December 29, the thirty-fifth year of Chengshun, was New Year’s Eve.
Sun Xu, who had been working overtime a year ago, finally got a rare vacation. Even though the upgrade task of Anhua Textile Company was tight, it was not possible for the technical staff to stay in the factory without a day off during the Chinese New Year.
Anhua Textile Company not only takes rotational breaks to allow technicians to take vacations, but also arranges a unified half-day holiday for technicians on the afternoon of New Year's Eve and the first day of the Lunar New Year.
To be honest, Sun Xu was not looking forward to this day and a half holiday, and he was not even happy about it... because if he continued to work overtime at this time, he would get three times his salary.
In the face of three times the salary, taking a holiday during the New Year is not a problem.
But since it's a holiday, Sun Xu can only take a holiday with others.
At noon, after having lunch in the factory, Sun Xu changed out of his dirty work clothes that were stained with a lot of greasy lubricants, put on cloth business clothes, leather shoes, and then put on his daily clothes. He wore a duffle coat and a small round-brimmed hat and left the factory.
But after he left the factory, he walked for a quarter of an hour to the public carriage platform, and waited for quite some time before the public carriage came, and there were not many people around waiting for the bus.
At first, he was a little surprised as to why there were so few people today. You should know that when he was waiting for the bus after get off work yesterday, there were quite a few people. But today there are very few people.
Then he realized, oh, today is New Year's Eve. Others should have had a holiday early. Even those who had a holiday late usually had a holiday yesterday.
Only a few people, including myself, took vacation so late due to various reasons.
Then, many thoughts came to mind.
It's New Year's Eve this year. Those people should go home for the holidays early and prepare for the New Year with their families.
Just like in previous years, I took a holiday a few days before the New Year, and then prepared various New Year's goods with my family. On New Year's Eve, I got up early to make various preparations. I had to help my mother prepare the New Year's Eve dinner. Various matters such as couplets and firecrackers.
It's just that I'm not at home this year, so I probably need my brother to do a lot of things.
I wonder if their New Year’s Eve dinner this year will be sumptuous?
It shouldn't be as difficult as last year, right?
Last year, the family was short of money. In order to prepare for the expenses for his mother's medical treatment, and to prepare for his brother's tuition and living expenses after the new year, the food was not very good. When he went to buy groceries, he gritted his teeth for a long time before he made up his mind to buy them. A pound of pork.
This year, although my mother's health still needs to be recuperated and my brother's tuition needs to be paid for, it is not that urgent after all.
And after the new year, the situation at home should be better, because Sun Xu already sent five yuan home yesterday, and Sun Xu will continue to send money home after the new year.
With Sun Xu's income support, the family's conditions will improve visibly.
Every time he thinks that life at home will be better, his mother's health is gradually getting better, and his brother's school fees have been paid, Sun Xu will be in a good mood.
Unfortunately, the five yuan he sent yesterday may not be available to his family until after the New Year, or even after the Lantern Festival.
It is not easy to send money over long distances these days, especially across several provinces. For large payments, you can use many methods such as checks, cashier's checks, and large bank transfers. Many banks will specifically target large enterprises. For customers, open inter-provincial payment and even overseas payment channels.
But currently, ordinary people, and even small and micro businesses, can only use the postal bank remittance method to send money.
The whole process of sending money back to my hometown from Songjiang may take more than ten days, which is not very fast.
Of course... in fact, if large companies want to make inter-provincial payments, even if banks attach great importance to it and use special channels, they won't be able to make it any faster.
After all, there are no telegraphs these days, and financial transaction information can still only be transmitted through traditional mailed documents. For some large-amount transfers from large companies, the most they can do is send someone to make a trip with the documents, but cross-border transfers The process usually takes several days.
This is limited by communication methods. Before the emergence of electromagnetic communication and its large-scale application, there was basically no good solution.
So even if Sun Xunian sent money home yesterday, the money would not arrive home in a short time.
However, a few days earlier and a few days later does not have much impact. What is important is that his family knows that he has found a good job and received a high salary that his family could not imagine before.
The monthly salary is ten yuan, and even when working overtime, it can reach twelve or three yuan. This level of income is not something that many people in my hometown can obtain.
In their hometown, Sun Xu's father was already a leather shoemaker with good skills and a good reputation in the local area. Many local decent gentry would ask Sun Xu's father to make customized leather shoes, so his income was not low. On average, one person The month is around seven or eight Chu Yuan.
This income is actually considered a good middle-to-high-income in the local area.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to support his brother’s education in high school.
It's just that the cost of secondary and higher education these days is too high, and Sun Xu's mother's serious illness cost a lot of money, and she needs to spend money for long-term health care, which caused the family's financial situation to take a turn for the worse.
But now, with Sun Xu's income subsidy, after this year, his family's financial conditions will improve a lot, and he will be able to save a sum of money for his brother's college tuition.
As for a four-year undergraduate university, don't count on that. Sun Xu's father and Sun Xu can't even afford the hundreds of dollars a year in tuition fees.
Even if he goes to junior college, he still has to count on his younger brother to get a part of the scholarship. But if he can get a half scholarship, Sun Xu and his father can maintain their current income. Although the pressure will not be small, it will not be a problem. would be too big.
If you fail to get a college scholarship and study at your own expense, even if it is a cheap government-run ordinary college, the tuition alone will be more than 100 yuan this year, plus the cost of living, food and accommodation, it will be at least 100 yuan. A few Chu Yuan older... And the combined annual income of Sun Xu and his father is estimated to be around two hundred Chu Yuan... That's really hard work, and the family can't even afford to eat rice bran!
After all, family members have to eat and have necessary living expenses!
Eating out is not cheap these days!
Even if he can get a half-scholarship, he still has to hope that his mother's health will improve significantly and she won't need to spend two or three yuan on medicine every month to continue to recuperate her status, otherwise it will be very stressful.
However, Sun Xu believes that his younger brother will not be unable to get even half of the scholarship...
To put it bluntly, for ordinary families like them, if their children can’t even get a half scholarship for science in an ordinary provincial college, how can they go to a shitty university... they can’t afford it!
The reason why higher education in the Dachu Empire has become so expensive is because it adopts a policy of letting self-financing students bear the tuition and even living expenses of scholarship students.
This makes the tuition fees for self-financed students very expensive...because it means that you, a self-financed student, bear the educational costs of two or even three students.
A family like Sun Xu's doesn't look like one that can afford the education costs of several college students!
That's just for the rich.
However, Sun Xu's younger brother's academic performance has always been good, and he has been diligent in studying. He has always studied with the goal of getting a scholarship.
Sun Xu even knew that his brother's goal was never a half scholarship to a junior college, but a full science scholarship to a junior college!
His level of study and study is no worse than that of Sun Xu who works overtime every day and whose father makes leather shoes day and night... He even has to work harder!
Otherwise, why did Sun Xu prefer to drop out of school a few years ago and give the opportunity to his younger brother? It's not just a brotherly relationship... but also because his younger brother is really better at studying and works harder than him!
Sun Xu has no hope of getting a college scholarship, but his younger brother has a chance to get it.
Many choices are not unilateral and have only one reason, but are often a combination of many reasons.
No matter what, Sun Xu hopes that his younger brother can enter a junior college and get a half scholarship.
In this way, it would be a little easier for him and his father to support him, and his mother's life would be a little better. Sun Xu himself could also hope to find a new life in the big city of Songjiang.
Although many people say that Songjiang has various problems, especially environmental pollution problems that are criticized every day, Sun Xu still has a great impression of Songjiang.
Even if he has only been here for less than a month!
In his opinion, Songjiang City has good job opportunities, and the entire city is friendly enough to outsiders like him... Well, there are not many locals in Songjiang City in the true sense. Most of the population in Songjiang City are immigrants. population.
After all, before the Chu Empire occupied Jiangnan, the entire Songjiang Prefecture had a total population of several hundred thousand, and most of them were agricultural people.
But Songjiang Prefecture is Songjiang Prefecture, and Songjiang City is Songjiang City... These are two concepts.
The current Songjiang City mentioned by the population in the Da Chu Empire actually refers to the original county seat of Shanghai County as the core and then developed to the surrounding areas. It does not include other rural areas in the larger Songjiang Prefecture.
Not even the Pudong area on the other side of the Huangpu River...
Geographically speaking, Songjiang City is actually not very large, mainly covering an area of about tens of kilometers on the west bank of the Huangpu River.
In this area, the real indigenous population is actually not large, numbering between 20 and 300,000, plus some people who have migrated from other counties in Songjiang Prefecture.
However, the main population is composed of non-residents who have poured in from other places over the past thirty years.
Therefore, Songjiang City is a serious immigrant city!
Such an immigrant city welcomes immigrants...
Of course, things may become different in a few decades or even a hundred years. A large number of outsiders who have moved to Songjiang during this period will regard themselves as Songjiang people after settling for two or three generations, and then turn Songjiang City into a A city with more local residents than non-residents.
But for now, Songjiang City is still a very typical immigrant city. It is very friendly to non-locals like Sun Xu who come from outside to seek a new life. Sun Xu will not feel some rejection from the locals in his daily life and work. …
Well, in the past month, Sun Xu has actually not seen many locals... Maybe he has, but he didn't recognize them.
After all, in Songjiang City, everyone usually speaks the standard Mandarin that is used throughout the country in daily communication, but no one speaks dialect... People don't speak the local dialect, and they don't take the initiative to talk to you, so you don't know whether they are locals or not.
Sun Xu very much hopes to find his new life in Songjiang City, a city full of vitality and hope!
It would be best if you could save enough money to buy a house of your own in a suburban community, settle down, marry a wife and have children, and be a decent person like other senior technicians in the factory.
It has to be said that although he has only been here for a month, Sun Xu still has sufficient experience of the bad environment in downtown Songjiang... He likes this city and can accept the bad air environment, but it does not mean that he likes it...
With many thoughts, Sun Xu returned to the apartment in a public carriage with few passengers.
The street in front of the apartment was deserted, with no one walking around. The apartment was livelier than usual. You could hear the sounds of many people talking upstairs and downstairs, but there were also many rooms with closed doors and no sound.
Many people in the apartment also went home to celebrate the New Year, just like his childhood friend and roommate Sun Dawei, who got on the train early to go back to his hometown to celebrate the New Year.
After walking up the wooden stairs, I was about to take out the key and open the door when I heard footsteps coming from behind me. I immediately looked back and saw my neighbor next door, Ms. Meng, slowly walking up.
Immediately, he involuntarily stopped taking out the key and opening the door, but turned slightly and said, "Miss Meng is also on vacation!"
Sun Xu knew that Miss Meng usually came back from get off work in the evening, and he saw her rushing to work in front of him this morning.
Apparently, just like me, those who celebrate the Chinese New Year are also working overtime.
Miss Meng said softly: "Yes, I will start my vacation this afternoon!"
Sun Xu held the key in his hand: "I only started taking vacation this afternoon, and I have to go to work again on the second day of the new year!"
Miss Meng had already reached the stairwell, and while searching for the keys in her handbag, she said, "Yeah, I'm quite busy. I have to go to work on the second day of the new year!"
Sun Xu held the key repeatedly with his right hand, and after a few seconds, he only heard him say: "I have been working overtime the year before, and I didn't have time to buy new year's goods. While the shops on Ximen Street were still open in the afternoon, I was going to wait. Go to Ximen Street to buy some New Year’s goods!”
Having said this, Sun Xu raised his head and looked at Miss Meng: "I don't know if you, Miss Meng, have prepared the New Year's goods. If not... let's go buy them together later?"
While speaking, Sun Xu held the key with his right hand with some force.
Miss Meng had already opened the door with the key. After hearing this, she paused in her steps. Instead of pushing the door open with her hands, she looked back at Sun Xu...
At this time, Sun Xu's breathing was already a little rapid, and he immediately said: "If it is inconvenient for you to go out, if you need anything, I can buy it for you when the time comes."
Miss Meng continued to look at him, looking directly into his eyes. After a few seconds, she smiled slightly: "I haven't bought new year's goods yet, let's go together later!"
Hearing this, Sun Xu suddenly had a smile on his face and said quickly: "Okay, I'll call you after I've changed my clothes!"
Miss Meng nodded, then opened the door and went in.
When the door on the opposite side was closed, Sun Xu picked up the key with a silly smile and prepared to open the door. However, his hands were trembling, so it took him a long time to open the door.
After entering the room and closing the door, Sun Xu took off his clothes and picked up a set of decent clothes such as fine cashmere business clothes, leather shoes and hats that he had kept well and was reluctant to wear every day. It only took a few minutes to get them. All dressed properly...
In these few minutes, besides getting dressed, he also took some time to wash his face and hands with cold water. He also combed his hair again and tied it with a hosta.
After finishing packing, he was about to go out to call Miss Meng, but he stopped again and murmured: "It's too fast. She also has to change clothes and pack. It's not that fast. Wait a minute...wait a little longer." Wait!"
Unfortunately, just ten seconds later...he opened the door!
(End of chapter)
