Chapter 27

In the morning, Xu Di pulled open the curtains, and the bright sunlight streamed in.

She stretched and did a few stretches, then went out to brush her teeth and wash her face.

“Xu Di, hurry up, comb your hair neatly, your clothes, wear something more formal, and your shoes…”

Xu’s mother was a little worried, it was Xu Di’s first day at work, she hoped everything would go smoothly.

Xu Di knew that her mother was a bit nervous, she didn’t argue, she quickly washed up.  She combed her hair into the popular two braids, black pants, a loose white shirt, and a thin jacket over it.  She wore black velvet cloth shoes, they were very comfortable.

“Well, not bad, you look quite energetic.  Be polite at work, be sweet-tongued.  But we don’t cause trouble, and we don’t need to be afraid of trouble, don’t let people bully you for no reason.”

Xu’s mother felt like she had a thousand words to say, but she couldn’t think of them all at once.

Xu Di listened to her mother’s nagging with a smile, she felt quite happy.

In her previous life, her mother was always thinking about farming, busy with the chickens, ducks, geese, and dogs at home, she had grown up in a free-range way.

After breakfast, Xu Di put on her bag and left home for work.

Xu’s mother cleaned up the kitchen and went to the factory, she worked the night shift, she left later than everyone else at home.

The bus swayed all the way, Xu Di felt like she was going to be squeezed flat.

She got off at her stop, took two deep breaths, and felt like she came back to life.

She straightened her clothes, smoothed her hair, and felt almost ready, then she walked towards the office building.  In this era, people relied on their intuition to do their hair and makeup, they also relied on their intuition to tell time, everything was by feeling.

She went up to the third floor, Xu Di found the warehouse office, the door was open, she went straight in.

“Hello, I’m looking for Team Leader Zhao.”

“That’s me, are you the new Xiao Xu?”

“Hello, Team Leader Zhao, I’m Xu Di, I’m here to report.”

Xu Di quickly stood at attention, this was her immediate superior.

“You young comrade, you’re messing up the generations, don’t call me Team Leader Zhao, call me Aunt Zhao, my son is older than you.”

“Really? I didn’t notice, I thought you were only a few years older than me!”

Xu Di knew that most people liked to hear nice things.  Team Leader Zhao seemed easy to talk to, but she would have to get to know her slowly.

“You young comrade, you’re quite sweet-tongued.  That’s your desk, go get a set of office supplies later.

When everyone is here, I’ll assign you tasks.  Don’t be in a hurry, ask if you don’t understand.”

“Thank you, Team Leader, I will definitely learn humbly, and strive to catch up as soon as possible.”

“Alright, go tidy up your desk.”

Team Leader Zhao turned and left the office, she had a meeting in the morning.

Xu Di looked at the desk assigned to her, it was a simple office desk.

Xu Di took the cloth from her bag, took the bucket by the door, and went to the water room to get some water first, she cleaned her little patch of land.

She carried half a bucket of water back, Xu Di rolled up her sleeves and started working.

“Oh, are you the new colleague?”

Xu Di looked up, a woman with a bouffant hairstyle came in.

“Hello, my name is Xu Di, what’s your name, comrade?”

“My name is Tang Li, just call me Sister Tang.”

“Hello, Sister Tang!”

Xu Di followed Tang Li’s words and called her Sister Tang.

“Alright, you go ahead and tidy up, go get a set of office supplies later.  When the team leader comes back from the meeting, she’ll assign you tasks.”

“Thank you, Sister Tang, I’ll go get them later.”

Xu Di had already seen where to get office supplies yesterday, they were all in the logistics department, not far away.

Xu Di finished tidying up her desk and carried the bucket to dump the water.

When she came back, she took her work certificate to get office supplies.

A few notebooks, a bottle of ink, a fountain pen, a ruler, a lock with keys…

Xu Di took her things back to the office, there were two more people in the room, a man and a woman.

“Hello, new colleague, my name is Wang Wei, this is Meng Jiao.”

Meng Jiao didn’t even look up, Xu Di didn’t see what she looked like, she only saw a head of black shoulder-length hair.

“Hello, Comrade Wang, my name is Xu Di.”

Xu Di greeted them briefly, she knew that the gender gap was still quite serious in the 1960s and 1970s.  Before she figured out the background of everyone in the office, she would do more and talk less.

“Everyone is here, let’s talk about a few things briefly.”

As soon as Team Leader Zhao came back, she called everyone together for a meeting.

Xu Di saw everyone else stand up, she also stood up.

“First of all, welcome our new colleague, Xu Di.  Introduce yourselves, you’ll be working together, let’s get to know each other first.”

“Tang Li.”

“Wang Wei.”

“Meng Jiao.”

Xu Di finally saw Meng Jiao’s face, a round face, big eyes, she was quite pretty.  Overall, she fit the mainstream aesthetics of the time.

“Hello everyone, my name is Xu Di, please take care of me.”

Xu Di didn’t know how to navigate the workplace in the 1970s, she could only rely on her intuition.

In her previous life, she had worked in a clothing factory for two years, after getting married, the jobs she did were either in the neighborhood supermarket or in the kitchen of a restaurant.

She had lived for over forty years, she had never worked in an office, she had no experience.

“Alright, you’ve all met, now let’s talk about work.

This month is almost over, you’re responsible for your own warehouses, make sure you know what’s going on, don’t be messy and unclear.”

“We know, Team Leader.”

The others responded, Xu Di also understood, she knew how to address Team Leader Zhao now.

“Xu Di, you’ll follow Tang Li for the next two days, familiarize yourself with the work process, and then I’ll assign you tasks.”

“Okay, Team Leader.”

Team Leader Zhao finished speaking and left in a hurry.

“Come on, Xiao Xu, I’ll tell you about our work content.”

Tang Li was also in a hurry, the sooner she got Xiao Xu out of the way, the sooner she could delegate some of her work, otherwise, she would be too tired.

“Our department’s main job is to coordinate the inventory situation between the headquarters warehouse and the various branches.

Each person is responsible for a few categories, when goods arrive at the headquarters warehouse, we need to record the delivery slip.

When each branch applies for goods, we need to record how much they take, how much of each item is missing, and how much is in excess, we need to be clear, and communicate with the purchasing department in a timely manner.”

Tang Li briefly introduced their work content, it sounded complicated, but it was essentially similar to warehouse dispatching.

Although Xu Di didn’t do dispatching work in the supermarket in her previous life, she had sorted goods in the warehouse, she knew a bit.

Xu Di listened to Sister Tang’s introduction, her hand quickly taking notes, recording the key points.

They had several departments like this, each department was responsible for different goods, and they connected with different department stores.

On her first day of work, Xu Di encountered an inventory check at the large warehouse.

But they didn’t have to go count the goods themselves, they just had to take the list and go to the warehouse to check with them, to see if there were any discrepancies after a month.

Xu Di followed Sister Tang to the large warehouse, it was behind their office building.

“Xiao Xu, this whole area is the large warehouse, the goods we’re responsible for are in Warehouse No. 2, I’ll take you there.”

Tang Li took Xu Di to Warehouse No. 2, this warehouse stored kitchen supplies.

From kerosene stoves and large iron pots, to small wine cups and chopsticks, they were all here.

The person in charge of Warehouse No. 2 was a middle-aged man in his forties, named Huang Shan.

Tang Li took out the records and started checking, each item, both sides had records.

If the numbers matched, there was no problem.  If the numbers didn’t match, they would have to check the inventory together.

Xu Di silently took notes, she only watched and didn’t speak, after a morning, she understood the basics.  The other details and some hidden rules would have to be learned slowly.