Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 1220 - 609: Encountered a Madman

Chapter 1220: Chapter 609: Encountered a Madman

This was an ever-changing era.

Every day it seemed some changes were quietly happening, many people at the time did not take special notice, but when they took a moment to reflect on the past, they would be shocked to discover that their lives had changed dramatically without their realization.

Take for example the well-known "three big items" for marriage, what were the original three big items? A watch, a bicycle, and a sewing machine. Back then, anyone who could ride an old type of bicycle was considered incredibly cool.

Those who had lived through that era, or had seen related TV shows and movies knew that even in the Imperial City, bicycles were ubiquitous. And the most fashionable and rebellious youths at the time were fond of breakdancing, which nowadays looks very outdated. So back then, riding a bicycle and shouting to go breakdancing was considered trendy.

If someone did that now, they would not be considered trendy but rather a busybody who might offer to call the mental hospital for them.

A few years later, the "three big items" changed to a fridge, a color TV, and a washing machine. Of course, this is referring to the city. In the countryside, even though Hong Kong had returned to China, it had only just begun to catch on to these three items.

Up to the present, the "three big items" in the city have changed again, gradually coming to favor air conditioners, computers, and video recorders.

Besides these, each year new fashionable elements emerge, breakdancing which used to be popular, was seen as frivolous, and young people who danced were considered rebellious—there was an unfortunate singer who was reported by a neighbor for dancing and got jailed for hooliganism; he was the one who after getting out sang quite a few ’prison songs’. People like Heizi and Old Ou used to shout a few lines back in the day.

Of course, some changes are understandable to everyone, while others make many feel "it’s not that I don’t understand, it’s that the world changes too fast". For example, these days, if you call a girl "miss" in the city, you’re asking for a scolding.

Alright, you can’t call them miss, so everyone just calls them beauty—As for saying that girl isn’t pretty enough, and calling her beauty is a bit against your conscience? Try calling her ugly and see if she reacts!

In short, this is change, which makes some of the older generation say, "Life is getting better by the day, but how come some things are increasingly perplexing?"

Apart from these changes, a new group emerged, given a new name: Angry Youth.

Some Angry Youth are discontent with everything, which makes them somewhat disgruntled and annoying. Others are purely nationalist Angry Youth, mainly characterized by their intolerance of anything foreign, even if they internally recognize that some aspects are more advanced than ours; they steadfastly deny it outwardly.

Since they are intolerant of everything, boycotting foreign goods is inevitable.

Many of the fashionable and trendy things in the country now are foreign goods, especially those from Japan, a country with which we once had deep grievances. Due to geographical advantages, a bulk of their products have flooded in.

In dealing with these items, some people see them as fashion trends, while others feel it represents a fawning over foreign things—In fact, some people these days could even be lightly described as worshiping the foreign; they believe even the moon is rounder overseas. Calling them traitors might not even be an overstatement.

From this perspective, the nationalist Angry Youth aren’t all that bad; even though they may be somewhat extreme, at least they do not fawn over foreign things—compared to some who believe they are aloof observers, acting like ’the only sober person in a room full of drunks’, they might not even be as good as the Angry Youth. At least, the blood of the Angry Youth has not gone cold.

Moreover, if everyone is ’the only sober person in a room full of drunks’, then who is actually drunk and who is awake?

The majority of these Angry Youth still exist only in the cities since, relatively speaking, the flow of information is more developed there. To put it bluntly, in the countryside, there is so little information that even if someone wanted to be ’angry’, they couldn’t muster it up!

And in university campuses, which gather a large number of youths, it’s a natural occurrence for some Angry Youth to emerge.

Yang Hongqi from Provincial Agricultural University was such a person.

Just by hearing his name you’d know, in such a modern age, to have such an old-fashioned name, he must come from a poor and backward area.

And indeed, it was so.

Yang Hongqi was born in an old revolutionary base area, influenced by his surroundings since childhood. So when he came to the city for his studies and suddenly discovered that the products made by the former archenemies his great-grandfathers fought against in bloody battles were now considered trendy in the city, he couldn’t help but join the ranks of the Angry Youth.

Some of his classmates had bought portable music players from Japan, and they were often the butt of his sarcastic remarks. As it turned out, those who could afford imported portable music players were from well-off families. Plus, those classmates were also good at rallying people to their side. By being consistently bothered by others, he ended up making himself somewhat of an outcast.

Anyhow, with graduation approaching and plans to return to his hometown to lead the villagers to prosperity, these city things would soon be unrelated to him, so he simply took a don’t-care attitude. Whenever he saw something he disliked, he couldn’t help but speak out, resulting in him becoming even more isolated.

To say he was isolated wasn’t entirely true; after all, in such a large school, there was still a group of students like him. Among this group, he was quite influential—He was, after all, from an old revolutionary area, educated by the older generation, and with a down-to-earth style and a spirit of enduring hardship, the scholarships were practically a living allowance given to him by the school.