The Leader (1)

Evening.

The six children returned to the opera school.

Chen Qi had come along especially to see them back. At the gate, he shook hands with the teacher and said goodbye. "Thank you all for your hard work today! On behalf of all the educated youths at the Dashilar Cooperative, thank you!"

"You're welcome. The children got some practice, and everything went well."

The teacher paused, then asked, "Um, do you still need us to come tomorrow?"

"It should be in the paper tomorrow. Let's see how people respond. If the response is good, we'll have to trouble you again. And if this becomes a regular event, we certainly won't let you make the trip for nothing."

"All right, all right. See you!"

The teacher understood what he meant and didn't object. He led the students into the courtyard.

Liu Bei wasn't tired at all. She had sung once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and rested at noon. It had been a breeze. She hurried back to her eight-person dormitory, where her friends swarmed around her, peppering her with questions:

"How was it today? Was it fun?"

"What did you all do?"

"Was lunch good?"

"Quiet! Quiet! Listen to me!"

Liu Bei motioned for them to settle down, looking quite authoritative in the dormitory. "There were tons of people under the Qianmen Archery Tower, maybe a thousand or so. We only had to sing a little and they'd cheer. The applause was like thunder. It was such a thrill!

"Later they wouldn't even let us leave. They nearly crushed us to death, and the teacher had to fight for his life to rescue us.

"Lunch was all right. They cooked it themselves, about the same as the cafeteria: radishes and cabbage. There was enough to fill us up, and we didn't have to pay our own travel expenses."

"Wow!"

Her friends marveled in unison, full of longing.

Liu Bei's eyes darted around, and only then did she reveal the biggest scoop. "Hey, guess who I saw today?"

"Who? Who?"

"A foreign guest!"

"There was a foreign guest too?"

"You bet! A woman with blond hair and blue eyes, speaking that bird language nobody could understand. I sang a piece for her, and she even said 'good, good' to me!"

"Wow!!!!"

If envy could take solid form, Liu Bei would already have been stabbed to death with little knives.

The girls chattered away until the teacher came to check on them, and only then did they lie down. Liu Bei lay on her simple bed, savoring the wonderful day and wishing every day could be this much fun.

Those older brothers and sisters had been so welcoming, and they had even given her an egg. Brother Little Chen was handsome too.

China Youth Daily.

It was already eight o'clock, and Yu Jiajia was still waiting at the newspaper office for news.

The article involved a foreigner, so it had to be submitted for special review and could only be published once the relevant department approved it. Attitudes toward foreigners were rather contradictory at the moment: people hoped they would come in and take a look, yet the legacy of the earlier revolutionary struggle to bring down the American imperialists still ran in their veins. They were both welcoming and wary.

A few years later, foreign capital would enter on a massive scale, and the whole country would long for the Western world. The state needed to earn foreign exchange and develop, ordinary people thought the moon was rounder abroad, the elite began to emigrate, and public intellectuals started to emerge.

Reader, Yilin, Zhiyin, and Youth Digest, the four great classics of reform and opening-up, rode roughshod across the land!

This wave lasted 40 long years!

Why is there still no news? It couldn't have been killed, could it?

If I'd known, I wouldn't have listened to that bastard!

Yu Jiajia muttered to herself.

There were several angles from which the article could have been approached. The one Chen Qi had suggested was: an American friend experienced old Beijing traditions, gathered with educated youths and young performers, listened to Peking opera, drank big bowl tea, and sang its praises-very good...

Not just ordinary people-even the leaders loved reading that sort of thing!

"Xiao Yu? Xiao Yu!"

"Over here, over here!"

An older reporter suddenly rushed in. Yu Jiajia sprang to her feet. "How did it go? Did it pass?"

"It passed!"

"You have no idea whose desk it ended up on. The leader read it and couldn't stop praising it, then approved it with his own red brush. Front page tomorrow!"

"Hiss!"

Yu Jiajia sucked in a mouthful of stewed pork offal and flatbread and said, "The front page?"

"That's right. You've really done it now. No young reporter at this paper has ever made the front page!"

"It's all thanks to what my teachers taught me."

A sudden rush of exhilaration swept through Yu Jiajia, and with it came a flash of understanding. Oh, so this is what the fuck they call journalism!

"Yesterday, the well-known Qianmen Big Bowl Tea Cooperative invited a group of young performers from the municipal opera school... The young performers put on a wonderful show, drawing cheers from the onlookers, and also welcomed an unexpected American guest.

"Eve was fascinated by Chinese folk culture. She listened to a piece of Peking opera on the spot and sampled big bowl tea herself. This traditional Eastern tea drink gave her a thoroughly novel experience.

"Finally, Eve made a point of taking a commemorative photo for everyone before reluctantly taking her leave..."

At the opera school, the director and teachers read it three times before reluctantly putting down the paper. Reporter Yu was someone they could count on: she had said it would be published, and it had been, even making the front page. Though there was a little less about their school, an international friend had been there, so that was understandable.

"Good!"

"I think we can keep this activity going. It brings honor to our school and gives the students a chance to practice. Here's what we'll do: take the students over there right away!"

"But they didn't say anything about performing today, did they?"

"Don't you understand striking while the iron's hot? Be more proactive!"

West of the Qianmen Archery Tower.

This was a newly opened tea stall with 20 people.

They were educated youths too. Their cooperative had gotten started a little late, and they hadn't known what to do. When they saw how popular big bowl tea was, they had copied it and set up a stall of their own.

They had been open for several days, and business was decent. People walking along this street came from either the east or the west, and there was nothing special about big bowl tea, so they simply drank at whichever stall they saw first.

But today was a little different.

"Comrade, would you like some tea? Two fen a bowl!"

A passerby came from the west and glanced at the stall as he passed, slowing his steps briefly. An educated youth hurriedly called out, "We have jasmine tea too, and everything's clean. You'll have to walk a few more steps to get over there!"

"..."

The passerby didn't answer and walked on. The educated youth followed him with his eyes, and sure enough, he went to the stall in the east.

"Comrade, would you like some tea?"

"Comrade, have a drink of tea!"

People passed by one after another, but not a single one stayed. One man, exasperated at being pestered, said, "They have opera to watch. Do you? Foreigners come to drink their tea. Do they come to yours?"

Of course they didn't.

A cloud of gloom hung over the group. Dozens of big bowls sat on the tables, yet they hadn't sold a single bowl.

"We haven't made our first sale today. What are we going to do?"

"We haven't earned a single fen!"

"They're really drawing a crowd. That Huang Zhanying is something else, coming up with so many tricks!"

Everyone was jealous and envious. Listening to the soaring opera and thunderous cheers from the other side, even they were itching to go take a look.

"Bravo!"

"Bravo!"

It was Liu Bei and the same six performers again today, and they were putting even more effort into it.

Everyone was watching the opera for free, so of course they had to buy a bowl of tea. With all the cheering drying out their throats, they needed it even more... At the stall behind them, tea was being brewed pot after pot, but they still couldn't keep up.

How was this a big bowl tea stall?

This was 1979's Mixue Ice Cream & Tea!

"I can't go on. I'm exhausted!"

Even someone as burly as Huang Zhanying was having trouble keeping up. He said, "I think we need to buy a few more big teapots, another fifty big bowls, and a few large vats. Otherwise, there's no way we can keep up with demand."

"Let's buy a few more tables too and open another stall beside this one. It's about time we put the sandals out for sale too. How's business over on the west side?"

"You could catch sparrows at their door!"

Huang Zhanying had actually used an idiom. "Let them copy us. Serves them right! Now they've gotten a taste of hardship."

"Hey, be a little more broad-minded. There are so many tea stalls in Forty-Nine Gates City now. There's really nothing to be done about it. Nobody has it easy."

The strong never complained about the overall environment, because they were the ones who had ruined it!

Chen Qi never engaged in commercial warfare; he was only broad-minded. He said, "Listen to me, and don't let outsiders hear this.

"Their business will keep getting worse. Once they can't keep it going, they might come to you on their own and ask you to take them in. If they don't, go find them and say we're short-handed and willing to take on new people.

"Then lay out your conditions: have the government sort out a place for us to do business. We absolutely need a storefront, the bigger the better. At the same time, expand the scope of our business so we can sell more goods."

"Huh?"

"What do you mean, huh? Do you want to run a stall for the rest of your life? By then, we won't be a tea stall anymore. We'll be a small general merchandise store."

(End of chapter)