Chapter 72: What Kind of Lousy Excuse Is That?

For a large factory with over ten thousand employees, hiring an additional 500 workers counted as a small-scale expansion.

But even so, once the news got out, many people started moving behind the scenes, working their connections. A spot at a big factory was not so easy to come by.

With more workers, the pressure on meals would also increase. Director Ding requested to expand the logistics team and managed to snag 30 slots from the expansion quota.

Someone at Zhou Yimin’s level wasn’t technically eligible for a reserved spot. But Director Ding still gave him one—he just had to bring the person over, and they could complete the onboarding process.

“Thank you, Director!”

Director Ding was genuinely good to his own people. He’d fight for their benefits and always protect his team. From this alone, you could tell he was a good leader.

Zhou Yimin started thinking about who to give this spot to.

Li Youde and Luo Dapeng likely wouldn’t care for it anymore. Those two were doing just fine now, living comfortably.

That narrowed it down to folks either from the courtyard or Zhou Family Village.

In the courtyard, the only people around his age and with a particularly close relationship to him were Li Youde and Luo Dapeng. So Zhou Yimin shifted his attention to Zhou Family Village.

Opportunities to work in a factory were irresistibly attractive to rural folks.

That guy Zhou Dafu had been dreaming about this for ages, always scheming how to find work in the city. He’d already been beaten by his family two or three times, but the idea still burned strong. Truly a “young man with ambition.”

No matter who he gave the spot to, it couldn’t be free. There was the old saying—”a favor as small as a pint of rice will be resented if not followed up with a bushel.” Worse still, giving it away could bring him trouble.

If he gave the spot to Zhou Dafu, what would he say when other young men from the village came asking? If he gave it to them, he didn’t have that many slots. If he didn’t, they’d feel bitter.

Better to go home and talk it over with Grandpa and Grandma.

When Zhou Yimin returned to the courtyard, Master Gu told him they’d probably finish up by noon the next day. At this point, it was mostly just some finishing touches.

To be honest, they were feeling a little reluctant to part ways.

After all, while working here, they got to eat sorghum rice, and Zhou Yimin would hand out cigarettes from time to time.

“Alright! I’ll settle the final payment with you tomorrow. I did say once it’s done, I’d treat everyone to some meat. How about this: I’ll get each of you a jin of pork instead of throwing a banquet. Master Gu, what do you think?”

Zhou Yimin knew very well that what people really wanted these days was to bring some meat home for their families.

Throwing a feast here couldn’t compare to letting them bring meat back to share with loved ones.

Sure enough, Master Gu was overjoyed and nodded repeatedly. “That’s great, that’s great! Thank you, boss.”

Liang Kuan and the others were also thrilled.

A jin of meat was enough for two meals at home. They were all in favor.

“Oh, boss, can I have a word with you?”

Zhou Yimin immediately understood.

The two of them went into the room and shut the door.

“It’s about the final payment—would it be possible to settle it in grain? I know it’s asking a lot…” Master Gu asked cautiously. Right now, grain was extremely hard to come by. Since his employer happened to be a purchasing agent, he figured it was worth a shot.

Zhou Yimin nodded. “Sweet potatoes, potatoes, and sorghum—would that work?”

Master Gu was stunned. He hadn’t expected Zhou Yimin to agree so readily.

“That’s fine, no problem! Sweet potatoes, potatoes, and sorghum are great!”

Zhou Yimin added, “The price will be a bit higher than market price. Can you accept that?”

Master Gu had anticipated that. He nodded again. “I can accept that. Grain is hard to come by these days. Thank you so much.”

Just yesterday, a distant relative fleeing famine had shown up at his home. Said the food had run out back in his village, and at least a fifth of the people there had already left, all trying to survive.

Master Gu had been thinking of helping him get some grain to take back.

Keeping him long-term wasn’t a solution either.

“And about the furniture from last time…”

Zhou Yimin raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t he say it wasn’t for sale?”

Master Gu gave a wry smile. “I think he just wanted to raise the price. Now that he’s seen you haven’t made a move, he’s getting anxious. He came to me this morning and said he’s willing to trade according to your original offer.”

Zhou Yimin had really been about to drop the matter. The guy had asked for hundreds of jin of rice—what did he think Zhou Yimin was, some kind of sucker?

Antique furniture wasn’t exactly unique.

In this era, if Zhou Yimin wanted to find more, it wouldn’t be difficult at all.

This was, after all, the old capital of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Who knew how many priceless items were hidden around? Even an ordinary household might have a treasure or two.

“Alright, I’ll go over later to collect it.”

“How about I have him bring it over?” Master Gu suggested.

“Sure, just leave it outside the courtyard for now, no need to move it in.”

Once they were done, the two left the room, and Master Gu took his crew back.

There were still over seventy jin of pork left from the 100 he had stocked earlier. Zhou Yimin pulled out 50 jin and bought 500 eggs from the store.

Five hundred eggs sounded like a lot, but it only cost 25 yuan.

Fifty jin of pork at 1 yuan per jin came out to 50 yuan.

Altogether, the pork and eggs totaled 75 yuan—not much at all.

Since this was his first time trading with someone from the research institute, Zhou Yimin wanted to be cautious and not go overboard.

Then he waited for Uncle Zhang to show up.

At dusk, Zhang Jianshe came riding up on his bicycle. He’d been to the courtyard before, and the First Aunt recognized him.

“You’ve done a nice job on this place. Got enough money for it? If not, talk to Uncle Zhang,” Zhang Jianshe said as he entered, looking around the room with approval. When he’d arrived, the older lady had told him Zhou Yimin was fixing up the house in preparation for marriage.

That made him, as a prospective father-in-law, very satisfied. At least the kid cared about his daughter and knew to renovate the house.

“I’ve got enough. Before my dad ran off with that widow, he left me quite a bit,” Zhou Yimin said, while keeping a close eye on Zhang Jianshe’s expression.

He had a hunch that his dad hadn’t actually run off with a widow—and that Uncle Zhang probably knew something.

Zhang Jianshe’s mouth twitched slightly.

He silently cursed Old Zhou: What kind of lousy excuse is that?

Zhou Yimin caught that subtle expression and made a mental note. He wasn’t an idiot—he was a transmigrator, after all.

“Uncle Zhang, this is all I could get for now. See if it’s enough. If not, we can talk next time.” Zhou Yimin got down to business.

Zhang Jianshe opened the sack and saw pork inside. In the basket next to it, covered with cloth, was a pile of eggs.

“Fifty jin of pork, five hundred eggs,” Zhou Yimin added.

“This is plenty! So much. Yimin, on behalf of our lab, thank you,” Zhang Jianshe said.

In truth, he’d brought enough money to buy more. But knowing how hard it was for Yimin to gather all this, he didn’t want to ask for too much.

Besides, with this connection to Yimin, getting food in the future would be much easier.

Better to go slow and steady—no rush.

He handed over 80 yuan to Zhou Yimin.

“Uncle Zhang, it’s only 75—”

Before he could finish, Zhang Jianshe pushed the money over. “You should make a little something too. Can’t have you doing this for nothing. Alright, help me carry the basket of eggs out.”

Seeing that the eggs were carefully packed with straw to prevent breakage, he felt reassured.

(End of Chapter)