King of Industry

"Hi, may I help you?" The waiter came over and asked with a smile on his face.

The words that rang in his ears made Zhao Guoyang come out of his thoughts immediately.

"Uh, please help me get ten of these mechanical pencils, thank you!" Zhao Guoyang raised the mechanical pencil in his hand and said.

"OK, just a second!"

After a while, the waiter handed the packaged mechanical pencil to Zhao Guoyang. After calculating the price, fifteen yuan was not cheap.

When Zhao Guoyang paid, he asked intentionally or unintentionally: "By the way, do you have a better mechanical pencil in your store? I just searched around, but I didn't find it."

The waiter hesitated for a moment, then turned to glance at the manager next to him.

The manager seemed to have been paying attention to Zhao Guoyang's side all the time. Hearing what he said, he said, "There really is no such thing! Comrade, the consumers that our Liuyi Children's Products Store faces are basically children. Mechanical pencils The best one is the one in your hand."

Seeing the disappointed look on Zhao Guoyang's face, the manager added another sentence: "I heard that Wuyi Store has a higher grade. However, if you want to give it away, you should go to the Friendship Store." Well, there are the most upscale..."

Hearing the manager mention the words Friendship Store, Zhao Guoyang came to his senses.

The Friendship Store was born in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the country was just opening up to the outside world. It belongs to a special category of state-owned stores.

Generally speaking, friendship stores are only opened in major first-tier cities of the Republic, and their main purpose is not to make money, but as a symbol of friendship.

These friendship stores usually sell items imported from Western countries that cannot be bought in other stores.

For example, peanut butter from Manchester, England, and Hershey chocolate from Pennsylvania, the United States, as well as some brand-name clothing, can only be bought at the Friendship Store.

In addition, the Friendship Store also sells some domestic handicrafts, such as porcelain, jade and so on, to foreign businessmen and foreign friends. Of course, the price is much higher than the market price of these commodities in the place of origin.

But because of the monopoly nature of Friendship Store, customers have no choice.

Friendship Stores usually only accept Currency Exchange Certificates as currency. The goods it sells include some uncensored Western periodicals, such as the Manhattan Times and so on.

Doormen therefore usually prevent any customers who appear to be nationals from entering the store. Many times, some curious people will often peek through the glass at the door to see what goods are sold in the store.

The waiters who can work in the Friendship Store are all selected elites. Whether it is personal morality or politics, it is absolutely excellent.

Hearing that the manager mentioned the "Friendship Store", Zhao Guoyang was a little annoyed that he had rejected the exchange of contact information by several foreign friends at the Songjiang Auto Show.

However, now that the auto show is over, even if I want to ask others for help, it is impossible.

Fortunately, the automatic pencils I bought in front of me are enough for my own research for the time being, so Zhao Guoyang stopped entangled after thinking about it.

...

When Zhao Guoyang walked around and returned to the hotel, it was already evening.

When he came in, Director Wang Ziqing, Liu Renhe, Jiang Hong, Liu Yaohong and others were sitting in the rest area of ​​the hotel lobby and chatting about something.

As soon as he saw him coming in, Wang Ziqing got up and greeted him in person.

"Guoyang, why have you been out for so long? I thought your director Ma had 'escorted' you back." Seeing Zhao Guoyang returning safely, Wang Ziqing looked relieved.

Zhao Guoyang talked about his afternoon itinerary with some embarrassment.

After he finished speaking, he caught a glimpse of the leaders of the Machine Works Committee who had already brought their luggage with them, so he wondered, "Director Wang, are we rushing back overnight?"

"Well, that's right!" Wang Ziqing nodded, patted Zhao Guoyang on the shoulder and said.

"In a moment, Director Liu and the others will go to the train station first. Come with me and take the bus."

Zhao Guoyang froze for a moment, touched his cheek, not knowing why.

Wang Ziqing saw Zhao Guoyang's doubts, and explained directly: "It's senior official Zhuo, I must have a good chat with you. You also know that senior official Zhuo came in a hurry, and the secretary didn't bring it. It happens that there are seats for both of us in the car."

Hearing this, Zhao Guoyang was relieved. Presumably, it should be a series of performances at the summit forum, which have been reported to Senior Official Zhuo by Director Wang.

After chatting with Zhao Guoyang, Wang Ziqing motioned him to sit down and wait for a while, then he turned his head and explained something to Liu Renhe and Jiang Hong.

Taking advantage of this, Zhao Siyan, who sat behind without speaking, slowly walked to Zhao Guoyang's side.

"Hey, Zhao Guoyang!" Zhao Siyan greeted Zhao Guoyang lightly touching Zhao Guoyang's arm.

"Ah? Siyan, you're here. I haven't seen you just now. I'm still wondering where you are going." Zhao Guoyang scratched his head and said casually.

Zhao Siyan couldn't help laughing at herself a little: "Hey, where can I go, I don't have such good luck, I was interviewed by Zhuo Gaoguan..."

Hearing that Researcher Zhao's tone seemed a little jealous, Zhao Guoyang couldn't help but secretly amused.

In the past two days, Zhao Guoyang has had a lot of contact with her, and he has some understanding of the personality of this graduate student of similar age.

Perhaps because she is a girl from a big city, Zhao Siyan is more generous and usually does not have any jealousy. Her remarks are actually just teasing among friends.

From this point, Zhao Guoyang could tell that Zhao Siyan had already regarded herself as a friend.

The silence between the two lasted for a while.

Finally, it was Zhao Siyan who couldn't help but spoke first: "Well, Zhao Guoyang, the teacher and I will leave with Director Liu and the others after a while. We parted this time, and we don't know when we can meet again."

"You are such a special and interesting person. I think it will be hard for me to forget the time I spent with you..."

Zhao Guoyang was a little surprised at the directness of this researcher Zhao. Of course, he knew that the other party said this, definitely not because of love between men and women, but because of friendship.

However, it still takes a certain amount of courage to speak up like her.

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Guoyang looked up at Zhao Siyan and said, "Hehe, Siyan, you are wrong. With the continuous advancement of our country's technology and the rapid improvement of industrial level, the transportation will definitely become more and more convenient in the future, and Tianzhu will also will change the way.”

"Don't say that Jinling City is only 160 kilometers away from our Ninghai City. Even if it is more than 1600 kilometers away, if we want to get together again, it will not be difficult."

Zhao Guoyang pouted at Zhao Siyan, glanced at Professor Zhu who was talking to Wang Ziqing over there, and said, "Besides, because of the nature of my work, I will definitely trouble Professor Zhu in the future. So, don't worry, I'm sure I will look for you, so don't be annoyed by then!"

"Your Section Chief Zhao is here, how could I be bothered!" Zhao Siyan couldn't help smiling.