Chapter 22: Leave It to Me

After taking Wang Kuirong’s pulse, Lin Shaowen began writing a prescription and asked casually, "Director Wang, does your cafeteria have any plans to hire new staff recently?"

Wang Kuirong, a shrewd man, caught on immediately. "Other cafeterias are currently fully staffed... but our Number One Cafeteria is still looking for a kitchen assistant."

"Oh? What are the benefits for a kitchen assistant?" Lin Shaowen asked.

"Twenty-seven yuan and fifty cents a month."

A kitchen assistant is different from an apprentice. Their salary is set at the first-grade worker level, but there is no room for promotion; twenty-seven fifty is essentially the ceiling. An apprentice, on the other hand, earns less—Ma Hua, for instance, only makes eighteen yuan—but once he is promoted to a full-fledged chef, his salary will rise significantly.

Take Shazhu, for example; as an eighth-grade cook, his salary is already thirty-seven fifty. His father, a fourth-grade cook, earns sixty-eight yuan and thirty cents.

The grading system for cooks is the reverse of that for doctors: for cooks, the first grade is the highest, while for medical staff, the eighth grade is the pinnacle.

Lin Shaowen currently enjoys sixth-grade status, with a base salary of seventy-seven yuan and eighty-five cents. With his special talent subsidy, he takes home eighty-eight yuan and eighty-five cents a month. Fortunately, Li Chunhua is one of his own and hasn't leaked his salary details, otherwise, it would have surely caused quite a stir. For a man in his early twenties to earn such a high salary, anyone would feel a sense of imbalance.

"Dr. Lin, do you have someone you want to bring into the factory?" Wang Kuirong asked curiously.

"A friend asked me to inquire," Lin Shaowen said, handing him the prescription. "Three times a day, take it on time. No sexual activity for a week, and after that... do try to exercise some restraint."

"Thank you, Dr. Lin! Many thanks, Dr. Lin!"

Wang Kuirong was overjoyed. Patting his chest, he promised, "Dr. Lin, if your friend wants to join the factory, just let me know at any time. I can't guarantee anything else, but I can certainly call the shots in the cafeteria."

"Very well, I'll ask them later," Lin Shaowen said with a smile, shaking his hand.

This was the benefit of being in a leadership position; whether or not to hire someone was entirely up to Wang Kuirong. As long as he didn't go overboard, no one would bother him.

Of course, Lin Shaowen could also bring someone into the medical office. However, you couldn't be made a permanent staff member there without a degree. One couldn't just hire a random high school graduate as a doctor—that would be ridiculous. A roundabout solution would be to first get them hired as a permanent worker in the factory and then transfer them to the medical office as an assistant. But Lin Shaowen was used to his leisure and didn't want to bring anyone in to bother him, even if that person were Qin Huairu.

Thinking he hadn't gone fishing yet today, Lin Shaowen entered the ring.

"Obtained one hundred catties of beef."
"Obtained one hundred catties of Thirteen-Spice."
"Obtained a set of non-stick pans."
...

Lin Shaowen exited the island with a grimace. His luck had been terrible lately; it was almost all food. A couple of days ago, it was a mountain of bananas and grapes. Today, it was beef and spices... He wasn't a cook, so what was he supposed to do with all this?

After muttering a curse about his bad luck, the end-of-shift bell rang. He tidied up and rode his bike home. He had already finished building the furniture, and the bathroom construction was in its final stages; it would be done in a couple of days.

***

Lin Shaowen was lying in the courtyard, pondering what to have for dinner, when a commotion broke out in the middle courtyard. He immediately stood up, carrying a bunch of grapes, and went out to watch the show.

He used to find it hard to understand why people loved joining the crowd, but after getting used to an era without smartphones or the internet, he realized that watching the drama was perhaps one of the few pastimes people had.

In the middle courtyard:

"Smack! Smack! Smack!"

Jia Dongxu was being held by two brawny men who were slapping him across the face, while Jia Zhang was being held down on the ground by several tough-looking women, wailing frantically.

"Murder! They're killing me!"

"You still dare to scream?"

The women, who looked like they were from the countryside, weren't buying Jia Zhang's act. They stepped up and delivered a few sharp slaps, silencing her instantly.

Qin Huairu stood to the side, weeping bitterly, but when she saw Lin Shaowen eating grapes and watching the spectacle, her face suddenly flushed for some reason.

"Jia Dongxu, let me tell you, we know all about the dirty things you've done. Our daughter is not someone you can just bully!"

The speaker was Qin Huairu's father, Qin Shan. Although he was over fifty, he still looked strong and capable.

"What are you doing? Who gave you permission to hit people?" Yi Zhonghai, having just walked in, shouted sternly.

Qin Shan and his group were farmers at the end of the day. Startled by Yi Zhonghai’s roar, they actually hesitated for a moment.

"Who are you?" Qin Huairu's elder brother, Qin Jianshe, asked, summoning his courage.

"I am the First Uncle of this courtyard," Yi Zhonghai said, helping Jia Dongxu up and glaring at them.

"First Uncle?"

Qin Jianshe and the others exchanged glances. Was he some sort of government official in the courtyard?

"Say, this is a family matter. Don't worry about whether he’s the First Uncle or the Second Uncle. As the saying goes, 'Even an upright official finds it hard to settle family disputes,' and he's nothing at all. What are you afraid of?" Lin Shaowen said with a laugh.

"That's right, what are we afraid of?"

Qin Jianshe suddenly realized the point and gave Jia Dongxu another two slaps.

"Lin Shaowen..." Yi Zhonghai nearly ground his teeth to dust.

"You little beast, you won't die a good death!" Jia Zhang shrieked.

"Old Jia, you died such a miserable death!" Lin Shaowen shouted with a mock mournful face.

"Hahaha!" Many of the onlookers burst into laughter.

Qin Huairu couldn't help but let out a small "pfft," cast a reproachful glance at Lin Shaowen, and lowered her head.

"Huairu, who is that young man?" Qin Shan asked in a low voice.

"He's a doctor at the steel mill, a college graduate from medical school. People say he enjoys sixth-grade status now, with a monthly salary of seventy-seven yuan and eighty-five cents..." For some reason, Qin Huairu felt a sense of pride as she said this.

"How much?" Qin Shan's eyes widened. My goodness, seventy-seven eighty-five? And this young man was barely in his twenties? His monthly salary was enough to support their entire family for a year of farming, and he was a university graduate... truly incredible.

"What exactly do you want?" Jia Dongxu roared, startling everyone. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was twisted in a frightening manner.

"Are you shouting at your uncle? You nearly made me drop my grapes," Lin Shaowen complained.

Qin Shan, who had been intimidated, regained his nerve. Qin Jianshe gave Jia Dongxu a hard slap.

"Lin Shaowen, stop stirring up trouble," Yi Zhonghai said, feeling a headache coming on. This kid was incredibly difficult to deal with. He seemed to be just joking around, but in reality, he was backing up Qin Huairu's family.

"None of your business," Lin Shaowen said, showing no respect for Yi Zhonghai.

"Jia Dongxu, I'm telling you, you're going to send Huairu back the same way you brought her here. Otherwise, we'll keep coming back to Beijing to beat you up every so often," Qin Jianshe spat at him.

"Fine, I'll send her back immediately..." Jia Dongxu gritted his teeth. He hated Qin Huairu now and couldn't wait to get rid of this jinx.

"Hey, you big oaf, is something wrong with you?" Lin Shaowen called out to Qin Jianshe.

"I'm not a big oaf," Qin Jianshe said indignantly.

"If you're not a big oaf, then why are you making him send Qin Huairu back?" Lin Shaowen lit a cigarette, handed one to Yan Bugui, and smiled. "Qin Huairu finally made it to the city, why should she go back to the countryside?"

"I... my household registration isn't here," Qin Huairu said, her eyes red as she looked down.

In front of Lin Shaowen, she felt truly inferior. Lin Shaowen treated everything with such nonchalance, yet it seemed there was nothing he couldn't accomplish.