Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 4 Rumors (recommendation ticket requested)

Shang Jian Yao held the can, but didn't respond, nor put it down.

After a few seconds, he opened his mouth and asked:

"Can it sing?"

"Huh?" Chen Xianyu suspected that there was something wrong with his ears for the first time after living for so many years.

At this time, Long Yuehong came in from outside the "activity center" with two yellow plastic lunch boxes, and saw Shang Jianyao.

He greeted with a smile on his face:

"Let's have dinner together later!"

"Will you invite me?" Shang Jianyao put down the can and stood up.

Without even thinking about it, Long Yuehong shook her head and said:

"Won't.

"Don't you still have a lot of subsidies?"

Although Shang Jianyao's parents didn't leave any inheritance, the company gave him a certain pension. When he went to college, he received an additional 1,200 points of subsidy every month—every college student got it.

This allowed Shang Jianyao to barely maintain food and clothing.

The deadline for the subsidy is one month after the college students are assigned to work and officially go to work.

Seeing that the embarrassment of being rejected did not appear on Yao's face, Shang said with a smile:

"Shouldn't happy things be shared with friends?"

"Do you want to say that inviting a meal is the best way to share?" Long Yuehong has become more and more used to Shang Jianyao's jumping thinking in the past two months.

Chen Xianyu, who was listening to the conversation between the two, interrupted with a smile:

"Yes, Xiaoyue, you are still so depressed in the afternoon, but you become so happy in the evening, you must have encountered something good."

"Don't call me by my nickname..." Long Yuehong muttered first, and then said with a smile on her face, "My mother said that there is no need to wait for a unified marriage next year. She and my father have several colleagues whose daughters did not go to college. work, she is going to introduce us to each other and see if we can develop a romantic relationship."

Employees of the company have only one chance to take the college entrance examination. If they fail, they will be assigned a job uniformly (after work, if they perform well, they will be recommended to go to college). age of marriage.

Young people at this stage yearn for free love. After all, this is definitely better than random assignment. It is not purely luck, but has a emotional foundation.

Of course, there are not many people who can truly fall in love freely, because after starting to work, they go out at 7:30 in the morning and get off work at 6 in the evening. , The "activity center" is closed, the street lights are turned off, and everyone has to go home and prepare to rest. Therefore, young people have very few suitable opposite sexes, and the time they can contact is limited.

Relatively speaking, whether in ordinary schools or universities, free love appears more frequently.

As Long Yuehong was talking, she suddenly felt a little melancholy:

"I don't know if they will fall in love with me. I am only 1.75 meters tall after genetic modification, and my looks are average. My grades are not very good, and I haven't been booked by any department..."

"There seems to be something over there..." Shang Jianyao interrupted Long Yuehong's self-pity, pointing to an old table a few meters away.

There were many employees around, as if they were discussing something.

Long Yuehong was curious, and followed Shang Jianyao.

He scanned around and saw an acquaintance, so he blurted out and asked:

"Aunt Ren, what are you talking about?"

The Aunt Ren he was talking about was a middle-aged woman in her forties, wearing a polyester shirt, with good eyebrows, and her hair was simply tied up in a bun.

Her name is Ren Jie, and she lives next door to Long Yuehong's house. She is an employee of a department under the company's "Strategy Committee" and only has a D3 level.

Ren Jie glanced at Long Yuehong, sighed and said:

"We're talking about a recent rumor."

"What rumors?" Long Yuehong asked curiously.

At this time, Chen Xianyu, the old man Chen withdrew his gaze, looked at the pile of military cans in front of him, couldn't help touching his stomach, and swallowed his saliva.

He seemed to recall the feeling of opening a similar military can when he was extremely hungry.

"It really can sing... No, it made my stomach and soul sing." Chen Xianyu had an association and expressed his heartfelt emotion.

On the other side, Ren Jie looked around and said in a low voice:

"It is said that the company wants to deprive everyone of their reproductive rights."

"Ah?" This topic was a bit unexpected to Long Yuehong, and he couldn't understand what it meant for a short while.

Ren Jie glanced at Shang Jianyao who was still smiling, and continued:

"The company may allow couples who want to have children to submit biological materials under the guidance and help of doctors.

"Then, build a large 'fertility center' in the research area to uniformly carry out test tube culture, artificial uterus pregnancy, baby growth assistance and intervention. In short, when you pick up your children, they may be several years old.

"Hey, it is said to liberate women from pregnancy and childbirth, and alleviate the company's labor shortage."

When Ren Jie said this, a woman in her twenties who was watching beside her couldn't help but said:

"Isn't this a good thing?"

"How can this be called a good thing?" Ren Jie said with a serious face, "It is the gods who conceive life, er, God, the sacred right bestowed on us, how can we give it to the machine? At that time, how will you build relationships with your children? "

"Yes, yes." A man sitting diagonally across from her touched his hair and said worriedly, "It is said that the old world was finally destroyed because of a series of taboo experiments that did not follow ethics."

Ren Jie nodded frequently, then turned to look at Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong:

"Xiao Shang, Xiao Yue, what do you think? Do you also think that the birth of life is the key to the reason why people are called human beings, and it is a sacred right bestowed by heaven?"

Shang Jian Yao nodded without hesitation and said:

"yes."

Long Yuehong saw that Aunt Ren's eyes were wide open, looking at her with bloodshot eyes, and said with a low "hiss":

"Yeah yeah."

"You guys still understand the truth." Ren Jie smiled.

At this time, an employee laughed and said:

"Are you taking it too seriously? This is just a rumor. My uncle works in an organization under the board of directors, and I have never heard of it!"

Ren Jie responded very seriously:

"Just to remind everyone. If someone comes to ask for opinions at that time, they must oppose it."

Some people were silent, some nodded, and some asked with rich associations:

"If this regulation is really implemented, will the marriage be cancelled, and the unified marriage be cancelled?"

The man who mentioned the rumors of the old world before said in a tone:

"Won't.

"Director Ji said that a harmonious and healthy marriage is the key to maintaining the mental stability of employees under the current environment."

Director Ji is called Ji Ze. He is a member of the company's board of directors, vice president, and M3-level executive. He often speaks on the radio, and at the end of the year and the beginning of the year, he will greet everyone through the display screen of the "Activity Center".

While everyone was discussing, a bell rang suddenly from next door to the "Activity Center":

"Jingle Bell!"

Except for a few, the vast majority of people stood up at the same time as if they heard the sound of the charge.

This time the bell came from the "Material Supply Market" to remind everyone that there are only three minutes left before the cafeteria opens.

Seeing the neighbors starting to move towards the "staff canteen", Long Yuehong glanced at Shang Jianyao beside him:

"You actually agreed with Aunt Ren's words."

Shang Jianyao looked ahead and said:

"You can put it another way and ask."

Long Yuehong frowned slightly, and thought for a while with some doubts:

"What do you think of the 'birth center' system that frees women from pregnancy and childbirth?"

Shang Jianyao replied without hesitation:

"Isn't this a good thing?"

"..." Long Yuehong was speechless.

While speaking, the two of them had already arrived outside the "Material Supply Market".

There is no door here, so people can see the situation inside at a glance:

On the left is the market with long tables and counters. Many employees who don’t want to eat in the cafeteria are picking and choosing and calculating silently.

Not long after, the door of the cafeteria opened, and the employees on the 495th floor walked in in an orderly manner either with their own tableware or with empty hands.

Seeing that Yao didn't bring a lunch box, Shang separated from Long Yuehong after entering, turned to the right, and took two large wooden bowls and a dinner plate.

Then, carrying the tableware, he followed the person in front of him to different windows according to a fixed route.

"Half a catty of sweet potato rice."

"A serving of stewed cabbage."

"Two multigrain steamed buns."

"A serving of boiled potatoes."

After walking through the four windows, Shang Jianyao's two bowls were already filled to the brim—boiled cabbage topped with boiled potatoes and two yellow steamed buns, and the other bowl seemed to be bursting with sweet potato rice.

And this has already cost Shang Jianyao 14 contribution points: 5 points for half a catty of sweet potato rice, 2 points for a miscellaneous grain steamed bun, 2 points for a serving of boiled potatoes, and 3 points for a serving of stewed cabbage with oil.

Finally, Shang Jianyao came to the window with the strongest fragrance.

This is the meat window.

He looked at it from left to right, then from right to left, hesitated and said:

"Give me a piece of braised pork with more juice."

The aunt in a gray-blue uniform at the window took a spoon, picked up three pieces of long-fingered, fat and thin, and attractively colored braised pork, and poured them into the bowl of Shang Jianyao's sweet potato and rice.

The soy sauce-colored gravy in the spoon quickly spread out, moistening half a bowl of rice.

"It's a good thing you came early, and you'll be gone if you're later." The aunt at the window is in the same "block" as Shang Jianyao's house, and she was very kind to him, "32 o'clock."

Shang Jianyao glanced at the three heavy pieces of braised pork, took out his electronic card, and swiped it on the machine.

He immediately said thank you, brought a free clear soup, walked in the cafeteria for a while, found Long Yuehong, and sat across from her.

"Wow, luxury." Seeing his dinner, Long Yuehong admired him from the bottom of her heart.

Shang Jianyao ignored him, first put aside part of the sweet potato and rice mixed with gravy, then picked up a piece of braised pork, and took a light bite.

Feeling the aroma of meat erupting in his mouth, Shang Jianyao quickly lowered his head and slurped the sweet potato rice that was not stained with gravy.

He ate faster and faster, and when the three pieces of braised pork were finished, only half of the sweet potato rice and stewed cabbage were left, and there was nothing left of boiled potatoes and multigrain steamed buns.

Finally, Shang Jianyao poured the stewed cabbage into the rice bowl, mixed it into the remaining sweet potato rice with gravy, and ate it all in one go.

"Satisfied." Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong on the opposite side put down their bowls and chopsticks at the same time, and sighed.

After drinking the clear soup, Long Yuehong asked casually:

"Going to the 'Activity Center'?"

Shang Jian Yao shook his head:

"Go back and listen to the radio, go to bed early."

PS: In the last chapter, when the writer was writing about Yao’s birthday, he clicked an extra 2 for some reason, and it has been revised now. .

PS2: Please recommend tickets~

PS3: I slipped and clicked release, originally I wanted to schedule it. . For this, I should just thank everyone, and there will be more tonight. .