Chapter 171 Inquiring

In the letter, Lin Jianshe said that he had also hidden fifty yuan in his shoe.

Song Lubai felt inside the shoes and found a not-so-obvious bulge on the inside of the top of both shoes.

Her mother was really clever; she sewed a piece of cloth onto the inside of each shoe's back, making a very small opening. It took her a while to squeeze the money out of the small opening.

Five ten-yuan bills brought her savings past the hundred-yuan mark.

If she had enough receipts, she could eat out every day and have noodles and stir-fries.

She tidied up the bed with all the delicious food, stuffed the chocolate box under the neatly folded blanket and ate it slowly, and shared the orange-flavored candies that Lin Jianshe and Lin Heping had saved for her with her roommates.

The smell of stewing meat was coming from inside the building; I wonder which dorm room was cooking meat.

With candy in their mouths, sweet potatoes roasting on the stove, and the aroma of meat wafting from the hallway, everyone wondered what delicious food the cafeteria would prepare for the upcoming Chinese New Year.

"Zhao Hui and Li Jun have gotten together, but they're worried they won't be assigned to the same place. They don't know what to do now."

Song Lubai had seen the two of them talking quietly together, and everyone had also whispered among themselves that, besides this couple, there were several other couples in their group who had started dating.

"If you don't want to separate, just go to the personnel department and explain. Maybe Section Chief Lu will consider this situation."

Liu Xiang hesitated and asked, "Will this work?"

Wang Qun couldn't stand their indecisive and hesitant behavior. "If they don't tell, how will the higher-ups know? It would be best if they could be assigned to the same place after they tell. If they don't tell, there's no chance at all. What if the two of them are assigned to different places? That would cause them a lot of headaches later."

Liu Xiang stood up: "Then I'll go and tell Zhao Hui."

Three people in Song Lubai's dormitory gave Director Wang a definite answer. After hesitating, Wang Qun still did not agree. These past few days, he has been worried about being assigned to some remote or obscure place.

The headquarters is about to close for the holiday, so the finance office has settled this month's salaries in advance.

It was still ten yuan, plus a few receipts.

Everyone received half a jin of sugar coupons, and Song Lubai also received a soap coupon and an industrial coupon.

Back when I worked in the street office, industrial vouchers were hard to come by; the supply and marketing department would give out one almost every month.

The day after I received my salary was Sunday. The cotton mill had hot water available that Sunday, and the bathhouse opened at 3 p.m. so I could take a shower.

Song Lubai said she was going to take a shower in the dormitory, and all the girls wanted to go with her.

It's no exaggeration to say that they haven't had a proper bath in months.

When I was in the 25th Company, I was only wiped with a towel. After I came back, because it was cold, I hardly wiped myself at all.

My body was covered in dust.

"That woman said it would cost 10 cents to take a bath. They only give out one bath ticket per month. I traded it with her for 3 cents. If you want to take a bath too, ask her to help you ask when you get there."

Three cents isn't cheap, but it's only once a year, so girls can grit their teeth and accept it.

If I don't wash it soon, my skin will become covered in plaster.

The cotton mill was quite far from the supply and marketing department, and it took the girls more than half an hour to walk to the outside of the cotton mill's residential compound.

The textile factory's staff quarters were only a short distance from the factory itself. Song Lubai asked a few people in the staff quarters and successfully made contact with Xu Xiaoru, the female comrade she had arranged to meet last time.

The girl looked at the eight or nine people around her and asked, "Are you all here to take a shower?"

Song Lubai nodded, "Could you help me ask if anyone doesn't need a bath ticket? We're willing to pay three cents."

Xu Xiaoru said, "Then you wait here, I'll go ask."

With the Lunar New Year approaching, everyone wanted to get clean and ready to welcome the new year. Xu Xiaoru's trip took quite a while, but at least she got nine more bath tickets.

It was almost three o'clock when Xu Xiaoru led the group to the bathhouse.

Outside the bathhouse, there was an auntie collecting bath tickets. Seeing these unfamiliar faces, she knew that more people from outside had come to the textile factory to bathe.

She asked, "Where are you all from?"

"It's from the supply and marketing cooperative; we don't have a bathhouse there."

The aunt's expression softened instantly, and she even smiled. As she put away the tickets, she said, "Your workplace is a good one; the benefits are better than our textile factory's."

"What's so great about it? We don't even have public bathhouses where we are. We can't compare to your textile factory."

After exchanging compliments, everyone successfully entered the bathhouse.

As I pushed open the door, a gust of cold wind rushed in.

The bathhouse was shrouded in mist, and you could vaguely see many people in the pool, which was about 20 or 30 square meters in size.

Wu Zhaodi shrank back, looking hesitant. "Let's just take our clothes off and go in to wash."

Everyone can see each other's bodies.

Feng Ying said, "The bathhouse at my mom's factory is like that too. Hurry up and finish washing before it gets too crowded, because the water gets even muddier when more people come."

Song Lubai had already started taking off her clothes.

She had bathed in the bathhouse at the food factory, where it was a shared pool where everyone could see each other. Once she had bathed like that the first time, she didn't feel any psychological pressure the second time.

Since arriving in Xinjiang Province, this was the first time she had taken a proper bath.

I soaked myself until my skin was red and wrinkled, then scrubbed myself clean and, despite the cold, went to the outer room to wash myself with cool water from the tap. After that, I felt incredibly comfortable.

It's so cold that if you go out with wet hair for several tens of minutes, you'll catch a cold. Everyone is covering their heads with their old sweaters.

Inside the supply and marketing department.

Yang Lizhen entered the courtyard wearing a pair of sheepskin boots. After entering the dormitory, she went straight to the second floor and knocked on the door of Wu Xiulian's dormitory.

Wu Xiulian was quite surprised to see her when she opened the door.

Although the two knew each other, they didn't interact much.

"I'm here to see my mom, but she's still busy. It's too cold outside, so I'd like to come here to warm up, is that alright?"

Wu Xiulian greeted them with a smile and welcomed them in.

There were three girls living in the dormitory, and they all knew that she was Minister Zhou's daughter.

Wu Xiulian warmly poured her hot water and offered her melon seeds and candy.

The group chatted, and the atmosphere was quite pleasant.

Yang Lizhen casually asked, "Have the new people in the building been assigned jobs yet?"

Wu Xiulian shook her head, "I estimate that they will be assigned after the New Year. They have only just finished their classes, so it will be useless if they are assigned before the New Year, since they can't report to their units before the New Year."

Yang Lizhen did not refute after hearing this, but she had a different opinion in her heart.

The personnel department will definitely finish the assignment work before the end of the year, but they won't announce it before then, so that everyone can have a good New Year.

"Did you all attend the last social gathering? I heard from my husband that quite a few people in the army have sent messages to the supply and marketing department, and many people have been asking about you, one of the female comrades."

Wu Xiulian shook her head: "We all have boyfriends, why go? I heard it was quite lively that day. We've also heard recently that many of the women in this group are going to marry soldiers. We only met once, and I think it's too hasty. We should get to know each other better before making a decision. But who is that guy that so many people are asking about?"

Finally, the conversation turned to the person she wanted to inquire about. Yang Lizhen smiled and said, "I don't know her name either, but I heard she's quite pretty, and her surname is Song, I think."