Becoming an Immortal from the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 111

Xia Zhixin followed Mo Bai out of the two-story building of the inpatient department, and his eyes suddenly brightened.

In fact, Xia Zhixin had already seen some special scenery through the window when he was recuperating in the ward these two days.

But it wasn't until he walked out of the hospital's enclosure and into the Changshengjiao No. [-] High-tech Development Zone that he felt the difference in water and soil more intuitively.

If you have to give a definition here, it is neither Chinese nor Western, neither native nor foreign, neither fish nor fowl.

This is the truth.

Except for a few occasional Chinese-style greening and landscaping, such as the huge stone inscribed by Zhang Yuqing, the head teacher of the Longevity Sect, at the entrance of the development zone, there are large factory buildings and dormitory buildings made of prefabricated panels and asbestos tiles.

The tone of the color is gray, and it can be praised except for being uniform, and other things must have nothing to do with aesthetics.

But once he got used to this setting, the rumbling roar of diesel engines in the distance, and the black smoke curling up into the sky, Xia Zhixin gradually realized the magnificence of industrial culture.

In addition to these different architectural styles, what makes Xia Zhixin refreshed is the pedestrians here.

Since it was still working hours, there were not many pedestrians in the entire industrial park.

Only some workers who are on duty on weekends are walking around.

Here, both men and women appear to be in high spirits.

Wearing indigo uniforms, they walked briskly in the courtyard in twos and threes.

Xia Zhixin even saw a worker riding a bicycle, like a champion man straddling a horse parading through the street, ringing the bell all the way forward.

If you don't know, you may think that someone's yamen has come to be a clean land rover.

But obviously, the eyes everyone looked at him were not looking at Land Rover's fear and disgust, but a kind of admiration and yearning.

Mo Bai enviously said: "This must be a business model. I heard them say that such a bicycle needs [-] cycles, and only business model can afford it!"

"Mr. Xia, stop!"

At this moment, Mo Bai grabbed Xia Zhixin and stepped out of the way.

A group of black, thin and strong men suddenly appeared in the distance.

They lined up neatly all the way, wearing black round neck and short sleeves on their upper bodies, which were completely wet with sweat.

"One-two-three-four, one-two-three-four!"

This team of ten Taoists, shouting loud slogans, stepped on the nodes and trotted forward.

Xia Zhixin saw that it wasn't just Mo Bai who pulled him out of the way, but also the workers who were rushing on the road consciously, and even the business model who was riding a bicycle and enjoying himself in the spring breeze also got out of the car and waited for the other party to go first.

Looking at their backs going away, Xia Zhixin couldn't help but muttered to himself: "Are they soldiers of the Longevity Sect?"

"Hey, it would be great if I can be selected for the conscription later!"

Mo Bai said enviously, "Being enrolled in the Changshengjiao army, the monthly salary and labor insurance standards are said to be higher than those of the backbone of the business!"

"The military status of the Longevity Sect..."

Xia Zhixin's eyelids twitched again.

Just as Xia Zhixin was considering his words, Mo Bai suddenly pointed not far away and said, "Mr. Xia's bathroom is here!"

……

As a southerner, Zhang Yuqing only saw public bathhouses when he was very young.

At that time, water heaters and air heaters were not yet popular, and every household did not have the conditions to take a bath at home.

All large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises will build their own public bathrooms, allowing factory employees to use them with a ticket. Of course, they will also open to the public for a fee.

The nature of this small bathroom designed in an industrial area is similar.

Except for the Taoists, all tickets are free, and the workers have to pay for it themselves when they run out of bathing tickets.

A lot of money once, expensive but not expensive.

The bathroom uses waste heat from a logging plant's fumigation workshop to heat the bath water.

It can save energy to the greatest extent.

When Mo Bai and Xia Zhixin appeared at the entrance of the bathhouse, they were stopped by two administrators.

They are the Lin'an people who are the gatekeepers and boil water here, and their Mandarin skills are average.

However, the management regulations of the bathroom were written on the wall, and Xia Zhixin understood it after a few glances.

"We need a health certificate!"

Mo Bai continued to paint, and finally he was able to communicate.

If you want to work in the factory, or enter the factory or the living area, you must have a health certificate.

The first step for every outsider to apply for a health certificate is to take a good medicinal bath.

Mo Bai took out two cards from his pocket, on which were affixed a black and white photo of him and Xia Zhixin, and stamped with the seal of the Longevity Church.

There is also a certificate issued by the hospital nursing department.

After careful checking, the administrator let the two go: "Come with me, take the left door of the men's bathroom, don't go wrong!"

Only those in good health can use the large baths and shower system.

This is to avoid cross-contamination of diseases.

You must know that in this era, syphilis and gonorrhea abound, and plague anthrax and tuberculosis also make trouble from time to time.

We must be cautious, especially for new members like Xiang Mo Bai and Xia Zhixin, we must not relax our vigilance until they pass the physical examination.

After entering the relatively narrow small shower room, the administrator put on gloves, masks, and simple protective clothing, and took out a large sterilized bamboo basket from the disinfection room.

Mo Bai stripped himself naked in a familiar way, and then threw the clothes into the box.

Xia Zhixin has lived for 40 years, and he has never seen such a battle.

An old face was flushed, and he refused to take off his clothes no matter what.

"Mr. Xia, we have to hurry up, or we won't be able to catch lunch!"

Under Mo Bai's repeated urging, Xia Zhixin had no choice but to follow suit and take off his clothes.

"Come over tomorrow to pick up your clothes."

"Understood, thank you uncle!"

Mo Bai thanked the administrator, who dragged the bamboo basket away and fumigated the clothes inside to completely kill all kinds of parasites.

In fact, according to Zhang Yuqing, this kind of tattered clothes could be burned directly.

After all, it's not worth a lot of money, and many people's clothes are too dirty, and they don't know how many lice are hidden!
……

Small showers, naked men.

Such a picture is hard not to remind people of Tokusan's evil deeds.

Letting Zhang Yuqing stay in such a small space must be uncomfortable.

But ignorant people are fearless, Mo Bai washed heartily.

Thanks to Mr. Tosha, he can enjoy a free hot bath again.

Otherwise, you can only get a bath coupon after you have fixed your position.

Mo Bai didn't expect that Mr. Xia would be so awkward when taking a bath, he was almost swelled by the water, and he barely finished the bath.

But thinking of the first time he used "realgar shower gel" and "insecticidal shampoo", Mo Bai felt normal.

Blowing bubbles is really fun!

Four and ten minutes later, two men with wet hair came out of the bathroom in loose dressing gowns.

After taking a shower and getting the smallpox vaccine, Mo Bai took Xia Zhixin to the cafeteria for dinner.

Xia Zhixin, who has been hospitalized these days, already has a deep understanding of the rich food in the church.

Before, he thought that Mo Bai borrowed usury to bring him a daily meal of meat and vegetables.

But when he got to the cafeteria, Xia Zhixin realized that he had made a serious mistake.

The so-called canteen is actually a large arch shed built with brackets and asbestos tiles.

When it's meal time, the workers come to eat in twos and threes.

The basic catering is one meat and two vegetables, and rice is enough.

If you want to eat better, you have to spend money.

Of course, most workers are still very frugal. In order to save money to buy bicycles, they all choose to eat free meals.

One meat and two vegetables, this is already a luxury food that was unimaginable before!
Of course, this kind of meat is not a big meat such as whole chicken and duck, hooves and sauced elbows.

Generally, it is a piece of braised pork with fat on the belt, or a fragrant braised chicken leg.

The most common is braised chicken legs.

Xia Zhixin followed Mo Bai, took a stainless steel dinner plate, and waited at the back of the line to order food.

When it was their turn, the fat Lin'an elder sister gave Xia Zhixin a large spoonful of pork vermicelli and gave him a wink.

"Hey, then the eldest sister must have taken a fancy to Mr. Xia, right?"

Back at the dining table, Mo Bai looked at the fans on Xia Zhixin's plate that were at least 1.5 times his own, and couldn't help guessing.

"What nonsense are you talking about!"

Xia Zhixin blushed, and said, "Perhaps that little lady saw that I was recovering from a serious illness, so she gave me more beatings to nourish my body."

"Not necessarily!"

Mo Bai looked around, and said in a low voice, "I heard from the old miners that there are many men and women in Lin'an, and most of them are unmarried women. This time, five hundred new miners will come in, and I'm afraid they will organize a large-scale blind date party." ! A gentle and handsome man like you, who has read a lot of poetry and books, must be very sought-after!"

"Is there such a thing?"

Xia Zhixin's eyes widened in surprise, even though he had read so much poetry and books, he didn't know what to say.

As a widower who has lost his wife for more than ten years, Xia Zhixin has not thought of continuing.

Especially after the son was brought up little by little, this thought became even more serious.

It's just that in recent years, the sex ratio in the southeastern region has been seriously out of balance.

Coupled with the fact that polygamy is essentially the sexual exploitation of low-level men by the rich and powerful, it has become more and more difficult for old bachelors to marry wives.

Sky-high betrothal gifts did not just appear suddenly in the 21st century.

Xu Wei's statement is exaggerated, or it is still an isolated case.

According to records, during the Qing Dynasty, the dowry gifts of ordinary families in the Jiangnan area were as high as five or sixty taels, which was equivalent to the amount that a local long-term worker could save for six years without eating or drinking.

In later generations, it would take about the same amount of time for a young man with an ordinary job to come up with a bride price.

According to records, during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, the ratio of men to women in Suzhou, Jiaxing and other places was about [-] to [-].

The ratio of men to women in Beijing was [-] to [-]. In the Ming Dynasty, half of the people in Jinqu, Zhejiang Province were without wives. In the Qing Dynasty, [-] out of [-] people in Wenzhou were homeless.

Although not 80.00% of the men in Xia Zhixin's hometown are single, there are too many monks and too little porridge. The great monks drink more than a dozen bowls of porridge each, which makes poor monks unable to drink porridge.

So much so that when Xia Zhixin heard that this place still manages to divide his wives, he was so surprised that even the fans in his mouth leaked out.

It turns out that this kind of crazy involution in the marriage market has been difficult to solve for hundreds of years, but there is still a way to break through?

Could it be that his rebellious son is still a forerunner?Be the first to eat a crab?

"It seems that this longevity religion also has merits!"

Xia Zhixin wiped his mouth, and then took a peek at the fat aunt in the cafeteria with big breasts and big buttocks, who seemed to be well-behaved at first glance, and the latter just happened to cast a bright smile.

"It's more important to find my son!"

Xia Zhixin lowered his head, quickly took a big mouthful of rice, and ate it into his mouth.

…………

No. 3-1 temporary dormitory at Lin'an No. 5 construction site.

A dark young man knocked on the door.

Xia Zhixin put down the pen and paper, opened the door, and it was Mo Bai who hadn't seen him for several days.

Today's Mo Bai is not called Mo Bai, it is better to be called Mo Hei.

Days of training and work on duty made this young longevity warrior's face darken.

"Mr. Xia, the army is on vacation for ten days, so I just came to see you for a drink!"

Mo Bai picked up the two plastic bags in his handle.

One of the bags contained rice wine in bulk, and it was still steaming.

Another bag was full of cooked edamame and peanuts.

It’s the midsummer of July now, what could be more satisfying than drinking a big bowl of ice rice wine?
Because of his excellent performance in the physical fitness assessment, Mo Bai is now promoted to a second-class and second-class Taoist soldier, with a monthly income of [-] yuan.

Although there is still some gap compared with the veterans, for Mo Bai who has never seen a whole silver in his life, this is already a huge sum of money.

So he bought cheap rice wine in bulk and came to visit Mr. Xia.

Xia Zhixin was assigned to a double dormitory, and his other roommate was a pig butcher from Ningbo, who had a good skill at killing cattle.

In the previous anatomy study, this pig butcher named Dong Wei stood out and learned a lot about the doctor's skills.

He became the first legal surgeon of the Longevity Sect.

After successfully performing an appendectomy on an experimental pig, Dong Wei also received the treatment of a double room as a special talent.

Xia Zhixin didn't communicate much with this roommate on weekdays, but there was no conflict.

At this time, Dong Wei was undergoing consultation in the hospital, and Xia Zhixin was the only one in the dormitory.

Xia Zhixin welcomed Mo Bai into the room with a smile.

"Brother Mo, you are black and thin!"

Mo Bai handed the wine bowl to Xia Zhixin, and asked again: "By the way, Mr. Xia, didn't you come here to find a son? Do you have any clues?"

Xia Zhixin took a sip of the cold beer, feeling refreshed for a while.

He sighed and said: "It's not easy to find Nizi in this vast world, but no matter whether that little bastard is dead or alive, I want to see him in the end.

But before that, Xia had to repay the favor of the Ming court for his life, so he had to stay here and do some things first. "

Of course, there was one thing Xia Zhixin didn't say.

That is, he has a cyst and is shy now, and he has to save up travel expenses before he can set off.

"That's really wonderful. Mr. Xia is a Wenqu star descending from the sky, and he happens to be able to study in a school!"

Mo Bai heard that there will be hospitals, schools and other buildings in the city, so he said this.

Xia Zhiwen said but his expression became strange.

It turned out that when he was appointed as a post, he also felt that he was a scholar, and the school was naturally the best home.

However, his first choice was rejected and he was assigned to work in a museum.

Xia Zhixin knew a thing or two about what this museum was.

Xia Zhixin felt that he couldn't plunder cultural relics in martial arts, and he couldn't send out the pyramids in Wenqiu, so he couldn't compete with museums anyway.

But when he actually worked, he realized that his task was not like that at all.

He didn't even use fieldwork, but was responsible for editing the "Journal of Longevity Education Science".

This can be regarded as a professional counterpart, after all, Xia Zhixin was responsible for compiling the local annals of his hometown.

(End of this chapter)