Chapter 26 Chapter 26 Visiting a Kindergarten

Monday is here, a new week has begun, and adults have to go back to work.

At 7:30 in the morning, Meng Yufei took Xia Qinqin out to work on time, and went to the cafeteria to have breakfast first. This morning, there was local specialty rice noodles.

Meng Yufei ordered a big bowl of rice noodles, which were topped with bean sprouts, pickled cabbage, bamboo shoots, lean pork shreds, and fried peanuts. It was a rich array of ingredients, and it was also drizzled with a secret sauce. The big bowl looked very appetizing.

After stirring with chopsticks, each rice noodle is coated with the salty and sweet sauce, which tastes extremely delicious.

Rice noodles are slippery and difficult for children to eat, so Meng Yufei feeds her daughter first. She picks up a handful of rice noodles with chopsticks and puts it into her mouth. Xia Qinqin, the greedy little cat, narrows her eyes in satisfaction and says, "This is delicious~"

Meng Yufei smiled and said, "If it tastes good, eat more."

After breakfast, I left the cafeteria and went upstairs.

Meng Yufei took out her key and opened the door of the Finance Department's office. She put her bag on a chair, asked Xia Qinqin to sit next to her, and picked up the broom behind the door to sweep the floor.

Section Chief Chen from the Personnel Department next door came over and knocked on the door of the office and said, "Director Meng, the director asked us to go to his office."

After Meng Yufei resolved the issue at Captain Qin's home last week, it was basically confirmed that she would come to work in the Finance Department. Section Chief Chen changed her title promptly. No matter what position she will be assigned in the future, it would be right to call her Director first.

Meng Yufei nodded and said, "Okay, I'll be right there."

After saying this, he put down the broom in his hand, told Xia Qinqin to wait for him in the office, and followed Section Chief Chen to Director Fu's office.

Xia Qinqin was already very familiar with this office. When her mother said she was going out for a while, she didn't want to follow her. She just nodded obediently and promised not to run around.

After Meng Yufei left the office, Xia Qinqin trotted to the door, picked up the broom, gripped the handle with both hands, and swept back and forth on the ground with great effort.

Mom is busy now. Let me help her sweep the floor.

Meng Yufei followed Section Chief Chen to the director's office. The door was open. Section Chief Chen knocked on the door. Director Fu, who was sitting behind the desk, heard the noise, looked up and saw the two people. He smiled and pointed to the two chairs in front of the desk and said, "You are here. Come in and sit down."

After the two of them sat down, Director Fu got straight to the point and said, "I called you here today to discuss the personnel transfer with you."

Section Chief Chen obviously knew about this a long time ago and was not surprised. Meng Yufei's eyes flashed with doubt, but she did not ask, and sat quietly and listened.

Director Fu continued, "Xiao Meng, you handled the situation last week very well. You are indeed a student from a prestigious university. Your abilities did not disappoint."

Meng Yufei smiled and said, "Director, you are kind enough."

Director Fu smiled and said, "To be honest, I have already reported your work to the teacher, and he is very satisfied. He hopes that you can continue to work in the Finance Department."

This officially confirms that Meng Yufei will stay in the Finance Department.

Meng Yufei said hurriedly: "Thank you for your trust, Master. I will work hard in the future and live up to his trust."

Director Fu said, "Since you are determined to come to the Finance Department to work, we will definitely cooperate with your work. Considering that you are the only one working in the Finance Department, I am thinking of assigning someone else to you."

At this point, Director Fu paused for a moment and continued, "Our logistics department is always short of staff. After much deliberation, I decided to assign someone from the personnel department to you."

At this point, he looked at Section Chief Chen and said, "I talked to Section Chief Chen about this. She expressed her understanding and cooperation, and agreed to give you someone. You two can discuss who to call over."

Meng Yufei smiled and said, "Thank you for your concern for my work. Section Chief Chen supports my work so much, I don't have the nerve to ask for anything more. The people brought up by Section Chief Chen must have unquestionable work abilities. It's up to Section Chief Chen to decide."

The leader asked her to choose someone politely, so she couldn't really choose him impolitely.

Hearing her say this, Section Chief Fu smiled and nodded, then said, "Section Chief Chen, who do you think is suitable to go?"

Section Chief Chen said, "Well, although we currently have four people in our department, the workload is still quite heavy. Section Chief Ma has a lot of experience and is most familiar with the work of our personnel department. He is indispensable here. The only two young people who can be transferred over are Xiao Wu and Xiao Zhang."

Director Fu nodded and said, "Young people learn things quickly."

Section Chief Chen said, "Director Meng, which of these two young men do you want to choose to go over?"

Meng Yufei said: "I don't know much about these two people either, so it's better for you to decide, Chief Chen."

Section Chief Chen pondered for a while and said, "Director Meng, you have just come to the Finance Department and you don't know much about our Logistics Department. How about this, let Xiao Zhang, who has more work experience, go to your place. Xiao Zhang is a general under my command, he is smart and capable."

Finally, Chief Chen decided to keep Xiao Wu who was more capable of handling things.

Meng Yufei smiled and said, "Thank you, Chief Chen. It was Xiao Zhang who helped me get the connection. She is indeed a capable girl."

Director Fu nodded with satisfaction and said, "Okay, let's go with her. Let her go today so that she can quickly get familiar with the work and distribute the tickets to the families."

Section Chief Chen and Meng Yufei both said, "Okay."

After leaving the director's office, Section Chief Chen said, "Director Meng, please go back to the office first. I will let Xiao Zhang go over later."

"Okay, thank you."

When Meng Yufei returned to the office, Xia Qinqin came over with a broom and asked for credit: "Mom, look, I've finished sweeping the floor."

Seeing this little person holding a broom that was almost as tall as her, Meng Yufei's heart softened. She squatted down and kissed her daughter on the cheek, praising her, "Great, Qinqin can sweep the floor now. She's become a little adult now."

Xia Qinqin said with a smile: "Then Mom, can you reward me with a candy?" Then she stretched out her index finger and waved it in front of her face.

Meng Yufei gently tapped her forehead and smiled, "Okay, Mom will give you two as a reward, go get them from your bag yourself."

"Great! Thank you, Mom!" Xia Qinqin kissed Meng Yufei and happily ran to her bag to get some candy.

Meng Yufei took a basin and fetched some water, dipped a rag in it, and wiped the three tables.

After a while, Xiao Zhang came in with a bunch of things.

"Sister Meng, I'm here to seek refuge with you."

Meng Yufei smiled and said, "Welcome, welcome. You can choose which table you want to sit at."

Xiao Zhang casually placed the things on the first table after entering the door and said with a smile: "That's it, Sister Meng, I will follow you from now on."

Meng Yufei said: "Xiao Zhang, I'm sorry to ask you to leave your original department and come to help me."

Xiao Zhang waved his hands and said, "It's the same no matter where I work. Besides, it's even more fun working with you, Sister Meng."

The two of them packed up Xiao Zhang's things together. Meng Yufei's job today was to sort out the tickets to be issued to each household. Xiao Zhang happened to come to help. She had worked in the personnel department before and had a certain understanding of the personnel relations in the family home.

After listening to Meng Yufei's work arrangements, Xiao Zhang nodded repeatedly and said, "We should have done this a long time ago. Look at the people in the city. Every family has a food book. Every time they go to buy food, they just need to show the food book. It's not like our family courtyard. The Finance Department thought it was too much trouble and refused to do it before."

Meng Yufei didn't understand: "Giving each family a budget only takes some time to do it, but won't it save us trouble every month afterwards?"

Xiao Zhang sighed and said, "In the beginning, there were only a few families who followed the army, and the finance department thought that they could just distribute the money directly without the trouble of preparing the ration books. Later, more and more families followed the army, and they kept putting it off until tomorrow, and then until the day after tomorrow. As more people came, they became even more lazy to do it."

Meng Yufei: "...Forget it, let's not worry about what happened before. Let's hurry up and sort it out in the next few days."

Xiao Zhang nodded and said, "Yeah, okay."

There are 103 households and 408 people in the family compound. It is a lot of work to sort them all out, but fortunately, both of them are efficient and work very well.

Originally, Meng Yufei estimated that it would take at least four or five days to complete it by herself, but now with Xiao Zhang, it is estimated that it will be done in two or three days.

Xia Qinqin, who was sitting on the side, saw her mother and Auntie Zhang working hard, so she was bored and randomly drawing on the paper with her paintbrush. She was not in the mood to paint today.

She was really bored, so she started playing with the candy wrapper again. She had finished the candy long ago, so she picked up the colored pen and doodled on the big white rabbit on the candy wrapper.

Meng Yufei looked up and saw Xia Qinqin sitting there playing with candy wrappers boredly. After thinking for a while, she asked Xiao Zhang, "Xiao Zhang, where do the children in the family compound go to kindergarten?"

Xiao Zhang replied, "There is no kindergarten in our compound, and all the children go to kindergarten in town. Sister Meng, are you going to send Qinqin to school?"

Meng Yufei nodded and said, "Yes, I have to come to work. There is no one at home to take care of Qinqin. It is not good to bring her to work every day. She will be bored here alone. It is better to send her to kindergarten. At least there will be people of the same age to play with. Xiao Zhang, do you know where the kindergarten is in the town?"

Xiao Zhang said, "It's at the town government. Do you know where the town government is?"

Meng Yufei said, "I know. I went to the post office a few days ago. Um... it's a bit far." It took her more than twenty minutes to walk there that day.

Xiao Zhang said, "It's a bit far to walk. If you have a bicycle, it will only take about ten minutes. Unfortunately, the roads on our island are not suitable for cycling. The ups and downs of the dirt and gravel roads make cycling more tiring than walking."

Meng Yufei thought for a moment and said, "Xiao Zhang, I will come a little later this afternoon. I will take Qinqin to the kindergarten to find out the situation first."

Xiao Zhang nodded and said, "Okay, Sister Meng, you can go without worry. I'm here."

When she went home for lunch at noon, Meng Yufei told Xia Junshan about going to kindergarten in the afternoon. Xia Junshan said, "How about I take a day off in the afternoon and go with you guys."

Meng Yufei said: "No, just go and find out the situation first. If you want to send her to school, you can go together when Qinqin officially goes to school."

When Xia Qinqin heard that she was going to school, she stopped eating, swallowed the rice in her mouth, looked up and asked, "Mom, do I have to go to kindergarten?"

Meng Yufei nodded and said, "Yes, all children have to go to kindergarten."

Xia Qinqin asked doubtfully: "But my kindergarten is not here, should we go back?"

Meng Yufei explained: "There is a kindergarten here, too. Can we go to kindergarten here?"

Xia Qinqin thought for a moment and asked, "Is there a Zhuangzhuang or a teacher named Linlin in the kindergarten here?"

Zhuangzhuang would give her delicious chocolates, and teacher Linlin would sing for her.

Meng Yufei shook her head and said, "There will be new children and new teachers in the kindergarten here."

Xia Qinqin said a little disappointedly: "Then can I not go? I want to go to work with my mother."

Meng Yufei said, "No, the children have to go to school and the adults have to go to work. There are many children in the kindergarten, you can go and make new friends."

Xia Qinqin whispered, "Okay."

After waking up from a nap, Meng Yufei combed Xia Qinqin's hair into a neat high ponytail and also braided a few small braids to decorate it.

Wearing straw hats, the two set off for kindergarten.

I walked along the road in front of the family compound towards the town government. When I arrived, I asked passers-by and found out that the kindergarten was in front of the right side of the town government.

It was the afternoon school time for the kindergarten. There was a sign of "Nanya Island Kindergarten" hanging in front of the kindergarten gate. There was a large courtyard inside. The three rooms at the back were classrooms, and the two rooms on the left were teachers' offices.

The kindergarten is not big, but there are quite a few students. Many children came one after another, some came in groups of three or five, and some were sent by their parents. They ran around in the yard and chattered non-stop.

Meng Yufei came to the teacher's office to inquire about the basic situation and admission procedures of the kindergarten.

"Here, the school hours are from 8:00 to 11:30 in the morning, and from 2:30 to 5:00 in the afternoon. There is no lunch, and there are three classes: large, small, and medium."

"The enrollment process is not a hassle. You just need to bring your ID. For residents of our island, it costs five dollars a year to go to school. If you are in a family school, it costs ten dollars a year."

The kindergarten is funded by the town government, so naturally it will give preferential treatment to local residents.

Meng Yufei asked: "So how many students are there in the kindergarten now?"

"About 130 or so. The big class has the most people, about 50 or so. The middle class has more than 40, and the small class has 30. How old is your child?"

Meng Yufei said: "Four years old."

"Oh, then you can go to the middle class."

Meng Yufei came out of the kindergarten, feeling a little distressed. There were too many students in this class. She just took a look outside and there was only one teacher for each class. She couldn't handle it all. The crying of children in several classes never stopped.

Moreover, this place is too far from the family compound. Without lunch, we have to go back and forth four times a day, which adds up to about an hour and a half of walking a day, which is a bit too much for a child.

On the way back, Xia Qinqin asked, "Mom, do I want to go to school here?"

Meng Yufei asked her: "Do you like it here?"

Xia Qinqin shook her head and said, "I don't like it. There are no toys here and the children keep crying. Qinqin doesn't like it."

Meng Yufei said: "Then let's not rush to go to school. Let's wait until mom finishes the work at hand."

Xia Qinqin asked: "Qinqin, are you going to continue to accompany your mother to work?"

Meng Yufei nodded and said, "Yes, that's right."

Xia Qinqin smiled, holding her mother's hand and jumping up and down, and said happily: "Qinqin likes to work with her mother."

After returning from kindergarten, they went straight to work in the logistics department. Xiao Zhang asked, "Sister Meng, what do you think? The conditions of the kindergarten on our island are definitely not comparable to those in Haishi."

Meng Yufei told her about her plan, and Xiao Zhang nodded in agreement, saying, "It doesn't matter if you go to kindergarten for one or two days. I've heard that in that kindergarten, the children just play every day and the teachers don't teach them anything. Many families in our compound don't send their children there."

Meng Yufei then remembered that Fangfang from Zhang Dasao's family next door didn't seem to go to kindergarten either.

She asked curiously, "Why doesn't our home run a kindergarten? I think there are about 30 to 40 children of the appropriate age in the home, which is enough to run a kindergarten."

Xiao Zhang said: "Someone mentioned it before. It seems that there is no place. Last year, Director Wang from the Women's Committee came to the Finance Department to apply for funds to build a kindergarten. The Finance Department said that there was no money and could not allocate so much funds. Later, the matter was left unresolved."

Meng Yufei secretly took it to heart and thought about looking through the documents later to see if there were any relevant regulations.

In the afternoon, fearing that Xia Qinqin would be bored, Meng Yufei brought a copy of "Children's Library" for her to read. There were many illustrations in the book, and even Qinqin, who didn't know many words, enjoyed reading it.

After a day, Meng Yufei and Xiao Zhang had sorted out the tickets for fifty households. Meng Yufei looked at her watch and said, "Let's go home. At today's speed, we'll be able to sort out almost everything by tomorrow."

Xiao Zhang stretched his back and said, "Thanks to Sister Meng for making this form in advance. By comparing the contents above, we were able to complete it very quickly."

Meng Yufei closed the account book and said, "Let's go eat. Working upstairs in the cafeteria, smelling the aroma of food in the cafeteria makes me hungry faster than usual."

Xiao Zhang stood up and packed up his things and said with a smile: "Who said it wasn't true? Every day when I smell the aroma of food in the cafeteria, I guess what is cooked in the cafeteria."

Meng Yufei picked up her shoulder bag, put Xia Qinqin's books in it, and said with a smile, "Then guess what was burned today?"

"Well, I guess there are shrimps. According to the master chef's habit, it is most likely fried shrimps with green onions."

As they were talking, the two of them closed the window, took Xia Qinqin out of the office, locked the door, and went downstairs to the cafeteria.

As Xiao Zhang expected, the cafeteria cooked fried shrimps with scallions today. Meng Yufei knew that the shrimps here didn't require a ticket, so she ordered one without thinking and spent thirty-five cents.

As usual, I ordered another vegetarian dish. After looking around, I chose stir-fried green beans, which cost seven cents. The soup was seaweed and egg drop soup, which cost five cents a portion.

The staple food today was steamed bread. Meng Yufei made five large steamed breads, which were quite filling, and one was bigger than her fist. Each steamed bread cost three cents, and five cost 15 cents, which was 30 grams of grain coupons.

Meng Yufei carried the lunch box and walked back home holding Xia Qinqin's arm. Mrs. Zhang from next door was washing things in the yard. The walls of both houses were half-person-high bamboo fences. Although there was a distance between them, they could still see clearly what was happening in each other's yards when they looked up.

Mrs. Zhang called out, "Sister, you're back from get off work. Wait a minute, I have something to bring you." Then she turned and went back into the house, returning with a plate.

"This is the chive dumpling I made this afternoon. The filling is the first batch of chives from my yard. It's very fresh and tender. Girls, please try it and see how it tastes."

The relationship between the two families is pretty good now, so Meng Yufei didn't hesitate to take the plate and said, "Thank you, sister-in-law. The noodles you make must be delicious."

Mrs. Zhang waved her hands and said, "What are you thanking me for? I ate your crab sauce yesterday. You know what, your crab sauce tastes really good. My husband Ma ate three bowls of noodles with it last night, and he ran several laps at the beach."

Meng Yufei smiled and said, "My husband Xia also likes it. Next time I go to the sea, I will catch some crabs and make crab sauce. Then I'll trouble you to come over and help me."

Mrs. Zhang said, "Okay, you can call me when the time comes."

Meng Yufei went back to the house, put the chive boxes on her own plate, and returned the plate to Mrs. Zhang.

After seeing off Mrs. Zhang, Meng Yufei took Xia Qinqin to wash their hands, and went back to the house to put the dishes on the table.

Xia Qinqin looked at the chive box and asked curiously, "Mom, this dumpling is so big."

Meng Yufei smiled and said, "This is called leek box."

Xia Qinqin tilted her head and asked, "What is a leek box? This doesn't look like a box."

Meng Yufei thought for a moment and said, "Well, you're right. This is a large dumpling, but it's not boiled in water. It's cooked in a pot."

Xia Qinqin didn't know what a kang was, but she understood that it was not boiled in water, so she said, "So, leek dumplings are dumplings that don't need to be boiled in water."

Meng Yufei nodded and said, "Uh, about the same."

When Xia Junshan came back and saw leeks and steamed bread on the table, he said with a smile, "What day is today? You ordered two kinds of staple food."

Meng Yufei said seriously: "I have two stomachs for noodles at home, so I made two kinds of noodles for you."

Xia Junshan touched his head and said with a smile: "Then we should get another portion of rice. Don't we still have a stomach for rice?"

Meng Yufei smiled and said, "The chive dumplings were sent by Mrs. Zhang next door, and the steamed buns were made in the cafeteria. Let's eat the chive dumplings tonight and the steamed buns tomorrow."

Xia Junshan nodded and said, "Okay. I'll make breakfast for you tomorrow morning. We still have eggs at home. Slice the steamed buns, wrap them with eggs, and fry them in a pan. They'll be delicious."

Meng Yufei said: "I didn't expect you to know so much."

Xia Junshan puffed out his chest and said, "Of course, I have a few more tricks up my sleeve. I'll show them to you later."

Xia Qinqin curiously circled around Xia Junshan, looked up and asked seriously: "Dad, where are your other hands hidden?"

Xia Junshan: “…”

At the dinner table, Xia Junshan peeled shrimps for Xia Qinqin. The sauce of stir-fried shrimps with scallions was heavy, and the sauce covered her hands as soon as she touched them.

Meng Yufei said, "You eat first, I'll peel it for her."

Xia Junshan said, "No, my hands are already stained with sauce, so I might as well peel them off first. Don't touch them."

Xia Junshan peeled the shrimps very quickly and put all the shrimps into Xia Qinqin and Meng Yufei's bowls. Meng Yufei picked up a few and put them into his bowl. When Xia Qinqin saw this, she also picked up some shrimps and put them into her father's bowl.

After peeling the shrimp, Xia Junshan went to wash his hands. Meng Yufei handed him a leek box and said, "Try this leek box quickly. The leeks inside are grown by Mrs. Zhang in her own yard. They are very fresh."

Xia Junshan took a bite and nodded repeatedly, saying, "I have to say, this Zhang Dasao is really good at making noodles."

Meng Yufei picked up another chive box, broke it open, gave half to Xia Qinqin, and ate the other half herself.

Xia Qinqin looked at the stuffing inside and pointed at the yellow stuffing on top and asked, "Mom, what is this?"

Meng Yufei took a look and said, "It's an egg. Try it and see if it tastes good."

Xia Qinqin lowered her head and took a bite. She was about to speak, but then she remembered what her mother had told her. She swallowed the food in her mouth before saying, "It's delicious. It tastes just like the dumplings my grandma made."

Well, Xia Qinqin is now convinced that chive dumplings are just big dumplings.