Wu Aixiang never expected that the Factory Director praising her in front of so many people was merely just a praise.
“Wu Aixiang, what are you standing there for? Get back to your post immediately,” the group leader Feng Jialing shouted at her with a frown and an unpleasant tone.
Wu Aixiang was short and thin, with dark, sallow skin and an unremarkable appearance. It was precisely because she was so unremarkable that Feng Jialing had overlooked her; she hadn’t expected the girl to have such bold ideas, even going so far as to directly block the Factory Director with her bread.
If she hadn’t blocked the Director, the subsequent events wouldn’t have happened, and Meng Ruo wouldn’t have had the chance to harm Yanzi. Therefore, Feng Jialing found her very eyesore right now.
After finishing her lunch, Meng Ruo followed the Factory Director’s instructions and baked several more loaves of bread. She wrapped them in oil-resistant paper and delivered them to the Director’s office.
Once at the office, Meng Ruo even tried to test the Director’s stance.
“Director Ma, after I transfer to becoming a formal technical worker, will my salary increase accordingly?” Meng Ruo asked.
“That’s for certain.” Ma Dong glanced at her and said with a smile. “It’s just that technical work is much more taxing than sitting in an office.”
“Since I want a raise, I’m not afraid of hard work,” Meng Ruo said with a determined gaze.
“That’s good then.” Ma Dong smiled kindly again. He remembered something and asked, “Why are you suddenly giving up a leisurely office job to do technical work in the workshop? Is there some difficulty at home?”
Meng Ruo was stunned; she hadn’t expected the Director to think in that direction. However, she was quick-witted enough to seize the opportunity and play the pity card.
“Indeed. Director, you have no idea. To scrape together the bride price money, my man borrowed quite a bit from outside. We need to earn money quickly to strive toward paying off the debt as soon as possible,” Meng Ruo said, moving swiftly to establish the persona of a virtuous, supportive wife.
Director Ma was born in the 1940s. The thinking of people from his generation was mostly traditional, especially regarding their views on women, which were conventional and old-fashioned. In their eyes, the man manages the outside and the woman manages the home; it was enough for a woman to be a good wife and mother.
As expected, this set of words greatly pleased Ma Dong, who took the opportunity to speak some heartfelt words.
“Xiao Meng, your thinking is correct. You’re not like my disobedient daughter. She went to college and now spends all day thinking about that ‘independent woman’ nonsense. She says she won’t marry and wants to dedicate her whole life to scientific causes. She wasn’t satisfied after finishing her undergraduate degree; she even said she wanted to study for a Master’s and a PhD. By the time she finishes a PhD, she’ll be thirty. Will she even be able to get married then? At that time, all the relatives and friends will laugh at me, saying my family raised an old maid who can’t get married.”
Meng Ruo’s eyebrows twitched as she listened, and she couldn’t help but admire the bravery of the Director’s daughter in her heart. To be honest, even in another twenty or thirty years, if a girl said she wouldn’t marry for her entire life, she would still be harshly scolded by her parents. In the early 90s, for a woman to dare to say such words and insist on putting them into practice, her will must be incredibly strong. Based on what Director Ma said, his daughter’s grades must also be very good; perhaps she really could become a pillar of the nation after finishing her PhD.
Meng Ruo chatted with the Director for a bit longer before returning to her office. As soon as she entered, Sister Wang and Sister Zhao crowded around to ask about her transfer to a technician role.
Zhao Fang asked, “Xiao Meng, I heard them say you’re going to transfer to a technician position?”
Although the Director had promised her the transfer, it was conditional—it depended on the bread contract landing with their food factory. Since the transfer wasn’t set in stone, Meng Ruo didn’t dare to talk big or spread it around, fearing the embarrassment if it fell through.
Meng Ruo smiled and said, “It hasn’t been finalized yet. I don’t know if I can actually transfer.”
“I heard the technicians’ wages are very high,” Zhao Fang added. “Xiao Meng, you’re going for the salary too, right?”
Meng Ruo smiled but didn’t take the bait. The way she said it was redundant—who works if not for the money?
Wang Cuifeng curled her lip at Zhao Fang and then praised Meng Ruo with a beaming smile, “Xiao Meng, I didn’t expect you to have such a talent. You can’t be a bread technician at our factory without some real skill.”
“Xiao Meng, who did you learn this craft from?” Zhao Fang asked. “If possible, I want my son to go out and learn a trade too.”
“I learned it from my biological mother,” Meng Ruo replied. This was not a lie, depending on how they interpreted it.
Originally, Zhao Fang wanted to dig deeper into the source of Meng Ruo’s skills, but since she learned it from her deceased mother, that was the end of that. She had asked for nothing.
After Sister Wang and Sister Zhao returned to their workstations, Meng Ruo took out a notebook and pen to outline her plan for making money. Regarding making money, she had two lines of thought: either opening a shop to start a business or getting promoted for a raise.
Starting a business required seed capital. She currently only had 4,000 yuan in her card; if she used it all for entrepreneurship, it probably wouldn’t last long. Entrepreneurship always carried risks, and she couldn’t guarantee she would turn a profit in the first few months. Furthermore, there was another issue with opening a shop: who would run it? If she were to run it, she would have to quit her job at the food factory first; otherwise, she wouldn’t have time to stock items or watch the shop.
In conclusion, she decided to temporarily set aside the line of opening a shop and starting a business. Thus, only the second option of promotion and a raise remained. Fortunately, the opportunity for promotion had come very timely—the food factory was recruiting technicians. After finishing her summary, Meng Ruo closed the notebook, thinking that the next step was to wait for the good news from the Factory Director.
On the 10th, contrary to most people’s expectations, the electronics factory paid out wages on time. After receiving his salary, the gloom that had been hanging over Cao Zhanfei’s head for days vanished completely.
He leaned toward You Che with an excited face and asked, “Do you know why our factory was able to pay wages on time?”
You Che cooperatively shook his head.
“Because the inventory backlog in the warehouse has been cleared,” Cao Zhanfei said with a mysterious look. “I heard them say it seems the higher-up leadership put pressure on our Director, demanding he clear the stock in the warehouse as soon as possible or face accountability.”
“All that inventory was cleared?” You Che was skeptical.
“I’m not sure if it was all cleared, but the majority should be gone,” Cao Zhanfei said. “Otherwise, how could they pay wages on time? There are hundreds of people in our factory, from top to bottom.”
“And did you hear this from your friend in the supply and marketing department again?” You Che asked.
“Yes, those are basically my only sources of information,” Cao Zhanfei said as if it were a matter of course.
But You Che felt something was off. In the first half of the year, when the Director ordered all workshops to rush production, the supply and marketing department had reported the situation, saying that the market for appliances wasn’t good this year and advising the Director not to produce so aggressively. In the end, the Director not only ignored them but also found an excuse to demote the head of the supply and marketing department afterward.
And now, the inventory could just be cleared like that? According to his understanding, the market weakness had not yet eased, and the public’s reaction to low-quality appliances had not been resolved either. You Che couldn’t figure out the direction of this matter for a moment.
Seeing You Che’s expression, Cao Zhanfei noticed him frowning in deep thought.
“You really are a strange person. A few days ago when I told you the factory’s capital chain had problems, you weren’t worried at all. Now that wages are paid on time, you still have a worried look on your face,” Cao Zhanfei said, unable to understand.
Hearing this, You Che’s expression softened, and he found an excuse to brush it off, “No, I’m just thinking about something else.”
Over the past two days, Li Mei had been busy finding a place for Zheng Wan. Yesterday, she finally confirmed a vacant room in a tube building; the price was cheap, and it was far from the Meng house.
One might say that Li Mei previously had some deep maternal affection for Zheng Wan, but after spending time together recently, she realized Zheng Wan had changed—changed so much that she, as a mother, didn’t even recognize her. Not only did she come here without a word, but she was no longer diligent. When asked to help with cooking or washing dishes, she would dally and slack off. She also frequently compared herself to Meng Ruo, thinking she also had the life of a pampered young lady.
These minor flaws could be overlooked, but a few days ago, she actually threatened her with the fact that she was her daughter. It was bad enough being threatened by Wu Hongyun, but Zheng Wan actually used this leverage against her as well.
Li Mei grew angry just thinking about it. How many sins had she committed in her past life to give birth to such an ungrateful wretch? Why did she write to her and tell her to come in the first place? Wasn’t it because she pitied her and saw how miserable her life was with her stepmother and father? In the end, her own daughter was stabbing her in the heart with a knife. This truly was a case of Mr. Dongguo and the wolf, or the farmer and the snake.
Therefore, she intentionally sought a place far from the Meng house; it was best if this dead girl never came near her again.
The day after the room was finalized, Li Mei took Zheng Wan to move in. When Zheng Wan first arrived at the tube building, her face was full of disdain.
“Mom, why did you rent a room in a tube building for me? The kitchen and bathroom here are communal; I don’t know how dirty they must be.”
Beside her, Li Mei’s eyes nearly rolled to the heavens, but she restrained herself from scolding her.
“Look at this corridor; it’s filled with nothing but junk and trash.”
Tube buildings were mostly housing allocated by state-owned units in the 1970s and 80s. To allow ventilation from both ends, they featured long, open-air corridors. Each floor had only shared toilets and kitchens, much like a student dormitory. The corridor area was quite large, so many residents would pile a lot of miscellaneous items in the corridor outside their doors. Some would even set up a stove at their doorstep to cook; once the fire started, the air would be filled with oil smoke, turning the entire corridor pitch black.
In her previous life, even though she lived miserably, she had never stayed in such a filthy and chaotic tube building. Before getting married in her last life, she had always lived in Meng Ruo’s room. After getting married, Tan Lin had rented a two-bedroom apartment as their new marital home. Although it was rented, it was at least in a standard apartment building with a self-contained kitchen and bathroom, and the corridors were clean. It was nothing like this tube building her mother had rented for her.
Her mother must have intentionally rented such a place just to save money for herself. With that, Zheng Wan pushed open the door to the rented room and immediately covered her nose in disgust.
“What is that smell?”
Beside her, Li Mei was also truly hit by the stench; the breakfast she had eaten earlier, which hadn’t finished digesting, suddenly churned in her stomach. The sour smell emanating from the room, mixed with a foul odor, rushed straight to her senses.
Zheng Wan pinched her nose and scanned the environment of the room. There were black patches all over the cement floor of unknown origin, and the white lime on the walls had long since peeled away into a mess. A very flimsy wooden bed stood against the wall, which was plastered with newspapers—but the newspapers had long since turned yellow and black and were covered in a layer of greasy sheen. She felt nauseous just looking at it.
“I’m not staying here.” Zheng Wan stood at the door, refusing to go inside. “Mom, did you do this on purpose? Renting such a place for me—is this even a place for people to live?” Zheng Wan said indignantly.
Li Mei was also driven beyond her patience. Not only was she paying out of her own pocket to help her rent a room, but the girl was also full of disdain. Before Li Mei had a chance to let out the curses in her heart, an elderly woman passing by could no longer stand it and spoke in a mocking tone, “Oh, where did this pampered young lady come from? If this isn’t a place for people, then go live in an imperial palace.”
“Looking at how you’re dressed, you don’t look like anyone’s rich daughter either,” the woman said, looking Zheng Wan up and down without any reservation, scoffing. “You wouldn’t happen to be a ‘pampered lady’ from the countryside, would you?”
“If you think the city is dirty, then get yourself back to your countryside to be a lady. Don’t stand here nagging and annoying people.” After the scolding, the woman didn’t forget to spit on the ground. “Pah! Pretentious brat.”
Zheng Wan’s face turned red with anger, but she didn’t dare talk back. Firstly, this was the other woman’s territory, and she didn’t know how many of her family members were here. Secondly, this woman not only had a sharp tongue but was also built quite sturdily; if a fight actually broke out, even she and her mother together might not be able to beat her.
One could say the older woman had spoken all the words in Li Mei’s heart, and with double the lethality. Li Mei felt a sudden sense of relief.
“Hear that? That auntie is right. If you think it’s dirty here, either go back to your old home in the country or have the ability and money to rent a nice place yourself.”
“Meng Ruo just got married and it cost the family a lot of money. Anyway, the money I have on hand is only enough to rent a place like this. Stay if you want, or don’t.” Li Mei no longer indulged her and spoke directly with harsh words.
With that, Li Mei tossed Zheng Wan’s luggage onto the bed, turned around, and left. Zheng Wan was left alone in the rental room, stomping her feet in rage.
Zheng Wan pinched her nose and looked around the filthy room, letting out a sigh. The house was so dirty she didn’t even know where to begin cleaning. Just as she was in distress about what to do, a voice rang out from the door.
“Zheng Wan?”
Zheng Wan instinctively turned around. Upon seeing the newcomer, she raised her eyes in surprise; standing at the door was actually Wang Wenzhou.