Chapter 10 I’m going to make money today

Early in the morning, the sky was painted with brilliant hues of dawn, birds chirped, and the air was filled with the fragrance of blooming flowers.

On a large bed with a stark, cold-toned design, Song Youyou slowly opened her sleepy, drowsy eyes. The next second, she couldn’t help but cover her lips as she let out a yawn.

She was exhausted.

Sleeping in Gu Xiao’s room, surrounded by the scent of pinewood that clung to him, had left her restless all night. Her mind was overstimulated, and she couldn’t fall asleep.

But thinking about how she had to make money today, she forced herself to get up despite the fatigue.

Thanks to the groceries they’d bought yesterday, there was no shortage of food at home. She made a bowl of noodles and fried an egg for breakfast. Then, after tucking 100 yuan in cash and some ration tickets into her pocket, she headed out.

Her destination today was the Xinhua Bookstore.

It was very close—no need for a bus. Just a few minutes’ walk and she arrived.

Located on a corner facing the street, the bookstore’s large windows allowed a clear view of the books displayed inside.

When Song Youyou stepped inside, the staff were still busy setting things up, so no one noticed her arrival. That suited her just fine—she headed straight to the office of the store supervisor.

“Supervisor.” Song Youyou knocked on the office door.

A middle-aged man inside looked up. “Comrade Song Youyou? What brings you here?”

Having worked here for two years, she was naturally well known to everyone.

“Are you here to ask about getting your old job back?” the supervisor asked, his face filled with hesitation.

“Youyou, we’ve been colleagues for a long time, and we’ve always had a good relationship. So I’ll speak frankly. Jobs here are one-to-one—one person per position. You gave your job to Song Baozhu, and now I don’t have another spot to offer you, understand?”

“Supervisor, I’m not here to ask for my old job back,” Song Youyou clarified.

“Oh?” The supervisor looked surprised. “Then what are you here for?”

“Well… I guess I am looking for work, but not the usual kind…”

“There it is, I knew it,” he said, sighing, his frown deepening with concern.

Song Youyou knew he was a good man—he truly felt bad that he couldn’t help her. Her heart warmed at that thought, and she spoke gently:

“Supervisor, I’m here today to see if there’s any translation work available.”

“You said what? Translation?”

His eyes lit up instantly, practically glowing. The wrinkles on his face deepened—but this time from excitement and joy.

Finally, someone asking about translation work!

You had to understand—Huaguo was currently in a state of reconstruction. And truthfully, the nation lagged behind in many areas of technology.

In the spirit of learning from others by taking in the good and discarding the bad, the government had assigned cultural institutions the task of translating foreign materials.

After all, if you wanted to learn from others, people had to be able to read the material first. So translation had become a very urgent matter.

As a key cultural unit, the Xinhua Bookstore had been assigned a significant number of translation tasks.

But due to the chaos in recent years, there was a major gap in education. There hadn’t been properly trained university students for a long time, and cultural talent was severely lacking.

So finding someone capable of translating was near impossible.

The bookstore director had been breathing down his neck daily, nagging about the many pending translation assignments and urging him to find someone—anyone.

And now here came Song Youyou, asking to do translation work! He was ecstatic.

But his joy only lasted two seconds before his rational side returned.

“You know a foreign language?” he asked suspiciously.

He was well aware that, in recent years, foreign language education had been labeled as bourgeois. Most schools had stopped offering it altogether.

And Song Youyou only had a high school diploma. How could she know a foreign language?

“I taught myself,” she replied, using the excuse she’d long prepared.

The supervisor remained doubtful.

But what else could she say? That she had been reborn, and in her previous life she had majored in English, minored in Russian, studied abroad for a year, and was insanely good at languages?

No one would believe it. Worse, they might accuse her of superstitious nonsense and report her.

“Shouldn’t I take a test first if I want to do translation work?” she reminded him.

“Oh, right, right!” he said, suddenly remembering.

He’d been so desperate for a translator that he’d temporarily lost his mind.

“What language are you most proficient in?”

“…English,” she replied after a moment’s thought.

In truth, she’d done tons of translation work in her past life to make ends meet, handling both English and Russian jobs with ease. She was more than capable.

But with only a high school diploma in this life, and given the sensitivity of the times, she knew better than to stand out too much. So she only mentioned English.

Hearing this, the supervisor handed her an English-language journal.

“This is the test material. You have three hours to complete it. You may use a dictionary if needed. Do you want to start now, or come back after lunch?”

“Now is fine. May I borrow your office for a bit? I’ll be quick.”

He agreed, and Song Youyou didn’t say anything more. She sat down and began writing.

She had done this exact test in her previous life—it was identical.

So she wrote quickly, finishing in just ten minutes.

When the supervisor returned with a freshly brewed cup of tea, she looked up and said, “I’m done.”

He nearly spit out his tea.