44.044 Showdown
After returning from the orchard, Su Yu stayed at the factory and worked diligently, never being late or leaving early. At the same time, she casually inquired, "If this easy and respectable job, with holiday benefits, were sold, it would be worth a thousand yuan or so, right?"
"Who would be stupid enough to sell this stable job? A thousand yuan is only two years' salary. You're sheltered from the wind and rain, and you can even hand the job over to your children when you retire. Selling your job for a thousand yuan is like killing the hen to get the egg."
Su Yu, utterly foolish for killing the goose that lays the golden eggs: "..."
However, she also knew that if someone could come up with a thousand dollars, she could immediately sell the job.
Su Yu didn't mention the matter for three whole days. Shu Manpo was restless and anxious, but he didn't dare to say anything. Su Yu was a determined and opinionated person. If she didn't want to do it, she would silently do the opposite of what you said even if you tried to persuade her.
She's a clever, experienced donkey; if there's no benefit to keep her, she'll just walk backwards and drive you crazy.
After much deliberation, Shumanpo decided to remain silent; if she backed down this time, it could wait for another opportunity.
On the fifth day at noon, Ning Jin came back with a bag of dirty clothes on his back. At this time, Su Yu and the two children had just finished eating. Ping An and Xiao Yuan were arguing about who would wash the dishes. Now, whoever washes the dishes gets one cent, whoever cooks gets two cents, and if the food tastes good, they get three cents.
Neither of the two children has earned a single cent to this day. Su Yu doesn't mind wasting food. As long as she's not allowed to cook, she'll eat plain rice even if the dishes are too salty.
"You wash the dishes and I'll cook." When Ping An saw his dad come back, he immediately stopped insisting on washing the dishes. He had already lost two rounds of rock-paper-scissors but was still trying to cheat by insisting on a best-of-five series.
"Oh, your eldest son can cook now?" Ning Jin exclaimed in surprise. "Then next time I come back, I won't eat here. I'll come back on an empty stomach and eat what my son makes."
Su Yu chuckled, watching Xiao Yuan happily carry the bowl to the kitchen, and said with a smile, "See? You have to keep your word. Even your dad won't side with you if you cheat."
"What's going on? There's a betting game involved?"
Su Yu told him about it, "Both boys can cook porridge now, but cooking rice is still a bit of a challenge, and the seasoning of stir-fries is even more inconsistent. Maybe you'll actually get to eat your two sons' cooking when you come back next time. Why don't you come back this time and rest for a few days?"
"Still three days, but next time I'll take a shorter trip, so I can come back every three or four days." He untied his dirty clothes and put the two pieces of cured meat weighing four or five pounds inside on the table. He asked Ping An to soak the clothes in the wash basin and said, "The two children are still young, don't rush to learn to cook, don't burn them again."
"Small? It's almost up to my chest." And it's very active, with firm flesh.
All this rambling is pointless. The tree on the hillside was about to shut down and go to sleep when it suddenly heard its beloved owner say, "I want to change jobs. I want to work in the orchard."
The surprise came too suddenly, and it excitedly fell into a deep sleep. This man is back and he's bound to have some improper activities; he has to stay away.
Ning Jin didn't take it seriously. He frowned slightly and glanced to the right, asking her mischievously, "You've only been doing this for a short time, less than a year and a half. You've already had two jobs. Why are you changing again? Did you do something big while I was away, and your boss wants to promote you again?"
"Do you remember when we went to the orchard last winter...?"
"How could I not remember? I came back exhausted and still got disliked."
"Ouch." Su Yu slapped him and said coquettishly, "Don't interrupt, let me speak first, I have to go to work after I finish."
"Okay, you go ahead." Ning Jin smiled, letting the person who still remembered to go to work speak first.
“I bought a lot of books to read, and when I went to check, I felt something was off. The more I read, the more I felt I might have discovered the problem. A few days ago, I couldn’t hold back anymore and took a day off to check. Sure enough, it was the soil acidity that was the problem. I helped solve it, and Manager Qiu from the orchard offered me a job there. At first, it was thirty yuan a month, and if I stayed for six months, he would give me a raise. He promised that in two years I could earn more than seventy yuan a month.” She looked at the man with delighted surprise and said with a touch of pride, “If you don’t get a raise in the next two years, I might earn more than you by then.”
"Impressive, impressive." Ning Jin clapped, but still said, "Why do I feel like you're being a bit eccentric? You have such a good job to choose from, and you only want to solve the problem of acidic soil? And you only graduated from junior high school, you've read a few more books in the past few months, and you're already this amazing? Why don't you teach me so I can go there too?"
Su Yu said disdainfully, "This is the talent of a farmer's child. I have sixteen years of farming experience, which is something you, a young master who grew up on government pay, cannot understand. The technical experts hired in the orchard all recognize me. If you don't believe me, you can go and ask around in the next couple of days. I can't make this up on my own."
Seeing that it was almost time for her to go to work, she stopped nagging, stood up and said, "I want to eat your leavened pancakes tonight, can you make them for me?"
"Okay, go to work."
Su Yu could tell that he didn't take her job change to heart, mainly because he didn't mention her selling her job or not going home for lunch. She planned to talk about it again when she got to bed that night.
As soon as she got home in the evening, she heard the sound of water in the yard. Su Yu pushed Xiao Hei's big head away, closed the door behind her, and asked the three people washing cars in the yard, "Whose bicycle is this? Or did we buy it?" It looked brand new.
"We bought it at home. I bought the bicycle voucher in the city when I was delivering goods. It cost fifty yuan. In total, the bicycle cost two hundred and eight yuan." Ning Jin moved the bicycle, whose wheels were polished to a shine, to a sunny spot to dry off and prevent it from rusting.
"I'll get a license plate for it tomorrow, then we won't need to borrow a bicycle anymore." The man told the two boys who had followed him to touch the bike to wash their hands, and then called to Su Yu, "Put your things down and wash your hands quickly. The leavened pancakes you wanted are ready, and they'll get cold in a bit."
The soft and chewy filling, the golden-brown and crispy outer shell, and the sweet potato flour inside made it sweeter the more you chewed. Su Yu didn't even add any pickled vegetables; she was so full from eating the pancakes that she started burping.
"Your pancakes are the best. You're so strong; the dough you knead doesn't fall apart and it's so elastic," Su Yu said, praising the man making the pancakes as she lay back in her chair.
“If you like it, I’ll make it for you again in a couple of days. It’s just that we’re running out of sweet potato flour at home. When you go back to your parents’ house, you can buy about ten pounds more. There are still four or five months until the sweet potato harvest this year.” Ning Jin thought of his father-in-law and mother-in-law and said, “If you’re not free, I’ll go and check on things for you and cut off a piece of the cured meat I brought back to send over as well.”
"Go if you want, I went a few days ago." Su Yu returned the favor and asked, "Do you want to send a pound or two of cured meat to your parents?"
Ning Jin said no, his parents lived with his eldest brother, and they would only give him money and gifts during holidays and birthday celebrations. He said that since he was the youngest, if he were too attentive, it would put pressure on his second brother, whose wife had a low salary and many children. Anyway, he didn't let Su Yu know that he had almost fallen out with the old family home.
Lying in bed at night, Su Yu kept quiet about changing jobs. She locked the doors and windows and then started rocking the bed. She hadn't eaten meat for half a month, and not only did her man crave it, but she was also thirsty for it.
In the sweltering and noisy enclosed space, the tin clock quietly moved its shortest hand one notch. With the window open, the creaking of the bed and the suppressed, unbearable murmurs of people were gone, and the sound of its ticking became clear and rhythmic in the room.
"Should I wash it for you or do you wash it yourself?" the man asked with ill intent.
"Go get some water, I'll wash myself." Su Yu rolled over and lay face down on the bed, reaching out her fair arm to grab the underwear that was lying on the floor.
Ning Jin grabbed the white cotton shorts first, glanced up and saw the rounded shape squeezed out by the bedside. She rubbed her fingertips together, glanced at it, swallowed hard, threw the crumpled cloth on the bed, and silently went to pour water and bring it to the bedside.
"I don't need to go out, do I?" he asked, clearing his throat.
"Go get me another pair of underwear from the box, this one's covered in dust." Su Yu tossed the underwear onto a stool nearby.
"Just shake off the dust," the man muttered, shirtless, as he asked her which box contained her underwear.
"The second small box, you'll see it as soon as you open it." Su Yu took the underwear and put it on, her watery eyes gazing at him as she breathed softly, "The dusty parts are wet, and you can't shake them off."
"How could there be...water?" The man thought of something, turned his face away, coughed, and said with amusement, "Then it's time to change to a clean one."
Ning Jin was fierce in this matter, but he lacked experience and relied on hearsay. He was not as experienced as Su Yu, who had seen the film firsthand. He couldn't resist the temptation when the bed was rocking, but he became somewhat reserved afterward. Due to his sex education, he had eighteen mental steps, but he couldn't say them out loud, as if he would bite his lip if he tried to speak.
Su Yu loved his hesitant, amused expression, his mature yet unknowingly cloaked in a youthful exterior. She would nibble on the skin and savor the sweet juice, a taste unique to her.
A cool evening breeze blew in through the window. Su Yu stacked two pillows together and placed them under her head. Watching the man under the bed carefully washing the condom, she said, "Can we talk about my job change again?"
Knowing she hadn't given up, Ning Jin opened the door, splashed the water from the basin into the yard, placed the blanket on the smooth, polished wood to dry, lifted the blanket, hugged the woman in his arms, patted her head, and said, "Tell me, I'm listening."
“I’ve inquired about it. My job can sell for around 1,000 yuan. I’ll sell this job and go work in the orchard. I have a bicycle, and if I ride fast, it only takes half an hour. It’s not much different from working in town. It’s just not worth coming back for lunch. In the early stages, I won’t come back for lunch until I’m used to it. When autumn comes, I can get home at 11:30 and leave at 1:30. It’s not tiring.”
Honestly, when Su Yu was thinking about it alone, her hesitations were about the sun and the distance. But when the man disagreed, she wanted to prove herself right. She felt that a half-hour drive was no big deal. Even at the cannery, if she walked slowly and talked to someone on the way, it would take her more than ten minutes to get back.
"You've already found out the price? Then it doesn't matter whether I agree or not. I think you'll change jobs even if I don't agree." The man's mood instantly soured.
“That’s definitely not it. I haven’t even spread the word yet. If I didn’t value your opinion, I would have already gone to work in the orchard.” Su Yu tilted her head back, her head hitting the man’s collarbone to express her dissatisfaction. She continued, “My salary at this job hasn’t changed much. In five years, it might still be thirty-eight or forty-eight. Besides, I don’t like the atmosphere there. It’s all gossip all the time, either complaining about the mother-in-law or having grudges against the daughter-in-law. I’m worried that if I work there for a few more years, every time you come back, I’ll be talking about how Aunt Liu’s grandson lost a tooth, how she and her daughter-in-law were arguing again, and how the wicked mother-in-law on East Street was cursing again.”
Su Yu turned to see him frowning, and continued to express her feelings: "You are always traveling around, seeing the great rivers and mountains of our motherland, you have a broad vision and a lot of knowledge, and your heart is full of building roads and bridges. I am afraid that you will get tired of my nagging in the future, and I also want to progress with you."
Feeling guilty, Ning Jin didn't dare look at the woman opposite him. Right now, all he could think about while he was away was his wife and child, and the hot meals and flimsy bed at home.
He pressed her head down, letting her face rest on his chest. "Don't think I agree just because you're praising me. Your job is pretty good now. You're sheltered from the wind and rain, and it's easy. I'll take care of the family's finances, so don't worry too much. Working in the orchard is exhausting, no easier than farming."
Su Yu sighed, "I'm not watering trees or carrying fruit, how tiring could it be? How about this, besides the reasons you mentioned, you can give me more reasons. If you can convince me, I won't change it."
“If you don’t come back at noon, what will happen to Xiaoyuan and Ping’an? We were planning to have a child in another year or two. When you’re pregnant and giving birth, how will you be able to handle the hard work in the orchard? The factory is better; it’s more relaxed, closer to home, and the salary isn’t low,” Ning Jin said.
For these two reasons alone, Su Yu needs to change jobs, otherwise she'll really be tied to her child.
“I’m home morning and night. I’ll cook an extra dish in the morning, and they can cook rice or noodles for themselves after school, so they won’t go hungry. As for getting pregnant, maybe I’ll find a better job in two years. Besides, in the countryside now, who doesn’t work when they’re heavily pregnant? Some people even give birth in the fields.” Su Yu reassured herself: “I’m not afraid of hardship or fatigue, I’m just afraid of losing my ambition and becoming annoyingly nagging.”
"You... I can't understand you at all. I'm just worried about you." Ning Jin was thinking about going to see his father-in-law and mother-in-law at dawn. He couldn't handle her and was even somewhat going along with her wishes, which was not good. He needed to call for help.
Su Yu was also determined to change jobs. Putting aside the hardship and fatigue, she had never done it before. If she was afraid of the sun, she would wear a hat, a mask, and a scarf. Moreover, with the support of the professional system of Shumanpo, she did not believe that she would not be able to go to get off work and leave work freely in a year or two.
She didn't want to work so she could raise, get pregnant, and give birth!
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