v11 Chapter 345： The best times (Part 2)

Chen Xiang's hometown is in a mountainous area in the southwest. Although the administrative level is a county, the total population of the county is only 170,000, which is not even as large as the population of some developed towns on the eastern coast. Moreover, the annual output value here is also very, very low, basically there is no industry to take the shot, so there is no work.

Chen Xiang has lived in this small county for more than ten years, and there has been little development in the county in these decades. It is always a main road. The reason why it is called a main road is not only because it is a two-way lane used only by the county, but also because it is the most lively place in the county. There are dozens of shops here to provide shopping places for the residents of the county.

Most of the counties are low-rise houses, even the seven-story building is a tall building. Because the buildings above need to be built with elevators, it is a bit extravagant to build elevator rooms in this poor county. After repairing, few people can afford to live in an elevator room. Because the per capita monthly income here is only 1,750 yuan. In fact, it is always difficult to find a job of more than 1,500 in the county.

In fact, Chen Xiang ’s family conditions are relatively good in the county. Their family runs a hot and sour powder shop in the county. A bowl of hot and sour powder is not expensive for five yuan. But it is not cheap for the people in this county. The education level in the county has always been poor, even if Chen Xiang studied hard, but his grades are not very good.

If you go to high school, there is no way out, because most of them do not go to college. Therefore, as long as the parents totaled, they simply collected money at home and sent Chen Xiang to Jinan Technical College thousands of miles away. At least that's the way to let his son go out to meet the market. I can find a good job outside in the future.

Poor parents in the world, Chen Xiang's parents can only do this for Chen Xiang. They lived all their lives in the county, knowing that there will be no gains or development here. So they gave Chen Xiang a lot of savings to go out to study.

Chen Xiang has not been home for a year. Because it is too expensive to return home. He worked in Jinan during the winter and summer vacations, earning a little tuition and living expenses. This time he came home with the super high-speed train to surprise his parents and told them that their son is having a good time now. You can get a job with an annual salary of 150,000 after graduation.

He got off the train with Mr. Wang, and under the leadership of Mr. Wang, Chen Xiang got on the bus back to the county. It is not the bus that I made two years ago, but the same suspension car as Jinan. But it is obvious that the price of this ticket is more expensive than that of the old bus. So many people do not necessarily choose to ride this kind of car.

In Chen Xiang's memory, the road from the city back to his hometown has never been very good. Not to mention the bumpy road surface, but also ninety-eight bends. Most drivers are reluctant to run this mountain road because it is too dangerous. Not to mention the driver of the car, even passengers like themselves will be terrified every time they see the driver turning on the edge of the cliff, fearing that the driver will make a mistake and all the drivers will fall down the cliff. This is not unprecedented, and there will always be some buses falling over the cliff every year.

Normally this road, which is not a long-distance provincial capital, has only 270 kilometers of roads to reach after nearly ten hours of running. The inconvenience of roads is also one of the main reasons for restricting the development of county towns, and it is not convenient to go out. Mobility is also difficult. And there are many natural villages scattered on the mountain in the county, and their conditions are even more difficult.

When the suspension vehicle drove to the road that should enter the mountain, Chen Xiang couldn't help but grasp the handle of the seat. He seemed very nervous, and Teacher Wang glanced at him: "What's wrong?"

"I'm a little scared on the way to the mountain." Chen Xiang told the truth. However, Teacher Wang smiled calmly: "Don't be afraid, now a new road has been built." Teacher Wang pointed to the distance with his hand.

A stretch across the mountains connects two large mountains separated by more than ten kilometers. Originally this road had to travel hundreds of kilometers in the mountains, dangerous and slow. A flying rainbow descended, and natural dangers became available.

"This bridge is called Feihong Bridge. Because the morning fog in the mountains reflects the beautiful rainbow formed by the sun. It is said that you can see a beautiful rainbow on the bridge every morning." Teacher Wang said to Chen Xiang with a smile. This bridge is not a flying rainbow, but an engineering miracle created by construction workers in just half a year. "

"Can this bridge be repaired in half a year ?!" Chen Xiang was incredible.

"Oh, Xiao Chen, are you not a professional in mecha driving? You should know how much engineering mecha has changed the productivity of the whole society after being put into production. A skilled engineering mecha driver can compare with dozens of Hundreds of traditional construction workers. They are almost omnipotent, welding, handling, lifting, calibration, surveying, and calculation. Why do you get a salary of more than one hundred thousand as soon as you graduate? Because the company knows how much value you can create, You are worth the workload of one of their past work groups. Relatively speaking, its practicality saves the company costs. "

Listening to Teacher Wang talking about these things that I never understood and did not understand, Chen Xiang wondered why he could get such a high salary.

Suspension bus driving on Feihong Bridge is as smooth as ever, with high mountains on both sides and a deep cliff under the bridge. A line of flying birds lined up at the arch of the bridge, and the cars ran on the flat ground, but the people were in the air. Teacher Wang said: "The previous engineering miracles will all become normal engineering projects. It used to be impossible to build such roads and bridges for a county. But now it can."

"Why?" Chen Xiang did not understand: "Because of the emergence of engineering mecha?"

"This is just one reason, and more importantly, controlled nuclear fusion. Do you know there is a [nuclear city] in the middle of our country?"

Hearing this question from Teacher Wang, Chen Xiang nodded: "Yes, our teacher said that this place is now called" Chinese Heart "."

"Yes, it's [Chinese Heart]. Because Tony Stark's Ark Reactor was realized and a spacecraft capable of mining helium-3 to the moon was made. This made our controlled nuclear fusion a huge breakthrough. The country Moved away all the original residents of [Nuclear City] and built a huge controllable nuclear fusion reactor. It is clean, efficient and pollution-free. Now it supplies 75% of China ’s electricity. "

"Now the price of electricity has fallen below the bottom line we could have expected. The cost of electricity is almost zero. In addition to the loss of equipment and human resources costs, in fact, our country has begun to move towards free energy. Because Energy is no more money, so even the production costs of steel, cement and other materials have been suppressed. Coupled with the large-scale use of engineering mechas, the construction cost is now shrinking rapidly. But at the same time because of Because of the large-scale use of engineering mechas, many people are also unemployed. Do you know that almost 30 million industrial workers in our country have lost their jobs this year? "

Teacher Wang talked to Chen Xiang, and Chen Xiang shook his head blankly: "Is there so much? I don't feel it."

"Yeah, you do n’t know. You ca n’t even feel it. Because the country has launched a lot of new construction. The super building urban plan submitted by the Stark Group, as well as these huge projects in our country, are launched one by one. Because the cost is Compressed, fiscal pressure eased. State funds can start a lot of industrial projects. These projects absorb a large number of traditional workers who are unemployed because of the rise of new industries. And Tony Stark, a superhero, also knows that he has invested so much The multi-engine mecha has brought engineering and manufacturing into the 3.0 era. He may have foreseen this wave of unemployment long ago. So he has also invested a lot of money in the world. For those who have lost their jobs due to their industrial upgrading plans Training. Although it is impossible to make everyone progress with the industrial upgrade, just like you are successful in upgrading, there will be losers. But this is inevitable. At least Tony Stark has invested in this There is a fair amount of money to do this. These factors are combined, so you do n’t feel the obvious wave of unemployment, nor the obvious sense of social unrest. "

Chen Xiang nodded inexplicably. Because of these things, has the road of my hometown been repaired? This is a good thing. Suspension vehicle traveled an hour and then completed the ten-hour journey. At the station, Chen Xiang and Teacher Wang said goodbye.

Standing at the gate of the station, Chen Xiang was a little surprised. Is this his former county? ! Now the entire county is like a big construction site, completely different from what it used to be in those ten years.

Chen Xiang saw a large truck transporting a large amount of I-beams to a building site. An engineering mech directly grabbed an I-beam and flew to the sky, and then placed the I-beam to the part to be welded. . Immediately afterwards, another engineering mech flew over to weld the I-beam with a welding gun in his arm. With the cooperation of the two mechs, the high-altitude welding operation was completed in only one minute. This is unimaginable in traditional welding, which requires a perfect cooperation between crane and workers. Perhaps it takes more than an hour before and after welding such an I-beam. Now there is engineering mecha, and the efficiency has improved more than sixty times.

The roads in the county have been repeatedly widened, from the original two lanes to four lanes. A large number of engineers are constructing new buildings. Based on his memory, Chen Xiang found his hot and sour powder shop. The business in the shop is surprisingly good, which is in sharp contrast to the lukewarm business of the past.

Chen Xiang noticed that most people who came to eat here seemed to be people working on construction sites. They all wear safety clothing and helmets. Talking to the sky while eating hot and sour powder. Chen Xiang ’s parents were busy in the store and did not see Chen Xiang at all.

However, Chen Xiang also noticed that there were two other people dressed in a different style among the people eating here. Because they are not wearing that dirty work clothes and safety helmet. Instead, he wore a gray tights, which was a bit like the sports attire in the gym.

And they are obviously a bit out of place with those construction workers. Those construction workers are talking about various yellow jokes in their hometown and who is mixing the cement and what is wrong, or who did not fix the steel bar. But these two people are talking about such issues as inclining angle, power compensation, thermal decay and so on.

Chen Xiang listened carefully, he knew these problems. Because this is what I learned in school. It ’s just that their own experience is not enough. Many of the things they talked about have n’t been heard or encountered. After eating the hot and sour powder, the two scanned the code and paid to Chen Xiang's parents who were still busy in the kitchen. They paid the money and then got up and left.

Chen Xiang noticed that the other co-workers in the shop looked at the eyes of the two of them, with envy, jealousy, and unwillingness. But these two people did not care about the eyes of these traditional construction workers, and even regarded them as nonexistent. It's as if they are no longer in this world.

They walked to the door of the store, where they heard two gray engineering mechas with a metallic luster that seemed extremely sci-fi.

This model of armor, Chen Xiang, was learned in school and is the new current sub-flagship engineering armor of the Stark Group. The Chinese translation is "Creator". The price of a mech is as high as 11 million coins, and you must have a B + level driving certificate to allow it to be opened.

Don't look at yourself as a b-level certificate holder, it looks like b +. But Chen Xiang is very clear that there is actually a huge gap in this small level.

"Dress." The two stood in front of the mech and shouted an order.

"The sound comparison is correct, the pupils are compared successfully. The mecha is turned on." In the sound full of mechanical science fiction, two 2.5-meter-high mechas opened the internal operation space. The two drivers entered the mech, which was closed. In the slightly jealous eyes of the bypass people and the jealous eyes of their coworkers, the two flew away with the mech.

Chen Xiang glanced at the other construction workers in Mandian. He thought of what Teacher Wang said to him. Perhaps the dozens of other workers in this store add up to the value that they can create in a day, and the amount of work they can complete is not even comparable to what others do in a day. So it's no wonder that the two mech pilots couldn't talk to them at all. The two people are not at the same level. Compared with income, it is very different.

Others work in engineering mechas and do not have to be exposed to the sun. There is a life support system in the mech that keeps the driver in a comfortable state all the time. In addition to being nervous, they will not be overworked. Presumably, these people feel that the mecha driver's high salary work is easy. So they will be a little dissatisfied.

But what about that? Chen Xiang suddenly thought of a sentence: People who cannot keep up with the times will be eliminated by the times. How many people will be eliminated in such a fast era?

This is the best time for yourself, but what about others? Too? Or do they think this is actually the worst era? Chen Xiang suddenly thought of it here for no reason. But he did not come to think about it, because the mother who had been busy was serving a bowl of hot and sour powder from the back kitchen. She saw Chen Xiang happily screaming: "Xiang Xiang!"

"Mom. Can you call me the nickname!" Chen Xiang was a little ashamed. Because such a big man is still called Xiaoming really makes him feel shy.

"How did you come back ?!" Mother asked the guest after sour and spicy powder and couldn't help but asked with concern: "Aren't you studying at school to prepare for the graduation exam?"

"I finished the exam the day before yesterday, and signed a work agreement yesterday. I have found a job." Chen Xiang gave his mother a surprise, but there are too many outsiders here, and he can't say his job income.

"Really ?! The feelings are good. You go to your Chen Tiege's house for a while and wait till noon. I'll go home with you." Mother happily patted Chen Xiang's shoulder.

Chen Tie is Chen Xiang's cousin, originally a cheerful person. When I was young, the two played together, but since Chen Tie broke his leg at the age of sixteen, he never laughed again. He did n’t even read the book. He was bored at home every day. Will be a little happier. Chen Xiang was going to give Chen Tie a surprise, but he did not expect that he gave himself a surprise on the way to Chen Tie fake.

"Tie Brother! Your legs are growing out ?!" Chen Xiang looked at Chen Tie's other thigh intact. Chen Tiezheng just happened to buy food and go home.

"Yes! It grows out." Chen Tie smiled, but the smile was not so cheerful: "Osborn's Limb Regeneration Center opened a medical point in the provincial capital. I went to the queue to register. It was my turn five months ago. I will go to treatment. I will cure my broken leg. "

Chen Xiang didn't notice the bitterness in Chen Tie's smile. He was very happy and said, "This is a good thing!"

"Yeah, it's a good thing. Although the doctor said that regaining one leg may shorten my lifespan by five to seven years. But it's worth it. It's better to live with a disability to seventy years than to a healthy one to sixty. Chen Tie's words made Chen Xiang agree.

"Don't say it, our brothers should drink two cups well today." Chen Tie embraced Chen Xiang's shoulder and walked home.

"Brother, you went wrong." Chen Xiang pointed to the road and said to Chen Tie when passing by Chen Tie's house.

"Yes. The house at home is sold."

"sold?!!!"

"Yeah, I sold it. And all the compensation for the accident was spent. You don't know how expensive Osborne Medical Center is. For my leg to grow again, my family has sold all the valuable things. Yes. I have also borrowed 30,000 yuan from your family. But you can rest assured that I will go out to find a job and pay back. I wo n’t owe the money even if I go to the site to move the bricks.

Watching Chen Tie promise to say so ~ www.novelhall.com ~ Chen Xiang's mouth moved. But in the end, he didn't say what he wanted to say.

"Brother, in the future, the construction site may not even need to move bricks. Now this era has changed. People who can't keep up with the rapid advancement of this era will be eliminated."

Do not know why, Chen Xiang suddenly thought of the high-speed train. This era is like this fast-moving train, how many people can keep up with his pace without being eliminated? The world is changing rapidly. The things that were popular yesterday were already dead tomorrow.

Yesterday I still felt a normal way of life, but it would become ridiculous and ridiculous by tomorrow.

If Chen Xiang had read Dickens' "Two Cities", he might say with emotion: This is the best era and the worst era. Use this to complain.

The only thing Chen Xiang thinks now is if so many people cannot keep up with the trains of the times, what will they do?

Note: The stories written in this chapter are based in part on the 2008 financial crisis.