“Meow.”
The orange cat was surprisingly intelligent, as if it understood that Wen Ranran wanted to save it. It desperately stretched out its tongue and licked all the spirit spring water into its stomach.
It was simply too weak. Its abdomen barely rose and fell with breathing at all. Wen Ranran worriedly stroked the cat’s rough fur, silently praying for a miracle to happen.
Suddenly, Wen Ranran felt a ticklish sensation on the back of her hand. The kitten had weakly flicked its tail, hooking it around her little finger!
“Good kitty, you’re amazing! From now on, you can stay with me!”
Knowing the kitten had survived, Wen Ranran’s eyes curved into delighted crescents as she smiled brightly.
She had already wasted quite a bit of time at the tea stall, so the social mixer had probably already started. Wen Ranran quickly tidied her clothes, found a bag by the roadside, placed the kitten inside, and hurried toward the pharmaceutical factory.
The county pharmaceutical factory was enormous, and its regulations were very strict. Outsiders could not casually enter.
The moment Wen Ranran reached the entrance, she was stopped by security.
“Who are you? What are you here at the pharmaceutical factory for? Do you have a referral letter?”
The security department’s job was to prevent unauthorized people from sneaking into the factory. They would not bend the rules or go easy on someone just because Wen Ranran was pretty. Every required document had to be checked, and all visitors needed to be registered!
Fortunately, Wen Ranran had prepared in advance. She explained her reason for coming and produced the referral letter the brigade leader had written for her. Once the guard learned she was an educated youth from Qingshui Brigade and had come to see Director Chen at the pharmaceutical factory, his attitude improved considerably. After registering her information, he let her in.
The brigade leader of Qingshui Brigade had once saved Director Chen’s life. Director Chen had specifically instructed them that as long as someone from Qingshui Brigade came with a referral letter, they were not to ask unnecessary questions and should let them in directly.
“Director Chen should be at the auditorium right now. Follow this road to the end, turn right, then left, and you’ll get there.”
Wen Ranran thanked the young security guard and asked him to temporarily help watch the kitten. Then she gracefully entered the pharmaceutical factory and headed into the auditorium where the mixer was being held.
At the same time, Jiang Yue, who had finally rushed all the way to the county town, was stopped outside the factory gates by security.
Although she repeatedly emphasized that she was an educated youth from Qingshui Brigade and had come to see Director Chen at the pharmaceutical factory, she didn’t have a referral letter. Not only was she denied entry, but the guard harshly scolded her as well!
“You say you’re from Qingshui Brigade, so that makes it true? Without a referral letter, even a government leader wouldn’t get in. Hurry up and leave! If not, I’ll call the police and have you arrested!”
The guard waved impatiently, completely unwilling to believe the filthy, disheveled woman before him, whose eyes were swollen like light bulbs.
An educated youth from Qingshui Brigade? He’d never seen such a miserable-looking educated youth before. No referral letter, incoherent speech—she looked more like a lunatic than anything else!
After being scolded, Jiang Yue was furious.
At lunchtime, she had thrown a tantrum, yet not a single person at the educated youth station had paid attention to her. She had buried herself in the blanket and cried for a long time, making her already painful eyes swell even worse, like needles stabbing into them.
In her previous life, she had attended the mixer by asking the brigade leader for leave under the excuse of buying medicine for Wen Ranran. But this time, Wen Ranran had woken up on her own, while Jiang Yue’s own eyes had swollen terribly enough to justify getting medicine herself.
She had rushed nonstop to the brigade leader’s house, only for the brigade leader’s wife to tell her that Tian Yougen wasn’t home—he had gone around visiting villagers to complain about naughty children.
So Jiang Yue had no choice but to search for him house by house. Unfortunately, every time she reached one house, Tian Yougen had already moved on to the next. The two were always one step apart, like parallel lines that could never intersect.
Walking to the county town took one or two hours. Seeing that she was about to miss the mixer, Jiang Yue had no choice but to give up finding the brigade leader for a referral letter. Without even changing clothes, she headed straight for the county town.
But her eyes were swollen so badly that she could barely see through narrow slits. The muddy road to town was uneven and full of rocks. Every few steps, Jiang Yue would trip and fall flat on her face. She had fallen dozens of times before finally making it to town!
Because she had fallen so much, her clothes were torn, her hair was a complete mess, and her arms were bleeding. The moment she entered the county town, several rude children pointed at her and called her a crazy woman, even throwing rocks at her!
Across both her lifetimes, Jiang Yue had never suffered such humiliation. She immediately wanted to grab those brats and whip them fiercely with bamboo sticks. But remembering Zhou Musheng, she could only endure it for now.
After stumbling all the way to the pharmaceutical factory gates, the damned security guard still refused to let her in. Yet in her previous life, when she came to the factory, the guards had treated her with such respect.
Exactly where had things gone wrong?!
Unable to figure it out, Jiang Yue viciously memorized the guard’s face in her heart. In the future, when Zhou Musheng became vice director of the pharmaceutical factory, she would definitely have him fired!
Jiang Yue glared hatefully at the factory gates shut against her, growing increasingly anxious. If she couldn’t get inside, she would miss her reunion with Zhou Musheng.
Suddenly, inspiration struck her.
She remembered another way into the pharmaceutical factory—the pigpen along the northern wall.
There was a hidden opening dug out by pigs, concealed by overgrown weeds. In her previous life, she had accidentally discovered it after seeing one of the factory guard dogs crawl through there.
Although crawling through a pig hole would be filthy and humiliating, this was an emergency. She couldn’t afford to care about things like that now. Besides, nobody would see her.
Jiang Yue silently convinced herself, then quietly circled to the north side of the factory and started digging through the filthy pig hole, squeezing her way inside.
Meanwhile, Wen Ranran had already made several rounds around the auditorium. Many young men kept secretly throwing admiring glances her way.
Everyone who looked at Wen Ranran felt their hearts stir.
There were many decent-looking young women at the mixer, but the moment Wen Ranran entered, everyone’s attention was unconsciously drawn toward her.
Her beauty was dazzling, her figure graceful and slender. Even the simplest white shirt and black trousers somehow looked uniquely elegant and captivating on her!
The prettier someone was, the more distant they seemed. Most of the young men only dared admire her from afar. Of course, a few bold men chose to take the initiative and approach her to strike up conversations.
But after only a few exchanges, Wen Ranran’s expression would grow cold, and the men would all retreat awkwardly.
After seeing this happen several times, those who had only dared watch from afar became even less willing to humiliate themselves by approaching.
The men were timid, but Wen Ranran herself was even more mentally exhausted!
She only wanted to find someone decent-looking with a compatible personality and temperament to marry. What had she done wrong? Why was it so difficult?!
Either the men were ugly, or every other sentence out of their mouths was “my mother, my mother.” If she had to spend her whole life with a man like that, she might as well stay in Qingshui Brigade farming!
Of course, Wen Ranran was only thinking that. If she truly had to farm for the rest of her life, she absolutely wouldn’t survive it.
So she made a few more rounds around the auditorium and tentatively picked out several men who at least looked acceptable, preparing to go over and learn more about them.
Just as she was seriously selecting a marriage partner for herself, near the entrance to the auditorium, Xiao Yanming accidentally walked face-first into a wall-like figure.
Confused, he asked, “Brother Lu, what are you looking at?”