Rebirth in 1960, My Industrial Age

Chapter 107 New Products, Old Master Chef (Subscription Request)

By early June, the temperature had warmed up a lot and some workers were already working in short sleeves.

Today is payday, and workers from each workshop come to the Finance Department to collect their wages.

Now the workers coming out of the Finance Department all have happy smiles on their faces. Who wouldn’t be happy to have money in their hands?

"Zhou Yan. Level 26 clerk, salary 33 yuan. Please check and sign and stamp here if everything is correct."

The person from the Finance Department handed Zhou Yan a paper bag containing her salary, three Big Unity notes and three one-dollar bills, which were easy to count.

After receiving her own salary, Zhou Yan signed the form and asked the person in the finance department, "Comrade, I also want to collect my husband's salary. Is that ok?"

"Your husband? Is he from our factory? Just take the marriage certificate and register."

The staff from the Finance Department said that since the couple’s relationship has been confirmed, anyone can collect the salary. They just need to make sure that no one else can claim it.

After hearing this, Zhou Yan took out her and Zhou Fengnian’s marriage certificate and household registration page and handed them to the finance department staff for inspection.

"Mr. Zhou is your husband!?"

The finance department staff was shocked and quickly checked it. After confirming that it was correct, a smile immediately appeared on his face and he said, "Congratulations, Comrade Zhou Yan. Then I will pay you Mr. Zhou's salary."

Since they came with the household registration booklet and marriage certificate, it must have been something the couple had discussed beforehand. There was no reason for them to stop them.

Soon they found an envelope with the three words "Zhou Fengnian" written on it, and then the finance staff handed it to Zhou Yan with a smile.

"Comrade Zhou Yan, here are your husband's salary, allowance and some vouchers from last month. Please take a look. If there is no problem, please stamp and sign here."

Zhou Yan signed and stamped directly, and said with a smile: "No need to check, you have never made any mistakes, there will definitely be no problem."

The leaders’ salaries were checked several times and packed away separately, so there must be no mistakes.

"Haha, Comrade Zhou Yan, you are too kind."

After saying a few words, Zhou Yan left the Finance Department.

After returning to the Propaganda Department, Zhou Yan was still thinking about the family's financial expenses.

There are still about 70 or 80 yuan in cash left at home, enough for three or four months. I put my newly paid salary in the bank after get off work.

Zhou Fengnian also wanted to give his family ten yuan. Zhou Yan fully agreed with this expenditure and even thought that he could give a little more.

However, Zhou Fengnian refused. No matter how much money he gave, it would be useless as the money would definitely be saved. It would be better to buy food to take back than to give money.

Anyway, Zhou Fugui and his mother have no shortage of people to take care of them in their old age. In the future, Zhou Fengnian and his elder and second brothers will probably be in Nanluoguxiang. The two elders can live with either of them if they like.

Zhou Xiangde also gave five dollars. Before they got married, Zhou Yan had to give fifteen dollars every month.

Later, before they got married, Zhou Xiangde said that he didn't need to give him the money anymore and asked Zhou Yan to save her salary for small family expenses.

When Lu Honghui heard Zhou Xiangde say this, she was very unhappy, but was severely suppressed by Zhou Xiangde.

Recently, Zhou Xiangde has become more and more like the head of the family. If he says he won’t feed his two sons, then he won’t feed them.

Even if Lü Honghui gave them food secretly, it would be useless. Zhou Xiangde had the food certificate and only bought food once every few days. If Lü Honghui gave them too much secretly, then she and Zhou Xiangde would have nothing to eat.

Although corporal punishment is not good, it is the most effective way to deal with people who are about to go astray.

Zhou Hao was beaten every time he skipped class, so he never dared to skip class again; Zhou Kai was cut off from food, with no money or food, and he couldn't even eat from others.

Although the food rations had been restored a lot, if Zhou Kai kept eating for free, no street urchin would be willing to pay attention to him.

They don't even have enough to eat by themselves, and they want to bring a freeloader? Eat your ass!

Zhou Kai had no choice, he used to do well because his family gave him money, but now his family had no money or food, which indirectly cut off his "connections".

In order to make a living, Zhou Kai could only do odd jobs and carry heavy bags.

Originally, if Zhou Kai had done his temporary job well, Zhou Xiangde might have used his connections to help Zhou Kai become an apprentice.

But that is no longer possible. Jobs are becoming increasingly scarce, and the electrical appliance factory is recruiting new employees from families with no money, no relatives or no friends.

Giving these families a job can stabilize their lives.

Later, Zhou Yan decided to give Zhou Xiangde five dollars every month. After all, it was Zhou Xiangde who supported her in going to school, which enabled her to graduate from high school and find a job.

She was a bit indifferent at other times, but Zhou Yan was always grateful for the fact that she could go to school, otherwise she would have been married off long ago.

Zhou Yan only gave the five dollars to Zhou Xiangde, and didn't want to care about anyone else. She told Zhou Fengnian about this matter, and Zhou Fengnian didn't have any objection, it was just five dollars.

Zhou Yan went to the farmers' market to buy vegetables in the afternoon. After buying enough vegetables for two or three days, she rode her bike back.

After returning home, Zhou Yan saw her eldest sister-in-law and fourth sister Zhou Chunhua washing clothes in the yard, so she smiled and greeted them.
"Chunhua, sister-in-law, call big brother and second brother to come and have dinner together later."

Sister-in-law Qu Ying shook her head and said, "Sister-in-law, you guys eat, I'll go back and cook later."

"We need to light a fire when we go back, sister-in-law, why not just call brother to come along."

After Zhou Yan finished speaking, she asked again, "Has Fengnian returned?"

Zhou Chunhua said: "Third brother came back earlier than me, but he never came out of the study room after returning."

"Then I'll go talk to Fengnian first. Sister-in-law, call the eldest brother and the second brother to come together later."

It was just a meal. After the house was renovated, Zhou Fengnian often called them over, and Zhou Yan also followed Zhou Fengnian's wishes.

Besides, the sister-in-law came to help them wash clothes, and Zhou Yan would feel guilty if she didn't do something.

After Zhou Yan entered the house, Zhou Chunhua whispered to Qu Ying: "Sister-in-law, Third Sister-in-law is very good, you can stay for dinner."

"If you always eat at your brother's house, even if your eldest brother is carefree, he will feel embarrassed."

Qu Ying said a little embarrassedly that in other families, the eldest child is the pillar of the family.

But the Zhou family has a promising brother, which makes the eldest brother seem a little mediocre; their family members naturally don’t care, but outsiders always gossip when they see it.

"Those people are just envious of our family. We are living a good life and our third brother is happy. What does it have to do with them?"

Zhou Chunhua said unhappily: "Those people are just gossipers."

Qu Ying said: "I'll talk to your eldest brother later. Actually, we both want to bring the child to the city, but we're afraid we won't have time to take care of him."

Zhou Chunhua thought for a moment and said, "Then ask Third Brother? If even Third Brother can't help, then there's really nothing we can do."

After hearing this, Qu Ying felt a little reluctant to trouble the third child again, but if she could be with the child more often, it would be okay to lose face a little.

"I understand, Chunhua, pack your clothes and I'll go find your brother."

"Okay, sister-in-law."

The two of them quickly put away the clothes, most of which were Zhou Fengnian's clothes. He was a bit of a clean freak and basically changed his clothes every day and went to the bathhouse every two or three days.

If there was no one to help, it would be very difficult to change and wash clothes so often. "A good year?"

Zhou Yan came to the door of the study, shouted outside first, and then pushed the door and walked in after hearing the response from inside.

After the others came in, Zhou Fengnian said, "Why are you being so polite? This is our home."

"I'm afraid I'll disturb you at work. Didn't you finish drawing the machine in the factory?"

Zhou Yan said with a smile, then came behind Zhou Fengnian and took a look, but she didn't understand anything at all.

"It's not a factory assignment. The factory assignment is confidential and cannot be brought out. This is to help the Electric Appliance Factory No. 1, our former workshop director Bai Kang."

Zhou Fengnian reminded him: "When I was the deputy director of the workshop, I had a good relationship with him. Now their factory needs help, so I studied some small things.
By the way, he is also the cousin of our factory director Bai Yujie."

"Director Bai Yujie Fengnian, I'm being transferred to a clerk. Was it approved by Deputy Director Bai?"

When Zhou Yan was reminded of this, she quickly thought of Bai Yujie, their direct leader in the Propaganda Department, who was both beautiful and charming, and seemed to be less than 30 years old.

"Yes, last time Brother Bai Kang asked me for help, I couldn't wait and agreed, and then Deputy Director Bai helped you become a clerk.
It’s easy to get promoted to a clerk position, and if you make some contributions in the future, it’s easy to transfer to another position.”

It is not the same for technical service personnel, who not only need level assessments but also need appreciation from their leaders, otherwise they will be blocked from promotion.

"Fengnian, what are you painting now?"

"A micro-cassette recorder. You could also call it a Walkman."

What Zhou Fengnian was planning to manufacture was a portable player that could record and play at any time, as well as a tape cassette. However, this type of tape had already been researched abroad, and might be about to be manufactured.

But this does not have any impact. Even if the foreigners are faster, it is impossible for them to monopolize all the tape business.

What's more, Zhou Fengnian is still researching the matching walkman in the simulation space, which is enough for the Electrical Appliance Factory to earn a lot of foreign exchange.

The problem is that the Walkman is not very friendly to batteries. Today's batteries can only last for less than an hour, and they consume a lot of power.

Moreover, the craftsmanship requirements are very high. Compressing a semiconductor recorder that is at most 20 to 30 centimeters in size to about 10 centimeters requires too high a level of craftsmanship.

According to Zhou Fengnian's understanding, several electronic research institutes should be able to produce it, but how the First Electrical Factory would expand to production was not something he considered.

Zhou Fengnian could consider helping to improve and modify the process equipment after obtaining it from Electrical Appliance Factory No. 1 so as to achieve large-scale production. This is the limit of what he can do.

After all, his current task is machine tools, an automated CNC production line that is about to be completed, and a large high-precision machine tool that has not yet been started.

"That sounds great, Fengnian. You are worthy of your research."

Zhou Yan only understood half of what was said, but she realized that it was probably a small semiconductor recorder, about the size of a palm, so she praised Zhou Fengnian.

“Is this thing expensive after it’s made?”

"It's definitely not cheap. It's probably one or two times more expensive than today's radios. Few people in China can afford it. Even if they can, they can't afford the batteries."

Zhou Fengnian shook his head and he didn't care about the battery. Even if he had a golden finger that could speed up the upgrading of skills, he couldn't take on everything, otherwise he would be exhausted to death sooner or later.

"By the way, why did you come to see me? It's time to cook, right?"

The two agreed that Zhou Fengnian would not have to take care of any other housework except cooking.

If Zhou Fengnian wasn't such a good cook, he wouldn't even have to worry about cooking; the same stir-fried shredded potatoes made by Zhou Fengnian can whet people's appetites and smell delicious.

But he is not a chef, so only his family and friends can taste his cooking, and outsiders have no chance at all.

Zhou Yan said: "Well, I have already bought the food and prepared to light the stove, but when I came back just now, I saw my sister-in-law washing clothes, so I asked her to call my elder brother and second brother to come over for dinner."

"Come on, we don't lack food, and my sister-in-law often helps us with work."

Zhou Fengnian had no objection at all. He really didn't care about such a small amount of money and things at the moment.

The main reason was that the treatment of national team engineers was too good. After he became an engineer, he rarely even went to Pigeon City because there was no need.

"As long as everything is ready, I'll go cook. What do you want to eat today?"

Zhou Yan immediately smiled and said, "I like everything you cook, but I like shredded pork with green peppers more."

"Haha, then let's eat shredded pork with green peppers."

Zhou Fengnian stood up and prepared to cook. Zhou Yan also took his arm and hung on him like a koala, and walked towards the kitchen stove together.

After the two of them worked together to light the fire, Zhou Fengnian went to prepare to start.

Zhou Yan had already steamed the buns made from 20g of flour and cut the vegetables, and was just waiting for Zhou Fengnian to put them in the pot.

After a while, the aroma of food wafted out.

The voices of the eldest brother, second brother and fourth sister were heard from outside: "Third brother, we are here."

Zhou Fengnian shouted from the kitchen: "Big brother, you and second brother move the table out and get ready for dinner."

"okay!"

Soon, the food was ready and served on the large round table in the middle of the backyard. The weather was just right now, so it was neither too hot nor too cold to eat outside.

Zhou Weitian sat down with a smile and said, "Third brother, I finally got to taste your cooking again."

When Qu Ying heard this, she stepped on him under the table in annoyance.

"Brother, why don't you learn the craft from me? I'll give you the recipe when I have time. Come to me when you want to practice your craft."

Zhou Fengnian thought for a while and said that he didn’t teach before because there were not many ingredients. He was a technician at that time, and if he wanted to eat something delicious, he had to go to Pigeon Market.

It’s different now. Although I don’t have to let the eldest brother practice every day, it’s still okay to let him practice making dinner every day.

What's more, given Zhou Weitian's obsession with food, it is possible for him to learn cooking.

"Really? Third brother, can I learn cooking from you?"

"Yes, your factory can only promote you by your years of service. You might as well learn some cooking skills in private. I'll talk to your leader and ask him to transfer you to the kitchen. You can practice there."

The more Zhou Fengnian talked about it, the more he thought it was feasible. He practiced his knife skills in the kitchen and came back to teach him how to cook.

If Zhou Weitian studies hard, it should not be a problem for him to pass the ninth-level cook exam within three years.

"Sure, I've wanted to learn cooking for a long time, but my father is against it. He's holding me back."

Zhou Fengnian smiled and said, "Say this to your father next time."

"I'm not stupid!"

Zhou Weitian shook his head and said that his father loved to beat him, but he felt that he had not said anything wrong; he was probably beaten because he said too much and was angry and ashamed.

(End of this chapter)