Chapter 254 is here.
Sending a telegram is definitely a waste of money compared to writing a letter.
But it will take at least a month or two to get to Xinjiang province.
Leaving her hometown for an unfamiliar place, even though Zhang Cui was already in her forties, she felt uneasy. Without sending a telegram to Song Lubai in advance, she wouldn't know where to go after getting off the train.
After receiving the telegram, Song Lubai went to the tobacco company to find Director Xu.
In the past few days, quite a few people have come looking for her: warehouse keepers, cafeteria staff, hospital cleaners, workers in the biscuit workshop of a food factory…
It's not that there aren't good jobs, it's just that the wages are too low in the first few years, and you have to start as an apprentice. The wages are too low, and you still have to rent a place to live, so it's not enough to support the mother and her two children.
After much deliberation, Song Lubai still felt that the tobacco company was the better option.
"Director Xu, is there a canteen near the tobacco station? Can you guarantee that my mother, brother, and I can all have enough to eat? I've had quite a few people come to me lately, all with similar conditions, and I'm overwhelmed with choices. If you can guarantee that they can eat their fill every day and receive a monthly salary, I'll bring them here when my mother arrives."
Director Xu knew she was negotiating, but coincidentally, there really was a small canteen at the tobacco station where they ate communal meals, so he could confidently guarantee it.
"Don't worry, you won't go hungry once you get to the tobacco station. Xiao Song, your mother will be working for the tobacco company, which is different from the tobacco station staff. But the tobacco company staff often have to go to the countryside to work. Our company provides food for the tobacco station. Right now, we eat from the same pot. Your mother and the others will definitely have food to eat. After deducting food expenses, you'll have to go to the finance department to find out how much they'll receive each month."
Song Lubai nodded, "Okay, I'll bring her here as soon as my mom arrives. Then I'll take your niece to the department to complete the formalities. But Director Xu, you need to let me see your niece's high school diploma beforehand."
Although people are not very friendly to intellectuals now, there are some jobs that can only be done by intellectuals. If you can't read or understand the rules and regulations, you can't do them.
After the two made their agreement, Director Xu said to Song Lubai with a beaming smile, "I've arranged for two rooms for your mother at the tobacco station. It's more than 30 kilometers from the city, so it's not easy to go there. If you want to pack in advance, come with your things early in the morning four days from now, and we'll go together by donkey cart."
Song Lubai herself didn't have much property. Wei Yang had taken everything that was supposed to be taken, and there was hardly any furniture left. There was nothing left to pack for her mother.
When she went to find Feng Ying, she happened to hear that the cotton mill had recently produced a batch of defective fabric.
Defective fabric is a product that fails inspection and is highly sought after in the market. However, people without connections still cannot buy it because these defective products do not require fabric coupons; they can be bought with money.
Such products are bought up by the staff and their relatives and friends as soon as they enter the department store; those without connections don't even hear about them.
The machines at the Shicheng cotton and wool mills were not advanced, and most of the fabrics they produced were cotton. The new wrinkle-free fabrics sold in stores were all imported from inland areas.
Defective fabric is indeed not very good. Either the pattern is wrong, or the weave is not dense enough, there are snags in some places, and there are loose threads in the corners.
However, the price is really cheap, only one cent per foot.
Before leaving, Wei Yang worried that she might not have enough money, so he left her some.
Thinking back to the last time she went back, the twins' pants were so short that their ankles were showing, Song Lubai wanted to buy ten yuan's worth of fabric.
Sister Li rolled her eyes unhappily, "You can't buy this much by yourself. If you buy it all, how are the others supposed to buy anything?"
Feng Ying said, "I'll ask for ten yuan with her, is that alright?"
Sister Li said with a droopy face, "That won't do either, six yuan at most."
The fabrics were either dark blue or black, with few floral patterns, and Song Lubai only managed to snag one piece.
The two of them bought six yuan worth of fabric together. Feng Ying took two yuan worth, and Song Lubai took the rest back.
On the way back, military pickup trucks carrying loads of young faces shuttled back and forth on the road, the young people looking around the place with curiosity.
Recently, Song Lubai has heard many people in the ministry say that it was fortunate that their batch had signed up for the Commerce Department last year, because many of the young people sent this year were high school graduates, and now they can only be sent to various farms for labor.
Estimated the time, Song Lubai went to the train station on the seventh day after receiving the telegram. After waiting until mid-afternoon and confirming that no train had arrived, she had no choice but to return to her dormitory.
The next day at noon, she finally picked up the mother and her two children who had been suffering on the train for several days.
Unable to get seats for the second half of the journey, the mother and her two children endured the journey in the connecting area between the carriages.
There were so many people that there was nowhere to put your feet in the carriage at night; people were lying everywhere, sprawled out in all directions.
The mother and her children were sitting right next to the toilet, and the smell was so strong that they couldn't eat at all.
The twins' clothes were dirty and wrinkled from being inside the carriage, and their hair was a mess, like a bird's nest.
After getting off the train and leaving behind the smell of the toilet, the three of them felt alive again.
Looking at the desolate scene outside the train station, Zhang Jianshe asked, "Mom, which way do we go?"
Looking at the yellow earth not far away, Zhang Cui felt a little panicked.
Zhang Heping pointed to Song Lubai sitting under a tree outside the station and said, "That's my sister!"
Upon seeing Song Lubai, the two brothers immediately perked up, sprinted over to her, and excitedly shouted, "Sister!"
Song Lubai lazily got up, handed the naan bread in her arms to the two people, and said to the three of them, "Let's go, take a donkey cart back to the city."
The donkey ran and pulled, occasionally sweeping its tail, which the two brothers watched with great interest.
It was too hot. After the donkey had been running for more than half an hour, the Uyghur old man driving the cart pulled the rope to stop the cart and let the donkey rest.
Song Lubai still didn't pay much attention to Zhang Cui along the way. Seeing this, Zhang Cui couldn't help but say, "He's actually quite nice to the donkey."
Song Lubai said, "It's too hot here. If we don't rest in the middle and keep running, we might die of exhaustion."
Song Lubai spoke to her, and Zhang Cui's anxiety dissipated considerably.
Zhang Cui said, "I have already changed their household registration. From now on, they will have the surname Zhang."
Song Lubai nodded. "The job I found for you is at the tobacco company, and your household registration will be in the city, but you'll have to live at a tobacco station more than 30 kilometers away from the city. Director Xu said..."
Song Lubai recounted the situation, and Zhang Cui thought it was quite good.
"Where's Xiao Wei? Where does he work? Didn't you say he might be transferred? Have you heard anything about it?"
Song Lubai didn't want to talk about this today, but her mother asked, and she couldn't just avoid the topic.
“I’ve already sent him a telegram. He should be here in a few days. Then I’ll go to southern Xinjiang with him.”
Zhang Cui was unfamiliar with Xinjiang Province and thought that Southern Xinjiang was a place very close to Shicheng. She nodded and said nothing more.
Song Lubai was a little surprised that she didn't ask any more questions, but adhering to the principle of "the less trouble, the better," she didn't offer any explanation.
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