That night, Father Song noticed that there was a bicycle in the house. Yan Jin’er answered truthfully, though she slightly glossed over the process.
“Dad, I forgot to give him money,” Yan Jin’er suddenly remembered that she had not paid the repairman and had not even poured him a glass of water.
“It’s fine. Dad knows his father well. I’ll pay. You don’t need to worry about it.”
As for learning how to ride a bicycle and such, Yan Jin’er said she had already learned. She even received praise from Father Song and Mother Song. Embarrassment or anything like that no longer existed.
The next morning, Yan Jin’er woke up early. After breakfast, she slowly rode her bicycle to work. When she entered the Human Resources Department office, she found that Cheng Yu had already arrived early.
Seeing the thick sweetness between Cheng Yu’s brows and eyes, Yan Jin’er felt like she had accidentally eaten another dose of “dog food.”
“Sister Cheng, was your brother-in-law the one who sent you here again today?” Yan Jin’er teased, raising her brows at Cheng Yu.
Cheng Yu held back her embarrassment and nodded as if she were calm and composed, thinking that the more she showed embarrassment, the more Yan Jin’er would tease her.
Yan Jin’er was surprised that Cheng Yu actually nodded. That single nod completely blocked all the words she had prepared.
Just then, Chen Xiaohong also arrived with a flushed face, her brows and eyes soaked in the sweetness of love. Yan Jin’er immediately turned her “gun” toward Chen Xiaohong.
“Oh my, Sister Xiaohong, did your partner send you here again today? Sister Xiaohong, your partner is so lucky—he even has someone who sends him to work.”
Yan Jin’er’s tone was full of sarcasm, mainly because she equally resented every person showing off their love.
Seeing Chen Xiaohong become shy and flustered, Yan Jin’er instantly felt happy. Luckily, people in this era were rather reserved about topics like partners. If it were modern times, saying something like that would definitely result in being force-fed public displays of affection until she was “killed by dog food” on the spot.
After Sister Wang arrived, Minister Feng also entered the office before work time.
What was surprising was that Minister Feng did not, as usual, just show his face briefly and then go to his own small office.
Ignoring the surprised and questioning looks, Minister Feng gave instructions: “Everyone stop for a moment. Xiao Chen, take last month’s attendance sheet to the finance office. Also, Xiao Yan and Xiao Cheng, the two of you take the attendance sheet down to the workshop and check it. Match every name on the list with each person.”
“Alright.” The two of them nodded in response, while Minister Feng’s expression remained as stern as ever.
Yan Jin’er and Cheng Yu exchanged glances with Sister Hong and the others, finding it strange. According to Sister Hong, they had never conducted such strict attendance checks before, because everyone valued their jobs so much that attendance was never treated lightly.
This was the first time Yan Jin’er was doing such strict attendance checks in the workshop. Usually, they only dealt with departments and workshop group leaders.
The textile factory’s workshop was very large, divided into several sections. Each section was further divided into multiple production lines, and each line had a team leader. There were more than ten thousand workers in total.
Yan Jin’er and Cheng Yu had to split up and go to different teams to conduct attendance checks, each taking half to speed things up.
“Sister Liu, please gather your team members,” Yan Jin’er said. “We’ll do roll call this morning. When I call a name, that person should step out and stand here. If someone’s name is called but they don’t step out, it will be marked as absent.” She explained clearly, worried that someone might actually be foolish enough not to step out.
The work went relatively smoothly, because attendance affected everyone’s wages and interests, so everyone was very cooperative.
After a busy morning, both Yan Jin’er and Cheng Yu were exhausted, their throats almost dry. Later on, they simply let the team leaders do the calling while they watched from the side.
After finishing all the attendance checks, the two of them looked at each other—both sides had problems.
Yan Jin’er’s side had “no such person” cases: the name was on the list, but the person did not come to work. Cheng Yu’s side was even more amusing—names and people didn’t match; a female name had a male worker showing up instead.
Aside from these two issues, everything else was normal.
Before lunch, they reported the results to Minister Feng. He remained silent for a while, his expression a little unpleasant, but said nothing and simply told them to leave.
“How was it? What happened? Why do you both look so serious?” Chen Xiaohong quickly handed them water.
“There were a couple of small issues, but it’s nothing serious.”
Seeing their serious expressions, Chen Xiaohong did not dare to ask further.
After helping organize all the morning attendance sheets, they went to the canteen together for lunch.
“Why are you two so late today? Did attendance take that long?” Zhao Jing asked in confusion. She had seen them in the morning and knew what they were doing.
Yan Jin’er only focused on stuffing food into her mouth. She had been busy all morning and was starving, so Zhao Jing ended up chatting with Cheng Yu while Yan Jin’er occasionally responded with expressions.
Zhao Jing’s recent work had been quite calm and smooth. Although the two flashy ones occasionally caused trouble, it did not affect her.
In the afternoon, Minister Feng, as usual, did not appear. No one knew where he had gone, and there was still no conclusion about the attendance matter.
Yan Jin’er could only set aside her curiosity. She was just a small employee anyway; whatever consequences came, they would not fall on her. She would just wait for the result.
In the afternoon, Sister Wang went to other departments to socialize, while Yan Jin’er and Cheng Yu sat together knitting sweaters and chatting about the National Day evening gala from two days ago.
“Jin’er, did you go to the Military Region’s gala? Were there any exciting performances?”
“Yes, there were. The soldiers performed martial arts routines, and the military boxing was very impressive. There were also dance and singing performances, all very wonderful.”
“Oh, I really wanted to see it,” Chen Xiaohong said, both curious and regretful. If she had been there that night, she might have shamelessly gone to watch too.
“Next time we can go together,” Yan Jin’er said casually. But she felt it was unlikely—Chen Xiaohong was getting married in March next year, and she wasn’t sure if there would still be time then.
Yan Jin’er’s scarf project was finally nearing completion. This time she knitted it more tightly than the last one. Tonight she could take it home and give it to Father Song.
“Sister Cheng, is your scarf for your brother-in-law? Sister Xiaohong, is yours too?” Yan Jin’er noticed that both of them were knitting men’s scarves.
“Yes,” both of them admitted openly.
Only Yan Jin’er was injured in this world.
She suddenly thought of Wen Qingyu comforting her, and maybe—just maybe—she would also have a partner soon.