141 Black Soda (Part Two)
Guan Aiguo cast a pleading look at Guan Yuehe, but Guan Yuehe ignored him. She was only responsible for delivering the goods; she didn't care what happened to the recipient.
Suddenly hearing familiar footsteps in the courtyard, Guan Yuehe immediately stood up, walked to the door and looked out, just in time to meet Lin Yiku's gaze.
They say a day apart feels like three autumns, but for them, it's been ninety autumns!
Lin Yiku took three steps at a time and quickly reached Guan Yuehe. If it weren't for the elders still being there...
"Have you eaten?" Guan Yuehe didn't linger any longer after hearing that he had eaten. "We're going back now."
He grabbed Lin Yiku and was about to leave.
Lin Sitian snorted, "I still have a lot to say to you."
"We'll chat some more after you've rested," Guan Yuehe said, and left without looking back.
Jiang Guiying hesitated, then decided against it, deciding it was best not to discuss matters concerning young people. The weather wasn't hot yet, and people could cover their necks and arms.
Guan Yuehe had no idea that her own mother was concerned about this matter. As soon as she got home, she opened a bottle of Coke and poured it into two enamel cups.
"I've been waiting for you to come back so we can drink together." Guan Yuehe brought her cup over, clinked it with his, quickly took a sip, and then exclaimed.
"You should try it, it's delicious!"
Lin Yiku sighed inwardly. He never expected that she had so urgently pulled him back just to drink this black soda!
The taste is a bit strange, but after drinking it for a while, it's actually quite delicious, unlike Arctic Ocean soda.
Just as he put down his cup, Guan Yuehe urged him to take a shower, staring intently at him and asking bluntly, "You didn't forget to pick up the family planning supplies, did you?"
At this time, everyone else is either watching TV or listening to the radio, or tidying up the house; it's not yet time to turn off the lights and get into bed.
In Guan Yuehe's home, the lights were turned off early for the first time ever, and the new family planning supplies that had been sitting in the drawer for more than half a month were unpacked.
When everyone started calling their children home to sleep, the lights in Guan Yuehe's house were finally turned on. The two of them were too lazy to move and just lay there talking.
"You didn't arm wrestle when you met old friends?" Lin Yiku joked.
After not hearing a reply for a long time, he thought she had fallen asleep. Just as he was about to call out again, her hands and feet pressed against his, and she said in a muffled voice, "Chunmei has a scar on her right hand. She can't beat me in an arm wrestling match."
If they hadn't met, Chunmei probably would never have written about it in her letter.
When Chunmei saw her staring at the scar on her hand, she joked, "Your ranking in the dorm arm wrestling competition is going to move up another place."
Lin Yiku stopped laughing and pressed her head against hers.
After a while, Guan Yuehe composed herself. "But Chunmei isn't doing badly either; she's going to the Provincial Public Security Bureau after graduation. Sigh, several of my roommates were assigned to the Armed Forces Department, Public Security Bureau, or Security Section based on their majors. Chunmei says I'm the one who should be in the public security system, haha!"
Guan Yuehe didn't continue to bring up the unhappy things, but when Chunmei was mentioned, she couldn't help but get jealous.
"I'm a legitimate graduate of the Zhuoyue Garment Factory, and I don't even have a photo with the factory manager! She actually does!"
She then showed off the big deal she had negotiated to Lin Yiku, remarking, "Now I can really understand Chen Lizhong and Ding Xuewen."
"Huh?" Lin Yiku didn't understand. How did they suddenly get involved with the two of them?
"Making big money is really addictive," Guan Yuehe exclaimed excitedly. "By the third day, I couldn't even look at orders worth tens of thousands anymore! I've really fallen for them!"
That's tens of thousands! And in US dollars!
Lin Yi smiled bitterly.
In fact, Guan Yuehe had many other interesting things to say, but she couldn't describe them just by talking. She could only say, "You'll know when I develop the photos. Guangzhou has really changed a lot."
Just as she finished speaking, the incandescent light suddenly went out, and Guan Yuehe complained along with her neighbors, "No electricity so early?!"
Lin Yiku has gotten used to it over this period of time. "The factories in this area are busy producing at night. The power company prioritizes industrial electricity supply, and the residential areas sometimes lose power as early as nine o'clock. Tonight is considered good."
"...So I should say I was lucky? The power wasn't cut off early on my first night back."
Lin Yiku thought it over carefully and realized that the power outage tonight wasn't important to them, since they hadn't turned on the lights when there was electricity before.
The tape recorder on the desk was on to cover up other sounds, so that no neighbor passing by along the wall would hear anything they shouldn't.
After talking for a while, Lin Yiku couldn't lie down anymore and wanted to change the sheets.
Guan Yuehe also got up and followed him to the kitchen to boil water. The two of them even shared a piece of peach shortbread.
She slept a bit too much in the afternoon, and now she's very energetic.
Lin Yi had prepared to chat with her until the early hours of the morning, but she fell asleep again after only a few minutes on the kang.
Lin Yiku lay down next to her, turning to face her, and pressed her hands and feet back before they could flail out.
Lin Yi hugged the person with great satisfaction, completely agreeing with what Yuehe had said before: the kang (heated brick bed) at home is more suitable for two people to sleep together.
—
The next day, Guan Yuehe left for work feeling refreshed, and casually packed two bottles of Coke into her bag.
I gave one bottle to Li Xuelian and another to her office colleague. There wasn't much, so Gao Zhiyuan and the other two could only share one bottle.
As soon as she got back, she went to report to her supervisor on the work she had accomplished over the past month, and then dealt with the work piled up on her desk.
Just then, she received an invitation. Coca-Cola had already built a branch factory in Beijing, which would soon begin production, and they were inviting relevant department leaders to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony. They probably wanted to create a news story for publicity.
Gao Zhiyuan laughed and said, "From now on, we won't have to bring Coke all the way back from Guangzhou."
"I just don't know if it's expensive or not."
If it costs one dollar a bottle, it's definitely not as cost-effective as Arctic Ocean soda.
“They’ve all built factories on our land, so if they want to sell to our people, they can’t set the price too high.”
Otherwise, it's expensive and the taste isn't for everyone, so why would ordinary people buy it instead of domestic soda?
For example, two new colleagues in the office don't like the taste of Coca-Cola and think it's too strong, not as good as Arctic Ocean soda.
However, the construction of this Coca-Cola factory was quite bumpy. It was originally planned to be built in Shanghai, but it was accused of "selling out the country" and caused quite a stir. In the end, the branch factory was located in Beijing.
Before attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Guan Yuehe spent several days delivering the Coca-Cola she brought back to her friends one by one. For those she couldn't deliver in person, she asked others to deliver it to her.
I finally saw He Shuangshuang again on Sunday.
After their marriage, He Shuangshuang and Mo Zhinan did not apply for a new room allocation and continued to live in their original two adjacent single rooms. One room was converted into two bedrooms, and the other into a study and living/dining room.
Mo Zhinan knew they had something to say, so he called his son to go out and buy groceries. However, Guan Yuehe specifically mentioned that she was going to Xu Chengcai and Qin Zilan's house for dinner later, so there was no need to buy groceries to entertain her.
"How's work going at your new job?"
"It's not going very smoothly, but I can manage." He Shuangshuang joined the government office and has been there for nearly three months. She was assigned to be a secretary to the leader and is still learning how to do it.
He Shuangshuang said, "The challenge is greater than my previous work, but I think it's okay."
When Guan Yuehe suddenly asked about her in-laws' thoughts, He Shuangshuang smiled and said, "The child will be in junior high school in two years, and we can't have a second child now. Whether I'm busy with work or not doesn't affect the family. Their thoughts are irrelevant."
Furthermore, she now works in the government office, and the neighbors, knowing this, have often told her in front of her in-laws that she is successful and that their grandson will have a bright future.
Her in-laws agreed. However, they didn't like coming over when she was home, which pleased her.
As for Mo Zhinan's occasional joking regret over not choosing to apply for university through the recommendation system, she just took it as a joke.
The factory's recommendation system was fair and just. She got her spot based on her own popularity within the factory, not because she took Mo Zhinan's spot.
Besides, even after being recommended to go to university, she still ended up back in the factory. Her current job is a result of her participation in the college entrance examination and her positive performance during university.
"Let's not talk about those unpleasant things. Tell me about what you saw on this trip," He Shuangshuang said. "I heard the private economy is very active in the south..."
They chatted for over an hour. When Mo Zhinan returned with the groceries, Guan Yuehe glanced at her watch and said she was going to Xu Chengcai's house for dinner.
"How strange, why didn't he greet me?" Before leaving, Guan Yuehe glanced at Mo Mingqi, who had been secretly observing her several times.
Mo Mingqi pursed his lips and said, "Hello, Aunt Yuehe."
He Shuangshuang laughed, "Gu Yu often praises you in the family compound, and even said that she learned to fight from you at home. Mo Mingqi bribed Gu Yu with food, hoping that you would take on more apprentices."
Her family was one of the few in the compound with a color TV. Her family and Guan Yuehua's family often visited each other, and Gu Yu often came to her house to watch TV. As a result, Mo Mingqi often heard Gu Yu brag about her aunt.
Children of this age especially admire impressive people, especially Guan Yuehe, who is a well-known impressive person at the Zhuoyue Garment Factory.
Leaving aside the previous capture of fugitives, recently people in the residential compound have been talking about Guan Yuehe a lot. Many workers' children have been being told by their parents to learn from Guan Yuehe.
Many children in the family compound also wanted to learn martial arts from Guan Yuehe so they could catch bad guys and make great contributions in the future.
As for the parents' suggestion to learn to love reading from Guan Yuehe, those little devils completely ignored it.
Mo Mingqi, his secret thoughts exposed, blushed instantly and retorted with a stiff neck and a stomp of his foot, "I didn't!"
He ran away after saying that.
Guan Yuehe: "......"
She had no idea that Gu Yu was praising her like that to outsiders.
Look how capable this little brat is! Not content with learning to argue from her own mother, she also wants to learn to fight from her aunt? Is she planning to become the tyrant of the preschool by both beating and scolding?
But Guan Yuehe had no time to teach Gu Yu how to "fight," nor did she have time to go back to school to reissue her degree certificate. Besides being busy with work, she was busy helping her family prepare for their wedding banquet next Sunday.
"Chen Lizhong's relatives suggested holding the banquet at a hotel in Beijing, but after discussing it with Chen Lizhong's parents, we decided it would be better to keep a low profile and hold it in the small canteen of our car factory."
After considering several venues for the banquet, we finally decided on the small canteen at the Five Star Automobile Factory.
Firstly, the car factory was close to their new house, and secondly, Grandpa Lin had many acquaintances at the car factory who could help him get things done.
Neither of the two families had considered the option of hosting separate banquets. They felt it was a good opportunity to get acquainted with each other's relatives and friends, as such opportunities rarely come again.
At this moment, Guan Yuehe and Lin Yiku were laying out blankets and sheets in the small room of their home.
My uncle and aunt's family were also invited to the wedding banquet.
This is for them.
Author's Note: [Cat's paw]
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