Early this morning, Deng Xiaozhen's brother, Deng Weijun, came to the military residential compound looking for Qiao Lanshu.
Qin Yuanzheng was still on his marriage leave. He wanted to stick by his wife's side every single day and initially had no intention of going out.
After all, seeing that the heated brick bed was almost dry, they might even be able to sleep on it tonight.
With his well-behaved and beautiful little wife wandering around in front of him every day, he simply couldn't hold back.
Seeing Deng Weijun arrive, he felt a bit dissatisfied. Standing at the door, he asked, "Weijun, why did you come over?"
It was also Deng Weijun's first time here. Seeing Qin Yuanzheng's stern face, he immediately stood up straight and said, "Regiment Commander Qin, our factory manager asked me to come over. Didn't Comrade Xiao Qiao mention wanting to find a job? The temporary workers our food factory hired this year need to come to the factory for a unified onboarding today, so I came to ask, is Comrade Xiao Qiao still going?"
Qin Yuanzheng: "..."
As a military officer, Qin Yuanzheng actually had ways to find a job for Qiao Lanshu, but he had to wait for the right opportunity because there were many military dependents and a high demand for job openings.
For instance, the teacher position in the propaganda department that Qiao Lanshu had mentioned before was mostly held by military spouses.
Qin Yuanzheng didn't really want Comrade Xiao Qiao to go to work; after all, he was fully capable of supporting her.
He was destined to never have children, so he figured he would just raise his little wife like a child.
She could stay by his side, living a carefree life forever. His money was more than enough to provide for her.
But Comrade Xiao Qiao didn't seem to think that way.
Qiao Lanshu came out of the room and asked him, "Brother Zheng, who is it?"
She seemed to have heard something about a food factory.
Qin Yuanzheng stepped aside from the door and said to Deng Weijun, "Come in and sit for a while."
Deng Weijun didn't dare to go inside at all.
Looking at Qin Yuanzheng, he seemed like some kind of large, fierce beast strictly guarding its territory. With such a strong sense of territoriality, Deng Weijun dared not act rashly.
He said, "No need, Regiment Commander Qin. I've delivered the message and I still have to go back to the factory for work, so I'll be leaving first."
Qin Yuanzheng remained silent for two seconds before saying, "Wait a moment, we will go over together."
Deng Weijun quickly nodded, "Okay, okay, I will wait for you at the main gate of the compound."
Saying that, Deng Weijun quickly slipped away.
Qin Yuanzheng returned to the room and said to Qiao Lanshu, "The comrade from the food factory is asking the newly hired workers to go handle their onboarding. Do you want to go?"
Qiao Lanshu's eyes lit up and she nodded, "Of course, are we going right now?"
Qin Yuanzheng nodded, "We'll leave now. Put on some extra layers, it's very cold outside."
The weather had been getting colder and colder lately.
Fortunately, the food factory had dedicated boiler workers running the heating, so it wasn't cold at all inside during the winter.
Qin Yuanzheng followed behind Qiao Lanshu back into the bedroom. He watched as she put on a base shirt and then slipped a woolen sweater over it.
He took a look and suddenly said, "Do you not have any thick sweaters? Let's go to the supply and marketing cooperative later to buy some yarn, and we'll hire someone to knit a couple for you."
Qiao Lanshu didn't know how to knit sweaters, but Qin Yuanzheng was right; her clothes were still too thin.
Previously, she had only focused on buying cotton to make padded jackets and hadn't even thought about making sweaters.
She nodded, "Okay, I'll listen to you."
Qin Yuanzheng looked at her with a smile in his eyes. Once Qiao Lanshu put on her thick padded jacket and thick padded trousers, he brought over the red scarf and personally wrapped it around her, saying, "Cover your mouth and nose too, the wind is too biting."
Qiao Lanshu was bundled up like a zongzi, looking round and surprisingly adorable.
Qin Yuanzheng also put on his military uniform and overcoat, then led Qiao Lanshu outside.
The two met up with Deng Weijun at the main gate of the compound, and then they rode in Qin Yuanzheng's car to the food factory together.
In Longcheng City, there were a total of two food factories: one in the north of the city and one in the south.
Yang Wenyan was the factory manager at the food factory in the north, responsible for supplying the towns and villages in that northern district.
In her previous life, after escaping from the cave dwelling, Qiao Lanshu had been rescued by the public security comrades. With the assistance of the Women's Federation, she was arranged a job at this very food factory.
She was actually quite familiar with the place.
Looking at the familiar stretches of factory buildings, she felt a bit emotional.
After getting out of the car, Deng Weijun began introducing the food factory to her: "Over there is the pickled vegetable workshop, responsible for making preserves. Our pickled vegetables here are very popular. We pickle hundreds of thousands of catties every year, and the surrounding villagers love eating them."
Hundreds of thousands of catties was a bit of an exaggeration, but there were probably over a hundred thousand.
The pickled vegetable workshop was only busy during the vegetable season. Once winter came and everything withered, there wouldn't be any vegetables to pickle even if they wanted to work.
Deng Weijun continued, "We also have a brewing plant, making things like soy sauce, white liquor, vinegar... Our soy sauce and vinegar here are highly sought after, especially the vinegar, which is always in short supply."
As Deng Weijun spoke of these things, his expression was full of pride.
Having worked at the food factory for so long in her previous life, Qiao Lanshu had never heard of anyone named Deng Weijun.
She asked curiously, "What is your job? Which workshop are you in?"
Deng Weijun replied, "I'm a boiler worker in the brewing workshop."
The brewing workshop had specific temperature requirements; it couldn't be too high or too low, so it required manual temperature control.
Therefore, they needed dedicated boiler workers to manually manage the heat.
Qiao Lanshu looked a bit bewildered.
She knew the person who fired the boiler in the brewing workshop in her past life, and it wasn't Deng Weijun.
Could it be that Deng Weijun resigned later on?
Seeing how proudly he spoke of the food factory, he didn't seem like someone who would quit.
Deng Weijun added, "Oh right, we also have a pastry workshop where they steam bread, cakes, steamed buns, and such. There are boiler workers there too, responsible for adding coal and stoking the fire to steam things. You will probably be assigned to the pastry workshop; they happen to be short-staffed there, and the work is relatively light. However, it's best not to be placed in the deep-frying team. They fry dough twists and make pancakes there every day—it's hot and dangerous..."
The people around here still loved eating fried dough twists. Deep-fried in oil, they were fragrant, crispy, and stored well.
During the New Year and other holidays, buying half a catty or a catty to give as gifts was considered quite respectable.
Hearing this, Qin Yuanzheng chimed in, "Cousin probably won't put you in the deep-frying team."
Yang Wenyan would look out for Qiao Lanshu. Although he wouldn't be too blatant about it, he only needed to casually mention a word when assigning work to get things done.
There were twelve temporary workers hired this time. When Qiao Lanshu went in to handle her onboarding, Qin Yuanzheng waited for her at the factory gates.
Deng Weijun also changed into his work uniform and headed off to his shift.
The personnel section staff had already organized the onboarding paperwork, and the temporary workers were lining up to receive their forms.
When Qiao Lanshu walked in, she still drew sidelong glances from several people.
It was because she was exceptionally pretty. Although she wasn't very tall, she had an oval face, fair skin, and large, bright eyes. When she smiled slightly, two small dimples appeared, along with a row of white, shell-like teeth.
Beautiful people always attract attention, no matter where they go.
The personnel clerk looked at her and asked, "What is your name?"
Qiao Lanshu replied, "My name is Qiao Lanshu."
Qiao Lanshu's onboarding application form had been personally delivered to the personnel section by the factory manager, Yang Wenyan.
The personnel department naturally knew. Realizing what was going on, the clerk handed her an employment confirmation form and said, "Take this form and report to the supervisor at the pastry workshop next Monday."
Qiao Lanshu took the employment form with both hands, smiling happily. "Okay, thank you."
As she walked out with the sign-in sheet, someone behind her asked, "Who is she? A family member of one of the workers?"
"Oh, I haven't heard of her. Which worker is lucky enough to marry such a beautiful wife?"
"She probably got in through connections. Look at how petite she is; she should be selling goods at a department store. Here, it's all manual labor. Being pretty is useless."
...
Qiao Lanshu ignored their gossip. She carefully put away the employment form. Today was Friday. The factory often required overtime on Saturdays and Sundays, but during the slow winter season, they would give days off.
Right now, it was winter, their off-peak season.
Therefore, the personnel department arranged for all the temporary workers to report together next Monday.
Qiao Lanshu walked out of the factory in high spirits. Seeing her from afar, Qin Yuanzheng immediately strode over to meet her. Looking at her expression, he asked, "Are you really that happy?"
Qiao Lanshu smiled and nodded. "Yes, I am! I have a job now."
Although it was only a temporary position, she knew that if she worked hard, she could definitely become a regular employee.
After all, becoming a regular employee wasn't too difficult. As long as she performed well and earned a "Five Good" commendation, she could be promoted to a permanent worker.
Qin Yuanzheng looked at the sky and said in a low voice, "It's getting late. Let's hurry home."
The heated brick bed at home had already aired out;
He was going back to sleep on it tonight!
At the thought of this, his heart burned with passion. He wrapped his arm around Qiao Lanshu's waist, opened the car door, and said, "Get in, let's go home."
