Chapter 6: 6 Cinema and Qin Jingru

6 Cinema and Qin Jingru

Zhou Xinyang did not care about Xu Damao's thoughts, nor would he go to warn Shazhu to be careful of Xu Damao, and he had even less time to pay attention to Liu Haizhong's obsequiousness.

Right now, he only wanted to find an antique expert to help him acquire antiques.

Actually, he didn't even need an expert; someone decent would do, as there were too many real antiques at this time.

It wouldn't be until ten years later, after countless real antiques were destroyed, that forgeries would appear.

As for now, sorry, nobody even considered Qing Dynasty items to be antiques, and Ming Dynasty ones weren't worth much either, because the time was too recent and there were too many surviving items.

Still, he had to find someone reliable.

Zhou Xinyang thought for a moment; he had heard of two people in the future who made their fortunes through antiques.

One was Yehenala Chen Yaojing, who relied on getting classical furniture made of red sandalwood, yellow rosewood, and golden nanmu from furniture malls at low prices, then shipping them to Hong Kong to make her fortune.

The other was Ma Dudu, an awesome person who established his own private museum.

And both of these people were from Beijing.

Zhou Xinyang didn't know them, but through connections, he could certainly find someone who did.

After drinking that night, Zhou Xinyang didn't start taking action, but instead had a good night's sleep.

The next morning, Zhou Xinyang went to work at the factory office just like the day before, and under the guidance of Li Wujun, he was either inspecting the subordinate factories or receiving higher-level leaders.

"Zengyang, let's go back a bit later tonight; Director Xie's *Stage Sisters* is playing, let's watch it together."

This era was actually not much worse than later generations; things like movies had long existed.

The most famous director right now was none other than Director Xie Jin.

Who was Xie Jin? In 1960, he won the Best Director Award at the 1st Hundred Flowers Award for the war film *Red Detachment of Women*.

This was the very first Best Director of the Hundred Flowers Award.

In 1965, the drama film *Stage Sisters*, which he directed, won the British Film Institute Annual Award at the 24th London International Film Festival.

Tonight, what Xu Damao was screening was *Stage Sisters*, which had just started showing in Modu this summer.

Zhou Xinyang had no interest in old movies, but if the leader wanted to watch, then he would watch. "Alright, Factory Director."

There was nothing to do during the day, nothing more than following Li Wujun to get to know many future factory directors and deputy directors of Beijing Steel.

Such as those from the Security Department, the factory office, and the Finance Department.

Don't think these were simple departments; if placed in Zhou Xinyang's hometown, they would all be at the level of a county magistrate.

And since there was no Reform and Opening-up yet, plus the "Steel Marshal" status, the department heads of the Steel Factory wouldn't trade their positions even for a county magistrate post.

An ordinary county at this time only had a population of tens of thousands, maybe over a hundred thousand.

And the Steel Factory? Over fifty thousand people, with everything included.

From kindergarten to elementary school, middle school, and high school.

They even had their own affiliated university.

When evening came, Zhou Xinyang accompanied Factory Director Li Wujun, Section Chief Qi, and the Security Department to the cinema.

And in the back row of the cinema, there were two sneaky people.

"Sister, this is He Yuzhu; he looks alright, just a bit old-looking.

But if he can get his household registration moved to the Steel Factory, being a bit old doesn't count for much."

Qin Jingru was a girl with a gorgeous appearance, but she was from the countryside; in this era where non-agricultural household registration was everything, a rural household registration was very unfortunate.

At this time, the production of non-staple food was insufficient, grain production couldn't keep up, and coupled with various natural disasters, many people in the countryside couldn't get enough to eat, and there were even cases of starvation.

So people ran to the city with all their might, and some young women even sacrificed themselves for a non-agricultural household registration.

Qin Jingru's appearance, in the countryside at that time, couldn't be called some incredible goddess, but she could definitely be called the village beauty.

But it was useless; no matter how beautiful you were, you were still a rural household registration, still relying on the countryside to eat.

And in the countryside at this time, just getting enough to eat was a very difficult thing.

Regarding Shazhu's salary of over thirty yuan, Qin Jingru was very satisfied; even if he was a bit old, it didn't matter.

Qin Huairu was also very satisfied with life in the city; even if she was a widow and was teased and flirted with by a bunch of grown men all day, she didn't want to return to the countryside.

Seeing that her cousin was satisfied with Shazhu's conditions, she felt relieved. "Alright, since you're satisfied, I'll take him to Third Uncle's house to propose marriage in a couple of days."

"Okay."

Qin Jingru replied somewhat shyly.

On the other side, Xu Damao, who had witnessed everything, was somewhat unhappy.

Such a beautiful girl, how could she be allowed to be married home by Shazhu?

Taking advantage of the fact that people hadn't left yet, Xu Damao came to her side and pretended to call out to Shazhu intentionally or unintentionally. "Shazhu, who is this beauty?"

"Who is Shazhu?"

Qin Jingru was dumbfounded.

As soon as Qin Huairu saw Xu Damao appear, she immediately felt that things were going to go wrong, so she hurriedly grabbed the two of them and walked out.

"Qin Huairu, this isn't very nice of you, isn't this pushing your cousin into a fire pit? Who doesn't know that this guy Shazhu is extremely stupid.

Such a beautiful big girl, and you introduce her to a fool; this heart of yours is truly wicked."

Seeing that his words were effective, Xu Damao immediately pressed his advantage.

Shazhu didn't have his tools with him at the moment, after all, the leaders were present, but he couldn't let Xu Damao off. "Hey, you brat, are you asking for a beating?"

"Shazhu, you better be careful, the Factory Director and the others are all here." Xu Damao was also afraid that Shazhu would do it for real, so he hurriedly ran to where there were more people to block Shazhu's line of sight.

How could Shazhu care about that? In this era, workers dared to slam tables with factory directors.

Never mind that the Steel Factory's director was there; even if higher-level leaders were present, it would be fine if he slammed the table, after all, the workers and peasants were the masters of the house.

However, fine was fine, but under normal circumstances, he didn't want to offend the leaders.

Thinking that the Factory Director was there, he stopped his steps and kept this beating on account for Xu Damao.

But the effect Xu Damao wanted had already been achieved; hearing Xu Damao's words, and then connecting them to Shazhu's angry embarrassment, Qin Jingru naturally and subconsciously assumed that Shazhu was a fool—otherwise, why would everyone call him Shazhu?

No matter how much she wanted to marry into the city, she could not marry a fool.

So, Qin Jingru immediately broke free from Qin Huairu's hand and walked out alone.

On the other side, Zhou Xinyang did not know what had happened in the back row of the cinema, and even if he had known, he would not have taken it to heart.

His rank had already been raised, and his focus was on the entire factory, not on a tiny cafeteria or the Compound.

When the movie ended, Zhou Xinyang accompanied Factory Director Li Wujun and other factory leaders to a private room in the cafeteria to eat.