'Dad?'
Li Ping'an called out softly.
The young man ahead did not hear his call and continued to joke with the figure by his side.
After several attempts, Li Ping'an realized he was just a spectator who could only watch from the sidelines. Many of the things he was about to witness were stories he had heard from his parents during his childhood. He never imagined those lighthearted words from his father could have such a heavy, stifling weight when they actually happened.
To his father, starting a factory was the most significant event in life.
In the spring of 1990, following his academic setback, his father, arranged by his grandfather, joined a factory with thousands of workers and secured a "iron rice bowl" job.
With his grandfather's networking and years of accumulated honors, his father quickly became a rising star and a technical and interpersonal backbone in a workshop, waiting only for enough years of service to become the workshop director.