Chapter 469 Ideal White Hair (Subscribe for monthly tickets)

When the Mid-Autumn Festival arrived in 1995.

Deep inside the provincial compound, the fragrance of osmanthus flowers is already wafting in the air.

In the courtyard of a two-story building, in the air, there were fruits and vegetables falling and people chatting and laughing. Hu Xianxun, Lin Shiyu and the nanny Xiao Xie, one old and two young, were preparing a sumptuous dinner for the Mid-Autumn Festival tonight on a stove in the wall courtyard.

Lin Shiyu had a day off today and had nothing to do, so she had dinner at the home of her closest relative Hu Xianxun in Lijin. Although her Uncle Hu was the governor of southern Hunan and held a high position of power, he had never gotten rid of the habits of the older generation of farmers. He hated ostentation and would tend to the crops in the yard when he had nothing to do. Tonight's Mid-Autumn Festival dinner was also full of the simplicity of a rural family. They set up a pot in the yard, and the fruits and vegetables were all grown by themselves. He also cooked in his old sweat shirt, looking like an old farmer, but his face was full of satisfaction.

At this moment, a cheerful voice suddenly rang out from outside the courtyard gate: "Old Hu, I'm here."

Lin Shiyu turned her head and saw the short, white-haired president of Shonan University, Jiang Ruqin.

Jiang Ruqin stood at the gate of the courtyard, holding a large grass carp in his hand. He said to Hu Xianxun who came to meet him, "This grass carp weighs more than nine pounds. I brought it from Xingsha Township. I fed it with grass and caught it at three in the afternoon. I spent a lot of money to have a meal with you."

Hu Xianxun was not satisfied: "Where is your local wine?"

Jiang Ruqin said, "How can I bring them all at once? If I bring them all, I won't have a reason to come to the provincial hospital to eat next time."

Hu Xianxun laughed out loud: "You are getting more slippery as you get older. You can do this to me, but not to those kids from Xiang Da."

In fact, let alone grass carp, there are countless people who want to send goldfish here. However, not everyone can enter this seemingly ordinary and quiet courtyard.

Jiang Ruqin walked into the yard with his hands behind his back. Hu Xianxun took the grass carp he brought and killed it himself. After washing it, he put it in a pan to make fried steamed fish with rice flour. Jiang Ruqin stood by with his hands in his hands and watched. This president of Hunan University was idle and kept talking. One moment he said that lard should not be used for frying, and the next moment he said that there was not enough pepper. Hu Xianxun didn't listen to him. The two old men were chatting and cooking in the yard as the sun was setting. Lin Shiyu and the nanny Xiao Xie were helping by the side with smiles on their faces. It was a very happy pastoral life.

It took about half an hour for Hu Xianxun to pour local tea oil on it and sprinkle with chopped green onions, and the fried steamed fish was ready. The rich aroma wafted in the courtyard, and the taste was truly unique.

The other dishes were all vegetables Hu Xianxun had grown in his own backyard when he had nothing to do. It was the autumnal equinox, approaching the cold dew season, and the fruits and vegetables had already ripened. The vines near the courtyard were full of bright red tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers.

Lin Shiyu and her nanny Xiao Xie fried eggplant with minced meat, shredded potatoes with vinegar, steamed taro with meat and fried peanuts, and stewed a pot of pork ribs and corn soup.

At this moment, the phone rang suddenly.

Lin Shiyu, who was washing the pot, took out her cell phone from her pocket and saw that there were new text messages. She read them and replied to a few of them. Suddenly, a smile appeared on her face that she couldn't hide.

Hu Xianxun had just come out of the house with some wine. When he saw the phone in Lin Shiyu's hand, his eyes suddenly became sharp: "Where did you get this thing?"

Lin Shiyu was stunned for a moment: "Zhang Yunqi gave it to me."

Hu Xianxun frowned and asked, "Why did he give you a mobile phone? It's so expensive!"

Lin Shiyu was stunned.

She has always been a sensible girl. She never easily revealed her relationship with Hu Xianxun, and never asked Hu Xianxun to do things for others. Even when Zhang Yunqi got into trouble, she only sent Zhang Yunqi's article "The Reform of the Public Enterprise System and the Concept of Rural Land System Reform under the Perspective of China's Urban-Rural Integration Development" to the editor-in-chief of the party newspaper according to the normal process. In the end, it landed on Hu Xianxun's desk. Hu Xianxun judged whether it was good or bad. She never showed her personal inclination to influence Hu Xianxun's decision. In fact, she knew very well that with her Uncle Hu's tough and upright personality, it would never be possible for her to be partial to him in public affairs because of family affection!
Suddenly hearing Hu Xianxun's slightly harsh question, Lin Shiyu couldn't help but feel a little aggrieved as a girl. She retorted bluntly: "We have been good friends for so many years, what's wrong with giving him a mobile phone? He didn't just give it to me, he also gave it to all his friends. Besides, this is our private relationship. Anyway, I won't ask a 'big shot' like you to do something for him!"

After a pause, Lin Shiyu turned to Jiang Ruqin and said, "Uncle Jiang, I'm sorry, I can't have dinner with you tonight. You guys eat well. I have an appointment." As she spoke, Lin Shiyu took off her apron. Because Hu Xianxun's wife, Aunt Yufen, was disabled and unable to get out of bed, she needed someone to take care of her. She gave the nanny a few words of advice before turning around and leaving the yard.

But before they had walked far, Lin Shiyu felt that what she had said just now was too harsh and might hurt Uncle Hu's feelings, so she hesitated and blushed as she returned to the yard, took a black coat from the living room and placed it on the rattan chair, without even looking at Hu Xianxun, she said to herself, "It's cold tonight, remember to put it on later."

This was said without any beginning or end, but Jiang Ruqin suddenly laughed. He watched the angry Lin Shiyu turn around and walk out of the yard again. Her graceful figure disappeared at the gate of the small courtyard. He turned to Hu Xianxun and said with a smile: "Old Hu, you don't have to be too strict. This girl has always been very obedient and sensible. However, from the looks of it, I'm afraid she's in love."

When Hu Xianxun heard this, he sighed, "She's already 26 years old, an old maid, it's time for her to fall in love. You know her family situation."

Jiang Ruqin nodded and asked, "Do you know who this girl's boyfriend is?"

Hu Xianxun shook his head: "I am old and have many things to do. How can I take care of these things? I will ask my wife to ask her later. But the society now is not the same as before. Young people should be free to fall in love and want spiritual union. It's fine as long as she likes it."

As we chatted, it gradually got dark.

Nanny Xiao Xie served the steaming hot meals to the wooden table in the courtyard. She then prepared a bowl of hot soup and some nutritious meals and brought them to the room for Xie Yufen, Hu Xianxun's half-paralyzed wife.

Hu Xianxun and Jiang Ruqin were eating in the yard.

The temperature at this time of year was neither too cold nor too hot, with sparse shadows, the fragrance of osmanthus, and the moon hanging in the sky, casting bright and clear light on the courtyard. Hu Xianxun and Jiang Ruqin ate simple and honest dishes, drank wine, and reminisced about the past.

Both old men were born in rural areas of Lijin. They were classmates at the Normal University Affiliated High School. One was admitted to Peking University and the other to Tsinghua University in the college entrance examination. Soon after, they went to the Soviet Union to study abroad. After returning to China, they devoted half of their lives to the construction of the motherland. They also experienced the ravages of the old society. Especially Hu Xianxun, he experienced ups and downs, his wife was disabled and his children died, and he tasted all the sorrows of the world.

Now he is nearly 21.18 years old, and he has returned to his hometown in southern Hunan. The country has once again entrusted him with an important task, to manage this piece of land of 6395 square kilometers, responsible for million mouths to eat. Most of the time, this old man is in a heavy, resolute, and even urgent mood! He doesn't have much time left, ten thousand years is too long, he has to seize the day! He wants to use the last bit of light in his rough life to do a little bit of what he can for the people on this land.

Tonight, Hu Xianxun spent the Mid-Autumn Festival with his old schoolmates. His tense mind relaxed. He just held the wine glass and looked at Jiang Ruqin's head full of white hair, without a single black hair. His face was also full of wrinkles. He couldn't help but sigh: "I don't know how many years ago it was when we last spent the Mid-Autumn Festival together, but I still remember that you still had a head full of black hair at that time."

Jiang Ruqin picked up the wine glass and drank it. He looked up at the bright moon in the sky and said slowly and thoughtfully: "How many times have I seen the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival? Thirty years ago, outside the river, sons and daughters passed cups to brothers and met, laughing and talking in high spirits. We meet again tonight, and the bitter wine comforts the old man."

Hu Xianxun smiled and sighed comfortingly: "Old Jiang, you should add the title of a great poet before the title of an economist and philosopher."

Jiang Ruqin said: "I am an old man, half buried in the ground. All titles are just external things. People of my generation lived with idealism and were unwilling to leave the pure spiritual pursuit and abstract ideals in the grand collective discourse. But now it is different. Reform and opening up have brought material abundance, and with it comes the liberation of thought. The great significance and value of individual existence will become more and more prominent and important with the development of the times. As a physical body, individuals will increasingly feel the uniqueness and irreplaceability of their existence in spirit as the material civilization of society progresses."

Hu Xianxun nodded: "You are still so sharp and forward-looking in your view of problems. However, what do you think of the material written by Zhang Yunqi?"

Jiang Ruqin put down his glass and said, "I have read the materials many times. I think the most important point in it is how to build an organic connection between urban development and rural management. This is a very acute issue for the future development of China as a whole. It provides you with a possibility, an innovative reform path of the 'South Hunan Model' that may be ahead of other provinces, and a primary pilot model has been made in Jiangchuan area."

Hu Xianxun groaned and said, "Your evaluation is not low."

Jiang Ruqin picked up the wine glass and took another sip. "He is my student now, but the first thing he did when he came to school was to beat the deputy secretary of the school youth league committee into the hospital. I sided with him based on the facts and made a call for him. From now on, he can be late, absent from class, leave early, and fail a course at Xiangda University."

Hu Xianxun laughed in silence: "You are quite open and aboveboard, but it seems that you are very optimistic about him. How about this, call your student over and have a few drinks with us two old men."

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