The textile dyeing factory was fully organized, with six major departments already in place: Production, Technical Inspection, Finance, Personnel, Logistics, and Sales.
The current recruitment was for mid-level staff who would be assigned to the new dyeing factory.
There were five new hires in Yang Yuan’s intake.
She was the only woman.
The other four men were assigned to Production, Technical Inspection, Logistics, and Sales.
This would also be the textile mill’s final recruitment on behalf of the dyeing factory.
The management structure was now largely complete.
Any future expansion would be handled by the dyeing factory itself.
Yang Yuan’s first assignment was organizing personnel files.
All employee records were being transferred from the textile mill, making it the Personnel Department’s responsibility.
The Personnel Office had only just hung up its new sign.
At present, it consisted of only three people:
The factory director’s surname was He.
Judging from both his appearance and the way he spoke, he was a straightforward, no-nonsense man.
He gathered all the administrative staff together for a meeting.
The Yang family had worried Yang Yuan might not adapt to work, fearing she’d throw childish tantrums.
Instead…
She settled in remarkably well.
A factory is a workplace.
You follow management.
You obey regulations.
You stick to workplace discipline.
Those were simply basic professional standards.
Following the personnel records, Yang Yuan and Wei Junliang verified every employee one by one.
In the process, they also became familiar with everyone working in the factory.
By the end…
Several problems surfaced.
The warehouse.
The cloth-boiling workshop.
And the boiler room.
The warehouse officially had three employees listed.
In reality…
Only two actually worked there.
Someone was collecting a salary without ever showing up.
Possibly someone’s well-connected relative.
The cloth-boiling workshop had the correct number of workers.
But the person actually working wasn’t the one listed.
The records named Fang Yin.
The man reporting to work every day was actually Xiong Laishun.
The boiler room was even stranger.
According to the files, one position belonged to a fifty-year-old disabled military veteran.
There was an old veteran there…
But he looked closer to seventy or eighty years old.
Others even brought him tea and waited on him.
Meanwhile…
Two younger men hauling coal and tending the boilers couldn’t be found anywhere in the personnel records.
Yang Yuan checked last month’s attendance sheets.
The warehouse’s phantom employee…
And Fang Yin…
Had both received their salaries and bonuses without issue.
The absent warehouse worker had even been awarded Outstanding Model Worker the previous year.
The veteran continued receiving his factory allowance…
Along with seniority pay and disability benefits funded by the labor union.
Those payments all appeared completely legitimate.
As for the two young boiler workers…
There wasn’t a single attendance record for either of them.
“If you hadn’t insisted on verifying everyone face to face…”
Wei Junliang scratched his head.
“I never would’ve realized the factory had two extra workers.”
“They’re not registered anywhere.”
“So how did they get in?”
“And where are they getting paid from?”
Yang Yuan had her own suspicions.
But…
That wasn’t her problem.
The last thing she wanted was to say the wrong thing, have it reach the wrong ears, and earn herself lifelong enemies.
Besides…
Director Luo was above her.
These issues weren’t for a junior employee like herself to solve.
She simply reported everything she’d discovered.
Whether management investigated…
Or how they handled it…
Had nothing to do with her.
Yang Yuan had no interest in poking her nose into other people’s business.
The moment work ended…
She promptly packed her things and left.
There was a banquet today.
If she arrived late…
The good dishes would all be gone.
Her second sister had given birth to a baby boy.
Today was his one-month celebration.
Although unmarried daughters weren’t expected to bring gifts…
Yang Yuan felt guilty showing up empty-handed.
After all…
This was the first time she’d become an aunt.
She bought two tiny silver bells, each about the size of a soybean.
Threading them onto a red cord, she braided them into a little bracelet.
The first thing she did after entering was visit her second sister.
Every single time she saw her…
She was amazed all over again.
What a shame.
Such a beautiful woman…
If only she’d been born in the twenty-first century.
There would be endless dresses…
Beautiful outfits…
So many ways to show off her beauty.
Instead…
The plain fashions of the era completely buried such youthful elegance.
Yang Lan…
Her second sister…
Was widely acknowledged as the most beautiful daughter of the Yang family.
Her delicate features looked as though they’d been painted.
Bright.
Graceful.
Radiant.
When she smiled…
She captivated everyone around her.
She had once been the dream girl of countless young men throughout the city.
When Yang Lan became engaged…
Her fiancé, Meng Quan, had actually been ambushed on the street.
Someone threw a sack over his head and beat him up.
Fortunately, he soon returned to his military unit.
Otherwise…
No one knew whether he’d have lived long enough to get married.
On their wedding day…
The spectacle had been even more outrageous.
The alley outside the Yang home became completely packed.
Meng Quan had borrowed a car to fetch the bride.
Several men who refused to believe their goddess was really getting married actually stopped the vehicle multiple times on the road.
They nearly delayed the auspicious wedding hour.
Now…
Having just become a mother…
Yang Lan’s temperament had softened.
Her jet-black hair.
Her rosy lips.
The gentle movement of her eyes…
Even the older women in the room couldn’t help staring.
“My goodness…”
“Lan’er…”
“You’re even prettier now than when you were unmarried!”
At most full-month banquets…
Guests first praised the baby.
Here…
Everyone praised the baby’s mother first.
Throughout the entire day, countless visitors came and went.
Not one of them could stop looking at Yang Lan’s face.
Yang Yuan didn’t arrive until lunchtime.
Most of the relatives had already begun eating.
Inside, Yang Lan was changing the baby’s diaper and nursing him.
Yang Yuan gently slipped the little bracelet onto the baby’s wrist.
As the tiny arm waved…
The silver bells jingled crisply.
Even the baby forgot to nurse.
He tilted his head, trying to locate the sound.
“You little rascal.”
Yang Lan laughed, tapping her son’s forehead.
“Your little aunt really gave you something you love.”
A one-month-old infant was astonishingly soft.
Yang Yuan only dared touch his cheek with one finger.
“Sis…”
“Have you chosen a name yet?”
“What about a nickname?”
“We have.”
“His grandfather picked his official name.”
“Meng Bohua.”
“I chose his nickname.”
“We call him Leilei.”
“Leilei?”
“That’s a great nickname!”
“It means ‘piles of stones.'”
“Our little guy will definitely be tough!”
She gently shook Leilei’s tiny arm.
The silver bells jingled cheerfully.
The baby opened his mouth in a gummy smile, revealing pink little gums.
Meng Quan’s grin nearly reached his ears.
He simply couldn’t stop smiling.
“Yuanyuan.”
“You haven’t eaten yet, have you?”
“Hurry and go eat.”
“The food will get cold.”
“I’ll stay here with your sister.”
As Meng Quan leaned close to Yang Lan to admire their son…
The contrast between husband and wife became painfully obvious.
Yang Yuan…
Really couldn’t bear to look.
How could someone possibly be this dark?
Meng Quan wasn’t naturally pale.
He’d served in Hainan, spending years training shirtless under the tropical sun.
Among soldiers…
That was considered rugged.
Among ordinary people…
He was simply rather tan.
But standing beside Yang Lan…
The difference became almost comical.
Yang Lan resembled flawless white jade.
Meng Quan…
Looked like a lump of dark donkey dung beside her.
The visual impact was devastating.
Once Leilei fell asleep…
Meng Quan accompanied Yang Lan around the banquet tables to offer toasts.
The guests’ expressions became even more difficult to suppress.
Even Meng Quan’s own mother couldn’t bear to look twice.
“This child has somehow grown uglier and uglier.”
“Sanquan!”
His grandfather’s booming voice echoed throughout the room.
“When did you get so dark?”
“You’re so dark you barely look human anymore!”
Everyone burst into laughter.
Meng Quan’s face flushed an even darker shade of red.
He opened his mouth…
Then closed it again.
Too embarrassed to argue.
Even Yang Lan laughed without the slightest mercy.
Left with no other choice, Meng Quan filled his grandfather’s wine cup.
“Grandpa…”
“You’ve got a new great-grandson.”
“Drink a little more.”
The moment he’d finished speaking…
He grabbed his wife’s hand and escaped to the next table.
He thought:
This next table is full of women.
Surely they won’t tease me too.
He was wrong.
Third Aunt immediately chimed in.
“Sanquan.”
“Now that you’re a father, you should eat more nourishing food.”
“If you stay this dark…”
“You’d better watch out.”
“Someone might throw another sack over your head after work.”
She was clearly referring to the beating he’d received before marrying Yang Lan.
The relatives erupted into another round of laughter.
Now that Grandpa Meng and Third Aunt had opened the floodgates…
Every table Meng Quan visited found a new joke to make.
By the time he’d finished making the rounds…
His face…
Somehow looked even darker.
Meng Quan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
What a waste…
All this good wine…
I shouldn’t have let any of these people drink it.