Chapter 22: There is no work done for free, only skilled fish.

Tao Yu and Li Juan entered the house.

Li Juan quickly began to fuss about Tao Yu coming home late and then asked how she had managed to buy so much sticky candy.

Tao Yu listened attentively and didn’t mind Li Juan’s chatter. She simply answered her question.

Coincidentally, Aunt Chang had not returned yet, so Tao Yu divided the candy in half and gave some to Aunt Chang.

Aunt Chang didn’t want it, but Li Juan insisted, tearing open a few pieces and sending Aunt Chang out to go home.

Before leaving, Aunt Chang mentioned,

“Juan’er, I sent my husband to queue up at the zipper factory. I estimate we’ll have zippers delivered tomorrow.”

Upon hearing this, Li Juan immediately felt a bit guilty.

“How could I have your husband queue up? He still needs to take care of his health!”

“And about those zippers, I just mentioned it casually. You don’t have to worry about it so much…”

Aunt Chang waved her hand to interrupt.

“It’s nothing, really. You used to take me along when we were doing the paper box work. You’re always thinking of me when something good comes up, so I can’t help but give you a little help in return. I’m counting on you to make a fortune and take me along, haha…”

“Anyway, the zippers—half of them will probably be broken, and who knows if they’ll be useful.”

“When it comes to queuing at the zipper factory, we’re in North City, so it’s fine. The worst case is sleeping outside for a night and getting them. But those people coming from other provinces to resell goods, they have to leave half a month in advance, eating and sleeping on the road. That’s real hardship!”

…

After chatting for a while outside, Aunt Chang said goodbye and went home.

Later that night, after reminding her daughter to sleep early, Li Juan put out the kerosene lamp in her room and went to bed.

By the way, the old house doesn’t have electricity; they still use kerosene lamps.

However, Li Juan had replaced the old lamp from their previous house.

Now, they used a new kerosene lamp bought from the supply and marketing cooperative.

It was brighter than the old one, with no black smoke, and had a glass shade and a knob.

Tao Yu lay in bed, examining her hands in the light from the bedside lamp.

The light filtered through the gaps in her fingers, landing on her lips, the tip of her nose, and her eyes.

Carefully Looking

At this moment, her eyes truly sparkled with brilliance, beautiful beyond measure.

Tao Yu thought back to when Li Juan had mentioned the house to Song Hecheng earlier.

Song Hecheng had kept his expression neutral.

Tao Yu lowered her hands and let out a soft sigh.

He knew she had tricked him into talking, but he pretended as if nothing had happened.

He really was irritating…

In Song Hecheng’s Study

Song Hecheng set down the documents he had brought back from the mechanical factory, took a sip of his tea, and relaxed, leaning his head back against the chair.

He couldn’t focus.

He couldn’t absorb a single word from the documents.

He raised his hand to shield his forehead from the bright light of the desk lamp, as if deep in thought.

The taste of the tea in his mouth couldn’t overpower the lingering sweetness of malt sugar.

Song Hecheng remembered the quiet words she had said to him earlier:

“See you tomorrow.”

That must have been it.

As he thought about it, his eyes, shielded by his long hand, darkened.

The Next Day

Even though someone had said “see you tomorrow,” Tao Yu didn’t go into the office when she reached the third floor.

She handed the tray to Xu Guochao.

Song Hecheng had been in the office discussing the upcoming production and research process with several factory directors when he heard Xu Guochao knock.

He glanced at the tray in Xu Guochao’s hands but continued with the conversation without pausing or asking any questions.

As for Tao Yu?

She planned to leave the third floor and head to the cafeteria.

But when she passed by a translator named Chen Jiefang, she stopped.

Most people had already gone to the cafeteria, but he was still flipping through his dictionary, scratching his head as he struggled to translate a foreign manual.

Tao Yu stood behind him, briefly scanning the manual in his hand.

She pointed to a word on the page and spoke clearly:

“That’s wrong. It’s ‘secondary.’ The manual is missing an ‘r.’ ‘Secondary pipe’ refers to a diode.”

Chen Jiefang was taken aback by her sudden correction.

He immediately flipped open his dictionary and compared the two versions.

“Hey, the manual really was wrong! No wonder I couldn’t figure it out after all this time!”

He quickly solved the problem that had been troubling him all morning.

Turning around, he saw it was Tao Yu. He eagerly greeted her with gratitude.

“It’s you, Comrade Tao Yu! Thanks to you! I knew it—the manual was wrong!”

“How could this manual be so off…”

He scratched his head in frustration, clearly exhausted from days of struggling with foreign manuals.

The mechanical equipment Song Hecheng had brought from abroad was very advanced, unavailable domestically, so the manuals were only in foreign languages.

His job was to translate them to help the workers in the workshop operate the machines.

But when translating, he couldn’t keep going to Song Hecheng for help every time there was an issue.

If he kept asking Song Hecheng for everything, he might as well quit being a translator.

Tao Yu smiled warmly and explained to him:

“Actually, the original manual isn’t in English.”

“The version you have in English is a second or third translation, and it’s a photocopy, so mistakes are common.”

Chen Jiefang suddenly understood.

He remembered how much more accurate Tao Yu’s English pronunciation was compared to his own.

His eyes immediately lit up.

“Comrade Tao Yu, it sounds like your English is really good…”

From that day on, every time Tao Yu came to the third floor, Chen Jiefang would ask her a few questions.

Sometimes they were about technical terms, other times about difficult sentences in the machinery descriptions.

Tao Yu patiently answered every question without hesitation.

Soon, Tao Yu began to arrive earlier on the third floor.

She didn’t go into Song Hecheng’s office anymore.

(Could it be… that Factory Director Song’s lunch time was now decided by Tao Yu?)

As she solved Chen Jiefang’s problems in front of many people, her clear and standard American accent, as well as her professional translation skills, quickly caught everyone’s attention.

It didn’t take long before people on the third floor realized that Tao Yu’s English was better than anyone else’s there!

Not just Chen Jiefang, but even a few of the draftspersons started coming to ask her questions.

After all, the detailed blueprints Song Hecheng brought back were all in foreign languages…

Tao Yu, as expected, lived up to expectations, answering everyone’s questions carefully.

Tao Yu could easily translate these highly specialized mechanical terms.

Sounds strange, right?

Well, it’s a coincidence.

Tao Yu had passed the national Level 1 translation exam in high school.

She had worked as a part-time translator for three years in a foreign trade company.

And that foreign trade company just happened to specialize in machinery-related fields…

So, there’s no such thing as work done for nothing.

There are only workers who grow and improve.

And as for Tao Yu, this hidden talent—would she continue to stay in the cafeteria as a food server…?