“I can speak English and Russian.” Although Chen Xiaolin was proficient in German, Russian, English, and French, she didn’t intend to reveal all her cards during this sensitive time.
“Can you translate this page for me?” Wang Bowen picked a book from the shelf, flipped to a random page, and asked Chen Xiaolin to translate it.
Chen Xiaolin took the book and paper from him and began translating.
In fact, the book Wang Bowen asked her to translate was on mechanical engineering. If it weren’t for the fact that Chen Xiaolin had translated many books in her previous life, she would have struggled with it today.
After about twenty minutes, Chen Xiaolin finished translating the page. “Grandpa, I’ve translated this page. Please take a look.”
Wang Bowen had been watching her closely. He had originally intended to intimidate her by giving her a highly specialized book, expecting her to give up. He didn’t expect this girl to actually be quite capable. He glanced secretly at her work and found her translations were impressively accurate, with almost no mistakes.
“I’ve checked it. Your translation is correct. Your vocabulary is really impressive.”
“Does that mean I can handle this translation job?” Chen Xiaolin was quite eager to get the position. Of course, being able to take the books home to translate would be even better; when she returned to her hometown in the Northeast, she could bring the books back, finish the translation, and mail them back.
“Yes, but this translation job isn’t a formal position. You won’t get an official receipt, but each book you translate will earn you 100 to 200 yuan.” Wang Bowen put the less favorable part first—otherwise, if she asked for receipts later, he wouldn’t know where to get them.
“No problem. But I’ll be returning to my hometown in a few days. Can I take the books home to translate? I’ll mail them back when I’m done, and then you can send me the next books. Of course, I’ll cover the postage. Does that work?” Chen Xiaolin didn’t care much about receipts; she wasn’t lacking anything. Back in the countryside, she’d be working anyway, and work points meant food ration, so a receipt didn’t matter to her.
“That’s fine. But you’ll need to deposit 10 yuan per book. If that works, I can officially hire you!” Wang Bowen handed her a form, looking hopeful. People who could translate were extremely rare.
“Okay, I’ll fill out the form first! Then you can give me two books.” Chen Xiaolin took 20 yuan out of her pocket and handed it to Wang Bowen, then focused on filling out the form.
“Make sure to include your hometown address here,” Wang Bowen said, pointing to a blank space so he’d know where to send future books.
Once Chen Xiaolin completed the form, Wang Bowen handed her two books to translate along with two blank notebooks.
When Chen Xiaolin left the bookstore, she realized the sun was almost overhead. She looked at the time—nearly twelve o’clock. She hadn’t expected to spend so long at the bookstore.
She quickly found an empty alley, entered her personal space, and went to the warehouse to grab a 100-kg bag of flour. She repackaged it into burlap sacks, then put over 20 kg of beef, 20 kg of pork, and about 10 kg of chives into snake-skin bags.
Fortunately, her space allowed her to see outside. Otherwise, she wouldn’t dare to pick just any spot to enter it.
After confirming the outside was empty, Chen Xiaolin left the space with confidence. Carrying the flour on her back and the meat and chives in her hands—a total of over 40 kg—she walked boldly toward the back door of the state-run restaurant.
He Cuihong broke into a sweat watching Chen Xiaolin carry so much so openly.
“Little sister, you came like this?”
“Yes! What’s wrong?” Chen Xiaolin, being from the modern era, didn’t realize how risky it was to carry so much so blatantly.
“Aren’t you afraid of running into the Red Armbands?” He Cuihong looked shocked. This little sister really had guts. She hadn’t considered that if the Red Armbands caught her with all that flour and meat, there’d be no escaping.
“Ah! I completely forgot about the Red Armbands. Looks like I’m really lucky.” Chen Xiaolin felt a bit scared now; she realized she had been too careless. She wouldn’t be so reckless in the future.
“Let’s get these things inside quickly! Someone will be here soon,” He Cuihong said, taking the meat from Chen Xiaolin and helping carry it into the kitchen.
Chen Xiaolin followed, bringing the flour from her basket inside.
Chef He noticed there was more flour than expected.
“You didn’t bring just 80 kg of flour, did you?”
“Yes, there’s 100 kg. Start making the baked cakes first! If you can’t finish, I’ll take the rest tonight.” Chen Xiaolin hadn’t weighed anything in her space; even the meat was just estimated. She didn’t know if it was enough.
Chef He checked the meat and saw there was also quite a lot. “I might as well make it all for you since there’s so much.”
“Sure. I’ll pay you six yuan for labor.” Chen Xiaolin didn’t want him to work for nothing. Originally, she had planned to pay five yuan for a thousand cakes. Now, with the extra flour, at least 200 more cakes could be made. She didn’t want to take advantage.
“Alright, that works.” Chef He had been willing to take a small loss, but now that Chen Xiaolin offered extra pay, he couldn’t refuse.
“I’ll head home first. I’ll come back at nine tonight.” Chen Xiaolin was starving and planned to have lunch first.
“Take care. Cuihong, see her out,” Chef He said. He was still busy cooking for the lunch rush.
On her way home, Chen Xiaolin ran into Liu Aihong, who had come looking for her.
“Aunt Liu! What brings you here?”
“Xiaolin! Where have you been today? I came to see you this morning, but you weren’t home.” Liu Aihong had been worried about Chen Xiaolin returning to her hometown and adapting to rural life, ever since she heard about her plans.
“I went to the state-run restaurant for breakfast, then stopped by the bookstore for a bit,” Chen Xiaolin said, not wanting to mention the book translation. She didn’t plan to tell anyone about it—English translation was a sensitive task in this era.
“Oh! I mainly came to see when you’re going back home, so I can ask Uncle Zhou to buy your tickets.” Liu Aihong had always worried Chen Xiaolin might have difficulties adjusting, but she hadn’t had time to check on her until now.