Chapter 29: The power of the curbstones
Translated by me, edited by drpetro.
Applying for the transfer and registration kept Ye Qing busy until past 11.
Ye Qing is completely enthusiastic to struggle for his own business and has no idea what tiredness is.
Just as he was about to drive to the construction material market, to purchase huge amounts of supplies for the shipyard renovation, his new iPhone 6S rung.
It’s a call from Zhang Zhitong, telling him that she already booked seats at Chenji on Caiyi street and that she’ll be there in about 10 minutes.
Caiyi street is one of Zhongyun’s special streets, and it is also one of Zhongyun’s major tourist attractions. A lot of Zhongyun’s distinguishing snack shops and long established restaurants all started here.
Time always flies by when occupied. While Ye Qing busied himself in matters concerning the new factory, he even forgot about the lunch invitation from Zhang Zhitong.
Luckily Ye Qing is still downtown, so he can get there in under 20 minutes.
To be honest, if it wasn’t for Zhang Zhitong lending him 3000 on such a short notice, Ye Qing seriously didn’t want to meet with her again.
The middle school period is the start of adolescence and romantic life for young men and women.
That period of time is also when character is forged.
Ye Qing, due to a single sentence from Zhang Zhitong, got alienated by all his classmates for a whole month. Adding the fight that happened, at the time he even thought of slaughtering her.
From then on, for the next 5 years, Ye Qing didn’t speak a single sentence to her.
Now that they’ve all entered society, he really can’t bring himself to hate her after so long. But to become great friends and stuff, deep down Ye Qing still has something against it.
“Really don’t know if I can still recognize her…… “ Ye Qing thought as he headed towards Caiyi street.
After graduating from middle school, although they were still in the same school, they got seperated into different classes so they only meet occasionally, but Ye Qing still ignored her.
As for university, she went to the decorated police academy in Liaoning province, so naturally there was no chance for them to meet again.
Zhang Zhitong, in Ye Qing’s mind, has an attractive figure and is a source of calamity, so it probably won’t be hard to recognise her.
Harbouring expectations, Ye Qing drove the van onto Caiyi bridge. But just as he was about to turn left and enter the private parking lot, workers on the side of the road suddenly attracted all of Ye Qing’s attention.
In fact it attracted everyone’s attention because the construction workers are surrounded by a sea of tourists and passerbys taking an uncountable amount of pictures.
If it wasn’t for the construction vehicles on the side, Ye Qing would’ve thought it to be a public signing event from Xu Ninggong.
Quickly parking the car, Ye Qing also joined in the chaos.
Two construction teams are currently changing the curbstone to the carved ones produced by Ye Qing.
Who has ever seen curbstones with court lady carvings on then?
And it’s thousands of pieces stacked together. Lots of tourists are rushing to get a selfie and sharing it with their friends before the stone piles are used up.
Amateurs only see the appearance, but professionals see the underlying details.
Some passerbys might be in the commercial or mechanical business. Upon seeing these stones, the first thing they do is to act like a piece of stinky candy, and firmly coil around these workers trying to find out more about these curbstones.
How could these workers know, so after being annoyed out of their wits, they cruely told them to ask the directors of the city construction management office.
“What is this attitude of yours. I only asked you how these carving were made, where’s the need for you to be so fierce?” A roughly dressed young man with a smoke in his mouth angrily asked.
“So what if I’m being fierce? You gonna bite me?” A worker who is all muscle and able to carry a crude stone on each arm closed in: “Get lost boy, don’t waste my time here.”
What a coincidence!
Ye Qing recognise the mobster wanna be. He is precisely the one who I had conflict with at both the hospital and Jiangshan masonry, Qian Xiaomeng.
It is truly too coincidental to actually meet this dude on Caiyi street. If not for the lunch invitation from Zhang Zhitong, Ye Qing probably would’ve run up and kicked him a couple of times.
This guy does stone carvings, so he naturally understands more of the trade than the average joe, and clearly understand what kind of impact this kind of low cost yet high speed production equipment will bring to the market.
“Just wait until I can build these machines, then the first thing I’ll do is make Jiangshan masonry bankrupt.”
Ye Qing hid himself as he happily laughed. Looks like the curbstones caused quite a stir. They just started yet it already attracted so many looks.
After all the main streets in the city have been paved with different curbstone carvings, then……
Then wouldn’t my rapid metal engraver sell out like crazy?
The blueprint already exist, all I need to do now is buy several processing machines, then I can make these machines and earn my fortunes.
A single machine in Ye Qing’s estimation costs 50,000 to make. Then when the time comes 500,000 for one, buy it if you like.
Hehe ~
While daydreaming, Ye Qing felt a light tap on his shoulder.
Turning around, Ye Qing is stunned.
A beautiful, 1.7 meter tall girl with short hair is happily looking at him.
Ye Qing with a shocked look went blank for a second before face palming: “Zhang Zhitong?”
“You actually didn’t recognise me!” The short haired girl very spiritedly rolled her eyes at Ye Qing: “To be precise, we haven’t met for 4 years, yet I can still recognise you right away!”
“I remember you had long hair before.” Ye Qing is lost for words. After all, he always viewed her as an enemy while they were still at school.
“You haven’t changed one bit. Still how I remembered you.” Zhang Zhitong generously extended out her jade like hand: “Long time no see, old classmate.”
“Long time no see!”
Since Zhang Zhitong is already this generous, then Ye Qing isn’t gonna be petty about it, and frankly shook her hand.
The short haired Zhang Zhitong looks much more spirited than during middle school. As for the tight brown leather jacket she’s wearing, it gave Ye Qing a breathtaking view.
She’s even more beautiful than before. Her temperament is even more pronounced.
Ye Qing doesn’t speak much, but Zhang Zhitong is still happy. Maybe the fact that Ye Qing is willing to come here is her greatest reward.
After all, that bike incident back then clearly hurt Ye Qing’s feelings. At the same time, the guilt of falsely accusing him accompanied her all the way until now.
Men all have pride. Women, especially beautiful women, have pride as well.
When Zhang Zhitong publicly apologized in front of the whole class, her determination to make up with Ye Qing was clear.
Now everything is in the past. The hank shake just a moment ago, gave both of them a smile overriding all past bad feelings.
“These curbstones are truly beautiful, it almost matches the beautifulness of those statues. Even making me take many unnecessary pictures of it.” As Zhang Zhitong spun around, not only did she stir up some jackets, but also the heart of all the surrounding men.
“Yeah, I head the city construction management office is looking to switch out all the curbstones on the main streets to these.” Ye Qing answered with some difficulty: “Alright let’s go, didn’t you reserve seats at Chenji?”
“Right, let’s go drink!” Zhang Zhitong confidently made a go ahead hand gesture.
“For real. If you said earlier then I wouldn’t have driven here.”
“Wow not bad, you even have a car now.” Zhang Zhitong laughingly sized up Ye Qing: “Cool suit, Calvin Klein, nice brand.”
“Then why were you so urgent to borrow money the other day, I thought you had some troubles. The wages I just got were all transferred over.”
“When did a delivery van count as a car.” The two chatted as they walked: “I really did have some problems couple of days back. But it’s over now and I even made a fortune along the way.”
“Then we must celebrate with booze!” Zhang Zhitong who was at the front lightly spun around, and smiling wholeheartedly looked at Ye Qing: “Let’s go drink some baiju to congratulate you for braving past the difficulties and striding towards the pinnacle of life. Just leave the car there, you can pick it up later tonight.”
“Sure!” Ye Qing pulled on his collar and had a to do kind of attitude.
Since he already decided to forgive her, then there is a need to bring out a man’s generous spirit. Fussing over minor details is only for the weak.