Chapter 80
It was said that the Town Committee’s salaries were paid before the 15th of each month.
Qiao Wei had been waiting, and on September 12th, she finally received her August salary.
She was paid according to the grade of a general staff member for August.
A full month should have been 14 yuan, but since she hadn’t worked a full month, after adding the allowance, she received nine yuan and eighty-three cents.
There was also a five-yuan prize for winning the award, but after layers of deductions, she only ended up with one yuan and fifty cents.
In total, it came to eleven yuan and thirty-three cents.
Although she obtained the job through her status as a “military dependent,” her salary and bonus were earned through genuine ability.
Qiao Wei had been waiting for a long time, and as soon as she received her pay, she immediately fulfilled her promise to take Sister Yang’s family out to a restaurant.
The two families gathered together happily once again.
Since there were many children, Qiao Wei specifically ordered a dish of candied sweet potatoes.
The children ate until the sugar stuck to their teeth, filling the air with laughter.
“Come, come, sister-in-law,” Regimental Commander Zhao said, raising his glass.
“Congratulations! Congratulations! You have really brought honor to our Military District! I’ll finish mine, you drink as you please!”
Qiao Wei used tea to substitute for wine and accepted Regimental Commander Zhao’s congratulations.
By winning the award in the city this time, Qiao Wei had brought back a prize banner for Xiahekou Town.
It wasn’t just the Town Committee of Xiahekou Town that felt honored; the leaders of the Military District did as well.
Employment for dependents had always been plagued by various problems.
Because most military dependents came from rural backgrounds, they often lacked high levels of education and had inconsistent hygiene habits, frequently causing incidents at their workplaces.
If the Military District hadn’t strongly pressured the local authorities to force job placements, they would likely all be at home raising children.
In any case, it was a headache for both the Military District and the local authorities.
Suddenly, someone like Qiao Wei appeared, which perked the leaders up.
Now everyone in the Military District knew that the wife of Yan Lei, the regiment commander of the 17th Regiment of the 821st Division, was a formidable writer who worked as a broadcaster at the Broadcasting Station of the Town Committee, and that the drafts she wrote had even won awards in the city.
Everyone had heard that draft over the loudspeakers, and it was truly well-written.
It started off about killing mosquitoes, but as you listened, somehow your emotions would begin to stir.
She truly deserved the award; it was all thanks to her genuine writing talent.
“Starting next month, I’ll be a formal staff member.
It was originally supposed to be three months, but after I brought back the award, the leader just waved his hand, and I was directly transferred to a formal position.”
Qiao Wei shared the good news with Sister Yang.
Sister Yang clapped her hands in delight.
“Does that mean you’ll have a salary of twenty-four yuan?”
In this era, things like salaries and bonuses were impossible to keep under wraps.
Even with a five-yuan prize, so many people were watching.
Then, following the rules, it was subject to layers of deductions.
Only one yuan and fifty cents actually reached her hands.
“That’s right.”
Qiao Wei was straightforward and open when discussing her salary; she was transparent.
Sister Yang was envious.
Both Yan Lei and his wife had salaries.
This time, after Regimental Commander Zhao received a raise, his salary was one level higher than Yan Lei’s, but now Qiao Wei had caught up again.
Both husband and wife had high salaries and only one child; who wouldn’t envy such a heavenly life?
“I’m just hoping Gangzi can finish middle school quickly so that after he graduates, I can arrange a decent job for him, and then I’ll be relieved of one burden,” Sister Yang said with a sigh.
Each child was like a shackle.
She had five of them.
She just hoped the children would grow up quickly and that each would have a job and a salary.
For rural women, bringing their children out of the countryside and getting them registered as urban residents so that they could be assigned jobs in the future meant they had done right by them.
There was never any thought of cultivating the children to study or raising a college student.
They simply didn’t have the brains for it.
Qiao Wei took a look at Gangzi.
Gangzi was happily eating the candied sweet potatoes, his mouth covered in sugar threads.
He really didn’t have the brains for studying.
He was 14 years old this year, but because rural children generally started school late, and because he hadn’t been able to recite the quotations last year, he couldn’t advance a grade and was currently in the fifth grade with his younger sister, Yingzi.
Qiao Wei couldn’t name the specific years of major events, but she knew the general trend.
She wasn’t afraid of anything else, but the prospect of being sent to the countryside and separated from loved ones, inevitably wasting their youth, was worrisome.
The so-called “educated youth” were the middle school and high school students in school at the time, as well as young people who had graduated but were neither married nor employed.
Yan Xiang’s age was safe.
Gangzi and Yingzi were a bit risky.
Most of the period dramas, period novels, and related articles Qiao Wei had read online were about the experiences of youths from big cities.
She really wasn’t sure about the fate of students from small towns like this.
Once you left the town, it was the countryside; would they still need to be sent down to the countryside?
Although it was a small town, it wasn’t a rural registration; everyone’s registration was linked to the collective household, so it counted as an urban registration.
She wasn’t entirely sure, but she thought it was better to try to avoid it.
She brought up Lu Manman’s approach: “…The ultimate goal of studying is to have a job.
It doesn’t matter how old you are, or what grade you’ve reached.
If you can get a good position, you should secure it as soon as possible.”
“Some positions are like a radish in a hole—one for one.
If you miss it, it’s a pity.”
“If you start working early, you get a few years of salary earlier, your length of service is longer, and your future pension will be higher.”
“Look at our broadcaster in the Broadcasting Station, you know, her father is the director of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, so he arranged a job for her early on.
Now she collects a salary and eats and drinks well every day.
She doesn’t even eat in the Cafeteria.”
It was only after a long time that Qiao Wei learned from Hu Sui the real reason why Lu Manman didn’t eat in the Cafeteria… it was because the food at home was better.
That was true; when it came to supplies, who could compare to the director of the town’s Supply and Marketing Cooperative?
“What are you two talking about?”
The men had just clinked glasses and, upon turning their heads, saw the two women talking animatedly.
“We’re talking about Gangzi, whether he should continue studying, it’s worrying me to death,” Sister Yang said.
Since it concerned his eldest son, Regimental Commander Zhao also put down his glass.
“Regarding this matter, sister-in-law, could you help us evaluate it? Do you think Gangzi… should he continue studying?”
First, Gangzi really didn’t have the brain for studying and was currently in the fifth grade with his sister.
Second, the school focused on agricultural and industrial learning, with only three classes in the morning, and the afternoon was spent on agricultural studies.
The children were all dragged out into the fields to catch bugs and weed.
Regimental Commander Zhao felt it was about the same as the life he had lived in the countryside when he was a child.
The children would run wild in the fields all afternoon and get tanned like coal balls.
They had fun playing, but when he asked them what they learned today, they would just look blank: “…Huh?”
Having played wildly in the fields all afternoon, they had forgotten everything they learned in the morning.
Regimental Commander Zhao felt that attending this school was of little significance.
But it had been said since ancient times that all pursuits are low, only studying is high.
Beside him was an educated person, Qiao Wei, whose temperament and manner of speaking were different, and who had just won such great honor with her knowledge and education.
Regimental Commander Zhao felt hesitant.
“The concept of studying is very broad; it shouldn’t be understood as just rote learning or only reading school textbooks,” Qiao Wei said, thinking of Lu Tianming.
“If he can’t get into the school textbooks, then switch to another kind of book.
Why not… go learn a trade?”
Lu Tianming also stopped studying after middle school.
His family sent him to the county to learn a trade, and after he finished his training, he came back and joined the Broadcasting Station of the Town Committee, serving concurrently as a line technician for both the Broadcasting Station and the switchboard room, doing technical work.
In reality, as long as the lines and machines didn’t break down, he didn’t have to move his butt all day, spending his days drinking tea and reading books.
When Qiao Wei first arrived, she thought the flowers in the office were taken care of by Lu Manman or Hu Sui, but it turned out… it was Lu Tianming who watered, fertilized, caught bugs, and pruned them every day.
A heavenly job.
One could say that Lu Manman’s parents and Lu Tianming’s parents were utilitarian, rushing to arrange jobs for their children as soon as they finished middle school.
From another perspective, one could also say they were clear-headed, truly knowing what their family and personal lives wanted and needed in this small town, and arranging it very well.
It was only families with substantial foundations and prominent surnames in town that possessed this clear-headed awareness and ability to make such arrangements.
“In ancient times, people only read the Four Books and Five Classics; anything outside of the classics, history, philosophy, and literature was called’strange skills and ingenious crafts,’ and considered improper.
But now it’s different; only science and technology can make the country stronger.
Learning a trade is the real kind of studying.”
“I think the school now, ahem, um, the agricultural and industrial learning is quite good.”
Qiao Wei had originally wanted to say “the school doesn’t teach much,” but she changed her words on the spot.
Although she didn’t say it, Yan Lei and Zhao Dongsheng exchanged a glance, and from their gaze, Qiao Wei knew that both men understood what she had left unsaid.
“It’s quite good, quite good.
Um, but learning a trade is even better,” Qiao Wei said.
“Brother Zhao, Gangzi is 14, right? I think you can start considering it now; either arrange for him to learn a trade—one special skill can feed you for a lifetime—or let him join the military.”
As a close family friend, Qiao Wei gave her advice to the Zhao family.
But others’ paths still had to be walked by themselves.
After talking about the children’s schooling, they talked about other things.
“It should be announced soon, right?”
“Soon.”
Qiao Wei asked, “The merger of the town and county?”
“Yes.
What is the attitude of the people in the Town Committee?”
“No attitude,” Qiao Wei said.
“They eat and drink as usual; they have absolutely no attitude.”
Yan Lei said, “They are all locals.”
Locals accounted for more than 95%.
Prominent surnames accounted for 60%.
Their roots were too deep; they weren’t afraid of anything.
Regardless of whether it merged or not, no one could touch them.
That was the attitude of the grassroots personnel.
“I don’t know the leaders’ attitude either,” Qiao Wei said.
“I’m just a broadcaster.”
Everyone laughed.
They ate and chatted during the meal, and both the hosts and guests were happy.
Leaving the restaurant, the sky had already darkened, and the two families parted ways at the street corner, each going home.
With no one else around, Yan Lei took Qiao Wei’s hand, swinging it back and forth as they walked.
Qiao Wei: “?”
“Are you okay?” Qiao Wei asked.
It felt a bit abnormal.
Yan Lei said, “I’m happy.”
Alright.
Qiao Wei let him hold her hand.
Yan Xiang was being carried by Yan Lei and was already dozing off on his shoulder.
Upon arriving home, they first put him on the kang.
Qiao Wei finished washing up and used warm water to dampen a towel to wipe Yan Xiang’s face.
The child’s mouth was sticky.
Candied sweet potatoes were a hurdle that children at this time couldn’t overcome.
Even a genius child couldn’t resist it.
When she came out, she saw Yan Lei shirtless, wiping his body next to the hand pump.
Qiao Wei hurried over. “Why are you using cold water!”
Entering September, the summer heat gradually dissipated, and the weather became comfortable and pleasant.
But the water in the hand pump had clearly become colder, and it was even icy in the morning and evening.
Qiao Wei had to mix warm water for her own washing.
“It’s not cold, I’m not afraid,” Yan Lei said, not caring at all.
“If you don’t believe me, touch it.”
He took Qiao Wei’s hand and pressed it against his skin.
At the first touch, it was cold, after all, he had just wiped it.
Immediately after, the heat of the man’s body transmitted through the skin to her palm.
“Qiao Wei!”
Yan Lei bent down and picked Qiao Wei up, holding her high.
Qiao Wei was caught off guard and let out a slight gasp, clinging to him like a koala, and scolded, “What kind of madness is this?”
Yan Lei said, “I’m happy.”
Something was wrong with him.
Qiao Wei looked closely at his eyes, which were bright and piercing.
Qiao Wei finally understood. “How much did you drink?”
She had been too busy talking to Sister Yang and hadn’t paid attention to the men drinking; she had actually let this guy get drunk.
“I’m not drunk,” Yan Lei denied, insisting, “I’m just happy.”
“Qiao Wei, do you know how many people have congratulated me over the past two days?”
He said, “They said your wife is really amazing, winning the first prize in the city.”
Qiao Wei hugged his shoulders and smiled. “Then are you happy?”
“I’ve already said it several times, I’m happy,” Yan Lei said with dissatisfaction.
“However, some people are saying sour things…”
Qiao Wei rested her forehead against his. “Oh?”
She could probably imagine what those sour people would say.
Even in later generations, there were some men who couldn’t accept their wives being too prominent.
“Are you angry?” She asked.
“Not angry,” Yan Lei said.
“The sourer they talk, the more I know they are jealous of me.”
Qiao Wei lay on his shoulder and laughed.
Yan Lei stroked her back, tilted his head to the side, and bit her on the neck.
Qiao Wei kissed him.
Yan Lei bounced her slightly, held her higher, and walked steadily toward the house.
Qiao Wei thought he was going to carry her back to the bedroom.
Yan Lei, however, carried her to the window and placed her on the cool bed.
“Hey!”
“Shh… don’t wake the children…”
“Here…”
“There are no mosquitoes, they’ve all been killed.”
The man’s slightly hoarse voice was low in the yard: “Weiwei, the moonlight shining on your skin is especially beautiful.”
“Let me look…”
Rustling sounds, the women’s shirt fell under the cool bed.
The man’s delirious murmurs, not knowing if he was drunk or awake.
“Let me look…”
The moonlight shrouded her skin, reminding Yan Lei of the book he had read, the one that had already been burned to ashes in the stove.
“Like milk,” he murmured.
Perhaps a half-drunk person is the craziest.
