Chapter 139: Two Boxes of Cloth and Five Thousand Yuan
Lan Yuanyuan's voice was very low, but it was loud enough for everyone at the table to hear. Everyone looked at Hu Lan.
"Yuanyuan, is this what you really want to do, or is it just an excuse for you to avoid someone or something?" Hu Lan asked seriously.
Lan Yuanyuan mustered up the courage to look her mother in the eye and answered sincerely: "I don't want to stay in the workshop. I prefer making clothes. I want to make a lot of beautiful clothes."
"I support you in whatever you want to do." Hu Lan's eyes revealed relief, and a smile appeared on her face. "You can work half a day, and let grandpa handle the formalities tomorrow."
Lan Yuanyuan smiled sweetly: "Thank you, mother."
"My aunt will definitely be happy to teach you. You can just live in my house." Zhang Wenxin hugged Lan Yuanyuan's arm and patted Hu Lan's chest to assure her, "Everyone in our village is nice. I will never let Yuanyuan be bullied. I will definitely raise her to be plump and white."
Her words livened up the atmosphere in this little corner.
"From the tone of your voice, it seems more like you want to abduct my daughter to Old Zhang's house." Hu Lan joked.
Zhang Wenxin made an exaggerated expression of surprise: "How do you know that I am planning to take this opportunity to find myself a sister?"
Yu Zhile and the others were amused by her quirky expression, and Ning Tan's icy expression also softened a lot.
After chatting for a while, everyone cleaned up their dishes and went to the tableware recycling point.
Ning Tan simply said hello and left with his brothers.
After standing up, Lan Yuanyuan nervously touched her trouser pocket, as if confirming something.
Yu Zhile noticed this little action. She also noticed the rectangular mark left after the cloth was pressed down, so she secretly observed the other person's every move.
In just a few minutes, Lan Yuanyuan repeated the same action more than a dozen times, her brows becoming increasingly furrowed.
It was past lunchtime, but the lobby was still bustling with people. There was not a single empty seat, and new customers continued to come into the store.
"Master, Sister Lan, the counter is overwhelmed and the kitchen can't keep up with the food preparation and serving speed. We need someone to help." Zhang Hailan ran over to find someone.
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone stood up suddenly, including Chen Zhao and his two companions at the next table.
Hu Lan directly excluded Yu Zhile and Lan Yuanyuan and quickly assigned work to others, and soon everyone started moving.
Yu Zhile and the other person looked at each other for a while, wiped the table and gave the seat to the customer, then walked to the old counter together and chatted about Hu Shuang.
As they chatted, Yu Zhile deliberately turned the topic to Lan Yuanyuan and asked about her work in the textile factory.
"There are very few defective fabrics, and I seldom get them. Last month, a sister in the same workshop got some small floral fabrics and gave me half of them." Lan Yuanyuan looked very relaxed. "I'm still keeping the fabric. I want to make a skirt myself."
She shared many people and many things, and her words were full of reluctance. It can be seen that the normal working atmosphere is pretty good.
"There shouldn't be any worries in a life like this, right?" Yu Zhile asked with a smile.
Hearing this, Lan Yuanyuan unconsciously repeated the action of confirmation, her eyes wandered for a long time, and finally remained silent.
"If you encounter strange things or people, be sure to tell the people around you." Yu Zhile held her hand.
"It won't be dangerous." Lan Yuanyuan shook her head gently and glanced at Hu Lan across from her. "It's just that I don't know how to tell everyone."
Yu Zhile smiled and said, "That's okay. Everyone has their own secrets."
After that, the two did not continue this topic, but instead talked about Yu Wanqin, who was also interested in garment making, and mentioned the book she was obsessed with recently.
It was not until Lan Yuanyuan was about to ride her bike to work at the textile factory that the two stopped, reluctantly, and made an appointment for next time.
The old-fashioned pendulum clock chimed twice, and the last customer left the store. Hu Lan breathed a sigh of relief and closed the door.
Zhang Hailan took Zhang Ping and six other people and several temporary workers upstairs to rest, while the rest of them held a short meeting on the first floor.
"If I do this every day, I'll be exhausted." Chen Zhao sighed, pounding his arm.
In just one lunch session, the dishes in the display cabinet were replenished four times, the colander in the iron pot for blanching dishes was used more than ten times, and the fire in the wok was never turned off.
Yu Zhile smiled and said, "Everyone felt it was new when it first opened, but after a few days, there were fewer people."
"That's true, but I estimate there will be more people tomorrow and the day after, so we'll have to hire five more short-term workers," said Hu Laosan.
Today, with the help of a few people in the sideline group, we are not too busy, but everyone has things to do and it is impossible to go to the city to help for three consecutive days, so finding new helpers is the best solution.
Zhang Wenxin responded, "Leave it to me. I'll select the people later and have them follow the fishing team's car into the city."
"Well, we have to deliver another batch of vegetables tonight." Hu Laosan recalled the speed at which various vegetables were consumed, "and we also need to deliver more radishes, cabbages, winter melons, and potatoes in the next two days. These items sell quickly."
Zhang Haimei nodded as she listened.
The short meeting ended quickly, and several people from the sideline group took a ox cart back to the village. They stopped for a few minutes when passing the armed forces department.
Yu Zhile received a semiconductor radio and a bulging envelope.
"Hey, this is the latest model of Mulan brand. There are very few of them on the market right now." Chen Zhao glanced at the packaging box and couldn't help but sigh, "Brother Zhou has so many connections that he can even get this."
Zhang Wenxin joked: "Otherwise, how can I bring Lele home?"
"That's right, our Lele is both beautiful and capable." Yu Chuyue took the opportunity to touch Yu Zhile's face and joined in the joke.
Yu Zhile rolled his eyes at the two of them, handed the radio to Chen Zhao, asked him to fiddle with it, and then opened the envelope.
In the envelope was a stack of photos and a thin piece of letter paper. The colorful photos recorded many moments of her birthday.
Sisters Zhang Wenxin, Yu Chuyue and Zhang Haimei gathered together to look through the books, exclaiming in amazement.
At the same time, Chen Zhao installed the batteries and turned on the power.
The hissing noise disappeared as he turned the knob, replaced by clear and melodious singing.
“We have a common understanding in the past. Let us hold hands tightly.”[1]
“Let us toast to the everlasting friendship.”[2]
As the song played, Yu Zhile opened the letter and found that Sheng Lanyue's handwriting was much more sloppy than before.
He wrote about his surprise when he met Zhou Yuesheng by chance, his joy when he defeated others and won the male lead in the musical, and his happiness when he took some time out from his busy schedule to develop photos.
Yu Zhile had a faint smile on his face and shifted his gaze from the letter to his friend beside him.
Chen Zhao was lamenting the difference in the sound quality of the radio, Zhang Wenxin and Yu Chuyue were interested in tourist attractions in the provincial capital, and the Zhang sisters imagined that the three sisters could go to a photo studio to take pictures during the New Year.
The way back to the village became very short, and in the blink of an eye I arrived at the village entrance.
Chen Zhao reluctantly returned the radio to Yu Zhile and drove the ox cart back to Yu Erye.
Zhang Wenxin rushed to the field. She already had a list of temporary workers in her mind and wanted to notify them as soon as possible.
"Le Le, we are going to the vegetable field too." The Zhang sisters said in unison and waved goodbye.
Yu Zhile wanted to go home, and Yu Chuyue planned to go to the shore to check on the progress of the raft building, so the two of them went together.
As they walked, Yu Zhile suddenly asked, "Chu Yue, can you sing?"
"Ah? Yes, what's wrong?" Yu Chuyue was a little confused.
Yu Zhile held back her laughter and kept it a secret: "It's okay now, but it will come in handy soon." Yu Chuyue was very curious and kept asking her, but she still couldn't find out the reason until they reached a fork in the road.
In the next few days, everyone in the sideline group was busy with their own tasks and rarely met Yu Zhile.
Apart from listening to the radio, Yu Zhile would take walks, and he actually felt that time passed very quickly.
During this period, the breeding raft was completed and the construction team took a short vacation.
After repeated investigations and discussions with Huashan, Qu Xin and his wife finally decided to build a shrimp pond in Xiaoxihai and designed the drawings based on the actual conditions.
On the sixth day after the new window opened, the customer flow at the new window dropped to the level she predicted. In the evening, the temporary workers returned to the village with a salary of four yuan, which made the villagers envious for a while.
On the same day, Lan Yuanyuan moved into Zhang's house with two boxes and was invited to Yu's house for dinner in the evening.
"It's just a simple meal, there's no need to bring so many things." Yu Zhile was waiting for her at the door of Zhang's house. Seeing her carrying so many bags, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "My mother will definitely not accept them. You have to take them back."
Lan Yuanyuan was a little conflicted. Although she had been to Yu's house before, this was her first time meeting Yu Wanqin and she didn't know which ones to bring.
In the end, at Zhang Haiyan's suggestion, she only took a few meters of corduroy fabric.
On the way home, many people greeted Yu Zhile. Yu Zhile responded one by one and introduced Lan Yuanyuan to everyone.
Yu Wanqin cooked personally today, and the two of them smelled the fragrance as soon as they stepped onto the path.
In the small courtyard, Fang Zhuo was sweating profusely as he practiced walking. Yu Chi brought Pa Pa and Moore to cheer him on.
As soon as Lan Yuanyuan entered the room, she saw him leaning to one side. She was so frightened that she dropped the cloth in her hand and went to support him.
However, she was not strong enough to support the weight of a big man, and was thrown to the ground.
Fortunately, Fang Zhuo's muscle memory was still there. He put his right arm around her shoulders and used his waist and abdomen to exert force, acting as a human cushion in time.
"Yuanyuan! Third Uncle!" Yu Zhile's voice suddenly rose.
Yu Wanqin and Yu Yue in the kitchen heard the noise and ran out to check. Fortunately, both of them were fine.
The two sat opposite each other at the long table. Lan Yuanyuan realized that she had made things more difficult than helpful and apologized in a low voice.
"Thank you for helping me find the feeling of exerting strength." Fang Zhuo thanked her in return.
Lan Yuanyuan waved her hand to apologize, and Fang Zhuo continued to thank her.
After repeating several times, the scene became weird, but it was soon broken by the steaming food.
The atmosphere at the dinner table was very good. Lan Yuanyuan gradually overcame her shyness, her posture became relaxed, and she smiled more often.
Yu Wanqin liked her very much and knew that she would be staying at the Zhang family for a while, so she asked her to come to their house for dinner often.
"Thank you, auntie." Lan Yuanyuan smiled with her eyes curved.
After dinner, Yu Zhile picked up a flashlight and prepared to send Lan Yuanyuan back to Zhang's house. As soon as he went out, he saw Zhang Wenxin running towards him.
"Yuanyuan, something strange happened. Someone put two boxes of cloth and five thousand yuan at my doorstep." Zhang Wenxin said breathlessly.
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