Chapter 593: 1980 Has Arrived

Zhao Bin remembered they still had something to do, grabbed their coat and were about to leave.

"We'll talk again next time, today my son caught a cold, he's at the nearby hospital, Jiao Jiao let me leave early for a while to pick him up."

Lu Cheng set his face in a scowl: "Look at your pathetic attitude. If you don't go pick her up, what can you do? She doesn't have long legs to walk back herself, and the hospital isn't far."

"No, the main thing is she told me in advance..."

"What? Her words are like an imperial edict; defying them would have you exterminated with your nine families!" Lu Cheng forced Zhao Bin onto the counter, pinning them down.

"Crunch— today we won't go pick her up; see, if she's gone you can't survive, eat!"

Zhao Bin sighed, and seeing Lu Cheng get even more angry said, "Huh, I really despise you. Back in the day when we fought, you were also a fierce person, and now look at you, you've become a wife‑obsessed fool, afraid of your wife and turned into this?"

"I'm not..."

"Exactly! All you have left is a stubborn mouth. I'm telling you, Binzi, you're now a Deputy Factory Director; you must understand the responsibility on your shoulders. When trouble arises you must not be timid. Now you're just starting out, it's the time to be bold and fight..."

Zhao Bin nodded: "I understand. From now on I'll definitely listen to Sister Ying Ying."

"I'm not saying you should follow her completely; she may not be right all the time. What I mean is you need to have your own opinions."

Zhao Bin nodded, perhaps a little too vigorously, and when they looked up, through a row of plastic mirrors hanging on the opposite shelf, they suddenly saw a familiar figure.

It was his wife Huang Chunjiao, holding a child, standing there; she probably came to the shop because she saw he hadn't gone to the hospital for a long time.

Zhao Bin tensed up for a moment, about to turn around and explain, but Lu Cheng pressed them down.

"Look how impatient you are; I haven't finished yet."

"No, it's Jiao Jiao..."

Lu Cheng pointed at him: "Mentioning your Jiao Jiao again? Hey, I see you're really spineless now, can't even be away for a while? What's so good about her that attracts you so much! Look at you, you act like an old man."

"Not you, Lu Cheng, stop talking!"

Lu Cheng spat out a sunflower‑seed shell: "What's there you can't say? Let me tell you, you're scared of her, I'm not scared of her. Even if she stands here, I can still speak my mind!"

Zhao Bin opened their mouth, but Lu Cheng went on: "Alright, alright, I know that during your marriage it's not been easy, you've suffered a lot from Da Huang's oppression."

"So, after work, I'll treat you to a bath, and while we're at it, a foot massage."

Zhao Bin looked at his wife Huang Chunjiao in the mirror and hurriedly shook their head: "I... I guess I won't go."

"How could I not!"

Lu Cheng leaned in: "Listen, nowadays many bathhouses have become self‑sustaining, and to attract customers and make money they started hiring some female foot‑therapists."

"I know there's a bathhouse nearby, and the female foot‑therapist there is gorgeous; later we can go try it out together."

Zhao Bin cast a sidelong glance at the opposite mirror, then shook their head resolutely.

"I... really won't go."

Lu Cheng was taken aback: "Why not? Afraid to spend money? Hey, we're buddies; I won't let you pay, it's on me. I just earned ten bucks, you know."

Zhao Bin scratched their head: "It's just... I don't want to go, I don't like going, I'd rather go home and help watch the child, Jiao Jiao is exhausted all day."

Lu Cheng stepped back, inhaled, and just stared at Zhao Bin.

"What's wrong with you! I've been talking here forever, and you haven't taken a word in!"

"No, I just think Jiao Jiao finding it hard to watch the child, as a husband I should also take some responsibility!"

Lu Cheng gritted his teeth, his hatred like iron that won't become steel: "She says she's tired? She's tired! Look at her, she's big and bulky, she's just a cow..."

Zhao Bin at this moment squeezed a fierce look at Lu Cheng, while pointing at the mirror on the shelf.

Lu Cheng looked puzzled, and when he saw who was in the mirror, he gasped sharply.

He immediately patted Zhao Bin's shoulder: "Not bad, Binzi, I was just joking earlier, deliberately saying bad things about Jiao Jiao. What was the purpose? To test you.

Now that I see it, you passed the test, Comrade, your ideological awakening is solid; you must keep it up and keep striving."

Lu Cheng said as he turned around: "Yo, when did Da Huang arrive?"

Huang Chunjiao's face wore a half‑smile: "Just arrived."

"Oh, I was just praising Binzi earlier, what a good man, I've never seen such a family‑oriented man, I should learn from him more..."

Lu Cheng, while speaking, sidestepped to leave the department store, anticipating Huang Chunjiao would kick, and swiftly dodged.

…

By evening, Lu Cheng rode his bicycle, taking his sister home.

Lu Ying was in a great mood today, humming a song from the seat behind.

"Hey Lu Cheng, the Electric Heating Blanket you chose is really selling well; up to now, more than ten people have paid deposits, and the main profit is high."

If these three thousand Electric Heating Blankets sell, not only will they break even, they can net a profit of five to six thousand.

That profit equals half a year's earnings for the department store, of course provided they sell quickly.

Lu Cheng didn't share his sister's excitement; as someone with foresight, he naturally knew that once you stand at the windward, even pigs can fly.

What he cared most about was how the Lu family could develop and revive amid the era's opportunities.

"Sister, is big brother coming back for the New Year this year?" Lu Cheng pedaled slowly.

"He wrote a letter a few days ago, said he wouldn't come back this year, seems he's not in the Commune, he's gone to the provincial capital to study, but big brother mentioned good news in the letter."

"Good news? Is our sister‑in‑law having another baby?"

Lu Ying gave her brother a pat on the back: "What are you thinking... Big brother said, during his studies, a provincial leader values him, maybe within a year or two there could be a chance to be transferred back."

Lu Cheng asked from the front: "Transfer to the Capital City?"

"No, our household registration here isn't that easy to transfer back, maybe first back to He Province."

Lu Cheng nodded; being transferred back to He Province first is fine, at least it's close to home.

Learning that big brother is also working hard to move up, Lu Cheng felt a bit more confidence in the Lu family's revitalization.

Old saying goes, after Laba the New Year arrives; the Capital City's Hu Tong is wrapped in the cold wind of the twelfth month, and the clanging of chopping sounds echoes from house to house.

Every household celebrates the New Year noisily, pasting red couplets, children holding firecrackers, laughing and playing in the Hu Tong.

This upcoming Lunar 1979 New Year's Eve marks a conclusion to the previous era.

And after crossing this night, the forthcoming 1980 will be the grand opening of the new era.

This year is also a turning point; the spring breeze of Reform will blow even stronger.

First, Special Economic Zones quietly took root in the south; the countryside began to trial the household responsibility system, and the streets saw more individual businesses…

This year is precisely the start of the golden decade!