At noon after work, Lin Qianyi planned to go to the factory’s convenience store to buy a few things.
She still needed to go out occasionally to stock up on supplies.
When she arrived, she found there was almost nothing left. The meat had already been sold out.
There weren’t many vegetables either, and because of the hot weather, they looked a bit wilted.
After looking around, she decided not to buy anything.
She got on her bicycle, feeling a little conflicted. In this kind of heat, should she really go to the food supply station? It was still quite a distance away.
But if she didn’t buy meat often, it would seem strange.
It was too hot to keep claiming she had “leftovers from before”—who would believe that? Nothing would keep in this weather anyway.
She slowly rode her bicycle while hesitating.
Ahead of her, an elderly woman staggered as she walked, then swayed and seemed about to sit down by the roadside.
Lin Qianyi quickly got off her bike and went over to support her.
“Grandma, are you alright?”
The old woman sat down weakly on a nearby step.
Lin Qianyi recognized her—it was Granny Sun from her residential building, though they were not from the same entrance.
“I’m okay, I just might’ve gotten a bit of heatstroke from the weather,” Granny Sun said weakly, her face pale.
“Thank you, Qianyi,” she added, recognizing her as well.
“Wait here, I’ll go buy you a cold drink,” Lin Qianyi said, quickly riding back to the convenience store.
There was no bottled water in this era, only soda. She bought a chilled soda bottle kept in ice.
She hurried back and handed it to Granny Sun.
“Please drink some. It’s the only cold thing available right now.”
“Thank you,” Granny Sun said, taking a sip.
“In this heat, you really shouldn’t go out—especially at noon when it’s hottest.”
Lin Qianyi took out a few sheets of paper from her bag and fanned the old woman. Thankfully, she always kept some documents with her.
“I came out to buy some meat, but it was already sold out,” Granny Sun sighed.
Her family situation made it difficult for her to leave home for long, so she couldn’t go to the main food supply station either.
“Grandma, I was just about to go buy meat. I’ll bring some back for you,” Lin Qianyi said.
“Really? Thank you so much, Qianyi,” Granny Sun said happily.
“I’ll go right away. Are you feeling better?”
“Yes, much better now,” the old woman replied after finishing the soda. The cool drink helped, though she was still slightly dizzy.
She then took out ten cents and handed it to Lin Qianyi.
“Take it, Qianyi. You must accept this. Otherwise I won’t dare let you help me buy the meat.”
Seeing her insist, Lin Qianyi accepted it.
“I’ll go now. I’ll return your bottle too after I’m done,” she said.
She returned the empty bottle to the store for deposit refund.
Then she helped Granny Sun onto the back seat of her bicycle and rode her home.
After parking the bike, she helped the old woman upstairs into her home.
Granny Sun’s son was a mechanical factory technician who had been ill and bedridden for years, unable to work. Her daughter-in-law also worked, so the elderly woman had been taking care of everything at home.
She had saved up meat ration coupons to buy meat for her son’s health, but couldn’t get any. Even chicken was impossible to find.
“What do you need? I’ll bring it for you,” Lin Qianyi said.
Granny Sun happily gave her money and ration tickets.
“Get me a pound of pork, and if there’s chicken, please see if you can get one too. I might not have enough coupons.”
“Alright, no problem,” Lin Qianyi thought to herself—she definitely could manage it.
She went home first, took some ready food from her spatial storage to eat, then headed out to the food supply station.
At the supply station, there wasn’t much meat left—only a small piece. She bought it. The poultry section was already empty.
It seemed either supply was low or too many people had come; in any case, everything was gone by noon.
She also bought some vegetables and left with her cloth bag.
When picking up her bicycle, she quietly slipped a piece of meat from her spatial storage into the bag.
She then rode back to the mechanical factory and returned to the residential compound.
She went home first and unpacked the vegetables, then left a large piece of pork and added a chicken to the bag.
After that, she brought the bag to Granny Sun’s home.
Granny Sun was overjoyed when she saw the large piece of pork and the chicken. In this era, even having money didn’t guarantee you could buy things.
Lin Qianyi handed back the remaining money and then went home.
She hadn’t taken a nap that day, but she had solved the grocery problem and even helped someone in need.
Oh—and she even made a little money from it.
She didn’t plan to earn money by selling meat from her spatial storage. She already had a normal job and didn’t need to take such risks.
But helping others when she could was fine.
Seeing the time, she headed back to work.
In the afternoon, she finished translating her documents and, after checking them carefully, took them to Director Xu’s office.
When she arrived, Director Xu was discussing something with someone.
Seeing this, Lin Qianyi was about to leave, but he noticed her.
“Qianyi, just a moment,” he said.
She stood aside waiting with her documents.
Their office was quite far from Director Xu’s—the technical building wasn’t in the office area—so coming and going was a bit inconvenient.
Soon, Director Xu finished his discussion.
“Come in, Qianyi,” he called.
“This is the latest manuscript,” she said, handing over the work.
He looked through it and nodded.
“Very good. Your speed and quality are excellent. A lot of the backlog has already been cleared.”
“Also, the bookstore has translation tasks. They want you to help. What do you think?”
“Sure,” she agreed immediately. It was easy work and paid well.
“Go to the bookstore tomorrow and find Director Cao. Just go during working hours and tell your supervisor I asked you to bring the documents.”
“Alright.”
“You can arrange your time reasonably. The factory documents aren’t urgent—you can translate them slowly each day.”
His words were subtle, implying she could also work on the bookstore materials during work hours.
“Thank you, Director Xu,” she said, understanding his care.
“These are all materials that need translating, but they’re not urgent. Take your time,” he added, handing her another stack.
She thanked him again and happily returned to the office with the documents.
“Qianyi, it’s almost off work. Aren’t you going shopping with us?” Wang Lan asked while packing up.
“No, you guys go ahead,” she smiled.
Wang Lan really loved shopping, though Lin Qianyi couldn’t understand what was so interesting about it—the supply stores always sold the same few things.
She could only conclude that no matter the era, no matter how limited the goods, women always liked shopping.