Chapter Thirty: Drinking Cold Water Can Quench Fire

  "Qin Hai! Don't be so glib, opposing the factory will only lead to a bad end!" Ji Jian Guo shouted hysterically. In his view, Qin Hai was really too detestable, daring to show off in front of him, the office director, and even doing it more skillfully than he could.

  Upon hearing Jia Jian's shouting, Qin Hai burst out laughing: "Director Jia, are you okay? Whether Qingfeng Factory is going to switch to producing washing machines or not is something that your leaders have the final say in. What does it have to do with me? I said switching to washing machines is a dead end, and you said my words were wrong. So they're just wrong then! Can one incorrect sentence make you so tense?"

  "You must rein in your temper, otherwise...otherwise..." Zhai Jianguo's mind was a bit muddled, and after thinking for half a day, he couldn't come up with any way to punish Qin Hai. Qin Hai had already reported for duty and was a genuine state-owned enterprise employee. As long as he didn't commit some major mistake, Qingfeng Factory had no authority to fire him, and even if they wanted to deduct his wages or something like that, they would have to have clear reasons to do so.

  "Alas, Director Zhai, it seems I really should pour you a glass of water." Qin Hai sighed and picked up his own cup, then walked out the door. After a while, he came back in with a cup of water and placed it in front of Director Zhai, saying: "Director Zhai, it's too hot outside, have a drink to quench your thirst."

  Duan Jianguo indeed made Qin Hai a bit angry, seeing Qin Hai hand over the cup, he didn't think much and took it, glug glug glug drinking it all. The water Qin Hai brought was very refreshing, Duan Jianguo only felt his whole body refreshed, but immediately thought of an important question: "Qin Hai, where did you get this water from?"

  "Water house." Qin Hai innocently looked at Di Jian Guo and said.

  "Preposterous! You call this tap water?" Jiang Jianguo's eyes bulged with rage as he shouted.

  In a subtropical province like Anhui, people have the habit of drinking cold water in summer. However, in Pingyuan County, there is some taboo against drinking tap water. The reason is said to be that one year, the intake of the tap water company was blocked by a rotting dead pig, and when the maintenance personnel arrived at the scene, they found that half of the pork had disappeared, presumably sucked into the water tank and sent to thousands of households.

  Although tap water has undergone countless disinfection and filtration treatments before leaving the factory, even if some dead pig meat is mixed in, it will eventually be filtered out. However, after this rumor came out, people still claimed that they had indeed tasted rotting flesh in their tap water, and some even said they found a piece of something resembling a pig's waist in their water...

  After that, the people in Pingyuan County no longer dared to drink tap water directly. Zhai Jianguo was deceived by Qin Hai into drinking a glass of tap water while he was furious, and his grievance had nowhere to vent.

  "Director Di, I'm doing this out of kindness. I think you're too hot-headed, so I got some cool water to help you calm down..." Qin Hai explained seriously.

  "You, you, you... You're really unbelievable!" Zhai Jianguo suddenly stood up, pointing at Qin Hai with his hand, and even stuttered when speaking. Thinking about the rumors of pig waist and so on, he even had the heart to go to the hospital to wash his stomach, let alone sit down.

  "I will definitely reflect your question at the factory director's office meeting!"

  Duan Jianguo threw down a ruthless remark and turned to leave. Qin Hai was also fearless, treating Duan Jianguo's threat as nothing more than a gentle breeze. He smiled and followed him out the door, standing at the entrance and calling out: "Director Duan, slow down, the stairs are a bit broken, be careful... uh, I guess I said that too late..."

  All that could be heard was a dull thud on the stairs, followed by Jia's mournful cry and the rumbling sound of something heavy rolling down the stairs. The residents of the single-family building were all startled, one by one running out of their rooms, discussing and speculating:

  "Oh no, who rolled down from the stairs?"

  "It seems to be Director Di..."

  "How did he end up in the singles' dorm?"

  "Who knows..."

  "Director Di, are you okay? Don't move, just lie there, I'll go to the medical office and call a doctor for you..."

  "Director Di, I'll take you to the medical office on my bicycle..."

  Upon hearing the commotion, Wang Xiaochen also came out of the house. She lifted the door curtain and happened to meet Qin Hai's gaze with her own, staring at him with her beautiful big eyes and asking: "Xiao Qin, what's going on?"

  "Director Di rolled down from the stairs." Qin Hai said with a smile.

  "How could he have rolled down from the stairs?" Wang Xiaochen was somewhat puzzled.

  "Maybe they want to go downstairs quickly..."

  Upon hearing this absurd explanation, Wang Xiaochen burst out laughing and rubbed her belly for a while before composing herself. She then said to Qin Hai, "Xiao Qin, Director Zhai just left your place, didn't he? Did you offend him or something? You'd better be careful, Director Zhai isn't an easy person to get along with."

  Qin Hai shrugged and said, "Whether he's good or bad at talking has nothing to do with me. I'm sitting nicely in the house, he comes over and blows his nose at me, glaring at me, and expects me to be polite? I didn't personally kick him down the stairs, that's already very cultured of me."

  Wang Xiaochen asked: "Why did Director Zhai come to find you and blow your beard? Did you do something that made him unhappy?"

  Qin Hai Dao said: "I had never seen him before, who knew he was crazy."

  Dai Jianguo came to Qin Hai to make things difficult, because he heard that Qin Hai had said some pessimistic words about the washing machine market, which were exactly from Wang Xiaochen. Wang Xiaochen also came out of concern for the factory's future, so she told other workers the news she heard from Qin Hai, until it finally reached Dai Jianguo's ears. Qin Hai did not want to tell Wang Xiaochen the cause and effect, because this would make Wang Xiaochen feel psychological pressure.

  Wang Xiaochen said, "Little Qin, you'd better be careful. You've just arrived at the factory and offending Di Jianquo is no small matter. Director Wei trusts him the most, so offending him is equivalent to offending Director Wei."

  Qin Hai sighed: "I didn't want to provoke him, but he bullied me, how could I tolerate him? ... Ah, right, Xiaochen, I forgot something yesterday. That dagger and entrenching shovel we made together were sold by me and Pangzi. You also contributed to it, so I gave you five dollars."

  Qin Hai said, taking out the five dollars he had allocated for himself and handing it over to Wang Xiaochen.

  "I won't take it!" Wang Xiaochen retreated two steps, waving his hands repeatedly, "I didn't do anything, how can I take your money?"

  "You just take it." Qin Hai walked up and pulled Wang Xiao Chen's hand over, stuffing the money into her palm.

  Wang Xiaochen had never been held by a man before, and for a moment she was so ashamed that her face turned bright red. She even forgot to refuse, and stupidly grasped the five yuan note, not knowing what to say.

  Qin Hai made this move, and he didn't think much of it. In his previous era, men and women holding hands, hugging each other was a normal thing, Qin Hai had been photographed with female masters and doctors in the lab, with their arms around him, those rotten women always liked to take pictures with male teachers older than themselves.

  "Don't worry about the money for now, just take it first. We'll do other things later and you can come back to help us again. When we have more money, we'll all earn it together," said Qin Hai.

  Wang Xiaochen's face had just returned to its normal color after being bright red for a while, and it was already not very suitable to return the money to Qin Hai at this time. Besides, she didn't have the courage to grab Qin Hai's hand and put the money back in it.

  "Th...thank you, Little Qin." Wang Xiaochen said in a barely audible voice, with an inexplicable joy in her tone. She had never thought that she would be able to earn some extra money on the side, and five yuan was a huge sum for a girl like her.

  "No need to thank me, it's also a result of your hard work." Qin Hai said with a smile.

  He had planned to give Wang Xiaochen five dollars as payment, but he forgot about it when he was dividing the money with Ning Mo and the others the day before. It wasn't until today, when he saw Wang Xiaochen, that he remembered.

  Qin Hai had only been at the Qingfeng factory for four or five days, and Wang Xiaochen was a complete stranger to him. However, she took care of him everywhere he went. Not only did she help him fetch hot water, but one time when Qin Hai was washing clothes in the bathroom, she even proactively came forward to help scrub a stubborn stain on his collar, just like an older sister would. As a result, Qin Hai had been thinking about finding an opportunity to repay Wang Xiaochen's kindness.

  During the few days of living opposite Wang Xiaochen, Qin Hai discovered that Wang Xiaochen was a very frugal girl. She rarely went to the cafeteria for meals and instead cooked her own food every day. The dishes she made were extremely simple, either a handful of celery or a few pieces of fermented tofu, without any meat at all.

  Qin Hai had asked around and found out that Wang Xiaochen was a girl from the countryside who came to work in the city. After receiving her salary every month, she would take more than half of it back home, leaving only a small amount for herself to live on. As a 20-year-old girl, she couldn't even afford a box of "Wan Zi Qian Hong" snow cream, and could only use 2 cents worth of shell oil to moisturize her face and hands.

  After learning about the situation, Qin Hai had a mind to help Wang Xiao Chen find some opportunities to make money. This time, doing the dagger thing, because it needs to use some equipment in the laboratory, so he asked Wang Xiao Chen for help. Now that the dagger has been sold at a high price, giving Wang Xiao Chen some reward is only a matter of course.

  "Hey, Qin Hai, you haven't boiled water yet? I have some extra hot water here, take it and use it." Wang Xiao Chen had earned five yuan as an extra income, her heart filled with joy and gratitude, she didn't know how to express herself for a while. After being stunned for a moment, she thought of sending some hot water to Qin Hai, which was also the only way this frugal girl could think of to show her appreciation.