Chapter Seven
The warm midday sun made her drowsy. Zuo Xutong put down the documents in her hand, squinted, looked up, shielded her eyes from the sunlight with one hand, pulled the curtains aside with the other, and glanced at the electronic alarm clock on the bedside table: 11:16. She opened the food delivery app, glanced at it a few times, and then closed it. Perhaps because she hadn't eaten anything that morning, she swayed slightly when she stood up.
She casually tied her hair up, walked to the wardrobe, opened the door, pulled out a down jacket, put it directly over her pajamas, and grabbed her keys before leaving without even changing her shoes.
Yesterday, she finally received her salary. The thought that she would no longer have to dine at restaurants that use gutter oil gave her a much-needed boost in spirits. Although her probationary salary was less than 7,000 yuan, it greatly alleviated her current dire financial situation.
As soon as her salary was deposited into her account, she spent a sum of money to order experimental materials online. In recent years, in order to conduct experiments, she has simplified her life in every way, devoting all her time and energy to scientific research, except for eating, sleeping and working.
More than five years have passed since she joined the MEA research group at the end of her first year of graduate school, yet she still hasn't cracked this core technology. She knows very well that if she can develop a world-leading ultra-low Pt (platinum) membrane electrode, she can solve the major bottleneck problem of hydrogen fuel cells and contribute her modest efforts to China's energy transition.
However, scientific research is always full of unknowns and uncertainties, and years of hard work may ultimately lead to failure. With great patience and perseverance, she persisted on this path. Despite numerous difficulties and a lack of understanding, she never thought of giving up, just like a Potentilla anserina that always grows towards the sun, no matter how harsh the natural conditions or how difficult the living environment.
After receiving her first month's salary, she planned to celebrate by going to a decent restaurant near the upscale residential area across from Nanxuan Bridge to enjoy a good meal.
As she approached Nanxuan Bridge, she saw a girl with an unconventional style standing under the bridge. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was her half-sister, Hao Ling. Hao Ling's makeup was so heavy that she was practically unrecognizable. Zuo Xutong almost didn't recognize her and nearly mistook her for a street thug.
She wore thick, dense false eyelashes that squeezed out the already meager whites of her eyes, her cheeks were bloodless, covered in layers of foundation, and her lips were as red as if she had just eaten a dead child. She wore over-the-top headphones, and a trendy aviator jacket hung open over her chest, revealing a section of her glaringly white belly. Zuo Xutong noticed that ever since her sister married Cheng Hao, her clothing and appearance had become increasingly bizarre and outlandish.
Perhaps the music in her headphones was too beautiful, because Zuo Xutong stood in front of her for a long time before she finally looked up, quickly took off her headphones, and called out, "Sister!"
"What are you doing here?" Her younger sister, whom she hadn't seen for two years, suddenly appearing at her doorstep gave her a vague sense of foreboding. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"
"I got a new phone, and I didn't save your number in the new one. Luckily, I have a good memory. You told me your address when we called last time, and I remembered it right away," Hao Ling said proudly.
Not only did she remember, she also told Xiao Ping. Thinking of this, Zuo Xutong was furious and asked in a cold tone, "What do you want?"
“It’s Mom’s birthday soon,” Hao Ling said.
Since starting university, Zuo Xutong has never been able to celebrate Xiao Ping's birthday again, and thinking about this, she suddenly felt a little guilty.
Hao Ling twisted the headphone cord in her hand, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Last time she came to your place, she was angry for several days after she got home. She said you wasted her good genes, that you were blinded by greed, and that you found a poor guy who couldn't even afford a used car." Hao Ling swallowed, seemingly considering whether to continue.
Zuo Xutong could see the struggle in her heart. She knew that her younger sister had loved being a gossip since she was little and enjoyed it immensely, so it was difficult for any friends she had to interact with to become friends with each other. Xiao Ping often nagged her: "Hao Ling, can't you keep your mouth shut? Don't be so clueless, telling everyone that Cheng Hao has a mole on his butt."
Hao Ling let it go in one ear and out the other; her memory was so bad that she forgot it as soon as she turned her head. She conveyed every word of what she was supposed to say: "Mom also said that you're living a terrible life these days, and you can barely breathe..."
Zuo Xutong didn't want to listen to her anymore and quickly asked, "You came to find me because you want me to go with you to celebrate Mom's birthday?"
"Um... it's okay if you don't go. I just came to tell you that I want to buy her a bag." A while ago, when Xiao Ping was shopping with her, she saw a designer bag in the window. She walked into the store as if guided by some force, and her hands went straight to the shelf... Like all high-end leather goods, it was well-made, thick, and had a soft yet firm feel. Perhaps the logo of a luxury brand can stimulate the secretion of adrenaline. Just looking at the eye-catching English letters on the bag was enough to make her heart race and feel excited for half a day. Touching the exquisite embossed texture and the heavy antique metal chain, she felt a kind of pleasure that she had never felt before when carrying high-quality replicas.
At this moment, a young salesperson came over and politely said to her, "Hello, this bag is a classic style from our store. We are currently having a promotion. The original price was 7,800, but now it's 4,800."
Upon hearing the price, Xiao Ping quickly withdrew her hand, shook her head, and said, "It's too expensive."
After returning home, she couldn't stop thinking about it, unable to eat or sleep, but unfortunately, she just couldn't afford it. Xiao Ping had always longed for a designer bag, but with the little money she earned, it was difficult to even make ends meet, let alone afford luxury goods. It's hard to explain the complex emotions women have for bags; this thing that captivates them, even haunts their dreams, seems to possess some kind of magical power, tormenting them to the point of loss of appetite and sleep, yet they can't resist its allure.
"Then I won't go over. Let me get some money to buy you a bag," Zuo Xutong said. She knew that Hao Ling had just taken out a loan to buy a house, and Cheng Hao didn't have a stable job. The family of four was living together and struggling financially.
Hao Ling had been waiting for these words. Given her petty nature, if her sister didn't bring it up, she would inevitably speak up soon enough.
They found an ATM. Zuo Xutong looked at the few thousand yuan left on her card and felt inexplicably anxious. This was the living expenses she had set aside for herself for next month.
"Oh! What a coincidence! The bag that Mom likes costs just over four thousand!" Hao Ling exclaimed in a high-pitched voice, as if afraid that the people next to her wouldn't know the balance in her sister's card.
Zuo Xutong wished she could bury her head in the ATM and pretend she didn't recognize the person next to her. She pressed the withdrawal button and asked in a low voice, "So expensive?"
Hao Ling recalled Xiao Ping's expression that day and sighed heavily: "Mom said that if a woman could carry a few such high-end bags in her life, she could die in peace."
"Can I die in peace now?" Zuo Xutong stopped pressing the withdrawal amount button. A strange sadness welled up in her heart. Her mother was over fifty years old, but she had never been able to show any filial piety.
“I really wanted to buy it for her, but as you know, Cheng Hao and I don’t earn much money a month, and we still have to pay the mortgage. It’s good enough if we don’t rely on our parents,” Hao Ling said.
Finally, Zuo Xutong withdrew four thousand yuan from the card, leaving her with less than two hundred yuan. She took the bank card out, turned around and handed the money to her younger sister, instructing her, "Keep it safe."
"Don't worry, sis, I'll make up the difference." After saying that, Hao Ling stuffed the money into her bag, said goodbye, and left without looking back.
Zuo Xutong left the bank and shivered outside. Before her body even felt cold, her stomach was already rebelling. This time, she couldn't afford even a cheap street stall, let alone a restaurant specializing in gutter oil. Standing in the dim winter sunlight, she felt no warmth. On her way back, she passed her usual supermarket but didn't dare go in. The little money she had left, after deducting her daily commute expenses, wouldn't last until payday, even if she didn't eat or drink. She couldn't help but regret her hasty purchase of the experimental materials the night before.
Then she remembered a dilapidated little shop downstairs in her apartment complex. It was tiny, dark inside, like a rat hole, with old, crumbling shelves that smelled musty. But the same items were cheaper than in a big supermarket.
To save a few cents, Zuo Xutong decided to buy two packets of instant noodles from the convenience store. His immediate priority was to solve his hunger problem before considering what to do next.
She was starving, her pockets were empty, her legs felt like lead, and her body grew heavier and heavier. The dizziness caused by hunger made it difficult for her to walk, and she almost collapsed to the ground. As she walked, a pair of familiar cloth shoes suddenly appeared in front of her.
Zuo Xutong raised her head, and as her pupils gradually focused, a smile bloomed on her face, like the little match girl seeing a walking Christmas turkey.
"Have you eaten?" This is clearly not a typical Chinese greeting.
Seeing Peng Kun shake his head, she couldn't help but feel overjoyed, suddenly feeling that they were like two moles that had crawled out of the ground to forage for food on time.
“I haven’t eaten either, why don’t we go together?” Zuo Xutong suggested, her voice trembling slightly, a result of her empty wallet and low blood sugar causing her to lack energy and her breath to become unsteady.
"Where to?" Peng Kun asked.
“Dongchuan… Japanese cuisine.” Zuo Xutong looked up and quickly locked onto the nearest restaurant in the distance.
"Did you just come from a public bathhouse?" Peng Kun looked Zuo Xutong up and down. Her clothes were disheveled, her hair was messy, she was wearing pajamas under her down jacket, and she was wearing cotton slippers. Even he, who didn't care much about his appearance, shook his head at her. "I was afraid you would be kicked out if you went in."
"If we get kicked out, we'll just go to another restaurant," Zuo Xutong said defiantly. It seems that in this world, the only thing that can force dignity to relinquish is hunger.
The two entered the Dongchuan Japanese restaurant. Peng Kun ordered a bowl of buckwheat noodles and handed the menu to Zuo Xutong.
Zuo Xutong swallowed hard as she looked at the pictures on the menu. Considering her current precarious situation, she couldn't pretend to be reserved and ordered five or six items in one go. During her ordering, a small incident occurred. The waiter, perhaps because they were dressed too poorly and were worried about not being able to pay after eating, inexplicably reminded her, "This should be enough for the two of you."
At this moment, Zuo Xutong seemed to selectively ignore the menu, continuing to flip through it and ordering ebisushi and daifuku mochi. During this long process, Peng Kun's face changed from white to red, then from red to green, like the ever-changing LED lights on a skyscraper.
As the food arrived one after another, Zuo Xutong was so hungry that she saw stars. She had long forgotten about traditional Chinese virtues such as moderation and courtesy. She wolfed down her food, her chopsticks flying, like a condemned prisoner about to be executed, not knowing where her next meal would come from.
Seeing her eat like that, Peng Kun's expression froze. It was as if a female glutton was sitting across from him. In just a few minutes, he finished off a plate of tempura and a bowl of udon noodles without even blinking.
"Where did you flee from famine? How long has it been since you've had any food?" Watching her chopsticks flying around like dragons and phoenixes, as if she wanted to grow three heads and six arms to feed herself, even Peng Kun, who was not particular about manners, felt that she was being a little too unconcerned about her image.
Zuo Xutong was completely focused on eating the daifuku mochi on her plate, having forgotten that there was a breathing living creature sitting opposite her. When she heard someone speak, she was startled and choked on a piece of glutinous rice ball, almost suffocating on the spot.
Seeing that she opened her mouth but couldn't say a word, her face turning red, Peng Kun quickly poured her a cup of barley tea and pushed it in front of her: "Eat slowly, no one is going to take it from you."
She took two sips of tea to swallow the contents, then looked up at Peng Kun with a grateful smile: "I'm so sorry."
Peng Kun didn't notice the slightest bit of embarrassment in her at all. After putting down his water glass, he switched from daifuku mochi to saury with an air of overwhelming power.
Peng Kun didn't dare to bother her anymore and silently finished his buckwheat noodles, feeling no appetite.
The two barely spoke throughout the meal, and after they had finished eating and drinking, they both stood up and walked towards the restaurant entrance...
"Hey, wait a minute, you haven't paid the bill yet." The waiter stopped them nervously, glancing at the man and woman. They weren't dressed very well; were they planning to dine and dash?
"The total is... 537 yuan." The cashier handed over the receipt with a smile.
The two stared at each other, neither taking the receipt nor paying.
"That's 537 yuan in total." The cashier had no choice but to put down her hand and patiently repeat the amount again.
Peng Kun raised his chin, and Zuo Xutong pretended not to understand, turning her face away. She inwardly despised herself; indeed, when people are poor to a certain extent, they learn to be shameless without being taught. On the issue of payment, she showed no sign of compromise.
Peng Kun waited a while, then finally couldn't hold back any longer and asked, "Hey, you invited me to dinner, shouldn't you be the one paying?"
Zuo Xutong turned her head in surprise, her voice trembling with shock: "When did I say I was treating?"
Peng Kun glared at her, looking displeased as he prepared to pay, with an expression like a miser who had just been plucked.
The moment they stepped out of the restaurant, the cashier and waiter huddled together, whispering, "That guy's really unlucky. He's obviously been ripped off. That woman definitely wasn't interested in him, otherwise she wouldn't have been eating so heartily, not even lifting her eyelids, looking like she was starving. On the first meeting, if there was even the slightest bit of interest, who would be so shameless?"
"No matter how handsome a guy is, you can't go for him. He's stingy even when he treats a woman to a meal, and when it comes time to pay, he shamelessly waits for her to pay with his empty hands. It's really rare." The two of them actually felt that this was a blind date with no suspense whatsoever.
"Did you know? There are some people who use blind dates to scam free meals and drinks, and there are also bar scammers and restaurant scammers. Oh no, he might think that woman is a shill for our restaurant, right?" the waiter continued gossiping.
"How could that be? She didn't order abalone sashimi, and she ate such a big meal for only five hundred. Have you ever seen such a cheap shill?" The cashier tapped the other person's blockhead across the counter.
On Monday, Qin Zhenzhen arrived at the purchasing director's office with three thousand yuan that she hadn't even warmed up yet, and placed the money on Ge Donglin's desk.
Ge Donglin stood up in surprise, touching his bald head and saying, "Hey, what's the rush? You just got paid and you're already coming to pay back the money."
"Thank you for helping me through this difficult time," Qin Zhenzhen said sincerely.
"Why are you being so polite with me?" Ge Donglin smiled and then asked, "Xiao Qin, you graduated from a university of science and technology, right?"
"yes."
“That’s a top student; tutoring middle school students in math, physics, and chemistry should be no problem for him.” Ge Donglin’s smile faded, and his attitude became serious. “Brother Lin, can I ask you a favor?”
"Tell me, and I'll definitely help if it's within my power."
Ge Donglin sighed, rubbing his temples, and said, "My son's tutor quit a while ago, and he has a placement test coming up soon, but we can't find a suitable tutor right away. Could you help him out and give him some extra help?"
"Of course, no problem," Qin Zhenzhen readily agreed.
"Well, tomorrow's the weekend, so let's start from tomorrow?"
"Well……"
"What's wrong? Is something the matter?"
"President Peng asked me to conduct a background check on Beijialongtai Materials Company, but I haven't started preparing yet."
“Oh, I’ve personally investigated this company and I know it very well. Let me prepare the materials for you.” After saying that, Ge Donglin grabbed the money on his desk and stuffed it into her hand. “This is for tutoring fees. Don’t think it’s too little.”
"This... isn't quite right, I can't accept it." Qin Zhenzhen was a little confused; how did this money end up back in her hands?
Ge Donglin struggled with her for a few moments, then finally wrapped his big, fat hands tightly around hers, pressed them down hard, and said with a smile, "Take it, there's nothing wrong with it, you deserve it."
On Monday, Ge Donglin handed over the investigation materials of Beijialongtai Materials Co., Ltd. to Qin Zhenzhen. The document stayed in her hands for less than ten minutes before being sent to Peng Kun's office.
Peng Kun had just opened the investigation materials and was halfway through when Jiang Zhuo strode in without even knocking: "President Peng, have you heard?"
Peng Kun put down the documents and waited for him to continue.
"The municipal government plans to build four more hydrogen refueling stations. Combined with the two combined oil and hydrogen refueling stations that have already started construction, Longjin City will have six hydrogen refueling stations by the end of the year after next," Jiang Zhuo said excitedly. "In addition to urban public transportation, the government has also formulated development plans for logistics vehicles, refrigerated trucks and commuter vehicles in the field of hydrogen energy, and stipulated the local subsidy amount per vehicle."
Peng Kun nodded without surprise, clearly already aware of the situation: "Therefore, we must accelerate the research and development of high-performance fuel cell systems to ensure our competitiveness in the market. Next year, I plan to increase R&D investment, especially in hydrogen fuel cells, raising the R&D ratio to 20%."
"Twenty percent? Isn't that too risky?"
"As long as we overcome the technical difficulties, shorten the R&D cycle, and secure a new round of financing as soon as possible, there will be no risks," Peng Kun said. "The key is whether we can break through the membrane electrode technology, reduce the amount of precious metals used, and lower the cost of fuel cells."
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