Xu Ningyan glanced down at it; was it in English or German? Without thinking too much about it, she tossed it into her spatial storage.
He casually took the newspapers and a stack of comic books that he had previously hidden away as cover and carried them out.
Seeing Xu Ningyan's posture, the old man outside didn't say anything, but gestured for her to put the items on the scale to weigh them.
It cost a total of one dollar and two cents.
Xu Ningyan took out a dollar and fifty cents and stuffed it into the old man's hand: "Grandpa, if you ever find any books that look neat and tidy, please save them for me. I'll come and browse around whenever I have time."
The old man looked at the money in his hand, then at Xu Ningyan, silently put the money in his pocket, tossed over a piece of plastic rope, and gestured for Xu Ningyan to tie up the books.
He said in a low voice, "In half a month, another batch of confiscated drugs from the whole county will be stored here for two days before being transferred to the city."
Xu Ningyan immediately understood.
The two exchanged a glance, understanding each other without saying a word.
Carrying the books and newspapers, Xu Ningyan left the scrap metal recycling station.
I walked to a secluded spot, tossed the books and newspapers into the storage space, clapped my hands, wiped them clean with a wet wipe before taking off my handkerchief and mask.
I wiped my hands again and checked the time; it was still early.
I went back to the department store first, washed my hair, took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and washed and hung up the clothes I had taken off.
Only then did they go to the state-run restaurant.
When Xu Ningyan wants to please someone, almost no one can resist her sweet words.
In just a few words, he had the lady in charge of collecting money at the state-run restaurant so happy that she couldn't stop smiling. Not only did she give him a free bowl of soup at noon, but she also promised to have the head chef make him a braised fish and a braised pork hock for dinner, both of which were the head chef's specialties.
Xu Ningyan chatted with the older woman and helped clean up the plates and tables after the customers finished eating.
After most of the people had left, they paid the deposit and bought the tickets.
Seemingly from her handbag, but actually from her inner pocket, she gave the lady a brick-red hair tie and a small bag of dried mushrooms as a thank-you gift for the head chef in the kitchen.
Building a good relationship might come in handy someday.
Sure enough, the older sister was overjoyed when she saw the hair tie. As she tied it in her hair, she said ingratiatingly, "Don't worry! The master chef is my cousin. As long as I ask, I guarantee he'll take care of it perfectly for you."
He called out to the kitchen, and the chubby head chef walked over with a cigarette in his mouth.
After listening to her older sister's words, she looked Ai Xu Ningyan up and down before snorting in agreement.
Xu Ningyan hurriedly presented the bag of mushrooms: "Then I'll have to trouble you, Master! These mushrooms are ones we picked from the mountains and dried ourselves. We country folk don't really know what they taste like, so I'll trouble you to try them for us. That way we'll have something to say about them later, and maybe we can even sell them for a little money."
The head chef raised his eyelids, took the bag of mushrooms, opened it, smelled it, looked at its color, and nodded: "It looks pretty good. I'll know once I try it in the dish tonight."
"Okay! Thank you so much, Master Chef! You've worked so hard!" Xu Ningyan thanked him repeatedly.
The bag of mushrooms naturally ended up in the master chef's hands.
Xu Ningyan took the receipt from the woman at the state-run restaurant and planned to go back to her dormitory to rest first, and then come back to pack the leftovers later that evening.
Back in the dorm, lying on the bed, I wasn't feeling particularly relaxed, so I decided to check my social media profile to see what I'd accomplished that day.
There were many shelves in the space, but because a lot of goods had been sold, many of the shelves were now empty.
It's perfect for sorting and arranging the items picked up from the recycling station, without taking up too much space, and making everything easy to see at a glance.
Place various types of wood and small wooden furniture in one compartment, porcelain and the like in another, and the rest in books and calligraphy/paintings.
When she was finally sorting through everything, Xu Ningyan noticed the two foreign language books that she had carelessly tossed into her storage space in her haste to leave.
Xu Ningyan flipped through it. Although she didn't understand what it was about, she could still understand the title.
There's a book called something like "Principles and Applications of Modified Gears" and another called "The Classic American Book on Mechanical Vibration"—the titles alone are incredibly difficult to pronounce. (The book titles are from Baidu; there may be discrepancies in publication dates, countries, or authors, so please consider them fictional! After all, the authors aren't experts in this field.)
It's like a book written in a foreign language; flipping through just a couple of pages makes you dizzy.
Unexpectedly, it was a book about mechanical design, as if it had been specially sent to her by God to pass on to Gu Zhiyuan.
Xu Ningyan didn't think much of it. After all, he was a big shot, so he must have good fortune. He could turn bad luck into good luck and it was normal for him to have people come to his aid in everything.
Speaking of this book, it reminded Xu Ningyan that she also had quite a few books in her space.
In preparation for her time travel, she stockpiled almost everything, both things she should and shouldn't have.
One batch of books was bought up by her when a nearby bookstore was closing down and having a clearance sale.
There should be quite a few technical books inside, right?
I found the place where I had previously hoarded books. Fortunately, they were all collected and arranged according to category, which made it easy to find them.
They quickly found the section on professional technical reference books, and as Xu Ningyan had expected, they found several reference books.
Such as "Practical Atlas of Mechanical Design Mechanisms and Devices", "Detailed Explanation of Examples of Non-Standard Mechanical Design Projects", "Handbook for Mechanical Designers", etc.
Xu Ningyan thought for a moment, then took out the "Practical Atlas of Mechanical Design Mechanisms and Devices" separately and tore off the cover, as well as the pages at the front and back with the publication date.
She erased or scraped off any words related to the year with a knife.
In the end, I received a tattered book, riddled with holes.
Xu Ningyan was still not satisfied, so she threw it on the ground and stomped on it several times with her shoes, making the book look like it had been through countless tortures. Then she picked it up and examined it, but found no flaws. Only then did she put it together with the two books she had received from the recycling station.
I plan to give it to Gu Zhiyuan at the right time; it should be very helpful to him, right?
Forget about those two books, the one I created myself is a culmination of experience from later generations. For Gu Zhiyuan, and even for the entire country, it's a form of poverty alleviation assistance.
After finishing this book, Xu Ningyan was exhausted.
I glanced at my watch and realized it was almost time to leave work.
She quickly got up, and there was already a knock on the door. The voice was unhurried, clearly in Gu Zhiyuan's style: "A-Ning, are you inside?"
Xu Ningyan hurriedly shouted outside, "Yes, yes! Wait a minute!"
After tidying up a bit, Gu Zhiyuan opened the door and stood there. Behind him, several of his colleagues from the neighboring dormitories peeked over and looked in his direction.
It was Lin Hong again. After getting off work, she headed towards the dormitory. Seeing Gu Zhiyuan and Xu Ningyan, she breathed a sigh of relief and waved to them, saying, "Let's go!"
Xu Ningyan came out, locked the door, and followed Lin Hong out of the department store with Gu Zhiyuan.
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