Even with his good temper, Huang Jianguo couldn't help but grit his teeth and reply, "Of course I like girls!"
Ignoring his dark expression, Chen Zhaodi asked again, "Really?"
"Of course it's true, Mom! Who do you chat with all day long???"
Chen Zhaodi looked at Huang Jianguo's expression. Hmm, he was very serious and earnest. He probably wasn't lying to her.
Then she was relieved. Heaven knows how miserable she had been these past few days. But Chen Zhaodi was puzzled. Why didn't he want to get married?
"If you like girls, why don't you want to go on a date? You're already 23 years old."
Huang Jianguo retorted, "I'm only 21 years old this year, how did I become 23? Besides, didn't I already say that I want to wait until the factory allocates housing before getting married?"
Chen Zhaodi explained logically, "But you were born at the beginning of the year. After your birthday, you will be a year older, and by the traditional Chinese age reckoning, you will be exactly 23 years old."
"Also, you always say you want to wait until the houses are allocated before getting married. Do you even know when the last time the steel mill allocated houses, except for cadres?"
Chen Zhaodi didn't need his answer and continued, "It was ten years ago! Ten years ago, and not everyone could be assigned one; you had to apply in line based on your length of service."
"By the time you can be allocated housing, won't you be over thirty? By then, you might not even be able to find a partner!"
Huang Jianguo hadn't really looked into that. He only remembered that his family got housing a few years after his parents started working at the factory.
"So, wasn't it supposed to be that houses were allocated every few years?" Huang Jianguo asked Huang Eryuan for confirmation.
Huang Eryuan nodded slightly to him, indicating that Chen Zhaodi was right.
......
After Huang Qinqin finished writing the agreement that needed to be signed with the food factory, she took it to Manager Gao for review.
Manager Gao glanced at it and, finding no problems, asked, "You've already finalized things with the food factory yesterday? Are you sure you can do it according to our plan?"
"Yes, we've already reached an agreement with Director Lu, but we'll need you to come over this afternoon to sign the agreement with him."
"And here is the bamboo cup purchase agreement I've written. Please take a look and see if there are any problems."
Huang Qinqin handed another document to Manager Gao. Then she stood aside and waited for him to finish reading it.
Manager Gao took a close look. Everything else seemed fine, but the acquisition price...
Manager Gao asked, puzzled, "Why is the purchase price so high? Five cents each. I remember that bamboo products have never been expensive."
To be precise, it's cheap.
In rural areas, most people can weave things from bamboo, but these things don't fetch a good price.
Seeing that Manager Gao didn't quite understand, Huang Qinqin remained calm and explained, "Manager Gao, this is what I'm thinking."
"As you know, we are quite sensitive to certain capitalist practices now. The department store will be launching high-quality food products in the future."
“It’s hard to guarantee that no one will try to take advantage of this, so I thought we should just raise the purchase price of the bamboo cups.”
"Because our goal is not to make more money, but to help poor farmers improve their living conditions, achieve common prosperity in urban and rural areas, and incidentally increase the sales volume of the department store."
"And think about it, if we drive the price down too low, then the finished product they make might not be as refined."
"But once the price goes up, I believe they will definitely maintain good quality control without us having to emphasize it."
"Most importantly, we must elevate this plan to a higher level, so that when we submit it for publication, everyone will understand the department store's painstaking efforts."
"From now on, when people talk about department stores, everyone will say that this is truly serving the people, right?"
Interesting. Manager Gao could probably guess that Huang Qinqin had already decided which brigade to have provide the bamboo cups.
That's why she raised the acquisition price, but the fact that she could come up with all that high-sounding reasoning is also a testament to her skill.
"Okay, in that case, I'll take both agreements to the food factory this afternoon. The food factory will issue a purchase approval slip, and you can take the slip to communicate with the brigade."
"Also, there's only an agreement for the food factory here, what about the oil mill's?"
Huang Qinqin looked at Manager Gao and forced a smile, saying, "We can't get into the oil pressing factory..."
"So what do you plan to do now?"
“I’ve already made plans. There’s an oil pressing factory in the east of the city, and we plan to go there to take a look.”
......
Ever since Chen Ermei was tripped by Grandma Xu, Chen Ermei has lived in constant fear at the Xu family.
Grandma Xu found fault with her every day, and Xu Jingui ignored her completely. As a result, her meals reverted to the state where she could only eat as much as Grandma Xu gave her.
But today, Grandma Xu's attitude towards her suddenly became much better.
She didn't have to wash clothes, do housework, or even go grocery shopping; Lin Chunyan did all the grocery shopping.
Today, she even praised her to the other neighbors, saying, "My granddaughter-in-law is the most diligent! She's nimble-fingered and works incredibly fast and well!"
But this side of Grandma Xu frightened Chen Ermei even more. How could someone who had always been hostile towards you suddenly become friendly?
Chen Ermei felt that Grandma Xu was definitely planning something in secret. She had gone through countless possibilities in her mind, but she still couldn't figure it out.
It wasn't until after lunch that Xu Jingui changed his impatience with her over the past few days and became friendly and kind to her.
"I'm off tomorrow, so I'll take you back to my hometown. You've been married into this family for so long, but you've never been to our hometown before. It'll be a good opportunity to take you there to relax."
Chen Ermei didn't understand why they suddenly wanted to take her back to their hometown: "Is it just the two of us? Brother Xu, where is your hometown?"
Xu Jingui: "It's in Xujia Village, the second brigade of Fengyang Commune, which is quite close to the city. It's not just the two of us; my parents will also be going back with us."
"Oh, okay. Is there anything I need to prepare?"
As long as she didn't go back alone with Xu Jingui, Chen Ermei wasn't that scared.
She had heard countless stories in her past life of wives being murdered after going alone with their husbands to remote mountains. She dared not risk her life.
"No need to prepare anything, just go back and take a look. Just get up early tomorrow."
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