Chapter 12 : Bribery

“One bottle is for myself. I suddenly felt like having one,” Fan Yanxing quickly handed the money and ticket to Li Jie, then grabbed the bottle opener and soda.

His hands seemed a bit uncoordinated, and it took him two or three tries to open the bottle cap successfully.

“Oh.” Realizing she had been overly sentimental, Liang Qingqing gave a dry laugh. Seeing Fan Yanxing struggling, she couldn’t resist teasing him, “Tsk, can’t even open a bottle cap properly…”

Before she could finish, Fan Yanxing’s piercing gaze turned toward her. When he was stern, he was genuinely intimidating. Liang Qingqing pouted in frustration and refrained from teasing him further.

“Here you go.” He handed her the opened bottle of soda.

Liang Qingqing took it and drank two large sips. The cold liquid slid down her throat and spread through her body, giving her the sensation of a complete refreshment. On a hot summer day, having a cold drink felt like a blessing!

“Thank you!” She smiled warmly at Fan Yanxing, offering the most perfect and gentle smile she had since they had met.

Her eyes were curved with a mesmerizing charm, like the gentle spring rain of the southern region, falling drop by drop into the depths of his heart.

“I have something else to do, so I’ll leave first. Be careful in the city on your own.” Fan Yanxing averted his gaze, and he didn’t notice that his soda was nearly finished. It seemed as if he was cooling himself down, though where exactly he was cooling down was known only to him.

“I know, I’ll find a police officer if anything happens,” Liang Qingqing winked at Fan Yanxing. “You go ahead.”

“Mm.”

Liang Qingqing watched Fan Yanxing leave until he disappeared from view and suddenly remembered something important. She slapped her forehead and sighed, “Oh right, I didn’t ask for his name.”

Feeling frustrated, she looked at the soda in her hand and murmured with a faint smile, “He seems like a really nice person.”

Afterward, Liang Qingqing slapped her face as if to wake herself up. “What am I saying? A bottle of soda has bought me over? Liang Qingqing, get a grip!”

She continued to berate herself while walking back into the supply and marketing cooperative.

In Liang Qingqing’s view, one of the best ways to understand an era or a city was to learn about its prices.

After having an unpleasant encounter with a sales clerk, Liang Qingqing was smart enough not to go back to the sugar cabinet. She wandered around the other areas on the first floor and then went up to the second floor, taking notes on names and prices in her small notebook as she browsed.

Rice costs 0.15 yuan per jin (500 grams), pork 0.78 yuan per jin, Chinese cabbage 0.02 yuan per jin, soap 0.35 yuan per bar, and mid-range leather shoes about 5 yuan a pair…

Compared to future prices, these are astonishingly cheap. With ration coupons, 10 yuan could buy a lot, but the same 10 yuan was a significant amount for most families at the time. After all, an average city worker’s monthly salary was only around 20 yuan.

Liang Qingqing put her notebook back in her bag and headed down the stairs to the first floor. Halfway down, she was stopped by the same middle-aged saleswoman from before.

“Comrade, to express our apology, please take these egg cakes.”

Li Jie hurried to meet Liang Qingqing as she came down from the second floor. Since the moment Liang Qingqing entered the supply and marketing cooperative, Li Jie had been watching her closely.

She initially thought Liang Qingqing was just browsing, but then she saw her taking notes. Who does that except for higher-ups during inspections?

Had she misjudged earlier? Was this woman actually a secret inspector sent by the higher authorities?

Liang Qingqing’s gaze lingered on the golden egg cakes for a few seconds before she shook her head. “No, thank you.”

Since the saleswoman had already apologized, she didn’t see the need to take anything more. Egg cakes were made with quality ingredients—eggs, flour, sugar—all of which were expensive, making the cakes relatively pricey.

“Please, take them. Otherwise, we’ll feel guilty and won’t sleep well at night,” Li Jie insisted, pushing the egg cakes into Liang Qingqing’s hands.

“Really, it’s not necessary…” After going back and forth a few times, Liang Qingqing finally accepted the egg cakes, unable to refuse Li Jie’s persistent offer.

Seeing her accept the cakes, Li Jie smiled and, after a moment of hesitation, asked tentatively, “Comrade, your Mandarin is so good. You’re not from our county, are you?”

Hearing this, Liang Qingqing’s eyes flashed with suspicion. She looked at Li Jie until the latter, feeling uncomfortable, looked away. Liang Qingqing then smiled, “Why don’t you guess?”

The sudden conversation seemed like casual small talk, but Liang Qingqing had encountered many people who approached her with ulterior motives. She had developed an instinct for identifying them, and Li Jie was no exception.

Although she didn’t know what motive the woman had for approaching her and generously giving a bag of egg cakes, not revealing any real information to protect herself was undoubtedly the wisest choice for Liang Qingqing at the moment.

Of course, that’s a story for another time.

Currently, Liang Qingqing, who has no connections, is standing at the gate of the county textile factory, asking the guard if they are hiring.

“No,” the guard’s cold response completely wiped the smile off Liang Qingqing’s face. She had heard this same response countless times today. Either they weren’t hiring, or they were already fully staffed. In any case, there wasn’t a single position available for her.

“Can I sit here for a while?” Having trudged through half the county in this sweltering heat, Liang Qingqing was exhausted. She noticed an empty chair in the shade and asked.

“Go ahead,” the guard raised his eyelids to look at her, then nodded.

Summer was hot and humid, and the greenery along the roads looked wilted under the scorching sun, much like Liang Qingqing’s current state. With her hand propping up her chin, sticky sweat trickled down her skin, leaving a faint trail as she stared into the distance without focusing on anything.

Confusion and anxiety intertwined, eventually turning into frustration.

Finding a job is so hard! She might as well go home and lie down. But lying around doing nothing isn’t a long-term solution. Two nights ago, she got up to get a drink of water and overheard her second sister-in-law arguing with her second brother in the kitchen.

Their argument was about her, an adult sister-in-law who was still living at home and freeloading.

Her second sister-in-law suggested either marrying her off or having her work in the fields to earn work points. She couldn’t keep staying at home doing nothing.

Her second brother argued that she was eating their parents’ food, and since their parents hadn’t insisted on her getting married or working in the fields, they, as siblings, had no right to bring it up. Besides, he was willing to support his sister.

Her second sister-in-law retorted that since they hadn’t divided the household yet, how could they know if Liang Qingqing wasn’t consuming their resources?

The argument escalated from there, and Liang Qingqing stopped listening.

What a mess. In her previous life, her family was well-off, and as an only child, her parents regularly deposited large sums of money into her bank account. She never considered it shameful to be a “rice worm” (a freeloader) and never worried about money.

She always believed that being a good companion, studying hard, and growing in the direction her parents expected was her way of reciprocating their love.

But now, having spent these days in the book, Liang Qingqing gradually understood a truth: in a family with poor financial conditions, no matter how much parents and siblings love you, every penny and grain can unknowingly become a point of contention.

Her second sister-in-law wasn’t inherently bad and became part of the family after marrying in. However, she wasn’t a blood relative who witnessed Liang Qingqing growing up and couldn’t be as unconditionally indulgent as Liang’s parents. This was normal.

Liang Qingqing didn’t think her sister-in-law was wrong. On the contrary, she agreed with her.

As an adult who wasn’t a student, she indeed shouldn’t be freeloading at home and should earn her own work points to support herself.

Although rationally she knew this was the right thing to do, she was also physically resistant to working in the fields under the blazing sun during the summer. Neither she nor the original owner of her body was used to such labor; they hadn’t even done much housework.

“I want to die, I want to die, I want to die!” But this desire to die was just something she said and would never act on. Nor could she truly die.

However, this self-mocking comment was overheard by the guard, who was startled and quickly tried to comfort her, “Young lady, what’s there to worry about at such a young age? Our factory really isn’t hiring, I’m not lying to you!”