Chapter 14

Back in the steel plant's family quarters, Hu Yanni was very happy. To celebrate Xia Qingtang's discharge from the hospital, she specially prepared three dishes and a soup. One of the dishes was scrambled eggs, which seemed very rich.

Xia Qingtang's originally cold heart felt a little warm here, and he vowed to protect Hu Yanni in the future and never let her leave early like in her previous life.

God has been kind to her, and I hope her new life can also bring a new life to Hu Yanni.

The next day, Xia Qingtang went back to work at the factory. She came very early and went to the factory to hand in all the documents for her hospitalization. She also went to collect her salary and food coupons.

The cotton mill collects wages on the last day of every month. Each worker has to sign to collect the wages themselves, and no one else is allowed to collect on their behalf to avoid unnecessary disputes. So since Xia Qingtang didn't go to collect the money, Zhao Meizhen couldn't snatch it away.

After counting the money, Xia Qingtang put it in the inner pocket of her trousers. She really had no money on hand, so the salary came very timely.

After receiving his salary, Xia Qingtang stopped by the factory office. Seeing Director Huang doing horse stance exercise in his office alone, he quickly walked in and closed the door. He handed over a few packs of special cigarettes and a few bills from his bag, and then quickly stated his needs.

Director Huang was obviously used to doing this kind of thing. He returned to his desk very skillfully, quickly put the gifts on the desk into the drawer, and said with a smile: "Okay, I'll issue you a certificate. You can take time to pick it up tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. I guarantee that no one else will know about it."

"Thank you, Director Huang. I'll trouble you with this matter. I won't disturb you at work." Xia Qingtang walked out of the factory office quickly. He didn't meet anyone else. He couldn't help but sigh that he was so lucky.

She felt relieved and went back to the warehouse with brisk steps.

Xia Daming is on the night shift today, so he is not here during the day. The workers in the warehouse all look at him unfriendlyly and send a representative to ask the director to give everyone an explanation.

"Our warehouse is already short of staff. Not only do they not send us capable people, but they also send in people who can't do the job to be an eyesore. Leader, this won't work. The factory must give us an explanation!"

Xia Qingtang stood there with a face full of shame. "It's all my fault. I didn't work hard enough, so I became a burden to the warehouse. I'm sorry to all the workers, the director, and the deputy director. It's all my fault. I... am deeply reflecting on myself, and I will work hard to catch up with everyone as soon as possible."

The representative was a worker in his early thirties who had watched Xia Qingtang grow up. Upon hearing this, he said, "Xiao Xia, this is not your fault. This is a problem of the factory. We demand that the factory must solve it for us! Knowing that we are short of labor, they stuffed a female comrade into our warehouse. Isn't this deliberately bullying our warehouse? Director, you tell me!"

Director Feng said helplessly, "During Xiao Xia's hospitalization, I have looked for the factory director many times. You know it well. The factory director didn't listen to me. What can I do?"

Not only did the warehouse director keep looking for Director Qi to report this problem, the labor union was also dealing with Xia Qingtang's matter at the same time as the warehouse. However, Director Qi had obviously received many benefits from the Kong family, so he refused to give in and insisted on letting Xia Qingtang stay in the warehouse as a porter. He also expressly forbade the warehouse staff to take care of her and not to give her any special treatment.

When the union chairman visited Xia Qingtang in the hospital, he told her to relax and said that she would be given justice within a month.

Xia Qingtang did not have any hope for this, she still placed her hope on herself.

While lying in the hospital recuperating, she did not do nothing. She carefully wrote an article "praising" the director of the cotton mill for his vigorous innovations and training of front-line female textile workers to work as porters. She also used her own example to say that even if she was still alive, no matter if she had lost an arm or a broken leg, she would definitely conscientiously complete the director's training goals.

The entire article praises the factory director's initiative and is written without any political problems. Even Director Qi himself could not find a clear point to criticize the author. However, anyone who reads it will feel that the factory director's decision is problematic and that he has disregarded the safety of the working class.

This was a method Xia Qingtang came up with herself. She had watched a lot of TV dramas. In 1998, some people had already learned how to use the power of the media to solve problems that could not be solved in real life, so she also planned to learn from it.

She is not a smart person, but she has gained twenty years of experience. The changes in these twenty years are enough for her to solve her own problems now.

Although Xia Qingtang only had a high school education, she had good knowledge of liberal arts and had read a lot of novels later on. Especially when she was working as a nanny, she read almost all the Chinese and foreign novels on her cousin's husband's bookshelf. So it was surprisingly easy for her to write an article. However, since it was her first time writing such an article, she still had many problems.

But she already has a partner now. Although Comrade Xie Jinxuan is a former soldier, she can write articles. She is currently working as a secretary in the provincial party committee and has to write articles every day, so Xia Qingtang asked Xie Jinxuan to revise and polish her article.

After revision and polishing, the article met the needs of current newspapers, and Xie Jinxuan helped her submit it to the local daily newspaper and Workers' Daily.

Xie Jinxuan said that this article was written at the right time and would definitely be published in the Workers' Newspaper. Maybe some reporters would come to the cotton mill for an interview and ask Director Qi why he wanted to carry out this unreasonable innovation.

In this era, everyone has a very sacred yearning for newspapers. If something can be published in the newspaper, it is a very important event. As long as the chairman of the trade union sees the article, he will use it to write an article immediately.

At that time, no matter how much benefits Director Qi received from the Kong family, he would have to give it back and then solve Xia Qingtang's problem properly.

But at this moment, there was no response from the workers, so Xia Qingtang could only wait.

Seeing Director Feng's headache, the worker representative said, "Let's not talk about Xiao Xia for now. We accept that she can't work, but Director, you have to find two more capable workers, right? Didn't the factory say a long time ago that they would give us quotas?"

"I've been urging you about this, and you all know that who in other positions would be willing to work in our warehouse? But don't worry, Director Qi has promised me that Lao Zhao from the maintenance team will retire this month, right? His youngest son will soon return to the city to take his place in the factory, but the maintenance team already has enough people, and Xiao Zhao doesn't know how to do maintenance, so he will be assigned to our warehouse. He has been farming in the countryside for many years, so he must be very strong. Don't worry, Xiao Zhao will definitely be able to take up his post in no more than five days."

One more laborer could alleviate some of the problem, and after seeing Director Feng's assurance, everyone dispersed and started to work.

But Xia Qingtang couldn't really do nothing, because Director Qi actually sent a spy to keep an eye on everyone, saying that he wanted to see if anyone was lazy and not working.

There was really no other way, so the deputy director quickly thought of a solution. Since Xia Qingtang was unable to move the large items and Director Qi would not give her any special treatment, he would either disassemble some of the large items or let Xia Qingtang move them alone before packing them up, and then pack them up after they were moved to the right place.

Anyway, Director Qi's intention is to make Xia Qingtang suffer, so the warehouse will show it to Director Qi.

"Any opinions?" The deputy director looked at Xia Qingtang, fearing that she would disobey his arrangements.

Xia Qingtang said straightforwardly: "No objection, I will ensure that I complete the work assigned by the leader."

She had worked hard all day, her grey shirt was soaked with sweat, and when she got off work, she couldn't even straighten her back, but she felt very relaxed.

It was necessary to endure some hardship for a short period of time. What she wanted now was for the entire factory to know that she was the female porter specially transferred by Director Qi, and that she would completely obey the leadership's arrangements without cutting corners. Then, not only would the entire warehouse be able to testify for her, but other workers could as well.

The more people know about the injuries and suffering she suffered as a result of this bizarre job transfer, the better it will be for her.

When she got off work, Xia Qingtang deliberately wore a sweat-soaked shirt and slightly messy hair, and limped slowly out among the crowd of people leaving get off work, leaning on a bamboo pole. Almost everyone was looking at her.

Colleagues from the same workshop saw her from a distance and quickly came over to ask about her well-being.

"Xiao Xia, why are you like this? Are you injured again?"

Xia Qingtang said weakly but firmly: "I'm not injured, and I'm fine. I just moved too many things, and my body can't bear it. I can't straighten my waist and my legs can't move. Alas, I'm too useless and I failed Director Qi's cultivation of me."

Wen Xiaoli's eyes were red again. She shouted, "How can you do this? You just got out of the hospital! You were hospitalized for a work-related injury. Do you want to hurt you again now?"

"Yes, this is really immoral. You are a girl and not married. If you hurt your waist, what will happen in the future? It will affect your ability to have children." A married worker also frowned.

Xia Qingtang looked at everyone gratefully, and then said emotionally: "Thank you for your concern, but I'm fine. I heard that if you do heavy physical work, you will get used to it, and you will gradually gain strength. Please believe me, give me some time, I will definitely grow into a qualified porter."

Everyone who heard this advised her not to do anything rash, as it would be more harm than good if she really hurt herself.

Some unfamiliar older workers who were passing by also came over to ask what had happened. Wen Xiaoli and others spared no effort to tell everyone how unreasonably Xia Qingtang had been treated. I believe that in a day or two, not only the cotton mill, but also some nearby factories and units would know about Xia Qingtang's situation.

As they talked, everyone helped Xia Qingtang walk slowly towards the gate. Before they walked out, they saw Xia Daming and Zhao Meizhen appear in the corner of the factory gate. Both of them stared at Xia Qingtang, one with a hint of concern, and the other as if he wanted to kill her.