Upon hearing this, Li Mei instinctively replied:
"Huiting and the others are all clumsy—what can they possibly accomplish? They can't handle serious matters properly and might just end up holding you back."
The walls were thin, and Li Mei had unconsciously raised her voice while speaking. Wang Huiting heard every word clearly from outside and immediately grew displeased:
"Mom! Don't look down on us. Why do you think we can't do it?"
Li Mei raised her voice even louder: "I know you all too well—you're never serious about anything. Ruyi is dealing with important matters, not fooling around like a child."
"When have I ever fooled around?" Wang Huiting pushed the door open and stood in the doorway, her face full of resentment.
"Just look at your grades. You'll be taking the college entrance exam next year, yet all you do is play around. You've been on break for so long, and not once have you stayed home to study properly. You're always running wild outside."
Wang Huiting was even more exasperated by this: "So my grades aren't great—it's because my strengths don't lie in studying. But that's not what we're talking about here. Yesterday, when I delivered gifts, even Ruyi said I handled it very steadily."
Her mother was always like this—if you talked about one thing, she'd bring up another, and it always circled back to grades.
"As a student, if you can't even focus on your studies, what else can we expect from you?" Li Mei didn't see anything wrong with her argument.
"Ruyi didn't get into college either, but she can still handle things well!"
Su Ruyi blinked. She had truly been caught in the crossfire for no reason.
Li Mei instinctively glanced at Su Ruyi, held her breath, and shot a glare at Wang Huiting:
"How can you compare yourself to Ruyi? If you were as reliable as she is, I wouldn't have to worry about you all the time."
She then turned to Su Ruyi and said apologetically:
"Don't pay any attention to Tingting's nonsense—she never knows when to keep her mouth shut. You just didn't perform well this time; otherwise, getting into college would've been easy for you. Besides, the education level where you're from isn't great. If you had studied here like Tingting, you definitely wouldn't be a slacker like her. Since she doesn't study seriously anyway, feel free to ask her for help whenever you need it. It'll keep her from running around outside and causing worry."
Wang Huiting also realized she had misspoken and didn't argue further, though she kept glancing at Su Ruyi from time to time.
Su Ruyi smiled and said, "In that case, I won't stand on ceremony."
"Use them as you please—they have nothing better to do anyway. This is your home; do whatever you want."
Seeing that Su Ruyi wasn't upset, Li Mei breathed a sigh of relief and cautiously suggested:
"Ruyi, your grades are pretty good. Would you like to repeat a year and take the exam again? Tingting's school has a good education system, and they offer special classes for repeat students every year, taught by excellent teachers. I've heard that you can even attend as a guest student if you pay a fee. Why not give it another try?"
Su Ruyi refused without hesitation. Although these days, if you traveled back in time and didn't test into Tsinghua or Peking University, you'd almost be embarrassed to call yourself a time traveler, Su Ruyi had no interest in going through the college entrance exam again.
If it were the year the exams had just been reinstated, she might have tried her luck. But now, so many years had passed since the reinstatement—the difficulty had increased, university enrollment hadn't expanded, and the admission rate was much lower than in her previous life. Back then, she had barely scraped by into an ordinary undergraduate program. To get in now, she would have to put in several times more effort than before.
She had already been to college once and was planning to start her own business. Since she had no real need for a degree, there was no point in putting herself through that ordeal again.
She was a focused person, determined to become a Landlady just like in her previous life—free and happy.
If she needed to gild her qualifications later, she could always sign up for a correspondence course or something similar to get a diploma. This kind of maneuver wasn’t uncommon among the older generation, especially those who were just starting to make their fortunes as private entrepreneurs.
Li Mei felt a little regretful but didn’t say anything.
Wang Huiting stepped forward and linked arms with Su Ruyi. "Sister Ruyi, what do you want me to do?"
"Just wait, you’ll have plenty to keep you busy later. By the way, is there a plastic factory in our county?"
Wang Huiting shook her head. "No."
"Do you know if there’s one in the provincial capital?"
Su Ruyi hadn’t held out much hope, since Wang Huiting had only been to the provincial capital once. She’d just asked offhand.
Unexpectedly, Wang Huiting actually knew: "Yes, there’s a private plastic factory that was just established not long ago."
"How do you know that?" Even Wang Huizhen was surprised; she studied in the provincial capital but didn’t know such details.
Wang Huiting glanced furtively at Li Mei and said, "I saw a job advertisement in the newspaper."
She had been very tempted at the time and really wanted to apply. She had no interest in studying; after starting high school, she found it extremely difficult, and during math and science classes, it felt like listening to gibberish. But her mother insisted on forcing her to study science instead of humanities, making going to school feel like torture.
Just then, her stepfather had run into trouble, and Wang Huiting thought that rather than wasting time and money, she might as well go to work to ease the family’s burden. Her older sister enjoyed studying and could continue her education after graduating from technical school.
But the moment she hinted at not wanting to continue school, her mother scolded her harshly, reducing her to tears, and she didn’t dare bring it up again.
Li Mei could tell what she was thinking just by looking at her: "Don’t even think about it! You only have one year left—you have to tough it out and get that high school diploma."
Wang Huiting pouted. She understood the reasoning, which was why she reluctantly gave up the idea, telling herself to endure one more year.
But she really wanted to do something to earn money. She had nothing to do at home during summer vacation but had no idea what she could do.
Wang Huiting asked curiously, "Sister Ruyi, why are you asking about this?"
"I have an idea, but I’ll need to check it out first."
Su Ruyi had a plan in mind, but whether it would work out depended on what she found when she went to the provincial capital.
With Su Ruyi’s confirmation, Li Mei went to the factory that very afternoon to claim the job.
Huang Ling, who handled her onboarding, was an old acquaintance of Li Mei’s. She said irritably:
"I’ve been waiting for you to show up. How could you dawdle over such a big opportunity? So many people are fighting for this, and here you are, taking your sweet time."
Li Mei smiled awkwardly. "Well, I’m here now, aren’t I?"
Huang Ling rolled her eyes at her. Though her attitude was poor, she efficiently completed the paperwork.
"If you’d waited any longer, this good position wouldn’t have been yours."
Li Mei was assigned to the logistics department, specifically responsible for workshop cleanliness.
This job was considered quite tough at the time because the factory’s performance was poor, and many employees just loafed around. But cleaning had to be done every day.
The workshop was full of scraps, making cleanup troublesome, and the pay wasn’t great.
Still, the job had its perks: leftover wood blocks and shavings could be taken home for firewood, saving the family some coal expenses.
Li Mei thanked her repeatedly.
Huang Ling waved her hand, glanced around to ensure no one was nearby, and whispered:
"How's your relationship with Accountant Tong's daughter from his previous marriage? I heard that girl is quite fierce—they say she resorts to physical fights at the slightest disagreement."
"Those are just baseless rumors. She's wonderful. Just like her mother, she has a strong sense of justice and is even more capable than most men."
Huang Ling looked her up and down. "It seems you two get along well?"
"With her around, I feel much more secure, as if I have a pillar of support."
Huang Ling's lips twitched, unsure how to respond.
She had seen stepmothers and stepdaughters who got along harmoniously before, but never like this.
Other stepmothers wished their stepdaughters would leave home as soon as possible, but Li Mei was the opposite—she eagerly awaited her stepdaughter's arrival to shoulder responsibilities. If it were a stepson, it might make sense, but pinning hopes on a teenage girl was… words failed her.
"But she certainly knows how to handle people. Those fruits she brought to our house yesterday—my goodness, I'd never seen many of them before. It's impressive she carried them all the way here."
Huang Ling couldn't bear to eat them all and set aside half for her husband to give away as gifts.
Such rare southern fruits made for particularly impressive presents.
"Her mother is incredibly capable—she grows them all herself and has leased an entire hillside for it." Li Mei couldn't help but sigh when mentioning Su Ying. "If not for her mother this time, who knows what state our family would be in now."
"You're lucky to have encountered good people. Others might have taken advantage of you. Unlike your in-laws, who practically want to devour you and your daughter alive. They've caused plenty of scenes at the factory before, trying to claim that job."
Li Mei frowned. The earlier disturbances at home were all about the job and money.
Although the factory had made it clear the position would only go to their family and no one else, the other side refused to believe it, thinking they could transfer the job if they pleaded enough.
Now that she had taken the job, once the news reached them, they were bound to cause another uproar.
If they made a scene at the factory this time, it could affect her work and worsen her superiors' impression of her.
Noticing her concern, Huang Ling comforted her, "Don't worry too much. As long as your stepdaughter is around, they won't get their way."
Sure enough, the Tong family soon got wind of the news, stirring up another commotion.
"That wretched woman actually dared to take the job behind our backs! That gut-rotting bitch—does she even deserve such fortune?"
Zhang Cuihua cursed and raged, throwing things around the room.
"I can't let her off so easily. I'm going to the factory to reason with the superiors. That job belongs to our Tong family—how dare an outsider take it!"
"Come back!" Old Man Tong snapped. "Haven't we tried that before?"
Zhang Cuihua fumed, "But we can't just let her have it! She must give us all the money and compensate us five thousand—no, ten thousand yuan!"
"Let's not rush this," Old Man Tong set down his pipe. "First, we need to make Aihua's daughter from his previous marriage take our family name and acknowledge her roots. We can't let her be fooled any longer."
Old Man Tong was disappointed that the two hadn't clashed and that Li Mei had smoothly taken the job.
That country girl has no brains—she let someone trick her out of something as important as a job without even a complaint, leaving us with no drama to enjoy.
This also showed that Li Mei was more cunning than he had thought. Rather than dealing with her, it would be easier to start with Su Ruyi.
Zhang Cuihua curled her lips: "A little girl's affairs are nowhere near as important as work."
They weren't lacking in grandsons or granddaughters anyway.
Old Man Tong shot her a sidelong glance, took a puff of his cigarette, and then said:
"If this girl acknowledges her ancestors and sides with us, this job could still come back into our hands."
Author's note: