He Qiutang didn’t not understand—it was just that she had never thought about all the hidden twists and turns inside. Now that her sister had explained it, she finally realized why those cadre positions were so stable. It wasn’t just about ability; it was also about understanding what the leaders above actually meant.
At this time, Shen Lanxiang also finished washing the dishes and came back.
“You’re just spoiled and don’t know how good you have it,” she said. “When the daily chemicals factory had that incident, your sister already started paying attention. She even told me in private that there might be recruitment openings. During that period, your sister always carried your documents with her, and the moment registration started, she rushed over to sign you up at the factory.”
Thinking back to that day, Shen Lanxiang still felt tense. The registration period was only one day—it was basically a gamble to see who could grab the opportunity to take the exam. If you missed it, then the remaining positions would all be absorbed internally by the factory’s own workers’ children.
Fortunately, the textile factory wasn’t far from the daily chemicals factory, and her eldest daughter had acquaintances inside, which allowed them to get insider information.
After a few more casual words, He Suqin continued pressing He Qiutang to study. These next two nights, she would definitely supervise her properly—what if she slacked off during the day?
With her family supporting her, He Qiutang sat comfortably in a warm room studying. Meanwhile, Zhao Huaian, who had no one to support him, had to figure things out on his own.
His wife was right—he needed to find a legitimate origin for his skills. So Zhao Huaian set his sights on Uncle Bao, a transport driver who frequently delivered goods to the machinery factory and liked teasing children.
Zhao Huaian’s parents were employees of the machinery factory. The route Uncle Bao used passed through a small gate at the back of the family residential area. He was unmarried and had no children, but he especially liked kids. The original owner had also been one of the children he used to tease often. Even as they grew up, their relationship remained decent.
“Uncle Bao, off work? Let’s have a drink together,” Zhao Huaian said as he knocked on his door with some items in hand.
Uncle Bao lived alone and didn’t care much about his living conditions. The housing provided by the transport company was a small 20-square-meter room. Aside from a kang bed and a stove, there wasn’t much else. On the small kang table, there was only some liquor and a few simple vegetable dishes brought back from the cafeteria.
Normally, being a driver was considered a decent job with many benefits, so Uncle Bao shouldn’t have been living so frugally. The reason was his health situation—he couldn’t have children, and with no heirs, old-age support would be a serious problem. So he chose to save money in advance for his later years.
He liked children partly because he envied families with many kids, and partly because he wanted to see if he could take on an apprentice as a potential future caretaker.
Apart from apprentices assigned by the factory leadership, Uncle Bao had never formally taken one, because in his mind, taking a disciple was a serious matter—one wrong move could backfire on him.
He looked at Zhao Huaian’s bags, and the small bottle of liquor in his hand, narrowing his eyes slightly, wondering what this kid was up to.
When he opened the paper wrap, he saw it—four big meat buns, a plate of fried peanuts, and some cold vegetables.
Zhao Huaian had really spent money on this. He also had a friend whose mother worked in the machinery factory canteen, so he didn’t need tickets—just some cash was enough to buy the food.
After a bit of small talk, Uncle Bao leaned back and took a bite of a meat bun, tearing off a corner. Pure meat filling—he hadn’t had something like this in a long time.
“So, kid,” he said, “what do you want?”
In his experience, these young boys never came without a reason.
After hearing Zhao Huaian’s request, Uncle Bao laughed.
“That guy in your courtyard… what was his name again? Oh right, Sun Daqiang. He came to me before too, saying he wanted to learn driving, claiming he could learn it in one look. Did he tell you that after looking once, he didn’t even know where to step on the pedals?”
Zhao Huaian lowered his head and smiled. He knew this story—he had dug it out from the original owner’s memories, which was why he thought it might actually be workable.
Nowadays, jobs were extremely scarce, and going to the countryside was being forced more and more urgently, so many people were trying all sorts of methods to survive. Sun Daqiang was one of them. He had gone to Uncle Bao and boldly claimed he was a once-in-a-million talent who could learn driving just by looking once. But after barely touching the vehicle, he was kicked out.
Afterwards, Sun Daqiang told his friends it was just a low-cost test of his talent—if he had it, he’d seize the opportunity; if not, he’d quickly find another path.
Everyone had laughed at him for saving face in such a clumsy way.
Uncle Bao also knew exactly what these boys were thinking. So when he saw Zhao Huaian coming with the same idea, he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Learning to drive costs money. Pay 50 cents at the yard, and I’ll give you half an hour.”
In his view, driving required talent. The transport company was short of drivers, but not short of people who needed to be taught from scratch. Training someone was expensive—fuel alone was a precious resource that couldn’t be wasted.
Hearing that there was a chance, Zhao Huaian quickly poured him a drink. Uncle Bao liked alcohol and tended to talk more after drinking. Once he got going, he wouldn’t stop.
And Zhao Huaian had no intention of going home tonight anyway. He had already told his younger siblings, who had just finished school, that he wouldn’t be back.
As for whether his family would worry—of course not.