Back to my 1980s

Zhao Hua was momentarily speechless. He hadn't expected that Xu Qian would tell him even something like this.

Zhao Huaqian chuckled twice, cursing Xu Qian for making him look foolish. His mind raced, and he cursed Xu Qian a few more times in his mind.

Fortunately, just as he was feeling incredibly embarrassed, Xu Qian came out from the inner room.

Zhao Hua immediately turned his head to look over, and Xu's mother also turned her head to look over. She stood up and said with a smile, "Xu Qian is out, you two can talk."

Zhao Hua quickly stood up, and Xu's mother said to Xu Qian who was walking over, "I'm going to work. Don't forget to lock the door if you go out later."

Xu Qian waved casually, sat down on the bench next to Zhao Hua, looked up at him, and said, "Good morning, what can I do for you?"

Zhao Hua didn't say anything, watching Xu's mother push her bicycle out the door. He secretly regretted it, thinking that he should have ridden the bicycle slower. If he had been slower, Xu's mother would have already gone to work by now.

After Xu's mother had walked away, Zhao Hua sat down, gave Xu Qian a disgruntled look, and said, "I originally came to ask you if you could get me some affordable bricks, but I ran into your old mother, and she asked me what I wanted from you."

"I figured it wasn't a very honorable thing to ask you for a permit, so I didn't say anything. I just said that bricks were hard to buy and I wanted to ask if you had any connections. As a result, your mother asked me if I didn't have enough bricks from Jiang Yue."

"And then?" Xu Qian looked at Zhao Hua with blinking eyes.

Zhao Hua said helplessly, "That's it. I was so embarrassed."

It took Xu Qian a moment to understand what Zhao Hua meant. She chuckled and said, "So you came here today just to ask me for the money to buy bricks?"

Zhao Hua looked at Xu Qian, raised his eyebrows, and said, "Yeah, I don't have enough. Prepare in advance."

"Nothing else?"

Zhao Hua pretended to be deep in thought, rubbing his chin before saying, "That's all. I have some ideas about the workshop, but I haven't figured out where to focus my efforts yet."

Upon hearing this, Xu Qian sighed repeatedly and said, "Is that all besides these important matters? Actually, I'd really like to visit your place again."

Zhao Hua didn't respond to this suggestion. If she took the opportunity to ask to go boating, who would have the time to entertain her?

After chatting with Xu Qian for half an hour, she finally took a sip of water, satisfied, and said, "Wait here, I'll go get you the note."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Hua stood up and said, "I'll wait for you outside. I'll go straight back after you finish driving; I still have to go haul bricks later."

Xu Qian turned her head and glanced at him, saying inexplicably, "Why are you going out? You can just wait here." With that, she turned and went into the inner room.

A moment later, Xu Qian came out of the inner room with a letter and a pen. She bit off the pen cap and mumbled, "How many bricks did you want this time?"

Zhao Hua thought for a moment. It didn't matter if there were a few extra bricks; they could be used up anyway. Even if there were extra bricks, they could be used to build a stove. It was better than having to come back again when there weren't enough. He smiled and said, "Give me 20,000 yuan. If we don't use it all this time, we can use it in the workshop next time."

Xu Qian glanced at him but didn't say anything. She lowered her head and started writing a note on the table.

After finishing writing, he capped the pen and handed the note to Zhao Hua, saying, "That's fine, 20,000 yuan. We'll talk about it if you need more."

"Huh?" Zhao Hua stared in disbelief at the note in his hand, which simply read, "Today, 20,000 red bricks will be allocated to Zhao Hua of Shuanghuai Village, to be settled at par."

Then the date and Xu Qian's own name were written at the end.

He shook the note in his hand, looked at it several times, and said, "Is this all there is to it?"

Xu Qian nodded and said, "Yes, that's fine."

Zhao Hua swallowed the dirty words that were on the tip of his tongue. He examined the note in his hand several times in disbelief, and finally couldn't help but look at Xu Qian and say, "Don't you need to stamp it or something? I think Jiang Yue stamped the one she gave me last time."

Xu Qian rolled her eyes and said, "I already told you this is fine. Just go and get the bricks. If the brick factory doesn't give them to you, then come back to me, okay?"

Zhao Hua was at a loss for words. It turned out that you could save hundreds of yuan by simply writing down a note. No wonder some people resold this stuff later.

He glanced at Xu Qian, who, annoyed by his gaze, waved her hand and said, "Whether it works or not, you'll know once you try. By the way, where do you live? I haven't been to your house yet."

Zhao Hua pursed his lips and didn't say anything. He was even a little tempted to resell the slips of paper, but then he thought about it again. There were only so many things in the town, and they could probably only get these worthless things approved.

The volume of data couldn't get going, so he casually said, "My family isn't renovating our old house. I got a new plot of land for building a house in the educated youth settlement. The house we're building now is a new one."

"Oh? So you live alone?" A glint flashed in Xu Qian's eyes.

Zhao Hua nodded and said, "Yes, not yet. We'll move out as soon as the new house is finished. I'm leaving now to pay the money at the brick factory so I don't have to waste time getting bricks later. I'll come visit you again next time I have time."

Xu Qian nodded and saw Zhao Hua out the door. Zhao Hua didn't delay and rode his bicycle to the brick factory first.

The gatekeeper remembered him somewhat. Seeing him riding a bicycle, he didn't stop him, since the bicycle would be gone once it was left outside.

After parking his car inside the factory, he took out the note and looked at it several times. Since Xu Qian said the note was effective, there shouldn't be any major problems.

With a nervous heart, she walked into the finance office. When she saw the young girl Zhao Hua inside, she remembered that when she handed her the note last time, Zhao Hua had glanced at the note and herself several times, and seemed to know Xu Qian and Jiang Yue.

With this in mind, Zhao Hua felt more confident. He walked up to the accountant, handed her the note, and then stared intently at her facial expression without saying a word.

The accountant took the document, glanced at the signature, then at Zhao Hua, her expression becoming extremely subtle. She shrank back and tentatively asked, "I remember you. Wasn't it Jiang Yue who issued that ticket to you last time?"

Zhao Hua straightened up. Sure enough, they all knew each other. Zhao Hua smiled and nodded.

After the accountant saw him nod, her expression became even more interesting. She looked at Zhao Hua, then looked down at the note.

Finally, she pursed her lips, clenched her back teeth tightly, and gave Zhao Hua a payment notice.

Zhao Hua chuckled, took the slip of paper, and went out. He was familiar with the process, but he hadn't brought any money with him this morning. He could just pay it on his way back in the afternoon; there was no rush.

After wandering around the educated youth settlement for a while, he waited for Zhao Ru to return from selling fish. He and Zhao Ru went home and did a quick accounting. After the accounting was done, he told Zhao Ru to do the accounting herself from now on. He would just throw the money into his drawer after taking his cut. He was too lazy to do the accounting every day. It would be more convenient for restaurants to issue receipts when he sold the fish.