At this age, if a girl is over twenty and doesn't have a boyfriend, it's as if she's done something wrong. If she's not married by twenty-three or twenty-four, people will gossip behind her back that she's abnormal.

Considering that there are countless unmarried people in their late thirties in later generations, it's good that later generations are better; thankfully, she's still young.

Guan Yu pouted: "Why aren't you in a hurry? My mom can't wait to arrange blind dates for me whenever I'm on vacation, as if I'm going to never get married. I haven't even thought about finding a boyfriend yet."

"It's so nice to be a girl. You can come home to a meal that's already prepared. If you get married, you can sit and rest after get off work, but you'd have to rush to the kitchen to cook and serve people, right?"

"If you don't want to do it, then don't do it. Find someone who can do housework, and the two of you can share the work. It's better than one person always having to do it all."

Guan Yu sighed and shook her head: "Where can you find someone like that? Look at my dad, he seems like a good person, but when he comes home he just sits around like a king and doesn't do anything. I really don't want to live like my mom in the future, just revolving around my family all day long."

Guan Yu's words reflect a common phenomenon today: men and women have never truly been equal since ancient times. The slogans are loud and clear, but how many people can actually achieve them? She vowed never to marry a lazy, good-for-nothing man, otherwise she would definitely become a domestic abuser.

"Just tell your mom honestly that you want to find someone who can share the housework with you. There are definitely people like that, they're just rare. Take your time looking, what's the rush? Someone as outstanding as you, why are you worried about getting married?"

"Hehe, you're right. I feel like I'm a pretty good person, and I'll always be able to find someone suitable."

Qian Xiao gave a thumbs up; this guy's narcissism was just as much as her own.

"I'm not going to say anything more, I have to go back to work too. It's a promise, right? Once I get the movie tickets, the four of us will go to see a movie together."

"Okay, you get the tickets. If you have them, we'll go see it together."

Qian Xiao had never been to the cinema before. She had seen almost all the movies released around this time, so she felt there was no need to watch them again.

...

Qian Xiao entered the space, asked Shuangdan to keep an eye on things outside, and went to Sun Kaicheng's villa: "Why did you suddenly decide to have barbecue? Is there something good going on?"

She also saw red wine and beer, which she hadn't drunk in over ten years. She had absolutely no interest in baijiu (Chinese liquor), and besides, her family wouldn't let her touch alcohol, considering how young she was back then.

She still misses the days when she was in college in her previous life, when she would occasionally go to the food street with her roommates to eat skewers and drink ice-cold beer, which was so refreshing.

"Sit down quickly. You don't need to lift a finger today. Just wait and eat. My barbecue is top-notch."

In the apocalypse, there was no time to cook and sit down for a proper meal. If you could get some exotic beast meat in the wild, you would just roast it and eat it. That's when he learned how to roast meat. The more he did it, the more skilled he became.

"You still haven't told me, what's the good news today? Why are you so interested?"

Seeing Sun Kaicheng's somewhat somber expression, Qian Xiao quickly changed the subject. She, too, would occasionally think about her past life, a feeling that was both nostalgic and sorrowful.

"The bicycle blueprints have been awarded as a reward. I'll treat you to a nice meal to celebrate."

"Hey, it actually passed. With energy so scarce right now, will it sell well?" Gasoline and other fuels back then weren't like they are in later years, where gas stations were everywhere on the streets.

"It will probably be exported, since foreign exchange is what we lack most."

Qian Xiao nodded. He remembered reading in history books that the country was poor at that time and was in a period of rebuilding. What it lacked most was money.

"By the way, I heard from Guan Yu today that Jiang Siyu found a guy in the security department who works there. I have a feeling he's up to no good. You should keep an eye on him."

"Have you seen it? What does it look like?"

Qian Xiao shook his head: "I haven't seen him, but when I came out today, I saw a figure from behind that should be Jiang Siyu. He looked sneaky and probably wasn't up to anything. Guan Yu said that the guy had a particularly small head and his features were also quite disproportionate. Do you remember him?"

"There really is one. This person has a distinctive appearance and is easy to recognize. I think his name is Chen Wang. It is said that his family members all died in the factory. You could say he was an orphan raised in the factory. He is very quiet and rarely talks or jokes with others. He is particularly quiet."

"How did someone like that end up with Jiang Siyu? Guan Yu said that the two of them always meet secretly, and I always feel that Jiang Siyu is scheming something."

Sun Kaicheng immediately thought of the time Jiang Siyu was with the people who were following them. Could she have leaked something that shouldn't have been revealed? Although almost no one knew the specifics of their work, what if something unexpected happened?

"Okay, I understand. I'll be careful. You should too. You're with me every day, and I'm afraid they might not be able to do anything to me but will cause trouble for you."

"Don't worry, as long as they don't just shoot me with a gun, I won't get caught." Qian Xiao was confident about that.

"Is it almost done?" Qian Xiao could already smell the unique smoky aroma of barbecue, and his mouth was watering.

Sun Kaicheng placed the skewers he was holding onto a clean plate on the small table: "Alright, eat up. Would you like beer or red wine? And any other drinks?"

"I'll just have some beer. Mmm, it's delicious. Your cooking skills are quite good. If you open a barbecue skewer shop after the market reopens, you'll definitely make a lot of money."

Sun Kaicheng chuckled, "If you like it, eat more. I've prepared a lot of food, let's finish it all. Don't drink too much either, let's leave early tomorrow so we can get home earlier."

"Mmm, it's delicious. You should have some too. Don't worry, I can hold my liquor pretty well. I can easily drink a few more bottles, let alone just this little bit of beer."

The two of them started eating heartily, occasionally clinking glasses. Unfortunately, they both overestimated their alcohol tolerance. Neither of these two bodies had ever drunk alcohol before, and after just two glasses each, they were already quite tipsy, their speech becoming slurred and incoherent.

"I...I want to tell you."

"When I was in college, there was a food street right behind our school. There were four of us in my dorm, and whenever we had free time, we would go out for skewers and ice-cold beer. I could drink two big glasses by myself." He gestured with three fingers as he spoke.

After gesturing for a while, he nodded, feeling that he hadn't made a mistake: "They're all... they're all fine, so... so amazing."

"You, you tell me, why am I so unlucky?" Qian Xiao's eyes reddened as she spoke, she truly felt wronged.

"I was saving people! I was just trying to help, and that's how I ended up here."