Chapter 774: Chapter 763 Returning Shishi Ho
The most important thing was the big clean-up, and since Li Shishi had only recently beco pregnant, she didn’t need to be overly cautious. She followed a group of people cleaning the villa up and down. When Song Yun entered the villa, Li Shishi was walking around carrying a bucket of water with a spring in her step, which imdiately made Song Yun’s heart clench.
“My dear grandmother, you are pregnant, how can you not take better care of yourself!” Song Yun quickly went forward and took the bucket from Li Shishi’s hands.
“Oh, it’s okay. Look at my belly; it hasn’t even grown that much. What’s there to worry about?” Li Shishi said and was about to grab a mop nearby. Song Yun quickly grabbed the mop as well and said, “You go rest. We can just get soone from a dostic service to co clean. Do you really need to do it yourself? Plus, aren’t Yueyue and Xiaoqing around?”
“Of course, I have to clean my room during Spring Festival. Song Yun, just let
clean for a bit. My mom called earlier and told
to co ho tomorrow, so tonight is my last night here in our villa, well, for this year at least. Can’t you grant
this?”
“Leaving tomorrow? That quickly?” Song Yun asked, surprised. “Isn’t it more than a week until New Year’s?”
“But Grandpa and my parents want to see !” Li Shishi said helplessly. “And now that they know about my pregnancy, my mom is as nervous as can be. She doesn’t feel secure unless I’m by her side.”
“Sigh, just thinking about not seeing you for such a long ti makes
feel so sad.”
“Don’t worry, Song Yun. I’ll see you on the fifteenth of the first lunar month. If possible, I’ll bring my parents to Beijing too. What do you think?”
“There’s nothing wrong with that. We’ll just go to Beijing together then,” Song Yun agreed without hesitation.
After discussing matters, Li Shishi still wanted to do sothing else but was thoroughly prevented by Song Yun. “I’ll do it for you. Cleaning the house is easy. You go eat sothing or watch TV and surf the internet,” Song Yun suggested and then took the mop and started mopping the floor directly. Li Shishi watched as Song Yun insisted so strongly, eventually giving up. She grabbed a snack and sat on the sofa, munching away while occasionally comnting, “Xiao Yun, you missed a spot there, and that area isn’t clean yet.”
Song Yun worked tirelessly, like an old ox. This amused Li Yueyue and the others watching from a distance, while Song Ergou, sitting beside Li Shishi on another sofa, sowhat emotionally said to his wife, “Wife, look at our son. Do you think he might end up henpecked?”
“What do you think?” Ye Qingsi chuckled.
“I don’t think so; he is my son.” Song Ergou said proudly. “In our Song Family, we’ve never had a henpecked man.”
“Really?” Ye Qingsi looked calmly at Song Ergou. Song Ergou shivered and said, “I’m going to lay out the bedding in the room.”
Li Shishi was supposed to leave the next afternoon. Her parents didn’t reside in the Li Family Mansion but in a villa in the city center. Initially, Song Yun planned to arrange for soone to drive Li Shishi there. However, after considering the recent lack of safety, he decided to drive her there himself. Not only would this be safer, but it also showed his intentions more clearly. Once they arrived and her parents saw that Song Yun had personally brought their daughter ho, they would probably be overjoyed.
Song Yun was also accompanied by Song Ergou and Ye Qingsi. As Song Yun was going to be a father, it seed appropriate to et the family, so this was a good opportunity for Song Yun and Ye Qingsi to et the other’s family and discuss so matters.
This ti, Song Yun didn’t drive his A6 but chose a white Audi Q7 instead, because it was roomier and more comfortable. Most importantly, Song Yun couldn’t always drive his privileged car; it was too conspicuous, and the A6 drew too much attention. Song Yun was certain; if he drove that car out, too many eyes would follow him, sothing he definitely didn’t want.
After leaving the villa area, they headed toward the city center.
They hadn’t been driving long when they passed the train station and Song Yun had to slow down due to a large crowd blocking a significant part of the road.
“What’s going on?” Song Yun curiously remarked as he viewed the lengthy crowd.
“It’s just people queuing to buy tickets,” Song Ergou replied. “You see, the queue starts from the ticket office at the train station.
“Indeed. But that’s more than a hundred ters long! My goodness, how many people must there be!” Song Yun remarked in astonishnt. “The last person to buy the tickets probably won’t get theirs until tonight.”
“So have to queue for several days,” Song Ergou ntioned. “The Spring Festival is approaching, and the number of people heading ho increases; not everyone can afford a plane ticket. The train is one of the most economical ans of transport, so most people still choose to take the train. This queueing is quite normal.”
“So that’s why!” Song Yun nodded thoughtfully. This trip ho really isn’t easy!
“Not just buying tickets, but being on the train is even harder,” Song Ergou stated. “So have to travel from the starting station to the final one but only have standing tickets. You might have to stand for forty or fifty hours, which is truly torturous!”
“It’s strange to
that they never seem to improve this situation,” Song Yun said while gripping the steering wheel.
“First, there are simply too many people; second, again, there are too many people; third, there are too many scalpers,” Song Ergou explained. “How many people are there in Shen Zhou? Over a billion. How many trains are there? Naturally, if there are more people than vehicles, you can’t get a ticket. Additionally, there are many scalpers, which is another reason why tickets are hard to obtain. With insider outsiders colluding, soone standing first in line might still not get a ticket.”
“So there’s corruption everywhere,” Song Yun said thoughtfully.
“Of course. Train tickets are the easiest way to make money. You add fifty yuan to a ticket and sell a hundred a day; that’s nearly ten thousand yuan. Split among two or three people, each person makes several thousand. The Spring Festival transport period lasts quite a while. One person could make over a hundred thousand in one Spring Festival season alone, and that’s enough for luxury for a year. Who would be crazy enough not to take part?” Song Ergou explained.
“But aren’t they constantly cracking down on scalpers? How can they not wipe it out with such strict asures?” Song Yun asked.
“What’s a crackdown? The scalping trade forms an entire industry chain. At the top are individuals from the railway bureaus. Of course, I’m talking about specific areas, not the whole country. Imagine, if you work at the railway bureau, you sell the tickets to a scalper, making twenty or thirty yuan each, selling a hundred tickets is two or three thousand yuan. It’s easy money. How much the scalper marks up the prices afterward is none of your business. This is easy money. Those scalpers have the protection of the railway bureau officials, so what can a crackdown do?” Song Ergou said disdainfully, “Nowadays, scalping is practically a semi-official profession.”
“Why not just build more railways then? The country isn’t out of money,” Song Yun suggested.
“But they’re investing hundreds of billions in high-speed rail, aren’t they? The speeds are getting faster and faster, reaching world-class levels, but the safety is not so great. Every now and then, accidents occur that kill people, and then they have to invest even more money to slow the speeds back down, replacing equipnt that hasn’t been used long with new equipnt. Let
tell you, a single railway project has made countless billionaires. Once you get to Beijing, you’ll see all sorts of things like this,” Song Ergou explained.
“F*ck, Dad, there’s one thing that really bothers ,” Song Yun said, frowning.
“What is it?”
“Our country always prides itself on being one of the top economies in the world, boasting about our economic growth rate and ranking among the top globally. We also boast about our technology being among the best in the world. But I think, if we can’t even properly solve basic issues like food, clothing, and travel for the common people, then claiming to be the top economy in the world is just like farting; it doesn’t an much. It’s like during the late Ming dynasty when they kept on sending Eunuch Zheng to the South Seas. The first ti could be seen as a quest for discovery, but the second, third, and fourth tis were purely about flushing money down the toilet just for the sake of keeping up appearances. Don’t you think that’s kind of stupid?” Song Yun said.
“Hush, watch out for cross-province eavesdropping,” Song Ergou whispered quietly.
“Right, right. Totally agree,” Song Yun nodded, indicating he would not say any more.
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