Pei Jing went to the nurse to borrow a stool for Zhi Xia to sit on, and the two of them waited outside for a while before seeing Wu Lei rushing out.
He was holding the medicine the doctor had prepared, and when he saw Zhi Xia sitting there with her big belly sticking out, leaning against Pei Jing, he couldn't bear to ask them to wait a little longer.
Pei Jing saw his embarrassed expression and said, "Comrade Wu should hurry back and take the medicine home, the child is most important. We can catch up later, and we haven't eaten yet, so let's go eat first and wait for you at the same time."
Wu Lei instantly felt relieved and quickly replied, "OK, there is a state-run restaurant to the left of the hospital entrance, you guys go eat first, and I'll treat you later. I live close by, just ten minutes or so, I'll be there in no time."
Wu Lei rushed out as if he couldn't wait to run.
"Are you tired?" Pei Jing asked Zhi Xia.
"Not tired, let's go," Zhi Xia held his hand and stood up with his support.
To say she wasn't tired was impossible. Nowadays, even standing for a while would exhaust her, let alone running around like this all morning.
But there was no way around the suffering of a pregnant woman. It was something no one else could take over for her.
Pei Jing was still holding things in his hand to support her as they left.
The state-run restaurants in Lingjiang City were really not as good as those in Jin City. At mealtime now, there was only one customer eating by the window when they entered, eating a plate of plump dumplings.
Just looking at it made Zhi Xia hungry instantly.
The service sister was sitting at the table cracking melon seeds, the crisp sound indicating she was enjoying it. With one glance, there was a pile of melon seed shells in front of her. She clearly had no intention of getting up to serve customers.
They found an empty spot and sat down. Zhi Xia said, "Let's have dumplings too."
Pei Jing certainly had no objections and called out to the sister, "Sister, please bring us two plates of dumplings."
"Dumplings are sold out," the sister replied without pausing from cracking her seeds.
In this era of state-owned enterprises, all kinds of goods were scarce. The service industry was not only devoid of the principle that the customer is king, but the attitudes were very arrogant.
This was not targeted at any one person, but applied to everyone.
"Then two bowls of noodles," Zhi Xia said.
Only then did the service sister slowly get up, took their money and food coupon, and casually called out to the kitchen window.
Soon after, two bowls of noodles appeared at the window.
Before the service sister could get up, Pei Jing stood up first and said, "No need to trouble you sister, I'll bring them over myself."
Perfect, she didn't want to move anyway. The sister continued cracking her seeds.
Halfway through the meal, Wu Lei rushed in, out of breath, and sat next to Pei Jing and Zhi Xia. "I'm really sorry to keep you waiting for so long!"
Wu Lei also ordered a bowl of noodles. When the noodles were served, Zhi Xia finally understood why Pei Jing had gotten up to bring the noodles over himself earlier.
The sister's fingers were black from cracking melon seeds, though her nails were neatly trimmed. Clearly some had oozed into the noodle soup.
Yet Wu Lei ate with relish as if he didn't notice anything.
A pregnant woman's appetite was peculiar - famished one moment and unable to take another bite the next after the slightest upset.
Seeing she had stopped eating, Pei Jing finished her leftover noodles as well.
Wu Lei ate quickly. Making some small talk while eating, he started probing, "When I saw you on the train last time, your wife was already pregnant right? Time really flies. Who would have thought we'd meet again at the hospital after all this time. What a coincidence, wouldn't you say Brother Pei?"
"Yes, quite a coincidence," Pei Jing smiled and meaningfully said, "Big Brother Wu made us wait today, he wouldn't just be wanting to catch up right?"
Wu Lei's expression froze for a moment, realizing he'd been seen through. He decided to get right to the point, "Sister Zhi Xia, actually my main purpose today is to have a chat with you."
"Mr. Wu, please go ahead," Zhi Xia was still very polite since he still needed their help.
"It's about the mung bean cakes again," Wu Lei said somewhat apologetically. "Although you said last time you don't plan to sell the recipe, I still want to shamelessly ask one more time. You said you just randomly came up with the recipe. Why not sell it to us to make some money? Or if you have other requests, we can discuss it."
Zhi Xia and Pei Jing exchanged a glance, having already guessed his intentions earlier, so they were not surprised now.
"To be honest, sister must know, when we met last year, I was actually sent out to study. I went through a lot of trouble begging my elders before I was allowed to go. As the saying goes, don't teach your apprentice too well or he will surpass the master. They agreed on the surface but were still wary. The products we made look fine but the taste is mediocre. Lingjiang City Food Factory has over 10 years of history. The only noteworthy product is sweet potato dry in all these years. It was still somewhat profitable in the first few years but has been operating at a loss in recent years..."
Though their interactions were limited, Wu Lei could tell neither Pei Jing nor Zhi Xia were out to take advantage of them, so he told the truth straightforwardly.
His position as R&D Director was just a vanity title. He had two people under him and hadn't developed any noteworthy products over the years.
The factory had been operating at a loss for several consecutive years. The state wouldn't keep subsidizing so many freeloaders either. If things didn't improve, what they would face next time wouldn't be criticism but discussions on dissolution.
Though the factory was small, it represented the life's work of him and others there, as well as the few dozen workers. If it went under, they would have no choice but to return home and live off the land.
Wu Lei had finally made it to a director position in his 30s. With a wife and kids to support, he was naturally unwilling to become unemployed or start over. He wanted to give it another try and felt Zhi Xia's mung bean cakes were an opportunity.
Though Wu Lei didn't have many accomplishments in R&D, he had tasted many products over the years in pursuit of it. Of all the cakes and pastries, Zhi Xia's mung bean cakes were the most delicious he had ever eaten.
Wu Lei exaggerated the factory's plight, realizing the other party were not short on money so he had to appeal to their sympathy.
Wu Lei spoke more passionately, also hoping to build good rapport with Zhi Xia.
He understood food products well enough to know that some people could never come up with good recipes despite their best efforts, while the talented could easily churn out new products from casual tinkering.
"Sister Zhi Xia, I see you are still young. You should be following the army now right? Our country advocates equal rights between men and women, women can hold up half the sky. Are you willing to spend your best years mired in domesticity, watching your youth slip away in futile drudgery without pursuing your own career?"
