“You, you, you… you people… you’re trying to rebel!” Jiang Erzhu was so furious at the way they were acting that he could barely get the words out, and his hands began to tremble.
“What are you talking about? Let me tell you, the money for this month is in your mother’s hands now. If you keep ordering me around and acting all high and mighty, you can go eat sweet potatoes!” Feng Aidi wasn’t afraid of him anymore.
Sure enough, whoever held the money had the authority to speak.
The next day, Feng Aidi, for the first time ever, boiled an egg for Shu An.
Early in the morning, she handed it to her with a beaming smile. “Second daughter-in-law, here. You worked hard yesterday, so Mom boiled an egg for you. It’s just for you. No one else gets one.”
Seeing the boiled egg, Shu An reached out and took it. “Thank you, Mom.”
“Ah, there’s no need to thank me.”
“By the way, Mom, I have to go into town again today, so you don’t need to cook lunch for me. I’m going back to my parents’ home.”
“Oh, going back to your parents’ home? Sure, sure, go ahead.”
Now, whatever Shu An said, Feng Aidi agreed to it.
Shu An enjoyed her breakfast. As for her father-in-law’s ugly expression, let him look as unhappy as he wanted. It wasn’t like she needed to look at him.
After packing up her things, she went to the brigade leader’s house—which was also Jiang He’s eldest uncle’s home—to borrow a bicycle, then hurried toward town.
She first went to the post office to send a telegram to Jiang He, asking whether he could exchange for a bicycle ticket and send it back to her. Then she quickly headed to the machinery factory to tell her parents about it. Since she was already in town, she might as well go home for a visit.
Shu An had grown up at the machinery factory, and on top of that, her grandfather and eldest uncle held respected positions there, so quite a few people knew her.
When they saw her, they greeted her one after another.
“Shu An, you’re back?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Shu An nodded and greeted everyone in turn before quickly running off to find her mother.
Chen Yuzhen was taking inventory with some of the workers when suddenly—
Smack!
Someone patted her on the shoulder.
“Huh?” She froze for a moment. “Who is it?”
She instinctively turned around and saw a sweet, smiling face appear behind her.
“Mom!”
“Oh! You little girl, you scared me! When did you get here?” The moment Chen Yuzhen realized it was Shu An, she immediately broke into a smile.
“Today!”
“Oh my, isn’t that Xiao An? Did you come back to see your mom?”
The moment Shu An appeared, the people in the office instinctively greeted her as well.
“You all continue with the inventory. I’m going to have a few words with my daughter.”
Seeing this, Chen Yuzhen pulled her daughter into the meeting room beside them and let her coworkers continue taking inventory.
“How did you get here? Did you walk all the way? Look at you, your hair is soaked. You’re covered in sweat.”
Seeing that the bangs on her daughter’s forehead were damp, she couldn’t help taking out a handkerchief and wiping the sweat from her forehead and neck.
Enjoying her mother’s loving concern, Shu An said, “I borrowed Uncle Jiang He’s bicycle and rode here. Mom, I’ll come home for lunch.”
“Come home for lunch? Where are you going?” Chen Yuzhen immediately caught the implication in her daughter’s words.
“Hehe, I’m going to the vehicle factory.”
“What are you going there for? Are you going to see Xiao Ming?”
Shu An thought about it. Since nothing had come of the matter yet, she decided not to mention it and instead asked, “Mom, I wanted to ask—can you and Dad find someone to exchange for a bicycle ticket? I want to buy a bicycle.”
“Otherwise, I can’t keep borrowing Uncle Jiang He’s bicycle every time I come into town. Walking takes more than an hour, and as a young woman, it isn’t safe for me to travel back and forth like this.”
Chen Yuzhen thought about it for a moment.
“These tickets are hard to get. Your dad and I have been keeping an eye out since you got married, looking to see who might have one and whether we could buy or exchange for it, but we just haven’t come across one.”
“You know how big our factory is, and there are quite a lot of people getting married. There simply aren’t enough tickets to go around.”
“Usually, once the tickets are issued, people either use them to buy their own bicycles or exchange them with someone else right away. But don’t worry about it too much. I’ve already mentioned it to your eldest uncle. He handles logistics and supplies, so he has more connections than we do.”
“Since you’re here anyway, go over and let your eldest uncle see you. He’s always thinking about you too.”
“Okay, Mom. You get back to work. I’ll go find Uncle.”
Shu An naturally understood what her mother meant, so after leaving the factory area, she headed toward the logistics office.
Their machinery factory was very large. Since it produced many different types of goods, the roads inside the factory were quite spacious.
To get from the office area to the logistics department, she had to pass through an open yard. It was the factory’s unloading area, where some goods were also temporarily stored.
Shu An was walking along the wall to avoid the sun when she suddenly heard voices ahead.
“Hurry up, hurry up! Get moving and unload the cargo! It’s scorching hot, so how did you manage to break down the truck? Luckily you hadn’t driven it out yet. If you’d actually taken it out and it broke down on the road, what would you have done?”
“Captain, you can’t blame us for this! Everything was fine before. Who could’ve known it suddenly wouldn’t start?”
Curious, Shu An poked her head out to take a look.
She saw a truck parked along the edge of the yard, with quite a few people loading and unloading cargo. It was filled with sacks and wooden crates.
At a glance, she found it rather strange. The things being moved clearly looked like industrial waste from the factory.
But when she calculated the timing, it was only the middle of the month, wasn’t it? Since when had the factory started transporting waste in the middle of the month?
State-owned factories generally had very strict regulations. Industrial waste was registered and managed uniformly, inventoried at the end of each month, and then transported to waste-recycling stations for sale. It was impossible for them to transport it in the middle of the month.
Had the factory changed its rules?
Thinking this, she immediately headed toward the logistics department.
When she arrived, she saw her eldest uncle sitting at his desk, head down as he wrote something.
Hearing footsteps, Shu Huairen looked up. When he saw Shu An, he was quite surprised.
“Oh, An’an! I heard from your eldest brother yesterday that you had come into town. How come you’re here again today? Is something wrong?”
“Uncle.”
Shu An obediently greeted him and walked over to the desk. After thinking for a moment about her relationship with this uncle in the original owner’s memories, she said, “Uncle, I came here specifically to see you this time.”
“Oh? You came to see me? What’s the matter?”
“Well… Uncle, I wanted to ask if you can get a bicycle ticket, or perhaps help me exchange for one?”
“A bicycle ticket? Your parents mentioned it to me before too. I’ve been keeping an eye out for one.”
“It’s just that there aren’t many tickets available lately. More importantly, the department store doesn’t have any bicycles in stock. There are several people who have tickets but can’t find bicycles to buy.”
“But next month, the factory will hold a competition. Regardless of anything else, there will definitely be bicycle tickets available then. When the time comes, your uncle will find a way to get one for you.”
“Oh, great! Thank you, Uncle!”