Chapter 14

At noon, the family of five had a simple meal. In the evening, several of Lu Zheng's uncles and aunts came over. Although Lu Zheng had been raised by others and had been particularly cold to them in the past, with some of them even cursing him as a "wild child" behind his back, they all showed great concern for him on the surface. This was because Lu Zheng's father, Lu Tianhe, was the second-generation leader, and his younger brother and sister had always been very afraid of this older brother. Lu Zheng, on the other hand, was Lu Tianhe's only son.

After dinner, upon hearing from his mother that his grandfather was not in Beijing, Lu Zheng gave up the idea of visiting his grandfather's house. Over the past two years, due to different ideas about the direction of the country's development, the relationship between the Han family and the Lu family had not been harmonious. If it weren't for his mother's connection, the relationship might have deteriorated even further.

After the relatives left, Lu Zheng chatted with his parents. Of course, apart from calling Han Jing "Mom," Lu Zheng did not show any other special behavior; he couldn't be too obvious, as if he had become a different person. However, looking at his parents, who looked twenty years younger, his heart was filled with tumultuous emotions, hard to describe.

The desperate and hateful look in his father's eyes and the coldness in his mother's eyes on his sickbed in his previous life felt like a needle, making it hard for Lu Zheng to breathe.

Sitting in front of his parents, who were twenty years younger, Lu Zheng felt a deep pain in his heart. He only hoped that everything in his previous life was an illusion, that that world did not exist, and that there were no such two elderly people who had been hurt by his coldness and indifference all their lives.

From now on, he would be filial to them and prevent all the tragedies from happening again.

In the living room, the spirited young attendant served fruit and drinks. She also curiously sneaked a glance at Lu Zheng. Having been assigned to the Lu family for only a few months, she had never even heard that the old Mr. Lu had such a grandson.

The family of three sat around the coffee table, chatting.

Actually, whether it was Lu Tianhe or Han Jing, they were both emotionally reserved and did not show much emotion.

The young attendant was amazed; this didn't seem like a family at all. Truly, once you enter a wealthy family, the sea is deep.

However, she did not dare to listen more and left after serving the tea and snacks.

The conversation among the father, son, and mother only became more lively when it turned to Guangning.

Du Xiaohu had already reported to the two leaders about how Lu Zheng solved the unusual case. Although Lu Tianhe and Han Jing were emotionally reserved, they were actually very concerned about Lu Zheng's work and life in Guangning. They asked about his recent situation, indirectly inquiring about the case.

Lu Zheng calmly recounted his past experiences, including "Red Movement" and "Aunt Cuihong," which became topics of conversation.

Hearing Lu Zheng talk about leading "Red Movement" to create a big stir, Lu Tianhe couldn't help but smile.

Lu Zheng didn't like to mention the hardships he had endured in the past, so he didn't talk about the bad things Lu Guobin had done to him. Instead, he mentioned the good things Aunt Cuihong had done for him, which naturally made Lu Tianhe and Han Jing understand Lu Zheng's feelings for his adoptive parents.

Lu Tianhe sighed lightly, "When the opportunity arises, bring them to Beijing, and I will thank them in person for raising a good son for me... No, when I have time, I will go to Guangning; I should go there..." He looked at his wife, seeking her opinion with his eyes.

Han Jing, who always spoke concisely, nodded in agreement and said, "We should go."

The three of them continued to chat about family matters. Lu Zheng, having lived two lives and with rich experiences, had already formed his own unique insights into future political and economic changes. Given his father's high position, he could have taken the opportunity to offer advice, but he said nothing. He knew that no matter how much his parents loved him, if they talked about political matters, his words would carry no weight. Therefore, he didn't want to cause unnecessary ripples.

That night, Lu Zheng slept in the guest room. In the middle of the night, he knew someone had come into the room and quietly watched him for a while. It was his mother.

But Lu Zheng just closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep.

...

The next morning, his eldest sister, Lu Jiaju, and her husband, Hu Deli, drove over, saying they would take Lu Zheng to tour Beijing. Lu Tianhe and Han Jing agreed happily.

Hu Deli's business was quite substantial. Besides his business acumen, it was impossible that he had not benefited from the Lu family. Although Hu Deli never actively used the Lu family's name outside, the golden sign of being the eldest son-in-law of Lu Tianhe still influenced many things.

Lu Zheng sat in the back seat next to his sister, enjoying the street scenes of Beijing.

Compared to the future, the Beijing of this era was far from prosperous, but it was more to Lu Zheng's liking. Perhaps, the current Beijing was more authentic, while twenty years later, the bustling cities in the country, to some extent, seemed to follow the same template, with towering steel and concrete structures and crisscrossing overpasses, leaving only small corners where one could find the cultural charm of these cities.

Hu Deli, who suffered from "tracheitis" (a term often used to describe a man who is overly submissive to his wife), not only obeyed Lu Jiaju but also showed a bit of restraint and respect towards Lu Zheng. As a man from an ordinary cadre family, he had put a lot of effort into winning the heart of the proud princess in the campus.

In the afternoon, Lu Zheng asked his sister and brother-in-law to drop him off at Peking University, then told them he would find a classmate to chat with and return home in the evening. Lu Jiaju and Hu Deli did not interfere, and after reminding him to come home early, they drove off.

Peking University, a place of learning and culture, gave one a sense of sacredness and reverence upon entering.

Lu Zheng sighed softly in his heart. In his previous life, although he had studied abroad and obtained an MBA and was proficient in several foreign languages, he had missed the true joy of student life. That life, filled with laughter and tears, was undoubtedly very interesting.

After asking some students on campus, Lu Zheng found Building 19 of Changchun Garden, where Bi Xiaoguang lived. He had gotten the address from Liu Xiaohui before coming to Beijing.

Walking along the stone path by the lake, shaded by willows, students strolled in twos and threes. The male students, dressed simply, looked spirited. A male student recited poetry by the lake, his voice clear and passionate, and applause occasionally broke out around him.

Lu Zheng nodded slightly; this was the atmosphere and spirit of a campus.

Finding Xiaoguang was easy. It was the afternoon, and he had no classes. He was lying in bed in his underwear, snoring loudly.

The dormitory was a bit messy, with maps and posters of American beauties stuck on the walls, quite different from the uniform military-style dormitories of the future, full of the atmosphere of daily life.

A classmate of Bi Xiaoguang suddenly pulled the blanket off his head and kicked him in the buttocks, shouting, "Fire!"

As the other students laughed and joked, Bi Xiaoguang rubbed his sleepy eyes and sat up. Lu Zheng also smiled, seeing that the brothers in the dormitory had a good relationship.

"Xiaoguang, do you still recognize me?" Lu Zheng smiled and looked at him.

Bi Xiaoguang, a chubby boy, stared at Lu Zheng for a few seconds, then let out a loud cry and jumped out of bed, giving Lu Zheng a punch on the chest, "Zhenzi, where have you been all these years?!" Then he gave Lu Zheng a big bear hug.

Lu Zheng smiled and patted his shoulder.

After being in this world for a long time, Lu Zheng sometimes felt that his previous life was more like a dream. Now, he was just a young man in his early twenties, with the blood of youth flowing through his veins and the passion unique to youth.

"Zhenzi, where have you been all these years? Do you know, I sometimes dream about you," Bi Xiaoguang said, pulling Lu Zheng to sit on his bed. The affectionate manner made Lu Zheng's scalp tingle. This guy, he hadn't felt any special bond with him before?

"I joined the army and was transferred back to our county police station last year," Lu Zheng said frankly.

Bi Xiaoguang laughed, "Not bad." Actually, for students like Bi Xiaoguang at Peking University, most could stay in Beijing, and those with excellent grades could easily enter the ministries. Very few returned to their home provinces, let alone went to the countryside.

In this era, a small county was almost like the countryside compared to big cities.

However, when childhood friends met, they wouldn't consider things like status and position. The two of them talked about their mischievous days, which made the other students in the dormitory laugh from time to time.

The harmonious atmosphere was disrupted when a handsome, well-dressed young man entered the dormitory. His bed was piled with Bi Xiaoguang's clothes, and he was rummaging through them to find something to wear to go out with Lu Zheng for dinner.

The young man's face immediately turned sour, and he rushed over, shouting, "What are you doing?! How dirty!" Then he threw the pile of clothes back onto Bi Xiaoguang's bed, some of which landed on Lu Zheng's lap.

Although Bi Xiaoguang was usually easygoing, he couldn't help getting angry when his face was lost in front of Lu Zheng. He glared at the young man and said, "Lao Er, what do you mean? Who are you calling dirty?" The young man was named Tian Shaohua, the second oldest in the dormitory.

Tian Shaohua snorted, "Who hasn't taken a bath for years?"

Bi Xiaoguang reached out to grab Tian Shaohua's collar and shouted, "Tian Shaohua, you're asking for it! Let's go outside and settle this!"

The other students quickly intervened to stop the fight, pulling them apart. Tian Shaohua was embarrassed and angry, but he wasn't the type to fight. He just kept saying, "So barbaric, so barbaric!" a typical reaction of a refined intellectual when faced with a roughneck.

Lu Zheng found it amusing that university life had such episodes.

To be honest, although Tian Shaohua looked down on the working class, the initial blame did lie with Xiaoguang. His pile of clothes, some washed and some not, had a strange smell, which was indeed hard to tolerate for someone with good hygiene habits.

"Let's go out for dinner," the oldest in the dormitory, Meng Xianwei, suggested. He was the oldest and the most stable, and seemed to have some authority in the dormitory. Patting Tian Shaohua on the shoulder, Meng Xianwei whispered a few words and said, "Lao Er, you should come today." Tian Shaohua hesitated for a moment but nodded. It seemed that although he was proud, he still wanted to be part of the dormitory group.

The seven of them, including Lu Zheng, went to a small restaurant near the south gate, occupying a large table by the window and ordering food.

Looking at the slogan on the wall of the restaurant, "Pay attention to saving, waste is shameful," Lu Zheng slowly lit a cigarette and exhaled deeply. Perhaps, this was the era of free breathing, and at some point, not just ordinary people but even government officials took pride in waste and considered saving shameful.

In this era, many things were not yet perfect. Just after the Cultural Revolution, various ideological enlightenments were taking place among the people. The quality of officials in government agencies was generally low, and arguments and cursing in meetings were common. This was because the authority of officials had been lost during the Cultural Revolution, and mutual criticism and debate had been a trend. Now, just after the Cultural Revolution, officials were far from reaching a godlike or Buddha-like state, especially at the grassroots level.

There was no talk of humanistic management or care, and law enforcement agencies generally had a brutal style, still operating in a campaign-like manner. For example, during the current crackdown, even stealing a screw could result in the death penalty.

In this era, in some ways, it was very oppressive and suffocating, like the darkness before dawn.

But this era was also the best. People's thoughts were healthy and positive, and they universally detested ugly phenomena. Mainstream media never considered corruption as a contribution and would not lightly sentence a corrupt official.

Just like now, a privately owned restaurant would post a slogan reminding customers not to waste. Twenty years later, mainstream media would mock foreign ministers for not staying in luxurious hotels during their visits to China, implying that the country was poor. The social atmosphere was so different.