Since 1983

"Squeak!"

Ma Weidu pushed open the small door of a side room in a quadrangle courtyard, and fanned the dust in the air, "That's it, two rooms, the decoration is not bad, just take a look."

Xu Fei took a look and found that the layout was similar to that of Ancheng City. The back room had a bed instead of a kang, and there was a small stove for burning briquettes, as well as a wardrobe, tables and chairs.

"Okay, what's the price?"

"What my friend meant is that I want you to take a look at the house, don't damage it, and clean it when there is nothing else to do. You live first, and you don't want those three melons and two dates."

I will definitely accept this good thing, Xu Fei said with a smile: "Thank you to that friend, and thank you, Teacher Ma."

"Hey, what kind of teacher am I? I'm just being flattered by my friends." Ma Weidu smiled, his eyes narrowed more and more.

In fact, he was also quite surprised. Just a few days ago, a phone call suddenly came to the editorial department, saying that Xu Fei was looking for it. He thought for a while before he remembered such a person, oh, the one who fought at the bus stop.

The two chatted and said that they wanted to rent a house, so please ask for help.

Ma Weidu, like most of the capital's children, also looks down on people in his bones, but he doesn't say it, this is better than Wang Shuo. After all, I'm married and have worked as an editor for several years. I come and go every day, and I can get by on the surface.

He belongs to the listless and cunning kind, he often offends people when he dumps antiques, and later he realizes that he wants to donate his body for washing—in fact, he is left-handed and right-handed.

Lao Ma loves to make friends. In his own words, "I make friends with both the good and the bad. Character is a matter for the future. Character, and what you develop slowly is called character."

What's more, there are still favors for fighting that have not been returned, so he helped to ask, and it turned out that there were indeed, a friend went abroad and left an empty room.

When the two of them came out, they met the mother of the main house who came back from shopping, "Hey, what are you two doing?"

"Old five friends, rent this house to live in."

"True friends, fake friends, don't fool the elderly, I will report to the police station."

"Old Fifth has a mole on the back of his butt, you know that?"

"Hey, that's a real friend, let's live." The aunt entered the house.

Afterwards, Xu Fei invited Ma Weidu to have a meal, and chatted casually, but didn't talk deeply.

He has no choice. These days, the houses are invested by the state and issued by the unit. It was only in the first two years that "private ownership of houses was allowed." And if you are not familiar with the place in life, you may not necessarily find it if you look for it in heaven.

After seeing off the old horse, he bought a bedding and daily necessities, meaning to stay for a long time.

After dealing with it all night, Xu Fei boarded the train to Shencheng early the next morning.

…………

"Is this the suburbs?"

On a hot afternoon, Xu Fei, who had been guiding cars for several days, finally came out of Luohu Bus Station rubbing his buttocks. Looking up, he saw a large green farmland, not far away were green hills, and the second-line pass construction base in full swing.

In 1982, the state approved the report on the second-line fortification of Shencheng. At that time, people called the border between Shenzhen and Hong Kong the first line, and correspondingly, this SAR management line was called the second line.

Shencheng has no money and lacks labor force, so it is mainly built by the border guards of Guangdong Province.

It was not until 1985 that the second line pass passed the national acceptance and was put into use. Starting from Beizaijiao near Dapeng Bay in the east and ending at Anle Village in Nantou in the west, the total length is 84.6 kilometers. It is composed of 2.8-meter-high barbed wire and patrol roads along the way, and the famous border defense certificate was born accordingly!

So now is a time to exploit loopholes, whether to control or not, to prevent but not to prevent...

But Luohu is far from the prosperity of the future. The station is a brick building and a row of thatched huts, but there is a construction site nearby, and a new station building is being erected, with a pedestrian bridge.

Opposite is the Luohu Railway Station in Hong Kong, guarded by soldiers with live ammunition.

Shencheng will implement a temporary residence permit system this year, but he took a quick glance and didn't see the defense team, so he walked in confidently and boldly.

Compared with other places, it has a completely different charm. Backwardness and innovation coexist, and agriculture and buildings coexist. On one side is the building under construction, on the other side is the muddy land. Farmers are driving cattle, strolling leisurely in the most prosperous area in later generations.

Xiangmi Lake is full of low asbestos-tiled houses, and there are Hakka dwellings along the river. There are countless people carrying big bags and small bags, with apprehension and longing, coming here to fight for their future.

Savage, rough, restless, full of passion.

Xu Fei went to a densely populated area, found a hotel, took a rest for a while, and went to an old street under the guidance of the owner.

The old street is extremely prosperous, although there are no high-rise buildings, but there are all kinds of low-rise shops on both sides. There is a constant flow of people, and there is freedom to buy and sell. It has the scenery of a small county town in the 1990s.

He turned into an alley, and there were more than a dozen clothing stores in it.

There is a pavement in the front, and a workshop in the back. They are all small workshops, with more than ten or twenty sewing machines, which can make dozens or hundreds of clothes every day.

In the early days of reform and opening up, in order to reduce costs, Hong Kong moved a large number of garment processing and toy processing to Shencheng.

There are not only Hong Kong businessmen returning to invest and build factories, but also mainlanders' family workshops. The accumulation of these primitive steps laid the foundation for the prosperity of Shenzhen's garment industry in the future.

Xu Fei walked into a shop at random. The shop was very small, and there were clothes on the walls and shelves.

"Hello, what kind of clothes do you want to buy?" A little girl came over to entertain her, and her Mandarin was not very fluent.

"Oh, let me take a look first."

He turned around and found that the styles were very simple, mostly shirts and short sleeves.

"How much is this?" He asked, touching a fine white shirt.

"fourteen."

Good guy, it's half the price of the North.

"What about this one?" He touched a light blue shirt with a little decoration.

"twenty."

"What about this?" He touched a very rough short-sleeved shirt again.

"This one is the cheapest, four yuan."

The little girl got a little impatient, "Which one do you want?"

"I don't buy it, I just take a look."

He wiped his body and went out, the little girl was stunned, and then spat, "If you're so bad, why don't you come out and pretend to be wild!"

Xu Fei visited a dozen or so houses in a row, and roughly figured out the prices.

Most of the shirts cost more than a dozen yuan, the pure white ones are cheap, the colored ones are more expensive, and the striped ones are even more expensive. Short-sleeved shirts are the cheapest, because the fabric is extremely poor quality, and the handwork is simple. You can basically cut a hole and wear it on your head.

There are very few that have both colors and patterns printed on them. At most, they are printed on white clothes—this is a problem of equipment and technology.

In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, clothes were always expensive. Usually, the unit distributes uniforms, or makes their own clothes, buys clothes and so on, and it is good to have one throughout the year.

How about making clothes?

As I said earlier, one meter of polyester card white cloth costs 6 yuan plus a two-inch cloth ticket, while making an adult shirt requires more than one meter of cloth. So I bought cloth for eight or nine yuan, and asked a tailor for two yuan to measure various sizes, and then made it myself or hired someone to do it.

The labor cost of sewing is the cheapest, and a few cents are high.

So you see, it costs about ten yuan to make one yourself, let alone buy it. Especially for ordinary people, it is common for the youngest to run around with bare buttocks, wearing a piece of clothing in turn.

But Xu Fei looked around and found that the short sleeves were very cheap, and the cost price had to be cheap. This business has been done before.

He hurried back to the hotel, rented a phone, and took out a note from his pocket. It was a factory introduced by a friend of a friend of Shi Yanqin, the costume designer of "Dream of Red Mansions".

The old-fashioned rotary phone, just listen to the clicking sound, dialing a number can make you exhausted, if you accidentally dial the wrong number, you have to click and click from the beginning.

"Hello, is this Huatian Garment Factory? Oh, I have an order I want to talk to you about."

(Chapter 8 is also included...)