At home, they were constantly trading for meat rations to eat meat and refined grains, and buying things like malted milk extract, milk candies, and cookies.
Lin Jin not only dressed fashionably herself, but she also dressed up her man. It was a good month if the couple had twenty or thirty yuan left over from their salaries.
"Here, this is our money. After adding the one thousand you gave me before and paying off our debts, this is what's left." Lin Jin pushed a small iron box toward him. "It's a little over one thousand eight hundred and sixty in total."
"Honestly, I don't think Zhu Yun knows how much your scholarship money was back in college. Students are always cagey about that kind of thing with each other."
"Anyway, you were assigned here after graduation, so it's hard for anyone to check your old records. We'll just insist that you were only getting thirty or forty yuan back then and that you mailed it all home!"
"When you first started working, your salary wasn't high—around sixty or seventy yuan. It's only in the last two years that it went up to over eighty. A rough estimate is good enough; we don't need to be precise down to the last few yuan of your bonus."
"That would bring the total to two thousand three hundred and seventy, which shaves off a thousand yuan. Besides, that's still a huge amount. Even if she reports you to the leadership, she might not get much more!"
"Didn't you mail a lot of money home before? That money was meant for Zhu Yun, too. No matter how you look at it, your mother should give us at least a thousand yuan, right?"
"It makes no sense. Your parents have only one son, and they took dozens of yuan from you every month as a filial piety payment, yet they still mistreated their daughter-in-law! Over the years, you must have sent back at least three or four thousand yuan. They have land and live in the countryside; their expenses can't be that high."
"We're not asking for much, just a thousand yuan. Besides, if your mother hadn't gone and married you off to a village girl for no reason, we wouldn't be in this difficult situation."
"Our situation is special right now—I've got a little money-spender in my belly. We can't just give all our savings to Zhu Yun, can we?"
"Once we get through this, I'll send an extra ten yuan home every month."
Wang Xianbing held Lin Jin's hand, moved. He sighed, "With a wife like you, what more could a husband ask for?"
Lin Jin chuckled softly and rested her head on his shoulder, but her eyes were cold. She continued in a gentle voice, "Anyway, we both earn a salary. Any problem that can be solved with money isn't really a problem."
"The job and household registration are easy to solve. The house isn't actually that hard, either."
Wang Xianbing couldn't help but ask, "Jinjin, do you have a good idea?"
She nodded, taking his large hand and playing with it like a child. "Our machinery factory was converted directly from a military unit. It's not in the city, and there are a lot of villages nearby. Isn't Tianhe Commune right next to our factory, separated by just a wall?"
"There's even a small gate there for family members to go to the commune to trade for fruits, vegetables, and eggs. The conditions in the commune are decent. We can buy a small courtyard house there for Zhu Yun. That way, she'll be far away from us and won't cause trouble. Plus, it's an environment she's familiar with. She can grow some vegetables in the yard to save money."
Wang Xianbing nodded repeatedly after hearing this. "That's a great idea. Our director's wife also wants to buy a courtyard house in the commune. The director says she has the means but doesn't know how to enjoy life."
"Yes, I've heard Sister-in-law Cheng mention it too. A lot of families in the commune have built brick-and-tile houses specifically to rent them out to our factory's employees who can't get assigned housing but want to bring their families over." Lin Jin was skilled in dealing with people, so a lot of information found its way to her ears.
"The brick houses in the commune are made of blue bricks. A large courtyard house only costs about five or six hundred yuan. If you can find a temporary worker position for the family that owns it, you could get the house without spending a single cent."
Wang Xianbing couldn't resist pulling her into a hug and giving her a big, fond kiss. "Honey, you're so clever. Any problem seems to just solve itself when it comes to you."
"I'll go sort all this out tomorrow. As soon as the money from home arrives, we'll have nothing more to do with Zhu Yun. Even if she searches to the ends of the earth, she won't be able to affect our family at all!"
Zhu Yun raised an eyebrow as she listened. 'In this era, people consider it a great honor to live in an apartment building and look down on rustic courtyard homes.'
'After all, apartment buildings were clean and tidy, with fewer insects, snakes, rats, and ants. The kitchen, bathroom, living room, and bedroom were all integrated. They had running water and heating, which was incredibly convenient. There was none of the misery of having to go to the toilet on a winter night or a rainy day.'
'But she, who came from a future where people lived in glass boxes, didn't see it that way. A life close to nature, a self-sufficient life... it couldn't be more wonderful.'
'As long as you weren't afraid of a little trouble and fixed up the house properly, you could live just as comfortably, cleanly, and conveniently.'
Although the military unit had been converted into a machinery factory, people's daily routines hadn't changed. The wake-up call sounded at six o'clock, and immediately after, the loudspeakers, not to be outdone, began blaring rousing music.
Zhu Yun had slept comfortably, and her body had mostly recovered. Full of energy, she changed her clothes and pushed open the door to her room.
Wang Xianbing had just returned from his morning run with breakfast. He was exchanging a few words with Mr. Chu from across the hall when he saw her come out. His expression stiffened, and he gave her a cold nod.
There wasn't much variety for breakfast, just soy milk, fried dough sticks, and meat buns, served with two kinds of pickled vegetables.
The soy milk was under-brewed and bland. The fried dough sticks were so greasy it was like taking a mouthful of oil. The meat buns were filled with more green onion and ginger than meat, and the dough had a slightly sour taste from over-fermenting. Even the pickled vegetables just tasted of plain salt...
'Last night's plain noodles were better than this!'
Zhu Yun pushed aside the soy milk after two sips. She put down the fried dough stick after one bite and the bun after three. "This isn't good. I'll just have some malted milk extract and a few cookies."
'So picky,' he thought. 'She's probably not even hungry.'
'She's so skinny... it's probably not because her family didn't feed her, but because she's just a picky eater, isn't it?'
Wang Xianbing suppressed his temper. Without a word and with a sullen face, he mixed her a cup of malted milk extract and brought over the cookies.
"Finish eating and get your things. I'll take you to handle the hiring paperwork and transfer your household registration, and then we'll go look at the house. If the house is suitable, you can move in today." He really didn't want to say another word to her, wishing he could just pack her up and send her away immediately.
"As for the money, I'll get it all together and give it to you within two days!"
Zhu Yun lowered her eyes. "What kind of work? I won't take any job that's tiring, dirty, or low-paying!"
"The work unit just built a new cafeteria in the office district. They're hiring this month, and it will officially open next month. It's a unified hiring process, so what position you get will depend on your own abilities."
Afraid she would be displeased, Wang Xianbing added a detailed explanation: "This cafeteria specifically serves the office district. It's newly built, spacious, and has new facilities. The pay and benefits are good, and at the very least, it includes three meals a day."
"The cafeteria has two floors. The lower level is for regular employees, and the upper level is like a state-run restaurant. They need eight head chefs alone, not to mention numerous openings for assistant cooks, vegetable washers, dishwashers, and cleaners. There are also logistics positions like accountants, purchasers, and warehouse managers."
"The best part is that it's an open recruitment. Getting a position only requires passing a skills assessment; there's no favoritism. There are many types of positions, so it all depends on which one you're capable of doing."