Chapter 56, Counting Money
On Wednesday morning, Lin Qingqing went to the Revolutionary Committee again, and both sides had reached a result.
The steel mill has already submitted her application, and the exam is next Monday. They've even issued a paper admission ticket. The manager at the supply and marketing cooperative is very interested in her after learning about her work experience and wants to meet with her; they've arranged to meet on Thursday afternoon.
Lin Qingqing received her exam admission ticket and then said she would go to the supply and marketing cooperative on Thursday afternoon to have a face-to-face meeting with someone.
When Xie Wei returned home that evening, Lin Qingqing briefly told him about the work progress. After listening, he asked, "If you pass both interviews, where would you like to work?"
They were eating at the time. Lin Qingqing swallowed the food in her mouth, smiled at Xie Wei, and said, "You have a lot of confidence in me."
Xie Wei nodded without hesitation: "Yes."
“But the steel mill…” Lin Qingqing frowned as she spoke.
Although the family resettlement office registered her, she wasn't particularly confident.
She obtained the steel mill's previous recruitment exam papers from Shen Yufen. The questions weren't difficult, but they were conceptual, and the scoring would be quite subjective. Moreover, the steel mill was a large factory with thousands of employees, and it was also the factory's propaganda department. Even if this exam wasn't one in a thousand, it was still one in a hundred.
Lin Qingqing wasn't sure if she had the ability to surpass everyone and become the only one.
Seeing her hesitation, Xie Wei comforted her, saying, "It's okay if you didn't pass the exam. There's still the supply and marketing cooperative, isn't there?"
Although Lin Qingqing wasn't particularly confident, she had a good attitude. After listening to Xie Wei's words, she smiled and asked, "What if I don't get a job at the supply and marketing cooperative either?"
"Then let's look at other jobs, or wait for other companies to recruit and take exams," Xie Wei said after thinking for a moment. "My salary is enough for both of us."
Lin Qingqing recalled Yang Li's words and asked, "Then have you ever thought that maybe I should just quit working and we should have a baby soon?"
Upon hearing the first part of his sentence, Xie Wei thought he hadn't thought about these things and that whether she went to work or not was up to her. But when he heard the second part, he almost choked. He coughed, swallowed the food in his mouth, and said, "Why did you suddenly bring up having children?"
Lin Qingqing didn't mention Yang Li, but only asked, "Do you know Deputy Battalion Commander Zhao from Building 16?"
Deputy Battalion Commander Zhao Xie Wei knew two of them, but he wasn't sure which one lived in Building 16. He pondered for a moment and said, "I should know them, but I don't know which one you're talking about. What happened to him?"
"I heard that he had been married for several years without having children, and the couple got divorced."
When she mentioned divorces due to childlessness, Xie Wei knew she was referring to Deputy Battalion Commander Zhao, and frowned: "What does his divorce have to do with us?"
?
“Some people advised me that I’m getting old, and although I don’t say it out loud, I must really want children. They advised me not to rush into work, and that the important thing is to have children first. Otherwise, no matter how well I do at work, if I can’t have children, I’ll have to get a divorce and go back to my hometown.”
Xie Wei's brows furrowed deeper as he listened: "What nonsense is this! What does your work have to do with us wanting a child? And how come I don't know I want a child? As for getting a divorce if we can't have children... I married you to spend my life with you, not just to have children—"
Lin Qingqing placed a kiss on the corner of his lips, and his voice stopped abruptly.
After the kiss, Lin Qingqing sat back up and said with a smile, "This is a reward for you."
Xie Wei's lips twitched, slowly curving upwards, before quickly hardening his expression: "Who told you those things? You should stay away from her from now on!"
He never interfered with Lin Qingqing's friendships, but this time he was just too angry.
"Yang Li said it." Lin Qingqing didn't hide anything. After talking with Yang Li that day, she understood what it meant to have nothing to say to someone you don't click with, and she had completely given up the idea of associating with her.
After the unpleasant incident with Yu Xiuhong, Xie Wei had asked around to find out who lived in the courtyard and which team her husband belonged to. So even though he had never spoken to Yang Li, he knew who she was talking about as soon as he heard her voice. He frowned and said, "You should avoid dealing with her in the future."
I started to regret not asking around about the neighbors before jumping house.
Lin Qingqing hummed in agreement, then remembered to ask, "By the way, do you know who lives in the house on the far right?"
She had been living in Building 18 for a few days now, but she had never seen the door open in the rightmost apartment, so at first she thought no one lived there. It wasn't until yesterday, when she talked to Yu Xiuhong, that she learned that someone did live there, but Yu Xiuhong seemed to dislike that family, shaking her head whenever the topic came up, looking like she didn't want to say anything more.
"It's the home of Battalion Commander Xu of the 25th Regiment. His wife's surname is Qiao. I heard she's a local from Jinshi and also works at the steel plant."
Lin Qingqing smiled and repeated, "Also?"
Xie Wei realized that the word "ye" was not quite appropriate, but he did not correct it and laughed, "Maybe you will become colleagues soon."
"Thank you for your kind words." Lin Qingqing followed up on his words and then asked, "So, does she not live in the family compound?"
"I heard she rarely comes back and lives at her parents' house most of the time."
Since she rarely comes back, there probably won't be many opportunities to interact with her in the future. Lin Qingqing nodded and didn't ask any more questions.
...
After finishing their meal, Xie Wei took out a few tickets from his pocket and handed them to Lin Qingqing.
Lin Qingqing took the items and examined them. They included an iron pot, a kettle, a rice steamer, and some scattered coupons for items like spatulas and kitchen knives. She counted them and was astonished to find there were eight coupons: "Where did these come from?"
"My team won the camp competition the day before yesterday," Xie Wei said while washing his lunchbox.
Lin Qingqing's first reaction was that it was really amazing, and her second reaction was that leading the team to victory had nothing to do with these votes.
Xie Wei said unhurriedly, "Our division commander asked me what reward I wanted, and I said my wife came, and we were short of pots, pans, and everything else at home."
"The reward you wanted, it can't be these tickets, can it?" Lin Qingqing asked incredulously, holding up the tickets in her hand.
Xie Wei washed the lunchbox, wiped his hands with an old handkerchief lying next to him, and said, "Well, I was originally going to get a ticket for a cast iron stove, but the camp didn't have any on hand. They said they'd give it to me next time they got some."
Lin Qingqing asked with a puzzled expression, "Is this a reward for the whole team, or just for you personally?"
Xie Wei turned to look at her face, smiled, and said, "Of course it's a personal reward. Do you really think I'm such a selfish person who doesn't care about the big picture?"
Lin Qingqing thought that at times like these, shouldn't you try your best to leave a good impression on your boss and strive for a promotion and a raise? You've already asked for pots and pans, so it's no wonder I'm worried.
She thought it and said it aloud. Xie Wei laughed and hugged her, kissing her lips. He said, "It's just a camp competition, it's not that important. As for the rest, don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
He buried his face in her neck and let out a long sigh.
From establishing their relationship to getting engaged and then married, Xie Wei was always very confident, firmly believing that he could give Lin Qingqing a good life.
This confidence stemmed from his personality; he always considered things thoroughly before acting, thus consistently finding better solutions, which earned him numerous victories on the battlefield. However, during this military assignment, his impulsive and hot-headed nature led him to act rashly, and his thinking became less thorough, resulting in him discovering upon arrival that the kitchen was completely empty.
Although Lin Qingqing didn't care, her occasional troubled expression was imprinted in his heart.
He didn't want her to give up everything and live such a cramped life after coming to the army.
This matter had been weighing on his mind for days, and now he could finally breathe a sigh of relief and whisper, "We will get better and better."
Lin Qingqing leaned against the kitchen wall, one arm around his waist, the other gently stroking his hair, and softly hummed, "I believe you."
...
Unlike convenience stores that operate 24 hours a day, supply and marketing cooperatives in the 1970s were not like those in modern convenience stores. They were located in residential compounds and opened at 8 a.m. and closed at 6 p.m.
Therefore, even after receiving the tickets, they could not immediately go to the supply and marketing cooperative to make large purchases; they continued to take showers and go to sleep as usual.
Before going to bed, Lin Qingqing counted her savings. Xie Wei had been in the army for eleven years. In the first few years, he was a conscript and only received a pitiful few yuan in allowance each month, so he had hardly saved any money. Later, he went to the battlefield and rose through the ranks quickly due to his military merits. By 1968, he was already a battalion-level officer and could earn more than a hundred yuan a month.
But at that time, all his wages were sent back home, and after spending them, there wasn't much left. For the next two years, for some reason, the army stopped sending money to his family. The money stopped, and he didn't send any letters home for several years. Li Xingfang even thought he was dead.
When the war ended in 1970 and the troops sent by the country to provide assistance withdrew, Xie Wei finally received his salary for those two years, but he sent most of it to the families of his fallen comrades.
So Xie Wei only started saving money in the last few years. However, because his salary was high and his expenses were not high, he had savings of over four thousand to five thousand. The wedding did cost a lot of money, but the bulk of it was the bride price for Lin Qingqing, and the actual expenses were only a few dozen yuan. Now that Lin Qingqing is in charge of the money, she has mixed Xie Wei's money with her own bride price, so she still has over four thousand five hundred yuan in cash.
After counting the money, Lin Qingqing thought, no wonder when she first arrived at the educated youth settlement, everyone regarded him as a piece of Tang Monk's flesh.
It's only 1974 now. In rural areas, a family of several working hard for a year might not even be able to save a hundred yuan, but Xie Wei has saved several thousand yuan in less than four years. Maybe in a few more years, his family will be a family with ten thousand yuan!
But the thought was fleeting. When Lin Qingqing counted out the money she needed to buy pots and pans, she realized she had been blindly optimistic.
They've only been in the army for a few days and have already spent several tens of dollars. Now, they've added another expense: kitchen supplies. They haven't even bought everything they need for the kitchen yet, and buying everything will cost them several tens of dollars more.
And these days, meals in the canteen, including meat dishes, cost about six or seven mao (0.6-0.7 yuan) a meal, which adds up to one yuan and fifty cents a day just for food. She's only been in the army for a week, and she and Xie Wei have already spent more than ten yuan on food alone. Even if she cuts back and eats only coarse grains and vegetables every meal, it will still cost her ten or twenty yuan a month.
If I eat at the school cafeteria, food alone will be a huge expense every month. Even if I cook for myself, I'll still have to pay for firewood, rice, oil, salt, and coal. If I want to eat well, my monthly living expenses will be at least several tens of yuan. If I need to buy something, like a coal stove, a cast iron stove, or a couple of new clothes, that's another expense to start.
If you're buying a big item like a bicycle, you'll spend tens of dollars more.
Thinking of bicycles, Lin Qingqing also thought of electric fans. She even considered buying one if she could get a ticket.
All things considered, their expenses are quite substantial, especially considering they've just gotten married. If they have children in the future, the expenses will increase even more.
Thinking about this, Lin Qingqing realized that she probably wouldn't be able to become a "ten-thousand-yuan household"!
Seeing Lin Qingqing's expression suddenly turn serious as she counted the money, Xie Wei was speechless.
Author's Note: Second update
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