A/N: Thank you for reaching this far! I hope you enjoy! See you further in~
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For someone who could only dream of getting into university in her past life, she sure did take a lot of entrance exams early on in this one.
Like with the other one, the textile factory exam also consisted of basic literacy and arithmetic exams. This was in addition to some common sense related to the work, a simple practical exam, and so on.
The practical exam was just threading, thread joining, basic machine operation, detecting common defects, and manual dexterity. She grew up doing chores, so it was a sure pass for her.
She leisurely left the exam room, but her feet stopped when she caught a glimpse of another examinee burying her head into the exam paper.
Her eyebrows rose. Unexpectedly, she met an old acquaintance.
It was one of her childhood friends and self-proclaimed "followers", Zhang Xiaomei.
She was one of her former childhood friends, though the other girl was older than her by about two or three years. She had a distinctive appearance because she had a birthmark on her face. Objectively speaking, the birthmark wasn’t that big nor was it that dark. It was actually a bit faded and was located at the side of her face and could be partially covered with her hair.
However, the beauty standards for women had always been extremely harsh, whether it was in this era or the latter eras. Unsurprisingly, the girl got bullied a lot because of it, causing a lot of insecurity issues. She always had her head down and was very quiet by nature.
When she was a child, Su Qinghua happened to have witnessed a bullying incident where a chubby boy was rudely poking at the girl’s face, specifically on her birthmark.
All three kids were older than the young Su Qinghua, but she was like a newborn calf unafraid of tigers and decided to give them a piece of her mind.
She used her loud scream to gather attention, and only then did the two bullies leave them alone.
There was another girl who was roughly wiping the girl’s face with a rag, and then mocked her face for being ’so dirty that a rag wasn’t enough to clean it.’ Su Qinghua helped her out a few times and became a loyal follower.
She was also the childhood friend who held on the longest.
She didn’t know what Wang Xiuying told her mother, but the woman, at some point, forbade her from going out after school. She was so adamant that her mother threatened that she’d make her drop out of school if she kept ’distracting herself with useless things and people’.
It was one of the reasons why she studied so hard, to the point of skipping so many grades. She wanted to have time. Foolishly, she thought she would be free.
She was also still a kid who longed for the few moments of affection from her mother, so she followed every word, even if at the time, bitterness and unwillingness were so intense that it hurt her stomach.
She said goodbye to her friends and told them she wouldn’t be able to play with them for a long time.
When they knocked on her door after that, they were even shooed away by her mother, spouting so many venomous insults that the children’s parents themselves made their kids stop associating with her.
She didn’t understand the cause and effects at first, but she had been convinced that it was because she was not really likeable, so it was easy to shoo away what her family called her ’fake friends’.
Zhang Xiaomei was the one who kept asking for her the longest. She’d wait to walk with her to and fro the school until her mother physically threw a bucket at her, too.
At the time, her mother threatened her that she would send the child to the police for harassment. Su Qinghua believed every word her mother said, and it was then that Su Qinghua herself became adamant to cut off ties.
After several months of no positive response, the girl eventually stopped, and they drifted apart further.
Su Qinghua looked at the other girl with a complex expression on her face, but the other girl was too preoccupied and nervous about the exam that she hadn’t sensed that someone was staring. Qinghua sighed after a while and walked away.
The results would come out this afternoon, and she decided to go to the Scrap Yard afterwards. Her space was now larger, and she could take in more. She also needed some wood to make shelves to maximize her space for storage and her living space, leaving the rest for farming.
While waiting...she decided to go to the Machinery factory first.
It was time to take back the job her so-called mother took away.
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Su Qinghua was an accelerated student who graduated high school before she turned fourteen years old. University had already been long suspended by this time, so this was the highest education most could achieve at this time. The teachers felt pity that she couldn’t get further education and had expressed this endlessly.
In the end, through the principal’s connection, she was given a job as an accountant in the machinery factory. She was very young, but they tested her and she was very, very skilled, so she managed to get the job.
Sadly, her mother managed to take it away using various sophistry, including the fact that she was too young and needed to experience childhood properly before working.
She was touched and thought her mother loved her very much, but she quickly realized she had just become a full-time maid.
Her personality had already become very timid at the time, so she didn’t dare say anything. After all, in that house, she really was a burden.
Fortunately, the teachers were smart and put her ownership of the job on paper.
So, officially, the job was still hers. Therefore, it was hers to sell.