CHAPTER 41: CHAPTER 41: DEFECTIVE FABRIC

"No need for such trouble, no need for such trouble." Mrs. Lin waved her hands repeatedly refusing, "Such good things would be spoiled if we slept on them, how could we even dare to nitpick? Director, you go about your business, don’t worry about us."

Director Chen then noticed the patches on Mrs. Lin’s clothes.

Although Lin Xiang’s clothes had no patches, they were already washed and faded, and the style was quite old-fashioned, not at all sophisticated.

However, because Lin Xiang had always been so poised and generous, when interacting with her, the focus was on her manner of speaking, rarely drawing attention to her attire, so Director Chen only noticed it now.

"Speaking of which, our factory has a batch of fabric with defects, the quality isn’t bad, mostly just errors in dyeing patterns. If you don’t want to rest now, why not come with me to have a look, and pick some you like?"

Director Chen organized his wording in his mind, afraid that he might say something inappropriate and upset Mrs. Lin and Lin Xiang.

But how could he know, Mrs. Lin would only be happy about having new clothes, not concerned whether the fabric had defects.

Could they be worse than the patched clothes she was wearing?

But Mrs. Lin did not immediately agree, instead subconsciously looking toward Lin Xiang.

How could Lin Xiang not understand Mrs. Lin’s thoughts, plus she also wanted new clothes, so she accepted openly.

"Thank you, Director Chen, can we go have a look now?"

"Of course, let’s go. I’ll personally take you there!"

The discarded fabrics were all piled in the warehouse, stacked one by one.

Compared to the coarse fabrics from the countryside, the cotton spinning factory’s fabrics were much better in both quality and color.

Although Director Chen was the director, he liked to involve himself personally in matters, so he knew no less about fabrics than the employees.

He pointed to several different areas and explained to Lin Xiang, "These fabrics are bright in color and quite thin, suitable for making spring and summer clothing."

"These fabrics are heavier and darker in color, suitable for making winter clothing."

"These are more suitable for making bedding."

Lin Xiang looked over them one by one and couldn’t help but ask, "Is our cotton spinning factory mainly supplying to big cities like Beijing and Shanghai?"

"Why do you say that?"

"Because from what I see, the people in Mianyang Town are quite conservative in their clothing colors, you rarely see such bright colors."

In small towns, because of the information gap, people tend to be more cautious than those in big cities.

Director Chen didn’t expect Lin Xiang to get to the heart of the matter so quickly, and smiled, saying, "That’s right, our Cotton Textile Factory does indeed supply to big cities, but not Beijing and Shanghai, rather the provincial capital."

Beijing and Shanghai are far away, just the transportation would cost a lot, which isn’t cost-effective, so it’s impossible for a small place like Mianyang Town to supply there.

The provincial capital mainly focuses on heavy industry, there are many steel mills and the like, but few cotton spinning factories, yet there’s a large demand, so the task is delegated to cities and counties below.

Mianyang Town’s Cotton Textile Factory happens to be one of them.

Lin Xiang wasn’t greedy, she picked three pieces each of fabric suitable for making spring/summer and autumn/winter clothing, choosing them for herself, Mrs. Lin, and Lin Yun.

With so much fabric piled in the warehouse, Lin Xiang taking six pieces didn’t make any difference.

Ultimately, it was Director Chen who decided, picking a few more pieces for Lin Xiang to make a total of twenty pieces.

Having twenty pieces of new fabric was something Mrs. Lin never dared to imagine before.

Her first reaction was not joy, but worry, taking so many at once, would Director Chen think they were too greedy?

Would the good reputation the girl had worked hard to build at the cotton spinning factory be affected?

"You use these fabrics for now, if you run out, come back to the cotton spinning factory anytime, I’ll personally open the warehouse for you to pick more."

"Alright then, I won’t be polite with Director Chen."

"No need to be polite, even if they are defective fabrics, even if they were regular fabrics, they’re what you deserve!"

Mrs. Lin woozily went back to the dormitory with Lin Xiang, she sat on the bed, her rough hands stroking the smooth sheet, worriedly asking Lin Xiang, "Girl, we just took so many fabrics, won’t Director Chen think we’re too greedy?"

"How could that be? Mom, we only took six pieces, the rest were given by Director Chen on his own. It’s just twenty pieces of fabric, once I do my job as a translator today and get more orders for the cotton spinning factory, that would be better than anything!"

"That’s true. Now you have a good rest for a while. I’ll wake you at noon, you mustn’t miss today’s overseas call."

At this point, Lin Xiang wasn’t sleepy at all.

But since it was already seven o’clock and it was getting dark outside, and without any entertainment tools like a phone, there seemed to be nothing else to do besides lying in bed for a nap.

After lying down for a short while, Lin Xiang really fell asleep.

It’s just a pity, she didn’t dream, nor did she know how much goodwill Lin Yun had for her, and when she could return to her spacious apartment.

In a haze, Lin Xiang felt someone nudging her.

As soon as she opened her eyes, she heard Mrs. Lin saying anxiously, "Girl, stop sleeping! It’s almost one o’clock, hurry and get up to clear your head."

While Lin Xiang was puzzled that she had slept for so long, she looked closely at the wall clock and found it was only ten o’clock in the evening.

She had only slept for a little over two hours.

"It’s almost one?"

Wasn’t it agreed they’d wake her at midnight?

"Yes indeed! It’s already ten past ten now, wash your face to wake up, and think about what to say when you call later, isn’t the timing just right?"

"Alright then!"

Lin Xiang got up, went to the water room at the end of the hallway to wash her face, and returned to the dormitory, finding it just half-past ten.

With a long two and a half hours till one o’clock, Lin Xiang, having nothing else to do, saw a book on the desk and picked up a random one to read, discovering it was a textbook for the second year of high school.

Lin Xiang didn’t know what the textbooks were like in the 1970s or the scope of study, and having coincidentally picked up this math book, she began reading it with interest.

"This problem’s solution method is correct, why is the answer wrong? Let me see which step went wrong."

Lin Xiang worked through it step by step and quickly found the problem.

"Goodness! There’s a simpler way to solve this, why insist on using the hardest method? The more complex the steps, the more room for error."

"Girl, what are you talking to yourself about?"

Mrs. Lin could hear Lin Xiang talking, but couldn’t understand what she was saying.

"It’s nothing, mom, I’m just reading a book, waiting for Director Chen to come to us."

After more than an hour, Lin Xiang had already finished reading the entire math textbook, discovering many wrong problems, and wrote down all the correct solving steps on scratch paper.