Ji Xia blushed upon hearing this: "A Jing is very good to me. He said we shouldn't get a marriage certificate yet, as it shouldn't affect my college entrance exam."
Secretary Ji pursed his lips, his expression slightly grim: "He's coaxing you now, of course he'll treat you well. But what if you get accepted into the exam?"
"So what if I got in? It's only four years. He can come visit me when he has time, and I can go home during winter and summer vacations. What's the big deal?"
After Ji Xia finished speaking, everyone in the room remained silent.
After a while, Ji Zhijun advised, "Little sister, I think you don't need to rush into marriage. What if you find him unsuitable after you go to university? That's a lifelong commitment."
"So, you're worried that I'll end up like Lin Haodong, becoming a scumbag after getting into university?"
Secretary Ji earnestly advised, "We're worried you'll regret it. Anyway, you haven't been with him for long. Let's spend another year or two together before making a decision."
Upon hearing this, Ji Xia lowered her head and ate with a smile.
Seeing her expression, Secretary Ji and his mother couldn't help but frown and exchange glances.
It was the same when she was dating Lin Haodong; their daughter was impulsive and easily coaxed by men.
But this daughter has always been opinionated, and Secretary Ji and his mother find her stubbornness quite a headache.
After dinner, each lost in their own thoughts, Ji Xia said to Secretary Ji, "Dad, I want to go out for a bit. Can you come with me?"
"Alright, where do we go?"
“It’s in the commune, not far. I’ll take you there to see it.”
With a smile, Ji Xia took Secretary Ji's hand and rode her bicycle away from home, heading towards the small workshop.
The two arrived at a row of old residential houses in the west of the city. Secretary Ji looked around and frowned: "This area is a black market, a mixed bag of people. Do you come here often?"
"Dad, don't worry, I'm safe."
Ji Xia smiled and made a reassuring gesture, leading him through several alleys and stopping outside the courtyard of the small workshop.
Sun Xiaoyu and the others were having lunch in the dormitory courtyard. The small workshop was temporarily closed, but when she saw Ji Xia, she quickly came out.
"Sister Xia, what's going on here—"
She hesitated for a moment, then glanced at Secretary Ji. Ji Xia nodded and said, "Go open the door over there. This is my father. I brought him here to see you."
Sun Xiaoyu nodded and went back to her dormitory to get her keys.
Secretary Ji looked at the girl in the courtyard through the wide-open gate, his expression complicated.
Chen Qiuyu, Zhang Yueying, Liu Yudi, and Liu Xiaoying were all unmarried girls in the brigade. I heard from their families that they had gone to visit relatives.
When the girls saw Secretary Ji, they stood up awkwardly and greeted him, "Secretary Ji, have you eaten? Want to grab something to eat?"
Secretary Ji shook his head with a stern face: "I've already eaten, no need to be polite."
He looked at his daughter suspiciously and followed her into the small workshop next door.
Several worn-out sewing machines were placed in the room, with piles of clothes on the wooden boards next to each seat, and bags of scraps of fabric next to the cutting table.
In the small warehouse next door, bolts of fabric of different colors were quietly piled on the shelves.
He turned to look at his daughter speechlessly: "What do you want to say to me?"
Ji Xia shrugged: "Let me show you what I'm doing right now."
What are you doing?
"The garment manufacturing business was started by me, my second brother, Chen Jing, and I pooled our money to start it. It's a small workshop now, but I believe that if we grow it, it will gradually develop into a large garment factory."
Secretary Ji, usually so calm, looked somewhat shocked: "You run a factory making clothes? Where are you going to sell them?"
He squinted and thought for a moment: "Chen Jing said your second brother arranged a job for him here? He sells clothes?"
Ji Xia chuckled: "Dad, Chen Jing may seem a bit frivolous and glib, but he's actually quite capable. In just over ten days, he secured several large orders to supply the county department store. These orders have also made us normal."
He led Secretary Ji around several rooms and showed him the order that Chen Jing had received, which was stamped with the department store's official seal.
Secretary Ji walked around the entire courtyard and carefully reviewed their orders, production plans, and shipping lists.
After a long pause, he asked suspiciously, "How did you two become partners? How are the profits split?"
Ji Xia: "I contributed 600 to design, accounting for 35%. My second brother contributed 1,000 to sales outside the province, accounting for 30%. Chen Jing contributed 1,800 to business and small workshop production management, accounting for 35%."
"Although he usually seems unserious, he has actually done a great job in the past ten days or so, whether it's order processing or production management."
Ji Xia praised Chen Jing extensively, and Secretary Ji listened with a stern face for a while, sighing in his heart that daughters grow up and cannot be kept at home.
Because her family opposed the marriage, she brought him here.
He gave her a cool look and was about to go back when the courtyard gate opened, and Chen Jing stood outside with several girls and his brothers.
Monkey, Liu Xiaogang, and Ah Hu winked at Chen Jing, having overheard Ji Xia praising Chen Jing to Secretary Ji.
Behind them, an oxcart and two sewing machines were being moved into the yard.
Secretary Ji squinted at the seven young men and women and said in a deep voice, "The autumn harvest is just around the corner, are you going to the brigade to recruit people?"
Chen Jing chuckled: "Uncle Ji, don't worry, I didn't take any of the strong men, I only want a few girls. All three of them said that if the girls come to the city to work, they will guarantee to earn ten work points every day during the autumn harvest."
The three boys behind him immediately looked miserable. Doing ten work points every day was going to be a nightmare.
Liu Xiaogang's lips moved slightly, and Chen Jing turned around at the right moment, lowering his voice to a very low hue: "I'll send you meat every three days, it's on me!"
Hearing that they would be treated to meat, the boys immediately stopped complaining. They thought, "So what if I'm tired? If I can work hard for forty or fifty days, I'll go to the city to work too."
Secretary Ji glanced at the girls, the oldest being only sixteen and the youngest only thirteen. They couldn't do much work in the brigade. He snorted and didn't respond.
Knowing he had passed the test, Chen Jing immediately waved to the others: "Move the sewing machines, Xiaoyu, tell them to put them away properly."
Sun Xiaoyu responded and immediately directed the three boys to unload the sewing machine from the truck.
Secretary Ji walked out of the courtyard with his hands behind his back, waved to Chen Jing and Ji Xia, and signaled them to follow.
Chen Jing and Ji Xia walked behind him. He subconsciously glanced at Ji Xia, who made a gesture to indicate that her father did not agree to the two getting married too early.
Chen Jing nodded to indicate that he understood, lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment, then suddenly tugged at his collar, unbuttoned two buttons, half-covering his neck and chest, and sighed loudly: "It's so hot, Uncle Ji, are you thirsty? I'll go buy you a bottle of soda."
"Need not."
Secretary Ji sternly stopped them, and only after seeing that no one was around did he turn around.
Just as she was about to speak, her gaze suddenly sharpened as she stared at the marks on his neck and chest. After a moment's hesitation, her face darkened.
He glanced coldly at his daughter, and seeing that Ji Xia still looked suspicious, he sneered and pointed at Chen Jing's neck and chest, asking, "Jing, what happened to these marks on your body?"
Ji Xia and Chen Jing followed his gaze, their eyes met briefly, and they looked away, blushing.
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