Chapter 75: Heading to Shanghai

With only five tables of guests, there wasn’t much to prepare. By ten in the morning, everything was ready.

For weddings, hiring a chef to cook elaborate dishes would be customary, but since it was just an engagement with family, they kept it simple and didn’t hire a chef.

In the kitchen, Aunt Jiang and Elder Aunt Jiang were busy. Elder Aunt Jiang’s first husband had passed away early, and since she had no children at the time, she remarried later.

During that era, women in their area usually didn’t marry too far away due to inconvenient transportation. However, as a second marriage, Elder Aunt Jiang married in the neighbouring county.

This made family visits inconvenient, and Elder Aunt Jiang would only come if there was something significant happening at her natal home. When she did, she would stay at Uncle Jiang’s house for a couple of days.

This time, her children didn’t come; only her husband accompanied her.

Jiang Liyun had limited contact with this Elder Aunt, but she remembered from her previous life that Elder Aunt Jiang had visited her and cried for a long time after she became paralysed.

The engagement banquet was set for noon, and the dishes were kept simple. Braised pork ribs and pork were cut into chunks, chicken was deep-fried to make fried chicken, along with chicken giblets stir-fry, dried bamboo shoots stewed with meat, sweet and sour fish, seaweed soup, pan-fried dumplings, and garlic chive scrambled eggs, totalling eight dishes, considered quite lavish for the occasion.

“Liyun, I haven’t been back in a year; your home has changed a lot.” Elder Aunt Jiang smiled as she looked at Jiang Liyun.

Uncle Jiang didn’t have much authority in front of his siblings, but they all liked their elder brother.

“Big Brother’s family has been doing well lately,” agreed Uncle Jiang.

Although Uncle Jiang came to help, he mainly directed others on what to do and didn’t do much himself. On the other hand, Aunt Jiang killed chickens and fish and did a lot of work while muttering a few complaints.

Uncle Jiang also gave some advice to Jiang Liyun: “Liyun, now that you’re married, you should live a good life. Women shouldn’t be too assertive, and don’t go out too much. Since you have a shop, isn’t it good to manage it with Feng Yi?”

Jiang Liyun pretended to listen attentively, nodding frequently, but she wouldn’t take it to heart.

When she was young, she used to argue with Uncle Jiang, but now, with a mature mindset, she doesn’t want to argue with elders.

In her previous life, Uncle Jiang had already passed away when she was reborn.

As they were talking, Feng Yi returned with Jiang’s couple and Gu Dafa.

This morning, they deliberately prepared fewer pan-fried dumplings and steamed buns, so they could return home around ten.

“Feng Yi, let’s go change clothes.” Jiang Liyun smiled, inviting Feng Yi.

People in the countryside these days often dressed plainly, and wearing a sweater under a suit was quite common. Some even wore a cotton-padded jacket under the sweater.

Of course, they wore the locally produced silk-padded cotton jackets, which were not too thick.

Feng Yi dressed like this today, and as for Jiang Liyun, she put on the red sweater that Feng Yi knitted for her. On top of that, she wore the wool coat she usually wears for important occasions.

Jiang Liyun also borrowed makeup tools from Jiang Liping and did her makeup properly.

She had experimented with makeup when she was wealthy in her previous life but found it troublesome, so she usually avoided it. However, for such an important day, she decided to put on makeup.

After she finished her makeup and went out, she saw Feng Yi in a suit.

Jiang Liyun had always known that Feng Yi was very handsome, but at this moment, she was still amazed. “Feng Yi, you look really handsome today!”

Feng Yi blushed, staring blankly at Jiang Liyun.

Today, Jiang Liyun looked exceptionally beautiful!

He’s getting engaged to Jiang Liyun; that’s great.

“Let’s go,” Jiang Liyun said, taking his hand.

The banquet was held at the new house, but she changed clothes on the old house side. Now it’s time to go over there.

Just as they walked out of the gate, they saw their neighbour, Zhou Qiaoxia.

Zhou Qiaoxia glanced at Feng Yi with a complicated expression and then turned into the Feng family’s house.

Feng Yi withdrew his gaze and looked at Jiang Liyun, holding his hand.

It’s really nice like this.

By the time they arrived at the new house, the He family had already arrived.

Mr. and Mrs. He, as well as He Chunlin’s brother and sister-in-law, were there in total.

After having lunch at the groom’s house, in the evening, Jiang Lihai would also go to the He family for dinner, which would finalise the matter between him and He Chunlin.

The whole engagement went very smoothly, and Jiang’s couple couldn’t be happier.

Jiang Qiazi was wearing the black sweater that Feng Yi had knitted for him inside, and outside, he wore the new clothes he had put on for the first time. Although he still spoke little, he smiled whenever he saw someone.

Wu Xiaochun was in a similar state, but she spoke a bit more, especially when Jiang’s elder aunt asked her various questions: “My sister Liyun is really something. I just wanted to help her, but she insisted on giving me money.”

“I didn’t let them buy me clothes, but they insisted.”

“We eat well at home on regular days, and I’ve gained weight.”

…

Jiang Liyun found it funny to listen to—clearly, it was a covert way of showing off!

Luckily, her elder aunt wasn’t like Jiang Liping; otherwise, she would have definitely stormed off.

Jiang’s elder aunt, who was listening nearby, kept rolling her eyes and then packed up some of the leftover dishes from lunch and even took away the oil they used to fry chicken and fish.

At noon, Jiang Liyun made fried chicken, and after frying the chicken, she used the same oil to fry fish—after the sea bass was fried, she made sweet and sour fish with it, which tasted particularly good!

The oil that had been used to fry the fish still had a fishy smell, and Jiang Liyun had originally planned to dispose of it, but she didn’t expect Jiang’s elder aunt to take it away.

If Jiang’s elder aunt didn’t mind, she could take it and use it.

In the afternoon, Jiang Liyun went to the town’s shop with Feng Yi, and in the evening, they went home together.

After the engagement, Feng Yi began to take over the task of collecting money for Jiang’s couple, and he took over their job of making dumplings.

In a few days, he would go to Shanghai with Jiang Liyun, and then Jiang’s couple would be responsible for looking after the shop.

In the days before going to Shanghai, Jiang Liyun and Sun Jinshan also received some chickens, and in addition, something happened—Sun Jinshan came to Jiang’s house to propose marriage, and they had already discussed with Jiang Liping that they would get married on the 20th of the first month.

Yes, they had discussed it with Jiang Liping, and it had nothing to do with Jiang’s couple.

In the blink of an eye, it was February 4th, and the next day was the day when the brick factory’s fleet would go to Shanghai.

This was also the last time the fleet would go to Shanghai before the New Year. Jiang Liyun, Feng Yi, and Sun Jinshan would take frozen chicken meat and rent a barge to follow along.

In the evening, Jiang Liyun and Sun Jinshan went to the town’s food factory together, counting their goods and loading them onto the ship.

The fleet would set off early tomorrow morning, so they found a tractor and sent the chicken meat to the ship overnight.

The weather was very cold now, and there was a lot of frozen chicken meat. With so much frozen chicken piled up on the ship, even if it was left until tomorrow night, it wouldn’t melt.

They were busy, and the director of the food factory came.

“Miss Jiang, long time no see!” Director Wang greeted Jiang Liyun with a smile as soon as he saw her.

In fact, they had fallen out before, but you couldn’t tell from Director Wang’s face at all.

“Long time, no see,” Jiang Liyun said.

“Miss Jiang, thanks to you! Otherwise, I might have made a big mistake,” Director Wang said with emotion.

After talking with Jiang Liyun that day, Director Wang immediately went to find people to help him review the contracts and documents. He even consulted professionals in the county to enquire about the matter.

The professional helped with translation and initially thought the equipment was fine. However, when Director Wang presented the papers Jiang Liyun had doodled on in his office and recounted her words, the professional was shocked. Upon closer inspection of the contract and documents, they indeed found issues.

Upon inquiring, they discovered that many factories in other places had fallen for similar scams and purchased useless production lines!

Furthermore, when they approached the person who recommended this production line to them, the person was evasive when asked about specific details.

They weren’t fools; they knew something was wrong with this production line.

Director Wang was well aware that if he went ahead and purchased the production line without resolving the issues, it would spell the end of his career!

So, Jiang Liyun actually helped him!

Although he felt a bit embarrassed, Director Wang still went to thank Jiang Liyun.

“I just casually mentioned a few words.” Jiang Liyun smiled.

Director Wang sadly recounted the aftermath of that incident and then asked Jiang Liyun, “Miss Jiang, do you think there’s a way to improve the situation in my factory?”

In this regard, Jiang Liyun really couldn’t offer a solution.

Firstly, with the increasing number of private enterprises nowadays, the products of this food factory, which didn’t have particularly advanced technology, were likely to face declining sales.

Secondly… The employees at this food factory were really not up to par.

In an era where some factory workers were accustomed to being lax and had extremely low work efficiency, the workers at the food factory were no exception.

Not only that, but many workers also had troublesome family backgrounds. For example, the eldest son of the gatekeeper worked in the town government. Whenever Director Wang saw him, he had to be polite.

Unless they replaced all these workers, it would be difficult for the food factory to revive.

In her previous life, Jiang Liyun had heard about a similar incident. A factory doing poorly in the business of daily chemical products couldn’t sell its products, couldn’t pay its employees, and then a few seemingly inconspicuous employees from the factory, in order to make ends meet, started making laundry detergent at home and sold it in the streets.

Because their laundry detergent was affordable and of good quality, their business grew, and they earned a considerable amount of money. Eventually, they turned the tables and bought the struggling daily chemical factory.

For capable individuals, it made more sense to start fresh and create a new business than to struggle with this food factory.

Of course, Director Wang might not be capable.

Jiang Liyun said, “I’m young and not familiar with food factories. I can’t provide any advice.”

Director Wang sighed and had to leave it at that.

Jiang Liyun and Sun Jinshan hired a tractor to help transport the goods.

These days, there were few cars, but tractors were quite common, and you could buy one for a few thousand yuan. Some people, after buying a tractor, earned money by helping transport goods while also taking responsibility for loading and unloading. The work was hard, but they made decent money, sometimes earning ten to twenty yuan a day.

However, their work was not stable, and they might not get jobs for several days in a row.

The person Jiang Liyun hired to operate the tractor was from their village. He brought his brother to help with the transportation. The two of them tirelessly moved the frozen chicken boxes, panting heavily but always wearing smiles on their faces.

The chickens to be transported are quite a lot; they worked all night and earned a good amount of money. Although they hired someone to help with the transportation, Jiang Liyun originally planned to stay up all night. However, around seven o’clock, Feng Yi came to take over, allowing her to go back and sleep.

“Liyun, I’m tired and can take a nap at the brick and tile factory; you should go home to sleep,” Feng Yi suggested.

Feng Yi’s reasoning made sense. They didn’t need to watch the entire time; just one person at the food factory and another at the brick and tile factory kept an eye on things.

If it were Feng Yi on duty, he could easily sleep at the brick and tile factory after finishing the night shift. But for Jiang Liyun, it wouldn’t work; she might have to stay there all night.

Jiang Liyun went home, and when she went to the brick and tile factory the next morning, she found all the chicken neatly loaded onto the ship, looking impressive. They were ready to set sail.

It wasn’t a sea voyage; there was no rule prohibiting women from boarding. In fact, many of the people navigating the inland river were couples. Jiang Liyun, Feng Yi, Sun Jinshan, and Jiang Lihai sat on a boat, feeling quite good.

“Jiang Liyun, it’s your first time travelling far. Are you scared?” Sun Jinshan asked her.

Jiang Lihai also looked at his sister.

They were all quite scared on their first journey.

“Not scared,” Jiang Liyun smiled. In her previous life, she rarely travelled far due to mobility issues, but she had seen a lot and wasn’t easily frightened. The boat ride, however, was a bit uncomfortable.

Her discomfort was mild compared to Feng Yi, who, despite sleeping little the previous night, looked lively when Jiang Liyun saw him in the morning. However, as the boat started, his complexion worsened. He didn’t vomit, but he lacked energy, dozing off lethargically.

“If you haven’t slept well before boarding, it can be more uncomfortable than usual. I didn’t sleep well last night; I need a nap,” Sun Jinshan said, lying down on the floor.

Jiang Liyun sat on a stool, watching Sun Jinshan and Feng Yi sleep at her feet.

In the evening, the fleet arrived in Shanghai. It was Jiang Liyun’s first time seeing Shanghai at this hour and her first glimpse of the busy dock manually handling cargo, a stark contrast to the automated container loading she experienced in her previous life. The bustling port in the evening was a lively scene.