B5SB -Chapter 216 The Ministry of Industry

As Gu Yihan parked the cycle, Tiedan came out of the living room carrying a small stool.

She glanced at her grandmother bustling in the kitchen and smiled softly. Haohao was already ten months old—he couldn’t be out of adult supervision.

Usually, it was thanks to Tiedan visiting often to play with Haohao that things ran smoothly.

She walked over, reached out to pat his head, took his small hand, and said, “Come on, let’s go inside with Auntie.”

Tiedan looked up, a shy expression on his face, and obediently said, “Auntie, I want to play with my little brother.”

Gu Yihan smiled and nodded.

Once inside, she bent down, hugged the little one, and planted a few forceful kisses on his cheeks, making Haohao laugh heartily.

She then placed him on the mat.

Smiling, she gave Tiedan a small instruction: to play with Haohao together.

Gu Yihan then turned to the cabinet, took out a bag of chocolates, and while Haohao was busy playing with his tin frog, she quietly slipped it into Tiedan’s pocket.

Seeing his hand instinctively reach for the pocket, Gu Yihan gently pressed it down and whispered with a smile, “It’s chocolate—don’t let Haohao see it.”

Hearing the word “chocolate,” Tiedan suddenly looked up at Gu Yihan.

When he was five, Vice Battalion Commander Ding had brought him a gift on a mission—chocolate.

His stepmother had seen it, stomped on it, and scolded his father for being irresponsible and not knowing the value of money, buying such expensive snacks for a little child.

Since then, chocolate became an obsession for him—he worked hard picking firewood to sell, just to buy a piece of chocolate for himself.

Seeing Tiedan’s surprised expression, Gu Yihan laughed: “Auntie has a mission for you, okay?”

Tiedan nodded eagerly: “Auntie, tell me! I, Tiedan, will complete the mission!”

Gu Yihan’s gaze paused briefly on Tiedan’s lips.

He had a huge blister—probably from getting overheated.

She smiled: “Auntie is going to the kitchen for a bit. Tiedan, can you watch over Haohao for me?”

Tiedan waved his small hand energetically: “Auntie, you go ahead! Haohao is with me!”

Gu Yihan smiled, nodded, and walked toward the kitchen. She saw green peppers and meat laid out on the stove.

She wrapped her arms around her grandmother’s arm and acted coquettish: “Grandma, thank you for your hard work.”

Grandma Gu smiled, glancing at her granddaughter.

“It’s nothing, but thankfully Tiedan can give me a hand.”

Gu Yihan nodded in agreement.

“Xiaohan, Vice Battalion Commander Ding is on a mission. Grandma wants Tiedan to stay for dinner,” her grandmother asked in a consultative tone.

Gu Yihan didn’t mind—after all, Tiedan helped around the house a lot. She glanced at the chili peppers her grandmother had just poured into the pan.

“Grandma, I’ll go cut some chives in the yard and stir-fry them with eggs.”

Saying that, she started looking for the sickle in the kitchen.

Grandma Gu, flipping the vegetables with the spatula, curiously asked: “You feel like eating chives with eggs?”

Gu Yihan, hearing this, had just pulled the sickle from the firewood pile.

She smiled: “Grandma, I see that Tiedan’s mouth is irritated—he can’t handle too much chili.”

Grandma Gu, surprised, turned to see her granddaughter heading for the yard and grabbed her arm.

“Who told you Tiedan was irritated?”

Tiedan came by every day to play with Haohao. She would know if he were overheated, wouldn’t she?

Gu Yihan turned to Grandma Gu with a smile: “Granddaughter saw it with her own eyes—a big blister on his lip.”

As she spoke, she even pointed to her own lips to show the spot where Tiedan had the blister.

Grandma Gu smacked her granddaughter’s arm.

“Irritated? That lip got scratched when he fell against a branch. Luckily, someone from the housing compound saw it and patched it up; otherwise, he’d have a scar.”

Gu Yihan was stunned—half burned, half raw inside!

Worried she might have misunderstood, she asked softly: “Grandma, you didn’t take him to the hospital?”

Grandma Gu, one hand holding a plate and the other serving vegetables with a spatula, laughed at her granddaughter’s question.

“Nonsense. Kids always bump into things. Even just hanging out at the clinic costs five cents; seeing a doctor and buying medicine costs money. If there’s no fever or serious problem, why waste money at a hospital?”

Gu Yihan shivered at Grandma Gu’s nonchalant attitude. Luckily, she had worked hard at school and left Gu Family Village.

Otherwise, her idea of seeking medical help for discomfort would have been seen as pretentious.

In their eyes, unless it was life-threatening, you just tough it out at home.

Even for serious illnesses, no need to go to the hospital.

Medical technology wasn’t advanced yet—going to the hospital wouldn’t help much anyway. You just waited at home to tough it out, even for death.

Just as the food was served, Lu Huailin arrived on time in the living room.

He scooped up Haohao, who was looking at picture books with Tiedan, and went straight to his wife, sitting down beside her.

“Wife, I heard your factory is doing pretty well.”

Gu Yihan put the bowl of rice in front of Lu Huailin.

She tilted her head, a hint of doubt in her eyes: “Doing well? Who told you that?”

She didn’t know anything about the factory doing well; recent textile factory income hadn’t changed from previous years.

“Oh, a friend from the Industrial Bureau said your factory earned quite a bit in foreign currency working with the provincial city, and has already received two additional orders.”

While carefully feeding Haohao vegetable-and-egg noodles, Lu Huailin looked at his stunned wife: “You didn’t know?”

Gu Yihan shook her head: “Since our factory partnered with the provincial garment factory, their costs don’t go through our department.”

Lu Huailin was surprised: “Your accounting department doesn’t track the factory’s raw material purchases?”

Although he wasn’t a professional accountant, he knew that all major and minor expenses in a factory went through accounting—just like their army logistics department. Every expenditure was checked carefully. If even a few hairs went missing, they’d know.

Gu Yihan snorted: “Looks like the provincial accountant had already meddled with the textile factory’s accounts before coming.”

Seeing his wife’s mood sour, Lu Huailin quickly changed the subject, smiling: “Your factory’s Secretary Jiang submitted a transfer request. If successful, any good opportunities can be first offered to your textile factory.”

“What factory does Secretary Jiang want to go to?” Gu Yihan swallowed her rice, asking evenly.

Lu Huailin didn’t think much: “He wants a position in the Ministry of Industry.”

Gu Yihan: “Is the Ministry of Industry better than the textile factory?”

Lu Huailin looked at his bewildered wife and laughed: “Not even the same level. The Ministry of Industry is managed centrally and is the superior authority to the textile factory.”

Grandma Gu, seeing the two going on and on, tapped the table: “Hurry up and eat. The food’s getting cold. Whatever you want to discuss, talk after the meal.”

Gu Yihan placed a piece of meat in Tiedan’s bowl, who was eating silently, and smiled faintly at Grandma Gu: “Yes, Grandma.”