A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Seeing Jiang Xia's surprised expression, the waiter smiled without saying a word, and just kept boiling the meat.

Finally, he came over and shook a small lump of minced meat onto Jiangxia's plate. He then casually tossed him a few pieces of cooked winter melon strips.

angry!

Who do you think you are! Bring me more meat! I could eat ten plates of it!

"Gone!"

"What?"

With a pounding heart and trembling hands, Jiang Xia pointed at the two remaining plates of meat on the food cart, her face contorted with indignation. "Uncle, are you taking advantage of my poor eyesight?"

"You're a grown man, are you trying to steal food from a child?!"

The pigtail lay down: I'm not that big! Who isn't a mother's baby! Besides, their bellies are all round, are you sure they can still eat?

Soon, Baba Sheep's "Iron Butterfly" proved that her physique was indeed the result of her diet!

sad!

Jiang Xia stuffed the cucumber strips into his mouth and chewed them with a crunching sound.

The waiter cooked some more meat for the children, glanced at the pitiful Jiang Xia, and went straight back to the kitchen.

A moment later, he returned to Jiangxia's table and placed two golden-yellow objects on Jiangxia's plate with a thud.

"You got a good deal, kid. Ruiminglou's 'dalian huoshao' (a type of fried dough)."

Wow! A famous local snack!

"Uncle! You sell things from other stores here now?"

"What are you thinking! This is my own lunch. Aren't you going to eat it?" The uncle made a gesture as if to take it.

Jiang Xia shoved the thing into his mouth without even thinking...

Fragrant!It smells so good!

Watching Jiangxia wolf down his food, the uncle smiled and lit a cigarette: "Ruibinlou Restaurant in Menkuang Hutong, their 'dalian huoshao' is a delicacy. Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, it's delicious and has a Beijing flavor that's renowned throughout the country."

"Hey, sir, aren't you afraid your manager will give you a hard time promoting other restaurants' products at Dongshun?"

The middle-aged man slowly flipped open a small name tag on his chest: "If anyone's going to be punished, it'll be you first. You even got my shop's name wrong..."

Jiang Xia looked at the word "Manager" written on the small sign and couldn't help but shrink back.

The uncle, too lazy to watch Jiang Xia eat, turned to the children with a smile and said, "No need to hide any meat slices. If you can't finish the meat later, I'll take care of it and let you take it with you!"

"Save some room in your stomach, eat some vegetables, eating only meat will easily upset your stomach!"

As he spoke, he got up and walked over to a few older children, took out some slices of meat from their pockets, and tapped them on the head.

"Are you crazy? What if you ruin your clothes! This grease is hard to wash! And mutton doesn't taste good when it's cold!"

The waiter, oh no, the manager, went to the counter and took out a few small bowls, then put the sliced ​​meat in them.

"Eat up! We can heat up these meat slices and take them home later!"

The older kids scratched their heads and chuckled, but they remained fixated on the vegetables, refusing to touch the meat slices.

"Silly child, we've run into a big spender! Eat up!"

The manager then began to demonstrate his culinary skills, watching the children eat the slices of meat before nodding in satisfaction.

Jiang Xia grinned as he listened, wondering how he had suddenly become a wealthy family. But it didn't matter; he was happy to spend money on his children.

He reached into his bag, pulled out a bunch of tickets, and was about to count them.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Dong sneaked over, "Boss! How's the money?"

"Hey! You brat, where did you learn these words? Let me tell you, they're not good enough for you! I'll make you wash the dishes here!"

Jiang Xia stretched out a finger, poked the little girl's head, and pushed her messy little face out of his sight.

"Oh no! I have so much to do. The kang (heated brick bed) at Wang Yan's grandpa's house collapsed, I need to help fix it tomorrow. Xiao Xin's family is out of coal, I'm planning to help carry some more tomorrow, and..."

Watching the little girl count on her fingers one by one, well, this brat has already become a neighborhood committee auntie...

"Wow, you're really busy. Not only are you taking care of your younger brother, but you're even looking after his family as well?"

"Of course! Didn't Grandma say that if we want to fight the Japanese devils well, we have to take good care of our families?"

"Come on, don't cause trouble for Grandma!"

"Hmph! That's true. Grandpa always said, 'Looking at plums to quench thirst is a temporary measure, one can do it once but not twice!'"

Jiang Xia chuckled to himself. You remember exactly what your two elders said, you donkey brain!

She wanted to wipe Jiang Dong's dirty face, but her hand was grabbed before she could even reach halfway out.

Turning my head, I was surprised to see "Teacher Qin" and Jiang Qiu.

Jiang Qiu grabbed Jiang Xia's arm with one hand and hurriedly reached into his pocket with the other: "Brother, don't blame Lao Wu for wasting money, some of the kids are really suffering. But they have such strong pride, they don't even want to help us!"

"The fifth one is stubborn; if others don't want it, she insists on giving it to them. Now that we've gathered a bunch of them, we'll treat them to a nice meal."

"If you need money, I have some! Don't blame Fifth Brother!"

"Teacher Qin" nodded repeatedly, as if to say, "If you don't agree, I'll make you memorize English words."

"What are you thinking! Your brother earns 210 a month! Does he need that little bit of money?" Jiang Xia curled his nose and proudly displayed a small stack of large black crosses.

Yeah, that's high! It's almost half of an old man's salary. Jiang Xia's regular salary, plus the extra ten yuan a month from various departments, whether overt or covert, who "advised" him, directly pushed his salary to a rather high level.

Well, that's assuming we don't compare ourselves to artists and cultural workers.

"How about that? Pretty impressive, right? They can each take a plate of meat home without any problem!"

"Hey, wait a minute, third brother, where did you get your money?"

Jiang Qiu first marveled at her brother's high salary, then, upon hearing her brother's question, tugged at "Teacher Qin" beside her: "Brother, have you forgotten the 'Star Wars' book we wrote together?"

"Oh, the one I dictated, the one you wrote?"

"Yes! Someone contacted us and said that the book has been officially published in France, and the royalties have been converted into RMB according to the exchange rate used for accounting purposes!"

As she spoke, Jiang Qiu secretly held up one finger, "There are this many!"

"Brother, didn't you say that if this book generates any profits, we'd get a share? Let's use our share to pay for today's meal!"

Wow! That's amazing!

To be able to earn foreign exchange at such a young age, the Jiang family is truly amazing!

"Alright, you little brats, keep the money safe." Jiang Xia waved his hand, shooing the three girls back to eat meat.

These three people were so busy taking care of their friend that they barely ate any meat themselves.

Yes, they're all good kids. Good kids deserve a reward. While fiddling with the money, Jiang Xia discovered he also had a bunch of cotton shoe coupons in his hand.

I'll take the kids shopping in a bit, especially the ones with strong self-esteem. It should feel more natural to buy things together.

"How thoughtful of me!" Jiang Xia, shameless as ever, basked in his own self-admiration for a while.

Waiting for the manager to come closer, Jiang Xia leaned in and asked, "Uncle, how much did we spend today? Should I settle the bill first?"

The manager glanced at the cotton shoe coupon in Jiang Xia's hand: "Oh, you said you met a kind person today, but it turns out he's a speculator?"

"Hey, don't talk nonsense! This is a legitimate reward, you can check if you don't believe me! But don't delay me from buying shoes for the kids..."

The middle-aged man chuckled strangely again and muttered, "No wonder he's so popular..."

"what?"

"Stop it! I told you a big shot is treating us today. What, you skinny heels and thin legs trying to act like a big shot?"

“Oh…” Jiang Xia’s gaze swept over the “Iron Butterfly”.

It's good to save money, so I'll go buy some milk candy and stock up on some for myself.

Let's go! Pack up the leftover meat and head to Manager Wang, who never gets a quota!

Anyway, we're going to spend this money today!

……

Jiang Xia led a group of children away, and several people then stood up at the Donglaishun restaurant and followed closely behind.

"Old Zhou! Are you leaving?" The leader greeted the manager.

"You can leave, but please settle the bill first!"

"On a mission! Didn't you say a wealthy family was treating us to a meal?"

"The outer defense department said they'd invite that little idiot, but they didn't say they'd invite you guys. The old headquarters' budget isn't exactly tight lately, they're even skimping on every penny?"

"Stop 'sufficient'! The funding was swindled away by some young girl, who claimed to be protecting some copyright revenue and paying some patent fees. And our boss is actually quite supportive, taking a huge chunk of our food allowance..."

"The people at home are alright, but those outside... just thinking about it makes you cry..."

The manager was stunned.

"Such a fierce general, how come I've never heard of him before?"

"The one with 432 days of confinement..."

"Didn't that girl come back by ship?"

"She jumped ship and ran away, saying she discovered that the French were trying to do something, like registering a trademark or something..."

"Truly unparalleled in bravery!"

"So..." The leader looked at Old Zhou with anticipation.

"Heh, no way. Don't you care about discipline anymore?"

"IDCPC is really annoying!"