Chapter 158: A Special Year

Despite his small stall, these novel and quirky denim garments sold extremely well. The vast majority of buyers were trendy young men and young women, while adults rarely showed any interest in such clothing. In the words of Hong Tao's maternal grandfather, it looked just like people were wearing a set of labor protection clothes!

A few days before the merchant recruitment began, Hong Tao specifically had his eldest aunt's husband make another trip to the neighborhood committee. In the name of National Day, he donated a sum of money to the committee to purchase winter care packages for households enjoying the five guarantees, as well as family members of martyrs and servicemen within the jurisdiction. He did not do this because he suddenly remembered to support the military and care for their families; rather, he was afraid that merchants eliminated during the recruitment process might gossip everywhere and make malicious complaints. Regardless of whether they were truly such people or would actually do such things, assuming the worst of people never resulted in a loss—it was always wise to plan ahead.

Once the merchant recruitment was finished, Hong Tao still could not rest. Grandpa Dajiang's private kitchen also needed to begin renovations. This time, the renovation blueprints had to be drawn by Hong Tao himself, but he was only responsible for the renovation planning of the dining hall upstairs. The kitchen extended from the back of the building had to be designed by Grandpa Zhang himself, since Hong Tao knew nothing about kitchen equipment and refused to play the game of an amateur directing an expert.

This time, Hong Tao changed the renovation style. He abandoned the log cabin aesthetic and instead went for a completely retro look, fully imitating the appearance of a wealthy family during the Qing Dynasty, turning the entire room into a formal reception parlor. He did not come up with this idea on his own—he had no original ideas of his own, relying entirely on memories borrowed from his past life.

Since it was a private kitchen that served only one or two tables of guests a day, it was positioned on the high-end route. Therefore, the renovation needed to highlight a specific characteristic. Hong Tao's positioning for this place was to entertain foreign visitors who came to tour the Lama Temple, even though those foreign guests all arrived in large tour buses and left in large tour buses. Aside from limited activity time, they simply had no time to sit down and leisurely enjoy a formal meal.

However, this was not a problem. As long as you made things attractive enough, they would carve out the time to make a special trip back here. Hong Tao was very confident about this, as such customers frequently visited his clothing and hair salons. Of course, this was also thanks to Hong Tao's English-speaking ability. Whenever he encountered foreign tourists visiting the area, he would casually strike up a conversation and specifically introduce his shops, taking a few random swings just in case something hit.

Another crucial factor was the tour guides. In dealing with them, Hong Tao directly applied the universal unspoken rule of the tourism industry in later generations: kickbacks! However, at this time, these tour guides did not yet have the courage to directly accept cash, which was fine. Hong Tao had specially prepared imported cigarettes and imported cosmetics as gifts for them, giving cigarettes to the men and cosmetics to the women.

These tour guides were all extremely shrewd individuals and naturally knew what Hong Tao was aiming for. Thus, they would intentionally speed up the tours of the Lama Temple and the Imperial College, freeing up more time to bring those foreign visitors to browse Hong Tao's small shops. Therefore, once this private kitchen opened and they casually introduced this very unique restaurant along the way, those tour guides certainly would not mind.

Yet, while others could bring people in, whether they could be retained was no longer the tour guide's task; that depended on whether Hong Tao, the actual operator, had the capability. Hong Tao felt that he possessed this capability. What did those foreign visitors most want to see when they came to China? Certainly not modern construction, and even less so highways, subways, and bridges. What they were most interested in were architecture, culture, and costumes with typical Chinese characteristics that did not exist in their own countries.

Since they wanted to see these things, Hong Tao would satisfy their curiosity. If his clothing store could make qipaos, then decorating the private kitchen in the style of the Qing Dynasty would undoubtedly be the right choice. As for why he did not decorate it in a royal style, Hong Tao was neither afraid of government restrictions nor worried about touching upon any taboos; his primary consideration was that Beijing was not lacking in royal-style decorations. The Fangshan Restaurant inside Beihai Park represented the imperial garden style, glittering with gold and jade everywhere, with seat cushions and tablecloths made of bright yellow silk, and all tableware consisting of utensils exclusively used by the Imperial Household Department fired by the official kilns of Jingdezhen. Even the dining structures themselves were genuinely Qing Dynasty imperial gardens.

If he wanted to compete with Fangshan on that front, not a single aspect of Hong Tao's small room could compare. Therefore, he had to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses: where they had imperial pomp, his place would feature the demeanor of a wealthy commoner household; where they had courtly elegance, his place would follow the commoner route. Just as there were people who favored the aristocratic style, there would certainly be those who preferred the homes of ordinary folk. Much like eating, everyone had their own preference among sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy flavors.

Furthermore, Hong Tao had ready-made furniture and an available expert he could utilize. The Ming and Qing dynasty furniture he collected consisted of genuine, high-quality pieces. He planned to write a simple description in English for every single piece of furniture and attach it in a prominent position. Dining while sitting on a 300-year-old rosewood chair and using a 200-year-old huanghuali round table—putting aside how good the food tasted, this entire setup alone would instantly make customers feel that their trip had been well worth it.

In addition to that, there was Second Master, a descendant of the Manchu nobility. How the furniture in the room should be arranged and where each item should be placed were matters crystal clear in his mind. During the renovation, he would stay right here keeping watch. Wherever old furniture could be used, old furniture would be used; where it was truly impossible to find, he would hire someone to craft new pieces out of hardwood. Aside from dining, he would set up a complete tea-drinking station, along with a few cricket jars, cricket gourds, and birdcages placed around. If this could not be considered unique, Hong Tao could not possibly conceive what else could be deemed unique.

As a young Chinese man from the south named Li Ning won six gold medals in the horizontal bar, floor exercise, vault, pommel horse, rings, and individual all-around at the World Gymnastics Championships held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia—creating a myth in the history of world gymnastics and earning the title of the gymnastics prince—the good news swept across the country via television. The year 1982 quietly slipped away, replaced by 1983. By this time, Hong Tao was exactly eleven years old, and he had already been in the fourth grade for over half a year.

The Spring Festival of this year was extraordinary. With new policies in place, during the month of February when the Spring Festival fell, urban residents were each allocated three jin of high-grade flour, one jin of small mixed beans, one jin of glutinous rice, four taels of peanut oil, one tael of sesame oil, half a jin of peanuts, three taels of melon seeds, one tael of sesame paste, two jin of ribbon fish, or half a jin of chub mackerel. Consequently, ordinary people's dining tables gained a few more subsidiary food products, and people would also have one more woolen garment to wear.

Another major change was television programming: the very first Spring Festival Gala originated from this year onward. From then on, every Chinese family would gather around the dining table on New Year's Eve, enjoying family harmony while appreciating this variety-style television program. The Spring Festival Gala also gradually became an indispensable form of entertainment for Chinese people celebrating the Spring Festival.

Thanks to the TV Program Weekly newspaper, one week before the Spring Festival, Hong Tao caught sight of the term Spring Festival Gala. To allow his whole family to better appreciate this unprecedented cultural extravaganza, Hong Tao ran back to the Friendship Store once more. Spending 1,800 yuan in foreign exchange certificates, he brought back a 14-inch Sanyo color television set—which, if converted into regular currency, was close to 4,000 yuan.

The small black-and-white television previously at home was taken by Hong Tao to the courtyard of the Enamel Factory and placed in the novelty shop. Second Master, Lu Yunpeng, and Liu Baishi were all lifelong bachelors and widows. Every year when the Spring Festival arrived, they were the loneliest people. Although both the clothing store and the hair salon had television sets, to avoid suspicion, they were unwilling to unlock the doors and go inside to watch television after closing time.

Unlike Han Xue and her sister who were still young and could run over to Hong Tao's maternal grandmother's house to spend New Year's Eve, these three individuals were advanced in years and could not lower their pride to do so. They could only cook a few delicious dishes for themselves in the courtyard, and then listen to the sound of firecrackers outside while drinking bitter wine in solitude and reminiscing about the past. With this television set, even if it could not erase the inner desolation they felt, it could at least bring them a trace of happiness. Every extra laugh they managed was a gain; that was all Hong Tao could manage to do for them at present.

At exactly 8:00 PM, Zhao Zhongxiang, still a young man at the time, appeared on the television screen to deliver the opening remarks, followed by hosts such as Ma Ji, Jiang Kun, Liu Xiaoqing, and Wang Jingyu stepping onto the stage. Seeing such a large-scale variety show on television for the very first time, everyone in the room was filled with curiosity. Even the maternal grandparents stared fixedly at the television screen without blinking, occasionally commenting on which young woman was pretty or which young man looked spirited.

The first person to take the stage and sing the "New Year Greeting Song" was Li Guyi, a young singer who had faced severe scrutiny over the past two years and been dubbed the domestic Teresa Teng. Through this appearance on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, she completely shook off those accusations while simultaneously demonstrating the state's attitude toward the matter.

Subsequently, Hong Tao also saw many cultural heavyweights who remained household names in later generations, such as Master Hou Baolin, Siqin Gaowa, Hu Songhua, Li Wenhua, Zhao Yan, Yan Shunkai, and others. Additionally, Li Guyi re-performed her signature song "A Hometown Romance", Liu Xiaoqing sang the movie insert song "Velvet Flower", and a female singer named Zheng Xulan performed "On the Sun Island", "The Shepherdess", and "Oh Ocean, My Hometown".

These three songs of hers were the most popular tunes of this era. If there was such a thing as a queen of pop back then, Zheng Xulan undoubtedly deserved the title, and securing a platinum record would have been effortless. Particularly the film insert song "The Shepherdess" had already swept across the country back in 1982 alongside the movie The Shaolin Temple. At the same time, another martial arts star who remained famous well into the 21st century also made his debut in this film—none other than Jet Li.

"Second Master, Second Granny, Uncle Lu, I'm here to offer you my New Year greetings! Come on, let's bow! You two can decide on the red envelope; 1,000 is not too much, and 500 is not too little! Uncle Lu, I won't kowtow to you, otherwise all that salary of yours would have to be returned to me, and I'm afraid it wouldn't even be enough." Before the clock struck twelve, Hong Tao gave word to his family, then grabbed a bag of peanuts, melon seeds, and candies, returning to the novelty shop by himself. Without a second word, as soon as he stepped through the door, he immediately performed a formal bow. (To be continued...)