February 1, 1993, the tenth day of the Lunar New Year, is suitable for travel.

Early in the morning, Pang Xuelin and Shuiwa packed up, put on the new clothes they bought in the county seat a year ago, each brought the 600 RMB they had saved before, and embarked on a journey to the provincial capital under the reluctant eyes of the third uncle and the third aunt.

"Lin Wazi, where are we going now?"

Pang Xuelin only said that he was going to the south, but he did not say where he was going.

Pang Xuelin smiled and said: "This amount of money is not enough to go to the south, we have to find a way to go to the provincial capital to make a sum of money." ”

"Go to the provincial capital to make money? What are you going to do. ”

Pang Xuelin shook his head and said, "I haven't thought about it yet, let's go and see it first." ”

"Hmm."

Shui Wa nodded, he was inexplicably convinced of Pang Xuelin.

Of course, all along, Pang Xuelin has never disappointed Shui Wa.

From Linxiong County to Lancheng, the capital of Gannan Province, the straight-line distance is only more than 300 kilometers.

But in this era, Pang Xuelin and his team got on the bus from nine o'clock in the morning until more than eight o'clock in the evening before the car drove into the Lancheng Bus Terminal.

When Pang Xuelin and Shui Wa came out of the exit with their bags, they were greeted by a group of enthusiastic men and women.

"Young man, do you want to stay?"

"Tongshun Hotel, ten yuan a night, ten yuan a night."

"Jiaxin Hotel, you can take a hot bath, ten yuan for the chase shop, and thirty yuan for the standard room."

……

All kinds of voices mixed with the Lancheng dialect came to my face.

The water baby subconsciously took a few steps back.

Pang Xuelin greeted him directly, and said loudly in standard Mandarin: "Let let, let let, we have someone to pick up, no need to stay." ”

Soon, the originally enthusiastic crowd of guests made way for Pang Xuelin and Shui Wa to go out first, and then blocked the others.

Finally walked out of the passenger terminal, Pang Xuelin and Shui Wa stood on the side of the road, looking at the spacious roads around them, the flowing cars, the rows of street lamps, and the flickering neon on the tall buildings, Shui Wa stayed for a long time, and even forgot to ask Pang Xuelin why he spoke such standard Mandarin just now.

After holding it for a long time, he said, "Lin Wazi, this ...... It's also a drain on electricity. ”

Pang Xuelin laughed, patted Shuiwa's shoulder and said, "Brother Shuiwa, this is a provincial city, and there are millions of people living there." ”

Then, Pang Xuelin stretched out his hand, stopped a passing yellow-faced one, and said to the water baby: "Water baby, go, get in the car." ”

"Huh?!"

Shui Wa was slightly stunned, and it wasn't until the driver began to urge that she and Pang Xuelin got their bags into the car.

Pang Xuelin sat down in the passenger seat, and Shui Wa went to the back row.

Pang Xuelin said to the driver: "Master, I'll give you ten yuan, and you can find me a relatively clean hotel, the price is within thirty yuan." ”

"Okay."

The driver rarely received a big order, and immediately said with a smile: "Brother, have you just come to Lancheng?" ”

Pang Xuelin smiled, took out a cigarette from his pocket and handed it to the driver: "We are students of Lancheng University, isn't this just over the New Year, and the school hasn't started yet?" The dormitory at the school has not yet opened, so we are going to stay in the hotel for two days and have some fun in Lancheng by the way. ”

"Yo, it's a college student, disrespectful."

"Master, your taxi business is not bad, right?"

The driver smiled: "It's okay, you can earn eighty or ninety a day, except for the fuel contract fee, it would be good to be able to leave fifty or sixty." ”

The water baby sitting in the back seat couldn't help but widen her eyes, she never thought that driving a taxi would be so profitable.

Pang Xuelin was not surprised.

In the eighties and nineties, taxis were one of the most lucrative industries for the average person.

At that time, taxi drivers made a lot of money.

From 85 to 95 years, the per capita monthly income of the whole country has gradually increased from 60 to 100 yuan to 300 to 500 yuan, but the monthly income of taxi drivers has remained at about 2,000 to 3,000 yuan for a long time, which is equivalent to the per capita income of 50,000 to 100,000 yuan per capita in 2019.

And it's not that you have to be at the top level to have this income, as long as you participate in this industry, you will have such a high income, and the income difference between a high-level taxi driver and a poor level will not be too obvious.

At that time, taxi drivers, strictly speaking, belonged to self-employed or contractors, and taxi licenses and contracting fees were later pushed to sky-high prices, and finally led to the difficulty of taking taxis in major cities, the root of which was the windfall profits in the eighties and nineties.

This situation was not slowly alleviated until the emergence of online ride-hailing platforms.

More than ten minutes later, the driver sent Pang Xuelin and Shui Wa to a place called Juyuan Guest House.

The overall environment of the guest house is good, there is not only heating in the standard room, you can take a hot shower, and the most surprising thing is the TV.

In the entire Xiaoxinfang Village, only almost everyone has a TV, and it is all the kind of 14-inch black and white TV.

And the Juyuan Guest House, inside turned out to be a twenty-one-inch large color TV.

Shui Wa looked at the surrounding environment, curious, happy, and worried.

"Lin Wazi, we brought a total of 1,200 yuan, and we live so well, this money doesn't need to be spent."

Pang Xuelin laughed and said, "Don't worry, Brother Shuiwa, let's stay here for a few days, and we'll go out tomorrow to find a house." ”

Shui Wa nodded, and then said with some curiosity: "Lin Wazi, why do you speak Mandarin so well?" Also, why did you lie to that driver just now, we are college students. ”

When it comes to college students, a trace of longing flashes in Shui Wa's eyes.

In this era, college students are the pride of heaven in the true sense, although in a few years, with the expansion of university enrollment and the dispensing of jobs, college students will also fall off the altar.

But in the hearts of most people, college students are still the real elite of this era.

Pang Xuelin smiled and said: "I learned Mandarin from the Yang accountant in the coal yard, as for lying to him as a college student, Brother Shuiwa, we came to Lancheng without knowing our lives, and we have to let people know that we also have a foundation in Lancheng." Otherwise, what if someone pulls us into a remote corner and wants to attack us? ”

"Oh."

Shui Wa nodded as if she didn't understand.

The public security environment in this era is far from reaching the level of later generations, car bandits and road blockers are rampant, and the PRCDNA fragment amplification technology is far from mature, and the criminal cases in the society remain high, but the detection rate is not high.

The thing of going out and evaporating from the outside world also happens from time to time.

Although Pang Xuelin is not afraid, it is better to make less trouble if he can make less trouble.

After the two settled down in the guest house, they went out to eat a bowl of noodles again, and then went back to the room to rest.

It is rare for the water baby to watch TV, and the Hong Kong version of "Shooting the Condor" is still on TV, and she quickly became addicted to it.

Pang Xuelin lost interest after a few glances, although this film is a classic, but after all, the production level is there, Pang Xuelin does not have that kind of nostalgic feelings.

Early the next morning, Pang Xuelin took the water baby out for a stroll.

Juyuan Hotel is located near Lancheng University, and Pang Xuelin first took the water baby around Lancheng University.

Although the economy of Lancheng is not ranked first in the country, in this era, Lancheng University is a well-known existence in the country.

As one of the 14 comprehensive universities that existed at the time of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chemistry, Physics, Ecology, Life Sciences, Geography, Meteorology, and Mathematics, each discipline of Lancheng University can be stabilized in the first phalanx of domestic academics, and organic chemistry in chemistry, magnetism, ecology, and physical geography are among the top three in China.

Even in later generations, because of the geographical environment, Lancheng University was poached by the eastern universities with a large number of high-level teachers, and its strength declined seriously, but it still maintained the title of 985 University and still has strong strength in the field of basic science.

Landa is like a secluded school, disconnected from business, much less utilitarian and shrewd, with the kind of academic seriousness and persistence that has been carried over from the last century, as well as rigidity and little flexibility.

The whole school has an excellent academic style, meticulous undergraduate education, and everyone has high academic ideals, and knowledge still maintains a high and sacred status in the University.

Pang Xuelin first came out after taking a turn with Shui Wa in Lanta, and then began to inspect the business environment of the surrounding communities of Lanta.

After coming to this world, Pang Xuelin didn't expect to be able to make a name for himself in the academic world in a short period of time.

After all, it is a little too scary for a seventeen-year-old half-grown child who has only graduated from the third grade of primary school to suddenly have the world's top academic standards.

He needed a platform to showcase his talent.

In addition, after entering this world, Pang Xuelin is not ready to take the academic route alone.

After nearly half a year of understanding, Pang Xuelin found that although there is not much difference between the world as a whole and the real world, there are many differences in some details.

For example, China has not experienced a buzz, and although there is a certain gap in scientific and technological development compared with Western countries, it is still in the forefront of the second echelon as a whole.

Aerospace science and technology are even more advanced than ever before.

Since the Americans landed on the moon in the sixties, the Soviet N1 rocket has not failed, successfully sent Soviet cosmonauts to the moon, and established a lunar base.

The success of the two superpowers on the moon has stimulated a global investment in the space industry.

By the eighties, ESA had also completed missions to the moon.

The United States completed the development and launch of the space shuttle in the mid-70s, and the Soviet Union's Buran space shuttle was successfully launched into space by the Energy rocket in the early 80s.

Subsequently, a low-earth orbit space station, a space solar power plant, a geostationary orbit space station, a circumlunar orbit space station, and a Lagrange space station were established one after another.

Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States did not relax its investment in space, and now even the Mars landing program is on NASA's agenda.

And China is not far behind in this regard, although it has not yet landed on the moon, its space shuttle program is already on the agenda, and it is expected to be launched in a few years.

Moreover, with the progress of space industrialization, newspapers have begun to say that the control of the civil space industry will be deregulated in the future.

Therefore, Pang Xuelin decided to accumulate a wealth and capital that could allow him to enter the space industry as soon as possible before opening up the civil aerospace industry.

After all, China's solar project was not originally established for pure interstellar exploration, and if Pang Xuelin wants to complete the interstellar exploration program, he needs a truly tailor-made interstellar spacecraft.

He can't wait until twenty or thirty years later, when the "Chinese Sun" is retired, to engage in his stellar exploration program.

……

On the third day of arriving in Lancheng, Pang Xuelin and Shui Wa found a small courtyard with two rooms near Lancheng and lived in it, with 60 yuan a month, and Pang Xuelin paid half a year's rent at one time.

However, Pang Xuelin still didn't tell Shui Wa what he wanted to do, he took him out here and there every day, and sometimes he even had the audacity to take Shui Wa to Lan University to go to class.

Shuiwa was almost scared half to death, and when she was in the classroom, she didn't dare to look up at the teacher on the podium.

Of course, even if he read it, he couldn't understand it.

Pang Xuelin looked unfazed, and even commented on the teaching level of these teachers.

Most of the time, Pang Xuelin took the water baby to walk the streets and alleys, counting the number of shops near Landa, and the development of catering, clothing and other industries.

Even one day, he specially asked the water baby to squat at the door to count the number of students who enter and leave the campus every day.

After nearly a week of understanding, Pang Xuelin had a bottom in his heart.

Although the historical details of this world have changed to a certain extent, China's economic development level is similar to that of previous generations.

Now is the era of China's private economy booming.

The most lucrative occupations that individuals can engage in are all concentrated in self-employed people, private contractors, small workshops and other industries.

Because self-employed people are too profitable, it has become a trend for the whole people to go to the sea for a while, and even some county magistrates and mayors have resigned to go to the sea.

And intellectuals have become the main force in the sea, and the salary level of reading a doctorate to do an atomic bomb is not as good as selling tea and eggs after graduating from primary school, this obviously unfair treatment has caused a large loss of practitioners in the field of science and technology, as long as they resign and go to the sea, what they do is better than technology.

In the real world, in order to reverse this, it was only in the mid-nineties that the state began to consciously improve the treatment of intellectuals in an all-round way.

Moreover, after the frenzied descent into the sea in the eighties and nineties, the number of self-employed people has also been seriously saturated, and the most urgent need of China's fast-growing economy is no longer low-end manual laborers, but technical personnel.

The demand for technical talents, on the one hand, because of the sharp loss in the previous decade, on the other hand, because of the weak supply of China's higher education, but also because of the rapid economic development, a large number of companies have sprung up after the rain and generated a large amount of demand, so it has led to a huge shortage of supply, which has boosted the rapid increase in the salary of technical personnel.

Intellectuals are no longer despised, and the college entrance examination has become synonymous with carp jumping over the dragon gate.

At the end of the decade, the huge shortage of demand on the one hand led to a rapid increase in the wages of scientific researchers, and on the other hand, it also prompted the country to carry out educational reforms, and universities began to expand their enrollment significantly, trying to alleviate the phenomenon of short supply of college students.