Chapter 277 Attending the Banquet
On the evening of the next day, as expected, the cadre from the "Foreign Affairs Office" came again in a large bread truck, specially coming to pick up the Mi family to go to the banquet.
But to be honest, Mi Xiaoran really didn’t want to go.
It's not that she's being pretentious. First, she's afraid that Aunt Mi will ask someone to pay for the car in person.
Secondly, her biological father is even more extreme than her biological mother.
Since talking about this last night and seeing those gifts, Master Mi has concluded that he has met a big fat sheep.
I actually plan to take advantage of my favor and go to the banquet today to get more benefits.
How philistine this is! Too philistine!
If they really open their mouths, wouldn’t this matter change?
How can Mi Xiaoran get off stage?
But the problem is, the actual situation cannot help her not to go.
Not to mention that Aunt Mi, the neatly dressed and full of longing Master Mi, quit her job, and Mi Xiaohui, who wanted to watch the excitement, also refused to let go.
The cadres from the "Foreign Affairs Office" who were afraid of not being able to make a good job were even more persuasive.
So Mi Xiaoran, who couldn't bear the pestering of several people, gritted his teeth.
I could only call my parents aside and force them to promise never to ask for anything, and then I reluctantly agreed to go ahead.
It was the first time for the Mi family to take a taxi. For them, this was a very novel experience.
The world outside seems to be different from before.
Both street lights and traffic lights have become softer, like scenes in a dream.
Pedestrians turned into tiny shadows and flashed past them in a "whoosh".
The four members of the Mi family all felt an indescribable feeling. They didn't know whether they had grown older or whether the capital had grown smaller.
Anyway, the Beijing you see from the car window is not the usual Beijing.
And the journey, which was expected to take at least twenty minutes, arrived almost in an instant.
The taxi finally drove straight to the entrance of the Jingcheng Hotel, and a uniformed waiter opened the door for them.
Needless to say, a greater sense of unfamiliarity came later.
Just now, I was in the noisy street, but now I stepped into the revolving glass door, and it was like stepping into a whole new world. In this world, there are no quarrels and noises, and there is no comparison of money and money.
Everyone has a smile on their lips, is polite, modest and elegant.
And there are many strange smells.
The smell of perfume, detergent, foreigners...
Coffee, bread, cakes, the sweet smell...
The feeling is so wonderful, it makes Newcomers feel as if their whole body is electrified.
The Mi family couldn't help but look around excitedly while walking in the restaurant, looking left and right, everything felt new.
Of course, because this is a consumer paradise for foreigners, it is a place that is out of reach for ordinary people.
The four members of the Mi family inevitably have some fear and embarrassment.
Although the Mi family has tried their best to dress themselves up.
But the Chinese tunic suits and corduroy jackets they wore that had been placed at the bottom of the box for a long time and still smelled of camphor still pale in comparison to this place.
This feeling is exactly the same as when Zhang Shihui first arrived here with Ning Weimin.
Even Mi Xiaoran, who has been here once, is no exception.
She even recalled the humiliation of being squeezed away by Huo Xin here, which made her feel more likely to feel inferior.
I couldn't help but hesitate, and began to regret secretly, feeling that I shouldn't have accepted the invitation.
But after arriving at the restaurant on the east second floor, the enthusiasm and grace shown by the host completely resolved this awkwardness and awkwardness.
Under the soft and bright lights of the hotel, Zhao Hanyu was sitting at a table, holding a teacup and waiting for him for a long time.
He is wearing a gray suit and a bright red silk tie today, which is very eye-catching.
As soon as he saw the cadres and the Mi family coming in, he immediately stood up and welcomed them with a smile on his face.
Probably because he looks better, Zhao Hanyu is very energetic.
The originally plain appearance became a bit more handsome.
He greeted Mi Xiaoran's parents very diligently, and when he saw Mi Xiaoran, his joy was beyond words.
Then the banquet began, and Zhao Hanyu began to toast and give food.
Despite the language barrier, his sincere hospitality almost immediately made the Mi family like him.
The cadres of the "Foreign Affairs Office" are also very responsible.
During the dinner, he not only helped Zhao Hanyu take care of the Mi family, but also introduced the characteristics of the dishes.
He also introduced the situation about Zhao Hanyu to the Mi family in detail.
The cadre said that Zhao Hanyu is a college student in the business management department of a prestigious American university and just received his degree last year.
The family runs three restaurants and five laundry rooms in the United States, and is also a quite wealthy family.
Zhao Hanyu is the second son of the family. He came to the Republic for a trip.
I originally planned to have fun for a few months before returning to the United States to help my family manage the business.
So he entered the mainland alone from the port city, passed through Huacheng, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jinling... and finally came to the capital, where he visited most of the tourist attractions in the Republic.
I originally wanted to leave the capital to visit the three eastern provinces, but I never expected that I would suddenly become ill.
Thanks to Mi Xiaoran this time, otherwise the rescue time would have been delayed, and I was afraid that Zhao Hanyu would never see his relatives again.
Needless to say, for such a life-saving grace, Zhao Hanyu must repay him well before Zhao Hanyu can feel relieved.
This is the main reason why he came to visit and invited the Mi family...
The meal lasted for an hour and a half and ended harmoniously. But after eating this meal, almost everyone in the Mi family, except for the ignorant Mi Xiaohui, was in a mess.
For no other reason than because what he saw and heard at this banquet was like a bombshell, which greatly shocked the hearts of the Mi family.
First of all, the quality and price of that meal are there.
Although the Mi family does not know what "peach kernel mushrooms", "cucumber noodles", "rice wine braised chicken", "dry-roasted mandarin fish", "money shrimp", "two-eating roasted recipe", " "Glass belly slices" and "Steamed winter melon in clear soup".
But the tongue doesn’t lie, you can always tell whether something tastes good or not.
Except for Mi Xiaoran, who is reserved and rarely uses chopsticks, the other three members of the Mi family are full of food.
And they also witnessed with their own eyes Zhao Hanyu's pride when he checked out.
When the waiter brought the bill of 114 yuan, Zhao Hanyu handed over the 120 yuan foreign exchange coupon with a smile, but actually refused to change it.
If the cadre who was picking his teeth hadn’t promptly explained, “Everyone in the United States has the habit of tipping.”
Aunt Mi almost snatched the waiter's money back on the spot.
Six dollars! I can buy two live chickens! The old lady felt sorry for Zhao Hanyu when she saw it.
Secondly, Zhao Hanyu, the cadre representative of the "Foreign Affairs Office" made a wish and actually said that he could make any request he wanted!
Listen, this tone is too loud.
Anyway, is it okay to have a plane or a car?
However, after all, his family is in the United States, and he is the son of a millionaire, so it is normal for him to have a lot of money.
In order to dispel their concerns, the cadre just said it.
Zhao Hanyu had already expressed his gratitude to the aunt who cleans Beihai Park and gave her a double-cylinder washing machine.
Look! Just send a message and a washing machine was given as a gift!
Mi Xiaoran, who was running back and forth, couldn’t even give NTU a color TV set!
Therefore, Master Mi and Aunt Mi didn't really ask for anything on the spot.
They are not afraid that their daughter will be unhappy, but they are too happy.
They are not stupid. Faced with this windfall, they have to go back and think about it again.
After all, they have already bought a color TV, and it would not be appropriate to ask for another one.
As a result, the Mi family was quite lively that night. When we returned home, the old and the young chatted together, and the topic did not leave the subject of what they saw and heard throughout the night.
Master Mi sighed.
“A meal for six people actually cost me more than a month’s salary! The Americans are so good at making things. No wonder they keep talking about how capitalism is corrupt and degenerate! It’s quite luxurious! Hey, Let me do the math, guess what, each of us ate twenty kilograms of meat today..."
Aunt Mi also agreed.
"No, it's such a sin! This meal is so deceptive, such a loss! Huh, give me a hundred yuan, I can make ten banquets for him. It's not me who said, Our family can't bear to waste gas like this. This kind of scene is too scary! It's really not something we ordinary people can talk about..."
Mi Xiaohui didn't like to hear it.
"You guys are so stupid, what do you know? That's the Jingcheng Hotel! It's not the Xinmin Restaurant at your doorstep. Besides, I didn't ask you to spend money. Do you feel sorry for me? And why didn't you say anything when you were eating? We're done. , I think they are in trouble. Are there any like you?"
The only one who did not speak was Mi Xiaoran.
But she is intangible on the outside but magnificent on the inside.
She also knew that the meal was expensive.
Furthermore, the girl's unique sensitivity allowed her to clearly detect that Zhao Hanyu was taking care of her too carefully and thoughtfully during the banquet.
Zhao Hanyu kept adding more food to the small plate in front of her, and kept trying to find topics to talk to her about.
It is a bit too much to please her so much. It should not only be because of the grace of saving her life, but also something else mixed in.
But unfortunately, what can this do?
She had no idea and had no intention of continuing to contact Zhao Hanyu.
Not to mention that she and Zhao Hanyu were too unfamiliar and the life gap was too big to talk about good feelings.
The key is that the hurdle in her heart is not so easy to overcome.
She has not seen Ning Weimin since the Spring Festival, and she hates him from the bottom of her heart.
But I couldn’t forget Ning Weimin even if I wanted to.
This hateful guy has been filling her heart since she didn’t know when.
It seems to have taken away her good feelings towards all the opposite sex, and will only remind her of the days when they worked together and shared a little secret.
So what she felt about the luxury of this meal was pure confusion, a confusion about the direction of her life.
Obviously, this kind of lifestyle seems very common to foreigners, but it is really rare for people in the capital like her.
Although in the past two years, Chinese people have been working tirelessly to get rid of the poverty that has plagued them for generations.
But in the capital city of this era, you can only buy some eggs and melon seeds and peanuts without writing books at high prices in the free market. Most people still rely on their food books, gas coupons, and a thin The shopping book makes a living.
Where are the results?
It's just something that's been blown up in the newspapers every day. Anyway, prices have gone up, but wages haven't.
Even for a nouveau riche like Ning Weimin, if he wants to achieve such a standard of living, there is still an endless road ahead.
So this gap makes her feel depressed, not only for herself, but also for the people around her.
She cannot have faith in the goals and slogans set by the country, let alone question them.
How wonderful it is to say? But can it be achieved? How difficult is it?
With so many people in our country living in such poverty and poverty, it is difficult to even have enough to eat. Can we really achieve the four modernizations?
Will we really be able to spend as much as Americans one day?
It was hard for her to believe in such a bright future. It was too optimistic, too idealistic, and too unrealistic.
If life could really be as beautiful as a fairy tale, how could she be in such pain like now?
(End of this chapter)