Chapter 5

Asking for favors during the New Year is often a good opportunity.

On the first day of the New Year, Xin Qi asked Li Huilan to take her to see the neighborhood committee director.

Li Huilan thought Xin Qi was crazy—she had never dealt with government officials before.

Xin Qi smiled. “We’re just going to pay a New Year’s visit and casually ask about job recruitment.”

She didn’t know what the current policy was, so she decided to ask the neighborhood committee director responsible for the return of educated youth to the city.

If the official route didn’t work, she could plan alternatives early.

Director Ma of the committee had many visitors every day during the holidays. At first, he was a little annoyed.

But when he saw how beautiful Xin Qi was, his eyes lit up. Then he found out she was an educated youth who wanted to return to the city.

Director Ma warmly invited the mother and daughter to sit and asked his wife to serve tea.

Putting on an official tone, he said, “The organization is very concerned about the issue of educated youth returning to the city.”

“But your situation doesn’t really meet the policy requirements. Returning to the city requires an official job placement quota.”

Xin Qi pushed a few boxes of pastries toward him.

“I signed up to go to the countryside back then under your mobilization.”

“It’s been six years now, I’ve been working in Harbin all this time.”

“Even though it was in response to the country’s call, my health is poor now—I’ve developed pneumonia. The brigade has issued me a certificate to return to the city.”

“Health is the foundation of revolution. In my condition, going back would only drag down the brigade’s productivity.”

“So I hope you can help arrange a city job for me—something close to home, so my family can be at ease.”

She handed over her return-to-city certificate.

Director Ma didn’t even look at it. He righteously said, “Which returning educated youth doesn’t face hardship? And how many job quotas are there?”

“Even registered city residents don’t have enough positions, let alone someone without a city household registration like you.”

“You can’t take these matters lightly. As a neighborhood committee director, I carry a heavy burden. I must act fairly.”

“How can I just casually assign jobs to anyone who asks?”

He made a big show of principle. Li Huilan was scolded so thoroughly that her face turned red with embarrassment. She cursed Xin Qi silently.

But Xin Qi could tell Director Ma wasn’t truly angry—he was holding something back.

“Director Ma, it’s my fault—I wasn’t thinking clearly. Let’s pretend I never came today. Sorry to bother you.”

With that, she stood up to leave.

If there were conditions, just say them. If she could meet them, she would. If not, there was no point in wasting breath.

Besides, if it was money he wanted, she didn’t have any.

Director Ma was caught off guard by her unexpected response and quickly tried to recover.

“Comrade Xin, don’t be hasty, let me finish.”

“Officially, I really can’t help. But personally, I sympathize and would really like to help.”

“How about this—you said you’re still single, right? I can introduce you to someone. That way, you can return to the city indirectly.”

That’s when Xin Qi realized why Director Ma had been so enthusiastic—he was basically acting as a pimp.

From how skillfully he handled the situation, it was clearly not his first time doing this.

She wondered how many female educated youths he had “introduced” to men—was it always the same guy or different ones?

She felt sick to her stomach.

But she still needed his help to get her household registration settled, so she couldn’t offend him just yet. She vaguely agreed.

It’s just a blind date, after all. She’d seen plenty of those even if she hadn’t been in one herself. She could fake it just to build a connection.

Li Huilan hadn’t thought that deeply. If the neighborhood committee director was arranging the match, the man must be decent.

She showed strong interest and agreed eagerly.

Nowadays, blind dates required parental involvement. Seeing Li Huilan agree, Director Ma was quite satisfied.

After a few quick exchanges, they arranged the time and place for the date.

Xin Qi watched coldly from the sidelines, thinking how absurd it all was.

On the way home, Li Huilan was beaming. Her daughter returning to the city should’ve been a good thing.

But the family had limited space, and her youngest son was almost twenty—ready for marriage.

With more people at home, where would they live?

If her fourth daughter didn’t have household registration or a job, returning to the city would be more trouble than benefit.

But if she could marry someone with status in Beijing, both the registration and job issues would be solved in one go.

They could even free up a room for Xin Liyuan’s wedding.

The more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea—and never considered that Xin Qi might object.

“Not getting married? Then what are you planning?”

On the second day of the New Year, Li Huilan came to wake Xin Qi again. Seeing her lazing around, she made a few remarks about how a bride shouldn’t be so idle, lest the in-laws think she had no upbringing.

That scared Xin Qi wide awake. They just talked about a blind date yesterday—now they were already talking marriage?

She decided to come clean with her mother: she had no intention of getting married.

Sure enough, Li Huilan immediately got angry and questioned her coldly.

Xin Qi said, “I’m still young. I want to get a job and be self-sufficient first. Getting married a couple of years later is fine.”

“Besides, I don’t even have a job now—what good match could I possibly get?”

“Even if the man likes me, would his family respect a woman who has to depend on her in-laws to live?”

“Think about it—even my sister-in-law has a job, but just because she helps out her own family, how do you treat her?”

At first, Li Huilan didn’t react much. But when Xin Qi brought up Zhang Lan, her expression changed.

That morning, Xin Jianjun and his wife had brought gifts to Zhang’s house—carrying a chicken and loads of packages.

After all, Zhang Lan was her biological daughter. Li Huilan was momentarily touched, but then remembered her youngest son needed to get married.

Keeping an idle daughter at home—who would want to marry into that situation? Sons were more important than daughters.

Her briefly softened heart turned cold again.

“You don’t want to get married? Then are you planning to freeload at home?”

“Let me be clear: we don’t have space for you, and we can’t afford to feed you.”

“You either find someone to marry in Beijing soon, or go back to Harbin after the New Year.”

What could Xin Qi do? Right now in Beijing, she was like a ghost without a legal identity, and she didn’t have money either.

She had to find a way to get some cash—maybe buy a job placement under the table.

There was no way she’d marry blindly. Not a chance.

She had only 300 yuan on hand. A decent job placement would cost at least 1,000.

She used to have more, but most of it had been sent back to her family every month.

She never saved much, and getting the fake pneumonia certificate had cost a lot, not to mention the travel expenses.

After thinking for a bit, Xin Qi said to Li Huilan, “I’m going on a blind date, so I should at least have something decent to wear. The clothes I brought are old countryside stuff—too shabby for a city date.”

“I’ll need a new hair tie, and new shoes too.”

Li Huilan was reluctant, but couldn’t justify giving her nothing.

Grudgingly, she gave Xin Qi 12 yuan and a cloth ration coupon for 1.5 meters—almost equal to a month’s wage from her odd jobs.