Chapter 6: A Neighbor is Not as Good as Someone Across the Way

  Coming out from Chen Rongkun, Qin Hai smiled and asked Ning Mo: "How, Ning Mo, is your father also in this factory?"

  Ning nodded silently, then pointed to Yu Haitao and Miao Kei with his hand, saying: "The three of us are all children of the agricultural machinery factory. Miss Yu's father is the deputy director of the finance department, and Kei's father is the head of the casting workshop."

  "Why didn't you say your dad is the factory director?" Yu Haitao couldn't help but expose Ning Mo's secret.

  "Is he the director of the research office now?" Ning Mo retorted, then turned his head back to explain to Qin Hai: "My old man was originally the factory director of the agricultural machinery factory. He retired to the second line two years ago and is now the director of the research office, which is actually a demoted position."

  "So the three of you are all from our factory's inner circle, I apologize for my mistake." Qin Hai said with a smile. A small agricultural machinery factory's cadre's children were not enough to make Qin Hai feel particularly sacred, but being able to joke about it using their identity was also harmless.

  "What's a yanei?" asked Miao Wei curiously.

  "In the past, you would have been young masters from official families, and with your status, you could have carried a sedan chair with birds in it, accompanied by a group of servants, and flirted with women from good families on the street."

  "Hahaha!" Ning Mo and the others were all amused by Qin Hai, this kind of joke from a later generation was extremely humorous to people back then. Ning Mo laughed while waving his bear paw and slapped Qin Hai's shoulder with all his might, almost slapping him into a meat pie.

  After laughing for a while, Yu Haitao said: "Qin Hai, you just arrived at Qingfeng Factory and don't understand the situation. What kind of official are we? Qingfeng Factory has been losing money for two years in a row, and it's almost impossible to make ends meet. The factory can only pay basic wages now, and old employees can't even get their medical expenses reimbursed. Our brothers who earn over 20 yuan as apprentice workers have to hand all the money over to their families. If they want to buy a pack of cigarettes, they have to go out and catch some wild chickens to make some extra money."

  "Want to go hunting?" Qin Hai asked with a chill.

  "It's just doing some small business." Miao Kai explained for Yu Haitao, "Like us today, getting some leftover materials from the factory, making a few iron hoes and rakes, selling them to Lao Biao, earning some pocket money."

  "Oh, I see what you mean." Qin Hai felt relieved. He knew that Miao Lei's "old table" was a general term used by city people to refer to peasants, although it didn't carry any praise or blame, but it could reflect the speaker's sense of superiority in terms of status.

  As they spoke, several people had already arrived in front of the single dormitory building. This was a two-story tube-shaped building that looked like it had been around for some years. The walls and windows looked dusty. As soon as you entered the single dormitory building, a wave of heat hit your face, accompanied by the aroma of stir-fried dishes, the smell of sweat on people's bodies, and the smell of water in the bathroom. At the door of each room in the corridor, there was a coal ball stove, and men and women were busy making dinner while loudly exchanging all sorts of gossip information.

  Chen Rongkun assigned to Qin Hai's dormitory is on the second floor of the single building. Several people walked up along the wooden stairs, Miao Lei walking in front, and reminded Qin Hai as they walked: "Qin Hai, be careful with your feet, that section of wood is rotten, if you don't step well, you'll fall down."

  "Thank you, Wei Zi," Qin Hai replied.

  Everyone went upstairs and came to the door of 208. Just as Qin Hai was taking out his key to open the door, the opposite room's door opened and a girl's head popped out.

  "Fatso, who are you looking for?" The girl recognized Ning Mo and asked him.

  This was the third time Qin Hai had heard someone refer to Ning Mo like that, and it seemed that Ning Mo's nickname was well-known in Qingfeng Factory. Considering Ning Mo's father was the former factory director, it wasn't surprising that his son received such attention.

  "Wang Xiaochen, I didn't know you lived across the street." Ning Mo also knew the girl, he pointed to Qin Hai and said: "This is Qin Hai, my brother. He graduated from an agricultural machinery technical school and was assigned to work in our factory, so he ended up living across the hall from you."

  "Oh?" The girl looked at Qin Hai with interest and smiled: "He's so young, about the same age as my brother."

  "Hehe, then I'll just acknowledge you as my sister first." Qin Hai was an easy-going person, hearing the other party say this, he went along with her words and said, "Distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors, close neighbors are not as good as next-door neighbors, from now on little brother will rely entirely on Sister Xiaochen's care."

  "Hahaha......" Wang Xiaochen laughed so hard that her body shook, "No wonder you're well-read, your words are really humorous. By the way, aren't you Qin Hai? I'm 20 years old, how about you?"

  "I'm 18." Qin Hai replied.

  "Older than my brother by one year." Wang Xiaochen nodded seriously, correcting his previous statement. Then he asked enthusiastically: "Have you eaten? Today is Sunday, the cafeteria serves meals early and now there's no more food. I cooked sweet potato porridge, do you want to have some?"

  "No need, Wang Xiaochen." Ning Mo rejected on behalf of Qin Hai, "We'll invite Qin Hai out for dinner later, now let's help him tidy up his room first."

  "Hmm, when did Fatty become so generous?" Wang Xiaochen said, "Then you guys clean up, if you need anything just come to me for it."

  "Thank you, Xiao Chen." Qin Hai nodded to Wang Xiao Chen, and the result was that this intimate form of address made another girl blush.

  Wang Xiaochen returned to her own room. Qin Hai used his key to open the door to his own room and pushed it open. The room was still quite clean, with some worthless items left behind by the previous owner scattered on the floor. Against one wall stood an iron-framed single bed, its mattress slightly sagging but probably not about to collapse anytime soon. By the window stood a very old desk, the kind with two drawers and a small cabinet on one side, known as a "one-head-heavy" desk, with a wooden back chair beside it - that was all the furniture in the room.

  On the wall by the bed, a movie poster that had expired was stuck there. A beautiful woman with neat teeth on the poster smiled at Qin Hai. Qin Hai recognized her - it was Liu Jie when she was young.

  "Put down your luggage and let's go out for dinner," said Qin Hai, "This house is not dirty, I'll clean it up when we get back."

  "Alright, let's hurry up then. I'm starving after a whole afternoon of walking."

  A few people threw their luggage onto the single bed and then patted their hands and walked out. These few, although they didn't have the fate of being officials, also had a bit of the good fortune of being lazy and hating hard work, so when Qin Hai said he could tidy up the room, they were delighted to be relieved of the task.

  In those days, there were not many people who had spare money to eat out, so in the entire Dongjiao Industrial Zone, they could only find two or three restaurants. Ning Mo and his friends rode their bikes carrying Qin Hai, walked for more than a mile, came to a private small restaurant called "Weimin Restaurant", and went inside.

  "Boss Kong! Boss Kong!" Ning Mo shouted loudly as soon as he entered the door.

  "Coming, coming." A middle-aged fat man, slightly smaller than Ning Mo, responded and came over, seeing Ning Mo and chuckling: "Fatty, time to eat?"

  "I've brought a friend, ten yuan, you choose the best dishes." Ning Mo handed over the ten yuan he had originally planned to give to Qin Hai to Boss Kong's hand and instructed: "Add a bottle of loose wine."

  "Wow, 10 yuan!" Boss Kong's eyes lit up. Apart from eating and drinking with public funds, it was a rare thing for ordinary people to take out 10 yuan to eat. Boss Kong was quite familiar with Ning Mo and the others. These young people would come here to treat themselves every half month or so, each time only managing to scrape together two or three yuan to stir-fry one meat dish and one vegetable dish. This action of suddenly slapping down 10 yuan was something that had never appeared in Boss Kong's memory before.

  "What's this, Fatty? Where did you get this friend from?" Boss Kong asked curiously.

  "My buddy, a graduate of the Agricultural Machinery Technical School, just started working at our Qingfeng Factory." Ning Mo was a straightforward person and would answer any question. He had already introduced Qin Hai several times with such efficiency.

  This introduction was of no value to Boss Kong, who nodded and smiled at Qin Hai before hurrying off to the back to start cooking. As soon as he left, a thin and weak-looking young girl came running out with a small stack of sunflower seeds and a small stack of fried soybeans for Ning Mo and his table to snack on while they waited for their food.

  "Sorry to trouble you." Qin Hai had no objections to Ning Mo's arrangements and simply thanked him lightly.

  "This is actually your money," Ning Mo said, "Qin Hai, I really admire you, not only are you capable, but also don't care about money. If it were those other bachelors in the singles building, they wouldn't even let go of one yuan, let alone ten yuan, and yet you're like this, not even giving it a glance."

  "That's right, Qin Hai, you're really generous!" Yu Haitao and Miao Kun also praised.

  Before that, Ning Mo had to pay Qin Hai ten dollars as a reward. Yu Haitao and Miao Kun still felt some heartache. But later, Qin Hai insisted on not wanting it, which made them feel that Qin Hai was indeed generous. Ning Mo was indeed the son of the factory owner, although he was embarrassed by his poverty, he still had the spirit of looking at money as dirt. Qin Hai refused the ten dollars, so he simply used this ten dollars to invite Qin Hai to dinner, which fulfilled a wish.

  While everyone was chatting, a figure flashed outside the door and another customer came in. This was a middle-aged man wearing a crumpled suit, his dark face revealing his true identity, making it clear that he was not some rich and handsome guy. He walked straight to a table and sat down, throwing the heavy snakeskin bag in his hand onto the ground with a loud metallic clanging sound.

  "Xiao Fang!" The middle-aged man shouted in the direction of the back kitchen.

  The half-grown girl ran out earlier and stood in front of the middle-aged man, waiting for his orders.

  "A plate of stir-fried peanuts, a dish of flower-shaped rice crackers, and half a catty of loose wine." The middle-aged man said in a slightly tired voice.

  "Xiao Kechang, come over to our table and let's eat together," Ning Mo stood up and shouted to the middle-aged man.

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  The book is busy storing manuscripts, one update per day within this week, and two updates starting next week. Please forgive the readers.