Chapter 37 The Invisible Man
While Ge Lin was completing her resignation paperwork at the company, He Xiaolan was summoned by her new boss to the office to meet the newly appointed Deputy Director of HR, Li Lingyue. The two of them had the usual routine, seemingly rehearsed. "I'll have to rely on Director He's care from now on. I'm new to the company and not familiar with it yet." "No, no, we'll just be colleagues from now on. We'll help each other out."
Everyone knew what it meant when a new deputy came to the department, or when a new boss brought in. If they made even the slightest mistake, they'd be fired. He Xiaolan's "loyalty" was so strong she almost vomited in front of the new boss.
Her single-person office was also converted into a double room. Originally just enough for a desk and a filing cabinet, the small space was now so small after two facing workstations were squeezed in that she couldn't even turn around. She absolutely couldn't gain weight; even if she gained ten pounds, she wouldn't be able to fit in.
A few strands of spring willow catkins dangled from the air-conditioning vents, floating in the air as the wind blew, like unresolved worries. The two of them sat facing each other, their polite words passing, and only the occasional click of keyboards remained, the air thick with a crowded, awkward atmosphere.
"Let's go have lunch together at noon. There's a new restaurant downstairs. Let's go try some food together." He Xiaolan spoke first. After all, she was the "Mistress of the First Palace" and had to show a welcoming attitude. "Sure, I was just worried about what to eat. I've been in Haidian before and rarely go to the China World Trade Center. It's great to have you along."
There was silence, a long silence. Everyone pretended to be busy with a lot of work. Jasmine walked in with Ge Lin's resignation report. She looked at He Xiaolan first and then at Li Lingyue. She stood there in a daze, not knowing who to talk to first.
"This is Jasmine from our department. The little girl thinks her real name is not nice, so she asked us to call her Jasmine." He Xiaolan quickly rescued Jasmine who was standing still, walked up to her, put her arm around Jasmine's shoulders and introduced her to Li Lingyue.
"Oh, our department is full of beauties. The girl looks so gentle, she must be from the south."
"Yes, Director Li, I'm from Shanghai. I used to work in the Shanghai branch and was transferred here last month." Jasmine's voice was still a little timid.
"Is this Ge Lin's resignation paperwork?" He Xiaolan led Mo Li to her workstation and glanced at the sheet in her hand. "Is Ge Lin here?"
"Well, she left after completing the formalities. I told her to stay for lunch and wait until we meet you, but she said she had to catch a train and was in a hurry to leave."
Li Lingyue listened attentively with her ear tilted. He Xiaolan's heart skipped a beat and she quickly explained, "Ge Lin is thirty years old. Her parents came to Beijing to urge her to get married. They asked her to go back to her hometown to find a leisurely job and get married and have children as soon as possible." She saved face for Ge Lin and for herself. This kind of reason that "meets public expectations" is better than saying "My boyfriend cheated on me with my best friend and made a scene at my best friend's workplace."
Growing up, I've always been told, "Girls should study hard, find an easy job after graduation, marry a good husband, and let him support them." While this sounds simple, executing it is harder than climbing a mountain. Putting aside the question of whether there are "easy jobs" in the world, once you enter a family, nothing is easy.
A man's job is "work." A woman's job, besides the usual chores of the office, also involves keeping track of whether the dishes are washed, whether the children are making noises at school, and whether the elderly are well. All a man needs to do is take home his eighty-cent salary, lie down on the sofa, and say, "I'm exhausted after a long day at work," and he becomes the breadwinner of the family.
As the two women ate, the topic naturally turned to their husbands and children. Li Lingyue was two years older than He Xiaolan, thirty-nine this year, and had divorced five years earlier. Her child was taking the high school entrance exam next year.
In the 21st century, divorce isn't something worth hiding. Li Lingyue's main reason for the divorce was personality incompatibility. "We were college classmates, and we thought each other was amazing. But after our wedding night, we started to dislike each other." She took a bite of food and chewed it slowly. "He couldn't even wash his socks, and he said he married a wife just to serve him."
The lunch wasn't very tasty, but the melon was particularly sweet. Li Lingyue was very lively and had no guard against He Xiaolan. She introduced herself to him, which strengthened the relationship between the two. He Xiaolan began to reflect on whether she had thought too badly of others.
Before He Xiaolan could finish reflecting, Yueyue's teacher called and said that Yueyue had a conflict with a classmate at school. She called her grandparents but no one answered, so she had to call He Xiaolan.
"Is the child okay? I'm working in Beijing now and will be going to school soon. Please help me comfort Yueyue first. We can talk about anything when we meet."
When Li Lingyue heard the content of He Xiaolan's call, she said, "You go quickly. I'll handle anything that happens. It's no big deal if children have conflicts. Don't worry."
"Sister Li, thank you for your understanding. I will go to Tianjin now and go to work as usual tomorrow. I will come back tomorrow to write a leave note."
"It's okay, I will write your leave note for you in a while. Go quickly while there is no traffic jam."
He Xiaolan didn't even dare hail a taxi, fearing traffic jams. When the subway announced, "Beijing South Station Arrived," she practically squeezed through the crowd, her bag strap rubbing against someone's arm, not even bothering to apologize. She trotted into the station, passed through security, and even as she waited for the train, her heart pounding. She was afraid Yueyue would be hurt, that she would be traumatized and start to dislike school, running away from home before even starting high school. A whole drama had played out in her head before she arrived in Tianjin.
There was a pile of homework books half a person's height in the corner of the office. When He Xiaolan entered the office, she didn't see Yueyue, but saw the other party's parents first. The woman in the floral dress came towards He Xiaolan aggressively.
"How can you take care of a child? Look, you scratched our Xiaohao so hard that his arm is bleeding." He Xiaolan was in no mood to care about the injury of the little black fat boy in front of her. If she didn't take care of the wound quickly, it would almost heal.
He Xiaolan only saw Yueyue standing in a corner, crying sadly with her head down. The pigtails she had tied in the morning had long been undone. "Mom, I didn't hit him on purpose. He was the one who scolded me first. He said I didn't have parents and that I was a wild child picked up from the trash can."
"You little kid, why are you lying? Our Xiaohao never curses." Xiaohao's mother rushed over and pointed at Yueyue's nose. When she heard Yueyue criticize her child, she quickly stepped forward to protect her cub.
"What's going on between the two children? Can you let them speak for themselves? Were you present when they had a conflict?" When He Xiaolan heard Yueyue say this and saw the other parent still had this attitude, she immediately became angry and her voice rose eight degrees.
"Both parents, please don't get excited," the head teacher, Ms. Zhang, quickly stepped in. She was pregnant and protected her belly with her hands when she stood up. "During the break, Xiaohao pushed Yueyue first, and then Yueyue grabbed him. There are surveillance cameras in the classroom, and it is clear who made the first move." Ms. Zhang enforced the law impartially and slowly explained the whole process of the incident.
Xiaohao's mother's momentum weakened a bit, but she found a new excuse in the blink of an eye. "It must be your daughter who spoke dirty words first and angered Xiaohao. Otherwise, why would he push someone?"
"The child did something wrong. We should just apologize to each other and that's it. Why are you still nagging me?" He Xiaolan stood up. "I didn't even bother with your child for pushing someone, but you're the first to throw mud at me?"
"Your child doesn't even have anyone to take care of him. He didn't come for two or three hours after something happened. He's a child with no one to take care of him. Where can you find a tutor?" Xiaohao's mother said this, and was about to leave with the child when He Xiaolan grabbed her back, nearly throwing her to the ground. Suddenly, the printer in the office clicked, drawing everyone's attention.
"What are you mumbling about? Who has a child but no one to take care of him? Your child hit someone first, and you think you are right. Your family is still like this. A few tickles on you are not enough."
The teachers who did not have classes were originally sitting at their workstations pretending to watch the fun casually, but when they saw that the situation between the two sides was not right, they immediately stood up and separated the two sides, fearing that any physical conflict would occur.
"Both parents, calm down. It's normal for children to have some conflicts. We don't need to be like this." Teacher Zhang stood a little far away when persuading He Xiaolan. A "stray bullet" can also be fatal.
"I'm telling you, if your son touches my daughter again, I'll make your whole family miserable." He Xiaolan said this harshly. No matter what, she couldn't lose in terms of momentum.
"As a mother, you have no manners at all. You're full of foul language. Our Xiaohao is in the same class with your daughter, which lowers the standard of our family."
"Your family is high-class, so you can go to an international school. Why do you have to settle for living with us common people?"
"I won't bother with someone as uncultured as you." Xiaohao's mother shook off He Xiaolan's hand and walked out of the office without looking back.
He Xiaolan took a deep breath, turned around and apologized to Yueyue's class teacher with a smile, "I'm sorry, Teacher Zhang, for causing you trouble. Grandpa and grandma are old and sometimes they don't have enough energy. We will definitely pay more attention to the children in the future."
"Yueyue's mother, I'm about to become a mother too, and I understand your difficulties. We both work in Beijing and are usually very busy, but no matter how busy we are, we still have to take care of the child. It's not like everything will be fine if we just send the child to Tianjin. Yueyue is a good and obedient child who never does anything out of line. But as the child grows older, there are more and more temptations outside. We can't guarantee what will happen in the future, right?" Teacher Zhang walked He Xiaolan and her mother to the school gate, and her words were full of worry.
Teacher Zhang's words planted a seed in He Xiaolan's heart, slowly beginning to sprout. Yueyue couldn't grow up without her parents. She'd worked hard in her youth, but by middle age, she'd achieved little. Her child had become a burden, left in Tianjin. She'd vowed time and again that she would never let her child become a left-behind child. And where was Yueyue now? She waited in Tianjin every day for a call from Beijing, for a hug on the weekends.
The wind blew down from the sycamore tree at the school gate, and the leaves swirled and fell to the ground. He Xiaolan suddenly felt cold. The weather was sunny at noon, but it suddenly became a little gloomy.
He Xiaolan took Yueyue to the MixC for dinner. When they returned home, the security door hadn't even been opened yet when she heard the blaring "News Broadcast" and rushed out. Unwashed bowls sat on the coffee table, chopsticks slumped over the edges like two powerless bones. He Lianhua sat on the sofa, watching Douyin (TikTok), while Wang Yunfu dozed off beside her, his glasses sliding down his nose.
"Yueyue, why didn't you answer the teacher's call today?" He Xiaolan suppressed her anger and coaxed Yueyue to wash her hands and go into the house to change into pajamas. Then she asked about the old couple's situation.
"I went to buy groceries and didn't bring my phone. Your dad went dancing and put his phone aside so I didn't hear it." When He Lianhua heard that He Xiaolan was back, she quickly put down her phone. The short video on her phone was still playing, rambling on about filial piety.
"Why did I call you here? Why didn't you bring your cell phone when you went out? It's not that heavy, is it? Yueyue was bullied at school, and you guys aren't worried at all?" He Xiaolan was so angry that her tone hardened unconsciously.
Wang Yunfu quickly turned off the TV and said, "Oh, we didn't mean to do that. We really didn't think about it today. We won't do it again in the future."
"Don't do it later. If you feel that you can't take care of Yueyue, Wang Qingwei and I will think of other ways. Your granddaughter herself doesn't care about her, and I, an outsider, can't say anything. When Wang Qingwei is free, ask him to tell you."
He Lianhua, however, could not hear her anger and continued to persuade her, "Xiaolan, I told you a long time ago that you should stop working and stay at home to look after Yueyue. We are both seventy years old. Our eyesight is not good and our legs are not as nimble. There are some things we really can't do, and you can't blame us. You are the one who should take care of your own child."
He Xiaolan said nothing more, staring at the still-unput-away bowls on the coffee table. Every happy family has its own blessings, every unhappy family has its own troubles. But luck has a certain frequency, like whose child gets into a good university or whose family buys a new house; misfortune, on the other hand, is unpredictable. Today, it's a child getting into a fight at school, tomorrow it could be an elderly person getting sick, and the day after tomorrow, it could be losing your job. Just like the light in this room, it looks bright, but it can't even reach the dust hidden in the corner.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
