On the night before New Year's Day in 1980, every household's dinner table was much richer than usual.
As the new year approaches, who doesn't want to spend a lot of money?
In an alley of Pujiang City, Qiu Yuefeng, carrying large and small bags, walked much more vigorously than usual.
Following closely beside him was a young girl in her twenties.
On the last day of 1979, Qiu Yuefeng's youngest daughter Qiu Haohao finally returned to the city after working abroad for 8 years.
"Are you hungry, Haohao?" Qiu Yuefeng looked at his little daughter lovingly: "We will prepare dinner as soon as we get home. Your mother has been busy since yesterday. There is a whole table full of delicious dishes, all of which you like to eat."
"Um,"
Qiu Haohao responded with a smile, and then began to look around again.
Just the sight of this familiar yet unfamiliar alley in front of me is enough to keep me entertained for a while.
The moment the door closed behind the father and daughter, Qiu Yuefeng's small 17-square-meter home immediately heard a different kind of excitement.
Hugging each other, wiping tears from each other...
It wasn't until his frozen toes began to feel some sensation that Qiu Haohao finally felt at ease.
"Little sister, look quickly."
After the family sat down, Qiu Yuefeng's third son reached out and turned on the TV: "We also have a TV at home."
"This TV is so big," Qiu Haohao stared at the TV without blinking, "It's so beautiful!"
In just a moment, Qiu Yuefeng and his wife had already filled their daughter's bowl with vegetables.
"From now on, you can watch TV every day,"
Just as he finished speaking, Qiu Yuefeng suddenly heard a familiar voice from the TV: "Huh?"
The 17-inch TV on the chest of drawers is playing a brand new documentary: "Pujiang Ah Pujiang".
Following the perspective of a tour bus, various famous places in Pujiang City appeared on the TV one by one.
It's a coincidence that Qiu Haohao can now follow the documentary to understand the current Pujiang City.
[This is a beautiful spring tourist season, and I set foot on the land of Pujiang with my camera...]
…
In the small courtyard at No. 51 on Anhe Street, a family named Jiang was also sitting in front of the TV.
The program playing on the TV at this moment was also the documentary "Pujiang, Pujiang".
[Xijiao Park was built in 1954. It is said that there are more than 280 kinds of wild animals on display here...]
As the commentary continued, the camera of the tour group came to a zoo again.
"This voice sounds so familiar," Jiang Dad always thought he had heard it somewhere before: "Du Qiu, is it Du Qiu?"
Lu Xiao, who was sitting on the sofa winding a ball, nodded slightly: "The narrator of this documentary is Bike from our unit."
"Second sister-in-law," Jiang Chuan, who was helping Lu Xiao with knitting, asked curiously: "Besides Du Qiu in "The Hunt", who else has he voiced for?"
"Let me think about it." The yarn ball in Lu Xiao's hand became more and more round: "Inspector Poirot, Avanti from "Tragedy on the Nile""
"Afanti was also dubbed by him?"
"He and Qiu Yuefeng, one is matched with Afanti, and the other is matched with Master Bai."
[There are so many places to see in Pujiang River. Due to time constraints, we had to leave the people in the park...]
When the camera in the documentary turned, tall buildings arranged in an orderly manner appeared on the TV.
"Third Uncle," Jiang Xiaoyu, who had been watching TV quietly, suddenly pointed at the TV and stood up: "Third Uncle's house."
"Yeah," Jiang's mother also noticed it at this moment. She quickly turned to the family and shouted: "Look, this is where the boss took us this afternoon."
"Yes, yes," Father Jiang was so excited that he almost threw away his cigarette: "That's the third son's building."
This was so unexpected. The nine tall buildings I had just walked around in the afternoon did not expect to appear on the TV at night.
Moreover, it was photographed even taller.
"Is this the building Lao San is assigned to?"
Jiang He and Lu Xiao, who had always been calm and collected, quickly looked at the TV carefully: "It looks pretty high-end!"
"Of course it's high-end. Have you ever seen anyone with an elevator?"
"Is this place Pujiang?"
Jiangchuan and Ruhua stared at the TV with wide eyes. The more they watched, the more unfamiliar they felt: "Why does it look so foreign?"
After hearing what her little daughter said, Jiang's mother smiled even more happily.
At this moment, Father Jiang and Mother Jiang had already forgotten the farmland and old cows on the roadside.
Just like the documentary being played on the TV.
Even though the 10,000-person stadium was surrounded by fields of farmland, not even a radish seedling could enter the frame of the camera.
With the extension of nine high-rise buildings in Xuhui New Village, Pujiang Stadium has also appeared on TV sets.
"Look, you can clearly see this stadium with 10,000 people from the upstairs of Lao San's house."
[Look, you can’t help but see this newly built Pujiang Gymnasium...]
Piccolo's commentary voice started up again just in time.
Accompanied by the tinkling piano soundtrack, all the housekeeping buildings that Pujiang can produce appeared on TV one after another.
Now look at the smiling faces of Father Jiang and Mother Jiang. They are as brilliant as they want!
…
"At the beginning of this year, some officials couldn't even tell the difference between a passport and a visa,"
In the smoky Light Industry Bureau office, Director Xu’s voice was going back and forth in the fog:
“In Guangzhou, those who negotiated business with Xiangjiang businessmen were angrily accused of being completely ignorant.
What makes the other party even more frustrated is the variety of official titles in our country.
In the end, foreign businessmen who are really confused can only judge the rank of officials based on the order of entry..."
Seeing Director Xu's tone becoming more and more dull, Jiang Shan looked at Huang Hua sitting next to him with a puzzled look.
Coincidentally, Comrade Huang Hua was also looking at him with a confused expression.
After a brief exchange of ignorant glances, the two decided to continue listening carefully.
"According to a rough statistics from a newspaper in Xiangjiang, there are not many well-educated cadres under the age of 45 in the mainland."
After saying this, Director Xu's expression felt more upright than usual.
"Which newspaper in Xiangjiang said this?" Jiang Shan felt that someone must speak up now.
Otherwise, it would mean that everyone sitting here has acquiesced in the meaning of this sentence.
"If I remember correctly," Director Xu actually remembered it clearly, "it should be the Xiangjiang Industrial and Commercial News."
"That's it," Jiang Shan guessed it was it: "You don't have to care about what this newspaper says."
"Why don't you care?"
"The current newspapers and periodicals in Xiangjiang have different factions,"
At this time, Jiang Shan could still be considered an employee of the news unit.
It is reasonable to talk about these topics.
"Then which faction does Xiangjiang Industrial and Commercial News belong to?"
“Standard pro-Taiwan faction!”
"I understand what you mean," Director Xu looked at Jiang Shan and said, "In other words, the contents of this newspaper cannot be believed in full."
"Just listen to it!"
"Xiangjiang Industrial and Commercial News" was also known as the American-Chianglian newspaper at this time.
After the return date was determined in 1984, the newspaper announced its closure.
Director Xu nodded silently.
Although Jiang Shan's words gave him some comfort, it was only a little.
"When I said this, I actually didn't mean anything else."
Director Xu relit a cigarette: "I just feel that in addition to the lack of foreign exchange, our country currently lacks talents."
Everyone sitting there nodded vigorously in agreement.
"Do you know why I brought you here again tonight?" Director Xu looked at Jiang Shan and asked.
"I don't know," Jiang Shan really couldn't guess.
In the evening, as soon as I stepped into the courtyard of No. 51, I was pulled to the Light Industry Bureau by Huang Hua's car.
Just like last time, Huang Hua himself didn't know what was going on.
Director Xu, who only knows this for a moment, is searching for power all over the world.
In this era where there are neither call machines nor mobile phones, finding someone is really not an easy task.
"You two haven't eaten yet," Director Xu pointed out the door: "Let's go to the cafeteria to eat and chat."
…
Faced with the high standard of hospitality arranged by Director Xu, Jiang Shan and Huang Hua decided to live up to their expectations and live up to their expectations.
Seeing the two people working hard in front of him, Xu Ju didn't dare to rest his chopsticks.
After swallowing a few mouthfuls of food, Director Xu took something out of his coat pocket and placed it on the table: "You must have seen this before."
Two hexagonal green pencils lie quietly on the table.
Jiang Shan looked up and said, "Of course I've seen it before."
Huang Hua: "Pencil."
In this era when gays are still gay and 2B is still a pencil, this thing already has a green paint body and a familiar look with platinum fonts.
"Do you two know where it came from?"
Jiang Shan and Huang Hua both shook their heads.
"Don't underestimate this little pencil. Our country didn't have its own pencil manufacturer before.
Since the "abolition of the imperial examinations and the establishment of schools", foreign pencils have begun to pour into our country.
According to data, foreign pencil dealers take away millions of dollars of silver coins from our country every year through this alone.
In 1932, an overseas student named Wu Ding entered Japan's Mitsubishi Pencil Co., Ltd.
Observing his behavior of studying everywhere and paying attention to everything, a Japanese executive also guessed Wu Ding's real purpose of entering the factory.
But even so, the executive did not show any panic: Even if you stay in our factory for two lifetimes, you will never make a pencil."
Director Xu said this, picked up the soup bowl and took a sip.
Facing the plates on the table that were quickly bottoming out, he continued:
"The other party's words not only did not make Wu Ding retreat, but also made him work harder.
In just one year, after returning to China, Wu Ding sold part of his family property and founded my country's first pencil factory in Pujiang."
"Has he learned it?"
"certainly!"
Seeing that the two of them finally put down their chopsticks, Director Xu decided to go back to the office first.
"After the factory was built, Wu Ding brought clay from Suzhou and graphite from Hunan,"
The smoke in the office is rising again:
"Yunnan purchased lac and northeastern basswood. After many experiments, we finally produced a completely domestically produced "Ding" brand pencil.
From then on, our country finally has its own pencil manufacturer."
Jiangshan at this moment was as fascinated as Huang Hua.
Before this, he really didn't know that a small pencil could contain so many things.
“After that, there was a wave of promoting the use of domestic products and boycotting Japanese products in the country.
Wu Ding printed the eight characters "Chinese people use Chinese pencils" on the pencil.
At the same time, we launched multiple models of pencils: "No. 500 Airline Saving the Nation" pencil, "No. 200 Good Student" and "No. 300 Kids"."
Speaking of this, Director Xu smiled slightly: "Not to mention, companies in that era still paid great attention to publicity."
Director Xu Jiangshan also agreed.
The propaganda consciousness of domestic private enterprises in the 1930s and 1940s is really engraved in their bones.
"But the good times did not last long. During the Songhu Battle in 1937, Wu Ding's China Lead Company was also bombarded by artillery fire."
But even in the most difficult moments, Wu Ding never thought about closing the factory.
The factory was first moved to Chongqing, and after it was bombed again, it was moved to Lanzhou, where production continued.
During the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War, China Lead produced more than 50 million pencils.
"However, since the emergence of the old American rubber-tipped yellow pencil, although Wu Ding tried every means, it was still difficult to compete with it."
Speaking of this, Director Xu sighed: "Since then, China Lead's production has been in a semi-stop state..."
After hearing this, Jiang Shan couldn't help but frown.
If I remember correctly, China Lead also produced the Zhonghua brand No. 101 drawing pencil two years ago.
The reason why I still remember this incident is because the appearance of this "101" has filled the gap in drawing pencils in our country.
Just when he was about to ask a question, Director Xu's voice came over again.
