Chapter 33: What Are You Doing, Young Man?

After getting the household registration book from Mother Li, Li Xiangdong put it in his cloth bag and went out with his father and two older brothers.

“Laosan, if there’s anything you don’t understand when you report for duty, remember to ask carefully.”

Father Li gnawed on a steamed corn bun, not forgetting to remind his youngest son.

“Don’t worry.”

Li Xiangdong nodded.

The father and four sons walked and talked. The second brother arrived at the bathhouse first. Not long after, Father Li and the eldest brother also arrived at the coal shop.

The places where the three of them worked were all in the alley where their home was.

Only Li Xiangdong was left. He walked out of the alley and headed east along the main road. The scene before him was like a series of old photographs.

There were no tall buildings, only brick houses with tiled roofs everywhere.

The sparse vehicles made the road seem particularly wide. Bicycles and cars in the middle of the road ran parallel to each other, neither giving way.

In 1976, the United Nations classified Beijing as a city on the edge of desertification. It wasn’t until the Fifth National People’s Congress this year that it was decided that March 12th would be Arbor Day.

Both sides of the road were lined with small saplings that had just been planted in the spring and were only a few months old. They were only as thick as a finger, and there was one every ten meters.

Mmm, this is where the catkins and willow catkins that will fly all over the sky in the future come from!

The crowd of people coming and going were all dressed in blue and gray. Only the traffic police in the middle of the road, in their bright white police uniforms, were the most eye-catching.

Most of the people in the crowd had smiles on their faces. They walked at a leisurely pace, and some even stopped on the side of the road to smoke and chat.

This was not the fast-paced life of later generations. In addition, everyone was used to the laxity of the “Great Movement” period.

The sense of urgency of the fifties and sixties, where every second counted, where they went to work early and got off late, where they were the most glorious in the factory, and where they worked hard for the country’s construction even on an empty stomach, was gone.

Li Xiangdong, who was going with the flow, walked slowly for about ten minutes and arrived at the gate of the Beijing Railway Bureau Passenger Transport Section compound.

“Hey, that young man, I’m talking to you. What are you here for?!”

The small window of the reception office at the entrance opened, revealing a head. He looked to be in his sixties. He pushed up the glasses on his nose and looked Li Xiangdong up and down, who was looking around.

Li Xiangdong walked over and said, “Hello, uncle. I’m here to report for duty.”

“Oh, come in and talk.”

Hearing that he was here to report for duty, the uncle retracted his head, closed the window, opened the newspaper, and continued to read the instructions from the higher-ups.

“Uncle, have a smoke.”

Li Xiangdong knocked on the door and went in. He took out the Daqianmen from his pocket, handed one to the uncle, and helped him light it. He took out his introduction letter from his cloth bag, “Uncle, what’s your surname? This is the introduction letter from our subdistrict office.”

“What’s with the ‘surname’? We’re all working class. You can just call me Uncle Hou. Let me see your introduction letter first.”

Uncle Hou put down the newspaper in his hand, took the introduction letter, and looked at it carefully, “That’s right, this is the place. But you’re early. The people from the labor and capital department haven’t come to work yet.”

Li Xiangdong smiled, “It’s fine. If you don’t mind me being a bother, I’ll stay here and chat with you for a while.”

“What’s there to mind? Not many people come here in a day. It’s good that you can stay with me for a while.”

Uncle Hou returned the introduction letter to him and said while smoking, “Sit down, don’t stand. You’re so tall, it’s tiring for me to talk to you. When did you come back from the countryside?”

“Aiyo! Uncle Hou, you really have a discerning eye. You can even tell that I’m an educated youth who has returned to the city? No wonder the leaders have entrusted you with such an important position!”

Li Xiangdong’s eyes swept around the small reception office. He found a chair, moved it over, and sat down next to Uncle Hou, flattering him.

He didn’t feel any guilt about this flattery. This was mainly because he saw a 12-inch black and white television set covered with a cloth on the cabinet.

In the alley where Li Xiangdong lived, there were very few families with television sets, both in the south and the north.

In this era where even radios were not widespread, an old man guarding the gate of a reception office could still watch television while on duty.

What kind of treatment was this?

Uncle Hou’s identity was definitely not ordinary!

“You kid, you’re really good at talking nonsense. Your situation is written on the introduction letter. ‘Discerning eye’? My reading glasses are already 300 degrees. Besides, I’m just an old man guarding the gate. In your mouth, it’s become an important position.”

Uncle Hou looked at him with a smile. Mmm, this was a sweet-talker. The words he said were pleasant to his ears. The more he looked at Li Xiangdong, the more he liked him.

“The introduction letter says your name is Li Xiangdong. Should I call you Comrade Xiao Li? Or Comrade Xiangdong?”

Seeing that Uncle Hou was in high spirits, Li Xiangdong took the opportunity to say, “You can call me whatever you want. But my family all calls me Dongzi. Why don’t you call me Dongzi too? It’ll make us seem closer, won’t it?”

Uncle Hou said happily, “According to you, I’ve gained a relative just by guarding the gate today?”

Li Xiangdong said with deep conviction, “Then aren’t you my elder? I’ll definitely come and chat with you again when I’m free to relieve your boredom. It’ll save you from being bored all by yourself.”

“Then it’s a deal?”

“It’s a deal!”

“It’s settled?”

“I’ll definitely come!”

“But I don’t believe what you say, kid!”

“Look at what you’re saying. How could I fool you?”

“That’s hard to say.”

Uncle Hou shook the Daqianmen in his hand, which was only a cigarette butt left, “You kid, you’re not even willing to take out the Mudan. You’re so stingy, giving me this to smoke? Do you think I can believe what you say?”

“Hehe… it’s a misunderstanding. I’m just used to smoking this myself.”

Li Xiangdong smiled awkwardly, took out the Mudan from his cloth bag, quickly opened it, and handed it over.

Seeing that Uncle Hou was not really angry, he flattered him, “I just happened to show it when I was taking out the introduction letter. You could even see that, and you still don’t admit that I have a discerning eye. You, this old comrade, are sometimes too modest.”

Uncle Hou lit the cigarette and took a satisfying drag, “I’m farsighted, not blind. I can’t see the words, but I can still recognize the cigarette box, can’t I? You kid, besides being a sweet-talker, you’re not an honest person.”

He said this, but his tone was much more intimate than before.

“Your Uncle Hou won’t smoke your cigarettes for free. You just stay here with peace of mind. When the section chief of the labor and capital department comes later, I’ll call him over and say a few good words for you. I guarantee that no one will make things difficult for you when you report for duty today.”

Uncle Hou’s tone was full of pride.

“If you can help me say a word, then I’ll be very grateful to you.”

Li Xiangdong quickly thanked him.

It was common for new employees to be made difficult. Anyone who encountered it would feel upset.

If Uncle Hou could help him go through the onboarding procedures smoothly, then the flattery he had just given and the cigarettes he had offered would not have been wasted.

Of course, Uncle Hou was also a very interesting person. It takes two to tango, doesn’t it?