Although we can’t fire employees now, we can definitely change their positions. The office is so good; she doesn’t want to be transferred to the workshop or logistics.

Wen Jiajia hadn’t answered the question when Qiao He shook the paper in his hand and said without raising his head, “That’s something only people like us, who were recruited through proper examinations or those assigned by the school, can do.”

—

For a moment, the office was silent.

“Ah!”

After a moment, Sha Yue rolled her eyes and continued to fiddle with her aloe vera.

Even Li Haijun looked unhappy.

Wen Jiajia was speechless.

No, just be proud of yourself—why drag me into this?

She was a rookie who had just joined the company on her first day. She hadn’t yet familiarized herself with the situation at the pharmaceutical factory, let alone established her footing. She didn’t want to offend anyone.

She didn’t offend anyone directly; she was just implicated. Wen Jiajia felt that she was going to suffer unfairly.

She cursed Qiao He a thousand times in her heart, took a few seconds to calm herself down, then drank a sip of water and began to tidy up.

In fact, this work wasn’t difficult, but it was tedious.

The main problem was that the records in the workshop were sloppy and haphazard, making it a test of patience to extract the data.

Wen Jiajia started sorting from the beginning: sulfaguanidine, sulfamethoxazole…

These are all sulfa drugs.

Before she knew it, more than an hour had passed.

If the glaring sunlight hadn’t moved onto the notebook, Wen Jiajia would still be absorbed in her work.

“Jia Jia, you can really sit still.” Sha Yue sighed. “I’ve gotten up and walked around three times.”

Wen Jiajia put down her pen, rubbed her wrist, and stretched lazily. “I can’t help it; I want to finish it quickly.”

She twisted her neck, making a cracking sound, then stood up, moved around, and sat down again to continue working.

Now she had finished half of it, and she aimed to finish the other half before leaving work.

Practice makes perfect, and Wen Jiajia found she could organize things faster and faster.

By five o’clock, she had finished sorting the data.

Just as she was about to go to the workshop to ask the team leader questions, Sha Yue, who had just returned from outside, knocked on her desk and said, “Jia Jia, Director Xue said you can leave at five o’clock.”

Wen Jiajia paused. “Don’t we get off work at six?”

“Yeah.” Sha Yue was also surprised. “Is your home far away? Anyway, that’s what Director Xue just told me.”

Wen Jiajia put the sorted data in the drawer, thought for a moment, then took it out and put it in her backpack. She said to Sha Yue, “My home is in the suburbs, and it takes 40 minutes to ride a bicycle. It’s not far, but the suburbs aren’t safe at night, so Director Xue let me leave work early.”

Sha Yue suddenly understood. “Then you go first. See you tomorrow.”

Wen Jiajia smiled and said, “See you tomorrow.”

She packed her things, put on her backpack, and walked toward the carport.

Only a fool wouldn’t want to leave work early.

As soon as she left, the atmosphere in the office became somewhat tense.

Qiao He muttered, “Is Director Xue sometimes so enthusiastic?”

In fact, the rules regarding this in the pharmaceutical factory aren’t very strict. People in the R&D team can also leave work at five o’clock or even start work at nine o’clock, but since they are capable, no one complains. Why can Wen Jiajia do this? For the others, no matter how bored they are, they have to stay in the factory.

Sha Yue held a grudge and snorted at Qiao He. “Director Xue is only enthusiastic about useful people. It doesn’t matter how they got in. Even if they were assigned here, they’re still trying to fish in troubled waters.”

With that, she shook her ponytail and ran to the workshop.

Wen Jiajia still felt a sense of crisis. She always felt that this colleague might be a troublemaker. If she continued to lie low, although Wen Jiajia wouldn’t get involved, Director Xue might end up disliking her.

Although the sun had set, the sky was still bright.

The evening breeze was as comfortable as the morning breeze, but it carried the smell of food, which made her salivate.

Wen Jiajia couldn’t help but stop when she passed by the state-owned restaurant at the door. She observed it carefully and said, “Give me eight steamed buns.”

Waiter: “The buns are big.”

Wen Jiajia smiled and said, “There are many people in my family.” Just kidding—she planned to have two meals: tonight and tomorrow morning.

The waiter opened the steamer, and Wen Jiajia saw that there were still brown sugar buns inside. She immediately said, “Comrade, four white buns and four brown sugar buns.”

“Okay, get the food coupons ready.”

The waiter wrapped the steamed buns in oil paper and handed them to her. Wen Jiajia took them and gave the food coupons and money.

She stuffed the buns into her empty backpack and placed the backpack in the front basket of her bicycle.

The waiter gave her two food coupons weighing eight taels each. Wen Jiajia took them and rode off on her bike.

Wen Jiajia was eager to return home, so she rode faster than in the morning. The price she paid was that her rear end hurt so much after getting off the bike that she almost didn’t dare to sit down.

The two children had not yet returned, so Wen Jiajia quickly lit the fire in the stove and fried the blanched bracken, bacon, and wild onions in the pot.

After frying, she cooked a bowl of seaweed egg drop soup.

Just as Wen Jiajia brought the two dishes to the table, the two children came back. They rushed in and hugged Wen Jiajia’s legs.

Wen Chun was curious. “Aunt, are you back from work?”

Wen Jiajia, exhausted, pushed away the two clingy children and said, “Yes, yes, go wash your hands and eat.”

Wen Xuan smiled and said, “So my aunt gets off work earlier than we do from school.”

“…”

Poor kid, you were hoping I’d be late, weren’t you?!

Wen Jiajia was annoyed. “If you don’t wash your hands, you won’t get to eat. I bought some brown sugar buns today.”

The two children were frightened, quickly washed their hands, and sat down to eat.

Children have no resistance to sweets, and they actually devoured a brown sugar bun that was bigger than an adult man’s fist.

That’s not all; they also had a big bowl of seaweed egg drop soup.

Wen Jiajia quickly touched their bellies and asked, “Are you full? Don’t complain about being uncomfortable at night.”

Last month, they ate too much and were fine in the evening, but in the middle of the night, the two children started crying and vomiting, which almost scared Wen Jiajia to death. She thought they had been poisoned after eating mushrooms that day.

Wei Dai had carried one child in his arms and the other on his back, and took them to the military hospital in the dark. The doctor had to rub their stomachs for half an hour and give them medicine before they felt better.

The lesson here was about overeating.

Wen Xuan straightened her back and patted her belly. “Auntie, I’m not full; I can still eat.”

Wen Jiajia lifted her to the ground and said, “What more do you want to eat? Go outside and pick wild onions. Don’t come back until you have a basket full.”

She then turned to Wen Chun. “You too.”

—

Night.

Wen Jiajia checked the sorted data again. This was her first job, and there could be no mistakes.

From what Qiao He had said today, he was probably assigned a task by Director Xue but didn’t do it well. As a result, he had to take a step back and handle the safety propaganda work in the workshop from now on.

After verifying everything, Wen Jiajia put the documents back into her backpack and looked out the window. The sky was bright with moonlight and dotted with stars. It would surely be a sunny day tomorrow.

—

Wen Jiajia was still the second one to arrive at work today.

Qiao He seemed to have just arrived and was cleaning the glass next to his desk.

He and Li Haijun sat at the desk on the corridor side. Although they were protected from the afternoon sun, because the bulletin board was in the corridor, chalk dust always floated onto the glass and even onto the desk.

It was past eight o’clock, but Sha Yue and Li Haijun had not arrived yet. It wasn’t until around ten past eight that they arrived at the office one after another.

Sha Yue took out an enamel cup from the drawer. “Jia Jia, aren’t you going to the workshop? Why are you still reading the newspaper?”

He shook the cup in his hand and asked Wen Jiajia, “Do you want me to get you some water?”

Wen Jiajia looked up. “No, I just served it. Several team leaders in the workshop haven’t arrived yet; I’ll ask them later.”

What could she say? She decided to bring water from home in the future. The factory did have water, but she always felt it tasted bad, too hard, and wasn’t as sweet as the water she brought from home.

There was no conversation in the morning, and the office was filled with the sound of turning newspaper pages.

Wen Jiajia had read the Workers’ Daily up to May 1st and had written down several articles in her notebook.

She marked a few of them in red because they were related to pharmaceuticals.

After ten o’clock, Wen Jiajia put away the newspaper and went to the workshop with paper and pen.

There are four team leaders in the Sixth Workshop. Wen Jiajia realized that the workshop she saw yesterday was not the entire Sixth Workshop but just a small part of it.

Team leader Wei was debugging the equipment. Wen Jiajia’s arrival only made him raise his head for half a second. “Please wait.”

With that, he lowered his head to continue debugging.

Wen Jiajia wasn’t in a hurry and waited aside.

Actually, there is no smell in the workshop. Sulfonamide is odorless and tasteless, which makes the environment of the Sixth Workshop quite pleasant.

She heard from Sha Yue that some workshops have a very strong odor.

Those workshops are all located downwind, and the buildings are ventilated on all four sides, almost like observation towers.

It is said that the residential houses near the workshops have been moved away one after another, and the vacant space will soon be incorporated into the pharmaceutical factory.

The workshop isn’t an assembly line. Wen Jiajia felt it was a bit like a small pharmaceutical workshop, but this is already the most advanced pharmaceutical workshop in the province these days.

She saw some yellowish powder on the lab table and moved closer. It was crystalline powder.

Wen Jiajia was too timid to touch it.

Even getting close made her hold her breath, afraid the medicine might be inhaled into her nasal cavity.

The worker next to her laughed and said, “Don’t be afraid, comrade. This poison isn’t very poisonous.”

Wen Jiajia:!!!

Her eyes widened, and she stammered in fear, “Yes, yes, yes, it’s poisonous? You’re not lying to me? It’s really poisonous?”

No, is it normal to leave poisonous medicine like this? Don’t they need to cover it with something? If the wind blows, won’t everyone be poisoned?

Wen Jiajia asked three soul-searching questions, then quickly ran to the window.

The worker laughed and said, “I’m kidding. This one isn’t poisonous. The poisonous one is the one in the cover next to you. That one is really poisonous. We put it next to the window on purpose.”

Wen Jiajia was silent for a moment, turned her head to look at the large cover next to her, and then quietly walked back.

Team leader Wei finally had some time. He looked at Wen Jiajia and said to the others, “Don’t tease the young people. What’s the use of poison? Poison is medicine if used correctly. It’s not that easy to get poisoned. What if no one comes to our workshop in the future?”

Wen Jiajia nodded heavily in her heart. This is very true!