From running days to fingertips

There is a red ashtray on my bookcase, which I bought from "Guizhou Chun" when I moved to a new house ten years ago. I moved that year, from the country to the county seat. My relatives came, my father brought some home-baked wine, and I bought a few bottles of good wine.

Last week, an elder relative came. I handed me the cigarette, and he opened the red ashtray and saw a lot of coins inside, telling the story of Zuzu picking money.

He said that Zuzu was tall and strong, skilled in martial arts, and was a porter who often picked money from landlords. At that time, the money was not paper money, it was called the ocean, it was made of brass, and it was bigger than the coins used today. Picking a trip to the ocean, going back and forth for hundreds of miles, it took seven or eight days, and bandits often encountered "guanyang robbery" on the way. Later, Zuzu died on the way to pick money - the bandits ambushed in a place called Yangquan Bay, killed the hired house and the porter, and stole four or five silver coins.

I was born in the year of reform and opening up. I don't remember much about the first ten years. The second decade, I still remember. The grass and wood house, the kerosene lamp, the shoes are made of hemp, and the clothes are patches. The materials at that time can be said to be extremely precious. Money, the largest denomination I've seen is five yuan. Tickets were also used at that time. I clearly remember that once my parents were busy rushing to harvest crops and asked me to bring a salt purchase certificate to buy salt when I went to school. I held the salt certificate and the few cents for the salt in my hand for fear of losing it, so I kept holding it during class. After the lunch break, I went out to the street and stood in the line to buy salt, I was terrified. When it came to me, I handed over the salt purchase certificate, and the salt seller turned it over and said, "You should put the salt purchase certificate on hold for a while. If it's rotten, you won't be able to buy salt if you can't see it clearly." He said I stamped a seal on it, I handed the wet few cents, took the salt, and went home without class.

A neighbor from my hometown in the countryside, who was in the cattle business when I was a teenager. Whenever you return from business, you always have some money on you. There is a saying in the countryside that "wealth does not reveal whiteness". In order to hide it as much as possible, he sewed a pocket on his close-fitting shorts and put the money in it. Even so, on one occasion, he was robbed and beaten all over. Since then, he has not dared to go out to do business. When I was admitted to the normal school, because I didn’t save enough tuition fees, my father walked dozens of miles across the mountains and went to my uncle’s house to borrow money. On the way back, my father was worried about being robbed, so he went back to his uncle's house not far from the house and asked my uncle to accompany him back.

20 years of reform and opening up, I was 20 years old. I took part in the work that year and settled down at school. After a month of work, I went to get paid for the first time. Signed in the office, took over one hundred yuan bills, and was very happy. At this time, there will be many retired old teachers. Some of them walk for five or six miles, some walk for more than ten miles, and some even walk for thirty or forty miles, rushing over to collect their retirement wages. One of them is a retired teacher surnamed Wang. Because of his inconvenient legs, he comes to receive salary every month, and he has to delay for a whole day when he goes over mountains and mountains to cross bridges.

Eight years later, when I came to town, wages were no longer paid in cash. The unit requires us to set up a passbook, and the monthly salary is transferred to the passbook. At this time, I also took a fancy to a commercial house in the city, and the monthly mortgage was deducted from the passbook, which saved a lot of time. But many times to use money, you have to go to the bank to get it, and you always have to wait in line. Later, for the convenience of withdrawing money, I went to the bank to apply for a card, and it was finally much more convenient to use the money. Even so, there are still many things that add to the congestion. After moving into a new house, you have to queue up to pay for electricity, TV, telephone, and water. Sometimes, if you line up for a morning, you will be charged an electricity bill.

Now, with the development of science and technology and the popularization and application of the Internet, banknotes have been basically digitized. Sitting at home, a mobile phone, a fingertip, everything is done. Once, when my father came to town, he was sweating because the weather was too hot and he was carrying a lot of things. I told him to take a shower, and as soon as he put down his things, he said he was going out into the street. I asked him what he was doing, and he said that the phone was in arrears, and he was worried that the comrade-in-arms who had made an appointment to meet before could not be found. I said, "I'll pay it for you." My father said, "You're busy with work, so I'll go by myself." I took out my mobile phone, and within half a minute, my father received a text message to recharge the phone. Father looked at me and hesitated. I said, now that the Internet has developed, it is paid for you online, and now you don't need to run away for anything that involves your own money and your own money.

At dinner that day, my father asked me: Today, when he went to the market, many young people bought things, but they didn't pay any money. They just took a picture with their mobile phones and left. What happened? My son told him on the side that it was not a photo, but a scan to pay. To make it more clear to my father, I told him that now there is only one thing on the smartphone that can connect his bank card. When you use money, you can swipe it with your mobile phone, and the money on your bank card can be transferred to the account of the seller. Father shook his head and nodded again and again, sighing that this society is developing too fast - your ancestors helped others to pick oceans and climb mountains and mountains, and when he finally passed away, he was penniless; our generation used food stamps and cloth stamps. , At that time, it was difficult to make money, and it was also difficult to use money; when your generation is better, it is not difficult to find money, and it is even more difficult to use money.

Before my father finished speaking, my son grabbed the conversation, picked up the phone, shook it in front of his grandfather, and said, "Grandpa, haven't you heard of a popular phrase these days - don't be afraid of running out of money in your pocket, just be afraid that you don't have a mobile phone. Electricity."

My father picked up the wine glass, brought the wine to his mouth, and suddenly stopped and said, "No wonder you carry a mobile phone all day long and go out with a power bank. It turns out to be for money."