Lao Zhou, This Isn't a Bribe!

When Liang Xin arrived at work, no one else was there yet, but Lao Zhou, the team leader, had already arrived.

Lao Zhou generally arrived early.

Before the regular employees arrived, the leadership usually held a short meeting.

Then Lao Zhou would come back and gather his team members for a short meeting to assign their work.

"Team leader!"

"Xiao Liang, good. You're so enthusiastic every day, always arriving nice and early! That's what someone ready to get things done looks like!"

Liang Xin blushed inwardly.

He hypnotized himself. I'm just sick, sick.

"By the way, team leader, I got my hands on a few things. See if you want them."

"What things?"

Liang Xin opened up what he had just bought from the System Shop.

There was one jin of meat wrapped in paper, and two jin of eggs in another cardboard basket.

As he had said, no matter how reluctant Liang Xin was about this work assignment, he still owed Lao Zhou a favor.

He had never liked owing people favors.

All right, fine. I'll repay the favor, earn a little goodwill along the way, and get some experience while I'm at it.

Three birds with one arrow. How could that not be great?

"Meat? This big slab of fatty pork?" Lao Zhou bent down, his eyes drawing closer and closer to the gleaming white fat. His eyeballs nearly popped out and plunged into the meat!

That showed just how shocked he was!

Of course, it also showed just how good and fatty the meat was!

Liang Xin had already learned just how badly people in this era lacked fat in their diets.

Even now, he was eating meat that was half fat and half lean; he clearly still hadn't made up for all the fat he'd been missing.

Other people didn't have the means he did to eat meat for several days running.

One could imagine just how badly they lacked fat in their diets.

So, for other people, the fattier the meat, the better. Ideally, they wouldn't see a speck of red meat!

And this slab was just that: there wasn't a speck of lean meat to be seen!

It was pure, thick pork fat!

"Xiao Liang, this is too much. You'd better take it back."

No matter how much Lao Zhou loved the meat, he still forced himself to refuse.

A slab of pork fat like this was incredibly hard to come by.

He thought Liang Xin must have had a hard time getting it.

After all, even Lao Zhou, a junior manager at the supply and marketing cooperative, couldn't get his hands on meat these days!

Never mind him-even if the director of their department saw this slab of meat, he'd be delighted enough to burst into a song about the good days!

"Xiao Liang, I didn't help you because I wanted anything from you, so you'd better take these things back!"

Lao Zhou turned around, putting his back to the fatty pork.

Out of sight, out of mind. Only after he could no longer see it did he manage, with difficulty, to get the words of refusal out.

He was afraid that if he looked at it another couple of times, he wouldn't be able to resist hugging the fatty pork to his chest and refusing to let go!

The temptation was too great. At that moment, even a peerless beauty couldn't compare to the allure of that slab of fatty pork in his eyes!

"Team leader, I have a relative who got me some meat. I've already eaten several jin of it. This is what's left."

"Forget it. If you don't want it, I'll just take it home and cook it for myself."

"Stop! How can you be so wasteful!"

"Such good meat, and you're actually going to eat it? Why not render it into lard?"

Lao Zhou spun around and finally hugged the slab of fatty pork to his chest. A satisfied smile immediately spread across his face.

He'd wanted to do that for so long!

"What kind of relative do you have, to get you several jin of meat? You're not lying to me, are you?"

Liang Xin leaned in close to Lao Zhou, opened his mouth wide enough to swallow him whole, and breathed a puff of air at him.

"Get away, get away! What are you doing? Do you have bad breath?"

"Team leader, can you smell it? The smell of red-braised pork!"

Lao Zhou's eyes widened. This time, he didn't care whether Liang Xin had bad breath; he even sniffed of his own accord.

He really did seem to smell meat!

This Xiao Liang is far too extravagant! He actually ate red-braised pork! Even I, Lao Zhou, am jealous!

Which one of us is the boss here, you or me?

Liang Xin held out his right hand in front of Lao Zhou.

"Team leader, this meat isn't a bribe. You have to pay for it!"

"My relative didn't give me the meat for free either. I paid for it!"

"This is one jin, one yuan fifty!"

"And these two jin of eggs are one yuan per jin."

"That's three yuan fifty altogether. Pay up!"

"All right! Three yuan fifty it is! I'll pay you!"

Lao Zhou didn't hesitate at all. He immediately pulled money from his pocket and gave him three yuan fifty.

Then he hugged the jin of meat and two jin of eggs and grinned foolishly.

Never mind three yuan fifty-even if Liang Xin had asked for five...

Hmm, then I would have hesitated a little.

Still grinning foolishly, Lao Zhou stood there hugging the things without letting go, lost in who knew what thoughts.

Then he suddenly remembered something and looked around warily to make sure no one else was there.

After that, he immediately ran off with both things in his arms.

I have to hide these first!

Especially from Xiao Zhou!

Otherwise, wouldn't I have to share some with my eldest nephew?

Hmm, the director can't see them either. I'd probably have to give him at least half!

So no one else can see them either. What if word reaches those two?

I'll hide them first, then sneak them home after the meeting.

Who knows how happy the old wife will be when she sees these!

And when my little grandson sees them, how sweetly will he call me Grandpa!

Just thinking about it makes me happy!

Liang Xin saw Lao Zhou run off but paid him no mind.

He checked the system notification that had just appeared.

Lao Zhou had given him ten experience points, and he was quite satisfied with that.

From the experience points, he could roughly tell a person's character and attitude.

Lao Zhou is a good, honest man!