Chapter 46: Suspicion

Wei Dai has been very busy recently because his superiors came to inspect.

Wen Jiajia, on the other hand, has a lot of free time. Ever since she finished writing the manuscript about the sulfonamide series products, Director Xue has not arranged any new work for her, saying that he wanted her to take a break for a while.

Today is payday. On this day every month, the workers are in particularly high spirits.

Even people like Li Haijun, who always had a sullen face, and Qiao He, who had long eyes and a long forehead, smiled from time to time. Their tempers were better than before, and they were even willing to talk more.

Sha Yue was amazed and whispered to Wen Jiajia, “Money really matters. The two male comrades in our office are finally willing to use their precious mouths.”

Wen Jiajia said, “It’s payday, who wouldn’t like it?”

She was also very happy, especially since she was promoted this month and received the salary of level 16, which was 37 yuan.

But she is not the highest paid in the office. Qiao He has a higher salary than her, earning 42.5 yuan at level 15. This is the advantage of education. He is a technical secondary school student, and he received 37 yuan after graduation and 42 yuan after regularization, which is considered a high-income group.

If he works harder, he might be able to get a level 14 salary, but he is happy with his life and thinks it’s good this way.

Sha Yue touched the small green plant on Jiajia’s desk and asked, “Jiajia, are you going to night school?”

“Huh? Night school?” Wen Jiajia turned around and asked, in surprise, “What? What night school?”

Sha Yue was shocked: “Don’t you know? Our factory said that it would hold a political night school for workers and their families. Everyone thinks that they can make better progress after attending night school.”

In fact, it is easier to get promoted.

Wen Jiajia had never heard of this before. She frowned and thought for a moment: “I can’t go.”

She really wanted to see the night school of that time, but it started in the evening, which was not convenient for her.

Sha Yue persuaded her, “After you enroll in night school, you can apply for a dormitory. It’s no problem to live there for a few months. You might get a promotion after attending. This is a good opportunity.”

In her opinion, even if someone is married, they shouldn’t miss such an opportunity.

Wen Jiajia still shook her head. She viewed these years as a transition period. She planned to take a leave of absence once the college entrance examination was resumed. If the night school operated during the day, she could attend, but not at night.

“Okay.” Sha Yue didn’t want to persuade her anymore.

Wen Jiajia smiled. If she didn’t know that the college entrance examination would be resumed, she probably would have enrolled.

“What about you? Are you going?” she asked Sha Yue.

Sha Yue touched the leaves of a plant: “Wait… Jia Jia, why is your pot of daffodils doing so poorly?”

Wen Jiajia didn’t agree: “What’s wrong with it?” This was the best pot of green plants she had ever grown.

Sha Yue laughed: “I think your daffodil will die again in less than two months. You’d better stop planting flowers and plants and focus on something else.”

Wen Jiajia denied it: “It’s the soil. The flowers and plants at my home are growing just fine.”

A lot of roses bloomed in her yard recently, making it look like a sea of flowers. However, when someone came to inspect, Wei Dai felt that the yard looked a bit messy with too many flowers, so he transplanted them to the back hill. Otherwise, she would have cut a few flowers to show Sha Yue.

Sha Yue pointed out mercilessly: “That must have been planted by Wei Dai. I asked you to help me water my morning glory for a few days, and you almost drowned it.”

Wen Jiajia was completely speechless because everything Sha Yue said was right.

She was good at growing vegetables but not at growing delicate flowers and plants, which often died within a few days.

Wen Jiajia didn’t want to talk about this topic anymore. She suddenly remembered something and asked Sha Yue, “I remember you and your guy are getting your marriage certificate next week?”

Sha Yue blushed: “Yes, next Saturday. You must come.”

Wen Jiajia asked, “How many tables will you host?”

Sha Yue whispered, “We can still host a few tables now, so we’ll host two or three tables just for courtesy. You don’t know, the purchasing department of our factory was originally headed by another director. The director’s son got married and hosted five tables, but someone reported it.”

“And then?”

“He was dismissed from his post.”

At that time, the factory was at the center of a storm, and everyone was in a state of panic. It was already a good thing to be dismissed. Since then, people in the factory dared not hold more than four tables for wedding banquets, usually only three.

Wen Jiajia thought, it’s a good thing that she got married in her hometown, otherwise, someone might have found fault with her.

She nodded and said she would definitely go.

The area was close to the sea, and there were many typhoons in summer and autumn. When Wen Jiajia saw the sky suddenly darken outside the window and the weather turn from sunny to cloudy, she knew that a typhoon was coming again.

In the afternoon, the wind blew in gusts.

It was not strong at first but gradually became stronger, shaking the trees left and right.

“Boom—”

Wen Jiajia was frightened by the noise and quickly closed the window. Someone’s window had been blown broken.

Looking at the fallen leaves swirling in the air outside the window, Wen Jiajia felt a little worried. Today’s wind was obviously stronger than previous times. She wondered if it would rain heavily when she went out in the evening.

The typhoon did not ruin anyone else’s mood, and everyone was looking forward to payday.

The pharmaceutical factory was so big that the finance department had been paying salaries all day.

In the morning, they paid out to the first, second, third, and fourth workshops, and in the afternoon, they paid out to the fifth and sixth workshops. Li Haijun, who had just returned from the toilet, said, “We’re almost done with paying out to the fifth workshop. I just saw Old Wu from the fifth workshop coming out of the finance department.”

Upon hearing this, Wen Jiajia immediately closed her notebook and ran to the door to wait.

The others were no exception, and everyone from the workshop ran to the door of the finance office.

“Workshop 6, we’re up next.”

Soon, someone came running and shouting.

At times like this, Wen Jiajia would not fall behind others and would rush forward very quickly.

She ran as fast as a 100-meter sprinter and reached the finance office in less than a minute.

By then, there were already about 20 people lined up in front of her.

Sha Yue, out of breath, panted: “Why are you running so fast this time?”

Wen Jiajia said seriously: “If you’re not enthusiastic about collecting money, there must be something wrong with your brain.”

Besides, after getting the money, she still had to go to the department store. She had been eyeing a pair of leather shoes for a few days and didn’t know if anyone had bought them.

That pair of leather shoes was made of real leather and had a good design. It was a classic style that would not go out of fashion even after decades. Wen Jiajia really liked them.

Sha Yue was speechless and hurried to line up at the back.

Wen Jiajia was at the front of the line, and it was her turn in more than ten minutes.

Touching the freshly made 37 yuan and a few tickets in her hand, Wen Jiajia’s smile stretched almost to her ears.

After work, Wen Jiajia rode her bike to the department store, bought the leather shoes, and then headed home.

It was already dark by then, and there seemed to be a large dark cloud in the distance floating toward the city.

Wen Jiajia didn’t dare to delay any longer and pedaled as hard as she could, finally returning home before the strong wind picked up again.

Wei Dai breathed a sigh of relief and helped her out of the bike: “Are your legs sore?”

Wen Jiajia grimaced, touched her sore legs, and nodded, “I rode all the way back following our army’s vehicle and never fell behind. This is the first time I’ve ridden so fast.”

It almost flipped over, okay?

Wei Dai said she was silly: “Don’t you know to follow the army’s car back?”

Wen Jiajia said, “You think I don’t want to? The car was full; otherwise, I would have sat in it long ago.”

“By the way,” Wen Jiajia added, “Did you ask the fleet to buy something? They should be unloading the goods now.”

Wei Dai shook his head: “I went to the village and bought a lot today.”

It had been typhoon season recently, and both the military logistics and the families in the housing estates had stockpiled a lot of supplies.

Wen Jiajia ran to the kitchen and opened the cupboard. As expected, it was filled with dry goods, and there was a big bag of flour in the rice jar. She felt relieved.

The typhoon came roaring in, and this time the wind was exceptionally strong, several times stronger than in the afternoon.

“Do you want to check the roof?” Wen Jiajia asked Wei Dai.

Wei Dai replied, “Just check it out.”

He didn’t expect any problems since he had just checked it during the last typhoon.

Wen Jiajia went to the utility room to get the ladder. She held it steady under the eaves while Wei Dai climbed up.

He thought everything would be fine, but he found something unexpected.

“Jia Jia!” Wei Dai shouted, “Look what I found up here.”

Wen Jiajia was very curious: “What?”

Wei Dai carefully returned to the ladder and, when he reached the ground, took out two bird eggs from his pocket.

Wen Jiajia was surprised: “Which bird is so stupid to lay its eggs on our roof?”

Wei Dai smiled and said, “Want to eat them?”

Wen Jiajia was speechless: “Two bird eggs aren’t even half the size of a chicken egg, not even enough for one bite.”

Wei Dai suggested, “Then should we put them in the bird’s nest on the tree?”

Wen Jiajia said, “Forget it. You’ve already touched them, and birds can smell. If you put them there, they might not even want the eggs in their nest.”

Wei Dai put the two eggs on the table and asked, “Is this what the book says?”

“Of course,” Wen Jiajia said confidently. “Many birds are like this.”

Wei Dai started reading more, but he had never seen any books that talked about these things. Sometimes he felt something was wrong.

His wife was too knowledgeable in some aspects and too ignorant in others.

A violent storm finally hit.

The sky looked like it had a big hole in it. Although it was evening, it was as dark as night outside the house.

Wen Jiajia felt a bit panicked. Firstly, she was afraid of flooding, and secondly, she was worried that Wei Dai would have to go out to help with rescues.

Wei Dai consoled her, “This rain is only temporary. As long as it doesn’t rain for two or three days in a row, there’s no need to worry about the lake flooding.”

Such a big lake could regulate itself, so it wasn’t easy to overflow.

As for the rescue…

Wei Dai said, “Last year’s typhoon was bigger than this one, but it was fine last year, so it should be fine this year too.”

As long as there wasn’t a power outage at home, Wei Dai felt at ease, which meant everything was fine.

Sure enough, the sound of rain gradually subsided in the middle of the night. When Wei Dai noticed it, he got up and walked to the window, opened it, and listened quietly to make sure it wasn’t his imagination.

Only then did he feel at ease.

However, Wen Jiajia, who had been extremely panicked, was already wandering in the land of dreams. She was sleeping so soundly that it was impossible to tell she had been afraid.

“You’re so brave,” Wei Dai said softly. He went back to bed, hugged his wife, and finally could sleep peacefully.

The next day.

It was still raining outside, but from the rainfall, it was clear that the typhoon had passed, and only the tail of the typhoon remained.

It was drizzling and seemed like it would stop soon.

It was already daybreak, but Wen Jiajia was still sleeping soundly. Even the loud and oppressive alarm did not wake her up.

What sound?

Wei Dai sat up suddenly when the alarm sounded in the room.

Wen Jiajia just frowned, mumbled unconsciously, turned over, and continued to sleep.

Wei Dai was forced to get up urgently, throw back the quilt, and hurry out, arriving at the door without even opening an umbrella.

Many neighbors came out. When Xie Yang saw Wei Dai, he walked over and said, “It’s okay. I just asked Lao Wang. The upstream wanted to release the flood, and the commune borrowed our army’s radio to sound the alarm.”

Wei Dai asked, “Flood relief? Gaoyang? In that case, should we go there?”