Zhang Meiying’s deliberate attempt to sing her praises made Lin Wan’s face burn. After returning to the bedroom, she placed the paper bags in her hand on the tabletop and explained somewhat awkwardly: “I bought a few dresses and his…”
Her slender fingertips pointed at her abdomen…
Fu Xiuhuai did not seem to mind. Instead, he wore a faint smile: “Why didn’t you buy more for yourself?”
Lin Wan did not pick up that topic. She only observed the man before her for a while. Seeing that he did not care much, the hot embarrassment on her face finally faded a little.
But when she turned her head, Lin Wan saw that Fu Xiuhuai had not touched her clothes. Instead, he was holding the baby’s little clothes and looking at them. She raised her hand and placed it on her abdomen, feeling only wonder.
Even at the moment she bought the clothes, she did not know how she had walked into the children’s clothing section.
Clearly they were two people who were not familiar with each other, yet at this moment they seemed to be connected by a few pieces of baby clothing.
To disrupt the strange atmosphere in the bedroom, Lin Wan’s apricot eyes shifted, and she was just about to find an excuse to go outside for some air when she heard Fu Xiuhuai take the initiative to speak.
“Do you want to put a computer at home?”
“Huh?”
Lin Wan knew how expensive and hard to buy computers were nowadays. Even the number approved for various universities was not large, and one unit cost several thousand yuan, which ordinary people could not afford.
“I saw that you quite liked using the computer last time. Having one at home wouldn’t be bad either.” Fu Xiuhuai’s gentle gaze fell on Lin Wan’s face, and he added another sentence. “When I come home to work, sometimes I need to use it too.”
Lin Wan suspected that the man before her could peer into people’s hearts. When she had indeed used the computer in Fu Xiuhuai’s office, she had sighed inwardly a few times that a big company really was different and made people envious. After all, news from all over the world could be quickly obtained on one forum.
“Personal computer quotas seem very hard to get?” Lin Wan had once heard classmates mention it in casual chat during university.
Fu Xiuhuai’s expression was calm. His steady temperament softened the sharpness of his sword-like brows and starry eyes: “It is hard, but I have ways. An AST computer, 486DX, 8M memory, 512MB hard drive. Should be enough.”
Hearing Fu Xiuhuai fluently list a string of specifications, Lin Wan was somewhat curious: “You understand computers very well?”
Fu Xiuhuai was very modest: “I have some cooperation with Zhongguancun. I understand a little.”
Lin Wan did not express any further opinion. She discovered that Fu Xiuhuai handled things very reliably. Within a few days, a white computer was installed in the second-floor bedroom of the Fu home.
The white computer had a 14-inch display, square and cute. The Windows 95 system had burst onto the scene, bringing quite a few changes, so much so that the connected keyboard had a total of 101 keys. Compared with the 83-key keyboard Lin Wan had come into contact with in university microcomputer classes, it had quite a few more. Beside the computer monitor and keyboard was the solid main unit.
The personal computer was not light in weight and did not take up little space. The whole set cost 8,500 yuan.
When Lin Wan returned home and saw the “big fellow” that had appeared in the room, she was not quite used to it at first.
Fu Xiuhuai placed both hands on the tabletop and raised his chin slightly toward Lin Wan: “Try it.”
Because of the advent of Windows 95, the entire computer interface had also changed quite a bit. Lin Wan followed Fu Xiuhuai’s guidance and clicked around. Before long, she became familiar with it.
Thinking of the information she had not finished looking up last time, Lin Wan entered the forum website again. Clicking in and looking at news from all over, she searched for bits of information related to the garment industry.
“Your factory even assigned you tasks?” Fu Xiuhuai’s gaze swept across the desktop Lin Wan was operating.
“No, I just wanted to look myself.” Lin Wan had not had no choice in her job after graduating university. Now of course she had to pay more attention. “The factory now doesn’t seem as glorious as before.”
“Other industries are still all right. Garment factories, cotton textile factories, and the like have indeed been hit the hardest.” Fu Xiuhuai knew quite a few people from all over and could talk about anything for a couple of sentences. “Especially in the south, there are many styles of clothes. Ship them to any city to sell, and you don’t have to worry about them not selling.”
Lin Wan clearly had not expected Fu Xiuhuai to take the initiative to steer the topic this way. After talking with him for a few sentences, she was especially shocked to hear that some cotton textile factories in northern cities were about to be unable to keep operating: “That serious?”
“I worked on projects in other provinces a few years ago and knew local people there. His wife was at a cotton textile factory. Wages had not been paid for several months. It should be difficult.”
If state-owned factories really reached this point, no one could have imagined it.
Lin Wan was thoughtful, somewhat worried about the iron rice bowl she had just securely grasped, when she heard the man before her speak.
“Speaking of this, there is actually another matter on which I need to ask your opinion.”
Lin Wan raised her eyes and looked at Fu Xiuhuai curiously: “What matter?”
She had always felt that the two of them lived their own lives separately and that there should not be anything on which they needed to ask each other’s opinion.
“Elder brother’s steel plant also has some turnover difficulties. This month’s wages have a shortfall. He asked to borrow two hundred thousand from me for an emergency.”
The city steel plant also had difficulties? Aside from being surprised, Lin Wan was even more puzzled: “Your elder brother is borrowing money from you. Why ask my opinion? Just decide for yourself…”
“We are husband and wife.” Fu Xiuhuai leaned forward, one hand braced on the leather chair beneath Lin Wan, his gaze firm as he looked into Lin Wan’s bright apricot eyes. “For something like this, of course you have to be consulted and your consent obtained.”
Lin Wan’s heart gave a sudden thump. In the man’s eyes she could not see the slightest trace of jest. On the contrary, they were full of seriousness.
She turned her head slightly, her cherry lips tightly pressed, unwilling to give herself away as she nodded: “I understand. You decide for yourself.”
“All right.” Fu Xiuhuai made his decision. “Lend the money to elder brother and let him turn over his funds.”
Because of what Fu Xiuhuai had said at night, Lin Wan had not slept very well. The sentence “we are husband and wife” seemed to keep sounding by her ears.
Life is always full of changes. When Lin Wan was little, she hoped to live with her parents and hoped to enter the city. Yet her biological father and mother suddenly disappeared, and her father and mother became uncle and aunt.
Then in the last year of university, time strangely vanished from Lin Wan’s life again. When she opened her eyes once more, she had already graduated from university and even had a husband and child, and the person’s identity was extremely awkward.
Now, Lin Wan only wanted to properly protect her iron rice bowl job and not let anything else go wrong.
On Saturday, the city garment factory carried on routine production as usual. Lin Wan was assigned a new task in the factory office.
Foreign investors were about to visit, and the factory put up banners of welcome. Lin Wan, whose English was good in university, was temporarily pulled in to set up the venue.
In recent years, foreign investment had indeed increased more and more. Many factories across the country had attracted foreign investment and expanded production. Jiangcheng City Garment Factory had now also begun to take action.
Qin Fang, a new factory office employee who was also a Jiangcheng University alumna with Lin Wan, was indignant: “Director Feng actually didn’t find you to translate. She arranged for her niece to go.”
In university, Lin Wan had excelled in English class. In private she had also practiced listening and speaking, and had participated in the school English speech contest. Qin Fang knew about this.
“Feng Yan can only read a few words. Even one long sentence is hard for her. If something really goes wrong with the translation then, what shall we do?” Qin Fang had heard Director Feng’s niece practice in the office. She stumbled along, and it was estimated she would not be able to say two sentences to the foreign investors.
But when several other veteran employees nominated Lin Wan, Feng Tianjiao vetoed it with one vote, and the reason she gave was very high-sounding.
Feng Tianjiao only said that a newly graduated university student did not have much ability and still needed more training before appearing on such a major occasion. Better to use Feng Yan, who had already been at the factory for five years.
Lin Wan did not mind: “The director chose the person. Who can say anything? Don’t let these words of yours be heard. Let’s go. We still need to count the supplies for Monday.”
The auditorium was decorated solemnly, waiting quietly for the foreign investors’ visit next Monday. In a corner, factory office director Feng Tianjiao was holding her niece Feng Yan’s hand and exhorting her repeatedly: “Translate well. The factory director and Party secretary attach great importance to this foreign investors’ visit. If you perform well, you can get an extra bonus! At the end of the year, I can even help you strive for an advanced worker title.”
Feng Yan was full of confidence: “Auntie, I know. Don’t worry.”
Lin Wan finished setting up the auditorium with the other factory office colleagues and then left work. On Saturday afternoon, getting off work always carried a bit of the joy different from the previous five days, all because tomorrow was a rest day.
At the garment factory entrance, He Qiumei had already been waiting for a while.
“Qiumei, have you been waiting long?” Lin Wan came out five minutes late. “We were just setting up the auditorium and were delayed a bit.”
“No, I only just arrived a few minutes ago too.” He Qiumei had been out handling matters today and happened to slip away early. “What were you setting up the auditorium for?”
“To welcome foreign investors.”
“These days, many factories welcome foreign investors to invest…”
As the two talked, they simply ate boxed meals at a nearby small restaurant, then hurried to the newly opened karaoke hall in Jiangcheng.
The Golden Phoenix Karaoke Hall opened by the older brother of Liang Bin, a classmate in the same grade but different department, had its second branch open for business. Liang Bin broadly invited classmates to come support it, generously offering half-price drinks.
In her junior year, Lin Wan had gone with roommates to a karaoke hall once to see the world.
In recent years, ordinary people’s lives had gotten better and better, so eating, drinking, and having fun had all been put on the agenda. Karaoke halls arose at the right time and were very popular. Men and women relaxed here, danced, and made merry, full of youthful energy.
[No matter laughter or sorrow, karaoke is always OK. Sad to the point of half-death, karaoke will still be OK…]
Under dim lighting, dynamic disco music resounded through the entire disco hall. Accompanied by men and women dancing close together in the middle of the dance floor, it likewise reached the ears of guests in the booths, making people unconsciously want to sway.
The karaoke disco hall was packed. The noise of voices and the dynamic singing echoed each other, extremely lively.
“Come, come, come. We’re all classmates. Tonight drinks are half price.” Liang Bin greeted more than a dozen classmates to drink, carrying a certain air of a host.
The classmates invited to show support also gave face and praised him one after another: “Liang Bin, your job is still the best. Right after graduation you came to help your brother, and now you’re directly managing a karaoke hall.”
“The little salary we get each month probably isn’t enough for one day’s earnings here.”
“Your business here is so good. You really have ability…”
Liang Bin had adopted the most popular look in the south at the time: a floral shirt, a thick gold chain, and even hair plastered with mousse and combed into a slicked-back style. In every gesture, he no longer looked like a student.
“Ah, it’s just a small business. Barely getting by.” The more pleased Liang Bin felt inside, the more modest he spoke.
His gaze swept over everyone one by one. Liang Bin drank with each person. When it was He Qiumei’s and Lin Wan’s turn, he narrowed his eyes slightly: “Lin Wan, He Qiumei, do you two want some alcohol? You’ve all graduated now.”
He Qiumei got drunk as soon as she drank, but at this moment she had come to show support and did not want to spoil the fun. Just as she hesitated, she heard Lin Wan slowly speak: “Qiumei and I both don’t feel very well. Let’s just drink juice.”
“Lin Wan, now you’re spoiling the fun.” Liang Bin had witnessed Lin Wan’s capacity for alcohol. A heroine among women. He decided this person was deliberately not giving him face.
A 15-yuan Heineken had its bottle cap opened. Liang Bin poured more than half a glass of beer and handed it to Lin Wan.
Lin Wan did not particularly like the taste of alcohol, but she could drink.
When she was little and still had her own biological father and mother, when her parents returned to the countryside from the city for the New Year, eight-year-old Lin Wan followed closely behind her parents like a little tail.
After the New Year’s Eve dinner, the adults were still drinking. Her cousins all went out to play, but little Lin Wan was still unwilling to leave.
Having not seen her parents for a year, she obediently sat beside them, not wanting to leave for even half a step.
Lin Guofu was still young then, not yet thirty. Drinking home-brewed rice wine with his own older brother, he looked at his daughter’s obedient appearance, held her in his arms, dipped his chopsticks in the rice wine, and teased the child.
Little Lin Wan took it into her mouth, and in an instant was burned by the taste of alcohol.
But at that time her parents told her that soon, soon they would be allocated housing, and they could bring her back to the city and the family would be reunited. So Lin Wan felt this wine was the most delicious thing in the world.
Unfortunately, wine is destined to be wine. It only makes people drunk and makes them dream. Lin Wan’s dream of reuniting with her parents in the city had already shattered when she was nine.
If it were any ordinary time, Lin Wan definitely would not decline. After all, when she drank with classmates in university, she discovered that her tolerance for alcohol was astonishingly good.
But now she was pregnant. How could she drink? Lin Wan examined the glass in Liang Bin’s hand. The golden liquid refracted dazzling light through the transparent glass, seeming to sway along with the misty, charming crowd in the karaoke hall.
She did not take the glass.
“Lin Wan, say, if you had married Fu Mingjun, how great would that be? Then you’d definitely be here drinking with me right now.” Liang Bin felt somewhat regretful.
Lin Wan tentatively spoke, not too directly: “Liang Bin, do you and Fu Mingjun still keep in touch now?”
“Keep in touch with what? That kid, no idea where he’s run off to! Do you know…” Liang Bin, three parts drunk, instantly sobered up. He was just about to say something more when he felt the glass he had handed to Lin Wan snatched away.
A tall man was hidden in the dim disco hall lighting. His clearly jointed fingers held the glass, and he tilted his head back and drank it all in one go.
Liang Bin was dumbfounded. This… who was this person: “I poured that wine for Lin Wan. What are you drinking it for?”