The next day, Li Xiangqian arrived at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative with a Red Light on his face. Procurement Section Chief Zhou Yuan had arrived at the office early. Watching through the window as Li Xiangqian rode his bicycle into the Big Courtyard, he immediately grabbed a rag and went to the doorway. When Li Xiangqian approached, Zhou Yuan greeted him with a smile.
"You're here, Director? You're pretty early today!"
This was practically a mandatory daily routine during normal working hours.
Just after greeting him, Zhou Yuan suddenly noticed something unusual. Pointing at Li Xiangqian's head, he asked:
"Director, how come a little patch of your hair has turned white?"
Li Xiangqian wasn't surprised. He smiled and said:
"It's nothing, nothing. Hot blood, just a little heat in my blood."
People generally had plenty of hair in those days. Although Li Xiangqian couldn't be said to have a head of long, glossy black hair, he certainly had more than the average thirty-year-old in later years. Now, though, one small patch had turned white, making it rather conspicuous, a little like the highlights people would get in later years.
Zhou Yuan didn't know the reason, but Li Xiangqian did. That mouthful of liquor yesterday had done it. The stuff was too potent. Although he had taken measures after going home, the liquor had still turned a patch of his hair white.
Of course, compared with the benefits that mouthful of liquor had brought him, a little white hair was nothing.
Li Long really is thoughtful, Li Xiangqian reflected as he walked into his office. There just isn't quite enough in that bottle. At the rate I drank yesterday, it'll only last fifteen or twenty times. I wonder if I can get some more later.
Li Xiangqian was quite satisfied,