Chapter 69 Panpan, you come to play with Xiaomei again...

Chen Pan stood behind Xiaomei, holding the bag on her back, and could not see the expression on her face for a moment.

But in the dark night, Chen Pan still saw Yang Xiaofang shaking her head slightly in the distance.

So after a moment of hesitation, Chen Pan immediately acted embarrassed. "Didn't I invite a few people to do business the first time? The second time, they contacted me without me even asking, and they also contacted many other people for me. They were all family members and neighbors, so I felt embarrassed to refuse them again, so I didn't contact Meimei and Xiaofang again. And at that time, I thought my aunt would take them on the business herself."

Because of Chen Pan's words, Yang Dawei, who was walking in front, felt a faint sense of resentment beside him.

"Ahem!" He was the kind of person who was mean, but not overly bad. At his wife's glare, he raised his hand and touched his nose guiltily. "Your aunt happened to be ill and hospitalized during that time. It was true that even if you wanted to call them, they couldn't come."

"Yeah?"

Chen Pan responded indifferently in the dark night.

"Mom and Dad, can I be alone with Panpan——"

Yang Xiaomei wanted to talk to Chen Pan alone. She didn't want her good friend to have too much contact with her father, who had a changeable temper.

But just as she opened her mouth, Yang Dawei, who had already calmed down, continued to ask Chen Pan: "By the way, Panpan, you are looking for our Xiaomei for something, right? What is it that keeps you waiting so late?"

Now is the time when autumn has just ended and winter has just arrived.

Looking at the dark village road ahead with only a few scattered lights, Yang Dawei walked and deliberately slowed down his pace.

Yang Xiaomei and the others had been walking intermittently for over an hour from the mountain to the village, carrying their loads on their backs. Seeing him suddenly slow down, Yang Xiaofang, unable to hold on any longer, simply dropped her load onto the ground with a thud, just as she had done before. Then, she plopped down on the stool behind her, breathing heavily.

Fatigue is like a plague, and sometimes it can be contagious.

Seeing her suddenly stop, the people in front who were carrying things, and Yang Xiaokang, the old cow of their family, all slowly stopped.

Everyone put down their belongings and began to breathe heavily.

Amidst these gasps, Chen Pan forcefully pressed Yang Xiaomei, who was trying to pull him down to sit, onto the half-broken potato sack on the ground. "Uncle, I'm looking for Meimei because of Auntie's business."

"What? My business?" Fang Qinghua, who had never spoken seriously since he met Chen Pan, finally couldn't help but looked at Chen Pan subconsciously.

"Pan Pan!" Not knowing what she was going to do, Yang Xiaomei subconsciously pulled Chen Pan's hands in the dark. At the back of the crowd, Yang Xiaofang suddenly stopped panting and raised her head again.

"Dad!" Feeling that the situation was a little strange, Yang Xiaokang, who had been holding the reins, subconsciously looked at his father.

His father, however, was completely oblivious to him at this moment. Like his wife, he suddenly raised his head, his eyes fixed on Chen Pan, who was leaning against the wall.

Chen Pan shook his best friend's hand in the dark, as a gesture of comfort. "Today, when our family was having a meeting to open the factory, I heard my great-grandfather and the others discussing finding a educated person to work as a financial officer or cashier. Financial officers and cashiers usually seem to be women, and those who are educated must be middle school or high school graduates. When I heard that, I thought of Aunt Yang, so I ran over to talk to Meimei about it."

I figured my aunt, a high school graduate, was the most educated woman here. If you recommend yourself, you might get the job. I'm not entirely sure, but I know our factory needs this position. I also know this position is different from the others. It's open to both a junior high and a high school student, so my great-grandfather and his team will definitely prioritize the more educated candidate.

Ever since Chen Pan said that their factory was looking for a financial officer or cashier, Fang Qinghua's eyes became brighter and brighter.

When Chen Pan said that if a junior high school student and a high school student appeared at the same time for this position, Chen Pan's grandfather would definitely give priority to the one with higher academic qualifications, Fang Qinghua's eyes lit up in the dark.

In fact, she was not the only one who looked like this. Almost everyone in the Yang family looked like this at the moment.

Falling last, Yang Xiaofang, who had just been panting like a big yellow ox, even took two steps forward excitedly: "Mom, you absolutely cannot miss this opportunity this time, you must go over and try it."

"Yes, Mom, you have the highest education here. If you go and ask in person, you might actually get this job opportunity. We've just finished plowing the remaining potato patch at home, so the remaining work of weeding and grinding the soil can be put off until later. How about my sister and I accompany you to apply for the position tomorrow?"

Looking at his good friend with gratitude, Yang Xiaomao immediately suggested that his mother recommend herself tomorrow.

"I feel good, Mom, you go and try it."

Holding the reins, Yang Xiaokang, who is only nine years old this year, also felt that this was a good thing. It was a rare opportunity for him to stand on the same line with his two sisters.

Between a housewife and a working mother who works in finance, even if he was a fool, he would know which one to choose.

Anyway, at this moment, all the Yang family members who had been out all day had their tiredness and exhaustion on their faces gone, and were replaced by real happiness and excitement.

"Panpan, are you telling the truth?" Feeling a little bit unbelievable, Mother Yang, with a smile on her face, couldn't help but confirm again.

"It's true. Any factory needs finance and cashier positions. And these positions definitely require academic qualifications, and the higher the academic qualifications, the more competitive you are."

Chen Pan took Yang Xiaomei's hand and reiterated that their factory had not yet decided on a candidate for the finance position. He also reiterated the key requirements for the position, which was considered as a subtle encouragement to her.

"Then I'll try tomorrow. Thank you, Panpan!" As a young woman, Fang Qinghua, caught in a difficult time, naturally missed the Gaokao (National College Entrance Examination). When the exam resumed, she wanted to retake it, but her short-sighted parents ruthlessly rejected her. Later, among the potential marriages her parents had chosen, she chose Yang Dawei, a bookish, bespectacled man. Unexpectedly, he completely changed after marriage.

When the child grew up a little, the Li family opened a cement factory, and the then factory director Li Decheng came to invite her to work there. But because she was pregnant again at the time, she was persuaded by her husband, her parents-in-law, and even her own parents. After that compromise, she never had the opportunity to do anything else. Fang Qinghua had made so much money from Chen Pan before, and she thought her luck had turned, but she didn't expect that -

Anyway, at this moment, she was really determined to give it a try.

After taking a deep look at her husband who had just been happy but had suddenly become silent, Fang Qinghua immediately stepped forward and asked Chen Pan about their work tomorrow.

"Auntie, please come over around 10:30 tomorrow. This time should be the most suitable--"

Chen Pan, genuinely wanting to help, answered the other person seriously. He also reminded her, "When you come over, you don't need to bring Xiaomei and Xiaofang in. Just have them stay outside. Be bold. With your education and age, I guarantee you'll have a very high chance of being accepted."

In Longcheng, for jobs like financial clerks, people prefer to look for women who are attentive and good at communication.

Although my friend’s mother is already a mother of three children, she is actually not yet 35 years old because she got married early.

In this day and age, being educated means graduating from junior high school. And high school graduates, in this society, are considered highly educated, second only to college graduates.

According to Chen Pan's understanding, today's high school students are at the same level as future college students.

In this era where college graduates are often assigned jobs by the government, high school graduates looking for work are generally looked up to, and junior high school graduates already meet the minimum requirements of most factories and companies, Fang Qinghua, a 33-year-old with good looks, reasonable communication skills, a local resident, and a high school diploma, is incredibly competitive.

Perhaps in jobs like sales or clerk, she is very likely to be replaced by others.

But in some special positions that require academic qualifications, her advantages are really strong.

In the slightly cold wind, Chen Pan quickly said everything he wanted to say.

Finally, when Mother Yang subconsciously wanted to invite her over to sit down, Chen Pan decisively shook her head and refused.

First, she was naturally afraid of and disliked her best friend's father, so she didn't want to go to their house.

Secondly, Chen Pan grew up in the countryside and knew how tired and hungry they were. Putting herself in their shoes, Chen Pan didn't want to disturb them at this time.

Third, Chen Pan was naturally wary. Even if it was the village where she grew up, she wouldn't dare spend any more time outside.

After saying goodbye to his good friend tomorrow, Chen Pan went back immediately.

When Chen Pan returned this time, she found that everyone in her family had left.

While eating the ramen her grandmother had left for her, Chen Pan checked with her grandparents whether they had arranged anyone else for the finance position that afternoon.

"I've only arranged for your sister Pingping. You need to find someone else for the other one."

Grandma Chen and Grandpa Chen are still packing the things they will take back tomorrow tonight.

After all, this was their former home, and they wanted to take away many of the items and furniture they found useful and meaningful. For example, they wanted to take the tables and cabinets from Chen Pan's room, leaving them all intact. A few days ago, they sorted through all their old clothes and were looking to see if anything had slipped through the cracks. Grandpa Chen was reaching for the old-fashioned wall clock.

"That thing was bought when we got married!" Seeing her granddaughter staring at the old clock, Grandma Chen said subconsciously while tidying up the pots and pans. Then she guessed, "Why, do you want Meimei's mother to try this job?"

"Well, she's the most educated woman in our village." In this day and age, someone with that level of education could become a trainee teacher or a kindergarten teacher. She could even find a decent job in any factory or company. In any case, Chen Pan felt it was a pity for the other person.

"That's true. Will she come tomorrow?"

Touching the chipped cutlery with the Chinese wedding symbol on it, Xu Chunhua was debating whether to bring it to Liuping intact or just leave it there and discard it. Her questions were so mixed that she asked them casually.

"Well, I think so."

Seeing that the other person was absent-minded, Chen Pan responded casually, then she took her bowl of ramen and slowly sat next to her grandmother.

Looking down at the large bowl with the Chinese character "囍" in the other person's hand, Chen Pan suddenly said, "Grandma, have you noticed that the number of bowls with this kind of "囍" in our house has been decreasing as time goes by?"

"It seems so. This was a housewarming gift from my parents when I gave birth to your father and we separated from your great-grandmother's family. There were six pairs of twelve of them at the time, but now they're definitely getting fewer and fewer."

Grandma Chen, who was brought back to her senses by Chen Pan, stretched out her finger and slowly tapped.

Seeing her carefully counting, Chen Pan, while eating, said guiltily, "Actually, when you asked me to wash the dishes before, I accidentally broke two. I was afraid you would come back and scold me, so I put one in the hole of the kang at home and buried the other in the backyard!"

"I was wondering why I found a broken bowl when I was cleaning the backyard two years ago."

After putting down the dusty pendulum clock, Grandpa Chen smiled and talked about the broken bowls he had broken in the backyard two years ago, and how he secretly threw the broken bowls out with the garbage at home.

As he spoke, his face flushed and he was smiling.

Grandma Chen, who had been feeling sad for a moment, immediately laughed subconsciously after hearing this: "You little rascal, you put the broken bowl in the kang hole. Don't you know that I'm the one who heats the kang in winter and I'm the one who scrapes the kang ashes?"

"I thought the fire would burn away the glass."

Knowing that they would not be angry with him because of this, Chen Pan smiled lightly, and then persuaded his grandmother to leave behind all those bowls and plates that were full of dents and damage.

"Yeah, I've been using this for over thirty years now, so it's time to get rid of it."

She raised her hand and fumbled with the things under her, knowing that no matter how valuable they were, if they had been used for decades and were so worn out that they hit her lips when she ate and made her feel uncomfortable when she used them, it was time to let them go. With a soft sigh, Xu Chunhua finally placed them in the basin she had left behind.

That night, Grandpa Chen and Grandma Chen still slept on their old kang.

I understand that after tomorrow, most of the luggage in the cabinets here will be gone, and this place will really become a thing of the past.

Lying on this big kang at this moment, Chen Aiguo and Xu Chunhua talked a lot with emotion.

While they were whispering, Chen Pan checked back and forth in his little room several times.

After finding that all the things that needed to be moved had been moved out of the house, she packed up the things and put them on the cart outside.

Chen Pan quickly lay down on the thin bed and fell asleep.

Chen Pan actually feels a bit reluctant to leave, but understands the principle of "break through, break through, break through." He knows that leaving this place and only coming back occasionally is the best option for their family. So, in Chen Pan's heart, happiness outweighs reluctance.

After lying down and thinking about moving for a while, Chen Pan was still thinking about what she should teach Xiaomei when her mother came tomorrow.

This wasn't Chen Pan's own pride, but in his previous life, even if he and his friends had only opened a small spicy hot pot restaurant, they had hired a few employees, and they had also learned how to make specialized reports, including purchase and income details.

Aunt Yang is highly educated, but she has never really worked.

In the entire Chen family, most people have never been exposed to financial statements, and some have never actually worked.

So what do the finance and clerks need to do at the beginning? What simple registrations do they need to make? What details do they need to make?

Chen Pan felt that he was a little better because he had been exposed to these things before and had made real purchasing sheets, financial sheets, and payroll sheets.

Chen Pan was thinking about these things and fell asleep.

After waking up the next morning, the first thing Chen Pan did was to quickly roll up his bed and put it on the trolley outside.

After she and her grandparents finished washing up early and tidied up the house again, her great-grandfather and second grandfather came over again.

Today, our task is to tear down all of Chen Pan’s pig pens, chicken coops, etc., leaving only a cow pen and a sheep pen.

Then, the Chen family's outer courtyard was planned to be turned into a simple grain collection station. From then on, all the wheat and rapeseed harvested by the great grandfather and the second grandfather would be directly stored in the outer courtyard.

After the products are taken to the village mill and oil mill and turned into finished products, they are placed in a warehouse specially built in the middle.

Anyway, the task of all the Chen family members today is to clean up the outside and quickly build the grain warehouse and rapeseed warehouse outside.

After finishing the outside, they cleaned the middle door and then the inside.

As for the backyard of Chen Pan's house, they don't plan to move for the time being.

"Our factory can only do this for now. If we had money, we would have built a flour mill and oil press ourselves. But now our financial situation doesn't allow it, so we can only do this for now!"

Grandpa said this when the twenty or so people were busy working.

"Yes, let's leave it at that for now. Let's take it step by step. We can't become a big fat man in one bite." Grandpa Chen Er, who came with his two sons and two daughters-in-law, also said at the right time.

"Yes, let's follow the previous steps and proceed slowly. We can't think of things like flour mills and oil presses for the time being. Let's just build the warehouses for grain and rapeseed first, and we can come up with the other things later."

Grandpa Chen, who was running around, also said that he would go home this afternoon and come back in a couple of days to apply for a loan, so as to get more money to build a better new granary.

While everyone was busy, Chen Pan was subconsciously paying attention to the outside.

But by 10:20 in the morning, it was still quiet outside.

A few minutes later, the door rang. Chen Pan looked up excitedly and found that it was Uncle Yang from next door who came with his son Yang Xiaodong to help.

"Hello Uncle Yang! Hello Dongdong!"

After greeting them, Chen Pan finally couldn't help but put down the shovel in his hand and went outside to wait.

Time passed by minute by minute, but until the plastic watch on Chen Pan's wrist showed that the time was ten forty, Chen Pan still didn't see any figure he was waiting for around the corner in the distance.

Feeling a little anxious, Chen Pan simply pulled down the work scarf on his head and ran straight into the village.

"Panpan, what are your family doing today?"

"Sister-in-law, we are dismantling the pigpen and chicken coop outside!"

"Panpan, has your factory started harvesting rapeseed and wheat?"

"Not yet, but it should be soon!"

"Panpan, go back and tell your grandfather that if you don't hurry up and harvest the wheat, we'll sell it to other people out there!"

"Okay, Uncle Wang, I'll tell my grandfather when I get back!"

*

When winter comes, most farmers have nothing to do.

Plus, the weather is good today, so there are a lot of people outside basking in the sun and chatting.

Chen Pan ran all the way and met many villagers from the same village on the way.

Some of them teased Chen Pan, some asked her about their family's recent activities, and some wanted to sell her all the wheat and rapeseed they had just harvested in the fall, which was considered a serious inquiry from Chen Pan.

In fact, in previous years, all the wheat, rapeseed and soybeans in Qingshui Village had been sold long ago.

But this year, the grain collection time was unexpectedly more than ten days later than usual, so no one has sold their things yet.

Knowing that these were real customers, Chen Pan did not dare to delay and spoke to them seriously.

When she finally arrived at Yang Xiaomei's house after chatting with everyone along the way, she saw the same tattered yellow padlock hanging high up, just like last night.

"Panpan, are you here to play with Xiaomei again? Today is Sunday. Xiaomei and her brother and sister were taken to the fields by their parents to work. I heard that their land hasn't been plowed yet, and they have to thresh it today. They went to the fields this morning, pulling the oxen and carrying the harrows on their backs."

The so-called grinding of the land means that after turning over and plowing the land, all the soil clods on the ground are ground into fine powder using a rake.

Yang Xiaomei's neighbor, an elderly woman who also knew Chen Pan, suggested that this weekend, the Yangs should take their children with them, have them stand on the harrow, and finish all the unfinished farm work in one day. So, at six o'clock in the morning, Yang's father and mother took their three children to the fields.

"Yeah, I know, I've stood on that thing!"

The so-called rake requires someone to stand on it and press the thing into the ground so that it can scratch the ground well and break up and crush the soil underneath.

This was the last step in cleaning the ground in the countryside. Although Chen Pan's grandfather had never let her do too much farm work, he had let Chen Pan stand on it when there were not enough people at home.

Thinking about such a day, Yang's father took Yang's mother and Yang Xiaomei and her siblings and set off to the fields as early as six o'clock.

Then they were asked to step on that thing and "diligently" clean the ground. Chen Pan sneered lightly and said goodbye to the aunt he was not familiar with.

"hehe!!"

Actually, there's really no difference between doing this so-called final step today and tomorrow. Even if Mr. Yang feels that there are not many people at home and he absolutely needs the children's help, they can wait until next weekend, not necessarily today.

Like what happened yesterday, the ground would freeze if they didn't dig out the remaining potatoes in the ground, and the ground underneath would freeze and the potatoes underneath would be frozen. So while the children were resting at home, Yang's parents urged them to hurry up and finish the last bit of work. It was really nothing.

But on a day like today, is grinding the ground and working really more important than his wife's future?

Yang Dawei should have been able to see that his wife was unhappy and unwilling to give up. Couldn't he really help her this time?

The most important thing is that his family is really very poor.

Isn’t it really great for him to have a wife who can earn dozens of dollars a month?

And Yang Xiaomei's mother, on a day like this, if she had such an opportunity, she would go to the interview on time even if she had a big fight with her husband.

Yes, there are really few high school students like her in their village.

But she is already 33 years old after all, and has never had any real work experience.

For someone like her, if a suitable young junior high school graduate appears, she may not have such a big advantage.

And now it’s different than before. In the past, when there were high school students in their neighborhood, they would go to factories to work as formal workers or become trainee teachers.

But now it is 1992, and the whole country is experiencing a rare wave of state-owned enterprise closures, and many factories are laying off employees on a large scale.

In such a situation, there may be high school students who suddenly cannot find a job, or high school student workers who are suddenly laid off.

If such a person really appeared, wouldn't her original educational advantage be quickly lost?

In this situation, why doesn't she take it easy?

Suddenly I feel very tired, and suddenly I feel that I am too kind.

Anyway, at this moment, Chen Pan really felt tired from the bottom of his heart, felt it was incredible, and felt angry at his lack of fighting spirit.