A stunning beauty arrived on the island; she invented everything from childcare to babysitting.

This time, An Ning received another third-class merit award, and the prize money was 10,000 yuan.

What was the concept of 10,000 yuan in 1974?

At this point, a household with 1,000 yuan is enough to make people talk about for a while, while a household with 10,000 yuan would require an ordinary dual-income family to save for more than ten years without eating or drinking.

In this era of planned economy, the public sector held an absolute dominant position. Anning's acquisition of such a large sum of money placed him at the very top of the national wealth pyramid.

However, she wasn't that excited. If she wanted, she could easily get tens of thousands of yuan in kickbacks from this machine purchase.

She could have easily reported a higher amount to the military and asked the toy factory to return the extra amount to her in cash, but she didn't.

On the one hand, it's unnecessary; on the other hand, it's not needed.

The prevailing circumstances of that era meant that even if she had money, she wouldn't be significantly different from others. After all, the conditions and limitations were what they were, and the daily living standards of a person with 10,000 yuan were almost the same as those of a person with 1,000 yuan.

Of course, going abroad is a different story.

“It’s not safe to carry so much money around. Don’t go to the factory this morning; go deposit the money there instead. As for what they mentioned, since you don’t have any plans for that, I’ll have them keep the awards simple.”

"Thank you for your understanding, Commander. By the way, may I ask you something?"

"Tell me, as long as it doesn't involve confidentiality, I can tell you anything."

"It's that Ms. Luo I reported to you about before. What decision did the military make regarding her situation?"

Li Bowen stroked his chin: "Her? We already sent people to contact her when you called. If there were any problems, we should have gotten back to her by now. Since we haven't received any news yet, there shouldn't be any issues. What? Is there anything else you want to add about her?"

"No, not at all. I've really learned a lot from studying with her these past few days. I just suddenly thought of her and thought I'd ask her."

"If she is truly as talented as you say, the military will certainly not miss out on her; it's just a matter of whether things will go smoothly."

An Ning subtly added her own agenda: "Back at the toy factory, I noticed she seemed to have an unusual relationship with Director Luo. If she has concerns about this, perhaps she could consider transferring Director Luo to our new factory. From what I understand, when Director Luo was initially assigned to establish the county toy factory, it was doing quite well. However, due to some unforeseen circumstances, the factory encountered some problems. Our toy factory here is newly established and happens to lack someone familiar with toy factory management..."

Although she had her own agenda, An Ning only gave a brief and superficial discussion.

Li Bowen instantly understood An Ning's meaning, and a smile appeared on his face: "Comrade An Ning has excellent observation skills! I'll remember this. If things don't go smoothly, I'll make a suggestion to my superiors."

He didn't think An Ning was abusing her position at the toy factory for personal gain, since she had no idea which toy factory she was going to, let alone knew the factory manager.

In Li Bowen's mind, An Ning probably made this suggestion to him out of a sense of compensation for refusing the army's invitation and to help make the matter succeed.

But this is indeed a good idea.

The military did not select the three toy factories randomly; they had all learned about the factories' situations. Li Bowen knew very well what An Ning meant by "force majeure."

This time, the county toy factory has once again outmaneuvered the city toy factory. Can the city toy factory tolerate this?

This is obviously impossible.

But the deal has already been made, and the county toy factory is about to go bankrupt. The factory buildings will be sold to other factories, and the city toy factory can't do anything to them. However, there is still room for maneuver for the leaders of the toy factory.

If Master Luo were willing to come to the military research institute and transfer Director Luo here to take a position in the military toy factory, it would also help stabilize morale.

With Li Bowen's permission, An Ning skipped half a day of work without any guilt and deposited her newly earned bonus into the bank.

The bank teller nearly popped his eyes out when he saw the huge sum of money she was carrying.

However, depositing the money was not troublesome, and with the bonus certificate issued by the military, the process was completed quickly.

On her way back, Anning bought some groceries at the military service center. Just as she was about to go home, Zhao Xuemei from next door poked her head out.

"Hey girl, where have you been so early in the morning? I looked for you but you weren't home."

“Isn’t I in charge of that batch of equipment at the toy factory? It’s not just about purchasing; after purchasing, there’s also installation, and even the subsequent training. I have to be there for all of that.”

"I knew it!" Zhao Xuemei exclaimed in sudden realization, then said enviously, "That's great! You'll be a technician at the toy factory from now on, and your salary will be more than double that of an ordinary worker!"

As soon as Zhao Xuemei finished speaking, a loud crash was heard. There was no sound outside, so it must have been someone knocking something over inside their house.

The two looked toward the source of the sound and saw it was Battalion Commander Zhao's house.

Zhao Xuemei winked at An Ning and deliberately said, "Besides, since you're starting work now, your salary should start from this month, right?"

An Ning replied to Zhao Xuemei, "I'm not sure about that, but I don't need to spend any money on this trip. I heard there are even travel expenses, but I don't know when they will be available."

"Speaking of which, how is Guangzhou? When I first came here, I took the train directly to the peninsula and never went to Guangzhou. I don't know what Guangzhou is like."

"It's much more bustling over there than here. Many people in the city are dressed in Western-style clothes, and there are cars everywhere on the streets. I also went to Liuhua Lake Park, which is much larger than our camp. It would take two or three hours to walk around it. There's even an amusement park inside..."

The sound of a heavy object hitting the ground rang out again, followed by Aunt Wu cursing.

"You damned piece of junk! Even you bully an old woman like me and won't let me hold it properly. What kind of thing are you...?"

While those words sounded like she was cursing the basket she had thrown to the ground, both An Ning and Zhao Xuemei knew who she really wanted to curse.

Having achieved her goal, Zhao Xuemei smiled at An Ning and pulled her into the house.

After entering the house, Zhao Xuemei spoke again: "Look at me, she interrupted me like that, and I almost forgot something important. The military primary school is about to start, didn't you say you were going to send your daughter to school with you? It's about time to go and complete the formalities. If you don't have time, I can help you with it. I think you don't need anything, just your household registration book and her father's military officer's certificate."