Chapter 120 Temporary Worker
As night fell, dim lights shone through the windows of each household in the family compound. The aroma of cooking and the laughter of children drifted in the air. It was a warm and peaceful scene, but Gu Qiuyue's heart was in a knot. The sneaky figure of the waiter lingered in her mind.
She took the two children home first. Seeing that their father hadn't returned yet, she fished out money and food coupons from her pocket. "Huahua, Shuangshuang's mom has something urgent to do and needs to see Aunt Zhou. You can go to Aunt Zhang's house next door and play for a while and read picture books. Mom will pick you up in half an hour, okay? If you're hungry, let Aunt Zhang's brother Xiaozhu take you to the cafeteria for dinner first, okay?"
Gu Qiuyue and Xie Shiyu are usually very busy, and sometimes they will leave their two children at their neighbors' house. Mrs. Zhang is an old acquaintance, and the two children are also familiar with this process.
After exchanging a few polite words with Mrs. Zhang, he turned and walked towards the building.
Sister Zhou was also a military dependent. There happened to be a job available in the textile factory at the time, so she was assigned there. She was also one of the first family members to live in an apartment in the military dependents' compound.
When Gu Qiuyue knocked on the door, Sister Zhou was holding a bowl of rice. When she saw it was her, she quickly and enthusiastically pulled her in.
"Qiuyue, why are you here at this time? Have you eaten? Come and sit down and eat together!" Sister Zhou said as she was about to get the dishes and chopsticks.
Gu Qiuyue waved her hand quickly: "Sister Zhou, please stop working. I've already eaten. I came to you to ask about someone."
Seeing her serious expression, Sister Zhou put down her bowl and said, "What's the matter? Tell me."
Gu Qiuyue described the man's appearance in detail. Sister Zhou frowned and thought for a while, then suddenly slapped her thigh. "Are you talking about the tall, thin guy with a mole on his left eyebrow who always rubs his hands when he talks?"
"Yes! It's him!" Gu Qiuyue's heart tightened, "Sister Zhou knows him?"
"Why don't you recognize him? He's a new temporary worker in our factory's sales department, his name is Wang Erzhu." Sister Zhou lowered her voice. "He has a bad reputation. I heard he used to be a troublemaker in other factories. What happened? Did he mess with your workshop?"
Gu Qiuyue briefly explained what had happened, and Sister Zhou frowned as she listened.
"That Wang Erzhu is such a pervert!" Sister Zhou spat, then suddenly remembered something. "Oh, by the way, a few days ago I heard from Xiao Liu in the sales department that Wang Erzhu seems to have hooked up with some outsider relationship recently. He's been acting secretive and even sneaking out during work."
Gu Qiuyue's heart skipped a beat. After thanking Sister Zhou, she walked home with a heavy heart.
The next morning, the workshop was particularly lively. Hearing that they had taken on a job at a factory run by a middle school, the military wives were all eager to get started and were full of energy. When Gu Qiuyue was arranging the work, she paid special attention to Li Caifeng's reaction.
Sure enough, Li Caifeng was absent-minded today and made frequent mistakes while sewing. Either the thread went crooked or the stitch length was uneven. Zhao Xiaohong, who was standing by, couldn't help but complain, "Sister Caifeng, what's wrong with you today? This is the third time you've had to redo the work!"
Li Caifeng hurriedly apologized, beads of sweat oozing from her forehead.
Gu Qiuyue walked over and said gently, "Sister Caifeng, are you feeling unwell? Do you want to rest for a while?"
Li Caifeng shook her head repeatedly: "It's okay, it's okay, maybe I just didn't sleep well last night."
During the lunch break, Gu Qiuyue specifically found Li Caifeng, and the two sat on the stone bench in the yard.
"Sister Caifeng, we are all sisters from the same courtyard. If you have any difficulties, please tell us directly." Gu Qiuyue said softly, "I see that you have been uneasy these past few days. Is there any difficulty at home?"
Li Caifeng lowered her head, twisting the corner of her clothes with her fingers. After a long while, she choked up and said, "Qiuyue, I...my mother-in-law has been diagnosed with a disease and needs surgery. We don't have enough money..."
Gu Qiuyue immediately understood: "So Wang Erzhu came to you and promised to give you money?"
Li Caifeng looked up suddenly, tears in her eyes. "How did you know? He, he came to me and said that if I tampered with the delivery and damaged the reputation of the workshop, he would give me money. But I swear! I didn't agree! I really didn't agree!"
Gu Qiuyue patted her hands: "I believe you, but if you have any difficulties, you should speak up and we can find a solution together."
When working in the afternoon, Li Caifeng was obviously much more down-to-earth. Gu Qiuyue took the opportunity to improve the working methods, implementing group work and mutual quality inspection. Zhang Xiumei took the initiative to ask to be in the same group with Li Caifeng, both to help and supervise.
The day before the delivery day, during the quality inspection, it was suddenly discovered that the threads of a batch of gloves were rough, and everyone was immediately panicked.
"It must be because we rushed the project!" Zhao Xiaohong stamped her feet anxiously. "The delivery is due tomorrow. What should I do?"
Gu Qiuyue made a quick decision: "Sisters, work overtime tonight and redo as much as you can. We can't break our promise to the military workshop!"
Surprisingly, Li Caifeng was the first to respond: "I'll stay! I'm also responsible for this. I didn't look carefully at the batch I inspected today."
That night, the lights in the workshop were on until late at night. Gu Qiuyue bought some midnight snacks. Everyone chatted and laughed while working, and the atmosphere was even more harmonious than usual. Li Caifeng worked particularly hard and reworked nearly half of the defective products by herself.
The next day, Zhang Xiumei and Gu Qiuyue delivered the gloves to the school-run factory of the No. 1 Middle School in the city.
Director Wang carefully inspected each batch of gloves and nodded with satisfaction: "Comrade Gu, you did a really good job on this batch. The stitching is tight and the threads are clean."
Gu Qiuyue's heart finally settled down: "Thank you Director Wang for your affirmation. We will do better in the future."
Director Wang smiled and said, "No need to wait. Our factory recently received an order for a batch of tooling, and we're worried about finding a suitable processing location. If you're interested, we'll give this batch of work to you."
Gu Qiuyue and Li Xiumei looked at each other and saw the joy in each other's eyes. That afternoon, Gu Qiuyue held a workshop meeting and announced that the staff would be divided into two groups, one group would be responsible for orders from the school-run factory, and the other group would continue with the original business. When distributing bonuses, she specially calculated more overtime pay for Li Caifeng.
When Li Caifeng took the money, her eyes were red: "Qiuyue, I...I'm sorry to everyone..."
Gu Qiuyue held her hand and said, "Let's not talk about the past. If you have any difficulties in the future, you must speak up."
Li Caifeng nodded heavily and finally spoke her mind. "Wang Erzhu did come to me. He said someone was upset that our military workshop was stealing our business, so he sent him to cause trouble. He also said that if I cooperated, not only would I get money, but they'd also introduce me to a bigger factory in the future. But I... I saw how united we were, and I just couldn't bring myself to do it!"
Gu Qiuyue understood and was about to ask for more information when she saw the guard rushing over: "Comrade Gu, there's a man at the door who claims to be the head of the textile factory looking for you. He looks very unhappy and wants to talk about Wang Erzhu!"
Gu Qiuyue's heart skipped a beat, and she suddenly remembered what Sister Zhou said - Wang Erzhu had established connections outside. It seemed that the real trouble had just begun.
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