At dawn, when the sky was still dim, the sounds of doors opening and closing echoed through the courtyard, along with early morning greetings. The place gradually came alive, filled with the warmth of daily life.
The young couple, Ming Mei and her husband, were among those caught up in this morning rush, as they both had jobs to get to and couldn't afford to be late. Ming Mei worked at the bus station, which was farther than Zhuang Zhixi's machinery factory, so she quickly finished her breakfast and got up, saying, "I'm heading out first."
Zhuang Zhixi hurriedly stuffed a steamed bun in his mouth and said, "I'll walk you."
Ming Mei: "No, no, no!"
She said, "You'll have to double back if you walk me. I'll be quick on my bicycle."
She put on her fluffy hat to protect her ears, slung her olive-green messenger bag across her body - quite fashionable - and waved goodbye before leaving.
Xiao Yanzi murmured, "Auntie looks so pretty."
Girls always love beautiful things, and little girls even more so.
She touched her own hair and said, "Xiao Yanzi wants something fluffy too."
Liang Meifen quickly looked toward the old lady, but Zhao Guihua ignored this silly girl and said, "Ask your mother to buy you one, Xiao Yanzi. You're so big now, and your mother hasn't bought you anything yet. Let her buy it."
In her opinion, Liang Meifen had been keeping five or six yuan every month for these years, which would be enough for an ordinary family to eat for a week. But she hadn't spent a penny, never buying anything for her child.
Where all that money went was obvious - what foolishness.
Thinking about this, she glanced at Liang Meifen, who had finally released her emotions last night and stopped feeling sad, but now felt hurt again hearing such pointed remarks. However, no one cared about her feelings now, and the men of the house quickly finished their breakfast and left for work.
Zhuang Zhixi and his father both worked at the Forward Machinery Factory, so naturally they would leave together, but seeing that his father seemed to want to wait for his older brother, Zhuang Zhixi gave a meaningful smile and left first. Just as he walked out, he ran into Bai Fendou, who was smugly pushing his bicycle, nose in the air, and sneered at him, "Doesn't your family have a bicycle too? Why aren't you riding to work? Can't get your turn to use it, huh? You're not the boss at home, are you? Your wife runs the show? You're not much of a man."
He said this while making exaggerated facial expressions.
Zhuang Zhixi raised an eyebrow and smiled, "There's nothing wrong with letting the wife be in charge. It's better than not having a wife at all. Yes, we have a bicycle, but my wife needs to use it. Heaven and earth are big, but my wife is the biggest priority. I'm a grown man, what's wrong with walking? Even if her workplace wasn't far, I wouldn't let her walk. Of course, you wouldn't understand since you don't have a wife."
Bai Fendou: "!!!"
He got angry: "Hey, are you trying to provoke me? Acting like you're the only one with a wife."
Zhuang Zhixi: "Well, I'm not the only one with a wife, but Brother Fendou, you don't have one, right?"
He smiled innocently and said, "Am I wrong? Why aren't you married yet? Why is that? Don't you want to?"
Bai Fendou: "...Grass (a type of plant), I need to get to work, I don't have time for you, kid."
He pedaled away quickly, like a gust of wind.
Zhuang Zhixi called out loudly: "Hey, Brother Fendou, won't you give me a ride?"
Bai Fendou: "Get lost! Dream on!"
Zhuang Zhixi: "That's not very neighborly of you!"
Bai Fendou didn't respond and just pedaled harder.
Zhuang Zhixi clicked his tongue and said, "With skills like that, he shouldn't try to argue with me."
Zhuang Zhixi rather envied the bicycle, but the factory wasn't really far from the compound. He arrived at the factory and went to the medical office, where he changed into his white coat.
Although Zhuang Zhixi worked in the factory's medical office, he wasn't actually a medical student and didn't know medicine. When he graduated from high school, universities had stopped accepting students, and there was a possibility of being sent to the countryside. Zhuang Zhixi was quite worried at the time and spent every day looking for work.
He knew that without a job, he would definitely be sent to the countryside.
Perhaps it was luck, but after job hunting for nearly a month, Zhuang Zhixi got lucky when the Forward Machinery Factory was hiring. Though it was the Forward Machinery Factory, not just anyone could apply.
First requirement was having a local capital city household registration;
Second was being a high school graduate - middle school wouldn't do, let alone elementary education.
Finally, you needed to have a family member working at the Forward Machinery Factory with a level five or higher professional title.
Only those who met all three conditions could apply - it was extremely strict. With just these three conditions, over ninety percent of people were disqualified. Fortunately, Zhuang Zhixi met all the conditions, and he cleverly avoided the popular positions like office work or factory floor jobs, choosing instead to be a cashier in the medical office.
Many people didn't understand this position and thought it required medical knowledge, so they wouldn't choose it. Others avoided it because of the low income. In their large factory, even working on the factory floor was better than the medical office if you couldn't get an office job.
Now was the time when workers ruled, and if you learned skills quickly, wages would rise fast.
As a medical office cashier, career advancement was difficult, so some people didn't understand it, and others looked down on it, which is how Zhuang Zhixi got lucky. Indeed, the medical office salary increased slowly, and it wasn't about medical expertise, nor did it seem to have much of a future.
But this depended on perspective - those with connections naturally wanted better positions, but for ordinary families like the Zhuangs, having a job that kept you from being sent to the countryside was a huge blessing, so Zhuang Zhixi was overjoyed when he was hired.
Even later, watching batch after batch of people being sent to the countryside, Zhuang Zhixi felt even more fortunate. He knew his own capabilities and was well aware that he would be useless at farm work.
He was even more grateful that he graduated early - if it had been just one year later, he might have missed this opportunity.
After changing into his clothes, Zhuang Zhixi boiled a pot of hot water for the office and swept the floor. Their factory medical office was quite small, nothing like a big hospital - it just served the workers, treating headaches, minor injuries, and such. Counting everyone - the director, doctors, nurses, and him as the cashier - there were only six people in total.
Consider that they were a factory of ten thousand workers, and you can see how unimportant their medical office was.
Of the six people in the medical office, Zhuang Zhixi was the only male besides the director, and he was the last to join and the youngest. So Zhuang Zhixi was very observant and took initiative with any tasks he could handle.
"Little Zhuang, you're quite early today. Newly married life must be treating you well - you look energetic," Doctor Wang teased as soon as she came in. Zhuang Zhixi wasn't embarrassed at all and played along, "Of course! I even smile in my dreams."
This made Doctor Wang laugh.
Doctor Wang nodded: "You really lucked out. Your wife is great - pretty and has a proper job. You got lucky, young man."
Zhuang Zhixi joked back: "She's lucky to have found me too! Look at me, look at this face - what a handsome young man! I've got the looks, I've got the height. I don't smoke, don't drink, no bad habits. Oh my~ I have so many good points!"
As he was bragging, he actually got a bit excited and said, "I'm quite a catch, you know."
By this time, everyone in the medical office had arrived and heard him, they couldn't help laughing and said, "You've got quite the thick skin!"
Doctor Li remembered something and asked curiously, "What does your mother-in-law do? Does she work? She looks familiar somehow."
Zhuang Zhixi: "My mother-in-law used to be a bus ticket seller. When my wife graduated high school and couldn't find work, she gave her job to her daughter and took early retirement. You probably think she looks familiar because you've seen her on the bus before."
Doctor Li had a sudden realization and slapped her forehead: "Yes, yes, that's right! She used to work on the bus route that passed by my house, for many years. That was her! I knew she looked familiar. Your mother-in-law really thinks about her daughter."
This was something Zhuang Zhixi felt deeply about, and he nodded: "She certainly does."
The Ming family had two children. His wife Ming Mei had a brother who was a classmate of his older brother Zhuang Zhiyuan. After graduation, they both joined the railway department and now work as train attendants. While they had formal employment, Ming Mei's sister-in-law didn't - she was only a temporary worker at the train station.
Everyone assumed that the Ming family mother would eventually pass her job to her daughter-in-law, but to everyone's surprise, she firmly gave it to her daughter without any hesitation. Zhuang Zhixi witnessed how much the elderly couple doted on their daughter.
"Both you and your wife are employed, so life must be good. By the way, have you separated from your family household?" Doctor Li asked, the gossip flame never dying out - after all, everyone loves a bit of gossip regardless of who they are.
Zhuang Zhixi replied, "No, we haven't separated. Well, it would be quite inconvenient if we did. We still live together as one family, though my wife and I contribute ten yuan each month for food expenses, and we handle other expenses ourselves."
The two doctors exchanged glances and said, "That's quite nice, not much different from having separate households."
Zhuang Zhixi smiled, "It's still different though."
The medical office's gossip spotlight was on Zhuang Zhixi today - well, he was newly married after all. He had nothing to hide and chatted warmly with the aunties and sisters. None of them noticed someone standing at the doorway.
It was none other than Wang Xiangxiu, the young widow from the quadrangle courtyard. She had caught a cold and came to get some medicine, but upon hearing their conversation at the door, she recognized Zhuang Zhixi's voice. After listening for a while, she pursed her lips and started calculating in her mind.
Zhuang Zhixi paid ten yuan monthly, which meant he must have at least another ten or more yuan left. If his wife gave him her money too, he must have even more - probably around forty yuan to handle each month. Her eyes flickered with interest as she wondered if she could persuade this young man to help support her family.
Her family was struggling. Her mother-in-law was unemployed, and her three sons were growing boys with hefty appetites. As their mother, how could she not think of ways to improve their situation? She had come for medicine but got so lost in thought that she forgot to enter, turning back instead.
As she approached the workshop, she suddenly remembered she'd forgotten to get the medicine and smacked her forehead.
Fortunately, she spotted Bai Fendou on patrol and quickly called out, "Fendou, come here!"
Bai Fendou was on his rounds but immediately came over when he heard her, "Sister Xiu, did you call me? What's wrong? You seem distracted."
Wang Xiangxiu said, "I'm feeling under the weather. Could you help me get some cold medicine from the medical office? I can't leave work now."
Bai Fendou replied, "Sure thing. But sister, weren't you just coming from that direction..."
Wang Xiangxiu smiled and said, "I got caught up in some gossip and forgot about getting the medicine!"
Bai Fendou: "...You're something else."
Then curiosity got the better of him: "What was the gossip about?"
Wang Xiangxiu smiled and chided, "You just criticized me, and now you're asking? I won't tell you."
"Come on, sister, tell me!"
Wang Xiangxiu's refusal only made Bai Fendou more curious. She gave him a sidelong glance and said, "Alright, I'll tell you. It's about the Zhuang family..."
As she huddled close to Bai Fendou, whispering and muttering, elsewhere Zhao Guihua sneezed several times in succession and grumbled, "Which bastard is talking bad about me behind my back?"
Liang Meifen didn't dare say a word.
Zhao Guihua: "Walk faster."
Liang Meifen hurried to keep up, but seeing they were heading to an increasingly remote area, she couldn't help but whisper, "Mom, you're not planning to abandon me in some mountain valley, are you?"
Zhao Guihua: "...???"
She looked at Liang Meifen in exasperation and scolded, "Are you an absolute idiot? How much lead is in your brain to think something like that? Abandon you in a valley? What are you, a three-year-old who can't find their way back? I shouldn't have brought such a fool along. You're so stupid it's beyond belief - even a donkey has more sense!"
Liang Meifen, thoroughly chastised, didn't dare speak.
Zhao Guihua: "Such a useless thing!"
Liang Meifen: ...With such harsh scolding, she felt reassured!
