Chapter 241 Episode 5

Xu Junjun remained squatting by the bed, looking at her empty hands, and said cautiously, "My colleagues at the factory all say... they all say that Western medicine is very effective."

"Perhaps...perhaps Western medicine really has a solution for your condition?"

"Then...then you won't have to suffer anymore!"

"Mother..." Xu Junjun cried out, her voice trembling with sobs.

She's just a twenty-year-old girl. Although she's old enough to get married, she's still young.

Faced with her sick mother and stubborn younger sister, she couldn't say anything to them or hit them, leaving her caught in the middle, torn between them.

"I don't want to suffer like this either, but this is my fate, I'm just unlucky..." Mother Xu burst into tears again.

Xu Junjun also started crying.

Xu Shanshan remained numb.

Seeing that her youngest daughter was determined and ignored her completely, Xu's mother cried for a while, then started coughing again, and stopped crying.

Xu Junjun washed the towel for her, wiped her face, and then, exhausted, picked up the piece of pork skin from the ground. "Mom, I'm going to cook."

"Do you want to eat fried pork crackling dumplings?" Xu Junjun took two steps and then stopped to ask.

There was no immediate response from Xu's mother. After a pause, she replied, "Ahem, what should I eat? Just make something for your two sisters to eat. I'm already a burden to you."

Xu Junjun said, "Mother, don't say that. The three of us, mother and daughters, depend on each other for survival. What's this talk about being a burden?"

"I'll render the oil later, save the cracklings, then chop some cabbage and put them in, and we'll have crackling cabbage dumplings."

Xu Shanshan couldn't help but ask, "It's so late. If you start doing this now, when will you go to sleep tonight?"

"Cough cough, yes, you've worked all day, you must be tired. Take a rest, can't I just eat something?" Xu's mother coughed as she spoke.

Xu Junjun smiled and shook her head, "I'm not tired, I'll just work faster."

"Shanshan, come and help me."

Xu Shanshan didn't shirk her laziness and immediately got out of bed.

How much pork fat can you render from just one piece of pork skin? Xu Junjun whispered to Xu Shanshan, "Mom isn't feeling well, so I'm making these dumplings for her alone. I'll save two for you to try later!"

“I won’t eat it,” Xu Shanshan refused outright.

She's lived two lives, she's tasted all sorts of good food, why would she be greedy for this?

"You're just so stubborn," Xu Junjun said with a smile.

Then I kneaded the dough, made ten fried pork crackling dumplings, and used the rest to make cold noodles with minced garlic.

When the dumplings were served to Xu's mother, she sat on the bed and said, "I can't eat this much. Just give me two or three. You and your sister can eat more."

Xu Junjun said, "There were many packages, but I didn't give you much."

Only then did Xu's mother take the bowl.

The moment her hand touched the bowl, she heard Xu Shanshan slurping noodles.

Upon hearing this voice, Xu Junjun instinctively tensed up.

Fortunately, her mother didn't seem to hear her and started eating dumplings with her head down.

Xu Junjun walked over and made a "shh" gesture to Xu Shanshan, who was sitting at the table eating noodles.

Xu Shanshan said, "Hurry up and eat, the noodles are getting soggy."

Xu Junjun hissed even louder.

But there was no movement behind the curtain.

Xu Shanshan finally confirmed her suspicions: her mother's constant stammering was actually only about herself and her husband who was in labor camp.

She doesn't really care about the two sisters, who aren't her sons; she just needs someone to support her in her old age.

Don't say that even tigers don't eat their cubs; she's had children and knows what people can be like when they're selfish.

She thought to herself, "It's definitely genetic."

Having been given a second chance at life, fifty-year-old Xu Shanshan has seen through the nature of humanity.

Having returned at fifty, she naturally didn't crave maternal love, so she wasn't swayed by her mother's deafening cough.

After her second day off, Xu Shanshan returned to work at the factory. Her appearance attracted a lot of attention. People stared at her, whispering amongst themselves where she couldn't see.

Xu Shanshan didn't even glance at these people, nor did she take them seriously, since she wouldn't have much interaction with them in the future anyway.

Xu Shanshan disdained to talk to the people in the factory. Most of the people in the factory had heard about what happened in the family compound yesterday, and they also felt a sense of rejection towards Xu Shanshan.

No one was willing to help her take away the matchboxes she had pasted together.

She had no choice but to get up and call for help.

But those responsible for moving things sat together eating sunflower seeds and said they were too busy.

Xu Shanshan wasn't one to suffer losses, so she turned around and went to find the workshop director.

The workshop foreman came and gave the two men a severe scolding.

However, many of the matchboxes that Xu Shanshan pasted were returned because they did not meet the standards.

Xu Shanshan went to the quality control department again, asking, "Wasn't it always like this?"

“The past is the past, the present is the present. Look at this glue, it’s not even spread properly, and the corners aren’t even smooth.” She threw the box on the table. “Unacceptable!” the other person said, rolling their eyes.

Xu Shanshan knew that it wasn't a matter of substandard quality, but rather a deliberate act of reporting.

Because she reported the workshop director, the two stock clerks colluded with the quality inspector to deliberately bully her.

If this were her previous life, at this age, and her family suddenly faced a crisis, perhaps she would have endured it.

But not in this life, and she can't let just anyone bully her.

"Bang!" Xu Shanshan slammed the box she was holding onto the other person's table. "Since you say it's not up to standard, then let's go ask the director whether what I did is up to standard or not."

"Bang!" The other person slammed their hand on the table. "What do you mean by that?"

"Trying to rebel?"

"Go find the director, go ahead and see if the director will speak up for you, you little bitch!"

Xu Shanshan's expression also darkened. "Who are you calling a slut?"

The other party chuckled and said, "Whoever responds gets the blame."

"Swaying your hips all day long, I don't know who you're trying to impress. You're so young, ugh, shameless." The other person was a woman in her early forties, and her insults were fierce and offensive.

Although Xu Shanshan also suffered hardships in her previous life, she quickly met Wen Changyu. With Wen Changyu protecting her, she could be said to have lived a respectable life.

She's good at manipulating people, but not good at using foul language.

She disdained that.

But the other person thought she was embarrassed by being scolded, so they shouted even louder, "Do you think I'm one of those men who would pamper you?"

"Don't you like to see the director?"

"Go find it, go find it! See if the director fired me because of you!"

The other person put their hands on their hips, spitting as they spoke, "You've really got some nerve."

"You think you can take advantage of me after only a few moves?"

"I'll let your pipe dream run wild!"

Her shouting drew a lot of attention, and some people came over to ask, "What's wrong? What's going on?"

The woman in charge of inspection immediately exclaimed, "This is outrageous! I told her that her cardboard boxes were not pasted well and were substandard, and she just slammed them on my table and threatened to report me to the director."

"What's wrong? Do you think the director will eat me?"

The two stock clerks who had just been reprimanded immediately chimed in, "Sister Wu, say less. After all, she has powerful connections."

The two men glanced at Xu Shanshan up and down and said in a sarcastic tone.