Chapter 80
On the way to Guangzhou Restaurant, Ye Manzhi ignored Wu Zhengrong.
Not only was she standing eight feet away from him, she also turned her head toward the window, as if they were two strangers.
Wu Zhengrong didn't try to reason with her at the time. Only after they had gotten off the bus, one after the other, did he speak up in his defense: "Didn't I throw the book away as you asked? Why are you still angry?"
Ye Manzhi paused and, with a rather warm expression, asked a completely unrelated question: "What are the specific requirements of ideological work?"
"..." Wu Zhengrong frowned slightly, "What does this have to do with what we're talking about?"
"I think it's related," Ye Manzhi urged, "Answer quickly!"
"Resolutely publicize the Party's theories, principles and policies, firmly maintain a high degree of unity with the Party Central Committee, and firmly publicize the Central Committee..."
Wu Zhengrong didn't know what she was up to, but he still answered her questions as required.
Hearing him recite the answer word for word, Ye Manzhi immediately turned hostile.
"Look at you! You can even recite the answers to the exam from half a year ago. What's the point of throwing away that copy of 'Day and Night'?"
The question just now was one of the test questions in the grassroots cadre training class.
In order to get good grades in the final examination, Ye Manzhi put a lot of effort into memorizing theoretical knowledge, and often asked Wu Zhengrong to check on her during his evening walks.
The other party could almost memorize the answers to her questions.
It had been five months since she graduated from the refresher course, and she had almost forgotten the answer to this question, but Wu Zhengrong could still recite it word for word!
What's the point of him throwing away that copy of "Day and Night"?
He read the book from beginning to end before throwing it into the trash can.
He could even recite the answers to theoretical questions from five months ago. How could he easily forget such nonsense?
Looking at the innocent-looking man, Ye Manzhi said angrily, "You are shameless!"
Who would read that kind of book on the street?
She was so nervous that she felt suffocated, fearing that someone would find out that he was looking at something indecent.
That would be really embarrassing!
Wu Zhengrong explained without blushing or panting, "You're worried about the dollar, right? If I read the book from beginning to end, you won't have to worry about it anymore."
Ye Manzhi: “…”
Does she feel bad about spending a dollar?
She is worried!
"It's just reading a book, what's the big deal?" Wu Zhengrong said calmly. "Don't worry, we rarely get to travel, and I don't want to waste time and energy lying in bed."
The vacation is short, and he wants to take Ye Lai Ya to visit more places.
"Do you really think so?" Ye Manyi asked.
"Well, every weekend you sleep in until noon? If you sleep through the entire holiday, you'll probably regret it later."
Therefore, although his theoretical knowledge has increased, Wu Zhengrong is not ready to put it into practice immediately. Things always have to be prioritized.
Comrade Xiao Ye knew how much he was looking forward to this trip.
Ye Manzhi's gaze lingered on his face for a few seconds, and after confirming that he was telling the truth, the expression on her face finally eased.
She was willing to throw away the book, but she was reluctant to throw away the person.
"Forget it this time," Ye Manzhi snorted, "because you are shameless. I just saw a fruit I had never seen before and didn't even have the nerve to ask about it."
"Then let's go back and look for it."
After the alarm was lifted, Wu Zhengrong returned with her to the supply and marketing cooperative near the station and bought mangoes and pineapples that she had never seen before.
The couple finally reconciled.
*
The "Famous Dishes and Delicacies Exhibition" was expected to last for a month. When the two arrived at the Guangzhou Restaurant, the event had already been held for more than ten days, but from the street corner where the restaurant was located to the two floors inside the restaurant, it was all crowded with people.
Ye Manzhi felt that there were more people in this exhibition than in the train station, so she reached out and grabbed Wu Zhengrong's belt at the back of his waist.
"..." Wu Zhengrong moved her in front of him, "You should walk in front of me."
Ye Manzhi held the money, food coupons and meat coupons in his hands, and looked back and forth at the various booths as if his eyes were not enough.
The name of the company was posted in front of each booth, such as Beiyuan Restaurant, Jinling Restaurant, Hengzhan Restaurant...all of which were restaurant names that outsiders had never heard of.
Ye Manzhi didn’t know which restaurant had the best food, but all the dishes on the scene were delicious to her.
Samples of signature dishes are displayed in front of the booths of each unit. Each booth has at least a dozen dishes. The chefs will cook them on the spot and sell them to diners for tasting.
It all depends on luck which dish you get.
In order to save time, the couple went to different stalls to queue up and gathered at the stairs leading to the second floor half an hour later.
Ye Manzhi was still thinking about the Wenchang chicken and Jiangnan crispy pigeon that Mr. Sun's wife mentioned. No matter what, she had to try these two dishes today.
She had limited food and meat coupons, so she first went to the Guangzhou Restaurant booth to queue up.
The restaurant sent someone to introduce the special features of the dishes to the citizens, but Ye Manzhi couldn't understand the local language, so she just stared at the food and drooled.
When it was her turn, she handed over the money and meat tickets.
However, the staff returned the meat ticket to her.
Ye Manzhi asked doubtfully, "Don't you want a meat ticket?"
The other party replied in Mandarin with a slight dialect accent: "The state-owned restaurant here doesn't accept tickets."
"Don't you want food coupons and meat coupons?" Ye Manzhi asked happily.
"No, but I heard they'll start collecting tickets at the end of the year."
The leaves are full of joy.
This was their first meal in Guangzhou. They didn’t expect that the supply of supplies in Guangzhou was so sufficient!
You don’t need a ticket to eat at the restaurant!
The supply situation in each province is different, and the ticket policies formulated are also different.
In Binjiang, you didn’t need a ticket to eat at the restaurant last year, but this year everyone has to pay for grain and meat coupons.
Before leaving, Wu Zhengrong specially exchanged some national food coupons.
These days, national food coupons, commonly known as "flying all over the sky," are the most expensive of all food coupons. Provincial coupons for "eating all over the province" are second, and city coupons for "eating locally" are the cheapest.
In order to make these "flying all over the sky", they also put in several "local eating" tickets!
Since the state-owned restaurant doesn’t require a ticket, she doesn’t have to count on food coupons to make a living!
In addition to Wenchang chicken and Jiangnan crispy pigeon, she also splurges on bone-in duck slices, deep-fried sea bass balls, and barbecued pork buns…
When they met up with Wu Zhengrong, the two of them ordered nearly thirty Cantonese dishes and snacks. Even though the portions for the tastings at the exhibition were very small, after taking a bite of each, Ye Manzhi's belly was full.
What's more, she ate three barbecued pork buns!
"Let's move the guesthouse here, to one that's close to my eldest sister's house and the Guangzhou Restaurant." Ye Manzhi thought, stroking her stomach. "Then we can eat here for the next few days and try to finish the last few thousand Cantonese dishes. This barbecue pork bun is so delicious. When you break it open, the soup oozes out. I heard it's their master chef Chen's specialty, and you can only eat it at the Guangzhou Restaurant!"
"Well, after this night, we'll change it tomorrow morning." Wu Zhengrong took the box of golden shrimp that Ye Manzhi had just bought and asked, "You're not going to eat it?"
Ye Manzhi shook his head, propped up his chin and encouraged: "Eat more, I'm satisfied just watching you eat!"
She really couldn't eat anymore, so she could only comfort herself that since Wu Zhengrong had eaten it, it was equivalent to her having eaten it.
Under Director Xiao Ye's sweet talk, Wu Zhengrong cleaned up all the leftovers on the table.
After leaving the exhibition, they strolled around the tourist attractions for half the afternoon. When they visited my eldest sister's house, the couple were still about 70% full.
When the two of them entered the house carrying gifts, only the eldest brother-in-law and nephew were at home to greet them.
Wu Zhengrong laughed and said, "It's fine that my sister didn't pick me up at the station, but I've already brought my wife here, so why is she still nowhere to be seen?"
The eldest brother-in-law laughed: "Your sister is busy purchasing goods at the company. She hasn't been off work until after 8 o'clock in the past half month. But she said this morning that she will try to come back early in the next two days."
The uncle and the hunk exchanged a few familiar jokes. When Wu Zhengrong was about to introduce Ye Manzhi to him, the eldest sister came in holding a big watermelon.
Seeing her brother in military uniform, the eldest sister immediately stuffed the watermelon into her son's hand, then ran over and patted Wu Zhengrong on the shoulder enthusiastically.
"Have you grown stronger? The last time I saw you in Beijing, your shoulders weren't this broad! Tsk tsk tsk tsk..."
"Grassroots units have training tasks every day, and the training volume is heavier than that of the headquarters." Wu Zhengrong gave his sister a gentle hug and introduced her with a smile, "Sister, this is your sister-in-law, Ye Manzhi."
Ye Manzhi had already stretched out her hand, ready to shake hands, but her elder sister-in-law grabbed her shoulder and said affectionately, "Xiao Ye, you look so beautiful in this dress. I have good taste, don't I?"
She was unable to attend her brother's wedding, but she mailed a lot of gifts in advance.
Among them was a piece of peacock blue silk material.
As soon as she entered the door, she discovered that the short-sleeved cheongsam on her sister-in-law was made of the material she had given her.
Ye Manzhi smiled and gave a thumbs-up: "The texture and color of this material are both top-grade. I haven't seen silk of this quality in any of the stores over in Binjiang."
"Of course! After this batch of goods arrived at our store, they were sold out before they could even be put on the counter. I only managed to get two pieces, one for each of us! But cheongsams still look good on you young people. I'm so fat now that it's a waste to use such good material!"
Ye Manzhi looked at the brother and sister in front of him, and then at the chubby nephew next to him.
My lower abdomen ached from trying so hard to hold back my laughter.
She had seen the Wu family's portrait at the provincial mansion, but the faces were too small and she didn't notice any highlights.
Now that she had met her elder sister in person, she discovered that Wu Zhengrong and his elder sister had the same face!
Ye Manzhi also believed that they were twins, a boy and a girl.
They are so similar.
Wu Zhengrong's face would be that of a beauty on a man.
The same applies to women.
Wu Dailan has a plump figure, with dimples even on the back of her hands. She is a rare plump beauty these days.
Ye Manzhi loves her elder sister-in-law so much that she has a very good first impression of her. She feels that she is a female version of Wu Zhengrong who is chubby, talkative, friendly and enthusiastic.
She greeted her eldest sister and her husband, and stuffed a red envelope into her nephew Liangyu's hand. Seeing that he had a face that was 90% similar to the Wu siblings, and said cutely, "Thank you, aunt-in-law," Ye Manzhi finally couldn't help laughing.
Liangyu's appearance and personality are a copy and paste of his biological mother, and he is very warm to others.
When his elder brother-in-law went to the public kitchen in the tube-shaped building to cook, Liangyu acted like a little adult and took out his toy gun for his younger aunt to play with.
After Ye Manzhi took it and compared it with the camera for a few times, Liangyu came over and said, "Aunt, can you lend me your camera for a while?"
Wu Dailan warned from the other side: "Ayu!"
"It's okay, the camera belongs to our grandfather," Wu Zhengrong handed the camera to his nephew and told him where the shutter and the flash were.
Seeing that the eldest sister was still glaring at the child, he smiled and asked, "I heard from my brother-in-law that your company has been very busy recently. Have you been working overtime to purchase goods?"
"Well, July 1st just passed, and now we're heading to August 1st, and then October 1st will be right after that. Every time a holiday like this comes around, department stores have to increase their supply, and we're the largest department store in South China, so we don't tolerate any shortages. Other items are easy; we can always get them from other regions, but big items like watches, bicycles, and sewing machines are only manufactured by a few companies, and the orders are already booked until next year..."
Wu Dailan is the head of supply and marketing at a department store. The department store pays high salaries and provides good benefits, otherwise she wouldn't be so fat.
But the work pressure is indeed great.
The supply and marketing work in the commercial system depends on personal connections.
Whoever has a wider network of contacts can get the goods earlier than others.
Every holiday is a big test for the supply and marketing managers of major stores.
Why……
Ye Manzhi ate the watermelon her brother-in-law had just cut and said, "Sister, isn't the National Materials Exchange Conference being held in Guangzhou? On the way here, we were in the same carriage with a delegation from our province. Why don't you go to the exhibition and talk to them? Maybe you can get some supplies!"
Wu Dailan waved his hand and said, "Forget about that. Those are all provincial-level exchanges. The whole country is like a chess game, with the Ministry of Light Industry and the Ministry of Commerce in charge. After the things are exchanged, they will be distributed by the province, and it is hard to say which unit they will be allocated to. If I finally got a batch of bicycles, and in the end the province distributed them to other units, I would be so upset!"
Ye Manzhi asked, "Sister, haven't you asked the bicycle factories in the north? Tianjin and Shenyang both have large bicycle factories."
"Haha," Wu Dailan pulled out a large photo album from his bag and introduced it. "I have the contact information for all the major factories in the country. No matter if they're bicycle factories in the south or the north, I've contacted them all, but they just don't have the stock."
Their store's quota of bicycles and sewing machines for this year has already been used up. If they can't get new supplies, the pick-up area will have to be empty.
Ye Manzhi took her big photo album and was amazed by the various factory names in it.
Her elder sister-in-law is so amazing, her connections are really great!
Unfortunately, even with such strong connections, I still couldn’t purchase bicycles and sewing machines.
It seems that both of these are in-demand commodities in both the south and the north.
While the female comrade was talking, Wu Zhengrong was teaching his nephew how to use a camera.
Liangyu really likes this generous uncle!
Among all the uncles, my youngest uncle is definitely the most generous! He even let me play with such a precious camera.
He was a child who showed his emotions openly. When Wu Zhengrong and his wife had finished their dinner and drank some delicious soup and were about to catch the last bus back to the guesthouse, he held the camera in one hand and his uncle's waist with the other, not wanting his uncle to leave.
Wu Zhengrong touched his head and told his brother-in-law the address of the guesthouse.
"Isn't Liangyu on summer vacation? Send him to my place tomorrow morning when you go to work. I'll take him out for two days."
Wu Dailan asked, "When are you planning to go to the island? Typhoons are common this season, so you two should make plans."
"Maybe the day after tomorrow."
"Okay, I'll send Liangyu over tomorrow morning. This kid often follows his grandfather around to eat and drink for free. He's more familiar with the delicious and fun places in the city than I am. Let him show you around."
*
Wu Zhengrong left the camera to his nephew to play with, and took his wife back to the guesthouse.
After Ye Manzhi finished her shower, she lay on the bed, swinging her legs, and said worriedly, "Do you think I should help Big Sister find a supplier of bicycles?"
"Do you have a source of supply?"
"Yes, I was working on the cooperative's factory conversion in the first half of the year. We have a No. 3 Hardware Cooperative on Guangming Street. They used to produce locks, but after the conversion, they started trial production of bicycles. The production tasks were set at the end of the previous year. They changed factories halfway through, so they don't have any production tasks yet. In fact, it's okay to take some orders from other provinces."
"Bicycles are in such short supply that even the stores in this city can't supply them enough. Can the city allow them to be circulated outside?" Wu Zhengrong pinched her wobbling calf. "Put on your clothes..."
"I won't wear it when it's so hot!"
Wu Zhengrong: “…”
Although he promised that she would have enough energy to complete the rest of the journey.
But counting from the day of her menstruation, including the time spent on the road, they had not had sex for ten days.
Ye Lai Ya was only wearing a Soviet-style bra and walking in front of him. She was fearless and had no regard for his feelings at all.
Ye Manzhi turned over and lay down on the bed, talking to herself, "I didn't dare tell my elder sister because I was afraid the provincial government wouldn't allow it. I wanted to avoid giving people hope and then disappointing them. However, this is actually a great opportunity for the newly established bicycle factory. The Southern Building is the largest department store in South China. If we can sell our bicycles there, maybe we can take advantage of the opportunity to gain some fame..."
As she spoke, her tone gradually became flustered, "Wu Zhengrong, you bastard, have you forgotten everything you just said at noon?"
The bastard said nothing, pulled off the troublesome fabric and threw it aside.
Ye Manzhi kicked him on the shoulder angrily. She wanted to make a sound, but was afraid of being heard by the neighbors on both sides. The sound of slippers tapping on the floor outside the door was clearly audible, so she had to bite her lips tightly, not daring to reveal any abnormality.
…
After an unknown amount of time, Wu Zhengrong wiped the water droplets from his nose and forehead, then leaned over and kissed her.
Ye Manzhi came to her senses and gasped for breath as she dodged. Unable to dodge, she threw her arms around his neck and muttered, "You bastard! You really can't learn from reading that kind of book!"
Wu Zhengrong chuckled: "The book says that this can help you relax your mind, and going to bed early and getting up early will improve your health."
"Stop talking nonsense!" Ye Manzhi covered his mouth with hers to stop him from talking nonsense.
I don’t know how he solved it in the end, but Ye Manzhi fell asleep as soon as he felt comfortable.
This is the first time I have slept until eight o'clock and woke up naturally during these days when I was away from home.
By the time she finished washing up, Comrade Wu Zhengrong, who always gets up at six o'clock, had already had breakfast with his nephew.
His face showed the calm expression of a gentleman.
Ye Manzhi was in a good mood today. When she saw the chubby Liangyu, she thought the little fat boy was particularly cute.
Whether out of a desire to return a favor or a desire to make up for it, she took the initiative to suggest that we go to the Materials Exchange Conference together in the morning.
Wu Zhengrong advised, "Let Big Sister handle her work herself. Let's not worry about her."
"I'm just going to help inquire about it. If I succeed, it will show how great I, Director Ye, am! My sister-in-law will definitely look at me with new eyes!" Ye Manzhi touched the fat boy's head, "right, Ayu?"
Liangyu was busy fiddling with his camera. He nodded casually and asked, "Uncle, aunt, when can we take pictures? My mom wants me to take you to visit the Pearl River!"
"Let's go, we're leaving now."
Two adults and one child first went to the exhibition hall where the materials exchange conference was held and found the Binjiang exhibition area.
Among the many leaders of the delegation, Ye Manzhi could only speak to Director Guo, so she went straight to Director Guo who was sorting out the information and mentioned to her that the Southern Building wanted to purchase bicycles.
"What can they exchange for?" Director Guo asked. "Although our city has a bicycle factory, its production is low, and it also needs to supply units within the province. If the cooperative you mentioned doesn't have production tasks, in principle it can sell its products to any unit. But since this is a material exchange conference, we must exchange. If we can exchange bicycles, we must also exchange other things in return."
"This is a department store purchase. I don't know what we can discuss. Director Guo, what else does our province need right now?"
"Changzhou combs, Fuzhou ox horn combs, Sichuan yellow wax, and of course, the most scarce is litsea cubeba seed oil, which is out of stock in Hunan, Jiangxi, and Guizhou. Any of these things can be exchanged for a bicycle."
Ye Manzhi wrote down several items of materials that were in short supply in the province on paper, exchanged a few words with Director Guo, and then said goodbye and left with his family.
She stuffed the note into Liangyu's shirt pocket and said, "Go back tonight and ask your mother if she has any channels to get these things. If she can get them, we'll have a supply of bicycles."
Liangyu didn't want to bother with the bicycle. He just kept asking anxiously, "Aunt, when can we go take pictures?"
He had just learned photography techniques from his uncle and just wanted to put them into practice as soon as possible.
His uncle only gave him a camera yesterday but no film, and he has been looking forward to it all night!
Ye Manzhi didn't expect that the child was still impatient, so she asked him to take a photo of herself on the street, which temporarily calmed him down.
Then we headed straight to the Pearl River, took a ferry and enjoyed the scenery along the coast.
When Liangyu asked to take a photo again, Ye Manyzhi chose an angle with the Tanka fishing boat as the background. Wu Zhengrong helped the child adjust the height and then walked over to stand beside her.
The two finally took their first photo together during the trip.
Seeing this, Ye Manzhi couldn't help but ask, "You've been teaching Liangyu photography so hard, isn't it just for this moment?"
Before, they always took photos of each other, and there was basically no opportunity for passers-by to help take photos with them.
People are afraid of damaging the camera and usually wave their hands to refuse.
"Well, this kid is quite smart and likes to play with cameras. What do you think about me taking him directly to the island for the summer vacation?"
Now that the photographer has been trained, we can't just use him once and forget about it.
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