HPDBC Chapter 775: Let's talk again at the beginning of the chapter
Chapter 775: Let's talk again at the beginning of the chapter
To be precise, Yu Chengping is actually only nine years old, but according to Qingjiang's custom, he usually celebrates his birthday according to the traditional Chinese age reckoning (by the Chinese age reckoning).
Yu Chengping is the only son in the Yu family, so Old Yu and Zheng Aiying naturally treat him like a treasure. He is the eldest son and grandson of the Yu family, which is why there is a tenth birthday banquet today.
When Huang Xiaochuan arrived at the Yu family home, everyone was there. Yu Min and Yue Zhiyuan, along with Yue Xiaoyong, had come all the way from Qingjiang. This showed how much the Yu family valued their eldest grandson, Yu Chengping.
Yue Xiaoyong hadn't seen his cousins for a long time, and after they met, they naturally had a lot to talk about, and the children chatted enthusiastically together.
"Why are you so late?" Upon seeing the man, Yu Xiang quickly came to greet him.
Huang Xiaochuan habitually handed his briefcase to Yu Xiang, explaining, "I don't know what happened today, the traffic was terrible, which delayed me a bit."
Zheng Aiying overheard her eldest daughter and son-in-law's conversation and defended her son-in-law, saying, "Xiao Chuan has a ton of work every day, what do you think he'll do? Besides, he didn't arrive late!"
Yu Xiang said to the man with a jealous look on her face, "See? My mom still protects you!"
At this moment, Old Yu reached out and beckoned to his eldest son-in-law, "Xiao Chuan, come and have some tea!"
Huang Xiaochuan walked over with a smile, not forgetting to greet Yu Wei and Yue Zhiyuan.
He asked Yue Zhiyuan, "When did you arrive?"
Yue Zhiyuan laughed and said, "I arrived around 4 p.m. The journey was smooth, except for waiting in line for a while at the Shanghai toll station."
As Huang Xiaochuan listened, he took the teacup from his father-in-law's hand: "Thank you, Dad!"
He then asked Yu Wei, "You and Tang Yuan came back pretty early too!"
Yu Wei complained slightly, "There's nothing I can do. Today is a big day for my parents' precious grandson. Tang Yuan and I even took half a day off, otherwise we definitely wouldn't be home yet."
Huang Xiaochuan smiled knowingly after hearing this. Yu Wei was right. His mother-in-law really valued her grandson Yu Chengping's tenth birthday party. She had been planning it for a month. Otherwise, she wouldn't have asked Yu Min's family, who lived far away in Qingjiang, to come over as well.
This also reflects the importance that older generations attach to children's birthdays. In Qingjiang, the custom is to value the birthdays of both children and the elderly. Generally speaking, children's full moon, 100-day, first birthday, and tenth birthday are celebrated, followed by the elderly's sixtieth, seventieth, and eightieth birthdays, and so on. But in general, they all celebrate their birthdays according to the traditional Chinese age system. Huang Xiaochuan is not very clear about the specific reasons, but it has been passed down from generation to generation.
After looking around and not seeing Yu Min and Tang Yuan, Huang Xiaochuan asked Yue Zhiyuan, "Zhiyuan, where's your wife?"
Yue Zhiyuan pointed upstairs: "Tang Yuan said he bought some clothes for Yu Min, and the two of them are trying them on upstairs."
As they were talking, the two of them came downstairs.
"Hey! Brother-in-law!" Upon seeing Huang Xiaochuan, Yu Min took the initiative to greet him.
Huang Xiaochuan smiled and waved his hand as a greeting.
Then Yu Min pulled up her skirt, struck a pose, and asked Yue Zhiyuan, "Does it look good?"
Yue Zhiyuan didn't rush to answer, but instead reached out and took a look at the price tag hanging on the skirt.
I was immediately taken aback: "Holy crap, over ten thousand?"
Tang Yuan corrected him, "Second brother-in-law, can you stop making such a fuss? The price tag doesn't represent the actual price; it was bought at a discount."
"What discount did you get?" Yue Zhiyuan still wanted to know the real price of the dress. Although the dress looked really beautiful on Yu Min, the price tag really shocked him. As a reporter for a prefecture-level city daily newspaper, his monthly salary plus extra income was less than the number on the price tag.
However, Tang Yuan refused to say, "Don't worry about it. Anyway, it was given to my second sister by Yu Wei and me."
At this moment, Yu Xiang walked over, looked at it, and then reached out to touch the fabric of the dress, nodding: "Yu Min does look quite good in it."
Huang Xiaochuan also smiled and advised Yue Zhiyuan, "This is a matter between the sisters, you shouldn't get involved."
Yue Zhiyuan glanced at his brother-in-law, and seeing that Yu Wei was smiling and silent, he also gave up. In this family, they were the only working class. Not to mention his brother-in-law, who could no longer be simply described as rich, his brother-in-law and his wife, although they were public servants, had made a fortune by following their brother-in-law in stock investments in their early years, and now they didn't rely on their salaries at all.
Putting everything else aside, just look at this huge mansion. Can a working-class person afford to live here? Even if the brother-in-law is now a deputy director-level cadre, how much income does he have? Unless he's corrupt, but that's impossible, because the brother-in-law has a brother-in-law who is the richest man in Asia, so he doesn't need to.
This type of house is very different from ordinary houses. It has a separate utility room and separates water for soft water and drinking water. Soft water is used for washing clothes and bathing. Clothes washed with this water will not be stiff at all and will be very soft, not to mention the benefits for the human body. Purified water is the water we drink normally. However, in China today, purified water is not yet widely available. It is still a niche household product, and its cost is naturally not low.
If Yue Zhiyuan hadn't gone to the equipment room to take a look, he would never have known that there was so much equipment inside, including heating, purification, cooling, and power generation.
With so many devices, the cost of using them is also an astonishing figure.
In addition, the flowers, plants, and landscaping in the garden need to be regularly maintained by professionals. My parents-in-law's skills are simply not up to the task, which adds up to a considerable expense.
At this moment, Huang Xiaochuan asked Yue Zhiyuan, "Zhiyuan, your newspaper's business is being significantly impacted by the internet, isn't it?"
When his brother-in-law brought up the matter, Yue Zhiyuan had a lot of grievances to vent.
He then said with a bitter expression, "Brother-in-law, to be honest, the impact is huge."
Yue Zhiyuan gave an example: "Take our newspaper for example! We have always been the top brand in Qingjiang Media. I don't need to tell you about our authority. Back in 2003 and 2004, a newspaper cost 50 cents. Our newspaper had a circulation of more than 100,000 copies every day. It's no exaggeration to say that the people in our newspaper's GG department walked with their heads held high back then."
However, since last year, the number of copies issued has been dropping exponentially. Almost half of this year has passed, and the data is even worse than last year. To say it's appalling is an understatement.
Let's not even talk about GG's revenue. Lately, they've been having one meeting after another discussing how to streamline the layout, and there are even rumors of layoffs.
At this moment, Old Yu, who had been listening to his children talking, interjected, "Really?! I've been reading the newspapers for decades, and it's a legitimate state-owned enterprise. How can it just close down like that?"
"Dad! Things are different now than they were back then. We didn't even have television; we relied mainly on newspapers and radio to stay informed about national events and the outside world. But what era are we living in now? The internet age! Young people these days are practically glued to the internet. What news don't they get? And the news gets there faster than our traditional newspapers. Our reporters work so hard to get their articles published, then it has to be typeset, printed, and delivered to readers the next day. But websites? The news is up and about an hour or two after it's released. Who can keep up with that speed?"
At this point, Yue Zhiyuan became somewhat agitated: "Moreover, now blogs and forums are popping up everywhere. A lot of breaking news is just casually posted online by ordinary people. We, the so-called 'regular army,' journalists, have become the ones picking up the leftovers. To put it bluntly, our newspapers still have authority, but they've completely lost their timeliness."
Huang Xiaochuan couldn't help but touch his nose. No one understood the current predicament of traditional media better than him. With the deepening development of the Internet, the impact on traditional media will become increasingly greater, which is unavoidable.
Tang Yuan came over with a teapot to refill tea for the group and naturally heard Yue Zhiyuan's complaint. She chimed in, "What my second brother-in-law said is true. Nowadays, the young people in our unit all learn about current events through the internet. Yu Wei and I do the same. It's quick, convenient, and free. After all, newspapers cost 50 cents or a dollar to buy."
Hearing Tang Yuan's remarks, Yue Zhiyuan became even more agitated: "Look, even Tang Yuan has seen this problem. Our newspapers have costs and must make money, but nowadays, news on the internet is almost all free. They make money based on clicks and inserted content. It's completely different from the operating model of our print media. It's like a dimensional reduction attack. We don't even have a chance to fight back."
As Huang Xiaochuan was pondering how to comfort Yue Zhiyuan, his mother-in-law, Zheng Aiying, came over and urged, "Alright, alright! We can talk about this later. The food is on the table, so sit down and get ready to eat!"
Then everyone returned to their original state and took their seats.
Huang Xiaochuan patted Yue Zhiyuan on the shoulder: "We'll talk about this in more detail later!"