Chapter 74: Don’t Test Cadres with This

Because of Sun Xiaod ie’s incident, Hu Meili felt a little uncomfortable. She didn’t take the initiative to find a partner for Lin Xiangdong, nor did she urge him to get married.

The family was in this situation now, if they wanted to prepare for Lin Xiangdong’s wedding, they would need to save for at least two or three years. They could only start saving for Lin Xiangxi’s wedding after Lin Xiangdong got married.

But Lin Xiangdong wasn’t in a hurry, others were.

When Lin Xiangnan went to the restaurant to mooch off Zhang Dafat, she saw Lin Xiangxi being pestered by a girl in the lobby.

She was about to watch the fun when her younger brother came to her for help.

“Sister you’re here.” Lin Xiangxi took the vegetable basket, didn’t even look at it, and said, “The dishes are a lot of work today, I’ll go to the backyard and deal with them first.”

As he passed by Lin Xiangnan, he mouthed, “Factory director’s daughter, Big Brother.”

So she was after her brother, Lin Xiangnan instantly lost interest.

The other party took the initiative to greet her, “You’re Lin Nan, right? Xiangdong has mentioned you. I’m Zhou Kangmei.”

As expected of the factory director’s daughter, she looked delicate, but her name was really tough.

The factory’s leaders were all old revolutionaries, and Zhou Kangmei was the only daughter that Zhou, the factory director, had in his old age. It wasn’t strange that she was raised like a boy.

Lin Xiangnan secretly looked at her a few times and asked, “Isn’t it a bit early for you to eat at the restaurant at this time? It’s not even eleven o’clock yet.”

“I came early on purpose. I just wanted to interview Lin Xiangdong’s family.”

Zhou Kangmei said with a business-like attitude, “Comrade Lin Xiangdong went to the countryside at the age of 16 and stayed there for six years. He only came back to take over his mother’s job after she retired due to illness. This kind of hard-working spirit, wherever he’s needed, he goes, is worth being used as a model by our propaganda department.”

“Ah?” Lin Xiangnan was stunned for a moment, then she gave Zhou Kangmei a thumbs up, “Sister Zhou, you’re truly a talented person in the propaganda department.”

This was the art of speaking.

She used official business as an excuse. What could Lin Xiangnan say? She could only say, “Just ask whatever you want, I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Zhou Kangmei took out her notebook and asked, “Because Comrade Hu Meili’s illness was quite serious, so Lin Xiangdong would get up at six in the morning, accompany his mother to exercise in the yard, and then make breakfast for the family. Is that true?”

Breakfast at home was always made by Hu Meili, especially now that she had retired due to illness and didn’t work, she didn’t have anything else to do, so she took over the cooking.

Lin Xiangnan paused and asked, “Who said that?”

“I went to your house just now, Aunt Hu said it.”

So someone at home was also a talent.

A sincere smile instantly spread across Lin Xiangnan’s face, “Yes, that’s right. It’s like that. My brother gets up at six in the morning to make breakfast.”

Zhou Kangmei continued to ask, “When your brother comes home from work, he will also read books for two hours every day without fail, read about the deeds of great people, study their spirit. Is that true?”

No wonder Lin Xiangxi couldn’t handle it and found an excuse to slip away. Hu Meili really knew how to make things up!

But Lin Xiangnan couldn’t expose her, she could only smile and nod, “Yes, that’s right. My brother loves to read books, and he often writes articles.”

“I know that. When your brother was in the countryside, he wrote an article about everyone helping each other during the busy farming season and sent it to the newspaper. It was even published in the provincial newspaper. Actually, people like him are very suitable for our propaganda department.”

No wonder Hu Meili was bragging so hard, she wanted her son to be transferred.

The higher the level of a worker, the higher their salary. Seventh and eighth-level skilled workers earned more than the leaders each month.

But workers were tired, the easiest job was to be a clerk.

Zhou Kangmei was an angel in Hu Meili’s eyes because she could give Lin Xiangdong a chance to go to the propaganda department.

Anyway, Hu Meili had already boasted, so Lin Xiangnan could only help her out.

“You must be tired after talking so much. Have some orange juice to moisten your throat.” Zhou Kangmei took out a bottle of water from her bag and handed it to Lin Xiangnan.

Zhou Kangmei’s actions made Lin Xiangnan laugh. The restaurant didn’t lack plain water, and she was so polite, clearly, she had other motives.

“What we just talked about was serious business. Now let’s just chat. After all, if I want to promote Comrade Lin Xiangdong in the factory’s newspaper, I need to know more about him.”

Zhou Kangmei put her notebook and pen back in her bag and put on a casual chatty demeanor, “Anyway, it’s almost time for lunch, let’s chat while we eat, I’ll treat you.”

“No need, I have an appointment with someone for lunch, I won’t eat at the restaurant.” Lin Xiangnan was going to the backyard to secretly eat something good.

Zhou Kangmei wasn’t disappointed by the rejection, she still smiled and said, “Then let’s hurry up and ask all the questions we need to ask.”

Anyway, say what you should say, and make up what you shouldn’t say. In the end, Lin Xiangnan just said, “Just go ask my brother directly. He knows best.”

Zhou Kangmei didn’t get any key information, but she wasn’t annoyed. Before leaving, she left a box of jujube paste pastries for Lin Xiangnan, “My dad brought it back from Beijing, I think it tastes good, you try it.”

After she left, Lin Xiangxi ran out from the backyard and shouted, “Sis, the food is ready, let’s eat.”

Lin Xiangnan looked at the jujube paste pastries and orange juice in her hand, and then at her younger brother wearing an apron.

“Tsk, there’s no comparison. One is a natural soft rice king, the other is a natural cooking king.”

Lin Xiangnan pushed the orange juice towards Lin Xiangxi, “This orange juice has a strong artificial flavor. I don’t want to drink it.”

“I’ll drink it, I’ll drink it.” Lin Xiangxi took it and praised, “Zhou Kangmei is really generous. The factory director’s salary is over a hundred yuan a month, and she also has her own salary. So much money, there are only two people in the family, how can they spend it all?”

Their family still needed to save money to build a house, but the factory leaders were the first to live in the dormitory building.

The current leadership team was basically all old revolutionaries, no one would pick on them for this little thing.

Compared to the Lin family, the Zhou family’s living conditions were much better.

Lin Xiangnan reminded, “Don’t be bought off. If you sell out Big Brother, Mom will definitely be furious.”

“If someone was willing to spend so much effort on me, I would have already surrendered.” Lin Xiangxi mumbled, “Except for this last year, Big Brother was alone for the past few years, it wasn’t easy.”

The world is full of temptations.

Lin Xiangnan looked at her younger brother and suggested, “You’re not worse-looking than Big Brother. Learn some details from Big Brother, you should be able to do it too.”

Lin Xiangxi smiled awkwardly, “I can’t learn a bit.”

Lin Xiangnan looked at him and said, “Me neither.”

When Hu Meili was being unreasonable, Lin Xiangnan thought she was already a good child for not arguing back. But Lin Xiangdong could hold back his temper and speak nicely. Lin Xiangnan admired his emotional stability.

The reason why Hu Meili and Zhou Kangmei didn’t get along was because Zhou Kangmei also had a quick temper, and she was afraid that her son would be wronged.

Lin Xiangnan wasn’t going to get involved in Lin Xiangdong’s affairs, but a few days later, she ran into Zhou Kangmei at the restaurant again.

“Oh, what a coincidence.” Zhou Kangmei took the initiative to greet her.

“Yeah, it’s a coincidence.” Lin Xiangnan was a little puzzled, why did she come to brush up on her and her brother’s goodwill? She had the ability to do it to Lin Xiangdong.

“I was talking about you with Xiangdong yesterday. I didn’t expect to run into you today. Look at you, you’re in a hurry, you’re sweating.” Zhou Kangmei said, and took out a handkerchief from her bag, “This is a Cymbidium orchid handkerchief, take it and use it. Your brother said you don’t lack food or clothing, you just like these pretty little things. This handkerchief is Suzhou embroidery, it was prepared to be given to foreign guests, you should like it.”

Lin Xiangnan took the handkerchief and looked at it. The colors were elegant, the embroidery was exquisite, it was obviously a masterpiece made by a master. She really liked this kind of handicraft.

Why was she testing cadres with this again!

Was she the kind of person who could withstand the test?