Chapter 586: Who is the one wearing shoes?

"Watch your language, Xia Zhemin! Do not make such incorrect remarks in public."

Amidst the surprised gazes of everyone around, Jiao Yaqiang slowly stood up to confront Xia Zhemin face-to-face.

He was not tall, being more than half a head shorter than the burly Xia Zhemin, yet his resolute aura faintly suppressed Xia Zhemin, who was currently in a state of fury.

"Incorrect remarks? Heh, how ridiculous!"

The furious Xia Zhemin sneered and questioned Jiao Yaqiang mockingly: "Which part of what I said was incorrect?

Do you think that as a top student in microelectronics from a top university, you can do anything after returning to the mainland? Research televisions? Radios? Washing machines? You don't actually think they'll let you research artificial satellites, do you?"

"No, you're wrong. You've thought about it all wrong, Jiao Yaqiang. Even for radios, it won't be your turn to research them."

Xia Zhemin's tone became sharp: "After you return to the country, you will be assigned to some research institute, begging those who know nothing about technology for a chance to serve them hand and foot.

This is no longer the fifties. After returning to the country now, you can only be someone's deputy, wasting your youth in endless bickering."

"..."

Li Ye's hand was held by Wen Leyu's, held very tightly.

But Li Ye did not stand up immediately, because the people around were currently having their emotions stirred up by Xia Zhemin's words. Li Ye had no suitable reason to refute the objective environment, which, although deliberately exaggerated, did exist.

Just like the Great God Ni; after he returned to the country from overseas, he successfully built up Lenovo, only to have the leading power of technological research snatched away by Liu Lianxiang under the pretext of "we must survive first."

So, how was Li Ye to make Jiao Yaqiang and the others believe that mainland enterprises would give them enough power to develop along their own lines of thought?

However, Jiao Yaqiang was not completely suppressed by Xia Zhemin. He held his head high and said in a low voice: "Zhemin, what you mentioned are just isolated phenomena, not the whole picture. And have you forgotten the oath we once took?

We came to the Lighthouse not to stay here and earn dollars."

"..."

Everyone around fell silent.

Because before they left the mainland to come to the Lighthouse, they had basically all made similar oaths.

In some people's hearts, this oath might be a thorn, but in others', it might just be a piece of toilet paper.

"Heh... heh..."

Xia Zhemin looked at Jiao Yaqiang amusedly, as if he had heard the best joke under heaven.

"The oath from back then? Which one are you talking about?"

Xia Zhemin said amusedly: "Starting from '77, I failed the college entrance exam for two consecutive years. All the villagers forced me to give up on the exam and forced me to work in the fields because the village was short one laborer, disrupting production.

At that time, I knelt on the ground and swore an oath to them that I wouldn't delay the farm work, and that after I got into college, I would give each of them two yuan..."

"I worked day and night, studied day and night. I did more work than all my peers, but they still laughed at me, saying I was delusional..."

"Later, I got into Tsinghua and then came to the Lighthouse to study abroad. The villagers sent me a letter. Guess what they wrote in it?"

"They asked me if the promise of two yuan per person was set too low, since no one in the village had a television yet."

Xia Zhemin laughed as if he were having a fit, saying: "After I got to Tsinghua, I was first in my exams every year, but when it came to selecting candidates for study abroad, I was always passed over. I swore a blood oath again. And only then did I come to the Lighthouse..."

"No, you were second. Jiang Minzhi was first."

"..."

Jiao Yaqiang repeated: "You never surpassed Jiang Minzhi. You were second, she was first."

Xia Zhemin pursed his lips and looked at Jiao Yaqiang for a while, then waved his hand and smiled, as if unwilling to lower himself to Jiao Yaqiang's level.

"Then let me ask you, Old Jiao, now that I've returned to the mainland, how am I supposed to fulfill my promise?"

Xia Zhemin mocked: "People's greed will skyrocket. I promised them two yuan each back then; now everyone is asking me for a television. I swore to struggle for a lifetime..."

"But how am I supposed to struggle? Do I have to take a salary of a few hundred yuan and work day and night just to let those people get what they want?"

"On what grounds?"

"On what grounds are we both technical talents, yet have different fates? I'm at Boeing now, I only need to work five days a week, I have a month of annual leave every year, yet I can get a salary a hundred times higher. Why is that?"

"That's because only the civilized world of the Lighthouse respects our personality and can realize our life value..."

Xia Zhemin said angrily again: "So tell me, Old Jiao, on what grounds should I return to that backward, ignorant, and unreasonable world? Why should I..."

"Clap!"

A large bowl smashed at Xia Zhemin's feet. The soup and water inside stained his pant legs and shoes, also choking his indignant voice back into his stomach.

Li Ye stood up, pulled Jiao Yaqiang back, and stood opposite Xia Zhemin himself.

"If you want to fart, go find a toilet first. Don't stink up the place here."

"..."

"Oh, why is he talking like that..."

"Yeah! That's not very civilized..."

After Li Ye's voice fell, the people around were quiet for a few seconds, and then they became noisy. Many people felt that Li Ye's language was too crude.

Xia Zhemin was in the heat of anger and immediately shouted indignantly: "What are you saying? Which part of what I said was wrong? Isn't the Lighthouse a five-day work week? Doesn't the Lighthouse pay us tens of thousands of dollars a year?"

What Xia Zhemin said was a fact. In 1926, the legendary American car manufacturer Henry Ford stipulated that employees should have Saturdays and Sundays off and implemented a 40-hour work week.

Later, driven by religious groups and labor unions, starting from the 1930s, the eight-hour-a-day, five-day-a-week work system took shape and was implemented in Western countries like the US and UK.

The popularization of the five-day work system in China was decades later than in Western countries. The mainland at this time indeed did not have a two-day weekend.

But Li Ye said coldly: "The Lighthouse indeed has a five-day work week, but this benefit wasn't born with them. It was won by the ancestors of the Lighthouse people through sixteen-hour workdays for their descendants..."

"..."

Xia Zhemin was stunned for a moment, unable to respond for a while. He was now enjoying the benefits of "the ancestors planting trees and the descendants enjoying the shade." He couldn't exactly say he was also a grandchild of the Lighthouse ancestors, could he?

But Li Ye smiled and said: "Don't you believe it? Then you can ask the Lighthouse friends around you. Seventy years ago, what was the work-hour system in Lighthouse factories? Were there child laborers?"

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

Xia Zhemin subconsciously began to deny it. After all, "child labor" was absolute black material and absolutely incompatible with a civilized world.

However, some of the Lighthouse people around, after hearing the translation from those around them, did not refute Li Ye at all.

Li Ye said calmly: "Everyone here is an educated person. You can check for yourselves. A hundred years ago, the most developed country on this planet was not the Lighthouse, but the British Empire."

"And two hundred years ago, the British Empire was not the world's number one either. The number one was the damn Great Qing Empire."

"..."

"Oh~"

The people around became noisy again, but this time, no one thought Li Ye was crude.

Li Ye let out a breath and said in a deep voice: "One hundred and fifty years ago, in those factories belching black smoke on the outskirts of London, there was a fourteen-hour work system."

"And the Great Qing at that time was spring plowing and autumn harvesting, two seasons a year, resting at sunset."

"The British Empire used the fourteen-hour work system to surpass the comfortable Great Qing and become the world's number one."

"And a hundred years ago, the Lighthouse used a sixteen-hour work system plus child labor to surpass the British Empire and become the world's number one in GDP."

"Now you only see the wealth of the Lighthouse, you only see its civilization, but when their ancestors were gritting their teeth and fighting for their lives, did you see that?"

"Look at Japan and South Korea, which have risen in recent years. Which one didn't put in more effort than others to create better survival opportunities for their descendants?"

"All the civilization you see today is built on the suffering of ancestors. If you are unwilling to bear this suffering, then you will never keep up with the footsteps of the pioneers."

In fact, the phenomenon of "involution" had long existed. The British Empire involuted the Great Qing to death, America involuted the British Empire to death, and the next involution king... is about to come of age.

Li Ye raised his voice and said sternly to Xia Zhemin: "You want to break your oath and stay in the Lighthouse to work; that is the path you chose yourself. You want to covet wealth and earn dollars; I can't do anything about you."

"But a child does not despise an ugly mother, and a dog does not despise a poor home; don't stop those people with a conscience who, like you, have forgotten their vows."

Li Ye suddenly stretched out his palm and lightly slapped Xia Zhemin's face, making a "slap, slap, slap" sound.

"The motherland spent precious foreign exchange to give you the opportunity for advanced studies, yet you curse her, abandon her, and despise her like a mad dog. That won't do!"

"..."

Xia Zhemin was stunned by Li Ye's "big slap."

Although Li Ye used very little force and left no marks on his face, under the gaze of over a hundred people, this was an unbearable humiliation.

But when he angrily wanted to risk his life with Li Ye, he was scared back by Li Ye's knife-like gaze.

When a scholar meets a soldier, reason is hard to explain. Xia Zhemin felt that the current Li Ye was a bandit soldier, barefooted, holding a big machete, ready to give him a slash at any moment.

Thus, Xia Zhemin stiffly brought out his backer: "I warn you, this is not the mainland; this is the Lighthouse. I will sue you."

Li Ye smiled, casually took a business card out of his pocket, with Elena's name and phone number printed on it.

"Call my lawyer! I would be very happy to help you deeply understand the class rules of this civilized world, and let you understand which class you actually belong to."

"..."

Xia Zhemin was dumbfounded.

Wasn't he a "barefoot bandit soldier?"

Who exactly is the one wearing shoes? ===== CHAPTER 587 =====