Chapter 264: Chapter 264: Old schoolmates
On the afternoon of the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, Feng Yiping hurried back to Fengjiachong.
On that cold winter day, the children, whose faces were red from the cold and some were even cracked, were wearing bulging clothes and, as usual, holding a box of firecrackers in their hands, puffing out hot air as they ran along the newly-built road.
When they saw Feng Yiping's car, they all rushed after it, following it from behind. This was still a rare sight back then. Those who had been well-educated at home would even take the initiative to greet him, either calling him 'uncle' or 'dad' (grandpa), instantly transporting Feng Yiping, who was still young, to middle and old age.
Wen Hua and Wen Hui, who had probably seen his car from the hill behind the village, came running to meet him. Feng Yiping took out a bag of White Rabbits and said, 'Help distribute these.'
'Oh!' the kids cheered and gathered around.
In the past two years, although life had gotten better, they still couldn't eat candy whenever they wanted.
This year, they can finally drive directly to the grain drying field in front of the village. Feng Zhanchang's New Century is already parked there, and a red cloth is tied to the left rearview mirror.
He also greeted everyone along the way, and as they walked towards home, the village was now bustling with activity. Those with tape recorders turned up the volume to the max, playing some festive songs or lounge love songs.
The young men, who have worked hard for a year, are wearing clothes that are obviously more fashionable than their parents', and their faces are red. However, that is from drinking, with a cigarette in their mouths and another clipped to their ears, they gather in groups of two or three, talking loudly and laughing with a bit of showmanship.
They are outside, probably a general worker who normally wouldn't even be looked at by the boss, or a construction worker who lives in a shack and is usually unkempt and dirty, or a young shop assistant in a small shop who is yelled at by everyone, but here, at home, they are their parents' treasures and pride.
Of course, when they are at home, their parents may still scold them a bit, saying things like they don't value money, they don't call home enough, and so-and-so in someone else's family makes so much money every month, and how much money they have brought home this year.
But the other person's child who earns a lot of money, as they call him, may also be scolded by his parents at home. There are also other children who are more outstanding than you.
In short, in the eyes of their parents, there is no such thing as the best, only better, and there is no highest, only higher.
However, no matter how humble, lowly and unhappy they are when they are working outside, during the few days when they go home for the New Year, they all try their best to present themselves as if they are doing well and have made a success of themselves.
The usually quiet small mountain village also becomes lively and full of joy because of their return.
Just seeing Feng Yiping coming over, they all dare not neglect him and greet him one after the other. According to their generations, these guys are also his juniors. 'Little brother is back, still so busy!'
'Yiping,' Feng Wen, wearing a black leather jacket and a thick wool scarf around his neck, came running over.
This guy only studied for half a year at agricultural high school, then went out to work with someone else. Now I heard that he works in a brewery. Now his face is as round as a steamed bun, his face is full of worldly wisdom, and his hair is greasy and slick, and there is no trace of him from school.
He took Feng Yiping's shoulder without any hesitation, 'Do you smoke? Oh, I know you don't. It's been a year or two since we last saw each other. Come to my house for dinner tonight!'
'Just say what you want, we were classmates for those few years,' Feng Yiping knew that this dinner was an excuse, and that there must be something he wanted to tell him.
'You still remember, that's good. When the two factories in town were hiring, we didn't know anything about it. Do they still need people? Can I do it?'
I guessed it was about this. 'So, if you had called home more often and shown more concern for your parents, you wouldn't be finding out about this now.'
Feng Wen blushed a little. After leaving the tightly controlled school, once he arrived in the vast world outside, sometimes he really did forget about his parents. 'You have no idea, when we were outside, it was hard to get a job, let alone make a phone call.'
'Just remember in the future. It's too late in the town, they've already recruited people. But we have a factory in the city that will start production in the first half of next year. If you're interested, you can come and have a look.'
'Really? In the city? What do they make?' The city is better than the town, not far from home, and it's considered to be in the city.
'They make metal shelves and structural steel plant components. I guess they'll be recruiting in February or March.'
'Okay, you must save me a place. Deal!'
Feng Yiping had already thought about this long ago. Although the older workers at the aluminium products factory have been doing well this month, Feng Yiping believes that once things stabilise, most of them will revert to their old ways. It's hard to change people's temperaments after ten or twenty years, so it's necessary to recruit hard-working workers who are willing to accept low wages. This will force them to change their attitudes, which is another kind of 'catfish effect'.
On the hill behind the house, Feng Yuxuan is wearing a dirty grey jacket, holding a book in her hands, leaning against the only big pine tree left on the hill. She is surrounded by a group of girls her age, talking about something. When they see Feng Yiping, they immediately shout down to him, 'Mom, your big treasure is back!'
Mei Qiuping and Feng Jiasheng's wife had moved a stool and were sitting under the eaves, leisurely eating melon seeds and basking in the sun. 'You're back!'
Feng Jiasheng's wife also said, 'Oh, our great writer is back!'
It seems that Mei Qiuping has not spared any effort in showing off the book signing in front of them.
'You haven't eaten yet,' Mei Qiuping said, standing up from the stool, patting the melon seed shells off her body, and taking the suitcase from him. "You stay here and bask in the sun, I'll go and get you some rice.' frёewebηovel.cѳm
Feng Yiping listened to the noise coming from the house and asked, "What are they doing in there?'
'What else, drinking and arguing, it's been more than two hours now.'
Oh, no wonder it sounded like that, the voices inside were quite loud.
'Sanniang, don't bother. They've been drinking for so long, there won't be any food left. Let Yiping come to my house. I'll cook them a hotpot.' Feng Hongbing's mother came out of the kitchen.
Feng Hongbing, who hadn't been seen for a few years, followed her, carrying a clay wine pot. "Yiping, come quickly, everything is ready.'
'Go ahead," Mei Qiuping said. It was normal to go to a neighbour's house for a meal at the end of the year.
On Feng Hongbing's family's wooden table sat a brass hotpot. In earlier years, this was the only one in the village, and it made many people envious. At this time, the soup inside had already boiled, 'doodling' as it turned over. The chicken in the soup base floated up and down, the fragrance was strong and very enticing.
Next to it were plates full of crispy vegetables, lettuce bought from the street, enoki mushrooms, glass noodles, meat paste, meatballs, ham, fried dumplings, thinly sliced lamb with skin, pork liver, tender beef, etc. It was a very rich meal.
Under the table, next to the brazier, was the wine pot that had just been simmering.
'Sit down, little brother,' Feng Hongbing said, pointing to the young man sitting at the table. 'Do you remember who he is?'
It was a young man of their age, looking very neat. Feng Yiping tried hard to remember, and thought he knew him a little, but he couldn't quite place him.
'Sorry, I really can't remember.'
'It's okay, it's been so many years. But I can tell you one thing you will definitely remember. Do you remember when we were in the third grade and we were playing chicken, and you dislocated your right wrist? That was me.'
'Oh, you were Zhigao.'
This 'cockfighting' is not the kind where two chickens are set loose in a ring. It is a game that children from poor areas played when they were young. The rules are very simple: stand on one foot, bend the other leg with both hands, and use your knees to attack. The one whose foot touches the ground first loses.
This kind of game can be played one-on-one or in groups, and it was very popular with them, especially when it was cold.
That time, it was also a multi-versus-multi game, divided into two groups. Feng Yiping was competing with the student sitting across from him, and Feng Zhigao jumped over from the side and neatly flipped him over with a knee strike. He subconsciously braced himself with his elbows on the ground, but as a result, his right elbow dislocated.
But he was a guy who was not afraid of pain and was also very thick-skinned. He just felt a little uncomfortable and didn't take it seriously. He stood aside and watched the others play. Later, during class, he noticed that he couldn't lift his hand, but he didn't care much about it and still did his homework with his left hand. It wasn't until two classes later, on the way home from school, that Uncle Four discovered that his right hand was as swollen as his thigh, so he carried him to the bone-setter.
Feng Zhigao lifted up a glass of wine, 'I toast you. When we were young and didn't know any better, please don't hold it against him.'
Feng Yiping drank the sweet rice wine in his cup. 'It's no big deal. We were just playing around back then. I've long forgotten about it. By the way, where are you making your fortune these days?' He picked up a chopstickful of the chicken soup-cooked bok choy. The bok choy had been hit by frost in the winter, and the taste of it was exquisite after being cooked in the chicken soup!
'I'm not as clever as you guys. I couldn't get into school, so after primary school I just hung around, travelled all over the place, from south to north, but never got anywhere. This time, I heard that your family's cabinet factory was hiring, so I came back, and together with Hongbing, I've already been working there for more than a month.'
'Oh, that's great, the cabinet factory will really need your help in the future. Besides, you're so young now, and you've been to so many places. This kind of experience is itself a kind of wealth that money can't buy, so there's no need to belittle yourself.'
'Exactly, come on, let's drink. President Cai has also said that running sales means people like us travelling all over the country.'
'Have you all settled on running sales?'
'Yes, we are all assigned to the sales department, but we must spend three months in the workshop to get to know everything inside and out.'
This is actually what Feng Yiping emphasises: professional sales requires a thorough understanding of one's products.
Otherwise, if you find a customer who wants to sell furniture, and the customer asks you what material the cabinets are made of, how thick the panels are, how many centimetres the doors are, what brand of hinges they are, what kind of paint they are painted with, what the fire and water resistance data are, and you don't know the answers, then how can you expect the customer to buy from you?
If you spend three months in the factory, get familiar with the various processes, install a few sets yourself, and then look at the products of your competitors, you will be able to tell the difference between them. Only this kind of salesperson can convince customers.
'In fact, I still hope to open a franchise in the future,' Feng Hongbing said.
This is also their established strategy. Where agents are hard to find and the market is good, Jia Sheng will open its own franchise.
'Now there are more and more houses being built in the city. Residential buildings are being built one after another in the province and the city. With so many houses, every family needs to decorate, so I don't believe I can't conquer a few buildings.'
His analysis is very general and unscientific, just like some people's market analysis. There are more than a billion people in our country, and if each person buys a pair of jeans, it would be a huge market worth tens of billions of yuan.
But of course, it's not a good idea to dampen his enthusiasm now. 'That's a good goal. Work hard!' Feng Yiping raises his glass to him.
'Yes, let's work together and strive to be the sales champion in the factory next year,' Feng Zhigao also raises his glass in agreement.
The meal was a great success. Feng Yiping didn't drink much wine, but he did eat a lot, and by the end of the meal he couldn't even eat any rice. It was almost 3 o'clock when he got home. His mother was still out in the sun, and the house was still full of people. He was surprised. 'Still drinking?'
'They don't have that much of a drinking capacity. They're having tea now.'
'What are you talking about, so lively?' Feng Yiping sat down next to his mother. He had obviously not drunk much wine just now, but in this kind of atmosphere, he now felt a little tipsy.
'It's about building a house next year. This one says this, that one says that. I think they're just idle.'
On hearing this, Feng Yiping became a little interested. This is a topic on which I can also say a few words. It turned out that no one wanted to listen to what he had to say, but that was different now. The people in the village certainly wouldn't treat him like just another kid.