Song Kuoyang had returned from the mountains.
“He arrived this afternoon. He has to go to Jiangxi for work afterward, so tomorrow is the only time he can squeeze in. Your Aunt Song suggested that the two of you still go see a movie, same time as before. Meet at the entrance of the cinema at three tomorrow afternoon. See if you can get time off work.”
Xiao Hongyao had already requested tomorrow afternoon off, but not to meet Song Kuoyang. She had planned to go to the train station to receive the corduroy she had been eagerly waiting for.
If this were an ordinary blind date, she would have had no hesitation asking him to change the time and meet another day.
But this wasn’t an ordinary blind date. Song Kuoyang was the influential person she hoped to work with in the future. Whether she could make enough money to return home depended heavily on him.
At the same time, receiving the shipment at the train station was also extremely important. It was the key to earning her first real profit.
Neither could be delayed.
So Xiao Hongyao had to handle both.
“Aunt Liu, I have something to do tomorrow afternoon. Could we meet at noon instead? I’ll treat him to lunch.”
“The man is supposed to pay when you two eat together. How could the woman be the one paying?” Aunt Liu immediately asked, “What do you have to do tomorrow afternoon?”
Xiao Hongyao came up with an excuse.
“The workshop assigned me an important task. I can’t get out of it.”
She sounded sincere.
“Oh, I see. I don’t know whether he’ll have time for lunch tomorrow. He should still be at his aunt’s house. I’ll go ask him.”
Xiao Hongyao sweetly replied, “Sorry to trouble you, Aunt Liu. Have some candy.”
She took several pieces of lard candy from her pocket and stuffed them into Aunt Liu’s hand.
Aunt Liu laughed and refused.
“I’m not a child. Why would I eat candy?”
“Have some to soothe your throat. They’re soft candies and really tasty.”
Only then did Aunt Liu accept them.
“Thank you, then. It’ll take me half an hour to go there and come back. Wait at home for my message.”
Aunt Liu certainly wasn’t having an easy time earning her matchmaker’s fee. She hurried off.
When Xiao Hongyao returned home, she told Grandma Xiao Ganju about running into Aunt Liu.
Xiao Ganju was puzzled.
“Didn’t you already meet Song Kuoyang? Since he has time tomorrow, wouldn’t it be best for both families to meet and settle everything that needs to be settled?”
“His aunt doesn’t know we’ve already met.”
Xiao Hongyao had already prepared an explanation.
“And I need to talk to him about the fabric shop. He should at least pay me back for the money I’ve spent, shouldn’t he?”
Xiao Ganju thought about it and agreed that it made sense.
“Tomorrow when you meet him, just tell him how much money you spent and how many things you gave away because of his relatives. See how he responds.”
Xiao Hongyao smiled and nodded.
“Got it.”
Aunt Liu arrived at Song Yanzhen’s home. The family happened to be having dinner with Song Kuoyang.
“Xiao Hongyao just returned to work at the workshop, right? Her supervisor assigned her an important task tomorrow afternoon, so she can’t easily ask for leave at the last minute. She thought it would be better to have lunch together instead. She wanted to ask whether Engineer Song has time.”
Song Kuoyang was scheduled to go to Jiangxi with the special competition team the day after tomorrow. They were competing for a chance to participate in an overseas competition.
Coincidentally, the county leaders were hosting a banquet for their team tomorrow at noon.
Song Yanzhen wanted to refuse and ask them to arrange another time, but Song Kuoyang agreed immediately.
“Tomorrow at twelve. Second floor of the Friendship Hotel. I’ll wait for her there.”
“Then it’s settled. If everything goes smoothly tomorrow, you two should hurry up and set the wedding date.”
Aunt Liu chatted for a little longer before leaving happily.
In front of her husband and daughter, Song Yanzhen didn’t say anything.
After dinner, her husband washed the dishes while their child went to school for evening self-study.
Song Yanzhen brought over a plate of sliced apples.
“The county leaders are treating your special team to dinner tomorrow at noon. It’s basically a farewell banquet before your competition. It wouldn’t be appropriate for you not to go, would it?”
“It’s fine. I’m not that important to them.”
Song Kuoyang picked up a piece of apple and ate it. It was crisp, sweet, and slightly sour, and tasted quite good.
“Who says you’re not important? Without the fuses you developed, could the fireworks for this competition even be produced?”
Song Kuoyang merely smiled. He didn’t mention all the irritating things that had happened in the mountains.
There were so many people wearing hypocritical masks—acting like saints in public but showing their true colors behind closed doors. Yet they couldn’t do without his formula and technical expertise, so they had no choice but to rely on him.
The leaders had tried to get him to hand over his fuse formula. He had indeed given them a version of it, but the fuses others produced according to that formula were different from the ones he made.
Everyone suspected that he had deliberately withheld part of the formula, but no one dared say anything. After all, they still needed him to participate in the competition.
His uncle-in-law came out after washing the dishes.
“Kuoyang is going to Jiangxi for the competition. If he wins, he may have to go to the provincial capital to report on the work. After that, he’ll have to prepare the products and paperwork for the overseas competition. There’ll be plenty to do.
“His schedule really is tight. If you can settle things tomorrow, then settle them tomorrow.”
Song Yanzhen agreed.
“A few days ago, I made an excuse and secretly went to the tube-making workshop at the fireworks factory to take a look. The Xiao family’s third daughter is quite… quite gentle and well-behaved. She doesn’t seem like the loud or difficult type. From the way she talks and handles things, she seems quite organized.
“If things work out when you meet tomorrow, I’ll take care of everything afterward.”
Song Kuoyang didn’t object.
He ate another small piece of apple, then asked his aunt before leaving,
“Are there any apples left?”
It was rare for Song Kuoyang to ask for something himself, so Song Yanzhen immediately replied,
“There are three left. Take all of them. Someone gave them to your uncle as a gift for asking him to handle something.”
She opened the cabinet and took out all three apples.
Song Kuoyang only took one.
“One is enough. Leave the rest for Xiaoya.”
Knowing that her nephew never asked for two when he said he only wanted one, Song Yanzhen didn’t insist.
On the tree-lined path outside Fireworks Factory No. 2, Pan Yunsong was walking Wang Jing home.
Wang Jing had a thin, long face. Because she was in the early stages of pregnancy, she didn’t look very well, and she had also become more sensitive and irritable than before.
“My parents only care about the grandson my sister-in-law is carrying. To them, I’m already an outsider.”
Pan Yunsong also had plenty of grievances. He still had to repay the Wang family fifty yuan every month, but all he could do was endure it.
He comforted her.
“Don’t overthink it. You’re in the early stages of pregnancy, so you’re more likely to overthink things.”
“I’m not overthinking. The other day, my mother and grandmother said I was useless. They don’t expect your family to offer much of a bride price anymore, and they aren’t even going to prepare a dowry for me.”
Pan Yunsong said bitterly, “I only hate that I was born into a poor family.”
“How much can your parents actually afford? After we get married, I’m moving out and living with you. We can’t start with absolutely nothing, can we?”
“There was an outbreak of swine fever in the countryside, and all three of the big pigs my family raised died. My parents were originally counting on selling the pigs at the end of the year to give us some financial support. Now that’s going to be difficult too.”
“Difficult, difficult, difficult… Who isn’t having a hard time? What about me? They saved money their whole lives. When their son gets married, they can’t contribute absolutely nothing, can they? No wonder my grandmother says your parents are too calculating.”
Pan Yunsong became unhappy at those words. He knew very well that the Wang family had been talking about his family behind their backs.
“It’s not that they’re giving nothing. What do you mean by saying my parents are too calculating? They’re farmers. They’re farmers who contribute to the country. Don’t speak about them like that.”
“I didn’t say it. Why are you taking it out on me?”
Pan Yunsong forced himself to calm down.
“I wasn’t talking about you. I’ll go home this weekend and have a serious talk with my parents.”
“My demands aren’t high. Even that idiot Xiao Hongyao got a bride price of 1,200 yuan when she went on a blind date. How much your family gives is up to you.”
Twelve hundred yuan?
Wasn’t that practically asking his parents to give up their lives?
Pan Yunsong put one hand on his waist, looking troubled.
“How could it possibly be 1,200? In the countryside, getting married with a bride price of 300 yuan is already pretty good.”
Wang Jing began crying miserably.
“What can 300 yuan even buy? You don’t even have a bicycle. It’s barely enough for a bicycle, let alone furniture. It’s all your fault. You even caused me to lose my dowry.”
Pan Yunsong could only gently comfort her.
“All right, all right. It’s all my fault. My fault. Don’t cry. If you cry, the baby will cry too.”
They had already reached the building.
Wang Jing wiped away her tears.
“Aren’t you coming upstairs with me?”
“I’m not going up.”
Pan Yunsong was genuinely afraid of entering the Wang family’s home. He never received a warm welcome there, and even standing at the door made him uncomfortable.
Wang Jing understood this and didn’t force him to come upstairs.
When Wang Jing returned home, her mother and the housekeeper were packing dried soybeans.
Her mother asked, “Have you eaten? I saved some food for you.”
“Pan Yunsong and I ate outside.”
“Next time, let us know in advance if you’re not coming home for dinner.”
Wang Jing heard her father’s voice and quietly asked,
“Dad is back?”
“He came back this afternoon.”
Her father, Wang Zhenwen, was in the study talking to her grandfather, Wang Liansheng.
“The breakthrough in the fuse technology this time was entirely thanks to Song Kuoyang from the First Factory. He’s a real talent, but he keeps his technical knowledge so tightly guarded that he’s harder to deal with than a thief.”
Wang Liansheng knew who Song Kuoyang was.
“Just like his grandfather. After the competition, find a way to see whether we can get the formula from him.”
“We can try, but it’ll probably be difficult. I heard Song Kuoyang is going on a blind date with Xiao Hongyao. Do you know about that, Dad?”
“Who told you?”
“Qiuyun. She always gets news faster than I do.”
Cai Qiuyun was Wang Zhenwen’s wife.
Wang Liansheng said nothing.
After all, Xiao Hongyao was also his granddaughter. If Song Kuoyang became his granddaughter’s husband, that would be an entirely different situation.
There might even be hope of obtaining the fuse formula.
The next day at noon, Xiao Hongyao went home after work to change clothes.
Her hair wasn’t nearly as wild as it had been right after she got the perm. Looking in the mirror, she found it much neater and more pleasing than before.
Grandma Xiao Ganju complained softly beside her,
“You went through all that trouble to get your hair permed, and now it’s already gone flat.”
Xiao Hongyao didn’t mind.
“It looks good like this.”
“Yes, it looks good this way too.”
Xiao Ganju was pleased to see her granddaughter becoming more confident.
“When you meet him later, try not to talk too much. Don’t show all your cards. Let him talk while you listen.”
“Oh.”
Xiao Hongyao answered casually.
This wasn’t really a blind date anyway. There was no need to take it too seriously.
The Friendship Hotel was a little far from their home, so Xiao Yuanyang rode his bicycle and took her there.
When they arrived, her elder brother reminded her,
“Song Kuoyang has a bicycle. After dinner, have him take you home.”
Xiao Hongyao had other plans after lunch.
She didn’t explain them to her brother.
“I know. You should hurry home, Big Brother. Everyone at home is waiting for you to eat.”
It was lunchtime, and both the ordering counter and the serving window at the Friendship Hotel were crowded with people.
She walked toward the stairs.
A server carrying dishes called out from a distance,
“Make way! Make way!”
Xiao Hongyao quickly stepped aside and let the server go up first.
When she followed the server upstairs, she realized that the dishes he was carrying had been ordered by Song Kuoyang.
He was sitting beside a pillar not far from the staircase.
When he looked over and saw her, Xiao Hongyao quickly smiled and waved.
She walked over.
“Brother Song, have you been waiting long?”
Song Kuoyang was wearing a white shirt and black polyester-cotton trousers today.
He stood up, and he was about half a head taller than her.
“I just got here. Aunt Liu said you weren’t a picky eater, so I ordered a few things.”
He hadn’t exactly ordered randomly.
The dishes were actually very well balanced between meat and vegetables.
Xiao Hongyao noticed that he had even ordered some of the more expensive dishes:
A plate of stir-fried celery with shrimp, a plate of deep-fried chicken, and Chinese flowering cabbage fried with crispy pork lard.
There were also two bowls of rice and two bottles of soda.
Beside them sat a greenish-yellow apple.