National Tide 1980

Walking east from Shan'er Hutong, you will reach Qianmen Street within 200 meters.

On the east side of the road from Dabei Photo Studio and Post Office, which is currently named "New Capital City", are the bus stop signs for No. 202 and No. 203 that Ning Weimin wants to take.

What a coincidence, Ning Weimin had just walked out of the alley.

I saw a bus shaped like a loaf of bread coming from the south side of the road.

He made a quick decision and ran away.

When he ran under the stop sign, the "Skoda" with hundreds of blue colors just happened to drive up.

Sure enough, the number displayed on the front of the car was "203".

Because it was the first car, there weren’t many people on the car.

There was no one else waiting for the bus except Ning Weimin under the stop sign.

It will be a little later, maybe we will miss it.

The correct move made Ning Weimin extremely happy.

He got on the bus and showed his monthly pass, then found a seat by the window and sat down.

But to be honest, in this era, the capital city in the early morning is really not much to see.

Even Qianmen Street, the most famous core business district in Beijing, is the same.

You know, people's lifestyle at this time was too simple, and public facilities were too backward.

There are no convenience stores, no neon lights, no display screens, and no overpasses on the street.

The connections of the wires are all visible, connected in the air through wooden telegraph poles like a spider web.

The crosswalks were as rough as lines drawn for children to play hopscotch, and the traffic lights were much simpler than in later generations.

Even the roads are very narrow, and a four-lane street is considered wide.

Through the black-painted car window, there were actually only street lights, shining faintly like fireflies.

As for the shops one after another on both sides of the road.

In addition to the West Polishing Factory, which has been transformed from the Zhengyang Building into a day and night cafeteria, it is still open for business in order to receive passengers from the train station, with a little dim light showing the meaning of acceptance.

The doors and windows of all the other shops are tightly sealed, with wooden shutters hanging on them, poking quietly into the darkness.

It’s hard to even see the name of the store.

Even the tall and majestic front door building can only show a lifeless blue-gray color before dawn.

It is said to be the capital of the 1980s, but no matter how you look at it, it looks like the capital of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.

Only when Route 203 passes from south to north through the Great Leader Memorial Hall, the Monument to the People's Heroes, and Tiananmen Square, and then turns onto Chang'an Street, will it show the momentum of the capital of the new society.

The roads here are wide and regular, the lanterns are always bright, the trees on both sides are towering, and there are many Soviet-style buildings, making the core of the capital extremely solemn and majestic.

Along with the gradually brightening sky and the sound of "The East Is Red" played from the Beijing Railway Station, various motor vehicles finally appeared.

Volga, Liberation, 212 Jeep, Sanbengzi...

In addition, there were scattered people riding bicycles to catch the early morning shift, and the main force of urban transportation at that time - tricycle drivers riding flat-bed three-wheelers to pull goods.

The most famous street in the country comes to life in one fell swoop.

It's a pity that such wonderful scenery and decent scenes are only limited to the journey from Tiananmen to Youyi Store.

When Ning Weimin got off the car at the Wangfujing intersection, he reversed onto Da Yi Road, and once he passed Yong'anli, it was over again.

Because the Jianguomen Overpass had just been completed at this time.

The Jianguomen area is flat except for a few limited buildings.

This is the boundary between the city and the outside of the city in this era.

Once you cross here, even if you leave the city, there will not even be a buffer between urban and rural areas.

If you want to see large-scale buildings again, you can only wait for the car to drive to Dabeiyao.

The well-known CBD area in later generations is still the industrial base of Beijing.

There is not a single high-rise building, only a self-contained system, like a factory in a small closed kingdom.

But even here, it is still not Ning Weimin's final destination.

After getting off the bus, he had to take another suburban long-distance 304 ride for five stops, and then walk for one kilometer.

Because the place he was going to was actually the largest open-air garbage dump in the eastern suburbs of Beijing.

And his occupation is that of a scavenger who makes a living by picking up garbage.

So this also explains why he got up so early and was on his way.

It's not only because of the long distance, but also because he's afraid of neighbors chatting him up and asking questions.

Even the equipment for working was stuffed into a big bag and carried around, for fear that others would see it.

It may be hard to believe, but this is a bit of a shameful choice.

In fact, it is Ning Weimin's only choice at the moment, and it is also the best choice.

If nothing else, it’s because of the limitations of the times.

You must know that Ning Weimin's understanding of this era came entirely from film and television dramas, rebirth novels and imagination.

He boasts that he has emotional intelligence and qualities that have been honed by society, has a golden finger that can travel through time and space, and has a way to turn stone into gold.

I think that in such a golden age where opportunities are everywhere, if you want to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune, wouldn't it be a matter of minutes?

Even if I didn't catch up with the last opportunity for non-fresh graduates to enter college in 1979, I should be able to live a good life.

Unfortunately, imagination is just imagination after all.

As a person who lacks sufficient understanding of this era.

Ning Weimin simply could not accurately measure the limitations of this strange era.

It is inevitable to make the mistake of optimism.

Yes, those place names and signs.

They began to change their old place names and time-honored brands back one after another.

"Dongfeng Market" was changed back to "Dongan Market", and "Jingcheng Roast Duck Restaurant" took the lead in restoring the "Judequan" plaque.

Young people even wore fashionable bell-bottom pants, and girls permed their hair into curls.

These are clear signs that positive changes in your life are about to happen.

But then again, this is just a superficial change.

Real inner change does not happen overnight, it requires a very slow and difficult process.

In fact, since the reform has just begun, the social ecological environment at this time is still following the rules of the planned economic system.

Reality did not provide Ning Weimin with any space to show off his talents and write a personal legend.

Old forces and ideas are still deeply ingrained in people's minds.

Let’s talk about business first. There are no legal self-employed businesses these days.

There are people doing small business, and some are even bold enough to push carts to Tiananmen Square and blatantly sell radishes.

But one thing, don't run into people from the "office".

Otherwise, you will have to carry around without food, and your food will be confiscated, confiscated, and fined.

Of course, there are also people who are using food stamps, industrial coupons, and overseas remittance coupons.

But that crime is also more serious. Ticket reselling involves the fundamentals of the country's economy and is already considered a criminal offence.

If you are really caught, it won't just be a matter of a few days in the cell, it will take at least two years to start.

If you want to work in hospitals or train stations, there is no chance of being a scalper.

These days, the ticket system is strictly enforced, limiting the migrant population.

The hospitals in the capital still serve local people, and they cannot get to the point where they cannot be registered.

Hospital treatment is based on a triple bill system, and no one is willing to spend money to buy a specialist number.

As for travelers on business trips, almost all of them are sent by the government, so they must use a letter of introduction to buy train tickets.

Then who will buy high-priced tickets? Even if you buy it, you can’t reimburse it.

The only feasible way in this regard is probably to resell some movie tickets or performance tickets.

But in doing this, firstly, the profit is thin, and secondly, it is a bit late.

In movie theaters and theaters, various Mao gods have already defined their spheres of influence.

How can these people be so easy to mess with?

If an outsider reaches out rashly, he will be beaten at the very least, and if not, he will be punished.

As for stamps, no one cares about them, and private transactions are also prosperous.

Unfortunately, most stamp collectors trade stamps for stamps they do not have.

At this time, stamp collecting was stamp collecting, and it still maintained a great deal of purity.

It’s rare that someone actually spends a lot of money to buy rare tickets.

What is particularly urgent is that monkey tickets have been issued at this time.

The full-page "Golden Monkey Banknotes" were sitting on the counter of the post office with no one paying attention.

But for Ning Weimin, whose pocket was cleaner than his face, he could see it but couldn't eat it.

How urgent is this?

It was simply a heart-wrenching torture.

To put it bluntly, this is like being blind. It would be fine if you were born unable to see.

I don’t know what red is and what green is, so it’s not uncomfortable.

I'm afraid of those who are half blind.

How bright the red is, how fresh the green is, he knows it all in his heart.

It feels like banging your head against the wall.

Of course, because of this, Ning Weimin settled for the next best thing and thought of going to work.

I think it’s not impossible to find a reason to do it temporarily in order to buy monkey tickets.

Even if it's a temporary job, even if it's a salary of more than ten yuan a month.

As long as he takes it into his hands and calculates the expenses, it will be enough for him to get two full-page tickets every month.

A full page costs 1.5 million to 1.8 million. If you work for a month, you can save 3 million. It's worth it.

Unfortunately, this path of compromise does not work either.

The vegetable wholesale station outside Yongding Gate did find a loader once.

The street also recommended Ning Weimin.

But when people saw Ning Weimin's Peking Opera niche-like image, they put him back.

I despise him for being too weak, too weak, and worse than an old woman doing this job.

After that, Ning Weimin never received any news about work arrangements.

To put it bluntly, under the huge employment pressure of 17 million educated youths who have returned to cities across the country.

Even the crematorium burners, the sanitation bureau street sweepers, and the excrement collectors have all become jobs that require competition.

Isn't it even harder for a poor child like Ning Weimin, who couldn't find a job when he had a mother, and now he has become a rootless grass?

In this way, Ning Weimin has nowhere to use his power.

Those grand plans for the future were almost rotten in his stomach.

Think about it carefully, in order to catch the prosperity given by God... no, the monkey ticket gift package.

It seems that the only way to go is to pick up rags.