Chapter 148: First Earnings In Hand
Qin Hengzhi froze in place for a moment before steadying his breathing, but his heartbeat remained quickened. His eyes were deeper than the night, yet he couldn’t help gently rubbing his fingers, then letting them fall to his waist, to the spot touched by his little partner. Damn it, that place was actually burning hot.
A few breaths later, he couldn’t control himself and chuckled softly.
Run-walk!
His usually steady and powerful footsteps today felt like they were stepping on a cloud.
He floated along unconsciously, drifting past his jeep parked at the crossroads.
By the time he snapped out of it, he had run dozens of meters.
Qin Hengzhi stopped in his tracks, extremely annoyed.
It was truly too strange. Clearly at the dance party, Qiao Ge’s hand had rested on his shoulder, and his hand had been on her waist too. Why hadn’t he felt this thrill then?
No, that wasn’t right. His heart was racing now and his ears were burning—ah, so it was about savoring it in a place with no one around.
Qin Hengzhi felt he was being very ungentlemanly.
So, he quickly calmed himself, ran back to the jeep, started the engine, and drove along the night toward the military factory residential area assigned to him.
—
Lu Qiaoge had originally thought Cao Lanzhu would be waiting for her at the entrance of the Foreign Trade Section.
But she didn’t see anyone.
She had come with Hu Ze, after all, there was still the handicraft group’s money here.
Once the money was collected, Hu Ze would hand it over to the Neighborhood Committee’s Finance Office.
She hadn’t expected not to wait for Cao Lanzhu.
So she and Hu Ze entered the Foreign Trade Section and found Xiao Zhu, who had gone to the military factory yesterday. He first took Hu Ze to the other items management office to verify the quantity, then had Hu Ze check the amount with the finance personnel there, while he led Lu Qiaoge to the Director’s Office.
When Director Zhou saw Lu Qiaoge, his face was truly full of smiles. Without Qiao Ge to bail him out yesterday, he wouldn’t have known how he’d suffer that evening.
After exchanging pleasantries, he caringly asked about Lu Qiaoge’s work situation. Xiao Zhu hadn’t expected Director Zhou to value Lu Qiaoge so much and was quite surprised, not knowing what her background was, but one thing was certain: though young, her work ability was very strong.
He smoothly signed off, approving Lu Qiaoge to receive 1,500 yuan. Since the contract with Mr. Zhen Xi and the Fried Snack Factory was already in effect, if Zhen Xi breached it, he would compensate a large sum in foreign exchange—no matter how you calculated it, there was no loss.
Lu Qiaoge put the money in her shoulder bag and went to find Hu Ze, who was verifying the quantity.
When she arrived, Hu Ze had just finished checking; the quantity was exact, and the amount was 318 yuan.
The two didn’t delay and hurried back to the military factory on their bicycles.
Halfway there, they actually ran into Qin Hengzhi.
Qin Hengzhi was preparing to head out and happened to meet them coming the opposite way.
Qin Hengzhi nodded to Hu Ze, then asked Lu Qiaoge: “This afternoon I want to take you to a place. About what time will you be free and where will you be? So I can come pick you up.”
His voice sounded quite calm, but the gentleness within was something only Lu Qiaoge could detect.
Lu Qiaoge’s eyes held a smile. She thought about today’s arrangement—the sunflower seed basket design drawing had already been handed to the handicraft side business group, and Chang An meant they could definitely weave it out before noon.
She said: “I’m going to see Mr. Zhen Xi this afternoon.” She paused, then Lu Qiaoge continued: “I plan to go see Mr. Zhen with unit colleagues and Elder Sister Su at one in the afternoon. I just reported it to Director Zhou, and Director Zhou should have already notified Zhen Xi. Four o’clock—by then I should be back at the military factory.”
She added: “Pick me up at the Neighborhood Committee. I need to report on work with our director first.”
Qin Hengzhi nodded and said softly: “Okay!”
After thinking, he added: “Director Xu called yesterday. This morning Cao Lanzhu returned to Beidu.”
Lu Qiaoge: “No wonder I didn’t wait for her. So she left.”
Qin Hengzhi glanced at Lu Qiaoge with a half-smile, this tone of regret…
He didn’t even know what kind of partner he had found.
The two said a few more words, then this large jeep, different from the others, sped toward the main door.
Hu Ze watched the departing jeep enviously.
He had heard from Dad that this car was assembled by Qin Hengzhi himself—no other jeep could outrun it.
He curiously asked Lu Qiaoge: “What does it feel like to ride in?”
Lu Qiaoge recalled; in this era, this car’s performance should be the best.
“Very good, steady and fast!”
Hu Ze pedaled his bicycle, thinking when he could drive a jeep too.
Actually, what he wanted most was to join the Transportation Team as a driver, but there were no spots, and it wasn’t just about having a driver’s license—you also had to know how to repair cars.
Right, this era was that excellent.
Don’t think you could just drive off with a car; drivers back then weren’t that simple.
First, there had to be an opportunity to get in—not only learn to drive, but also learn to repair cars, because the domestically made cars of this era were mostly overdue in use, breaking down halfway was common.
And there were no repair shops roadside, so basically all drivers knew how to repair cars.
Hu Ze felt touching the steering wheel was still too distant.
He hadn’t even stood steady in his current patch of land.
Thinking this, he couldn’t help touching his shoulder bag again.
There was over 300 yuan in there.
Even though his dad was the Neighborhood Committee Director, he had never seen or touched so much money at once. If it were lost, with his pitiful fifty cents in pocket money, how could he compensate?
Lu Qiaoge saw him keep touching the shoulder bag and said: “You’re purely acting like ‘no silver here, but 300 taels’—if there’s a thief, you’d be the first targeted.”
Hu Ze chuckled: “I’ve never seen so much money.”
Lu Qiaoge smiled too, saying meaningfully: “This might just be the beginning.”
You’ll get used to it.
They soon arrived at the Neighborhood Committee.
Today was salary payment day, and there were really a lot of people.
Lu Qiaoge didn’t know how salary payment worked elsewhere, but this was her first time seeing it at the military factory.
The Finance Office door was open, a desk blocking the main door, with Cashier Sister Chu and Accountant Xiao Liu sitting behind the desk.
In front of them was a long wage sheet, ten people per page, names in front, places for signatures or stamps in back.
There really was no concealment, because the emphasis was on serving the people, so the salary gap between cadres and workers was small.
So leaders of this era didn’t earn much more than staff.
Like Old Hu—according to administrative rank, and as a grassroots cadre, he made just over 60 yuan a month, less than Lu Da, a Level Seven Worker.
So now skilled workers were more sought after than cadres.
At that moment, Xiao Liu was impatiently shouting: “Don’t argue or crowd, line up, line up—what’s with all this noisy chatter?”
It was salary day, everyone was happy, no one minded Xiao Liu’s scolding.
But actually everyone was lining up; they were just chatting heatedly.
Lu Qiaoge didn’t line up, just glanced at Xiao Liu. She had been coming to the Neighborhood Committee for a long time, but for some reason, the people in the Finance Office were always distant with her.
