039 Compensation (Minor Fixes)
"Why did we keep them talking? We already said we wouldn't lend them any jobs!" Guan Aiguo, along with his two older sisters and future brother-in-law, were kicked out of the house, muttering and pouting in dissatisfaction.
My sister-in-law has come to my door trying to take my job. Is there any way to communicate with her?
What's wrong with being an uncle or aunt, or a cousin? They're not your biological parents, so why should they have to solve your nephew's or cousin's job problems?
Guan Yuehe shrugged. The elders had their own set of principles for dealing with people, and she never thought of changing anyone's principles. Anyway, it was the same no matter who came: no lending, even hanging yourself at my doorstep wouldn't work.
Guan Yuehua looked at Guan Aiguo with a half-smile, making Guan Aiguo's hair stand on end. "Big sister, I didn't do anything, did I?"
“Your second sister and I can talk about Auntie, and your second brother can talk about her too, but you and your eldest brother shouldn’t,” Guan Yuehua said. “Not to mention how annoying Auntie is doing now, when Auntie came to our house before, you and your eldest brother received many good things from her secretly. Weren’t you happy about Auntie’s favoritism back then? If you were your second sister now, about to go to university and with a job vacancy, Auntie probably wouldn’t say these things.”
Guan Aiguo stood there stunned, as if he had been doused with a bucket of cold water, and his face turned pale instantly.
The second sister had already stepped into courtyard number two and didn't turn around at all because of what she heard.
After Guan Yuehua finished speaking, she called Gu Mannian to follow her and walked towards the entrance of the alley.
"Our family isn't as harmonious as you think, isn't that surprising?"
Guan Yuehua kept walking forward, correcting his previous misunderstandings one by one. "Yuehe is right, my relationship with her isn't great. There are only so many jobs at home, I can't take care of everything..."
“Hey, which family didn’t go through this?” Gu Mannian said, “If I hadn’t been lucky enough to get into the garment factory, my family wouldn’t have been able to conjure up a job for me.”
"As for siblings, those who are close should visit each other more often, and those who are not close should see each other less often in the future."
Their parents, in their youth, witnessed the nation emulating its older brother, where women with many children were honored as "Glorious Mothers" and "Heroic Mothers." Back then, having many children was considered a good thing. Unlike now, when late marriage and fewer children are being encouraged.
Almost everyone around him went through the same thing: families with many children, parents couldn't manage them all, older children would take care of younger ones, and they would often quarrel over food.
A little more or less food and clothing is a minor issue; it's only when the children grow up and need to get jobs that major conflicts begin to erupt in the family.
There are countless examples of siblings turning against each other because of a job.
Guan Yuehua stopped and said seriously, "So, from now on, whether it's a boy or a girl, I will only have two children. What do you think?"
Huh? Two children?
Yuehua has even planned out how many children they'll have in the future?!
Boys are fine, but girls are even better!
Gu Mannian pursed his lips tightly, but he couldn't hide his smile at all. He suppressed his excited scream in his heart, "Ha... Two kids are great. In the future, our work will be just enough to share with the two kids, and we can also respond to the organization's call."
"Two girls will do too?" Guan Yuehua asked jokingly, "Your family doesn't necessarily need a son to carry on the family line, does it?"
“Sigh! There’s nothing to pass down in our family. My mom said it’s none of her business whether the Gu family line ends or not. My dad said he’s going to die sooner or later anyway, and he can’t control whether there are any descendants or not, so it doesn’t matter which generation the line ends.”
Guan Yuehua laughed out loud.
—
My aunt's family had already left by lunchtime.
I heard that my aunt cried for a long time before she left, saying that she couldn't bear to let her second son go to the countryside, otherwise she wouldn't have come to ask for a job.
But no one responded. As he continued to wail, he only attracted the attention of the neighbors from Courtyard No. 3. They were too ashamed to stay any longer, so they left.
Before leaving, he declared that no matter what happened, good or bad, he would never set foot in his brother's house again.
I don't know if that's true or not, but how many harsh words has my aunt said before? She might say something at the beginning of the month and then come back to our house at the end. She might even completely forget what she said before and start talking about family ties again.
Gu Mannian stayed for a meal. Before leaving, Guan Canghai couldn't help but advise him to get a more stylish hairstyle, as his current greasy hair didn't look good.
"Okay, okay, Dad, oh no, Uncle, I'll cut it when I get back."
Guan Canghai's face darkened when he called him "Dad," while Guan Yuehe chuckled: This future brother-in-law is such a fool, he'll get a beating from his sister later.
With nothing else to do in the afternoon, Guan Yuehe invited Lin Sitian to go out to see a movie.
Before they left the alley, Aunt Er called out to them, reminding them not to go to the black market.
Guan Yuehe had no such plan, but she was very curious as to why the black market had become so strict during the Spring Festival.
"It's all because of those human traffickers!" Aunt Er spat fiercely at the Sun family's house, saying, "Zhou Changshun is a black market dealer. He's made a lot of friends in the black market, and those human traffickers are people he met there. They traffic goods and children, and I heard they even involve drivers from transport companies... Anyway, the black market is being closely monitored now. Anyone who goes in and gets caught will be sent to re-education. This is what Officer Song told us when he came back—we can't go!"
Guan Yuehe thought to herself, she had only been away from home for a short while and had actually missed such big news.
Guan Yuehe and Lin Sitian were not the type to knowingly venture into dangerous territory, nor would they disregard everything just to satisfy their curiosity. They didn't even bother to take detours when they went out.
The movie tickets were issued by the Five Star Automobile Factory. Lin Sitian had performed well in the training class, and the director of the infirmary personally rewarded her with two movie tickets so that she and her boyfriend could go to the movies.
Lin Sitian didn't have a boyfriend, so Guan Yuehe, her childhood friend, got the job.
The two took turns riding their bikes to the movie theater, arriving half an hour before the movie started.
"Yuehe, Sitian!" Sister-in-law Xu greeted from behind the ticket window.
Xu Sansao was a ticket seller at the movie theater, and Xu Laosan was a projectionist. The couple went to and from work together every day. They probably spent about 20 out of 24 hours a day together, except when they were showering or using the toilet.
Even the shift changes during the Spring Festival had to be arranged together.
Sister-in-law Xu chatted with them for a while, and when she saw that many people were coming from behind, she hurriedly said, "You should go in first to grab seats, or there won't be any left."
During the Spring Festival holiday, quite a few people went to see movies, but most of them were newlywed couples or young people who were still dating.
Some people brought their children, who kept chattering and making noise. Some parents would discipline them, while others would completely ignore them. When reminded, they would even scold the other person for being nosy.
The films shown were ones we'd seen before, but everyone found them fresh and new each time.
Guan Yuehe would be even happier if the people behind her didn't kick her chair.
When I turned around to warn him the first time, the man behind me just grinned and showed no remorse whatsoever.
Guan Yuehe did not follow the "third time's the charm" principle. When the person behind her kicked the stool a second time, Guan Yuehe got up and pushed the person off the stool.
The man, who landed on his buttocks with a thud, stared at Guan Yuehe in shock, seemingly still not understanding how he had been pushed down.
"Kick me again, and I'll break your leg!" Guan Yuehe said, then sat back down to watch the movie.
Now only the sounds from the movie remain, and even the children who wanted to clamor for treats dared not make a sound. Many people couldn't help but look at the back of Guan Yuehe's head.
Women with particularly round heads are probably stronger.
After watching the movie, they rushed home because Lin Sitian suddenly wanted to go to the public bathhouse for a scrub. Guan Yuehe's family also had bath tickets. The two hit it off immediately, ran back, and rushed into the Zhuoyue Garment Factory's public bathhouse.
"Ah!" Lin Sitian wailed, "Guan Yuehe! I'm not a pig on a chopping board! You're too weak!"
“Oh, if it hurts, just say so,” Guan Yuehe said. “Every time I come here, the older women like to ask me to scrub their backs, saying that my strength is just right, and the female masseuses at the bathhouse don’t scrub as well.”
Lin Sitian gave up arguing with her. If the bathhouse attendant hadn't been absent, she would never have asked Dalihe for help!
After leaving the bathhouse, Guan Yuehe felt two pounds lighter, and her steps home became more cheerful.
"Second Aunt, did Grandpa Sun and Grandma Sun go back to their hometown? Are they really not coming back? When will Sun Dashan be sentenced?"
The second aunt didn't know either. She asked Officer Song, who said the case hadn't been fully heard and the verdict would have to wait.
However, since the Sun family's house was empty, many workers at the car factory had their eyes on it.
The people in Courtyard No. 2 are alright; none of them are experiencing housing shortages, so they can't compete for a room even if they want to. But in other courtyards, there are always families with more people than rooms.
On the third day of the Lunar New Year, I went to work at eight o'clock as usual. As soon as the housing management department of Wuxing Automobile Factory opened, it was blocked by workers, all of whom wanted to apply for housing.
“Sun Dashan’s punishment hasn’t been announced yet, so the house still belongs to the Sun family for the time being. Applying for a new house won’t help. Go back to work.”
"It was only a matter of time! Sun Dashan did something like that, the police said he'd get a few years in prison, the factory can't keep him on the job, can it?"
"That's right! This kind of bad element must be fired! The house belongs to our car factory; it can't be left to the family members of bad elements!"
The head of the housing management department was at his wit's end.
Meanwhile, at the Zhuoyue Garment Factory, the group of people from Ginkgo Alley were surrounded by their colleagues, who all asked, "We heard that someone with the surname Sun in your alley is a human trafficker?"
Guan Yuehe: "......"
She knew that no matter what it was, once it passed through three people's mouths, it would be distorted to some extent.
Even after the explanation, everyone's anger did not diminish. "How vicious! To occupy a house, they came up with the despicable trick of kidnapping a child. This kind of person is a cancer on the people!"
Every day after that, Guan Yuehe was asked by her colleagues as soon as she arrived at work: "Has that guy surnamed Sun been sentenced yet?"
As of the end of January, Sun Dashan had still not been sentenced, and the Sun family's house remained locked.
But Guan Yuehe had no time to care about this family's affairs.
The first day of February happened to be a Monday, and she went to the finance department to collect her salary and receipts.
"Let me check. The total is thirty-seven yuan in wages, three and a half industrial coupons, four bath coupons, and meat coupons worth one jin..."
After Guan Yuehe confirmed that the count was correct, she signed her name and gave her place to the next person in line.
"Xiao Guan, you got a raise?"
On payday, long lines form in front of the finance department, everyone straining to hear how much the person in front receives. So, keeping salaries secret is absolutely impossible.
"Yes, she got a raise of one and a half levels." The extra five yuan was due not only to her seniority but also to her catching the criminal. Otherwise, it would have only gone up to thirty-six yuan.
When wages rise, some of the coupons allocated based on wage amounts also increase in value. For example, industrial coupons cost ten yuan each. With a wage of thirty-seven yuan, one would receive three and a half coupons this month and four next month. There's a slight discrepancy, but they're almost entirely based on wage levels.
The salary was great news, but she decided against celebrating at the state-run restaurant and instead planned to buy a piece of braised pork belly and eat it all by herself.
She wants a bite of rice and a bite of meat! That's so extravagant, just thinking about it makes me excited.
Guan Yuehe calculated that if she was careful with her money these two months, she could save enough to buy a bicycle before the start of the school year.
So when Sister Zhu asked her if she wanted to buy the defective fabric from the factory, she didn't. Instead, she asked her family and gave them her share.
Buying defective fabric is a rare opportunity; if you don't seize it this time, who knows when you'll have the chance again.
"You bought them to stock up?" Jiang Guiying said, then asked, "Are you out of money?"
"I still have the money. I don't need it for the time being, so I won't buy it." She still has some fabric in her closet, enough for her to make two summer outfits this year.
Guan Yuehe took the money from Jiang Guiying and brought back a bundle of cloth.
When Guan Yuehua returned from work, she also brought back a bag of defective fabric. Guan Yuehe understood; no wonder Gu Mannian had rushed to queue up so quickly.
When Aunt Bai learned that the regular employees of the garment factory could buy defective fabric from the factory, she felt a little sorry that her daughter was still a temporary worker, and she was also worried.
When asked why Bai Xianghong hadn't received her official appointment notice yet, the subdistrict office explained that they had already begun mobilizing this year's graduates to work in rural areas.
She was afraid that the garment factory would suddenly dismiss the temporary workers, and then Xiang Hong would still have to go to the countryside.
"It'll be soon. Yuehe said the factory won't fire the temporary workers, and she told me to work hard."
"That's fine then." Aunt Bai breathed a sigh of relief, then started talking about the difference between permanent and temporary workers.
Bai Yuejin, who took over her job at the factory, is still an apprentice, earning sixteen yuan a month. It will be a long time before he can finally make it.
This is one of the reasons why adults are reluctant to hand over their work to their children.
Workers with long tenure earn at least thirty-odd yuan a month, while apprentices who take over the factory only earn a dozen-odd yuan. The pay is half that and the pay is even less. It is common for them to wait a year or two before they can become permanent employees.
Just as they were grumbling, Aunt Er ran back and stood in the middle of the yard, urging the neighbors to hurry to Changhu Police Station.
"My God! They brought back a whole truckload of human traffickers! Damn it! So many human traffickers, no wonder children are going missing every year."
A whole carload of human traffickers?!
If you haven't finished cooking, put down the spatula and let your family make do with what you have. If you're already eating, quickly divide the food and have everyone take a big bowl and go outside.
When Guan Yuehe arrived, she discovered that it wasn't a busload of human traffickers at all, but rather a group of black market dealers who had been arrested.
But these arrested middlemen were different from those who went from street to street exchanging small items. These middlemen actually had connections to obtain supplies from chemical factories, textile factories, sugar factories, and meat processing plants! And in large quantities!
It would be absolutely impossible to procure so much material from a state-owned factory without the help of an insider. It's conceivable that some state-owned factories will need to conduct internal investigations.
Jiang Guiying asked a few of her old friends to inquire about the Gu family's situation at the machinery factory's residential compound, and finally felt relieved. She started asking her eldest daughter when she planned to arrange a meeting between the two families, but Guan Yuehua said that Gu Mannian was too busy.
Guan Yuehe testified that it was indeed true.
The call for self-inspection reached Zhuoyue Garment Factory, which established a special inspection team to inspect various departments and production workshops, especially the purchasing department and the warehouse, which were the top priorities of the inspection.
Gu Mannian was so busy he was spinning like a top.
Guan Yuehua's wedding is not yet on the agenda, so Lin Yuzhen and her boyfriend came to deliver wedding candy.
Lin Yuzhen and her boyfriend had just registered their marriage, and the first place they went to to distribute wedding candy was at her older sister Lin Yufeng's house.
That evening, Guan Yuehe had just finished a big meal of braised pork and white steamed buns at home and was sitting on the sofa burping when there was a knock on the door. Guan Aiguo came to call her over, saying that there was something wrong at home.
"What's up?"
"About my sister-in-law's previous job." Guan Aiguo took a few deep breaths of the meaty aroma from the doorway.
From that moment on, the person he envied most changed from his eldest sister, who could dress up as she pleased, to his second sister, who could eat meat every now and then.
The eldest sister-in-law's old job? Wasn't it given to Lin Yuzhen a long time ago? It's been years, why bring up old grievances now? It has nothing to do with her.
Unexpectedly, it really was related to her.
Guan Canghai laid out forty ten-yuan bills in front of him, counted the money with his finger, and then looked at his children again.
"I got the job at the daily chemical factory because of your Uncle Ming. At that time, your mother and I had jobs, and Yuehe and Yuehua were too young, so we gave the job to your sister-in-law."
"This job, in a way, is our family's public property. I won't go into what happened after that. Now let's talk about how to use this money."
Guan Jianguo and Lin Yufeng blushed slightly and didn't dare to say anything.
Before they even discussed handing over the money, they already anticipated that their parents would say a few words to them.
Guan Yuehe let out a loud burp at an inopportune moment. It was as if a power switch had been flipped; she would burp after every breath.
The seriousness on Guan Canghai's face was almost shattered by her repeated hiccups.
"Ahem!" Guan Canghai coughed twice and continued, "Jianguo got into the car factory on his own, but his family spent two hundred yuan to send you to learn to drive from your master. Later, when you got married, your family also paid for it."
"Yuehua took over your mother's job, and you've been earning the lion's share of her salary all these years. The family hasn't mistreated you. As for Aiguo, we'll either buy you a job or let you take over your father's job in the future."
Guan Canghai would look into the eyes of whoever he mentioned, and finally his gaze met that of his little girl's big eyes. The next second, he heard her let out a loud hiccup.
"Yuehe didn't spend any of the family's money to find a job, so this money is a supplement from the family to Yuehe. If Aiguo finds a job on his own in the future without the family's help, the family will also give you a supplement in the future."
A thick stack of forty ten-yuan bills was pushed from one end of the table to Guan Yuehe.
Guan Yuehe stared at the stack of money for a second, then burped, before picking it up and holding it in her hand.
"Since it's a supplement, hiccup, a supplement for me, then I'll accept it, hiccup!"
Guan Yuehe took it without any qualms.
Great! She's got her bicycle and radio sorted. She doesn't need to be stingy anymore; tomorrow she'll use up her entire year's shoe allowance to buy two pairs of sneakers! She'll also get herself a new shoulder bag—she needs a new bag for school!
That was all there was to the meeting today. After the announcement, the money went into Guan Yuehe's pocket, and that was the end of it.
Guan Yuehe is not one to bring up past grievances. As long as others don't speak ill of her, she doesn't bother with them.
Lin Yufeng felt her heart bleed as she watched that thick wad of money go into Guan Yuehe's pocket.
She earned 300 yuan from this job, but she also saved money from it for several years, accumulating a savings of 700 or 800 yuan. She suggested giving the 300 yuan to her parents, and Guan Jianguo decided to add an extra 100 yuan to the account.
She had thought that her parents-in-law would compensate her sister-in-law, but she didn't expect that all four hundred yuan would be given away as compensation.
She felt a little heartache when she handed over the money, but now she feels extremely heartache.
Guan Aiguo looked at his second sister as if she were a wealthy household gleaming with gold.
My envy of my second sister deepened even further.
Guan Yuehe patted her pockets, hiccuping repeatedly, and said she was going home to get some water before disappearing. It was as if she was afraid the person behind her would change their mind, so she ran as fast as she could.
As soon as she got home, she couldn't help but start counting her money. She counted it twice, and it was indeed four hundred dollars.
With her current savings, she is now a big spender with over 500 in savings again!
—
When I left home in the morning.
Second Aunt: "Yuehe, what's the good news?"
Guan Yuehe: "Nothing's wrong."
When I came back from get off work in the afternoon.
Guan Yuehe rang the bicycle bell, "Second Aunt, please let my bicycle pass!"
Auntie Er quickly stepped aside, exclaiming in surprise, "Yuehe, you bought a bicycle?! What's that on the back? A radio?! You're something else, buying them all at once!"
"Oh my! Yuehe bought a bicycle? And a Phoenix brand one at that, isn't that the most expensive brand?"
Guan Yuehe grinned modestly and said, "They're all bicycles, almost the same price. I'll buy a better, more durable one. Hehe."
Some people wanted to trade her bicycle vouchers for other brands, but she refused.
"What brand is your radio? Let's go to your house tonight to listen to the radio."
Guan Yuehe carefully parked her bicycle and then took the radio off the back seat. "It's a Red Lantern brand radio, this is a commemorative edition." It was released to commemorate the successful launch of Dongfanghong-1.
If she hadn't run fast and managed to squeeze in, she almost wouldn't have gotten the last one. The people behind her offered to pay extra to switch with her, but she refused.
That evening, the backyard of No. 2 Courtyard was packed with people, one group going to Aunt Zhao's house and another group going to Guan Yuehe's house.
After listening, Guan Yuehe carried the radio back to her room and covered it with a prepared cloth to prevent dust from settling on it.
Before going to bed, she even moved her bicycle into the living room, since her house was spacious enough to accommodate a bicycle.
The notebook recorded two major items added that day, and the last dot of the pen went straight through the paper, leaving a black dot on the next page as well.
With two large items added to her collection, Guan Yuehe thought about her remaining savings and realized she could also buy a sewing machine.
But reason told her not to act impulsively; the sewing machine wouldn't be of much use after she bought it.
As if he had struck it rich, he was so excited that he rolled from one end of the kang (a heated brick bed) to the other, and then back again.
After the excitement subsided, I let out a big sigh of relief.
—
The next day, Guan Yuehe left home five minutes later than usual, and she wasn't in a hurry at all.
After pedaling the bicycle for a short while, you'll arrive at the factory gate.
"Grandpa, where's the bicycle shed again?"
"Isn't it right behind your office building... Oh! Xiao Guan bought a bicycle?"
"Yes! Phoenix brand!"
Once inside the office, Comrade Xiao Guan asked again, "Brother Wang, what kind of bicycle locks did you all buy?"
The older colleagues in the factory office, who had gotten to know Comrade Xiao Guan quite well over the past year, were all surprised: "Xiao Guan bought a bicycle?"
Comrade Xiao Guan spent the whole day running errands for every colleague in the factory office, visiting almost every department and office in the factory.
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