“Chaoyang, Uncle Li.” Li Zheng also didn’t expect to meet them on this occasion.
He nodded to Wang Mashang.
Wang Mashang hurriedly waved away the security guards who had walked over, and he turned to Li Chaoyang and his father with a stunned expression, “You know Mr. Li? You didn’t tell me earlier!”
Li Guang opened his mouth, but he couldn’t answer. He knew that his old leader was blaming him in his heart. But what could he say? Should he say that they didn’t even know Li Zheng was back before today? Or that the Li Zheng they knew was just a fisherman’s boy who had somehow turned into a big shot?
“Chaoyang, you and Uncle Li can go sit in the factory office first, the ceremony will be over soon, I’ll come over as soon as it’s over.” After that, Li Zheng turned and whispered to Wang Mashang, who nodded.
When Li Chaoyang saw Li Zheng looking at him, he scratched his head nervously, “Take your time, there’s no hurry.”
Li Zheng was dumbfounded, he reached out to pat Li Chaoyang’s shoulder, then he politely said goodbye and returned to the completion ceremony site.
They all watched as Lu Zheng walked away.
“Li Guang, you aren’t a good man. You obviously know that big man, but still in played small in front of me, were you playing with me?” Wang Mashang spat out.
Wang Mashang had been in the military and he had a temper. In his heart, he knew was that his old subordinate had climbed a high branch and he had ro be more polite to him now, but he couldn’t help himself.
“Old leader, am I such a person? Ah Zheng is the classmate of my boy, and their relationship has been good since childhood. “Li Guang had a wry smile on his face. He was also in shock.
He had to beg everyone he knew just to find a job for Li Chaoyang, but Li Zheng, a junior, became an unattainable person in a flash.
The Li family boy came back, together with foreign investors, and was a big shot!
The news spread quickly, Li Zheng was back and the news that the completion of the Shenzhen pharmaceutical factory was over, soon spread throughout Qinghe Town.
Li Chaoyang sat alone in the newly renovated hospitality room, looking somewhat restrained.
He sat on the sofa with half of his buttocks and his back straight. The waiting room was so quiet that only his own breathing could be heard, and after a long time, Li Zheng still hadn’t appeared.
Li Chaoyang moved his slightly stiff feet, hesitated, and slowly stood up.
The smooth tile floor, the textured mahogany conference table, the large floor-to-ceiling windows, the sunlight falling through the windows on the smooth tiles, reflecting the blinding light.
Li Chaoyang felt as if he had entered another world, his heart was beating extremely fast.
The door quietly opened and Li Zheng walked in.
“Where is Uncle Li?” Li Zheng entered the room and saw Li Chaoyang without Li Guang.
Li Chaoyang scratched his head, sounding a bit formal, “My father, he went back first.” Li Guang had always been a face-loving person, he could put down his face in front of his old leader, but it didn’t mean that he could put down his face in front of Li Zheng, a junior.
Therefore, after father and son arrived at the waiting room, Li Guang sat for ten minutes and then decided to leave. Before leaving, he repeatedly urged Li Chaoyang to convince Li Zheng to help.
Li Chaoyang responded on the surface, but his heart became more and more confused.
“My father, he was embarrassed to see you, so he went back first.” Li Chaoyang didn’t have the slightest intention to cover up for his father.
Li Zheng was puzzled, he sat on the sofa, “What’s so embarrassing about seeing me, Uncle Li saw me when I was a bare-a*sed child.” Li Zheng had seen photos of him and Li Chaoyang together in his family’s photo album, and he thought that if there were such photos in his family’s photo album, Li Chaoyang’s family also has them.
“It’s not the same now.” Li Chaoyang said nervously.
Li Zheng was stunned for a moment before he reacted, he patted his position on the side of the sofa.
“I haven’t seen you guys in a few months. Even with a change of clothes, Li Zheng is still Li Zheng. Just like that tree.” He pointed to the very beautifully constructed banyan tree in the waiting room, “No matter how beautifully it’s cut, it doesn’t change the essence of it being a banyan tree.”
Li Chaoyang was still a seventeen-year-old boy, and his sensitivity to Li Zheng’s different identity was far less intense than that of an adult. Seeing that Li Zheng still acted the same, his tense nerves slowly relaxed.
“Ah Zheng, my father asked me to come to work at the Shenzhen Pharmaceutical Factory.” As Li Chaoyang spoke, it was as if he had no strength, he sat down on the sofa beside Li Zheng in a disheveled manner.
Li Zheng’s hand on the tea cup paused, he put it down, and his expression slowly became serious.
“And what about you? What do you think?”
Li Chaoyang noticed the change in Li Zheng’s expression and jumped up as if he had been pricked by a needle, “I haven’t forgotten what you said, I want to go see the outside world. But! I …… here is also quite good.” He sounded confident when he started but ended up sounding confused towards the end, the here he was referring to was naturally Shenzhen Pharmaceutical Factory.
A position in the brand-new factory was a good job and had a higher than average salary, it was a fatal attraction to ordinary people.
Li Zheng also stood up, “We have a long life, the road of life can’t all be the same. Everyone has to make their own decisions. I can tell you the recruitment conditions of the Shenzhen pharmaceutical factory, with a high school education, you can apply for the job of a intermediate technician, as an intermediate technician, you can be promoted to senior technician after three years of work. College students can apply as the Factory director, college students can also apply for the pharmaceutical factory’s managerial position”
“Intermediate technician 300 yuan per month, senior technician 450 yuan per month. Factory director 800 per month, as for the management depends on what position, the salary is not less than 1000.”
When Li Zheng said that high school students could apply for intermediate technicians, Li Chaoyang was secretly happy in his heart, but when he mentioned college students, Li Chaoyang’s thoughts went silent.
Numbers were more persuasive than anything else.
“In Qinghe Town, going to college means nothing, but Chaoyang, I don’t want you to be in Qinghe Town for the rest of your life. In China, in New York, in London, in any country on this earth, a degree is a good pass. It hasn’t been long since our country resumed college entrance exams, and the supply of college students in the country hasn’t exceeded the demand, which is the best opportunity for children from ordinary families to change their fate.”
In the 80s and 90s, it was the era of class reshuffle in China, and the college entrance examination at that time was the ladder from one class to another, and many people changed their fate because of it.
“Chaoyang, do you know what it’s like in Hong Kong? The forest of high-rise buildings, the roads with a lot of traffic, the men and women in suits. Its roads are so wide that a single road allows three or four cars to run parallel, and there is a mode of transportation called the subway under the concrete road, which can take only ten minutes to get from the center of Hong Kong to the suburbs. Twenty or thirty years from now, China will be like this, and by that time, I hope you can be part of the process.”
Li Zheng, who never knew he had the talent to be an orator, drank a mouthful of water and looked calmly at Li Chaoyang. No matter what decision Li Chaoyang made, he would support it.
Even if he ended up choosing Shenzhen Pharmaceutical Factory, Li Zheng would talk to David and let him have a platform with a level of development.
Li Chaoyang clenched his fist, he imagined the scenes described by Li Zheng, the scene of that prosperous big city seemed to appear in his mind, his heart was beating fast.
A lifetime in Qinghe Town with his father as an ordinary factory worker?
No, he didn’t want to!
“Li Zheng, will you come back?” Li Chaoyang suddenly asked. His eyes shone with light, and his expression changed from the disheveled look just now.
Li Zheng leaned back slightly, “I’m afraid not, even if I come back, it’ll be to accompany my sister to deal with some matters.”
Yes, Li Zheng would travel, but he would almost never return to Qinghe Town.
The light in Li Chaoyang’s eyes flickered, but his gaze remained firm, “If you don’t come, I’ll go to you. You said it, we have to watch the buildings and the subway together!”
Li Zheng guffawed, his eyes curled up as he replied softly, “Okay.”
“Li Zheng, that son of Li Qiang, Li Zheng?” Wang Aiguo pressed the cigarette butt out inside the ashtray and looked at Wang Aijuan suspiciously.
“That’s him, he came with a foreign investor and is staying at sister-in-law’s guest house, sister-in-law wouldn’t be unaware of it, right?” Wang Aijuan asked meaningfully.
Xu Fen stopped wiping the table, then replied mildly: “I’m an accountant, from morning to evening, I stay in the finance room, I didn’t pay attention.”
Wang Aijuan snorted, since her son’s death, she had no scruples whatsoever. If Yang Sheng didn’t still rely on Wang Aiguo, her brother, she wouldn’t even be polite on the surface.
“Brother, that time, you agreed to help Kaijian ask for a position in the pharmaceutical factory. Now that Kaijian is gone, Yang Sheng has been in the production team for so many years, he’s still a deputy. Since we know Li Zheng, tell him to help Yang Sheng get a position in the factory, an ordinary management position will be best!” As soon as Wang Aijuan opened her mouth, she mentioned the managerial position.
Wang Aiguo’s expression darkened, management, she really had the guts to say it.
To get an ordinary staff position in Shenzhen Pharmaceutical Factory, the county’s big leaders were fighting for the first time, yet a deputy in a production team wanted a spot, that was simply a fool’s dream.
But as Wang Aijuan opened his mouth, he realised he couldn’t refuse. He knew his son had done the wrong thing. He understood the virtues of his sister, she was really the kind of person who would die to catch a fish.
“Elder brother, you are my brother. Let me be frank with you. As long as this thing is done, the matter between our two families will be forgotten.”
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