Chapter 148: The First Income Is in Hand

Qin Hengzhi stood frozen for a moment before steadying his breathing, but his heart was still racing, his eyes deeper than the night. Yet, he couldn't help but gently rub his fingers, then let them fall back to his own waist—the place where his little partner had touched him. Damn it, it was burning hot there.

After a few breaths, he couldn't control a soft laugh.

Run!

His usually steady and powerful footsteps felt like he was stepping on a cloud today.

He floated and floated, unconsciously floating past his jeep parked at the intersection.

By the time he realized it, he had run dozens of meters.

Qin Hengzhi stopped his steps, feeling very annoyed.

It was truly strange. Qiao Ge's hand had been on his shoulder at the dance, and his hand had been on her waist, so why hadn't he felt this palpitation then?

No, that wasn't right. He was heart-racing and ear-burning now—hmm, hmm, so it turned out he needed to reminisce in a place with no one around.

Qin Hengzhi felt he wasn't very gentlemanly.

Thus, he quickly calmed down, ran back to the jeep, started the car, and drove along the night toward the military representative residential area assigned to him.

Lu Qiaoge had originally thought Cao Lanzhu would be waiting for her at the gate of the Foreign Trade Section.

As it turned out, she didn't see anyone.

She had come with Hu Ze; after all, there was still money from the handicraft group here.

After this money was collected, Hu Ze had to hand it over to the Neighborhood Office's finance room.

She hadn't expected not to wait for Cao Lanzhu.

So she and Hu Ze entered the Foreign Trade Section and found Xiao Zhu, who had gone to the military factory yesterday. He first led Hu Ze to the other goods management office to verify the quantity, then had Hu Ze verify the amount with the finance personnel there, while he led Lu Qiaoge to the director's office.

When Director Zhou saw Lu Qiaoge, his face was truly full of smiles. If Qiao Ge hadn't helped him out of the predicament yesterday, he didn't know how miserable he would have been all night.

After exchanging a few pleasantries and asking about Lu Qiaoge's work situation, Xiao Zhu didn't expect Director Zhou to value Lu Qiaoge so much. He was also very surprised in his heart, not knowing what her background was, but one thing was certain: although young, her work ability was very strong.

The signing was approved smoothly, and Lu Qiaoge received 1,500 yuan. Because the contract between Zhen Xi and the roasted goods factory had already taken effect, if Zhen Xi breached the contract, he would have to pay a large amount of foreign exchange, so no matter how you calculated it, they wouldn't lose out.

Lu Qiaoge put the money in her bag and went to find Hu Ze, who was verifying the quantity.

When she went, Hu Ze had just finished verifying; there was no discrepancy in the quantity, and the amount was 318 yuan.

The two didn't delay and rode their bicycles back to the military factory in a hurry.

Halfway there, they actually ran into Qin Hengzhi.

Qin Hengzhi was preparing to go out and happened to run into them head-on.

Qin Hengzhi nodded to Hu Ze and then asked Lu Qiaoge, "I want to take you somewhere this afternoon. About what time will you be free and where will you be? So I can come pick you up."

His voice sounded very calm, but the gentleness inside was something only Lu Qiaoge could hear.

Lu Qiaoge's eyes were smiling as she thought about today's arrangements. The blueprints for the sunflower seed baskets had already been handed to the handicraft sideline group, and Chang An's meaning was that they would definitely be woven by noon.

She said, "I have to see Mr. Zhen Xi this afternoon." After a pause, Lu Qiaoge continued, "I plan to go see Mr. Zhen with my unit colleagues and Sister Su at one o'clock this afternoon. I already reported it to Director Zhou just now; Director Zhou should have already notified Zhen Xi. Four o'clock, then; I should be back at the military factory by then."

Then she added, "Pick me up at the Neighborhood Office; I have to report my work to our director first."

Qin Hengzhi nodded and said softly, "Good!"

After thinking for a moment, he added, "Division Chief Xu called yesterday; Cao Lanzhu returned to Beidu this morning."

Lu Qiaoge: "No wonder I didn't wait for her; so she left."

Qin Hengzhi looked at Lu Qiaoge with a smile that wasn't quite a smile. This tone of regret...

He didn't even know what kind of partner he had found.

The two said a few more words, and then this big jeep, which was different from other jeeps, sped toward the direction of the gate.

Hu Ze looked at the departing jeep with envy.

He heard from his dad that this car was assembled by Qin Hengzhi himself, and no jeep could outrun it.

He asked Lu Qiaoge curiously, "What does it feel like to sit in it?"

Lu Qiaoge recalled it; in this era, the performance of this car should be number one.

"Very good, steady and fast!"

Hu Ze rode his bicycle, thinking in his heart, when would he be able to drive a jeep?

Actually, what he wanted most was to go to the transport team to drive, but there was no quota, and besides having a driver's license, one had to know how to repair cars.

That's right, this era was just that excellent.

Don't think that just because you were given a car you could drive it away; drivers in this era weren't that simple.

First, there was the opportunity to get in; not only did you have to learn to drive, but you also had to learn to repair cars. The reason you had to learn to repair cars was that most domestic cars in this era were used beyond their service life, and breaking down halfway was a common phenomenon.

Moreover, there were no repair shops on the side of the road, so basically, every driver knew how to repair cars.

Hu Ze felt that touching the steering wheel was still too far away.

He hadn't even stood firm on his own little patch of land yet.

Thinking this, he touched his bag again, feeling uneasy.

There were over three hundred yuan in there.

Don't look at the fact that his dad was the Neighborhood Office director; he had never seen or touched so much money at once. If it were really lost, with his pitiful five-mao pocket money, how could he afford to pay it back?

Lu Qiaoge saw him touching his bag constantly and said, "You are purely 'there is no silver three hundred taels here.' If there were really a thief, you would be the first one targeted."

Hu Ze laughed: "I've never seen so much money."

Lu Qiaoge also laughed and said meaningfully, "This might just be the beginning."

You'll get used to it.

Very soon, they arrived at the Neighborhood Office.

Today was payday, and there were really a lot of people.

Lu Qiaoge didn't know how other places paid wages, but this was her first time seeing it at the military factory.

The finance room door was open, and a desk blocked the entrance. Behind the desk sat the cashier, Sister Chu, and the bookkeeper, Comrade Xiao Liu.

In front of them was a long payroll sheet, with ten people per page; the names were in the front, and the places for signatures or seals were in the back.

There was really no concealment, because the emphasis was on serving the people, so the wage gap between cadres and workers was small.

So leaders in this era didn't earn much more than the staff.

Just like Old Hu, according to his administrative rank, and because he was a grassroots cadre, he only earned sixty-something yuan a month, not even as much as Lu Da, a seventh-grade worker.

So technical workers were more popular than cadres now.

At this moment, Comrade Xiao Liu was shouting impatiently: "Don't make noise and don't squeeze, line up, line up! What kind of behavior is this, making such a racket?"

It was payday, after all, and everyone was happy; no one cared about Comrade Xiao Liu's scolding.

But in fact, everyone was lining up; they were just chatting quite enthusiastically.

Lu Qiaoge didn't line up; she just glanced at Comrade Xiao Liu. She had been at the Neighborhood Office for a long time, and she didn't know why, but the people in the finance room were always indifferent to her. ===== CHAPTER 149 =====