Chapter 42 Chapter 42 How can such a pretty girl worry about marriage...
Qin Zhanwu found these remarks incomprehensible. "There are billions of people in this world, and 700 million in China. If everyone thought the same way as you, at least 60% wouldn't have children. Whether this child will become a useful person to themselves and the country can only be known after they are born. You are jumping to conclusions now and are simply strangling their hope of coming into this world. You are not them, so how can you know whether they want to be born?"
Su Yan was speechless, and Qin Zhanwu continued, "You are raising Yan Zi and Xiao Gang now. Are you just not going to care about them at all because you doubt your ability to educate them well?"
Su Yan retorted: "That's different. Yan Zi and Xiao Gang already exist."
Qin Zhanwu pointed at Su Yan's belly and said, "Then this child also exists. You can't say that he doesn't exist just because he hasn't been born yet, right?"
Su Yan looked at Qin Zhanwu's expression and decided to change her words to be more tactful: "Didn't I say I won't have another child? Why not wait until Yan Zi and Xiao Gang are older?"
Qin Zhanwu glanced at Su Yan and sneered, "Don't think I don't know what you're up to. Forget it. No one forced you to have a child, but now that the child is already here, you want to abort it. Is that right?"
Su Yan was speechless, refused to communicate, and went to her room with the cup of water.
Qin Zhanwu followed him and said, "I have to remind you, don't say things like 'hooliganism' is a bad law anymore, especially outside. Right now, there's a fight against landlords and the arrest of rightists everywhere. Although your family background is clean, there are still some issues left. If you don't want to be labeled a rightist, you'd better be careful with your words and actions."
Su Yan came to her senses, remembering how she'd just blurted out, "The crime of hooliganism is an evil law." She was actually shocked by herself now. She couldn't say that right now. She should be thankful that Qin Zhanwu heard her, not her colleagues. Su Yan, frightened by him, nodded blankly, "I understand."
Qin Zhanwu nodded, told Su Yan to remember to complete the marriage application tonight, and then drove away. When he returned to the dormitory, he saw a note on the blackboard in the reception room saying that he had a phone call to return. He called and heard Aunt Jiang's smiling voice: "Maomao, the results are out, and it's positive."
Qin Zhanwu put down the phone after hearing this, feeling light and airy as if he were dreaming. Passing students called him several times before he finally responded and came up to pat him on the shoulder: "Zhanwu, what's so beautiful? You must have gone out to drink secretly?"
Qin Zhanwu patted the hand on his shoulder and smiled: "This is much better than drinking."
Su Yan was really scared by what she said, "The crime of hooliganism is an evil law." She wondered if she had said anything out of line at work. She lay in bed reflecting on herself for most of the night, but she couldn't think of anything. She could only remind herself that she should keep silent if possible at work.
She drifted off to sleep until midnight, but because she hadn't eaten much all day, she woke up hungry. Su Yan found a box of instant noodles with pickled mustard greens from her space, soaked it in water from the thermos, and ate it.
The next day, when Su Yan went to the company, she met Uncle Lu from the HR department. Because of his family background, Uncle Lu was often criticized in his daily work. His every word and action was brought up and his self-criticism reports were read out at the meeting from time to time. His life was very difficult.
Su Yan saw him wearing the rubber bucket shoes he wore in the workshop and a towel on his head. She greeted him and asked, "Uncle Lu, have you been transferred? I didn't see you in the HR department yesterday."
Uncle Lu had been walking with his head down, but when he saw Su Yan asking, he just nodded. After looking around to see that there was no one around, he said, "I was transferred to the workshop last week. I still want to thank the leaders and the factory for giving me this opportunity to study." Then he said goodbye to Su Yan and walked away quickly.
Lu Er was originally an engineer, but was later transferred to do administrative work. Now he works in the workshop doing business line work. I don’t know if he can get used to it.
Su Yan went upstairs and saw Ming Fan coming back with a thermos of hot water. She pretended to mention it casually: "I ran into Lu Er on the road today. Why was he transferred to the workshop? He looked quite haggard, as if he had aged ten years. What happened?"
Ming Fan pulled a small packet of tea leaves from a drawer and said, "Sister Yingzi, you don't know Lu Er yet. He's back to his old ways, meddling in the factory's production tasks. Aren't we catching up with the UK and the US? Every unit needs to build blast furnaces and make steel, but Lu Er keeps spouting nonsense, saying we're a machinery factory, not a steel mill, and that making steel will delay our production schedule."
The idea of catching up with Britain and the United States was not proposed just now. It was proposed a year ago. However, at that time, Jiangzhou Machinery Factory received approval from the senior leaders of the Municipal Party Committee to complete the factory's production tasks first and then produce steel.
Su Yan took the teacup and said, "That's his fault. I heard that other companies are working very hard. Our factory can't afford to lose face even if we don't strive for first place."
Ming Fan clapped his hands. "Sister Yingzi, you're the one who sees things clearly. It's fine for Lu Er to make suggestions, but he took advantage of the secretary's visit to the city for a meeting to say something outrageous. He really pissed off the city leader, saying he was obsessed with bourgeois ideology and didn't support the great cause of the people's revolution. So, the factory leaders discussed it and sent him back to the workshop, saying he was being rehabilitated through labor."
He lowered his voice and said, "You know what? Now he is responsible for cleaning the toilets in the company."
Su Yan shook her head, thinking, "Why bother?" She turned back to her seat and heard Ming Fan still muttering, "These bourgeois people always fail to understand their identities. We are now the proletariat in power, and yet they still say strange things and do bad things. Mao Zedong said that we should treat our comrades as warmly as spring and treat our enemies as cruelly and ruthlessly as winter."
Su Yan was reported by fans online and had his account blocked. When he casually removed the trending search, he also blamed capital for manipulating public opinion. We should be wary of the power of capital.
But now seeing Lu Er like this, he felt a little reluctant and unwilling to follow Ming Fan's words. He changed the subject: "Have you handed in the scrap metal? We only have a cooking pot left at home. I really don't know where to get more."
This month, the factory was rushing to increase steel production, and everyone in the unit had to hand in a sufficient amount of scrap steel. Ming Fan, as expected, was distracted and began offering Su Yan advice, saying there was scrap steel behind the factory and an abandoned manhole cover behind the school, where they could use a magnet to suck out some used nails.
Su Yan first wrote the manuscript assigned by the director. She had been here for almost half a year and was already familiar with the format and content. Her leader was also satisfied. Now she could submit it without any revisions. It felt like she was the first writer in the unit.
After lunch, everyone else either went home for a nap or went back to work to catch up on production schedules. Su Yan took out some paper and started writing her marriage application. After writing for half a day, she only managed a few dozen words. She rolled it up into a ball and threw it into the waste paper pile, sighing, "He really is a master of writing!"
Sister Wang from the union came upstairs and asked from a distance, "Yingzi, what's your writing prowess? Everyone knows you're our unit's top writer. Even the city's top leaders praise your writing for its quality."
Sister Wang walked closer and, through the window, saw five words written on the paper - Marriage Application. She laughed and said, "I was wondering if you weren't writing it properly? You're getting married, and you didn't even tell us first."
Su Yan was puzzled by what she heard. Not knowing where Sister Wang got the information from, she said, "It's not a big deal. I thought I'd tell you about submitting the application this afternoon after I've finished writing it."
Sister Wang handed over a stack of stamped marriage applications. "Here are the marriage applications that previous cadres at our factory used to fill out. Just follow them. You're talking about Deputy Head Qin, too. He called me and asked me to teach you how to write a marriage application, saying you've been working on it for days and still haven't finished it. You don't know how to write it, and you ask me for help. Why did you even ask Deputy Head Qin to call you?"
Su Yan cursed Qin Zhanwu for being insidious in her heart. She was afraid that she would delay and not write the application, so she called Sister Wang from the union. If Sister Wang knew about it, everyone in the unit would know that she was getting married within a day. She could not delay the application.
Su Yan's heart was itching with hatred, but she had to smile and make excuses: "You said it too, I'm a writer, right? If I can't even write a marriage application, and others know about it, what kind of writer am I? Wouldn't that be embarrassing?"
Sister Wang smiled and patted Su Yan: "Girl, you have quite a heavy burden." At the same time, she asked whether the date had been set, when and where the wedding would be held, and where they would live after the marriage.
Su Yan evaded all these matters, saying that she would wait until Qin Zhanwu's marriage report was approved before discussing them.
Sister Wang smiled and sighed, "You, when I asked you to go to the ball, you were so reluctant. How could you have found such a good marriage if you hadn't gone?" She looked at Su Yan and said, "How could such a beautiful girl worry about finding a husband? She's so popular! Just a few months ago, you told me you didn't want to get married for the time being. Now you don't know the benefits of marriage?"
Su Yan blushed a little after hearing this, and felt very embarrassed. She said a few polite words and sent Sister Wang away.
Sure enough, when Su Yan finished writing the marriage application and submitted it to the Party Committee office, everyone she met on the way knew that she was about to get married. Some said congratulations, some asked her when the wedding would be held, and some simply told her that if she was busy with the wedding, she could ask him to help and not to be polite.
Even Sister Feng from the HR department, who she had a disagreement with last time, came to congratulate her with a smile, taking the opportunity to talk things over and apologize: "You know I'm just trying to save face, I don't have any bad intentions. We had a little friction at work, and I'm here to apologize to you today. You're a college student, you've read a lot, so don't make it a big deal."
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