People nowadays didn’t have the habit of staying up late or sleeping in.
At this hour, those who should be at work were heading to work, and those who should be washing up were already doing so.
Quite a few people noticed the argument between Shen Changlin and Zhang Yunqing at the alley entrance.
They exchanged glances with one another, then lowered their heads knowingly.
Looks like the Zhang family’s girl was about to suffer another loss again.
In their opinion, Zhang Yunqing was pretty and hardworking, and she was honest too. But unfortunately, she just wasn’t very bright.
Who in the neighborhood didn’t know what kind of people the Shen family were?
Back when he was young, Shen Huaicai had worked as a clerk at a church hospital. He considered himself an intellectual, and even after social reforms cost him his job, he still never lifted a finger for household chores.
In recent years, with the Red Guards causing such chaos, he would rather stay indoors than let go of his airs as a cultured man.
As for Li Huaihua, she was even more difficult to deal with. When she was younger, she had stirred up enough trouble to make her father divorce his second wife.
After marrying Shen Huaicai, she gave birth to a daughter first and behaved herself for two years.
Then in the third year, she gave birth to Shen Changlin—the Shen family’s only son—and immediately thought her status had become secure. From then on, she stopped pretending altogether.
If anyone offended her, she could stand at the alley entrance cursing nonstop for two days without repeating herself once. From a person’s ancestors eight generations back to even their pet dog, nothing escaped her insults.
Shen Changlin wasn’t as unreasonable as his mother, but he had inherited every bit of his father’s pretentious scholarly attitude. Even if an oil bottle tipped over at home, he wouldn’t bother picking it up. He was all talk and no action.
Yet Zhang family’s youngest daughter happened to fall for exactly that type.
She was always bringing him food or helping his family with chores, practically like a servant girl from the old society.
Many people in the alley couldn’t stand watching it and had tried to advise her, directly and indirectly, countless times.
Unfortunately, the original Zhang Yunqing had been completely bewitched by Shen Changlin. She wouldn’t even listen to her own mother, much less unrelated neighbors.
Over time, everyone gave up trying to persuade her and simply waited for Zhang Yunqing to suffer a major setback and finally wake up.
“If you’ve got spare time, go help your mother with some work instead of standing here pretending to be some literary youth.” Being blocked first thing in the morning had already exhausted Zhang Yunqing’s patience. She shoved Shen Changlin aside, rolled her eyes, and muttered under her breath, “Bad luck.”
Her voice was very soft. Aside from Shen Changlin, no one else heard it.
Watching Zhang Yunqing leave without even turning back, the man who usually wore a gentle mask stood there with an unreadable expression, seemingly lost in thought.
But Zhang Yunqing couldn’t care less what he was thinking. Today was her first day at work, and she was full of excitement.
After arriving at the printing factory, she greeted the old security guard with a smile and headed straight for the office where she had handled her onboarding procedures yesterday.
This time, all her documents were properly prepared. Zhang Yunqing smoothly completed the transfer of her grain ration registration, and when she finally received her own grain booklet, she let out a long sigh of relief.
At last, in this era, she had escaped the status of being someone who merely ate for free in another person’s household. She was now officially part of the working class, with a source of confidence that belonged to her alone.
As for workshop assignments, Master Zhang Xinmin had already settled that yesterday with a single word. Ma Guangming and Liu Suqin had long since been taken to the printing workshop by others.
Zhang Yunqing’s case was somewhat special, and currently the Labor and Wage Department didn’t have extra people available to guide her.
So she smiled and thanked the employee helping her with the paperwork, then asked for directions to the plate-making workshop and prepared to find it herself.
Starting today, she was officially drawing wages from the printing factory. And in this era, people especially valued dedication and selflessness. If she failed to report to work quickly enough, who knew what sort of rumors would spread about her.
There were still more than four years left before the political movement ended, and nearly ten years before full economic reform.
Which meant she would be staying at this printing factory for at least four more years.
Getting into the factory was only the first step. For the sake of future career development, maintaining appearances and a good attitude was still very important.
After all, factories were divided into different workshops. The plate-making workshop she had been assigned to might involve delicate technical work, but compared to the printing and typesetting workshops, the workload was much lighter.
She definitely didn’t want to offend people with a bad attitude and get transferred to one of the other two workshops instead.
Pingcheng was the second-largest city in Jiang Province, and the printing factory located in the city center was naturally quite large.
Passing through several bustling workshops filled with workers hard at labor, Zhang Yunqing finally found the plate-making workshop in the last factory building, right next to the repair workshop and the employee cafeteria.
The moment she spotted the cafeteria, she became thirty percent more satisfied with her future working environment.
Back in modern times during high school, in order to get a little more rest at noon—and also to eat the food she actually wanted—she used to sprint toward the cafeteria the instant class ended.
Now, food supplies were even tighter, and meat dishes were strictly limited in quantity. The competition for meals definitely wouldn’t be any less intense than in high school.
This arrangement was perfect. At least she had the advantage of location.
Just as she was sinking into fantasies of a beautiful future life, Zhang Xinmin’s shout came from the workshop entrance.
“Hey, girl! What are you standing around for? The cafeteria serving time already passed. Staring at it won’t magically produce food. Hurry up and get to work. You can think about eating at noon.”
Zhang Yunqing snapped back to reality. Hearing no malice in his tone, she smiled and answered, “Coming right away!”
With that, she straightened the patched hem of her clothes, stepped forward in the handmade cloth shoes her mother had made, and strode into the place where she would work in the future.
The plate-making workshop sounded sophisticated, but once inside, it was clear that compared to the bustling atmosphere of the other workshops, the several-hundred-square-meter room had pitifully few workers.
Seeing a newcomer arrive, everyone briefly looked up while continuing their tasks. They nodded politely toward Zhang Yunqing before returning to work.
Zhang Xinmin clapped his hands and casually announced, “This is Little Zhang. From now on, she’ll be working here in our plate-making workshop.”
Then he called out a name.
“Ge Yanqing, take her around and help familiarize her with things. The factory recently assigned new production targets, so get her up to speed with the new machine as soon as possible.”
The person called was a female worker around thirty-five years old. Like Zhang Xinmin, she wore thick black-framed glasses. Only after hearing her name did she set down her work and stride over in a few quick steps.
“Got it. Leave her to me, Master Zhang.”
The moment Ge Yanqing spoke, her bright and straightforward voice instantly dispelled the dull impression created by her glasses, making her seem vivid and energetic.
The moment Zhang Yunqing entered the workshop, she had already noticed that nearly everyone in the plate-making workshop wore glasses. She had seen more people with glasses here than she had during all the time since transmigrating into this world.
She felt slightly worried.
In her previous life, years of studying bent over desks, combined with long hours staring at a computer while working in advertising, had left her glasses thicker than beer bottle bottoms.
After coming here, she had finally gotten to experience the world clearly again.
Surely working here for a while wouldn’t turn her back into someone who couldn’t recognize family members three meters away or distinguish humans from animals five meters away… probably.
Before she could think further, Ge Yanqing had already extended her hand.
“Comrade Xiao Zhang, welcome to our plate-making workshop. I’m Ge Yanqing, a few years older than you. If you don’t mind, you can just call me Sister Ge.”
Ge Yanqing clearly had a brisk and capable personality. Zhang Yunqing’s first impression of her was good.
She reached out and shook her hand.
“Sister Ge, you’re too polite. I’ll be relying on your guidance in work matters from now on.”