Chapter 14: Getting to Know the Colleagues
Director Li clapped his hands sharply, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Listen up, everyone. Let me introduce you. This is Comrade Sheng Wanyan. She’ll be working with us from now on.”
“Welcome, new comrade!”
“Welcome, welcome!”
Director Li was a middle-aged man around forty. The department itself was small, consisting of two female and two male colleagues.
Everyone was older than Sheng Wanyan. One of the women, Niu Fangli, was thirty and already married with several children—typical for women of her age in this era.
The other female colleague, Wu Jiaxiu, was about twenty-one and had just gotten married two months ago.
Of the two men, one was twenty-five-year-old Chen Kangming, who was also married. The other was a twenty-year-old guy named Lin Jiehong, the second-newest addition to the team, having started about half a year ago.
Including Director Li and Sheng Wanyan, that made a tight-knit group of six.
Sheng Wanyan was assigned a desk right in the middle on the right side of the room. Chen Kangming sat in front of her, Niu Fangli was behind her, and Wu Jiaxiu was right across the aisle.
Since it was Sheng Wanyan’s first day and she was unfamiliar with the workflow, Director Li asked Wu Jiaxiu to pull some previous propaganda materials from the archives for her to review.
Sheng Wanyan settled in and began reading through the documents seriously. Around her, the others had their heads down, seemingly deep in thought over their own promotional drafts. Seeing everyone hard at work, Director Li announced he was heading to a meeting, told them to keep it up, and walked out the door.
The exact second the door clicked shut, the frantic scribbling stopped. Everyone immediately abandoned their manuscripts and gathered around Sheng Wanyan’s desk.
Wu Jiaxiu couldn’t help but laugh at Wanyan’s intense, focused expression.
“Don’t look so serious,” Wu Jiaxiu giggled. “We’re all just slacking off in this department.”
Sheng Wanyan looked around at the circle of faces, slightly bewildered. Their eyes were full of a mischievous, guilty camaraderie. Was this their way of corrupting the new girl?
They all took turns formally introducing themselves and gave her the real rundown on the Propaganda Department.
“Our job is mostly writing up promotional slogans, drafting official announcements, and updating the notice boards outside,” Chen Kangming explained.
“Exactly,” Lin Jiehong chimed in. “We only have a few actual promotional manuscripts to churn out each month. The rest of the time, we just try to find ways to pass the time.”
The truth was, the Propaganda Department was incredibly relaxed. The factory’s primary focus was always production quotas and efficiency, not how eloquently a propaganda draft was written. As long as the workers could understand the notices and the essential news was communicated, the administration was satisfied.
Within her first hour, Sheng Wanyan found herself thoroughly “brainwashed” by her new colleagues, who took turns happily explaining the art of looking busy while doing absolutely nothing.
Sheng Wanyan was skeptical at first. But after the initiation was over and everyone returned to their desks, she watched in utter amazement.
Niu Fangli pulled out a half-finished sweater and started knitting beneath her desk. Lin Jiehong casually cracked open a handful of melon seeds, munching quietly as he stared out the window…
This wasn’t a workplace; it was a taxpayer-funded retirement home!
The moment Director Li was out of sight, the entire department had reverted to its true, lazy form.
Wait—wasn’t this the generation famous for its burning passion to work hard and contribute to the motherland? What on earth was going on here?
“Surprised?” Wu Jiaxiu whispered across the aisle, noticing Sheng Wanyan’s wide-eyed disbelief.
“Not surprised, exactly,” Sheng Wanyan whispered back. “Just… unexpected.”
She knew clerical roles were generally easier than factory floor labor, but no one had warned her it would be this laid-back.
“You’ll get used to it,” Wu Jiaxiu smiled. “We all went through the same shock at first. Just make sure you don’t get caught.”
She pointed a subtle finger toward the office door. As long as Director Li didn’t catch them slacking, life was golden.
Sheng Wanyan couldn’t help but smile, nodding her head. This era… was fantastic. She absolutely loved it!
Still, as the newcomer, she knew she had to tread carefully. She resolved to ensure her actual work was always completed flawlessly and ahead of schedule, leaving no room for anyone to criticize her performance.
She spent the entire morning quietly reading through the old materials. When the lunch bell finally rang, Wu Jiaxiu walked over. “Are you heading to the cafeteria?”
“No, I brought my own food,” Sheng Wanyan replied. “It’s enough for me.”
Wu Jiaxiu nodded in understanding. In these times, bringing food from home was the norm. However, since Wu Jiaxiu was newly married, both she and her husband had decent incomes, and her mother-in-law hadn’t started pressuring them for a grandchild yet. She wanted to enjoy the cafeteria’s meat dishes while she still had the financial freedom to do so.
Wu Jiaxiu and the two guys headed out to the cafeteria, leaving Sheng Wanyan and Niu Fangli alone in the office to eat their packed lunches.
From her desk, Niu Fangli sneaked a curious glance at Sheng Wanyan’s open lunchbox. Inside lay a bed of fresh vegetables topped with a perfectly golden, pan-fried egg. The egg was glistening—it had clearly been fried with a generous amount of precious cooking oil.
It looks like the new girl comes from a well-off family, Niu Fangli thought to herself.
Sheng Wanyan caught her gaze. Niu Fangli offered a polite, somewhat self-conscious smile before quickly looking down to eat her own plain vegetable steamed bun.
Sheng Wanyan noted the interaction but simply returned to her meal. She was here to earn a living and survive, not to run a charity.
After finishing, she took her lunchbox to the communal water station near the cafeteria, washed it out, and packed it away.
Since there was literally nothing to do, Wu Jiaxiu spent the rest of the lunch hour giving Sheng Wanyan a grand tour of the factory grounds.
“Those buildings over there are the main production workshops. It’s loud, dirty, and chaotic, so don’t wander over there unless you absolutely have to,” Wu Jiaxiu warned, pointing to the sprawling brick structures. “That’s the main cafeteria, and the building over there houses the factory director’s office…”
Wu Jiaxiu was naturally warm and chatty, pouring out information and gossip without holding back.
“Got it. I’ll keep all that in mind. Thanks, Jiaxiu,” Sheng Wanyan said genuinely.
Wu Jiaxiu waved her hand dismissively. Since they were close in age, she was just thrilled to finally have a colleague she could chat with about normal things. The men were boring, and Sister Niu was always exhausted from dealing with her kids. As long as nothing unexpected happened, Wu Jiaxiu figured she and Wanyan would be desk buddies right up until she eventually went on maternity leave. Seeing that Wanyan dressed neatly and spoke well, she figured the new girl was decent company.
When the 5:30 p.m. quitting bell rang, the two girls parted ways at the factory gates since they lived in opposite directions.
Sheng Wanyan hopped onto the tram, and thirty minutes later, she was walking into her apartment.
Grandma Sheng was already in the kitchen, having prepared dinner while waiting for the family to return.
“You’re back! How was your first day?” Grandma Sheng asked eagerly as Wanyan set down her bag and went to help carry the dishes to the table.
“It was great, Grandma. The work is incredibly easy.”
Grandma Sheng nodded in satisfaction. She had a pretty good idea of what the Propaganda Department entailed. Having worked in a factory herself when she was younger, she knew that the Propaganda and Logistics departments were the cushiest clerical jobs available. It was a leisurely, stable environment—perfect for a young woman.
“That’s wonderful to hear. Your parents should be home any minute.”
Right on cue, Father and Mother Sheng walked through the door just as Wanyan set the last dish down.
“How did it go? Are you getting used to it?” Father Sheng asked before he even took off his coat.
Sheng Wanyan smiled and gave them the edited version. “I’m doing fine. The work is very manageable.”
Her parents exchanged a relieved look. It didn’t matter which factory it was; the Propaganda Department was universally known for being a safe, stress-free haven.
“Good, good. Let’s eat, then.”
After dinner, Sheng Wanyan helped her mother wash the dishes. The family still had about ten kilograms of the refined grain left from their black market transaction, so their food situation was secure for the time being. Furthermore, since Mother Sheng worked at the textile mill, she had insider access to purchase “defective” cloth at heavily discounted prices. In reality, these defects were usually minor snags or misprints that were unnoticeable once the fabric was cut and sewn into clothing. The factory workers eagerly bought up the internal stock for their own families.
The next morning, Sheng Wanyan left the apartment alongside her parents. Mother Sheng had packed three separate lunchboxes for them to take to work, making sure to leave portions warming on the stove for the grandparents.
Once the younger generation had left for the day, Grandpa and Grandma Sheng finished their breakfast and grabbed their shopping baskets. They needed to head to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative early. In this era, if you wanted decent cuts of meat or fresh vegetables, you had to be there the moment the doors opened. If you arrived late, all that was left were picked-over bones and wilted greens that no one else wanted.
