The garment factory’s day shift in summer started at six o’clock in the morning, so before dawn, the family compound became lively. People lined up next to the water tap, and the earthen stoves and coal stoves of each household were lit. Some were washing rice, some were kneading dough, and before long, the aroma wafted out. 

Zhang Xiumei stood in front of the stove, holding a spatula in her right hand, scooping out small pieces of milky white lard from the bowl she was holding in her left hand, and putting them into the hot iron wok to render. 

Soon, the domineering aroma of lard spread with the sizzling sound. Li Guihua, smelling the aroma from next door, asked, “Xiumei, what are you making that smells so good?” 

“Nothing much, just frying some flower rice.” As Zhang Xiumei spoke, she cracked eggs into the pot and used the spatula to mash and stir-fry the egg mixture. 

“Frying flower rice and you’re using both lard and eggs,” Li Guihua threw the noodles into the pot, covered the lid and let it cook, while she walked to the front of the Lin family’s stove, lowered her voice and jokingly asked, “What’s wrong? Has Jingjing’s marriage been settled?” 

Zhang Xiumei paused her stir-frying action, raised her head and smiled, “Can’t my daughter have a good meal if her marriage hasn’t been settled?” 

The two families had been neighbors for more than ten years, and Li Guihua understood Zhang Xiumei’s temper very well. Hearing her tone, she knew that she was in a bad mood, choked for a moment and said, “You really are something, when did I say that? Wasn’t Jingjing at the social event yesterday? Isn’t there any good news?” 

Zhang Xiumei’s stir-frying action paused, raised her head and smiled: “She was just dragged there by the union cadre to make up the numbers, she went for a spin and came back, what good news could there be?” 

“You’re just fooling me,” Li Guihua didn’t quite believe Zhang Xiumei’s explanation, finished speaking and couldn’t help but ask in a low voice, “Jingjing is also at the age to get married, doesn’t she have any thoughts in her heart?” 

“She doesn’t understand yet, what thoughts could she have?” Zhang Xiumei said, picking up half a bowl of rice placed on the stove, pouring it into the iron pot and using the spatula to break it up, “I don’t want to let Jingjing marry too far away either, those soldiers come from all over the country, it would be good if they could be soldiers for a lifetime, but if they can’t get promoted when they reach a certain age, they have to go back to their hometown.” 

Li Guihua didn’t doubt this, Zhang Xiumei had always doted on her daughter. She just felt it was a pity, sighed and said, “I heard that those who participated in the social event this time were all officers, and their futures are not bad. Even if they can’t be soldiers for a lifetime, their job arrangements after being transferred will definitely not be bad. And after being transferred, they don’t only have to go back to their hometown, they can also stay in the city with their wife’s household registration.” 

Zhang Xiumei was actually clear about what Li Guihua said. The reason she said this was just because she didn’t want her daughter to be gossiped about. 

Every time after a social event, good news would be continuously spread in the family compound. While everyone congratulated their colleagues, they would inevitably gossip about those young people who didn’t have any follow-up after the social event. Those who didn’t look good were said to have bad looks, those who didn’t like to work were said to be lazy, and even those who were good in every way would be muttered about being too picky. 

Although Zhang Xiumei knew that Lin Jing went to the social event for a spin and came back, outsiders might not believe it. Afterwards, seeing that her daughter was not sought after, who knows how ugly they would speak. Since this was the case, it was better for her to take the responsibility on herself in advance. A mother-in-law picking a son-in-law, it was only right to be strict. 

However, these thoughts were just swirling around in her heart, and it was not good to say them out loud. Therefore, Zhang Xiumei vaguely said, “Anyway, she’s young, let’s see later.” 

“That’s true.” Li Guihua nodded, and couldn’t help but mutter, “It’s a pity that my three boys are all married, otherwise it would be good for our two families to have a marriage.” 

Zhang Xiumei glared at Li Guihua, and said, “You can shut your mouth, if your daughter-in-law hears this, she’ll have to give my daughter the side-eye in the future.” 

Li Guihua remembered her own troublesome daughter-in-law, and said with a sheepish expression, “I only say this in front of you, sigh, forget it, I won’t mention it in the future, okay?” 

“You shouldn’t have brought up this topic, we all live in the same compound, how will my daughter face people if this gets out?” Zhang Xiumei said sternly, and wanted to say a few more words, but the words reached her mouth and she saw that her own door was opened from the inside, and her daughter Lin Jing came out from the inside, so she changed the words that reached her mouth to a greeting, “You’re up? Just right, go wash up quickly, the rice is almost fried.” 

Lin Jing responded, called out “Mom,” finished and waved to Li Guihua, greeting, “Auntie, good morning.” 

“Good morning!” Li Guihua replied with a smile, and asked, “Jingjing, do you want to eat noodles? I’ll scoop a bowl for you?” 

Jingjing quickly waved her hand and said, “It’s enough for me to eat fried rice, I can’t eat any more than that.” 

“How much can a bowl of noodles be, you’ll finish it in a few bites.” As Li Guihua spoke, she heard her own pot lid being pushed by the hot air and making a loud sound, quickly returned to the front of her own stove and lifted the pot lid, saying, “It’s settled then, I’ll scoop a bowl of noodles for you.” 

“No need to scoop, this girl is just a cat’s stomach, she eats little, if you scoop a bowl of noodles for her, she won’t be able to finish it later and it’ll be a waste.” Zhang Xiumei declined for her daughter. 

Li Guihua couldn’t help but say, “Then Jingjing’s appetite is too small, no wonder she’s so thin.” She didn’t say anything about scooping a bowl of noodles for Lin Jing anymore. 

… 

Because of the different working hours, the Lin family rarely had the chance to eat together. Just like this morning, after making breakfast for her daughter, Zhang Xiumei had to continue preparing breakfast for her husband, son, and daughter-in-law. After Lin Jing finished eating, she didn’t linger at home, took her work cap and hurried out the door. 

The garment factory was divided into two large areas, east and west. The east area was the production area, where the factory office building, production workshops, and warehouses were located. The west area was the living area, where the Lin family’s family compound, canteen, and school were located. In the middle was a wide road, going left could reach the city center, and going right could reach the military base. 

Walking out of the family compound, the first thing that came into view was the factory office building. The building had two floors, the exterior walls were uniformly painted white, and Mao’s quotations were written in red paint between the windows on each floor. The five large characters of “Huyang Garment Factory” were also erected on the roof, looking quite imposing. 

Entering through the gate of the garment factory, bypassing the factory office building, what you saw were the production workshops built of red bricks. The workshops were all long rows, with spacious interiors that could accommodate fifty to sixty frontline workers at the same time. The garment factory was divided into day and night shifts, so each workshop had a total of one hundred to one hundred and twenty workers, including both day and night shifts, and this was also the number of workers in a production workshop. 

The garment factory had a total of three such production workshops, plus the people in warehouse logistics and the factory committee union, the garment factory had nearly four hundred employees. 

The vast majority of these four hundred people were paying attention to last night’s social event. As Lin Jing walked into the workshop, all she heard along the way to her workstation were discussions related to the social event. And as one of the female comrades who participated in the social event, she naturally couldn’t escape the fate of being questioned after going to work. 

Of course, everyone’s questioning was still relatively subtle. However, Lin Jing was not stupid. From everyone’s teasing gazes, how could she not see that what they wanted to know was whether she had met any male comrades last night who could be developed into marriage partners. 

But clearly, her answer was going to disappoint everyone. 

Seeing Lin Jing shake her head, Wang Xiaoli, who was diagonally opposite her, showed surprise: “Not even one? That’s impossible, right?” 

“Not even one.” Lin Jing said affirmatively. 

Wang Xiaoli still didn’t believe it, and guessed, “Is it that your standards are too high and you didn’t take a fancy to anyone?” 

Chen Xiulan, the group leader sitting opposite Lin Jing, frowned upon hearing this. Saying that an unmarried female comrade had high standards was not a good thing. She was about to open her mouth to smooth things over when she heard Lin Jing laugh and say, “Then you’re really wronging me. If I had to say it, it should be that I’m just more unlucky.” 

“How are you unlucky?” Wang Xiaoli asked in confusion. 

Lin Jing said while stepping on the sewing machine, “I went to the social event last night, and as soon as I sat down in the auditorium, someone spilled tea all over me. Do you think I’m unlucky or not?” 

It sounded quite unlucky, but seeing that Lin Jing was not only not angry, but also had a faint smile on her face when she said this, Wang Xiaoli was a little suspicious of the truth of her words, and said, “It would have been fine to change your clothes if they got wet, did you go straight back?” 

“I didn’t go straight back either,” Lin Jing raised her head, her gaze passing between Chen Xiulan and Wang Xiaoli, glanced at Fang Yalan sitting in the neighboring group, and said in a faint tone, “The colleague who spilled tea on my clothes said she would help me borrow clothes, so I waited outside…” 

Fang Yalan, who was stepping on the sewing machine with her back to Lin Jing, suddenly stood up, turned around and shouted, “Lin Jing!” 

Because she didn’t control her voice well, people from several surrounding groups heard Fang Yalan’s shout of “Lin Jing” and looked towards them. Seeing this, Fang Yalan pursed her lips, took a deep breath and walked to Lin Jing, squeezing out a smile and saying, “Can you come with me for a moment? I have something I want to say to you.” 

Lin Jing stopped the movements in her hands, but didn’t directly answer Fang Yalan, but looked at Chen Xiulan: “Aunt Chen.” 

The garment factory was not like textile factories or machine tool factories, where the machines didn’t stop once they were turned on, and someone had to immediately fill the vacant work station.

Although the garment factory also had a division of labor, with those who made collars specializing in making collars, and those who put on zippers specializing in putting on zippers, the procedures were not connected to the point where the next step couldn’t start if the previous step wasn’t finished.

Therefore, although the garment factory stipulated that employees could not leave their posts during working hours, leaders would be accommodating as long as the number of times wasn’t too frequent. 

Therefore, Chen Xiulan didn’t hesitate much, and nodded readily, “Go ahead.” 

Having obtained Chen Xiulan’s consent, Lin Jing didn’t dawdle anymore, put down the work in her hands and followed Fang Yalan out of the workshop, went around to a place with few people on the left wall and stopped, saying, “Let’s talk here.” 

Fang Yalan, who had originally planned to go further, stopped her steps when she heard Lin Jing’s words, turned around and asked hesitantly, “Jingjing, are you… still blaming me?” 

“What am I blaming you for?” Lin Jing asked in a faint tone. 

Fang Yalan had already thought of her wording. Whether Lin Jing nodded or shook her head, she felt that she could cope with it. As a result, Lin Jing didn’t follow the routine, and Fang Yalan was choked by the question. After a moment, she decided to follow the plan, lowered her eyes and said, “It was wrong of me to get your clothes dirty last night, but I didn’t want to either. If I could, I’d rather have my clothes dirtied, and it would have been me who missed the social event…” 

Listening to Fang Yalan’s defense, Lin Jing’s eyes gradually turned cold. 

Actually, she didn’t blame Fang Yalan for getting her clothes dirty and causing her to miss the social event. What she cared about was that Fang Yalan had clearly promised to help her borrow a coat, but she had waited bitterly outside for half an hour, and after entering the auditorium, she only saw Fang Yalan chatting happily with others. 

However, Lin Jing and Fang Yalan had known each other for more than ten years. Although their relationship hadn’t been close in the past due to the two-year age difference, the two had gradually become friends in the past six months because the second and third groups they were in were adjacent to each other and they had more contact. 

Because they were friends, Lin Jing didn’t want to maliciously speculate about Fang Yalan’s intentions, but what happened last night didn’t sit well with her, so she hoped that Fang Yalan could give her a reasonable explanation. 

But whether it was Fang Yalan’s deliberate avoidance in the morning, or Fang Yalan’s excuses and defenses now, all made Lin Jing feel disappointed. She interrupted Fang Yalan’s words and asked, “Did you borrow the clothes last night?”