Chapter 113: Have An Opinion? Keep It To Yourself
The two of them naturally wouldn’t take the initiative to mention the matter of Su Hongmei’s home.
Lu Qiaoge collected the money on behalf of Meng Xia and took it back. Meng Xia thought about it and still secretly gave Lu Qiaoge five yuan.
The daughter was dating, and when going out together, she couldn’t even have a popsicle without having Qin Hengzhi buy it.
During lunch, Lu Qiaoge asked about the progress at the food factory. Lu Qiaoling excitedly reported to Lu Qiaoge: “Second Sister, we spent the whole morning cleaning up, and the male comrades will uniformly repair the doors, windows, tables, and chairs in the afternoon. By the way, Older Brother Chang can repair broken jars, so those damaged large jars can all be fixed this time. The scrap wood can also be used to make a long large table… We female comrades still need to go cut grass, pick branches, and pick up some stones and broken bricks… Shao Le is very capable, persisting until the end of work.”
Meng Xia asked worriedly: “Qiao Ge, if your factory is built, will you recruit workers or just keep the current people? If you don’t openly recruit, those unemployed youth will have opinions. Also, if they all go to the food factory, your service station will disband, right?”
She really hit the nail on the head.
Lu Qiaoge said: “Adding Older Brother Chang and my sister-in-law, there are enough workers for now. As for the others, they have to hold their opinions. Initially, because it was voluntary contribution with no salary, everyone despised it and didn’t come, some even mocked them as fools. Now that the food factory is established, our neighborhood committee will definitely prioritize the volunteers.
The service station can’t disband either; it naturally has to continue. For now, Qiao Ling and the others can completely continue as volunteers. When not busy, do good things, go wherever help is needed. Before the food factory gets on track, they have the energy for this.”
Meng Xia thought to herself, if you had said from the beginning that a food factory might be established, this service station would have been overcrowded.
Lu Qiaoling immediately stated: “We will all do as Second Sister arranges. Everyone knows in their hearts that this job opportunity was specially fought for by Second Sister, and we will definitely cherish it immensely.”
Su Hui nodded along: “I’ll work hard to make flaky pastries and corn cakes, guaranteeing I won’t hold Qiao Ge back.”
These two did what they said. After finishing the meal and cleaning up, they left together without taking a nap.
Lu Qiaoge didn’t nap either. She was reading a letter. The calico cat had run to the military representative office to play in the morning, and after eating and drinking its fill, it brought back a letter in a small cloth bag, hung around its neck.
Lu Qiaoge suddenly realized, oh, she and Qin Hengzhi were dating.
Qin Hengzhi’s calligraphy was very beautiful, every stroke carrying a force that penetrated the paper.
He said he would take her to the city theater in the evening to see a ballet.
He also said he was really too busy and couldn’t eat dinner together.
There was also a pretty multicolored stone in the small cloth bag, which he said he found by the riverside during this morning’s drill.
Lu Qiaoge smiled and put the letter away.
The stone was also very pretty, a natural rainbow color. Lu Qiaoge placed it on the window sill.
The calico cat said: 【Little Master, Representative Qin has a lot of courage, daring to have me bring you things.】
Lu Qiaoge: “Didn’t you also help pass messages last time?”
Hua Hua: 【Does he know something?】
Lu Qiaoge stroked the cat head: “Even if he knows, it’s fine. Cats and dogs naturally understand human nature.”
Hua Hua’s eyeball turned: 【The old turtle asked me to tell you that the deputy manager went to Hongxing Lake again, accompanied by Deputy Director Lin. They took a boat around once, didn’t seem to say anything, just looked. That Deputy Director Lin seems very eager to hand Hongxing Lake over to the fishery company.】
Lu Qiaoge stared at the calico cat: “Even if I’m the factory director now, I can’t dive for no reason to salvage treasures.”
Hua Hua didn’t care: 【You’re not incapable of lying; just make up a reason.】
Lu Qiaoge glared: “The key is I’m not the factory director yet.”
Hua Hua: 【Aren’t you temporarily in charge of the food factory? That’s also factory director.】
Lu Qiaoge waved her hand: “You’re a mature cat now; you should learn to catch fish to eat yourself. Only self-reliance leads to abundance. Go on, with the old turtle helping you, you’ll definitely succeed.”
The calico cat meowed a few times, feeling that with its current intelligence, it might really be able to catch fish itself. Anyway, with the old turtle and the big carp there, it wouldn’t fall into the water.
So the calico cat confidently and happily ran off.
Lu Qiaoge wasn’t worried either. It had companions in Hongxing Lake; no big problem.
Lu Qiaoge rested briefly, then went to work.
She had just sat in the chair when the telephone rang.
This was the general office’s telephone.
Right next to Sister Qiao’s desk. She picked it up, and a few seconds later, her eyes widened, shouting for Lu Qiaoge: “Qiao Ge, Representative Qin’s call.”
Everyone looked at Lu Qiaoge.
Lu Qiaoge didn’t expect him to call her during work hours.
Qin Hengzhi’s voice came from the microphone. The call quality now wasn’t very good, but his voice came through with an indescribable clarity, very pleasant to the ear.
“Did you receive it?”
Lu Qiaoge naturally knew what he meant, so she softly hummed. Qin Hengzhi on the other end said: “Good!”
With that, he hung up.
Before Sister Qiao and the others could tease her, Sister Hua came to work.
Behind her were Gu Zhendong and Wang Xiaomin, both full of joy.
The people in the office looked at each other, saying nothing.
Gu Zhendong took out a handful of candy from his pocket—it really was White Rabbit milk candy—and gave two pieces to everyone in the room, with the remaining few pieces all given to Sister Hua.
No one felt two pieces of candy were stingy.
After all, you still needed a sugar ticket to buy such milk candy now.
Anyway, the atmosphere improved a lot.
But unexpectedly, Sister Hua narrowed her eyes, looking at the two beaming people, and suddenly exclaimed: “Gu Zhendong, I remember now, aren’t you dating Liu Cuixia?”
Wang Xiaomin’s face darkened.
Gu Zhendong held her hand, and she didn’t refute Sister Hua’s words.
Sister Hua naturally wouldn’t dwell on it; she was just asking casually to see their reaction.
Then she also noticed the strange expressions of the others in the office.
She knew these two had come in the morning.
Marriage certificates now were handwritten. Just as Sister Hua was about to write theirs, a person burst in from outside like a whirlwind.
Everyone looked closely—good heavens, wasn’t this Liu Cuixia?
Why had she come again?
How much did she like Gu Zhendong, or rather, how unwilling was she?
No one stopped her or managed it; they were all young people, so no need to meddle blindly.
Sister Qiao even secretly stuffed a handful of sunflower seeds to Lu Qiaoge, saying in a low voice: “I guess Liu Cuixia is going all out. To stop these two from marrying, she’ll definitely say she’s pregnant, and it’s Gu Zhendong’s child.”
Lu Qiaoge’s eyes suddenly widened.
This was the 1970s—did everyone have such big courage?
Sister Qiao said: “This isn’t strange at all. Didn’t you see this morning? Liu Cuixia isn’t one to yield passively, and this young woman is very stubborn; no one at home can stop her when she wants to do something. If Wang Xiaomin wants to marry Gu Zhendong, it’ll take some skin off.”
