CHAPTER 587: CHAPTER 580: A HEAVY DEVELOPMENT

After being reminded by Shangguan, Sisi suddenly remembered, wasn’t that the man washing his hands in the photograph?

Because the man in the photo was in profile and also crouching, Sisi had a hard time recalling but felt a sense of familiarity, while Shangguan, due to her usually sharp observation, recognized him right away.

This really was quite a coincidence!

The sudden appearance in real life of someone inadvertently captured in a photo felt so strange; Sisi put aside the odd sensation in her heart and continued eating her shaved ice.

After recognizing the man, Shangguan lost interest in the matter, rapidly finished the shaved ice in her cup, then bought another one, inciting endless envy in the four children.

"Mom, let me have another bite?" Huahua swallowed her saliva, begging with covetous eyes, and Du Du and the others watched eagerly.

"No, you’re still young and can only eat this much ice. When you grow as big as us, you’ll be able to eat as much as you like."

Shangguan’s heart softened, and she couldn’t help but scoop a bite for Huahua, but Sisi slapped her hand away, and Shangguan made a face at the children before speeding up the consumption of her ice.

The four children were well-behaved and knew they wouldn’t get any ice, so they didn’t make a fuss. Giving up on watching Shangguan eat, they turned to look at the scenery outside the window instead.

"When I grow up, I’m definitely going to eat lots and lots of snowballs," Huahua said wistfully.

"In the future, I’m going to buy a pile of snowballs, eat one, and toss one away," Du Du consoled himself.

"Older brother, throw them to Mao Dou to eat," said Mao Dou softly.

"Okay, I’ll throw them for you to eat," Du Du was not stingy.

Listening to the children’s naive chatter, Sisi smiled in her eyes and urged Shangguan to eat faster, not noticing how pitiful the children looked.

The chance encounter at the ice room with Lu Yunfei and the man from the photo was just a small interlude in life, which didn’t even make a ripple in Sisi’s.

During this period, Sisi traveled frequently between F city and G city, passing many villages and fields along the way, the scenery was quite beautiful, which reignited her passion for photography. She picked up the camera she hadn’t used in a long time and captured many beautiful scenes.

Sisi brought these photos to Mrs. Yang’s darkroom to develop, and then the two of them would enjoy these landscapes together. Mrs. Yang would also take the opportunity to give Sisi pointers, from which she benefited greatly and learned many photography techniques.

With more and more photos being developed, Sisi’s mood grew heavier. During this time, she had driven all over the rural and suburban areas of G city and F city, taking countless beautiful landscapes, but also capturing countless ugly atrocities.

G City and F City are both located in the coastal region, and compared to the inland areas, their economic development is much faster. Many famous foreign enterprises have come to China to establish processing plants or brand production bases.

On the surface, it appears that they come to help China solve the excess of labor resources and to speed up economic development. In reality, however, these foreign enterprises are transferring their polluting industries to China, managing to obtain cheap labor and raw materials, and to make a huge profit, while also eliminating environmental pollution in their own countries, maintaining the pristine environment, and ensuring the health of their citizens. To top it off, this behavior also garners the gratitude of Chinese government officials—it’s truly hitting multiple birds with one stone, a clever calculation indeed.

Streams of toxic wastewater are continuously discharged into the crystal-clear rivers, and thick smoke is released into the air without any treatment. These rivers are the lifeblood of the local residents, who use them for drinking, cooking, and washing. And the air is what people breathe tens of thousands of times every day.

However, the sad truth is that no one seems to be aware of these dangers yet. They are still pleased to have the opportunity to work at these foreign enterprises and earn wages, while the local government officials are overjoyed by the economic growth. They probably even wish for more foreign enterprises to come, so that the people can earn more money, and the economy can grow even faster, smoothing the path of their careers.

In F City, thanks to the efforts of Tian Xinhua, the pollution situation is much better, but there are still polluting enterprises like steel mills, cement plants, dyeing and printing mills, oil refineries, etc. Some existed before Tian Xinhua took office, and some were approved under pressure.

The pollution situation in other areas of G Province, besides F City, is very severe. Sisi feels she should do something—even if her power is minimal, she should still take some action. China should not become a polluted country like it was in her previous life, constantly hearing news about smog, stinking drains, and food safety that is unbearably annoying.

Sisi sorted through the hundreds of pictures she took over the past ten days, driving to G City, F City, C City, and so on. These pictures featured black water, smog, polluted streams, ponds with dead fish, lifeless plants, gray skies, and recklessly deforested woods.

Tian Xinhua’s mood was also very heavy after looking at this photo album; he did not expect the pollution to be so severe, worse than he had imagined.

One can only imagine, if no measures are taken, what kind of state China will be in the future? No wonder Ah Nan is so worried, fearing that their Du Du won’t have clean water to drink or clean air to breathe.

Sisi discussed with Tian Xinhua and decided to take these photos back to the Capital City for Mr. Yun to pass on to the higher-ups, hoping they will take heed after seeing them. Maybe they would implement some new regulations?

Meanwhile, Sisi also shared some successful environmental policies from her past life with Tian Xinhua, such as setting reasonable standards for waste water and gas discharge, levying pollution and environmental taxes, and strictly prohibiting illegal deforestation. However, Sisi used layman’s terms, and it was up to Tian Xinhua to figure out how to implement them.

After listening, Tian Xinhua became contemplative. He had also looked into a lot of foreign materials recently and discovered that countries in Europe and America had also experienced the torment of pollution but took immediate action upon recognizing the issues.

For instance, they had transferred polluting enterprises to developing countries and strictly enforced environmental standards. One cannot focus solely on short-term benefits at the expense of future environmental damage. Most importantly, residents in foreign countries have a very strong awareness of environmental protection, whether they are old or young, and are very proactive in protecting the environment.

It seems that he could follow the old path of the countries in Europe and America, combined with China’s own characteristics, to achieve economic development while protecting the environment. This would be the path to sustainable development.

Influenced by Sisi, Tian Xinhua established his view on economic development, and he dedicated his life’s efforts to achieve very effective results.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was mid-August. Sisi and Tian Xinhua made plans to go to Yuncui Mountain for a barbecue on the weekend. Shangguan Qing agreed to take a day off to participate at his son’s request, which was truly rare.

Sisi and Zhong Anmei prepared the materials together, while Shangguan was in charge of looking after the children. His way of taking care of the children involved taking the four kids out to eat everything—cold, hot, sweet, spicy, without refusal, they ate it all.

The result of this big feast was that the two youngest children developed gastroenteritis. They started having stomach aches when they got home, and drinking ginger brown sugar water prepared by Zhong Anmei didn’t help. Sisi had no choice but to take the children to the hospital to get medicine.