Chapter 34

"Mom, these bean dregs of yours are amazing~"

"Eh~ these ribs, this pig lived a life worth living."

Yu Xiaoli was polite with her words, but the smile on her face never faded.

"If it's good, eat more."

Yu Xiaoli remembered something and said:

"By the way, I brought you a pair of pants, made by Lu Wei."

As someone from a garment factory, there were plenty of leftover orders, samples, and defective goods; bringing a couple of pieces home was considered an invisible benefit, not strange at all.

But made by Lu Wei, that was a bit strange.

Zhai Da was baffled: "You asked her to make them for me?"

Yu Xiaoli smiled and said: "I told her to practice, jokingly saying, 'Be bold and practice, at worst I'll take them home for Xiao Da to wear.' Turns out she took it seriously."

"Later I even forgot about it, but today Lu Wei ran over herself, saying she’d made a pair of pants and asked me to bring them to you."

Zhai Da nodded; it sounded like something Lu Wei would do, unable to tell which part was a joke and which was serious.

"She has that level of skill?"

"I modified them a bit, otherwise you might have had a wedgie."

Zhai Da: ...

Yu Xiaoli sighed and said:

"I originally wanted to invite her home for dinner; she’s truly a steady, good child, helped me with a lot of chores, but she refused."

Zhai Da remembered the matter of having Lu Wei be his math tutor... and said: "If you want to invite her, you can ask again, she’ll definitely come."

"Why?"

Why? Because I can remote control her.

"Because you are her master, and she wants to improve."

Yu Xiaoli ignored her son's unfunny humor: "Fine, I'll ask again. Are you finished?"

Zhai Da let out a burp: "Finished."

"You can really eat, just eating and not moving, only growing fat."

Zhai Da: ???

Can only say this is a real mother; urges you to eat more while eating, then complains you're fat once you're full...

Zhai Da took the initiative to take on the dishwashing, which made Yu Xiaoli very gratified.

So she urged him to clean the oil box of the range hood as well, and by the way, wipe the fridge, there was a weird smell inside.

Zhai Da complained to himself about his mom seizing every opportunity to work him to death, but his hands were nimble, and he busied himself for nearly an hour.

After everything was cleaned up, he greeted his mom, who was watching "Rural Love 2" on the sofa, and returned to his room.

Yu Xiaoli shouted without turning her head: "Don't hold your phone too close to your eyes, it hurts them."

Zhai Da was incredulous: "I'm going to study."

"Don't hold your study materials too close to your eyes, it hurts them."

Zhai Da could only give up on arguing.

Back in his room, he temporarily placed the bag of clothes on the bed by his feet and took out his phone to send a message to Lu Wei.

Handsome Zhai: "My mom might invite you to dinner at home these next few days, don't refuse."

Malnutrition replied after five minutes: "Don't want to disturb Teacher Yu."

Don't know if she typed and deleted, deleted and typed before sending it.

"Just treat it as coming to see me, I haven't paid you yet."

"I don't want money."

Zhai Da wasn't prepared to give her room to maneuver, replying directly: "I'm being lecherous, come! Didn't get to touch your little hand last time."

This time, the other side was silent for even longer.

Finally, she sent one word: "Okay."

Zhai Da nodded with satisfaction.

Just as he was about to start studying, the phone vibrated again; it was still a text, but the sender was "Literary Girl."

Zhai Da could only pick up his knock-off phone again.

Literary Girl: "Student Zhai, the submission time for the micro-fiction contest is almost over, don't forget~"

Zhai Da thought to himself, I didn't forget, I just have no idea what kind of chicken-neck contest this is... but he couldn't ask.

So he replied: "I might not have time, can you help me submit it?"

Lu Siwen replied: "Sure! Student Zhai's 'Street Lamp and Wine' will definitely take first place, I won't embarrass myself this time. By the way, what is Student Zhai's pen name? Or are you submitting under your real name?"

Zhai Da thought about it; his real name was definitely out, too stupid.

If someone like Wu Yue found out, he’d probably laugh his head off.

So he replied: "Quilt Explorer."

This was his WeChat name in his past life.

Yeah, after winning the lottery.

Several kilometers away, Lu Siwen, holding her phone, had her little head freeze for a moment.

Does it mean a child exploring their own world under the quilt?

What a childlike pen name.

After that, Lu Siwen's texts didn't stop, talking about trivia like how their teacher talked about Zhai Da's essay today and how surprised she was.

Zhai Da had little interest, but since he had just taken someone else's pen today, he replied patiently.

Until Lu Siwen asked that key question.

"Student Zhai, do you have any ideas for the new work you mentioned during the day?"

Zhai Da paused... sure enough, he couldn't escape the demand for public grain.

After experiencing the power of this pen today, returning it was impossible, and he had to find a way to get it completely.

At least, keep it in his hand for this period.

Then he had to stall... ah no, give Lu Siwen some "literary" explanation.

So Zhai Da replied: "Already writing it, I'll let you see it in a couple of days, I'm going to take a shower first."

If he kept chatting, he’d slip up, so Zhai Da could only use the shower technique.

The phone finally went completely quiet.

Zhai Da touched his chin; it seemed he really had to write something.

It had to be relatively long to stall for time, but not too long...

Like web novels; although he had web novels in his hands in his past life and could intercept many masterpieces...

But writing millions of words, even a dog wouldn't do it.

It had to be relatively easy, not take up too much time, and the quality couldn't be too bad...

Zhai Da had a rough idea.

He still had to find something familiar from his past life, preferably something with a sense of imagery, so he could write smoothly and with a clear thread.

After a while, Zhai Da found a blank notebook and wrote down a title.

"Long Journey."

He didn't watch many movies, but this one was special; it was released during the Spring Festival.

And Zhai Da in his past life... had nowhere to go during the Spring Festival.

His drinking buddies had mostly returned to their families, and his blind dates had gone back to their hometowns, so every Spring Festival he would repeatedly go to the cinema, basically sweeping through the entire Spring Festival lineup.

Actually, this movie was quite good, just slightly heavy, but it was chosen for the Spring Festival lineup; plus, being sandwiched between "female star losing weight," "middle-aged man driving," and "two bears that inexplicably explode in popularity every year," the box office was terrible, and it was pulled from theaters quickly.

After a long time, it seemed the actress in it won an award, which caused a new round of controversy.

But it had nothing to do with him, he didn't chase stars.

When he watched it, he didn't know who the woman was at all, nor did he care; just in terms of the movie itself, it was a good story.

Recalling the plot of this movie, the content was adapted from reality, the core of the story could be clearly distilled, and if he didn't pick at the details of the writing, he could even use some of the existing plot points.

Writing it this way was the easiest and didn't waste brainpower.

And this kind of romance-leaning subject matter should align with Lu Siwen's preferences.

Zhai Da nodded with satisfaction and tossed the "masterpiece" with only a name aside.

Writing four characters today was enough.

For the remaining time, leave it to study.

He turned on the [Old Man TV] to draw ink for the [Literary Girl's Pen].

He wanted to try and see what level he could reach with both cheats open.

Disciples of the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Sect, assemble!

——————

Meanwhile, at a restaurant in Dongyang County.

Three or four people sat in a private room, led by an old man around sixty, who was complaining.

"Damn it! Everyone says foreigners are honest, honest my ass!"

"Those little Japanese are really not things. The factory had already imported the raw materials, and they told me they were canceling the order. The breach of contract fee will require a lawsuit, won't be settled for half a year..."

Shen Rui sat on the old man's left hand, his temperament somewhat out of place here; no cigarette in his hand, no alcohol in front of him.

He didn't touch either.

"Xiao Rui, your third uncle really has no other way this time. You know I rarely ask you for favors."

Shen Rui smiled gently: "It's okay, Third Uncle. You helped arrange a job for my student before, which was a big help to me too."

"That girl named Lu Wei, right? I found her a good master, good character and good technique, to learn some real skills... it's just Yu Lihua's daughter, that's a small matter."

"What Third Uncle is asking you for is the big matter. The textile factory is in trouble this year, hard to get through... Does that friend of yours really run a big supermarket? How many clothes can they order?"

Shen Rui wiped his glasses: "The one running the supermarket isn't my friend. My friend is in charge of market supervision in Xudu, Yu Province. He mentioned it when we met last year... State-run old factories can't open up the market because they lack integration with modern commercial mechanisms..."

Speaking to this point, he immediately realized there was no need to drag in professional jargon, so he went straight to the conclusion: "As for the person running the supermarket, they are just a friend of a friend. Whether they come or how many orders they can give, we'll have to see. I just heard the other party has an annual turnover of several hundred million."

Shen Rui's Third Uncle, the textile factory director Liu Xinrong, nodded: "Xiao Rui is still the best, studied at R University, all the friends he knows are big shots."

Shen Rui was noncommittal; he wasn't doing this for his Third Uncle, let alone for himself.

He was a child of the textile factory, and the textile factory was also a key object of his social science research, carrying many shadows of the era and dragging behind it thousands of retired workers.

At the beginning of the socialized pension reform, there were some problems here; once it fell, the impact would be huge.

The factory director barely had a bottom line in his heart, remembered something, and took out an even more dilapidated notebook from his dilapidated leather bag.

"Last time you said Yu Lihua's grandson was also your student, I found this thing at home. The factory has no use for it, consider it the person's legacy."

"Today Yu Lihua's daughter, Xiao Yu, left early and didn't run into us. You can give it to your student later."

Shen Rui took the dilapidated notebook; the cover was made of red plastic with a very distinct era characteristic, the only logo being the portrait of that giant. Back then, many such notebooks were produced, spreading across the country.

The surface had already somewhat degraded and softened, feeling slightly sticky to the touch.

"Seems like old Yu left it as training material for the young people in the factory back then, all handwritten, but actually no one looked at it. Two years ago, the data room was cleared out, they were going to throw it away, I held onto it, but then I forgot about it myself..."

"It's all notes on manual labor, outdated now. The textile factory only has the garment factory left."

Shen Rui nodded, flipped it open, and inside were all kinds of parts diagrams, process requirements, operation manuals, etc., which he couldn't understand either.

"I'll give it to him when I run into him."

After a slight ponder, Shen Rui said:

"Tell me again, the story of Yu Lihua."