Chapter 17 Prison Visit
After coming out of Luo Dahai's office, Zhang Yunqi was a little surprised when he saw Li Yufei and Zhao Yingying in the corridor. He asked, "Why haven't you gone back yet?"

Li Yufei smiled and said: "Waiting for you, we plan to go to No. 6 Middle School to eat, do you want to go?"

Zhang Yunqi thought of his elder brother who was still waiting for him at his elder sister's house, and apologized: "I have something else to do, let's do it next time."

Li Yufei nodded and said, "Then let's go."

Zhang Yunqi said goodbye to them at the school gate and went straight back to his eldest sister's house.

Zhang Yunfeng had been at the eldest sister's house for a long time and did not take a break. He stuffed 300 yuan into the eldest sister's pocket. The eldest sister kept pushing the money back. Zhang Yunfeng put the money on the table and said that the money was for my nephew, then left with Zhang Yunqi.

When he went downstairs, he smiled and said to his brother, "Come on, let's go to the clothing market and buy you some clothes before going home."

The Zhang family had no tradition of buying clothes before. Most of the time, Zhang Yunqi wore the old clothes left by Zhang Yunfeng. As he had been busy making money in the past few months, Zhang Yunqi himself did not care. However, the rough man was meticulous. Zhang Yunfeng thought that his younger brother was going to study in the city soon, and if he continued to wear worn-out clothes, his classmates would look down on him.

The two brothers came to the clothing market in the city. Zhang Yunqi bought himself two white shirts, two pairs of black trousers, and two pairs of white rubber shoes. He was not too particular, as long as he had something to change into. Later, he bought two sets of clothes and shoes each for the fourth and fifth children in the family. He and the eldest brother didn't know what size the two younger sisters wore, so they made a rough estimate based on their height and bought larger sizes, as children grow fast anyway.

After buying clothes, Zhang Yunqi went to a barber shop to get his hair cut.

Boys in the early 1990s either had a flat bald head or a bowl cut. The more fashionable ones had long hair, with a middle part or a 3:7 part, which was the hairstyle Aaron Kwok had when he was young. Zhang Yunqi didn't like any of them. He asked the barber to shave his hair on both sides into a flat top, leave the top and middle a little longer, and finally blow it into a fluffy shape with a hair dryer. He immediately looked much cleaner and more energetic.

After cutting his hair, Zhang Yunqi went to Xinhua Bookstore again.

He wanted to buy some business books and information on reform. Although they were outdated in his eyes, if he wanted to make a fortune in such a great era, it was still necessary to have a deep understanding of the content and background in this area. After all, China has gone through too many detours in its 40 years of reform and opening up, and there are too many opportunities.

To give a simple example, what was the reason for the inefficiency of state-owned enterprises in the 1990s?
Thirty years later, almost everyone who has studied economics can easily recite the decisive words written by Nobel Prize winner in Economics Ronald Coase in 30 when faced with this question: "Clearly defined property rights are the prerequisite for market transactions."

Therefore, the core of state-owned enterprise reform is the reform of the property rights system.

However, from the start of SOE reform in 1978 to the present day, the entire Chinese community, from decision makers, academia, business circles to the general public, have mistakenly believed that the inefficiency of SOEs can be solved by “internal reform.”

It is precisely because of this wrong idea that most state-owned enterprises struggled in difficult situations, or even died, and were then taken over by capitalists, which ultimately promoted the vigorous development of China's real estate industry, and housing prices became a permanent pain in the hearts of ordinary people.

You know, since the mid-to-late 1990s, nationwide real estate development and urbanization have spread across the country. The huge business opportunities have allowed many people to discover huge land differential opportunities. They have controlled the declining state-owned enterprises through restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, and even contract management. It is true that real estate development is an inevitable choice for social development, but the problem is that most operators are no longer interested in how to run a good business, but in land development to extract huge wealth.

Zhang Yunqi was very clear about all this.

This is his advantage.

As a prophet, he knows that he must accumulate and utilize these advantages, because as time goes by, these advantages will disappear little by little, so he wants to understand the current social background as much as possible. Also, when he thinks of something important, he writes it down in a unique way, such as some important nodes and measures in the process of reform and opening up. These are the capital for him to gain a good future in the future.

As time passed, Zhang Yunqi spent some leisurely days at home. He exercised and read books every day. Sometimes he would think of Ji Ling, the girl with a bright and charming aura.

On August 8, Ji Ling's father Ji Zhong called the village committee to look for Zhang Yunqi.

Erpang, the son of Zhang Jingui, the director of the village committee, ran to Zhang Yunqi's house to inform him. He knew that what he had discussed with Ji Zhong a few days ago had come to fruition.

He wanted to visit his father in prison before school started, but his father was in Guiping County Prison next door. Due to his age, some prison visit procedures were very troublesome for him. Ji Zhong could just ask someone to say hello and it would be much easier. On the phone, Ji Zhong told him that the prison visit had been arranged and he just needed to take his household registration book to Guiping County Prison to register on the 25th.

Zhang Yunqi immediately decided to leave on the 25th.

Although school started on September 9st, after visiting his father in prison, he wanted to go to the city to find a way to make money. He didn't go to Jiangchuan City just to study.

When Zhang's mother knew that Zhang Yunqi was leaving home early, she washed his bedding that day. Yunfeng took out 300 yuan and forced it into his brother's hands: "You will hardly come back once you go to the city to study. Take more living expenses, eat better, dress better, and don't let people look down on you. If you have no money, call the village committee and I will send you money. If you have a long vacation, come back more often."

Zhang Yunqi answered it.

The night before he left, he packed his luggage. An old mat and quilt were left by his sister after she got married, and there were many patches on them. He tied three broken hemp ropes together to tie up the whole bag. Of course, these things could be bought in the city, but his family was used to saving money because they were afraid of poverty.

At night, Zhang Yunqi lay in bed with his clothes on, half asleep and half awake. He was going to visit his father in prison the next day, so he was a little uneasy and many fragments of the past flashed through his mind.

He didn't know how long it had been, but in a daze, he suddenly felt someone gently stroking his hair. He knew it was his mother's hand, so he opened his eyes.

Aunt Zhang stood by the bed, holding the yellow bag that my eldest brother used when he went to school, and said, "In the blink of an eye, you are going to study far away. Hey, doesn't school start on the 1st? Why are you in such a hurry?"

Zhang Yunqi was silent for a moment, then said, "Mom, some time ago I told Ji Ling's father that I wanted to go to the prison to see my dad, and he arranged the visit for me. The visit will be tomorrow, and then I will go to school. However, the visit needs to be registered in the household registration book."

Aunt Zhang stood by the bed in silence for a long while, and finally sighed and said, "It's good to go and see him. He's been in there for more than half a year, and it must be hard for him. I'll get you your household registration book."

Zhang Ma turned around and walked out. When she reached the door, she said again: "Don't let your brothers and sisters know about this!"

Zhang Yunqi nodded.

The next morning, when the first car from Longwan Town to Fengyang County arrived, the whole family who had been crowded on the side of the dirt road to see Zhang Yunqi off raised their arms to stop the car.

As soon as the car stopped, Zhang Yunqi immediately picked up the luggage and squeezed in. He smiled and waved goodbye to his relatives.

More than an hour later, the car arrived at Fengyang County. Zhang Yunqi changed to a bus to Guiping County at the station. When he arrived at Guiping County Prison, it was already past two in the afternoon.

It was already autumn, and winter would come in a few months. He thought his father would be cold in prison, so he bought a thick quilt, two large cotton-padded jackets, and two packs of cigarettes for the winter. There was a canteen in the prison, where some necessary daily necessities could be bought, so he recharged 500 yuan into his father's account.

When the visiting time was approaching, he registered with his household registration booklet, received a visiting card, and then sat in front of his visiting window according to his visiting number and waited. The waiting time seemed to be particularly long, and the ticking sound of the wall clock was clearly audible. Fragments of the past floated in his mind from time to time, and his heart was filled with torment.

He didn't know how much time had passed when Zhang Yunqi suddenly heard the prison guards calling their numbers. Through the glass window, he saw a group of prisoners being brought up by the prison guards. They were all squatting in the corner, holding the back of their heads with their fingers clasped together. The prison guards called their numbers one by one, and the prisoners waiting for visits stood up one by one and entered the visiting room.

Looking at this scene, Zhang Yunqi's heart slowly clenched, but soon, a man appeared in his eyes. He was very thin, with mostly white hair, a slightly hunched back, and a face full of wrinkles.

Zhang Yunqi wanted to laugh, to make himself look more energetic in front of this thin man, but for some reason, he couldn't laugh. Instead, a feeling of sadness surged in his heart, like an extremely sharp knife, piercing deep into his memory and making him bleed.

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(End of this chapter)