It was common knowledge that technical workers earned high wages—at the very least, higher than a clerk sitting in an office like her.
Ever since her student days, Meng Ruo had been a person with a strong sense of crisis. For example, knowing that it was difficult to find a job with only an undergraduate degree, she had gritted her teeth and taken the entrance exams for graduate school despite not liking it. As it turned out, a Master’s degree was indeed easier to find employment with than a Bachelor’s.
It was currently 1992, only a few years away from the historical wave of layoffs. Technical workers, even when that day finally came, would surely be easier to re-employ than a clerk like her.
As a tiny grain of dust in the torrent of history, she naturally wanted to go a bit further. And as for her, if nothing else, she was quite adept at making food, specifically bread and desserts. In her other world, she had a mother who owned a cake shop and loved cooking delicious food.
Having made up her mind, Meng Ruo decided to sign up tomorrow. Although she wasn’t yet clear on the factory’s requirements for technical workers, how would she know if she could do it or not without trying?
Over at the electronics factory, You Che arrived at the office early in the morning only to hear several colleagues laughing loudly.
The moment he sat down at his workstation, his colleague Cao Zhanfei hooked an arm around his shoulders and laughed, “You Che, I heard that on your wedding night, you shook your bed so hard it collapsed! Hahahaha!”
You Che’s face darkened. “Who told you that?”
“Who else? That Big Sister Zhou who lives downstairs from you.”
“Let me tell you, those two Zhou sisters are famous in this area for being busybodies. The eldest is Zhou Qinjuan, and the second is Zhou Qiaomei. The one downstairs from you happens to be the second one, Zhou Qiaomei. Since you live right above her, don’t even think about having any privacy.”
You Che’s face darkened even further. “Didn’t you help me find this house?”
“Hehe,” Cao Zhanfei smiled sheepishly. “I only just found out about this. I swear I didn’t know before! If I had known, I definitely wouldn’t have let you rent there.”
Probably fearing You Che would give him trouble, Cao Zhanfei proactively changed the subject. “Let me tell you something else.”
Cao Zhanfei looked around secretively, leaned into You Che’s ear, and whispered, “I heard them say that our factory’s capital chain seems to have broken. This month’s wages might not be paid out.”
Hearing that the electronics factory’s capital chain was broken, You Che’s face didn’t show much surprise. This had been within his expectations for a long time. In the past two years, due to rising prices, everyone was afraid of their money devaluing and didn’t dare save it; they were all desperately hoarding goods, and household appliances were selling very well.
Their factory director assumed that this year would be like the last and that the market for appliances would continue to be good. As soon as work started at the beginning of the year, he had several production workshops desperately churning out appliances, to the point that the factory’s warehouses were full of stock in no time.
When the stock was full, they should have cleared the inventory first, but the director still told them not to stop work and to continue production, thinking that as long as the goods were produced, they could be sold. However, once the supply chain was cut, the money was earned by other factories.
As a result, before the goods could be sold, the factory’s capital chain couldn’t circulate. Since the capital chain couldn’t circulate, they could only step up the inventory clearance, but this year was different from previous years—household appliances were sitting unsold.
There were two reasons for the sluggish sales: first, prices had begun to stabilize this year, so everyone’s desire to hoard was no longer as strong; second, the appliances produced in a rush had many quality issues. This year, they had received hundreds, if not thousands, of quality complaints. People weren’t stupid; they wouldn’t spend their hard-earned money to buy defective appliances.
“Why don’t you look worried at all after hearing what I said?” Cao Zhanfei asked, puzzled. “I heard the director is so worried about the capital chain that he hasn’t slept for several nights.”
“You said it yourself; it’s useless even if the director is so worried he can’t sleep. So what use is it for me to worry?” You Che said calmly.
“The logic is sound, but normally people would worry about this kind of thing,” Cao Zhanfei thought for a moment and added, “Do you think our factory will just go bust?”
You Che shook his head. “I don’t know.”
His thinking was very simple: come what may, he would deal with it. Such a large electronics factory wouldn’t just collapse overnight. To take a step back, even if it really came to that, he had a way to survive.
There was no use in just worrying when things happened; there had to be a solution. Therefore, after work, he rode his bicycle home slowly as usual.
At quitting time, the roads were filled with workers riding their bicycles home, bells ringing incessantly. You Che saw many men and women riding together on one bike—the men pedaling hard while the women sat on the back seat, talking and laughing with them. Seeing how sweet they looked, they were either newlyweds or a couple who had just started dating.
You Che suddenly thought that he and Meng Ruo were also a newly married couple.
In the evening, Meng Ruo rode her bicycle home. After reaching the building, she took out her lock to secure the bike and then quickly walked upstairs carrying the groceries she had just bought.
They ate at the factory cafeteria at noon and generally cooked for themselves in the evening. Her home was on the second floor, right above that big sister who had come to the door on her wedding night.
As soon as Meng Ruo entered the house, she headed for the kitchen. Just as she was about to wash the vegetables, You Che also walked in.
“Let me wash the vegetables,” You Che said.
Since he had proactively offered to help, she had no reason to refuse. As early as the second day of their marriage, the two had divided the household chores: she would do the cooking, while You Che would handle the sweeping, laundry, and hanging the clothes.
While washing the vegetables, You Che said, “From now on, I’ll drop you off and pick you up from work.”
Meng Ruo was stunned. The electronics factory and the food factory weren’t close to each other—it was a distance of two or three li—and they weren’t on the same route either.
“There’s no need for that trouble; I have my own bicycle,” Meng Ruo said with a smile.
“It’s no trouble. It only takes about ten minutes for me to ride over. If you get off work early, just wait for me at the factory gate,” You Che insisted.
“Alright then,” Meng Ruo said after a moment’s thought. She didn’t really mind; after all, whether she rode herself or You Che picked her up didn’t make a huge difference.
After You Che finished washing the vegetables, he started helping to chop them, but his movements were clumsy and the cuts weren’t very good. Meng Ruo found him too slow and said, “Go rest in the living room for a bit; let me do it.”
She took the kitchen knife and began slicing and shredding the potatoes, her movements swift and fluent. You Che stood to the side, dazed. Meng Ruo had slender fingers, and he had thought she should be a pampered young lady.
But then he remembered Meng Ruo’s stepmother and understood in his heart. With a hypocritical stepmother, her life in the Meng family must not have been easy; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to marry a poor boy like him.
Actually, You Che was mistaken. Meng Ruo truly hadn’t cooked much in the Meng family. Previously, when her biological mother was around, she didn’t need to do it; later, when Meng Jun married Li Mei, Li Mei hadn’t let Meng Ruo in the kitchen in the early stages to maintain her image as a kind mother.
Meng Ruo’s culinary skills were learned from her mother in the other world. Her mother loved cooking, and she had been influenced by it since childhood. During her Master’s degree, she studied medicinal chemistry, but she actually liked cooking more than chemistry. Sometimes when the pressure from studies or work was high, she enjoyed cooking quietly by herself. Watching food transform from its original state into another was very healing for her; cooking could greatly relieve the stress in her heart, and she enjoyed the process.
She had thought more than once about giving up her studies, giving up the job of being holed up in a lab every day, and managing the cake shop with her mother. But her mother wouldn’t agree, always saying, “You’ve been studying for over twenty years; are you going to give up just like that?” So, even if she didn’t like it, she still persisted in completing her studies and working in the lab.
Ten minutes later, the aroma of food wafted from the kitchen. Meng Ruo brought out two plates of food: a dish of hot and sour shredded potatoes and a dish of fried eggs with green peppers.
Seeing her bring the food out, You Che quickly got up to go to the kitchen to serve the rice. Both the shredded potatoes and the fried eggs with green peppers looked very appetizing. You Che picked up his chopsticks and put some of the evenly shredded potatoes into his mouth; they were crisp, slightly spicy with a hint of acidity—very delicious.
“It’s delicious,” You Che said.
Meng Ruo, who was eating with her head down, looked up and smiled upon hearing his praise. This smile directly stunned You Che—her pink lips curled up, and her large, watery eyes curved into crescents, looking like a rose blooming in the sun, both beautiful and sweet.
“As long as it’s delicious,” Meng Ruo said with a smile.
The two sat opposite each other at the table eating, occasionally saying a word or two; the atmosphere was quiet and harmonious.
As You Che ate, he suddenly remembered the scene of eating with his mother many years ago. Back then, his father was away working, and it was just him and his mother at home. They also sat opposite each other like this, and the atmosphere was quiet and harmonious. His mother would occasionally put food in his bowl and tell him to eat more vegetables.
How long had it been since he had eaten a meal so harmoniously and quietly? He could no longer remember. At his uncle’s house, although his uncle was very good to him, he always felt like an outsider; he couldn’t blend into that home. But the meal Meng Ruo made today gave him a long-lost feeling of home.
You Che shoveled rice into his mouth, feeling his eyes grow warm. Because he kept his head down, Meng Ruo didn’t notice this anomaly. She quickly finished her meal, gathered her bowl, and prepared to wash the dishes and clean the stove.
“I’ll wash the dishes,” You Che said, quickly taking two more bites of rice. “From now on, I’ll wash all the dishes.”
Meng Ruo raised an eyebrow, thinking to herself that this man was quite proactive. Good, she liked that. He was so diligent with chores and help; he didn’t seem anything like the “lazy” person Liu Xiuying described.
The next morning, You Che really did ride his bike to take her to the food factory. You Che pedaled in front while she sat on the back seat, holding onto the bike, closing her eyes to feel the cool morning breeze brushing against her face like an invisible pair of large hands soothing her soul.
When she opened her eyes, both sides of the road were lined with either dense trees or small street shops. The breakfast shops were steaming, and everyone’s face wore the joy of hope for the future. In her world, when was there ever such a leisurely time? Everyone hurried to squeeze onto the subway with a somber face during the commute, having no mood to appreciate the scenery along the way.
I didn’t expect that not having to ride to work myself would be quite nice, Meng Ruo thought.
When they reached the food factory, Meng Ruo saw that it was still early, so she went directly to the HR office. Coincidentally, Song Yan was again visiting the HR office for a chat.
As soon as Song Yan saw her, she shot her a sidelong glance. Meng Ruo couldn’t be bothered to pay her any mind. She found the HR specialist in charge of recruiting technical workers and said, “The factory is recruiting bread technicians, right? I want to sign up.”
Before the HR specialist could speak, Song Yan spoke first in a shrill voice, “You, a clerk, know how to make bread? If you’re so bored you have nothing to do, go find some other work. Don’t waste the HR department’s time here.”
“Who exactly is so bored they have nothing to do that they visit other offices every day?” Meng Ruo snapped back unceremoniously. “Since I dare to sign up, I have the skills. If you can’t stand it, why don’t you sign up too?”
“You…” Song Yan was left speechless by her retort.
“Comrade Meng, this position requires a trial of your skills. Are you sure you have no problem?” the HR specialist asked.
Song Yan quickly chimed in with a mocking laugh, “That’s right! You’ve been at the food factory for so long; how come I didn’t know you could make bread?”
Song Yan was like a fly; Meng Ruo really wanted to take a fly swatter and smack her to death.
“I have no problem,” she told the HR specialist.
“Alright, I’ll record your name. Go directly to Production Workshop No. 1 at 9:30 AM. The director attaches great importance to this matter and will personally go to the workshop to supervise,” the HR specialist said.
“The director is going too?” Song Yan was surprised. Beyond the surprise, she was also secretly delighted. The director wasn’t easy to fool; if Meng Ruo made a mistake in front of him, it wouldn’t just be a matter of losing face.
Song Yan snickered in her heart. She definitely had to watch this drama—she couldn’t wait.