Volume 1: Laying the Foundation Chapter 11: Numb Reality

  After finishing all this, Chen Xiaoqi packed his bags and moved into the Dahua Dyeing Factory. No matter how good the hotel was, it couldn't be compared to this way of living, and he hadn't even earned a single penny yet! However, Chen Zhanggui didn't think so. In his opinion, this young brother was so capable that with just one mouth and a few pages of paper, he had fooled the Frenchman into not knowing what to do, and had even signed a cooperation agreement - Chen Xiaoqi hadn't spent a single penny but got 25% of the shares. This was just like when he cooperated with the Lu family in the past, he put out small shares but took the big head, what ability!

  His own brother was pleased with himself, so he didn't think much of Chen Xiaoqi's move. Now that business is good, the accommodation fee is really nothing to worry about. However, he didn't know that Chen Xiaoqi moved into the dye factory not only to save money but also to quickly integrate into this era. Staying in a hotel every day and seeing few people was different from the dye factory, where there were not only the lowest-level civilians and small workers who only worked for food without pay, but also low-paid workers and even merchants from all over the world who came to sell cloth. They could bring the latest news of the times and some rules and regulations of this era. Knowing these things would allow him to make fewer mistakes in his future life.

  Some foreigners who had business dealings with the dye factory also gradually entered Chen Xiaoqi's field of vision, through whom he could understand some behaviors, status and psychological state of foreigners in China at that time, as well as the overall situation and changes of the world at that time. Especially, he could know about some inventions, creations, industrial technologies and products that he was concerned about, which helped him judge the direction and goals he would attack next, so as not to make a laughing stock of himself.

  Of course, a very crucial thing is that he needs to provide Dennis with a large number of initial design drawings. Anyway, the foundation for Dennis's entrepreneurship in France comes from his planning, and all kinds of copywriting are indispensable. In addition to the basic operation ideas, store marketing, advertising, and product design are equally important.

  This won't stump Chen Xiaoqi, who has never eaten pork but has seen many pigs run! Fashion clothes? No problem, one "The Devil Wears Prada" is enough to keep him busy. The dazzling array of fashion styles in it are all new and exciting. When Chen Xiaoqi was forced by his girlfriend to watch it repeatedly over a dozen times, he memorized every outfit the protagonist wore, repeating them over a dozen times until he knew them inside out. Sometimes he even dreamed about them! Luckily those clothes weren't for sale, or else buying knockoffs would have bankrupted him!

  Lingerie? That's even simpler. He didn't just watch the annual Victoria's Secret lingerie fashion show dozens of times, but also watched thousands of Japanese AVs, where those Eastern temptresses wore all sorts of clothes to entice the audience with their teasing and flirtatious looks. It was hard to forget those sexy and provocative lingerie, except for the initial nosebleed when looking at those private parts. Later on, he mostly appreciated them, so it didn't waste his time remembering those sensual lingerie that are now coming in handy. Besides, many guys have been forced to accompany their girlfriends to women's lingerie stores, right?

  Apart from these materials, the annual Oscar awards ceremony and various large and small awards ceremonies at home and abroad, those stars spare no effort to dress themselves up in a dazzling manner, naturally accompanied by countless uniquely designed and exquisite evening dresses, as well as the numerous Hollywood blockbusters where men and women are dressed up.

  Chen Xiaoqi thought of a clever method, which is to list out the protagonists from the big films that left a deep impression on him, and then recall the various appearances of these people. As a result, thousands of different images emerged. In this era of global information sharing, such materials are almost endless! As long as your memory is good enough and the pen in your hand is not too clumsy, this is simply an inexhaustible treasure trove!

  Dennis was frantically studying the plan, hoping to understand it thoroughly before departure. In this era, there were no long-distance phones for them to discuss separately across thousands of miles, and international telegrams were expensive, so the more he understood, the easier it would be to control and succeed at the beginning.

  Chen Xiaoqi was drawing with his life on the line, a big handful of pencils and a large stack of cardboard in his hands quickly turned into all sorts of sketches and silhouettes. Those tightly drawn outlines he didn't even have time to refine were ruthlessly discarded, he had no time for meticulous craftsmanship because the ideas bursting out of his brain were endless and infinite. Having entered work mode, he didn't want to easily interrupt this rare opportunity.

  After working crazily for ten days, Chen Xiaoqi suddenly discovered that there was no paper left in his hands. Looking around, he saw that the thousands of drafts of various styles had almost filled up the tens of square meters of workspace, leaving no room to set foot. The pencil leads that he had sharpened bare were scattered all over the floor. At this moment, if someone carelessly threw down a cigarette butt or something, Chen's great talent would immediately be immortalized in the raging flames.

  After a brief rest, Chen Xiaoqi began to refine some selected drafts. The era's flower cloth was scarce and pitiful, he had almost no choice, those designs that would need to show various colorful patterns in the future were temporarily not used, he took out those monochromatic and unadorned fashion suit design schemes and colored them separately. Within a few days, he roughly completed more than 100 pieces, including seven categories, at this time he felt somewhat exhausted.

  Dennis returned to the dye factory, handed in a job and brought books from all over for him. Most of them were from Shanghai. He took away nearly two hundred design sketches and had nothing more to say. Now he just wanted to hurry back to France as soon as possible to launch this fashion feast that would affect the world and realize his long-planned dream of wealth.

  Finally, after being busy with this huge pile of things, Chen Xiaoqi came to this time and space for the first time to have some free time to think about his future path. This era was completely unfamiliar and unknown to him, although he had watched so many so-called Republic of China dramas, but just a few days of observation could make him understand how unreliable those TV shows were, not to mention the setting, costumes, props, and cultural background, even the simplest expressions on people's faces on the street were not like that at all.

  Since the start of World War I, Japan has used the pretext of joining the ranks to punish Germany and actually sent troops to occupy Shandong, quickly turning it into their exclusive colony. They invested heavily in setting up banks and factories, bribing warlords and bureaucrats with large sums of money, intimidating and coercing ordinary Chinese people, and controlling large tracts of land and mines through various means, providing them with cheap mineral resources and materials such as cotton and hemp. This includes coal mines in Jinan, gold mines in Zhaoyuan, ceramics in Zibo, tobacco in Weifang, salt pans in Weihai and Yantai, and they also sent out large numbers of exploration teams to conduct on-site surveys and measurements of mineral resources and terrain in various parts of Shandong, collecting a large amount of first-hand data, laying the foundation for their further invasion and plunder.

  At this time, the Northern Warlords were constantly performing the absurd drama of "you finish your turn and I take the stage", without anyone caring about the lives of ordinary people. They couldn't even pay their own soldiers' wages, everyone was busy frantically plundering from an already weak economy, with thousands of tax projects invented in various places, all wanting to scrape the ground bare and knock on the sky.

  In this case, "the people are not talking about their lives" is not enough to describe the situation at that time. The Shandong border was almost chaotic with bandits everywhere, and the common people were suffering beyond description. At that time, as long as they could afford it, you could see people selling themselves on the streets, and 14- or 15-year-old girls and young boys were the best to sell, for only 10 or 20 yuan. Older or younger people would be sold for just a few dollars. The most tragic were some infants who didn't understand anything. Chen Xiaoqi once saw a woman holding her one-year-old son, willing to sell him for just one dime! This one dime could buy 20 pieces of coarse grain pancakes, enough to let her live another month!

  This is what Qingdao, which was opened up to commerce relatively early, has become. He dare not think about what other places have become! Historically, Shandong Province had a population of nearly 30 million since the mid-18th century, but by the time the war of resistance against Japan began, the population of Shandong had only increased to 33 million! What factors caused the population growth of China, which had always been growing rapidly, to stagnate over this period of almost a century? This is also true for places like Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Hebei, where agricultural conditions have always been among the best.

  Chen Xiaoqi's heart was heavy, he had never thought that this era would be like this. He had also experienced being surrounded and robbed by dozens of big and small beggars after giving two cents to a little beggar. He had also been asked many times by rickshaw drivers in broken Japanese because of his suit and tie attire, each time he seriously and futilely stated the fact that he was Chinese, but saw a strange expression in the eyes of those drivers, an expression he was not unfamiliar with - a complex feeling containing relaxation, contempt, disappointment, yet some expectation. And there were also numbness.

  At first, Chen Xiaoqi was at a loss, he didn't know if he should get used to it and gradually become numb, treating all this as a matter of course, something that should happen. But after a while, he found that he still didn't fit in with the world, he couldn't pretend not to know about the injustices in his mind. In later generations, people shouted on the internet every day for freedom and equality, no matter from rural areas to cities, from farmers to officials, from adults to children, everyone was fighting and grabbing their eyes wide open to find things that could make themselves rich, promoted, powerful, successful, prestigious, famous, etc., no one wanted to fall behind. For the sake of these desires, all kinds of ugly things were done, so much so that on the internet, you can see more absurd and ridiculous stories than any other era, leaving people speechless.

  Chen Xiaoqi is a passionate young man, full of idealism and passion for everything. Those beautiful expectations are still like a carrot dangling in front of a donkey's mouth, attracting him to constantly absorb the knowledge that will enable him to quickly develop and succeed in the future. He has also encouraged himself countless times that when he has the ability, he wants to change everything and not let this society be so money-oriented and profit-driven without any moral integrity.

  However, when he arrived at this point in time and space, he was shocked to find that everything had turned upside down. Here, he couldn't see all the things that annoyed him so much in his original time and space, but instead saw another kind of scene that drove him even crazier - everything, everyone, and every single thing revolved around one word: numbness.

  The vast majority of people at the bottom live without direction or ideals, they only think about having a full meal every day and do not consider anything else because everything is too far away from them. Slightly better-off peasants and small townspeople hope to have their own land to farm or a job that pays wages, in order to improve their lives through hard work and earn a certain economic income, even if it's just eating white rice once a month or having meat once a year! But ask them what they think about the country and nation? Don't know! Not clear! Not concerned! Do not understand!

  In the newspaper, many students who returned from Japan were shouting hoarsely to reform their ideology and culture, to awaken the people to strive for self-improvement, to revive the nation and the country, to do this and that. But in the end, Chen Xiaoqi took a look and said that to achieve this goal, we must first eradicate Chinese characters?!

  What the hell is going on? Have these people's brains gone bad? Are they really Chinese? He carefully looked at the names of those great men and was shocked! Oh my god! They were all famous writers, authors, thinkers, revolutionaries, and so on in later generations!

  This is outrageous! These are first-rate talents who have made outstanding contributions to the country and nation, and they are all national elites! But why do they say this? Don't they know that a nation exists because of its own unique culture? And isn't the basic carrier of culture just language? If Chinese characters are eliminated and Western languages are used for teaching, writing, and recording, then when everyone no longer recognizes or uses Chinese characters, will these so-called "nations" still be Chinese? Do these people who don't even know where China comes from have any connection to China at all? Then what should China be called at that time?

  Xiao Qi was baffled by this question, because in these people, he saw a passionate and dedicated spirit, who had shed blood and sacrificed their lives for the country and nation, pouring out their hearts and souls, exhausting their youth and energy. They were the pioneers who pulled the country and nation out of numbness and ignorance. But how could they be like this? Had time and space become distorted? Or was everything he saw in history false?

  Chen Xiaoqi couldn't find the answer and was confused, so he became depressed. The depressed Chen Xiaoqi looked unhappy, had no energy to do anything, and at an age when he should be carefree and lively, he always looked worried and anxious, which made Chen Zhanggui and Lu Jiaju very concerned, wondering what had triggered this brother's distress.

  Chen Xiaoqi didn't hide much, but instead shifted his own feelings about the afterlife onto Americans and used this as an excuse to ask them for proof of what was going on. Unfortunately, he himself couldn't explain it clearly, and hadn't even thought deeply about the issue. In their view, being able to make this factory bigger and stronger, not always being trampled underfoot at the very bottom, and being able to float up and freely breathe in fresh air was already achieving their goal.

  Their idea was so simple and practical, they thought that as long as everyone worked hard like them, the country would surely become rich and strong. A rich and strong country would naturally be able to "drive out the Tartars and restore China". Those great men who were busy with the affairs of state had many big things to do, they just needed to do their own part well. Being able to expand and strengthen the industrial enterprises in their hands, being able to earn more money, having more ability to support national construction, this was already "industrial salvation of the country".

  But Chen Xiaoqi knew that this was impossible to achieve, and the efforts of one or two people, or even a small group of people, were powerless to change the overall situation. The biggest problem that can make a country and nation truly rise is the problem of people's thinking. And in this era, the most direct, effective, and fundamental condition for achieving this is to change the national spirit of self-confidence, self-reliance, and perseverance that was thoroughly worn away after the fall of the Qing dynasty. Before the Ming Dynasty, when did Chinese people ever fear any nation in the world? When did Chinese people ever think they were inferior to others, no matter which country or nation they encountered, like a lowly grandson? If you don't even respect yourself, how can you expect others to respect you?

  But this matter is too difficult, how many people have tried to change everything? Since the word "nation" appeared, how many people on the Chinese mainland have sacrificed their lives for it? In what year and month can the Chinese nation truly restore its "invincibility", truly achieve the heroic spirit of "those who offend China will be punished no matter how far away"?

  Chen Xiaoqi came from nearly a hundred years later, he didn't have any idea that he was more excellent or great than the people now, he just felt terrified! Helpless! Because he found that those predecessors and martyrs who had been learning and admiring since childhood were now alive and shouting loudly around him, what they were doing was essentially not much wrong, but the method was wrong!

  But what can be done about it? Go and correct them? Go and persuade them? Tell them what to do? Who are you, Chen Xiaoqi, to think that you are absolutely right and everyone else is wrong? What makes you qualified to think that others should follow your instructions and go in the direction you say?

  Then Chen Xiaoqi became even more depressed.