Guilt

Although each member of the Xu family had their own little thoughts, having a worker in the family was a big deal for the Xu family and was not common in the village. After all, the number of people who could eat commercial grain could be counted on one hand.

When she heard that Xu Fengcheng had been assigned a junior clerk position right after entering the factory because he was a junior high school graduate, Xu Ersao, who had been feeling dissatisfied, stopped expressing her dissatisfaction with a gloomy face and managed to smile and say, "Congratulations."

Xu Fengcheng didn't dare to act coquettishly. Not to mention that the job itself fell on him, it seemed like he was taking advantage of his family. He also said that Hongqi deliberately told his family that he was educated and became a small clerk, in order to ease the conflicts in the family over the past two days.

So Xu Fengcheng said directly to his family: "I will repay the money you borrowed from your family to buy me a job as soon as possible. If the factory distributes any benefits, I will also bring them home. I sincerely thank my parents and brother and sister-in-law for their help."

After saying that, he turned to Xu Hongqi who was standing behind his family and said, "Hongqi, thank you, brother. If you have any problems in the future, just call me. I will definitely not hesitate." Finally, he bowed to everyone.

After saying this, everyone in the family smiled more sincerely, except Xu Nian and Xu Hongqi.

Xu Nian thought that it was her idea to get this job, but her third brother thanked everyone but not her. Who was he looking down on?

She was pouting and feeling a little angry when she accidentally saw Xu Hongqi looking at her. Xu Nian pursed her lips embarrassedly. To be honest, after getting the job, she always felt guilty when facing Xu Hongqi. From the moment she entered the door until now, she was embarrassed to look at him, let alone talk to him.

......

At 4:15 p.m. at the Huaxian Wood Furniture Factory, Xu Chunling was washing vegetables and chatting with her colleagues when an apprentice in the kitchen called out to her, "Master Gao wants you to go to his back kitchen." The man left after saying that.

Xu Chunling thought there was something urgent, so she shook the water off her hands, wiped them on her apron, and said to her colleague next to her, "I'm going to go find Master Gao. You go ahead and do your work."

The woman next to him nodded nonchalantly, "The boss is calling you, go quickly!"

Xu Chunling knocked on the door as usual, and heard a male voice from inside, "Come in."

Gao Xinyuan saw someone come in and pointed to the stool opposite the desk, motioning Xu Chunling to sit down. After both of them were seated, Gao Xinyuan said with some embarrassment, "Chunling, you've also been in our factory for eight years. I've seen your work attitude and behavior over the years."

After a pause, he continued, "But, as you know, you're only taking over a relative's job, so you're a temporary worker. Now they want to take the job back and transfer it to someone else, so I don't have a spot for you anymore."

Although she didn't say everything, everyone knew what she meant. Xu Chunling was now extremely panicked and said with a trembling voice, "My job, my job was transferred?"

Gao Xinyuan remained silent but nodded.

Seeing this, Xu Chunling's face was covered with tears. She didn't know what to do. Usually she just focused on her work. She was a little afraid of her leader. Her lips moved, but she didn't dare to continue asking.

Seeing someone crying, Gao Xinyuan frowned a little unhappy and said, "You'd better not cry in front of me. People who don't know will think I did something to you. Come back tomorrow morning to hand over your work to someone else. Go out first."

When Xu Chunling saw that her leader was unhappy, she didn't dare to say a word. She walked out with a stiff body. She didn't know whether to leave or stay. Thinking about what her leader said about handing over the work tomorrow, she went to the kitchen to help while holding back her trembling. She just stopped talking and felt a little dazed. She didn't know what she was thinking.

After dinner in the evening, Gao Xinyuan saw that she had not left, but he didn't say much. Anyway, his wife's relative's niece would not come until tomorrow, so she would have to leave then even if she didn't want to.

Liu Jun came to Xu Chunling's window to queue for food as usual, and saw that his wife was not in good condition, and it was obvious that something was wrong.

When it was his turn, before he could even ask questions, Xu Chunling saw him as if she had seen his spine. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she stammered, "I don't have a job. Master Gao said he won't let me come tomorrow."

Liu Jun was a tough guy to begin with. He wanted to ask Xu Chunling why, but when he heard her talking nonsense, he became very impatient. "You woman, you can't even speak clearly, what are you crying about?"

Seeing that people were looking at them, he glared at them fiercely, then turned to Xu Chunling and said, "Go home as soon as you finish your work. I won't work overtime today." After saying that, he turned around and left without even getting his meal.

......

Xu Nianzhao should have gone to Xu Hongqi's room for class normally, but today she just didn't want to go. She felt guilty when she thought about it. Not only was she not asking others to practice "truth, goodness and beauty", she herself was exploiting Xu Hongqi's job opportunity.

But if I don’t go, it will seem even weirder. Xu Nian pinched his face in annoyance.

This side happened to be seen by Xu Hongqi who came to call her. Xu Hongqi did not think that Xu Nian was feeling guilty and did not dare to face him. After all, he had never seen anyone with such a mentality in his life. He just thought that Xu Nian wanted to avoid studying again.

So without hesitation, he said to Xu's father who was about to go to work, "Uncle, if Xu Nian doesn't want to study anymore, let her take a break for a while. I guess she's been tired lately."

Father Xu thought again and again, his daughter had done nothing recently, yet she was still tired, so he thought that the child might have a relapse of "laziness", which was not acceptable. In addition, he was in a stage of gratitude towards Xu Hongqi and had a very thick filter, so how could he bear to see his daughter being so lazy, so he immediately scolded Xu Nian.

Xu Nian, who was watching the whole thing, could only think...

Xu Nian listlessly went to the next room with her school supplies. Xu Hongqi looked at her and thought she would lose her temper, but unexpectedly she asked politely, "Brother Hongqi, what are you learning today?"

Xu Hongqi suppressed his curiosity and pointed at the physics book on the table. "Today we're going to talk about physics. I see that you're the worst at physics, chemistry, and science. You've been studying this lately."

Xu Nian said "Oh", sat on the stool, and waited for her "private teacher" to give the lesson.

Of course, she lived up to everyone's expectations. As expected, she knew nothing about physics and chemistry. Considering that she was a student of liberal arts in her previous life, it was already very difficult for her to learn mathematics, so how much science knowledge could she remember?

However, this seemed to be something Xu Hongqi was very interested in and good at. Although it was like talking to a deaf person in front of Xu Nian, when Xu Hongqi was explaining the topic, his whole body seemed to be glowing. Any chemical element that came out of his mouth sounded as if he had already confirmed it through experiments. He didn't look as gloomy and depressed as usual.

Xu Hongqi was talking and Xu Nian was listening, but anyone could see that he didn't hear or understand. The clear stupidity in his eyes couldn't be hidden.

Xu Hongqi felt a little tired. He really didn't understand why such a simple thing was so difficult for Xu Nian.

He sighed with a rare youthful air, "How can I explain it so that you can understand?"

Xu Nian blushed instantly. She also wanted to know, okay, can she still be a cultured person in this life? Shame and embarrassment made Xu Nian's whole mood a little depressed.

Xu Hongqi, who was already in a good mood today, felt a rare pity and softness in his heart when he saw her like this. He spoke softly and subconsciously, "You're actually doing pretty well. Your ideas are all correct. It's probably because you're too unfamiliar with this area of ​​knowledge that you're learning slowly."

Xu Nian raised his head and said uncertainly, "Really?"

Xu Hongqi was a little embarrassed by her question, "Of course."

His inexplicable emotions also made Xu Nian feel confused. She thought that he was indeed a moody villain whose gentleness would only last three minutes.

The two were about to move on to the next topic when they heard someone knocking on the door. Xu Nian was a bit lazy and didn't want to move, so he called out, "Who is it?"

But the knocking on the door didn't stop and no one answered. This was not a solution. Xu Hongqi was about to get up and take a look, but he saw the person who had been motionless just now stood up and ran out as soon as he saw him.

Seeing that she was as eager as someone was chasing her, Xu Hongqi smiled a little amusedly. It was easy to see through this girl's thoughts when he was with her, but he didn't care even though he saw through them.

Xu Nian ran to the door and asked again, "Who are you?"

Perhaps it was because he heard Xu Nian's voice close to the door that Xu Fengkai said outside the door: "Niannian, it's me."

Xu Nian opened the door speechlessly, "Brother, didn't you hear me asking? Why didn't you answer?" Since Xu Hongqi moved in, the house was usually closed, for fear of being disturbed and gossiped.

Seeing that the person didn't respond, Xu Nian opened the door wide and said, "Come in."

Xu Fengkai finally made a move, shook his head and said, "I'm not going in. I'll just talk to you here."

Xu Nian felt strange, "Why don't you go in? What's going on?"

Xu Fengkai peeked in through the door before saying, "Ask Hongqi if it's convenient for him to go pick up his notice tomorrow. If not, I can get it for him."

Xu Nian was puzzled. "Why don't you go in and ask?"

Xu Fengkai shook his head. Xu Nian didn't understand what he meant. Annoyed by the sun, he ran back to the house and asked Xu Hongqi, "Brother Hongqi, my cousin wants to ask you if you can go to pick up your notice tomorrow. If not, he can help you."

Xu Hongqi had already seen someone at the door, so he didn't follow Xu Nian to open the door, but he didn't expect Xu Fengkai to come and ask this.

This morning, he went to the county and his wound was a little torn. He never worried about his grades and didn't want to go through the trouble of getting it, so he said, "Then please tell me, it's really not convenient for me to go there, so let him get it for me."

After hearing this, Xu Nian ran back to reply to her cousin.

Xu Fengkai was about to leave after hearing this, but Xu Nian grabbed him by the corner of his clothes. "Brother, there's something wrong with you. What's wrong with you? Isn't Xu Hongqi your most admired classmate?"

Xu Fengkai was also troubled. Seeing Xu Nianwen's sadness, he said, "I know what my mother did. I don't know how to face Hongqi. I'll apologize to him when I think it over. I'm leaving now."

Xu Nian didn't expect it to be like this. Looking at his chubby cousin and thinking about what he had done, he felt heavy in his heart.

After closing the door and sitting next to Xu Hongqi, he seemed to be hesitant to speak.

Xu Hongqi had felt from the beginning that this girl was acting strangely today, which made him feel uncomfortable. He closed his book and looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Tell me, what's wrong with you today?"

Xu Nian pouted, "Brother Kaikai just told me that he knew my aunt treated you badly when you lived in his house, and he wanted to apologize to you."

Xu Hongqi was stunned for a moment, but then he said softly, "It has nothing to do with him."

Xu Nian looked at him and continued to ask: "Then do you blame my aunt?"

Xu Hongqi clenched his palms and replied, "Strange."

He turned his head and looked at Xu Nian again, "Why, do you think I'm a ruthless person?"

Hearing him say this, Xu Nian hurriedly shook his head, "No, you have the right to think so. I know you didn't eat and live for free. You brought your own things with you."

This time it was Xu Hongqi's turn to feel a little confused and surprised. "You're quite observant."

Xu Nian had been holding his chin with both hands, but now he suddenly buried his face in his elbows, leaving only a buzzing sound: "Brother Hongqi, I'm sorry, I think I'm a bit bad. It's our family that took your job. I told my third brother about the method. You can blame me too. I'm sorry!"

Xu Hongqi's already panicked heart suddenly became even more chaotic, but strangely relaxed. He couldn't see Xu Nian's expression, but his little head seemed to have drooped, causing him to put his hand on Xu Nian's head and rub it, but he didn't know what to say for a moment.