Party of Fox Friends and Dog Comrades

  "What's wrong with her?" Lin Zhenhua looked at the flustered back of Lin Fanghua and couldn't help but shake his head. He, who had handled tens of thousands of yuan as a graduate student, had never thought that 200 yuan would make his sister so excited and nervous.

  No way, I have to think of a way to make money, Lin Zhenhua thought silently. According to the living habits of later generations, his demobilization allowance would not last for a few days. In the future, if he relied solely on the monthly income of 52 yuan from his siblings, wouldn't they be miserable? Wait, it seemed that his sister meant that 12 yuan had to be set aside from the 52 yuan, leaving only 40 yuan per month. 40 yuan, according to the standard of Dongfeng Factory's dinner, how many months would he have to save to eat a meal?

  "Lin Zhenhua, Lin Zhenhua!" A shout came from outside the house. Before Lin Zhenhua could respond, the door was pushed open and several young men rushed in, surrounding him and asking questions with enthusiasm.

  "Yongqun, Hongyang, Shaozhe!" Lin Zhenhua excitedly shouted out his friends' names, as they slapped each other on the back. These few people were all children of factory workers, and before Lin Zhenhua joined the army, they had been a group of idle young men who hung out together in society.

  Zhao Yongqun, his old man was a sand-turner, he himself also had a good strength, tall and majestic, fond of using his fists to settle all kinds of matters, of course, afterwards it often ended up being settled again by his old man.

  Chu Hongyang's old man is the head of the supply and marketing department, and his family has some money. He likes to make friends all over the world and often steals cigarettes and wine from home to entertain guests, so he has a good relationship with others.

  Peng Shaozhe, his father is in the technical department. He has read a few books since he was young and has more knowledge than his peers. He likes to call himself "Zhì Duō Xīng" (a clever person). Every time they go out to cause trouble and fight, the bad ideas are always his. But every time they get into trouble and come back, the only one who doesn't get beaten at home is him.

  "Zhenhua, I heard you're back, why didn't you come find us?" Chu Hongyang complained.

  "After I came back, I had dinner at Wei's aunt's house. Just arrived home and still need to tidy up." Lin Zhenhua explained.

  "Go to her house for dinner, and the reception meal should be eaten with our brothers." Zhao Yongqun said.

  Peng Shaozhe gave him a sideways glance and said, "How can we afford to invite Zhenhua out for dinner? I saw Yang Xin's mom buying a lot of ingredients two days ago, she was already prepared."

  "It's not as good as us brothers eating together happily, right?" Chu Hongyang said.

  "Otherwise, let's have dinner together tonight?" Zhao Yongqun suggested, "I still have two dollars, you guys can chip in some more, and we can go buy some ingredients to cook at Zhenhua's place."

  "I'll get a bottle of wine," said Chu Hongyang, and with a flourish, he produced a bottle from behind his back. Lin Zhenhua took a look and saw that it was the most ordinary kind of white wine, with a wooden stopper instead of the original cap. Lin Zhenhua knew that Chu Hongyang's father was in charge of supplies at the factory and often had to entertain guests for business purposes. After sending off the guests, he was entitled to take home the leftover white wine from the dinner table, but he had to pay two cents per bottle to the cafeteria; otherwise, it would be considered embezzlement. The wine Chu Hongyang brought out was of this origin.

  "No need for you to spend money, I'll get this meal." Lin Zhenhua said. He saw his sister coming back from outside and shouted: "Xiaofang, go buy some dishes, there's still wine in my box, tonight, I'll gather with Yongqun and Hongyang."

  Lin Fanghua glanced at Zhao Yongqun and others, didn't show any disgust, these Jianghu mixed eggs were quite good to their family members, Lin Zhenhua went to be a soldier for two years, sometimes when Lin Fanghua had some small troubles in school, it was also Zhao Yongqun and others who helped her resolve them.

  "Xiao Fang, buy some good dishes and get a chicken." Lin Zhenhua pulled his sister outside the house and instructed her in a low voice.

  "You're crazy! It's not a holiday or festival, who eats chicken?" Lin Fanghua scolded with wide eyes.

  "Uh, then let's have some ribs."

  "There's no more meat coupons." Lin Fanghua said, now it's already the end of the month, and the meat coupons have been used up long ago.

  "What do you say then?" Lin Zhenhua was at a loss, and had no choice but to hand over the decision-making power to his sister.

  Lin Fanghua didn't want to disappoint her brother either, so she said, "I'll go take a look." Then she slung the vegetable basket over her arm and left. Just outside the factory was a small vegetable market where some farmers from nearby were selling vegetables.

  "How are you guys doing now?" Lin Zhenhua asked as he walked back into the house, and he also had to start getting used to using workers' language to communicate with others.

  "It's all temporary work anyway." Zhao Yongqun said, "Not long after you left, we all went to the factory as temporary workers. Hongyang was in charge of the warehouse, Shaozhe was in the drying room, they were good places, but I suffered, following my old man in the sanding car interval, responsible for transporting sandboxes."

  "This is called using one's talents," Peng Shaozhe said with a smile, "Among the three of us, you have the best physique and strength. If you don't move the sandboxes, who will?"

  Lin Zhenhua said: "I don't know what kind of job I will be assigned yet."

  Chu Hongyang said, "You don't care what kind of work you do, you're better off than us. You're a formal worker, as soon as you enter the factory, it's 37 yuan. We are temporary workers, 24 and a half yuan per month. For this little money, the finance department doesn't even directly give it to us, it's all our dads who pick it up for us."

  "Why don't you become formal workers?" Lin Zhenhua asked foolishly, he was basically an idiot when it came to the system back then.

  "You think it's easy to be a formal worker?" Peng Shaozhe said, "You're a veteran and you have your parents' quota available, so as soon as you enter the factory, you can become a formal worker. We want to convert to formal workers, we have to wait for our old fathers and mothers to retire before we can get a quota."

  "My dad is only 42 years old, by the time he retires, I'll have retired first," Chu Hongyang said gloomily.

  "What are you worried about?" Zhao Yongqun said, "Your dad is at least a mid-level cadre. If there's a job quota, he'll definitely take care of people like you first. My dad is just a worker, we're the ones who are really struggling."

  Although Zhao Yongqun said so, he didn't have the slightest dislike for Chu Hongyang. At that time, being able to do something improper was someone else's skill, and if you couldn't do it yourself, you wouldn't blame others.

  Chu Hongyang probably agreed with Zhao Yongqun's words, so he didn't refute them. Instead, he directly pulled the topic back to Lin Zhenhua: "Zhenhua, did you go find the factory director? What kind of job were you assigned?"

  This is the second person to discuss work types with him within a day, it seems that people in the factory are quite sensitive about this issue. Lin Zhenhua shook his head: "Let's talk about it tomorrow when we go to work, whatever work type I'm assigned, I'll just do it."

  Lin Zhenhua said so, and he thought so too. The people in the factory had already become accustomed to the planned economy model, and once a profession was determined, it would be for life, so everyone attached great importance to division of labor. But Lin Zhenhua knew that after a few years, the country's economic management model would undergo earth-shaking changes, peasants would become real estate speculators, skilled workers would open breakfast shops, professors would become bosses, and bosses would go to universities to become guest professors. Now it was laughable to spend so much effort determining what profession one should have in the future.

  "Zhenhua, have you gone stupid from being a soldier?" Peng Shaozhe said with a puzzled expression. "You should still have some demobilization money left, right? Haven't spent it all yet? Why not hurry up and buy some good cigarettes and wine, then head to the factory director's house tonight. Nowadays, taking down a mountain stronghold without twenty rounds of ammunition and hand grenades is impossible."

  "Twenty mortars and hand grenades?" Lin Zhenhua was stunned, I'm going to collapse, is this still a factory?

  "What's this? Don't you talk like that in the army?" Peng Shaozhe asked, "Twenty rounds are cigarettes, hand grenades are wine bottles."

  Lin Zhenhua chuckled and said, "I don't have the money to give them gifts. I won't save up for a dowry to marry a wife, will I? Besides, in two years my sister will be going to college, so I need to save some money."

  "Go to college?" Chu Hongyang laughed, "Xiao Fang's grades are the same as my sister's, can she still go to college? Don't joke around. This year's college entrance exam, not even one of our factory's children got into a vocational school, and you're thinking Xiao Fang can get into college?"

  Lin Zhenhua was completely speechless, he really couldn't tell these guys that he was no longer the Lin Zhenhua of the past, he was a graduate student at Huaying University, and guiding high school students to take the college entrance exam was like playing.

  Lin Fanghua returned with the vegetables, and in addition to a few green vegetables, there was also a large grass carp weighing over three kilograms. Fenghua County has the Zhangjiang River flowing through it, which is rich in freshwater fish. At that time, commodity economy was not developed, and there were fewer people fishing, so they could often catch some very big fish. The workers in the factory had low incomes, and few people would buy such a large fish to eat on ordinary days. Lin Fanghua also bit his teeth and bought a large fish just to please his brother.

  "Wow, there's fish! Not bad." Lin Zhenhua exclaimed with delight, "This fish is mine to cook, I'll show you all my ultimate skill."

  "Can you cook?" Including Lin Fanghua, everyone showed a disbelieving expression.

  Lin Zhenhua smiled and said, "Chairman Mao once said that the PLA is a university, I was a soldier for two years, so I should be considered a junior college graduate. What's difficult about cooking a fish? Alright, let Xiaofang do the vegetables, and I'll take care of the fish, guaranteeing everyone will eat their fill."