiers was based on America's average salary standard."

"Boss, you should know how average wages are calculated."

"If our soldiers can't even get this average wage after they go out, wouldn't that be demeaning to our soldiers' abilities?"

"Besides, Pinkerton isn't based in China; it has many American employees there, so it's even less likely that I would treat our own people differently."

"But who exactly is complaining about this? Is it targeting me? Are they aware of my other identity?"

"Boss, you have to keep a close eye on things for me. Don't let any disgusting stuff get to my place and ruin my good soup."

Seeing that Sun Zhiwei understood his hidden meaning, Xu Yimin nodded before saying, "Don't worry, the matter has already been decided by the higher-ups."

"Your information is also top secret, and only a few of us old fogies know it. If it is necessary for more people to know about your situation, I will notify you."

Normally, overseas staff do not receive this treatment; it's just that Sun Zhiwei is an exception.

The leaders who were already aware of the situation did not want to create unnecessary complications or increase the risk of information leakage.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, they do not intend to let more people know about Sun Zhiwei's secret identity outside.

Sun Zhiwei breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Xu Yimin's words.

He was away from home most of the year, and the only person he could really talk to in China was Xu Yimin. Over the years, Xu Yimin had unknowingly helped him avoid a lot of trouble.

However, Xu Yimin is a full twelve years older than him, and it's uncertain how many more years he can help him. It seems it's time to consider a successor, which is a headache.

After reporting the situation, the two continued chatting.

Xu Yimin then mentioned the Challenger space shuttle, which failed to launch two days earlier, on January 28, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

At that time, the aerospace field was undoubtedly high-tech, and private companies had almost no room to get involved. Ordinary companies simply did not have the capital and technology to get involved in this field.

(End of this chapter)