Rebirth 1958: My Home is in Nanluoguxiang

Cai Shouyuan is the president of the student union of National Central University. Since they changed their flag in January, he, like every teacher and student in the school, has been full of doubts and uneasiness about the other side of the sea.

This doubt and uneasiness became more serious in the past few days, because the Dean of the Education Department found him and said that the school had already contacted Jingzhou University in Handong Province and would organize a group of students to visit, exchange and study there, and he would serve as the student representative.

So Cai Shouyuan suffered from insomnia these days. Until today when his plane landed at Jingzhou Airport and he stepped off the plane and stepped onto this strange land, he was still in a trance.

I heard that people here are so poor that they can’t even afford tea eggs and pickled mustard tubers!

But this airport seems to be well built, and the airport staff are in very good spirits!

Maybe this is just an image project for outsiders to see?

This question was not only raised by Cai Shouyuan, but also by other members of the exchange group, so they boarded the bus arranged for them by Jingzhou University with these questions.

Since the airport is in the suburbs, when the bus was driving on the road, there were endless farmlands on both sides of the road. It was March, the time for spring ploughing. Cai Shouyuan and his colleagues were surprised to find that the farmlands were not what they had imagined, with old farmers pushing plows and oxen struggling forward in front, but rather large tilling machines busy in the fields.

This scene continued for more than ten kilometers until the bus entered the city and they could no longer see the fields and large tillers.

“Has agriculture here been mechanized?”

Cai Shouyuan murmured to himself. He felt that this was unlikely. It must be something the government here deliberately arranged to deceive them!

But reason told Cai Shouyuan that the possibility of doing so was not high, because if the other party did so, it would definitely be reported by foreign media and ridiculed.

Cai Shouyuan shook his head, threw away those chaotic thoughts from his mind, and then stared at the city scenery outside the window.

As he looked, he began to be surprised again. He found that although there were not so many tall buildings in Jingzhou City, the roads were flat and well-greened, and there were many vehicles on the road. Although most people rode bicycles, he also noticed that there were quite a few people riding motorcycles.

The pedestrians were also dressed very fashionably, not at all like what they usually saw in the newspapers, with everyone wearing green military uniforms and homespun clothes.

If he had just suspected that the machinery in the farmland might be a show, then what he saw and heard after entering the city could not possibly be a show.

We were cheated!

Cai Shouyuan and his classmates looked at each other, and at the same time thought that they had been cheated.

They could no longer suppress this thought until the bus drove into Jingzhou University and they met the student representatives of Jingzhou University who came to greet them.

"Welcome to Jingzhou University for exchange and study. I am Hou Liangping from the Department of Political Science and Law of Jingzhou University. How about you, classmate?"

Cai Shouyuan quickly shook hands with Hou Liangping and said, "Hello, classmate. My name is Cai Shouyuan, from the Department of Finance at National Central University."

After the two men shook hands, Hou Liangping and his team led Cai Shouyuan and his team to the school hotel.

Cai Shouyuan pulled his suitcase and looked at the beautiful campus environment of Jingzhou University. He couldn't help but sighed: "Student Hou, I thought about your situation many times before I came here. It was not until today that I saw and heard some of it with my own eyes that I realized that this place is completely different from what we thought."

Hou Liangping smiled and said, "You don't think we are poor, do you?"

Cai Shouyuan showed an awkward but polite smile. Seeing this, Hou Liangping laughed and said, "It's okay. In fact, we have only had enough food in the past ten years or so and have eaten meat every meal. There is nothing to say. When I was a child, my family could only eat meat once a month. At that time, it was not only our family, but the whole country. You may not know that ten years ago, our food purchase was still restricted and we could only buy food with food coupons."

Cai Shouyuan was surprised when he heard this: "Then how come you guys are developing so fast?"

Hou Liangping thought for a moment and said, "This is a long story. It involves the superiority of the system and the development of science and technology. It cannot be finished in one day or one night. Mr. Cai, I will take you to rest first. As for your questions, we can discuss them after driving for a long time."

"Well, now I look forward to our future communication."

Cai Shouyuan dragged his tired body into the room. He put his suitcase against the wall, took a quick look at the furnishings in the room, and then fell heavily on the soft big bed and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, Hou Liangping came and knocked on Cai Shouyuan's door.

Cai Shouyuan, who had already washed up, quickly opened the door.

"Good morning, classmate Cai, did you sleep well?"

“Not bad, the bed here is quite comfortable, no worse than those five-star hotels.”

Hou Liangping smiled when he heard this and thought it was a joke. The guesthouse of Jingzhou University often received leaders, so how could the facilities here be bad?

The two walked out, and at the same time, other people were called out, and everyone went to the cafeteria of Jingzhou University to have breakfast together.

"Try Jingzhou's specialties, duck blood vermicelli and soup dumplings. I heard you have them too. I wonder if our food here suits your taste."

Cai Shouyuan picked up the soup spoon, took a sip of the soup, and then smiled with satisfaction.

"It's delicious. Jingzhou is our capital after all. Oh, sorry, it's not our capital anymore. Everyone's capital is Yanjing now."

"It's okay, that's all in the past, we should look forward."

Hou Liangping's words dispelled Cai Shouyuan's embarrassment. He smiled and lowered his head to drink the soup.

Breakfast ended in such a strange atmosphere until everyone was walking on the campus. Since they were all young people, they soon forgot about what happened in the cafeteria.

Cai Shouyuan began to ask Hou Liangping his questions one by one, and Hou Liangping patiently answered them.

In the following month, Cai Shouyuan and other college students would not only attend classes in the corresponding departments of Jingzhou University according to their majors every day, but would also wander around Jingzhou City in their spare time to experience the local customs and culture.

They visit scenic spots and historical sites, try various snacks and buy various folk handicrafts.

They go deep into the homes of ordinary people, experience local life, go to the vegetable market to buy vegetables, and go to the shopping mall to buy general merchandise.

They also go to the cinema to watch movies and to the theatre to see plays.

They also visited the countryside and saw with their own eyes the full picture of mechanized agriculture that has been popularized for many years.

They also visited many factories and witnessed China's booming and comprehensive modern industries.

Their three views collapsed and then rebuilt, and they gained a new understanding of China and a sense of identity.