Chapter 161 I Can Understand

"Fine, stay here then. I'm going home for lunch myself, it's almost half past twelve." Director Bai, disliking the sound of people gossiping behind others' backs, darkened his face and strode directly out of the duty room.

Having accepted Director Bai's assignment, Hong Tao didn't take it to heart. After finishing his lunch, he made his usual round around the small building. The hair salon and the clothing store no longer required his attention, and the Forward Store had even less to do with him. Since changing the profit-sharing model to counter rentals, Hong Tao only needed to keep an eye on this building to ensure those desperate educated youths didn't burn it down, and then collect the rent on time like a petty landlord.

The curiosities shop was completely empty today. Ever since Hong Tao mentioned turning Grandpa Dajiang's private restaurant into a fully vintage-style establishment, Old Man Er had been like a wound-up clockwork toy. As long as the weather was decent, he would put on his original outfit, mount his German-made Truppenfahrrad tricycle, and roam all over the city. Nowadays, he not only collected antique and old furniture that caught his eye, possessed good patina, and was made of quality materials, but he also bought back anything from a similar era, with an acceptable appearance, made of hardwood, and usable for the private restaurant. Besides these, he had acquired quite a few pieces of porcelain—some real, some fake, mostly dating from the Republic of China and the late Qing Dynasty. They couldn't truly be called antiques, but they all looked high-end and luxurious, which should be more than enough to fool some foreigners.

After making a round of the small building, Hong Tao carried his bag alone and went to the sports school for training. Now that Lu Yunpeng was gone, no one acted as his bodyguard anymore, making personal safety a major issue. However, he had come up with a solution for himself: taxis. Taking a taxi straight to the gate of the sports school, and walking back together with his senior martial brothers and sisters after training. That made things much safer.

The taxi industry had actually existed since the 1950s. Initially, it was used exclusively to transport foreign guests. Gradually, entering the early 1980s, the scale grew larger and larger, and the cars changed from the original Volga, FSO Warszawa, old Shanghai, and old Hongqi sedans to Nissan, Toyota, and Citroën models. These cars didn't have rooftop taxi signs; instead, they simply had their company names painted on the doors with oil paint, such as Shouqi, Beiqi, or Beifu. Shouqi mainly used Toyota Corolla models, Beiqi favored Nissans and French Peugeot cars, while Beifu used Mercedes-Benz and Citroëns.

Among all these models, Hong Tao's absolute favorite was the French Citroën. This model was called the Citroën CX, which had just debuted in 1974, with a body length of 4,666 millimeters and a height of only 1,360 millimeters. Its low, streamlined body made it remarkably distinct from other sedan cars of the same era. Moreover, the CX adopted a new generation of hydropneumatic self-leveling suspension systems, which gave the vehicle exceptional stability at high speeds, and its steering featured one of the world's first variable-assist power steering systems.

Discussing such data points was far too abstract. In Hong Tao's impression, the most striking characteristic of the Citroën CX was that when parked, the car body would suddenly drop by a notch, its four tires seeming to retract into the frame as the chassis hugged the ground almost tightly. Yet when it started up, the hydropneumatic suspension system would elevate the chassis height, just like a runner crouching on the ground getting ready to sprint, rising up smoothly and effortlessly.

In the early 1980s, whether it was the rising sun of Japanese automobiles, the veteran German cars, or American cars, without exception they all featured sharp, angular designs. Only the Citroën CX boasted a streamlined body, highly compatible with the aesthetic standards of the 21st century. Whenever Hong Tao thought of this car now, he would ponder a question: could the designer of this vehicle also be a Frenchman who had time-traveled from the future?

Taxis in the early 1980s were not meant to serve the broad masses of the people. With a price tag of 60 to 80 cents per kilometer, ordinary people could not afford them either. Therefore, they didn't cruise the streets looking for fares; instead, they stayed stationed in front of various foreign-affairs hotels and restaurants, as well as dozens of taxi service stations scattered throughout the capital. If ordinary citizens wanted to take a taxi, it wasn't impossible—they had to make reservations by phone in advance or wait at a taxi service station. Trying to flag down a car on the main road was simply out of the question. It wasn't that you couldn't encounter an empty taxi, but even if you did, the drivers wouldn't dare pick you up. Taking passengers without dispatch orders or outside of designated taxi stands was considered a crime equivalent to embezzlement!

Hong Tao benefited from the proximity of the Lama Temple and the Imperial College tourist attractions, as there was a taxi service station right here. Thus, he saved himself even the trouble of making phone reservations. He could find a car the moment he stepped outside, because there were always one or two taxis lingering here. As for the model, there was no room for picky choices; whatever came along was what you rode. In any case, the ones with air conditioning cost 80 cents, and those without cost 60 cents.

Taxis at this time also lacked taximeters. Fares were calculated by checking the mileage on the odometer and then computing the cost. Furthermore, there were no machine-printed receipts; initially, all receipts were handwritten, and later they evolved into tear-off tickets—a type of fixed-denomination receipt slightly larger than grain ration coupons, with the smallest denomination being 10 cents.

"Xiaotao, come here, Dad wants to discuss something with you," Father called out, stopping Hong Tao just as he was about to run toward the small building after finishing dinner at Grandma's house in the evening. He wore a secretive look, and the expression on his face seemed extremely excited. Even though he tried hard to suppress it to keep from showing, Hong Tao could still sense his father's unusual elation today.

"Why are you being so secretive?" Hong Tao followed his father back into their home, feeling quite puzzled when he saw his father even lock the front door from the inside.

"You're a big boy now, and you should know about some matters within the family. I want to ask for your opinion: would you like to change your living environment? In other words, how would you feel about us moving?" Father lit a cigarette and asked Hong Tao in a low voice.

"Moving!? Is our family's house getting given back to us?!" Hong Tao was so shocked that he blurted out words he shouldn't have said.

"You... how do you know about our house?!" The cigarette in Father's hand trembled, dropping directly onto his trousers. While hurriedly brushing away the cigarette butt and ash, he stared wide-eyed at Hong Tao with an interrogation gaze.

"Oh... One day I was looking for something in your study and saw those things you wrote, crumpled up and tossed under the desk." Not living up to his reputation as a veteran combatant on the lying front, Hong Tao remained unflushed and breathless, instantly finding an explanation that sounded entirely reasonable and virtually impossible to verify.

"Where are those papers? Did you leave them there?" Father clearly believed him and began to pursue the whereabouts of that little paper ball.

"I burned them. It's better not to let outsiders know about this stuff, don't you think?" Hong Tao tried his best to appear more sensible.

"Right... right... Since you already know anyway, I won't keep it from you. That house was the sole inheritance left by your grandparents. It was confiscated previously, and I thought it was gone for good, so I didn't tell you. However, a couple of years ago, a policy came down stating that it could be reclaimed. I gave it a try, and it actually worked! I've been thinking that if we move in there, the rooms should be a bit bigger. I'm just worried you might not be too willing. What do you think?" Father felt that Hong Tao had handled the matter quite properly. Through Hong Tao's continuous stimulation over the past few years, Father had already grown accustomed to him frequently pulling off feats only adults could manage.

"So you managed to get the house back?" Hong Tao had a deep impression of that house because he had lived there continuously from the first year of junior high all the way until he graduated from university and started working, only moving back into the current small building afterward. The reason was that he wanted independence, and as it turned out, he succeeded.

Yet the trajectory of this lifetime had clearly been scrambled somewhat by his own interference. How had a house originally scheduled to be returned in 1985 ended up back in their hands already by 1983? No wonder Father hadn't been spending much time at home over the past two years, always cooped up writing things in his study when free, and frequently running out on days off—it turned out he had been bustling around for this! It seemed he had truly poured a tremendous amount of effort into it!

"Oh, not yet, not quite yet, but I've ironed out all the policy details. Specific issues still need to be run through, and it's not that easy. I'm just asking for your opinion first. Your mother has already agreed; after all, the new house is much closer to her workplace, and much closer to where I work too. The main consideration is you. The purpose of my getting this house is for your sake—I want you to have a better study environment. Over the past few years, I've seen what you and your uncle have been getting up to. To be honest, you're far stronger than your old man, but I still want you to become an educated person rather than just a wealthy person. Can you understand this?" Father began appealing to his reason and emotions, fearing that Hong Tao would adamantly refuse to move. If it came to that and escalated to Hong Tao's grandmother's house, the one who ultimately failed might well be him.

"I can understand, don't worry. I won't hold you back, nor will I go complaining to Grandpa. But I do have a suggestion: it would be best if we could move when I start junior high school. That way I won't have to transfer schools midway. You know how troublesome it is for me to get along with the teachers at school; if I'm thrown into a new environment again, you'll probably have to run to the school every day to listen to the teachers' lectures. Not only would you be worn out, but it wouldn't do my studies any good either, right?"

Hong Tao naturally had to understand his father; even if he were unwilling, he had to understand. That was simply the kind of person he was—he had irritated his father enough in his past life, so there was no need to repeat it in this one. Fulfilling his wish as much as possible was the right course. Moving to Xicheng District to live didn't mean he couldn't take care of the business here; at most, it would just be two or three kilometers farther away.

"Hahaha, you're much more sensible than I imagined. Don't worry, I've already talked to your Principal Bai, and you won't need to transfer schools. She even wanted to recommend you for direct admission to a district key school, but you're not yet a Young Pioneer, and you haven't been selected as a Three-Good Student. Alas, that part isn't too easy. No matter, whether you get recommended admission or not doesn't matter now. Once we move, you'll be going to school in Xicheng anyway. Based on your grades, passing the exams from junior high to high school and getting into a key school ourselves won't be a problem at all. We don't need recommendation quotas; we'll get in through our own genuine capability. Don't you think that's wonderful!" Hearing that Hong Tao didn't oppose the move, Father's spirits soared even higher, prompting him to elaborate on his plans for the next few years. (To be continued...)