The stairway in the fireworks factory’s office building had no light bulbs, leaving it pitch-black and impossible to see even with a hand stretched out.
Secretary Li used a flashlight to escort Song Kuoyang downstairs.
Under the light outside the main entrance, Song Kuoyang got on his bicycle, left the factory, and rode toward the dormitory.
When he arrived at the dormitory building, the guardhouse was lively. Some people seemed to be playing Chinese tile cards while others stood around watching.
A familiar figure came toward him from the crowd.
“Yang-ge! You’re finally back. What kind of leader kept you there so late? It’s almost nine o’clock.”
Song Kuoyang stopped his bicycle and looked at Tong Weiqiang. “You really have nothing better to do!”
Patrol workers at the loading workshop normally worked until 10 p.m., but Tong Weiqiang was on good terms with the guards. Whenever there was no one around the workshop area, he would find an opportunity to sneak away early.
“Have you eaten?”
He hadn’t. Secretary Li had brought some biscuits into the office earlier, but Song Kuoyang hadn’t eaten them.
The two rode their bicycles to Fat Brother Rice Noodle Shop outside the workers’ compound and each ordered a bowl of pork-blood rice noodles.
Fat Brother asked, “Want an egg?”
“Two,” Song Kuoyang said. He was extremely hungry.
Tong Weiqiang waved his hand. “No egg for me.”
Then he turned to Song Kuoyang. “I’m saving money. I’m planning to treat someone to dinner.”
Song Kuoyang didn’t ask who he planned to treat, but Tong Weiqiang couldn’t resist bragging.
“When I took Xiao Hongyao home this afternoon, we agreed that I’d treat her to dinner next time.”
Song Kuoyang, who had just sat down, glanced sideways at him.
“What are you trying to do?”
“I… get along with her.” Tong Weiqiang sounded somewhat guilty. “We really hit it off. We talked the whole way while I was taking her home.”
Song Kuoyang knew that Tong Weiqiang was prone to getting carried away with his own imagination.
“Don’t go bothering that young girl.”
Tong Weiqiang cautiously asked, “Then should I call her… sister-in-law?”
“She has a name. Use it.”
“…”
The pork-blood rice noodles arrived. Song Kuoyang picked up his chopsticks and began eating in large mouthfuls.
Tong Weiqiang urged him, “Yang-ge, hurry up and meet her. Whether it works out or not, settle it soon.”
“My business is none of yours.”
“If you two don’t work out, maybe I’ll have a chance. You don’t know this, but even our hairstyles match.” As he spoke, Tong Weiqiang couldn’t resist brushing back his bangs.
While eating his fried egg, Song Kuoyang looked at him as if he were some strange creature.
“You’re better suited to a peacock showing off its feathers.”
Tong Weiqiang wasn’t angry at being mocked.
“You don’t understand! You never will!”
He didn’t eat the pork blood, so he transferred it all into Song Kuoyang’s bowl.
The two changed the subject.
“What leader came looking for you today? You talked for so long.”
“Director Bao from the Second Light Industry Bureau, along with Secretary Wang, Factory Director Bai, and Director Hao.”
“So many old men. Did they call you over to play chess?” Tong Weiqiang joked.
Song Kuoyang explained, “Our province is competing with Guangdong and Jiangxi for the chance to represent China at an international fireworks competition in Europe. Our special competition team has run into a problem with the fuse. They asked if I had a way to solve it.”
Almost everyone at Yangcheng Fireworks Factory knew that the factory was preparing for the competition.
“Isn’t Factory No. 2 in charge of that? Do you have a solution?”
“I’ll have to see the problem first.”
“Are you joining the special team?”
“I’m leaving at 6:15 tomorrow morning. We’ll be working in the mountains.”
Tong Weiqiang could barely hide his excitement.
“Then you won’t have time to go on that blind date with Xiao Hongyao, will you?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m worried someone else at the factory will beat me to it.”
Song Kuoyang raised his eyes and stared at him, utterly speechless.
“I said, don’t worry about it.”
Tong Weiqiang could only obediently shut his mouth.
After finishing their noodles, Tong Weiqiang went home while Song Kuoyang returned to the dormitory.
Back at the dormitory, Song Kuoyang wrote a letter to his aunt. He mainly explained that he would be working in the mountains and probably wouldn’t return until early November at the earliest. If everything went well, he might then have to go to Jiangxi for the provincial competition.
As for the blind date, he said it would depend mainly on the woman’s opinion. If she agreed, they could settle things. If she had other plans, then they could forget about it.
There would always be another opportunity to apply for housing. He wasn’t in a hurry.
After finishing the letter, he went to the factory entrance and dropped it into the mailbox.
A letter sent within the same city might take two or three days, which was slower than asking his roommates to deliver it, but he trusted the postal service more than he trusted his roommates not to lose it.
Saturday required only a half-day of work. Not long after the quitting bell rang, the factory workers gradually returned home.
The Xiao family had a simple lunch. They cooked only a pot of noodles and topped it with fermented black beans and pickled vegetables.
Everyone held a bowl and ate wherever they happened to be—some standing by the door, some sitting down, while others weren’t ready to eat yet and were sitting in a corner doing handicrafts.
Xiao Hongyao had started her period that day and looked a little pale, so Grandma cooked a fried egg especially for her and put it in her bowl.
Xiao Hongyao’s heart warmed. She used her chopsticks to split the egg in half and placed one half into Grandma’s bowl.
Xiao Ganjü tried to return it.
“I can’t digest it.”
“Hot eggs are easy to digest.”
Xiao Hongyao turned away so Grandma couldn’t put it back.
Xiao Hongmin, standing by the doorway, was getting annoyed.
“Give it to me. I’ll eat it.”
“We already gave Auntie Liu an extra two pounds of eggs because of your business. You still have the nerve to say that?” Xiao Ganjü scolded her, but then transferred half of her own egg into her granddaughter’s bowl.
Xiao Hongmin covered her bowl with her hand.
“I was only joking. Grandma, you eat it.”
Xiao Ganjü asked, “What are you planning to do about you and Liang Tian?”
Everyone in the family looked over.
“We’ll talk about our marriage after Third Sister’s marriage is settled.” Xiao Hongmin lowered her voice. “The deadline for registering for housing is December 15. As long as we register our marriage before then, it’s fine.”
That was far too casual.
Xiao Da, the eldest son, slammed his empty bowl and chopsticks onto the table in displeasure.
Tang Yueying, who was tying firecrackers, quickly put them down and gently reminded her, “Liang Tian’s family has to come formally propose first. We need to discuss how the marriage is going to be arranged, don’t we?”
Liang Tian’s parents didn’t work at the fireworks factory, and the two families weren’t close. The woman’s family already had some reservations, so if the man wasn’t taking the initiative at a time like this, that was a serious problem.
Xiao Hongmin repeated, “Let them come after Third Sister’s marriage is settled.”
“That’s a completely separate matter. Your marriage is your marriage, and Third Sister’s is hers. Don’t wait until the end and leave us with no time to prepare.”
“I don’t need anything prepared for me. I don’t want anything.”
Xiao Hongmin was clearly speaking out of anger.
Xiao Yuanyang found it irritating. He really didn’t want to get involved in his second sister’s relationship with Liang Tian, so he simply went into the kitchen.
As for Third Sister’s marriage, they were still waiting for Auntie Liu to bring them news.
After lunch, the others took their afternoon nap. Their uncle and aunt had gone to the countryside to buy radishes and mustard greens.
Recently, Xiao Hongyao had been studying the various business policies of the time. She had specifically borrowed several reference books from the county library.
After reading until she was tired, she dozed for a while. Later, she got up and joined Grandma in making handicrafts.
Making handmade firecrackers earned at most twenty or thirty cents a day. Grandma and Aunt Tang brought home the materials from the factory and worked whenever they had free time. It couldn’t make them rich, but it helped supplement the household income.
“Yueying! Yueying!”
Someone called from the courtyard. It sounded like Auntie Liu.
Xiao Ganjü poked her head out.
“Auntie Liu, come in. Yueying and the others went to buy radishes and mustard greens.”
“Mrs. Xiao, are you making pickled vegetables this year? My family hasn’t bought anything yet.”
Auntie Liu entered with a broad smile, but the news she brought wasn’t good.
“Song Kuoyang has an important assignment. He’s gone to the mountains.”
“He was invited by provincial leaders yesterday and didn’t finish talking with them until midnight. He left early this morning. Song Yanzhen only found out herself, and as soon as she heard, she came looking for me and asked me to tell you.”
Xiao Ganjü couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
At this point, it seemed like these were probably just excuses. Otherwise, how could it be so coincidental that they couldn’t even find a little time to meet?
But her own family had been in the wrong first, so she couldn’t show her dissatisfaction.
She merely smiled.
“They said it was fate, but somehow it seems we’re still missing a little bit of it.”
“Exactly. We can only wait until he comes back.”
Auntie Liu really wanted to bring this marriage together. She had already planned to use her matchmaker’s fee to buy chili peppers, radishes, and mustard greens for pickling, but unfortunately, everything had been full of twists and turns.
In her eyes, Xiao Hongmin was still the biggest reason for all this trouble. Accepting the betrothal gifts and then changing her mind was simply unacceptable.
Auntie Liu only cursed inwardly. Her face still wore a smile.
“They’re anxious about getting a new apartment, so the schedule will be tight afterward, which may actually make things easier. Song Kuoyang has gone to complete an important assignment this time. If he succeeds, his rank should rise again. He might even be promoted another level when he returns. That would make him a fifth-grade skilled technician.”
Xiao Da had worked his whole life and had only reached fourth grade. There weren’t many fifth-grade skilled technicians at the factory. Once someone secured that position, it was a highly coveted job with excellent benefits.
Xiao Hongyao didn’t care about those so-called benefits.
At the moment, everyone regarded a secure state-owned factory job as a lifelong guarantee. But once the tide of the market economy arrived, those seemingly stable jobs could fall from their pedestal and become nothing more than rusty scrap metal.
What Xiao Hongyao cared about was the secret formula and technical knowledge in Song Kuoyang’s hands.
Of course, it wasn’t her place to decide whether any of that mattered yet. She first had to establish a partnership with him.
Xiao Hongyao didn’t want to sit around and wait.
For now, instead of worrying about Song Kuoyang, she might as well make some money with Tong Weiqiang.
She had only three years to earn enough money to return to her original world.
The saying “time is money” couldn’t be more appropriate here.
Seeing that Xiao Hongyao was quietly working without saying anything, Auntie Liu smiled and gently nudged her.
“Xiaoyao, even if this one doesn’t work out, it’s no big deal. Auntie Liu can help you find another suitable man.”
Before Xiao Hongyao could answer, Grandma spoke first.
“If this one doesn’t work out, then forget it. Our Third Sister has only just recovered. Let her rest for a while before thinking about marriage.”
Auntie Liu tactfully changed the subject.
“Yu Ming still hasn’t come back?”
“He should be back soon. There’s a lot going on in town.”
Auntie Liu shifted her attention to Xiao Yu Ming.
He worked in Shanyang Town and wasn’t easy to find a match for either. In the vast world of rural and small-town life, matchmakers had plenty of room to work their magic.
There were no mobile phones or internet in this era, so contacting someone was extremely troublesome.
To establish a partnership with Tong Weiqiang, Xiao Hongyao planned to go with her aunt to the fields along the mountain road to dig wild scallions and garlic.
That was a route the workers from the loading workshop had to take when going to and from work, so there was a good chance she could “happen” to run into Tong Weiqiang.
That morning, Xiao Hongyao waited in the courtyard with a small hoe and a vegetable basket, preparing to leave with her aunt.
Auntie Liu suddenly hurried over.
“Xiaoyao, good news! Good news!”
“Song Kuoyang wrote a letter to his aunt before leaving. He said that as long as your family has no objections, he has no objections either.”
When Auntie Liu saw Tang Yueying coming out of the house, she spoke even louder.
“The betrothal gifts will remain the same, and he’ll add another two hundred yuan to buy a watch and new clothes. Now it just depends on what else your family wants.”
Tang Yueying’s face immediately lit up.
“Grandma should make the decision on this. Auntie Liu, come in and sit down. We can talk slowly.”
Xiao Hongyao was a little surprised that Song Kuoyang had agreed so easily.
Still, it was an unexpected stroke of good luck.
Perhaps he had clearly heard what she said that day about simply registering the marriage and pretending to be married. Maybe that was why he could make such a major decision about marriage so casually.
Then again, many marriages in this era really were decided this casually.
She would wait until he came back and explain everything to him properly.
Their partnership would last three years.
That three-year deadline was extremely important. She had to tell him about it in advance.