140 Black Soda
Guan Yuehe was away on a business trip for a month. First, she was busy dealing with the neighbors who came to join in the fun. After they finally left, she took out the things she brought back and put them on the table and sofa.
The room was as clean and tidy as ever.
As agreed before she left, she called the neighborhood office every Sunday night to let her family know she was safe.
They called four times in total, but only managed to speak with Lin Yiku twice because phone calls were too expensive; they had to keep the conversation short. She did most of the talking.
Jiang Guiying and Aunt Fang were busy making new quilts at home when they heard Aunt Xie run over to say that Yuehe had returned home from her business trip. So they put down what they were doing and headed straight for Courtyard No. 1.
"I look like I've lost weight. Is it because the food outside isn't oily enough, or is it because I'm too tired from work?"
Guan Yuehe looked down at herself and said, "I guess it's because the weather is getting warmer and I'm not wearing enough clothes. I'm perfectly fine eating out."
She set off in early March, when people in Beijing were still wearing cotton-padded coats and sweaters. Now she certainly doesn't need to wear cotton-padded coats anymore, so she naturally looks thinner.
"I brought you something."
Guan Yuehe found some scissors and opened the box, taking out the bottles of cola one by one, a total of twenty-nine bottles.
She admired herself for managing to control her cravings despite bringing so much drink; she only drank one bottle.
Jiang Guiying and Aunt Fang watched as she took out bottle after bottle, their eyes gradually widening in surprise.
"You brought all this back to set up a street stall?"
"What's the big deal? This one has two bottles, that one has one, and they'll be gone in no time if you split them up," Guan Yuehe muttered. "I should have bought two cases."
Anyway, there's a car to pick her up and drop her off, and she can carry the things herself. If she doesn't have enough foreign exchange certificates, she can ask that photographer for more.
Oh dear! I regret it!
Jiang Guiying and her companion gasped silently. One box was already more than enough; why was she thinking of bringing two?!
He has so much energy he has nowhere to use it.
She bought quite a few clothes from Guangzhou, and she didn't care whether they fit or not; she bought all the larger sizes, and if they didn't fit, she would just alter them.
I shook the bag again, and there was another bag of toys for the kids.
“This bag,” Guan Yuehe patted one of the bags, “was a gift from my college roommate. She’s also going to the Canton Fair as a translator this time.”
Jiang Guiying exclaimed, "Oh, your college roommate? He's been over for dinner before, hasn't he?"
"She came by. It was Chunmei, the best arm wrestler in our dorm. She even went to take a photo with Factory Director Zheng."
"Your college classmate knows Director Zheng too?" Jiang Guiying was not quite sure how they met, but she was more concerned about something else. "You must have taken a lot of photos on this trip, right? Send them to be developed as soon as possible."
She took so many photos that she used up all the film she brought.
Guan Yuehe quickly sorted the items, dividing them into about ten portions. She tore off old newspapers and wrote names on them to avoid mixing them up. The rest were for her and Lin Yiku.
Jiang Guiying glanced at it and clicked her tongue several times in her heart, realizing that the scope of her "social interactions" was quite extensive.
Besides family members, there are also teachers, colleagues, childhood friends, and friends.
"Both are the same, Mom, Fang's Mom, you can take them yourselves, I'm going to the bathhouse to get a scrub."
If you look down and smell it, you'll feel nauseous from the stench.
"What would you like to eat? How about noodles?"
"I'm not picky, anything is fine."
After saying that, she grabbed an enamel basin and a change of clothes and ran out. Jiang Guiying and the others could hear her greeting the neighbors at the alley entrance from inside the house.
After taking a bath and eating two large bowls of noodles, Guan Yuehe went back to her room to catch up on sleep.
On the way back, although she took a sleeper berth, she didn't sleep well. Now that she's full and comfortable, she feels sleepy.
The courtyard was quiet; no one had returned from work or school, and it was eerily quiet.
Who knew she would sleep until 5 p.m., a full four hours.
The sounds in the alley became more frequent. Children ran back from school to call their friends or ran home shouting that they were hungry. Workers who worked nearby had already arrived home, and the people in charge of meals in each household were busy working on the stove.
Before most of her neighbors returned, Guan Yuehe quickly got up, grabbed a bottle of cola and a beautiful pencil case, and delivered them to her neighbor across the street.
Not only did Sister Hongqi and Jin Junwei help her several times, but the generous Yuanbao would also give her fruit that Sister Hongqi brought back from her business trips. She should send a bottle of Coke that Sister Hongqi brought back from afar to their family.
I had just finished exchanging pleasantries with Jin Junwei when I turned around and saw half a furtive little head peeking in from the gate of the courtyard.
When she spotted her, Gu Yu grinned and rushed over to hug her leg, "Auntie!"
Guan Yuehe picked her up and took her home, then weighed her in her hand; she seemed a bit heavier than before.
When Gu Mannian came over after get off work, he saw Gu Yu and Yuan Bao sitting on a small stool in front of Guan Yuehe's house. The two of them were holding an enamel cup with both hands, their faces almost buried in the cup. They took a sip of water and then squinted and exhaled.
"Dad, Auntie brought back some black soda!" Gu Yu shook her head excitedly. "This black soda is so delicious!"
Because of this black soda, Gu Yu didn't want to go back to the clothing factory's residential compound.
Gu Mannian raised the net bag in his hand, "If you don't go back, you won't get any of our family's soda."
That's how they managed to coax Gu Yu back.
"Brother-in-law, aren't you having dinner at home tonight?" Guan Yuehe was just about to go to the No. 3 courtyard for dinner.
"The factory signed orders worth eight million at the Canton Fair this time. The factory manager and the others returned yesterday. Tonight, all the factory workers and their families will go to the canteen for a pork stew."
If it weren't for the fact that he was busy with the "reunion dinner" for all the factory workers and their families today, he would have picked up Gu Yu on his way home after work. But because he was busy, he told Jiang Guiying in advance to ask her to pick up Gu Yu and take her back to the alley.
Guan Yuehe raised an eyebrow, stood in the middle of the doorway with her hands on her hips, and proudly raised her chin, saying, "The biggest order in the factory is one million, and I signed it."
Gu Mannian was not surprised at all, and said, "When the factory director and the others came back yesterday, Section Chief Long already told everyone about it."
Section Chief Long said the biggest order was placed by the Germans, and at the time, they couldn't find a translator who understood German anywhere. The foreign businessmen were getting impatient and wanted to leave. Suddenly! Section Chief Guan came over!
Section Chief Long was a good storyteller; his story was full of twists and turns and kept the audience on the edge of their seats. When he got to the part about how they finally signed the biggest deal in the world, the canteen workers applauded and cheered enthusiastically.
Some people wondered: "Didn't Section Chief Guan study English?"
Section Chief Long replied, "Section Chief Guan also taught himself German."
Afterwards, the factory manager encouraged everyone to learn foreign languages on their own, saying that as long as they learned them, they would need them sooner or later. He added that workers who knew foreign languages would be seconded to work as foreign trade clerks, and they would receive a commission or bonus for each order they signed...
Gu Mannian said, "Many people in the factory are thinking about buying cassette tapes to learn English. The factory manager said he would set up an English class in the factory and would invite an English teacher from outside to give lectures. I signed up too."
Guan Yuehe exclaimed, "Our factory director is truly visionary!"
"Ahem." Gu Mannian glanced at her sideways.
"Brother-in-law, you're also a good comrade who loves learning and making progress!" Guan Yuehe replied perfunctorily.
Looking down, she found Gu Yu looking up at her, so she replied perfunctorily, "You're a little rascal who doesn't pick and choose your food either."
Little Gu Yu didn't notice the perfunctory tone in her aunt's words and swung her legs in her special seat.
She went to the factory canteen with her dad and saw many familiar uncles and aunts busy at work. Her friends called her to come and play. After a while, the adults saw the little girl who had been playing happily just moments before asking them for black soda, insisting that they go to Guangzhou to buy it.
"What do you mean, black soda or white soda? Behave yourself and stop running around. Go play somewhere else, you're keeping me from washing the vegetables."
—
That evening, the Guan family and the Lin family had dinner together, and the meal lasted for more than an hour.
Guan Yuehe would eat one bite of food and then say ten sentences, accompanied by gasps and exclamations from her family.
Halfway through the story, even more people, including the neighbors, exclaimed in surprise.
"Zhuoyue Garment Factory is so powerful now? Signing orders worth millions! No wonder they've split into a main factory and a branch factory."
"The garment factory will definitely need to hire more workers. With such a large order, they certainly can't complete it with their current workforce."
"Bai Dajiao's daughter, Xiang Hong, guess how much she earns a month?" The speaker paused for a moment before saying, "Her salary plus bonuses these past few months ranges from sixty to ninety yuan!"
Now, the sound of inhaling became even louder.
Everyone knows that Zhuoyue Garment Factory is developing better and better, and the workers' welfare and benefits are not bad, but they really don't know that their income is so high now!
At this point, someone said, "If our car factory could form a joint venture, it shouldn't be bad."
"Yuehe, don't you think so?"
Guan Yuehe shrugged, "How would I know?"
Despite the good performance of the Five Star Automobile Factory, the actual performance of the automobile factory is only average. The good performance comes from the other branch factories under the main factory.
China's domestic automobile manufacturing technology is lagging behind, and its output is low, so most cars are now imported. Domestic companies want to learn foreign technology, while foreign companies want to enter the domestic market, which is why joint ventures have emerged.
But foreigners aren't philanthropists, and it's hard to say whether joint ventures are good or bad. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so slow to establish joint venture car companies, and they'd still be competing with each other.
Even if it's set up, whether it can improve efficiency and workers' welfare is another question.
These people clearly came to hear about her experiences at the Canton Fair, so why are they discussing the pros and cons of the Five Star Automobile Factory joint venture project with her?
Someone outside shouted, "Watch TV!"
The neighbors all started to leave.
Guazi Wang still moves his color TV to the alley entrance every day, and the neighbors love watching it. At the appointed time, everyone rushes to reserve a spot.
Guan Yuehe breathed a sigh of relief; finally, they were all gone.
She's been away for a month and has no idea what's going on at home.
"How's the house renovation going? Are you getting your marriage certificate? Have you sent out wedding invitations to relatives and friends?"
"Dad, how's your barbershop? Is it open or closed?"
Lin Sitian replied, "Everything is packed. My mom and Aunt Jiang made new quilts. Everything is ready, just waiting for you to come back. Everything is settled now."
She's got things sorted out, but things aren't going so well with Guan Canghai.
"We got the permits, but we haven't found a suitable shop. There are vacant storefronts in the factory, but we couldn't get them approved," Guan Canghai sighed. "I thought about setting up a barber stall outside, but the inspectors said we have to set up at designated stalls, not at alley entrances."
Jiang Guiying said irritably, "I don't know which scoundrel reported it. Now there are no more stalls at the entrance of the alley. If you want to buy breakfast or braised food, you have to go to someone's yard."
Actually, it doesn't necessarily have to be in the courtyard. In the morning and evening, people would set up their stalls at the gate of their own courtyards. If someone came to patrol, the children who were keeping watch at the entrance of the alley would run over to inform them.
But as a result, the business of setting up a stall was much worse than before.
Guan Yuehe exclaimed in surprise, "No wonder the alley was so quiet this afternoon!"
In the past, Aunt Quan and several other neighbors would sell food at the entrance of the alley. Some families with both spouses working and no one to cook would buy some cooked food at the entrance of the alley to take home.
"What should we do then? Did we just get the certificate for nothing?"
Guan Canghai pondered for a moment, then said, "We'll see."
He originally wanted to rent a bungalow to open a barbershop, but the landlords of the houses he could rent had many requirements, saying this wouldn't work and that wouldn't work. When they heard that he wanted to open a shop, they made exorbitant demands.
Now I'm thinking of buying a bungalow. But I haven't found a suitable house yet, so the idea of opening a barbershop has been put on hold.
After everyone had finished speaking, Guan Aiguo finally got a chance to speak.
"Dad, Mom, let's open a bottle of soda and try it."
Jiang Guiying was a little reluctant, so Guan Yuehe sent two bottles to both families. Each small bottle of soda cost one dollar!
Before dinner, the owner of the melon seed shop came to her door and asked if she could sell them a bottle; they offered five yuan.
Five yuan a bottle!
Jiang Guiying is having trouble drinking now.
Author's Note: [Laughing] There's one more chapter coming up, it'll be a bit late, check back tomorrow morning!
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