Hard Sleeper Ticket

  Ford said it was back to Hong Kong and started shipping, but in fact things were not that simple. An American company wanted to donate a device to a mainland Chinese enterprise, which was still somewhat sensitive at the time. The Spieser Company came up with a bunch of reasonable excuses, under the guise of equipment testing, formally requesting Hanhua Machinery Factory to donate the machine. Hanhua Machinery Factory submitted this request to the Provincial Light Industry Department, and then went through the approval of several departments including Foreign Affairs, Public Security, and Foreign Trade, before the donation activity became legitimate.

  During this process, the Light Industry Bureau had also considered retaining the equipment and transferring it to Rui Ping Machinery Factory. Zhu Tiejun was furious when he heard the news, and single-handedly stormed into the Light Industry Bureau, scolding a department head who had made the proposal until his face was covered in blood. In the end, the equipment was successfully allocated to Hanhua Factory. This was also the first time Zhu Tiejun had lost his temper with a superior authority after leaving the military. It is said that afterwards, a certain official from the Light Industry Bureau met a leader from Zhu Tiejun's former unit and mentioned this incident, and the leader laughed and said, "Who told you to provoke him?"

  During this period of negotiation, Sperry Corporation did not idle. The company's technical personnel conducted rigorous testing on several patch programs written by Lin Zhenhua, confirming that the program was effective and could effectively improve machine performance compared to the original program. Sperry Corporation immediately organized production, producing a large batch of new control circuit boards, which were sent to MK800 users around the world to replace the old circuit boards with bugs. When doing so, Sperry Corporation used an excuse thought up by Lin Zhenhua, that is, the new program could improve efficiency and was an upgrade behavior. Since the replacement was completely free, all users did not raise any questions, and Sperry Corporation narrowly escaped a disaster.

  In early March of that year, when the weather was still cold and warm, a registered letter arrived at the factory department of Hanhua Machinery Factory, containing a delivery note from a certain warehouse in Guangzhou, with the cargo name "One MK800 CNC milling machine".

  "Xiao Kong, Kong Haijiang!" Zhu Tiejun loudly called out to the director of the factory office.

  "Here, here! Director Zhu, what are your instructions?" 30-year-old Kong Haijiang, who had a bit of a belly, ran from the office to Zhu Tiejun's room.

  "Let's go buy train tickets right away, we're going to Guangzhou!"

  "Who's going?"

  "I, Fan Shibin, Lin Zhenhua, Luo Qingsheng, Zhong Rulin... That's about it, just five people." Zhu Tiejun counted on his fingers.

  "Is Master Zhong going too?" Kong Haijiang was somewhat surprised.

  "He is the head of the moving class, and when it comes to moving things, he has to be in charge."

  "Oh, no wonder Xiao Lin went too." Kong Haijiang said, in his impression, Lin Zhenhua was also a porter.

  "Kobayashi won't be a porter anymore." Zhu Tiejun laughed, "He'll be the deputy director of the technical department from now on. By the way, Xiao Kong, arrange for him to have an office desk and everything ready when we get back from Guangzhou."

  Kong Haijiang asked Zhu Changlong, "You're going to Guangzhou, what if you need to deal with some reception and seeing-off matters over there... do you need to bring someone along to handle it?"

  Zhu Tiejun was stunned for a moment, then laughed and scolded: "Damn you, do you also want to go to Guangzhou? Just say it outright, what's the point of making so much fuss?"

  "Haha, Guangzhou is a big city, I've always wanted to have the chance to take a look."

  "Alright, you go too." Zhu Tiejun said with a smile, "It's a great joy, let you also bask in the glory. However, Xiao Kong, remember this time you are basking in Xiao Lin's glory, next time when it involves his affairs, take more care of him."

  "No problem, I'm on good terms with Xiaolin anyway." Kong Haijiang hastily replied.

  After leaving Zhu Tiejun's office, Kong Haijiang first went to the finance department to borrow money, then hurriedly rushed to the minibus station to call a jeep to go to the train station to buy tickets. Just out of the factory building, he ran into Lin Zhenhua who had come after hearing the news.

  "Director Kong, busy?" Lin Zhenhua greeted Kong Haijiang politely. The director of the office was a very powerful person, and Lin Zhenhua had always been respectful but distant towards him.

  "Ah, Xiao Lin, no, I should be calling you Deputy Director Lin now," said Kong Haijiang with a smile. Although Lin Zhenhua was still just an acting deputy director of the technical department and his position couldn't compare to Kong's, Kong believed in one principle: respect your elders but don't bully the young. Lin Zhenhua had become the deputy director of the technical department at just 19 years old - who knew what the future held? Kong didn't want to give Lin a bad impression.

  Lin Zhenhua waved his hand repeatedly: "Director Kong, don't tease me, what department head or not, let alone now still eight characters without a stroke, even if my family's ancestral tomb is smoking, I really became one, in front of you Director Kong, am I still the original little Lin? In those years before I joined the army, I caused a lot of trouble in the factory, all relying on Director Kong to help me clean up."

  Kong Haijiang said: "These are all past things. So, I'll still call you Xiao Lin, but you can just call me Xiao Kong. Calling me Director Kong every day makes people feel awkward."

  Lin Zhenhua said: "Forget it, but I don't dare call you Little Kong. I'll just take the liberty of calling you Old Kong."

  "Alright, let's call him Old Kong. It sounds comfortable." Kong Haijiang made a look of intoxication, as if he had been waiting for someone to address him like that in his past life.

  "Old Kong, where are you rushing off to in such a hurry?"

  "Buy train tickets." Kong Haijiang said, "The machine tool you opened for the factory has arrived. Director Zhu said that he will go to Guangzhou to pick up the goods immediately. He wants to go, and you should also go, as well as Old Fan, Luo Director, Zhong Master, and I can also take advantage of your trip. Director Zhu said that I can follow along with you, mainly to provide service for you."

  "What's the hurry?" Lin Zhenhua was stunned for a moment, then pulled Kong Haijiang to one side and asked in a low voice: "Old Kong, I have a personal matter, can you help me with it?"

  "No problem at all, as long as I can help." Kong Haijiang said with a pat on his chest.

  "I have a friend who is very close to me. He has always wanted to go to Guangzhou for something, and I said it's okay if there's an opportunity, I'll accompany him. Now that I'm going to Guangzhou on a business trip, I want to bring him along, do you think we can buy one more ticket together?"

  "Little Lin, buying an extra ticket is no problem, but this one might be hard to get reimbursed for."

  Lin Zhenhua hastily said, "Old Kong, you misunderstood. I just asked for your help in buying the ticket. His travel expenses are his own. Can you first lend me the money? I'll return it to you once I get the money."

  "That's no problem, what's the difficulty in buying one more ticket?" Kong Haijiang put his heart at ease. Train tickets were also very tight during that era. As the director of the office of Hanhua Factory, Kong Haijiang naturally had a channel to buy tickets, and it didn't matter if he bought one more. As long as he didn't have to spend money on behalf of Lin Zhenhua, using his own connections to buy one more ticket was nothing.

  "Alright, Old Kong, if it's convenient for him, he can buy a ticket that's a bit further away from us, so he won't be sitting with our factory people. Let's put a few boxes in between." Lin Zhenhua said.

  "Are you referring to the distance between rows of seats?" Kong Haijiang corrected.

  "Seat?" Lin Zhenhua was puzzled, "Isn't it a sleeper berth?"

  "Of course not." Kong Haijiang said, "We people, only Director Zhu has the qualifications to sleep in a sleeper berth, we can only sit in hard seats."

  Lin Zhenhua said with a bitter face: "Won't it? Old Kong, to Guangzhou can get one day and one night, let's all sit? Or, we don't ask the factory to reimburse, we pay for the difference between hard sleeper and hard seat ourselves, is that okay?"

  Kong Haijiang smiled and said, "Little Lin, you don't know that this is not a matter of money at all. The sleeper tickets are so tight, even with money, they can't be bought. Our factory is a regular county-level unit, qualified to issue certificates, but only Zhu Changlong can buy sleeper tickets because he is a county-level cadre. We soldiers will just honestly sit in the hard seats."

  "Alright then," said Lin Zhenhua, "Actually, hard seats aren't bad either. We can just play some cards at night and the time will pass."

  "Okay, Xiao Lin, you go up first. Director Zhu is still waiting for you in the office. I'll go buy tickets now. Your friend's ticket, I'll bring it to your home tonight."

  "Thank you, thank you." Lin Zhenhua said repeatedly.

  That night, Kong Haijiang sent two train tickets to Lin Zhenhua's home. After sending Kong Haijiang away, Lin Zhenhua rode his bicycle out of the factory and went straight to Lan Wufeng's home in Lujiawan.

  "Xiao Hua is here." Lan's mother greeted Lin Zhenhua warmly as always.

  "Lin Ge, is there something?" Lan Wufeng also came out and asked.

  "Auntie, I'd like to discuss something with you." Lin Zhenhua simply nodded at Lan Wufeng before turning to Aunt Lan.

  Old Lan was somewhat surprised: "What's this, you want to discuss something with me?"

  "It's like this, I have something to attend to and I'd like to ask Fengzi to help me with it. It might take a few days and I'll be away from home. Do you think you'll be okay staying alone at home?"

  "No problem, I have hands and feet, what can't be done." Lan said, but after finishing speaking, she still asked anxiously: "Xiao Hua, where are you letting Fengzi go?"

  Guangzhou.

  "Guangzhou!" Lan's mother exclaimed in surprise, "Such a faraway place? Oh dear, I'm really worried."

  Lan Wufeng said discontentedly on the side, "Mom, what are you worried about? Guangzhou is far away, can it be compared to Xishuangbanna? I went there alone at 14 years old, what's the use of worrying?"

  "You think I'm not worried when you go to Xishuangbanna?" Lan Dama glared at Lan Wufeng.

  Lin Zhenhua said: "Auntie, you don't have to worry about this. I'm not letting Fengzi go alone, I'll be going too."

  "Oh, you're going too? Then I can rest assured." Lan's mother let out a sigh of relief. Although Lin Zhenhua was only one year older than Lan Wufeng, his mental age was much greater, and Lan's mother had full confidence in Lin Zhenhua's ability to handle things, so when she heard that he was taking Lan Wufeng out, she didn't worry at all.

  After persuading Lan's mother to go into the house, Lin Zhenhua took out a train ticket and a roll of money and handed it to Lan Wufeng, saying: "This is the train ticket, and there are 30 yuan. You can leave 10 yuan on you for miscellaneous expenses, and the rest will be left at home. After arriving in Guangzhou, I will arrange for you."

  "Lin Ge, did you manage to accomplish that thing you mentioned last time?" Lan Wufeng asked excitedly, looking at Lin Zhenhua.

  Lin Zhenhua nodded: "It's done, although it took two months, but it's finally done. Fengzi, it's up to you from now on."

  "Don't worry, Brother Lin, wherever you point, I'll hit." Lan Wufeng said with loyalty.