Chapter 168: Chapter 168: I’ll Listen to You

Xu Qinghuan looked at Jiang Xingye, “Do you have any requests?”

Although Jiang Xingye wasn’t seeking credit, his achievements were undeniable.

Jiang Xingye said, “I’ll go along with whatever you decide.”

Only then did Xu Qinghuan say to Tang Quantong, “Deputy Director Tang, then I won’t be polite.”

Tang Quantong thought to himself, you haven’t been polite from start to finish, and nodded, “Go ahead!”

“I want four formal jobs, one in the transport team, and the other three can be arranged at your discretion,” Xu Qinghuan was indeed blunt.

Tang Quantong took a sharp breath, “Four? What do you need so many for?”

At most, he thought Xu Qinghuan would ask for one each for herself and Jiang Xingye, but unexpectedly, she asked for four.

This educated youth really knows how to ask.

Xu Qinghuan said, “If you think it’s too much, one of the jobs can be converted into money for me, I won’t mind.”

Tang Quantong thought to himself, you’re the one who might mind.

“It’s too much. I can help you fight for three, but four is too many,” Tang Quantong disapproved.

There was an implied message that Xu Qinghuan also perceived: it’s very difficult to get money.

Xu Qinghuan laughed, “Having just the harvester isn’t quite enough. It’d be even better if there were machines for threshing rice, wheat, and corn.”

Tang Quantong was momentarily speechless with anger, then said, “Alright, I’ll help you fight for it.”

They came to the county town rather late today. Jiang Baohua had specially written an introduction letter for them, in case they couldn’t return, they would have to stay at the county guesthouse for the night.

“Let’s go grab something to eat first…” Xu Qinghuan thought how Jiang Xingye had rushed back from the county at noon and mustn’t have eaten.

But it wasn’t quite mealtime yet, Jiang Xingye took her wrist, “I’m not hungry, let’s wait a bit and eat something nice later.”

Xu Qinghuan laughed, “Alright! Close your eyes!”

Jiang Xingye obediently closed his eyes, and Xu Qinghuan stuffed a piece of chocolate into his mouth. A bittersweet taste spread through his mouth, a bit strange but not unpleasant.

He knew this had to be something rare and didn’t want to bite it all at once, he just let it sit, waiting for it to slowly melt to prolong the tasting time.

“Are you used to the taste of this chocolate?” Xu Qinghuan asked.

Jiang Xingye had never eaten chocolate before, didn’t know what kinds tasted like what, but Xu Qinghuan’s question was giving him enough face.

With no one around, he took the opportunity to hold his fiancée’s hand, gently kneading her palm, his eyes filled with tender affection, showing her all his emotions and love.

He never minded his masculine pride in front of her, nor cared about appearances.

Xu Qinghuan intertwined her fingers with his, swaying lightly, “Then, will you come with me to the Xinhua Bookstore?”

“Sure!”

Without a vehicle, the two walked over, Xu Qinghuan said, “I heard that being a driver in the transport team is a good job. When you get that job, do you want to go to the transport team?”

Jiang Xingye was momentarily stunned, “What about you? Will you come to work at the county hospital?”

Xu Qinghuan shook her head, “No, I want to stay in the countryside for a while, I quite like the environment here now.”

Jiang Xingye said, “Then I won’t go either, after the rush harvest, I want to set up a furniture factory in the production team, if you don’t want to be a doctor, then don’t go anywhere.”

“Okay!” Xu Qinghuan looked at him with a broad smile.

The recruitment sign for translators was still up at the entrance, inside, a middle-aged man with glasses and wearing a patched white shirt was sitting at the counter doing some accounting.

Gong Mingjie looked up and saw an extremely good-looking couple coming in one after the other, the woman leading, with the young man protectively watching her closely.

“Feel free to browse!” Gong Mingjie quickly retracted his gaze.

Xu Qinghuan looked around, this era’s Xinhua Bookstore mostly sold politically meaningful books, some comics, and novels that matched political ideologies, the content was monotonous and not within her scope of interest.

She flipped and picked through everything, finally finding about ten legendary “Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry Self-study Series” books in a corner, including three “Algebra”, two “Plane Geometry”, two “Physics”, two “Chemistry”, with the latter two being identical.

Xu Qinghuan wanted them all, but she was not satisfied, continuing to sift through the materials until she finally found an eighth-grade language book between two “Essays”.

Jiang Xingye brought over the books she wanted to the counter, and Gong Mingjie was particularly surprised by their selection, calculated the total at eleven yuan and three cents, Xu Qinghuan was about to pay when Jiang Xingye quickly took over.

“Comrade, the ’Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry Self-study Series’ isn’t complete, can you still find some in stock here?” Xu Qinghuan asked.

Gong Mingjie shook his head, “This series was published in ’63, it’s been many years, it was never reprinted, and what you see is what’s left.”

Xu Qinghuan felt a bit helpless, thought for a moment, and pointed to the sign outside, “I saw that you’re recruiting translators here, can I give it a try?”

Gong Mingjie looked at her suspiciously, this young lady didn’t seem very old and had bought a junior high language book, could she understand foreign languages?

Each Xinhua Bookstore had a task of translating documents. This Xinhua Bookstore had posted the translator recruitment sign for half a year now, and not only was the task incomplete, but people inquiring were also scarce.

Now that someone had finally shown an interest, Gong Mingjie certainly wouldn’t turn them away. He asked, “What languages can you translate?”

In the past, people learned Russian, then English became popular, so that’s why Gong Mingjie asked.

“Well… It depends on the situation, what translation do you need here?” Xu Qinghuan nervously said, mainly since the book didn’t have this subplot.

She only knew that at this time, translators were in high demand, the country wanted to keep up with international knowledge, but there was a lack of talent and breaking the language barrier was difficult.

Presumably, translators were needed for all languages, and the country’s current greatest demand was in technology fields, in which the United States, Eagle Country, Country D, and Japan were more advanced.

Gong Mingjie:…

Comrade, do you know what you’re saying?

He was pretty sure that this young woman was making mischief, but he had no evidence for now.

“Can you do D language?” Gong Mingjie deliberately picked a rare one, the one most likely to achieve results.

Xu Qinghuan nodded, “Can I give it a try?”

“Of course, you’ll need to. First, translate an article, and I’ll have it evaluated by the higher-up. If the accuracy is above ninety-eight percent, you can be hired as a junior translator, and the fee is three yuan fifty cents per thousand words.”

In her previous life, she was often invited by the largest hospital in Country D to perform surgeries, with one of her mentors from Country D, her D language was second to her native tongue, her D language was comparable to the authentic Country D accent, and from just her voice, others couldn’t tell she wasn’t from Country D.

Xu Qinghuan received an article introducing a medical topic, scanned through it, and began translating immediately.

A nearly a thousand-word article took her about forty-five minutes, mainly due to the slow speed of handwriting.

Without a computer, she could only handwrite, which was quite challenging.

But, even at this speed, Gong Mingjie was extremely shocked.

He had been watching her the whole time, seeing Xu Qinghuan read a line and then start writing. It seemed she hadn’t written in a long time and was a bit rusty and slow, otherwise, the speed could be faster.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep