Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 39, Good Street

(Ticket check! Ticket check! Those with tickets, hand in your tickets; those without tickets, pay the fare.)

The bicycle was parked by the roadside, and Xiaowei and Xia Maosheng squatted on the curb smoking.

The two of them were completely bewildered.

Needless to say, Xiao Wei had never left the county town before, and Xia Maosheng's side, Beipiao, was also a small city. Although it was called a city, it was just a slightly larger county town. The two complete country bumpkins were completely bewildered when they suddenly found themselves in the sea of ​​people, unable to find their way around.

Xia Maosheng smoked a cigarette. Turning his head to look around at the dense crowd of pedestrians and vehicles, he said, "My head is spinning, how come there are so many people?"

Xiao Wei wiped the sweat from his brow and said, "I'm confused too. We came in this way, right? Which way do we go? They all look pretty much the same." He looked up at the huge "GG" sign above him, frowned, and said, "Why is such a big sign so tall? Won't it fall over?"

Xia Maosheng looked up, glanced at Xiao Wei with disdain, and said, "It was lifted up by a crane. It's welded iron, all iron inside, super sturdy."

Xiao Wei stared at it for a while, then suddenly said, "It's all iron? How much iron is that? It must be worth a lot of money!"

Xia Maosheng said, "If I gave you all the GG signs in this area, you'd be rich. You could sell them for tens of thousands of yuan as scrap metal."

Xiao Wei couldn't help but swallow hard and exclaimed, "City people are really rich. They just leave tens of thousands of yuan sitting here."

Xia Maosheng said, "Do you know how much it costs to make one of these things? The government has to pay, the land has to be paid, plus the materials and labor, it's impossible to erect one without at least tens of thousands of yuan."

Xiao Wei looked down at Xia Maosheng, making Xia Maosheng a little uneasy, before saying, "Establishing a budget of tens of thousands? Then this whole area would cost millions, let me do the math. That's a lot."

Xia Maosheng pointed into the distance and said, "Only those by the roadside and on rooftops are this expensive. Branded items don't count; they don't cost that much. These are outdoor products, and the industry and commerce bureau, land bureau, and tax bureau all regulate them."

Xiao Wei asked, "How did you know? Are you kidding me? You were here before?"

Xia Maosheng said, "My aunt is the Party Secretary, and we have GG license plates where I'm from, okay? You don't have them where you're from?"

Xiao Wei thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "No, the government only has a few propaganda posters, but they're not worth much and they're not this big."

Xia Maosheng said, "These all have lights, they're all lit up at night, you can see them from far away. Do you know how much it costs to do a gay scene here? Just this part alone, it's hundreds of thousands a year. To make big money doing this, you have to have really strong connections."

Xiao Wei turned his head and looked around, saying, "What kind of clothes are these? How much did they cost? They're all made from them."

Xia Maosheng laughed heartily, then lost his balance and fell to the ground, saying, "You country bumpkin, that's a big American company, they're incredibly wealthy, you know? A few million dollars is like a few dollars to them. These days, high-tech computers and stuff like that are the most profitable." He got up, dusted off his pants, flicked away his cigarette butt, and straightened his clothes.

Xiao Wei stood up, threw away his cigarette butt, and asked Xia Maosheng, "How do you know so much?"

Xia Maosheng said, "My aunt has taken me to many places, including Shanghai. I remember them from hearing them talk about them all the time. Besides, it has nothing to do with us. What's the use of knowing or not knowing? They're not giving you the money. If you want to buy something, just ask someone."

"What are you two doing?" A voice came from over. The two turned their heads and saw an old man wearing a red armband and holding a small red flag walking towards them.

As they approached, the old man sized them up and said, "What are you two doing? What are you doing parking your car here? Don't you know you can't park on the side of the road? Get out of here."

Xiao Wei said with a forced smile, "Grandpa, we came here to buy some things, but there are so many people, we're confused and don't know where to go."

The old man glanced at Xiao Wei and asked, "What are you buying?"

Xiao Wei said, "I want to buy a tape recorder and cassette tapes."

The old man looked around, pointed with the small red flag in his hand, and said, "That building, there's a parking lot downstairs. Don't stand by the roadside, or the police will come and fine you five yuan. If you don't know, just ask. What's wrong with standing here like an idiot? Go on."

The two thanked the old man and pushed their cart over there.

There was indeed a parking lot downstairs, but it cost twice as much as the one near the Cultural Palace, 20 cents per parking session.

After parking the car, the two looked around and went into the building.

As soon as I entered the building, a wave of heat hit me, and my ears were ringing with the cacophony of voices. This was truly a bustling, noisy place.

The air was filled with GG advertisements, brochures, and signs. There were rows of glass counters and tall shelves displaying all sorts of unfamiliar products. At first glance, it exuded a high-class vibe and was glittering.

The crowd was even more dense here, with three layers of people surrounding each counter. The sounds of discussion, bargaining, introductions, and inquiries mingled together, creating a wave of noise that assaulted everyone's ears.

The movers, wearing yellow vests, pushed two-wheeled carts loaded with boxes of goods, squeezing and running through the crowd. There were also private shoppers, carrying large and small boxes in their hands and on their shoulders, moving with the flow of people, their foreheads covered in sweat.

Xiao Wei and Xia Maosheng followed the flow of people forward, but soon lost their sense of direction and could no longer find their way in.

Computers, speakers, laser disc players, cameras, tape recorders, floppy disks, CDs, tapes, game consoles, game cartridges, educational machines, language repeaters, and all sorts of electronic products dazzled the two of them, leaving them overwhelmed with choices.

"How much is this?" Xiaowei squeezed in front of a counter and asked the salesperson, pointing to a familiar TV called "Yibo Mo" displayed inside. In Xiaowei's eyes, a small TV was placed on a horizontal box with several buttons and two horizontal openings, looking quite mysterious.

The male sales clerk turned to look at Xiaowei and said, "Thirty-eight thousand, brand new imported machine, three-year warranty, comes with software and game discs, want one? Let me tell you, this is the most advanced model this year, the hard drive has 50MB, it's definitely the lowest price in the market, if you buy it at a higher price, come back to me."

Xiao Wei was stunned. He glanced at Xia Maosheng and said, "This little TV costs 38,000?"

Xia Maosheng turned his face away without saying a word. The salesperson laughed and said, "Dude, this is a computer. Do you understand what a computer is? An IBM computer, the most advanced computer in the world, not a television."

Xiao Wei examined the computer closely and said, "Isn't this just a black and white TV? It looks exactly the same. Are you kidding me?"

The salesperson was speechless, waved to Xiaowei without saying a word, and went to do something else. The people gathered around laughed, and a middle-aged man said to Xiaowei, "Young man, you didn't go to school much, did you? This is an imported computer from the US, what we call a computer. This price is really not high. In the past, a 20MB drive would cost more than 40,000 or 50,000 yuan. This one is a full 50MB, it's the largest hard drive available now."

Xiao Wei asked, "What's a hard drive? What's stored on it? Where's the disk? I can't see it."