Chapter 228: Arrival in Yangcheng (First Update)
The soft sleeper from Yanjing to Yangcheng this time was not as luxurious as the one Xie Hushan, Han Hongbing and Cheng Yunfei took before. It was an ordinary soft sleeper with four people in a room.

Taozi, Lv Yuan, Han Hongzhen and Hu Shuang, four women, lived in a room.

Yang Liming, Jiao Peng, Accountant Zhao, and Deputy Factory Director Liu share one room.

Xie Hushan and Cao Tianbao lived in a room with two young drivers from the Yanjing ministry driver class.

One of the two men was named Cao and the other was named Zhang, both were about 27 or 28 years old. Xie Hushan became familiar with them after they exchanged a few cigarettes.

The two complained about the leaders of Yangcheng all the way, so much so that Xie Hushan initially thought that the two had some deep hatred with the leaders of Yangcheng and were going to take revenge.

After getting to know them, I realized that these two people were unlucky and were temporarily conscripted by their unit leaders because of the Canton Fair.

Judging from the number of foreign guests entering the country recently, the number of foreign guests attending the Canton Fair this year will be far more than that of last year, but there is a serious shortage of vehicles for providing foreign affairs services in Yangcheng. In order to escort the Canton Fair, the leaders specially transferred 80 domestic cars from Yanjing and transported them to Yangcheng by train. They also transferred 80 skilled and politically reliable drivers from the General Logistics Department and sent them to Yangcheng by train overnight to drive these cars.

As a result, the eighty skilled drivers had no time to get familiar with the road or see the foreigners. As soon as they got off the train in Yangcheng and had their first meal, they were all beaten to death by their comrades in Yangcheng.

The kitchen equipment in the guesthouse where we were arranged to stay was outdated and the level of kitchen hygiene management was too poor, resulting in food poisoning caused by halophilic bacteria. Eighty people suffered from vomiting and diarrhea and were all admitted to the hospital.

When they first received the notification that eighty men had been annihilated, people in Yanjing almost thought that Chiang Kai-shek had sent enemy spies to infiltrate Guangzhou to cause sabotage.

A large number of anti-espionage personnel from Guangdong and Guangxi were drawn out and swarmed into Guangzhou. It was estimated that the ancestors of the chefs and the staff of the guesthouse were thoroughly investigated. In the end, it was found that there were indeed no enemy spies, but the hygiene of the guesthouse was too poor, and the food and kitchen hygiene did not meet the standards.

Seeing that the Canton Fair was about to begin and such an incident had occurred, the state immediately dispatched a joint inspection team composed of senior officials from the ministries of health, public security, national security, foreign trade, and epidemic prevention to Yangcheng to ensure that similar incidents would not occur again.

They also quickly transferred key drivers from the car teams of units in Yanjing, Shanghai and other places as substitutes, and rushed to Yangcheng to replace the comrades who were still in the hospital receiving intravenous drips.

These two comrades were conscripted men. Even though they were living in a soft sleeper compartment, which was a rare experience under normal circumstances, they could not bring themselves to smile.

Anyone would be depressed if they were in the same situation. They went to work happily in the morning and had already thought about what to eat when they got home from get off work in the evening. But at noon, the leader hurriedly threw a report letter and a train ticket at them, and they were about to leave for Guangzhou. They didn’t even have time to go home to pack up and tell him.

Compared to these two depressed comrades, Xie Hushan and his companions were obviously much happier in the car. After all, there were many people and it was lively, so the time passed by just chatting.

The weather in Yaoshan in late April is still a bit cold, and people still have to wear coats when going out.

When Xie Hushan and his party walked out of Yangcheng Railway Station, many people on the street were only wearing T-shirts or sweatshirts, and even in the square in front of the station there could be seen many fashionable women wearing brightly colored skirts.

From time to time, there were even foreign men and women with blond hair and blue eyes, speaking foreign languages, passing by the crowd.

Accountant Zhao was not the only one with his eyes wide open. Lv Yuan and Tao Zi were also standing on tiptoe to take a closer look. Han Hongzhen, on the other hand, had probably gone out for a meeting some time ago and gained a lot of experience. She was much more focused than Lv Yuan and Tao Zi at this time. She glanced twice and then looked away.

“Do you need a place to stay, comrade? Our commune has rooms. Now all the hotels and guesthouses in the city are full, and there are only four rooms left in our commune. They are in great demand and ready anytime…” At this time, a local woman came over and spoke Mandarin with a slightly out-of-tune accent, and started to solicit business from the group of people standing in the square.

Cao Tianbao waved his hand and said in Cantonese: “No, no, we have booked a room at the Oriental Hotel.”

When the local women heard Cao Tianbao say that he had booked a room at the Oriental Hotel, they curled their lips in disdain:
“Stop bragging, young man. I know you guys are from the mainland by the way you guys are dressed. How can you possibly book a room in a hotel? I don’t know where in Guangzhou is. During the Canton Fair, all hotels only accept foreign guests. Mainland exhibitors can stay in guesthouses if they’re lucky. If they’re unlucky, there won’t be any beds in the guesthouses. The rooms in our commune are very good. It’s only about 20 miles away from the fair, which is pretty close.”

Cao Tianbao had seen this kind of women soliciting customers many times, so he stopped talking nonsense and took out his Hong Kong and Macau compatriots’ home return permit and waved it in front of the other party: “Auntie, we are Hong Kong businessmen.”

Seeing Cao Tianbao showing his ID, a train station staff member wearing a red band and observing the surroundings noticed it immediately, then walked over quickly and politely guided them to the taxi waiting area next to them:

“Sir, which hotel are you going to? Do you have a room reserved?”

Cao Tianbao reported the name of the Oriental Hotel, and the staff said to the drivers who were standing in a row in the waiting area, wearing white shirts and white gloves, standing next to the spotlessly clean taxis: “Several guests, please go to the Oriental Hotel.”

The drivers of the first three cars immediately opened the doors for everyone, politely asked them to get in, and then came over to help everyone with their luggage. The staff also reminded Cao Tianbao:

“Sir, you don’t need to pay for the fare. If the driver asks you for fare during the journey, please inform the hotel staff in time.”

Three Shanghai-brand cars took the group to the Oriental Hotel. The drivers did not leave immediately, but carried the luggage and followed everyone into the hotel. After the front desk confirmed that Cao Tianbao had booked a room in advance, they politely said goodbye.

“Why don’t foreigners or Hong Kong businessmen have to pay for the ride?” After the driver left, Lv Yuan whispered to Yang Limin, “Didn’t you and Xie Hushan always say that the country wants to make money?”

Yang Limin looked around and before he could speak, Xie Hushan said:

“Hong Kong and foreign businessmen don’t have to pay for the ride from the hotel to the exhibition during the half-month exhibition period, but they have to pay for the room. The country is not stupid. Didn’t you see that my eldest brother almost cried when he heard what the front desk said? They treated him like a fat sheep and slaughtered him.”

Cao Tianbao counted the Hong Kong dollars and paid at the front desk. He followed the instructions and went upstairs to the rooms that had been booked. Then Cao Tianbao complained:
“No wonder they didn’t mention how much it would cost to stay here for one night when I booked the room. They are just ripping off the fat sheep now. If I change my mind, I will get my deposit back immediately. How dare I not stay here? The whole city is full. I will stay here no matter how much it costs per night.”

He looked at the numbers on the doors, pushed open the door of a suite, and greeted everyone:
“Boss, auntie, and all the leaders, please come in and have some tea. All the brothers from our Hong Kong Island Zhongping branch are here and have been waiting for you for a long time.”

In the living room of the suite, Han Hongbing, Zhu Youjun, Lin Meiyang and Xuanzai were sitting on the sofa watching the TVB channel on TV. Hearing a noise coming from the door, the four who had been waiting anxiously stood up and looked.

The door was pushed open from the outside, and Xie Hushan, dressed in a black Zhongshan suit and black cloth shoes, walked in with a smirk on his face:
“Chief of Staff Han, we haven’t seen each other for half a year, and we finally meet again. This time, I am representing the Zhongping Production Brigade and leading my team to Guangzhou to fleece foreign and Hong Kong businessmen!”

(End of this chapter)