Siheyuan: Big City, Small Love

This trip to the Canton Fair was led by Li Huaide, with Zhang Zhiwen in charge of the lighter exhibition hall; Xu Damao in charge of the grinding machine exhibition hall; He Lai in control of the overall situation, focusing on plastic lighters; and miscellaneous matters were left to Li Huaide's confidant Feng Gong.

When He arrived in Guangcheng, the first thing he did was to go to the street office where Ye Jun lived and ask whether Ye Jun's mother had returned.

After all, before leaving, Ye Jun specifically asked him to help ask, but unfortunately He Lai did not get any news about his mother from the street office.

He Lai suspected that his mother had run away to Hong Kong City. After all, people of that generation could not make a living in the mainland, so they would run to Hong Kong City. They all thought that Hong Kong City was a paradise and they could live a good life there.

Unfortunately, they are all fantasies!

A Hong Kong movie called "Snake Hunting" describes the experiences of mainland illegal immigrants as extremely tragic.

The stowaways in the movie are called human snakes. They smuggled in to Diamond Hill in Hong Kong, but ended up falling into the hands of snake-hunting gangs. After being tortured, they were sold, redeemed by their relatives for a huge amount of money, or directly killed.

Finally, a stowaway escaped and finally arrived at Diamond Hill, but he found that there were no diamonds in this place. It was just a slum, and the living conditions were worse than those in the mainland! Finally, he collapsed to the ground in despair.

……

In the exhibition hall, Zhang Zhiwen was instructing the workers to work. After He Lai came back, he sat aside and watched.

"Come on, how is it? Not bad, right?" Zhang Zhiwen came to He Lai and asked.

"Well, that's good. Now as long as we perform normally, we can basically get the order."

He Lai said with a smile.

"Okay, since you've been busy recently, I'll let you go. Just continue watching. Remember to tell me if there's anything missing."

Zhang Zhiwen also knew that He Lai actually didn't want to be in charge of the Canton Fair.

"Okay." He Lai naturally had no objection.

After a while, Feng Gong came over in a hurry.

"Chief He, Director Li asked me to inform you that you have to attend the opening ceremony and celebration meeting tonight. I will pick you up then, so don't run around."

Feng Gong said.

"Okay, I understand, thank you." He Lai agreed directly.

Just participate, it’s just a sideshow anyway.

"Come on, you have to behave yourself at this conference. Our senior leaders may also be attending."

Zhang Zhiwen came over and reminded.

"What? Is this true?" He Lai exclaimed. The country's senior leaders couldn't be great men.

"Of course it's true, you..." Zhang Zhiwen began to mutter.

But at this time He Lai's thoughts had drifted away.

I never thought that I would be able to meet such a great person in my lifetime. Hehe, I wonder if I can shake his hand!

"Hey, what are you in a daze for? Did you hear what I said?"

Zhang Zhiwen shook He Lai's shoulder and said.

"Uh... I heard it, I heard it." He Lai came back to his senses and nodded immediately.

Zhang Zhiwen said with a smile: "Hey, kid, relax a little, don't make a fool of yourself!"

Zhang Zhiwen was speechless when he saw He Lai's stunned expression. It was just a meeting with a leader at the chief level. What's the big deal? If you were asked to meet a great man, He Lai would probably turn into stone.

In this way, He Lai kept sitting there thinking about what to do when he saw the leader. Would the leader shake hands with him? Time passed by unknowingly.

Soon Feng Gong came over and took He Lai away.

The two came to the White Swan Hotel, and it seemed that the celebration would be held here.

As soon as He Lai entered, he found that the venue was very large. All factory leaders and foreign businessmen participating in the Canton Fair were invited to attend the event.

He Lai looked around, trying to see if there were any leaders he had seen on TV in his previous life. He Lai remembered those familiar yet unfamiliar faces clearly.

Unfortunately, he did not see the leader he had been thinking about, but instead saw the figures of Zhuang Shijiu and Lu Zixuan.

He Lai was brought to Li Huaide's table by Feng Gong, and Feng Gong left. This level of conference was not something he could attend.

"He Lai, come and sit down, come and sit down, let me introduce you, this is someone from Jin City..."

As soon as Li Huaide saw He coming, he couldn't wait to introduce him to the people sitting next to them, all of whom were factory leaders from various places who came to attend the Canton Fair.

He Lai could only deal with them one by one, but he was obviously not in a good mood.

Listening to Li Huaide and the people around him talking, He Lai also gritted his teeth and occasionally agreed with them.

After a while, someone shouted, "The leader is here!"

Everyone immediately stood up and looked towards the door, including He Lai.

I saw a middle-aged man with a smile on his face, waving and signaling to everyone, and walking in slowly.

He Lai looked at the old man's face and realized it was him. Unconsciously, his eyes turned red.

There’s nothing we can do, this is our most beloved leader!

The leader walked quickly, pressing down with both hands as he walked, asking everyone to be quiet, and repeatedly saying "Sorry to have kept you waiting." Then, he walked straight to the foreign guests, shook hands cordially with each of them, and started chatting.

He Lai could only stand there and stare at the leader without blinking, afraid of missing any shot.

I don’t know how long it took, but the leader finally finished greeting the foreign guests and started to come towards He Lai.

However, the leader did not say much to these factory leaders, just simply shook hands and said hello.

Soon the leader came to He Lai's table, and He Lai was so scared that he didn't dare to move.

"Commander, this is Comrade He Lai from our Sijiucheng Red Star Steel Rolling Mill, who was invited to attend this Canton Fair."

Jiang Ling specially introduced He Lai to the leader.

"Oh? It's Comrade He Lai. I remember you. Hello." The leader greeted with a smile and extended his right hand.

"Hello, Chief!" He Lai saluted and held his right hand with both hands.

The chief's right hand did not have any strong force, but rather a warm and soft feeling that passed through He Lai's arm and went straight to his heart.

It was the first time for He Lai to look at this nearly sixty-year-old leader at such a close distance: his face was as sharp as a knife, revealing determination, his jaw was slightly retracted, his cheeks were thin, his face was obviously tired, there were a few age spots on his face, the areas around his eyes were slightly red, and his eyes under his thick eyebrows shot out a gaze as strong as a pillar.

"Comrade Xiao He, you are great. I have wanted to meet you for a long time. I always hear people say that you invented this and that and created a lot of wealth for our country.

I want to thank you on behalf of the country!"

The leader did not pull back his right hand, but instead patted He Lai's hands with his left hand.

"Commander, you are too kind. This is what I should do."

He Lai said excitedly.

"Well, I'll talk to you in detail when I have time." The leader said with a smile.

"Okay, okay." He Lai also knew that he couldn't waste too much of the leader's time, so he let go of his hands.

He watched the leader nod at him and continue shaking hands with others.

He Lai watched the leader slowly walk away, feeling mixed emotions.

There was no way. He Lai could tell from the leader's face that he was too busy and overworked. If he didn't have an expert by his side to take care of his body, he would have collapsed from exhaustion long ago.