1994: Starting with unpaid leave

Upon seeing the golden necklace and the golden peach pendant, everyone in the room was speechless.

Especially the second sister, Zhou Xiuqing.

She had always wanted a gold ring after getting married, but now that her child is four years old, the gold ring is still nowhere in sight.

I can only tell myself that as a working-class person, I shouldn't think about those unnecessary things.

But seeing Dong Jianguo give his mother such a gold necklace so readily today made her heart pound and her lips tremble.

The other adults of the same generation were even more surprised.

Gold prices are not cheap now; the official price in China is around 60 yuan per gram.

But this is the official unified allocation price, which is only applicable to government procurement and allocation. Individuals simply cannot purchase at this price!

As an individual, if you want to buy gold, you can only go to the gold shops in shopping malls and bear the additional processing fees and premiums.

Gold prices have been rising again recently. It is said that in gold jewelry stores in department stores, the price per gram can reach more than 100 yuan!

The chain and pendant in Dong Jianguo's hand probably weigh more than ten grams!

That's over a thousand yuan!

This is a truly generous gift!

Brother-in-law Tong Ziang swallowed hard: "Jianguo, don't think I'm being mean, but this gold chain... it can't be fake, can it? I'm not targeting you, I'm just worried you'll get scammed. There are a lot of scammers these days, so don't be greedy and end up losing more than you gain."

Zhang Jinlong, the second brother-in-law, nodded in agreement: "Yes, our factory's security department has dealt with similar incidents before. Outside swindlers sneak into the factory, throw gold chains in front of the workers, and demand money when the workers pick them up. But after the workers pay, someone checks them and finds that they've only been sprayed with yellow paint on the outside; the inside is all copper! Nowadays, everyone is obsessed with money; people's hearts aren't what they used to be..."

Dong Jianguo smiled and said, "Brother-in-law, don't worry, Xiuyun and I bought this chain this afternoon at the jewelry counter in the department store. It's definitely genuine. If you don't believe me, there's even a receipt in the bag!"

"Oh, right, Mom, keep the receipt too. That way, if there are any after-sales issues, we can handle them promptly!"

As he spoke, Dong Jianguo took out the receipt from the gold shop from his bag and handed it over.

Cao Wenli took the receipt, and upon seeing the price, she couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow, 1680! That's way too expensive!"

"Mom, this isn't expensive. It's just a lucky number, and Xiuyun and I are doing business together. This price is also for good fortune."

"Then...then I'll accept it?"

Dong Jianguo squeezed Xiuyun's hand, and Xiuyun then realized what was happening. She got up, walked to her mother's side, and smiled sweetly.

"Mom, you can't accept this. Let me take it for you!"

"Okay, okay, okay!"

Xiuyun helped her mother, Cao Wenli, put on the necklace, and then found a mirror for her to look in.

With a gold chain around his neck and a small pure gold peach over his shirt, he looked several years younger.

Cao Wenli's face was beaming with joy, and even Zhou Yuejin, who had never been very friendly to Dong Jianguo, suddenly found his third son-in-law much more agreeable.

Feeling overshadowed by Dong Jianguo and his wife, the eldest son-in-law, Tong Ziang, was a little embarrassed and subconsciously pulled out his pager to try and regain his composure: "1680, Jianguo, this gift of yours is really expensive, almost as much as my pager!"

"Wow, brother-in-law, that's impressive! You've even bought a Motorola!" Dong Jianguo exclaimed sincerely when he saw the black pager in his hand.

Tong Ziang smiled smugly: "It's nothing special. It's mainly because of my workplace, your older sister and such. It's more convenient for her to contact me if she needs anything."

Dong Jianguo looked at the small screen of the pager in his brother-in-law's hand and couldn't help but frown slightly:

"Brother-in-law, why don't you buy a monitor with a Chinese character display?"

There are two types of pagers. Digital pagers can only display numbers. Generally, the paging station sends the dialer's phone number to the pager, and the user then calls back from a public phone after seeing the message.

A Chinese character display is much more convenient, as it can display Chinese characters, so at least you can know who is looking for you.

Tong Ziang frowned: "Of course it's because pagers with Chinese display are expensive..."

He stared wide-eyed as Dong Jianguo pulled a Motorola pager with a Chinese character display from the leather case in his belt, feeling as if he had swallowed a fly.

My brother-in-law snatched the pager from Dong Jianguo's hand and began to play with it with great interest.

"Wow, Xiao Dong, what kind of eggs are you selling? Golden eggs? They're so profitable?!"

"Ah, business is a bit busy, this is just what I need to do to contact my clients."

Dong Jianguo smiled.

In fact, he had no intention of buying himself a pager.

Having been someone who used triple-fold furniture in his past life, he felt that this little thing was really not presentable.

This morning, I saw Xiuyun looking at houses and she picked out a house in Xijuzhai. She just paid a deposit of 15,000 yuan.

In the afternoon, when Xiuyun and I went to the department store to buy gifts for my parents-in-law, I suddenly had the idea to upgrade my mother-in-law's gold ring into a gold necklace.

Having spent so much, Xiuyun felt indebted to him and insisted on getting Dong Jianguo a pager.

After much deliberation, I ended up buying him a computer with a Chinese character display that cost over 3000 yuan.

Although he didn't think the product was anything special, Dong Jianguo felt that spending three thousand yuan was worthwhile just to show off in front of his two brothers-in-laws...

My second brother-in-law reluctantly returned the pager to Dong Jianguo and couldn't help but ask him:

"Jianguo, I heard from my older sister that you and Xiuyun were selling eggs. Judging from the looks of it, you're making quite a bit!"

Dong Jianguo shook his head:

"No, the egg business relies on low profit margins and high volume; the profit is still too small. I plan to look into other businesses in a while."

Money still doesn't last long.

I've only paid a deposit for the room; the balance hasn't been paid yet.

Fortunately, the original owner had already finished renovating the house the two had their eye on, so the two only needed to buy some household appliances before they could move in.

But buying big-ticket items like refrigerators and washing machines would cost money, and Dong Jianguo also wanted to get a new TV. He would leave the old TV in the courtyard of the bungalow, so it would be a source of entertainment when he had nothing to do.

Roughly calculated, half of the profits from the egg business next month will be reinvested.

Not wanting to live this precarious life, switching to a more profitable business is urgent.

"Oh my, the profit margin is so low, yet you still bought such expensive things for Mom and Dad. You've really made me and my brother-in-law look bad!"

My brother-in-law said with a smile, his tone carrying a hint of reminder.

Dong Jianguo understood what he meant and waved his hands repeatedly:

"Brother-in-law, brother-in-law, I didn't mean that."

"I was thinking that when Xiuyun married me, I was just a penniless, naive young man. She endured a life of hardship with me."

"My parents married such a wonderful daughter to me, and at the time I didn't have anything good to give back to them."

"Now that we have a little extra money, isn't it only right that we take care of our parents?"

"Brother-in-law, you're a leader in the Education Bureau, are you right about what I'm saying?"

The eldest brother-in-law, Tong Ziang, nodded blankly, his face expressionless.

"Jianguo, you're absolutely right!"