Chapter 118: The Gold Bracelet From Dogfish
It felt heavy in her hand; although it wasn’t five hundred grams, it was at least three hundred grams.
There were five gold rings, just ordinary gold bands; people in the North liked to call them that because there were no patterns on them.
She weighed them; each one must be more than twenty grams.
The bank now could exchange them, and normally the teller wouldn’t ask about the source.
A few years ago, it was around eight yuan per gram, but now it could reach about ten yuan.
After 1980, the price skyrocketed.
But even so, if these gold jewelry pieces were taken to the bank, even if acquired at eight yuan per gram, excluding the so-called impurities, a single bracelet could fetch more than two thousand yuan.
All together, they could amount to at least five thousand yuan.
Five thousand yuan—that was a huge sum of money.
【Little Master, Old Turtle and Big Carp asked me to pass on a message to you: don’t worry, the gold jewelry at the lake bottom is unclaimed—whoever fishes it up owns it. Big Pike asked us to hand it over to you.】
Lu Qiaoge felt a bit emotional.
She never imagined that the first gold bracelet and gold rings she received in life would be a gift from a fish.
She took out a handkerchief, wrapped up these gold jewelry pieces, and upon hearing this, asked in surprise: “Aren’t you and the pike keeping to your own waters? When did you get in touch?”
Hua Hua: 【I don’t know either; Old Turtle didn’t say, but Big Pike said he hopes you can help make sure Hongxing Lake doesn’t go to the local authorities—that Fishery Company Deputy Manager is after the treasure at the lake bottom. Big Pike also said this is just a little token; he hopes you’ll accept it graciously.】
Lu Qiaoge: ……
This pike was pretty sly too—calling it just a little token!
【As long as you help out, it will slowly fish up all the gold and silver jewelry for you together with Old Turtle, ensuring you’ll never worry about money again for the rest of your life.】
Lu Qiaoge: ……
She had said it a thousand times—why did they all still want her to come up with a method?
She really couldn’t do it!
Lu Qiaoge said seriously: “I’ll accept this meeting gift. Tomorrow, go tell Old Turtle and Big Pike that I’ll try hard to think of a method.”
The calico cat happily bounced around.
It even said proudly: 【I already told them, Little Master—you’re really poor right now, no salary payment and no money. When you see this gold, you’ll definitely agree.】
Lu Qiaoge pressed down on the calico cat and said sinisterly: “Isn’t there another possibility—that I want the fish as well as the gold?”
The calico cat opened its mouth, meowing like a little kitten, not resisting at all; instead, it happily rolled around, enjoying the energy coming from Lu Qiaoge’s palm.
After the person and cat happily played around for a bit, night fell deeper; Lu Qiaoge hid the gold jewelry, happily hugged Hua Hua, and lay down.
Mm-hmm, for the sake of this gold, she would try hard to help think of a method.
The next morning, Shen Yun waited until Old Shen finished washing up, finally finding the chance to tell him that last night at the performance, she saw Qin Hengzhi driving the Military Representative Office jeep to take Lu Qiaoge away.
“Dad, don’t you think this is misusing a public vehicle? The car isn’t Qin Hengzhi’s—it’s the Military Representative Office’s. What right does he have to drive a public car to flaunt around with Lu Qiaoge?”
Old Shen glared with bulging eyeballs: “You haven’t told anyone else about this, have you?”
Shen Yun was startled: “I haven’t told anyone else; Brother Aishu told me to ask you first.”
Old Shen snorted coldly: “At least he has some brains.”
Finally, he said to Shen Yun: “You’re together with Liang Aishu now too; once things settle down, you two should get married.
As for Lu Qiaoge, that’s all in the past—don’t act like she’s a thorn in your eye or flesh every time you see her.
Let me tell you, that jeep Qin Hengzhi drives was specially approved for his personal use after he assembled it himself; it belongs to him personally.
Little Yun, let me tell you more: Lu Qiaoge isn’t the old Lu Qiaoge anymore. If you don’t learn your lesson and dare provoke her again, you won’t get off easy.”
Then he urged her: “Hurry up and go to work.”
Shen Yun was so angry she didn’t even eat breakfast.
She was really annoyed to death.
When Lu Qiaoge was with Liang Aishu, she was in pain and troubled.
Now that Lu Qiaoge and Liang Aishu weren’t together anymore, why was she still in pain and troubled?
When would days like these end?
Of course, Lu Qiaoge had no idea she was becoming Shen Yun’s heart demon.
Early in the morning, she went to several departments to pick up the processed permits and related documents.
Before she could prepare to deliver the permits to the food factory, Old Hu came back from a meeting, took a sip of water, and then called everyone to the meeting room.
Leaving only Sister Hua on duty in the general office.
It turned out to be related to the inspection team.
Three days later, the inspection team would come to the military factory for a visit and express condolences; after all, they weren’t the same department with different affiliations, so they couldn’t inspect as far as
But visits and tours were still possible.
Of course, the tour had certain limits.
The truly core areas were off-limits to idle people.
“……We’ll be responsible for the jurisdiction of Xiangyang Neighborhood Committee, mainly hygiene and morale. Now let’s discuss the areas each person is responsible for.”
Huang Juan said: “Same as before—one person per area, working together with the residents’ committee to handle all tasks.”
Lu Qiaoge volunteered: “The entire service station team will handle the hygiene of the bungalow area, night school, food factory, and cleaning of nearby streets.”
Old Hu nodded in satisfaction, emphasizing: “Old Mr. Zhen previously donated food, medicine, and ammunition to our workers’ and peasants’ party, and now he’s donated an airplane again. Although he went to Hong Kong, he’s still very patriotic.
This time he’s bringing his heir back, which is actually sending a signal to the people of Hong Kong that the Zhen Family stands with us and their hearts are with us—this is extremely important for the future reunification.
So we must do a good job with the reception work, just like keeping house: even without a luxurious villa, our thatched cottage must be clean and tidy. Do you understand what I mean?”
Shao Le answered loudly: “Understood!”
Old Hu waved his hand: “Meeting adjourned—go handle proper business.”
Lu Qiaoge asked Old Hu: “Should we make little flags to wave and shout ‘welcome, warm welcome’?”
Old Hu waved it off: “No need, no need.”
After all, it was 516, under militarized management.
As long as morale and hygiene met standards, that was fine.
Production was still the main focus, after all.
No need for fancy stuff.
After the arrangements, Lu Qiaoge and Old Hu reported; she needed to go to the food factory to deliver the collective production permit.
The permit stated approval to establish Xiangyang Food Factory, producing flaky pastries, corn cakes; required flour and such to be temporarily sourced by the food factory itself.
But the plan included applying to the First Grain Management Office for procurement of flour, white sugar, soybean oil, etc., based on early sales.
It also specifically noted no capitalist operations allowed.
What was still needed was the health certificate; according to standards, there would be a hygiene inspection on Saturday, so Old Hu told Lu Qiaoge that aside from the assigned cleaning tasks these few days, she should supervise the food factory’s progress next.
Everyone passed around the permit Lu Qiaoge brought, looking at it one by one.
Everyone was excited with flushed faces—though it might have been from the sun.
The mute Chang An was illiterate, so Zhou Li patiently read it to him word by word.
His lips moved, as if learning along word by word.
Lu Qiaoge’s heart stirred.
Her gaze fell on Chang An’s face……
Is it because it’s mid-month? So few monthly passes, the rankings are slipping too—my heart sinks with them. Starting a new book is always joyful yet agonizing, because the current rankings rely on monthly passes and member reads—begging for monthly passes again!
