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墨書 Inktalez
“Secretary Zhang!” A middle-aged man with a beaming smile appeared at their table, warmly grabbing Secretary Zhang's hand as if they had known each other for a long time.
Aunt Zhang frowned slightly, while Yezhi stared at him with interest. The middle-aged man noticed her gaze and smiled at her, saying, “This must be your daughter; she looks really lovely.”
Yezhi chuckled, “You sure know how to flatter someone.” The middle-aged man paused for a moment but quickly returned to his smiling demeanor, “You’re quite humorous, young lady.”
“Ha ha~!” Yezhi laughed but remained silent, feeling uneasy about having a stranger join them for dinner.
“Old Han, have you eaten? If not, come sit with us,” Secretary Zhang said.
The middle-aged man nodded eagerly, “Sure! I have two friends; let me introduce you.”
Once he walked away, Aunt Zhang quietly complained, “As long as this old man is around, we can’t have a peaceful meal.”
Secretary Zhang smiled awkwardly, “I didn’t want this either; Yezhi, please don’t mind.”
She did mind; she hated eating with strangers. But there was no point in voicing her feelings now since the man was already approaching.
“This is our county’s leader, Secretary Zhang,” the middle-aged man introduced while waving for the waiter to come over.
“Secretary Zhang, hello! I’m Ota Ryuzo. I’ve always wanted to visit you, and it’s a coincidence that I ran into you here; it seems we are fated,” the well-dressed man greeted in fluent Mandarin with a Beijing accent.
Secretary Zhang released his hand and smiled lightly, “Hello!” Ota Ryuzo didn’t mind and continued to greet Yezhi and the others enthusiastically, even introducing the signature dishes of the “Grand Hotel,” as if he were a local.
Yezhi watched Ota Ryuzo, who spoke incessantly, thinking he understood Chinese dining culture better than the uncultured Secretary Zhang.
“Mr. Ota, your Chinese is excellent,” Nima remarked. After all, China had only opened up for a few years; his fluency must have been planned for a long time and seemed suspicious.
“Thank you! I really love Chinese culture. My company sent me to China; it feels like returning to my dream hometown.”
How pretentious! Having a Japanese Person speak so eloquently in front of her was quite unpleasant. Before she could express her disdain, she quickly asked, “What brings you to our county? What good things have you found?”
Secretary Zhang shot Yezhi a glare. Although he disliked Japanese Person, he still believed basic politeness should not be neglected.
“Mr. Ota says that our place is full of treasures; even the rice here is different from elsewhere—top quality!” The middle-aged man named Han spoke animatedly while giving a thumbs-up.
Ota and his assistant, Glasses, nodded repeatedly, and of course, their thumbs were not idle, "Excellent!"
Although diplomatic relations between China and Japan were normalized in 1972, and Japan made significant contributions to China's development during the early reform and opening-up period, she, a post-80s individual immersed in anime and Japanese dramas in the 21st century, found it difficult to express friendship towards Japanese people. However, she did not harbor hatred either, even though there was a site of a Japanese bombing in her hometown, and the air raid siren would sound at ten o'clock every June 5th...
A male colleague who harbored deep resentment towards Japan once said that she had been brainwashed by Japanese cultural invasion, unable to distinguish right from wrong, a numb Chinese person. Whether she was numb or not was unclear; she merely thought that without experiencing it, the pain was limited.
Getting back on track, in Yezhi's eyes, these two Japanese individuals appeared as wolves in sheep's clothing, here to plunder resources.
"Secretary Zhang, our Oda Corporation wants to engage in comprehensive cooperation with the county. First, I would like to promote the precious 'Bilo' in our country. Let our people taste this green pearl from the mountains."
Yezhi patted her chest vigorously; if it weren't for the timely arrival of the server with the dishes, she would have surely retorted, "Dream on!"
Not everything good should be exported; during autumn, Yezhi loved to eat Chinese Mitten Crab. However, even at a six-star hotel, she couldn't find authentic ones. In fact, the genuine Yangcheng Lake Chinese Mitten Crab was mostly exported abroad, leaving barely enough for the entire nation. She didn't want 'Bilo' to end up like that; good things should certainly be shared with her fellow countrymen first—foreigners could wait until they had leftovers.
"White Pine Salmon, White Monkey Head, Dragon Soup, Three Fresh Deer Antler Soup... Your dishes are ready," Aunt Zhang said in astonishment as she looked at the table full of food. "We didn't order these dishes; did you deliver them by mistake?"
The increasingly round server smiled and replied, "How could I deliver them by mistake? These are all our restaurant's signature dishes; only with advance reservations can you enjoy such a complete selection. I won't delay everyone from enjoying them." With that, she swiftly walked away holding the tray.
Secretary Zhang stood up. "We welcome foreign friends to invest; as for this meal, we won't be eating it."
Ota feigned enthusiasm to keep them there but scoffed inwardly. Which Chinese official didn't buzz with excitement at the mention of investment or cooperation? This Zhang seemed a bit arrogant.
A middle-aged man named Han pulled Secretary Zhang aside and whispered, "Oda Corporation is a well-known import-export enterprise. If we can bring them on board, will our county still be struggling on the poverty line? Old Zhang, this is your opportunity."
Secretary Zhang gave him a deep look. "Business matters should be discussed in the office; what's this eating and drinking about? Let's go!"
Yezhi glanced longingly at the table full of dishes and swallowed her saliva as she chased after Secretary Zhang. Once outside the 'big restaurant,' Secretary Zhang awkwardly said, "Yezhi must be hungry; had I known this would happen, I wouldn't have come and made you two miss out on food."
Aunt Zhang pretended to be angry. "Every time you're around, it's never peaceful! Yezhi, why is it so hard to just have a meal together?"
Yezhi simply smiled. She initially wanted to take advantage of the situation to eat well at the expense of the little Japanese guy; however, since Uncle Zhang wasn't cooperating, there was nothing she could do.
Secretary Zhang suggested, "How about I cook some noodles for you when we get home?"
"I'll go buy some marinated snacks." Before she could respond, Aunt Zhang headed off in a familiar direction.
Yezhi and Secretary Zhang returned to his home—one boiled water while the other prepared dough. Of course, it was Secretary Zhang who handled the dough. The water boiled quickly while Yezhi idly asked Secretary Zhang about his opinion on Ota.
"I have no opinion about him."
"Uncle Zhang, you're clearly not being honest. Let me be frank with you first," Secretary Zhang said as he looked up. "So, what do you have to say?"
"I disagree with promoting 'Bilo' in Japan."
"Why not?" He was tempted by the idea of selling 'Bilo' to Japan for profit, but he personally had no good feelings towards Japanese people and didn't want to create unnecessary misunderstandings, which was why he refused to dine with Ota. However, he wasn't opposed to investment cooperation itself.
"Investment cooperation with Japanese people brings technology and capital, but what we lose are resources."
Secretary Zhang chuckled, no longer holding back his amusement. "Isn't rice something we can still grow after selling? What resources are you talking about?"
"But what if it's timber, coal, rare metals, or oil fields?" Secretary Zhang felt even more confused. "There are plenty of trees in the mountains, and what do coal and metals have to do with these counties? Yezhi, your emotions are off. We can't look at people with old perspectives or block everyone's path to wealth based on personal preferences."
"Poverty isn't the scariest thing; we have hands. The scariest thing is that the place we live in is desolate," Yezhi insisted as she forcefully injected some environmental knowledge into the conversation. "Is it really that serious?" Yezhi nodded, but she didn't want to give Secretary Zhang an ambiguous answer; what was needed now was a clear stance.
"Rice doesn't count as a resource; even if it does, it's considered a renewable resource. So why can't we sell 'Bilo' for profit?" Yezhi felt that Big Leader was indeed hard to convince. "What about Biluomi?" Secretary Zhang nodded. "Then why haven't our people enjoyed such a good product yet? Why should we give it away cheaply to foreigners?"
Secretary Zhang shook his head lightly and laughed. "I think that's the real truth you're afraid of. But... we can't view problems so narrowly."
Narrowly! That couldn't be right! She just couldn't stand that all the good products of high quality were all exported while the domestic market was in shambles. She thought that for our people to eat 'Bilo' would only be a slightly expensive matter, but for foreigners, it was a luxury item. Of course, her wish was beautiful; whether it could be realized required much effort. Convincing Secretary Zhang to block the financial bombardment from Japanese people was just her small effort because in the face of great trends, public opinion was insignificant.
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