Chapter 28: The Documents Have Arrived

Zhang Qian had long since smelled the aroma of meat, and having been told not to cook, waiting until now was already no easy feat.

Beibei had returned half an hour ago and had even caught a few small fish from the river; the fish were the size of a palm, and if she went to the village tomorrow to trade for some tofu, she could make tofu stewed with fish.

The meal was already on the table, with a bowl of dumplings for each person, and there was half a basin of dumplings left in the large porcelain basin on the side; in order to let everyone eat their fill, An Yinan had made an amount far exceeding their usual appetite.

In the center sat a basin containing rabbit meat stewed with potatoes; if one soaked rice in the thick, rich broth, it would be absolutely delicious.

Of course, paired with the delicious dumplings, that was also incomparable.

Xie Yuanyuan was eating a dumpling, finishing one in two bites, and she was already on her second bowl...

"Mm, I finally dare to speak; it was about to cry me to tears with how fragrant it was."

Zhang Qian and Beibei nodded; Zhang Qian was a soldier, so his eating speed was naturally fast, and while he could usually control his food intake, today he had let himself go a bit.

Beibei was supporting her belly with one hand while gnawing on rabbit meat with the other.

Li Xiue was also too full to speak, and upon hearing Xie Yuanyuan's words, she nodded repeatedly; it certainly was fragrant!

Not to mention that Educated Youth An's skills were beyond reproach, even if someone with poor skills had put in that much meat, the meal would still be fragrant!

That was a whole jin of pork belly, all chopped up with a thud-thud-thud.

An Yinan watched the few of them, silently went to the stove to wash the pot, and boiled a pot of hawthorn water.

After the few of them finished eating, they silently drank the hawthorn water.

Afterwards, once everything was cleaned, they each returned to their own rooms.

Although An Yinan had been busy all afternoon, it was all small, tedious work, so she wasn't tired at all at this moment; she first went into the space to read high school textbooks for an hour, then used white paper to draw a bullseye, and then used pebbles to hit the bullseye to practice her accuracy.

After practicing for an hour, she could now hit the bullseye every time from within three meters.

She opened her textbooks again to read; now, one hour of studying and one hour of practicing accuracy, until ten o'clock at night, when she finally finished her bath with a sense of lingering enjoyment before leaving the space to start sleeping.

Before dawn had broken, the work whistle blew for the first round; An Yinan put the translated manuscript into her backpack, shouldered a large basket, and went to the head of the village to wait for Uncle Niu's ox cart.

"Educated Youth An, you're so early!" Uncle Niu pulled the ox cart over from afar and saw An Yinan standing by the tree.

An Yinan nodded, "I'm going to the County to mail a letter, so I came early."

Uncle Niu didn't say anything else; there were very few people today, only three including An Yinan.

Everyone who was supposed to be working was working, earning a few Work Points every day, and they couldn't bear to go to the County.

Moreover, the women in the village rarely left the village after getting married; if they needed to buy something, they would ask someone close to them to bring it back, as the money for the ox cart was enough to buy dozens of candies for their children.

The weather had already turned cold, and no one on the road was talking; after an hour of swaying, they arrived at the County.

An Yinan went to the Xinhua Bookstore first; she was afraid that Chen Shao hadn't opened yet, thinking that if he hadn't, she would go to the State-run Restaurant for breakfast first.

Unexpectedly, Chen Shao's door was already open, and he was strolling in front of the bookstore.

"Uncle Chen, are you exercising?" An Yinan pointed at his movements and asked with confusion.

Chen Shao couldn't help but laugh or cry; he looked at An Yinan and hurriedly let her into the room.

"Come in quickly; I was waiting for you. If you hadn't come today, I would have sent the documents to your village."

"The documents are here? So fast?" An Yinan asked with surprise.

Chen Shao didn't speak; he took the documents mailed from above directly out of the office desk drawer.

An Yinan picked up the documents; at the very top was a photo, and this photo seemed to have been taken when she was in junior high school, looking much more naive than she did now.

And below the photo, it read: Position: Ordinary Translator, and at the very bottom it read: Unit: National Compilation Bureau, and above the unit name, it was stamped with a large red seal.

With this work permit, the English books in her hands now had certification, and even if anyone discovered them, nothing would go wrong.

"Uncle Chen, these are the two magazines from last time, as well as the translation materials." An Yinan took the translation materials and magazines out of her military-green schoolbag and placed them together in front of Chen Shao.

Chen Shao flipped through the materials; although he couldn't understand English, he could understand whether it was gibberish, and although it was translated English, the logic of the sentences was very reasonable; from some special factors, one could tell whether the translator had been making things up.

"Good, I need to submit the materials; the translation fee can be picked up here, or I can have a remittance slip mailed directly to you. How would you like to settle it?" Chen Shao put the translation materials and magazines into a file folder; he would mail these things to the City in the afternoon.

"Let's do it here; when I come to pick up translation materials next time, I can pick it up together." An Yinan thought about it; although mailing it to the Post Office was convenient, it wasn't quite right for her to always be receiving remittance slips, as it was easy to attract attention.

She just wanted to keep a low profile and live steadily!!!

"Alright, then that's how we'll do it. These are the new translation materials." Chen Shao handed her three magazines.

An Yinan thought for a moment, then asked, "Can I take more at once? You should also know that I am an Educated Youth in Quanshui Village, and coming to the County from Quanshui Village is too far; it takes two hours by ox cart for a round trip."

Chen Shao thought about the organization's regulations, "That's doable, but taking extra materials requires a deposit of 10 yuan."

An Yinan didn't hesitate at all; she immediately used her backpack as cover, took a ten-yuan note out of the space, and handed it over, "Take more, take more."

Chen Shao accepted it with a smile, wrote her a receipt for the deposit, and gave her three more magazines, "After translating more than three times, your deposit can be returned to you; you must keep this receipt safe."

These few magazines were relatively thick; if she finished translating them all, she could earn over two hundred yuan.

"By the way, Uncle Chen, I want to buy some review materials; primary school, middle school, and high school, I need them all. Could you help me pick them out?" An Yinan hadn't forgotten this time.

Upon hearing this, Chen Shao immediately stood up, "Your Uncle Chen isn't good at translating, but you can count on me for picking out materials."

Circling around several bookshelves, Chen Shao picked out a total of nine books: two exercise sets for primary school, three for middle school, and four for high school.

Looking at the prices on the back, one had to say that compared to food, books in this era were truly expensive.

"Uncle Chen, calculate how much it is; I'll pay you together." An Yinan asked.

Chen Shao waved his hand, "It's not easy for you to have gone down to the countryside; the grain hasn't been distributed yet, right? When your next translation fee comes down, we'll just deduct it directly from the translation fee."

Looking at the little girl with her thin arms and legs, he estimated she couldn't earn many Work Points working in the fields; when he had time, he had to apply to those above—besides the translation fee, they also had to give some coupons, otherwise what could she use the money for?

Having money but no coupons, the little girl would still have to sneak off to the Black Market, which was too dangerous.

An Yinan nodded; that would work too, it was all the same.