As soon as Chen Wenfang left the Zong family, Wu, the officer from the Military Dependents Resettlement Office, arrived at the Zhou family.
At that time, Deng Xiangyun was sitting at the back door sewing shoe soles. The three children were playing in the backyard, and she could keep an eye on them from where she sat. It was not until she heard someone calling her that she put down the work in her hands and hurried to the front door.
After going out and seeing the person standing outside the yard, Deng Xiangyun was stunned for a few seconds before reacting. She went up to him and asked, "Secretary Wu, why are you here today?"
"As for me, I'm here to deliver work to you today." Secretary Wu said with a smile on his face.
"Work?" Deng Xiangyun was really shocked. "What kind of work?"
"Don't worry, we've arranged a good job for you this time," Secretary Wu said, seeing Deng Xiangyun's anxious expression. "Comrade Hu from the hospital's pharmacy is going to be demobilized and come back home. Director Chen is in a hurry to find someone, and when he asked our military dependents placement office, our Director Luo thought of you. This job is from 8 am to 6 pm every day, with a break at noon, and the hospital also provides meals. Look, it's a good job that you can't find even with a lantern, right?"
Deng Xiangyun could tell whether a job was good or bad, but this job was too good, which made her feel uneasy. She whispered, "It's a good job, but...how could such a good job suddenly fall on me?"
If someone else asked the same question, Secretary Wu would definitely think that they were asking too many questions, but when Deng Xiangyun asked the same question, she understood it very well.
After marrying Zhou Jianhai, Deng Xiangyun went through the procedures for joining the army. As soon as her household registration was approved, she went to the Military Family Resettlement Office to register and look for a job.
But who is she? She comes from a family of the five black categories. If Zhou Jianhai hadn't ruined his future by marrying her, she would have had to live in the cowshed with him.
Coming from such a family, even if Deng Xiangyun was lucky enough to marry a soldier, she was different from other military wives in this family quarters.
Therefore, although she has a secondary technical school degree and can write and do math, she is not given a chance to get any of the better vacancies in the units around the base.
Deng Xiangyun didn't even want to think about jobs like raising chickens and killing fish, which Gao Xiulian disliked so much. All she was assigned was either sweeping the streets or cleaning toilets. Director Luo said that only by doing the most difficult work could she get close to the working people and start a new life.
Deng Xiangyun really went to sweep the toilet, but later she quit her job because she vomited a lot during pregnancy. After the child was born, she used the excuse that no one was taking care of the child and never went back to work.
Director Luo was very dissatisfied at the time and thought that Deng Xiangyun had ideological problems, which was why she could not stand the test.
As a result, after Zhou Jianhai learned about this, he was so angry that he reported it to the army, saying that Director Luo was using work to form cliques and factions, and that those who obey me will prosper, and those who disobey me will perish.
He also said that although his wife came from a poor family, she had absolutely no problems ideologically, otherwise she would not have been able to sweep toilets so diligently for two years. The reason she stopped sweeping the toilet was mainly due to objective factors such as her parents died early and there was no one to take care of the child, rather than her subjective unwillingness to continue doing it.
It has to be said that Deng Xiangyun's work of sweeping toilets during those two years was useful, otherwise even if Zhou Jianhai gave up his future for her, she would not be able to withstand others accusing her of this.
But Deng Xiangyun's background made her always inferior to others, so the army finally gave them both fifty lashes, telling Director Luo to be careful with his words and actions, and also telling Zhou Jianhai not to act on impulse, and the two finally reached a settlement.
The reconciliation was of course made public. After that, Director Luo treated Deng Xiangyun as a transparent person and never assigned her any work.
Now that such a good job has fallen into her hands, it’s no wonder that Deng Xiangyun couldn’t believe it.
Not to mention that Deng Xiangyun couldn't believe it, Secretary Wu was also shocked when he first heard about it. At that moment, her train of thought matched Chen Wenfang's.
How much their director must hate Zong Shao? In order to prevent his wife from working in the hospital, he even let go of the grudge between him and Zhou Jianhai.
Therefore, before Secretary Wu came, he was clear about his goal, which was to get Deng Xiangyun to accept the job.
At the same time, Secretary Wu knew very well that if he wanted Deng Xiangyun to accept the job, it would not work to be rigid or praise her too much. The more changes a person has experienced, the more cautious he or she will be. The more you praise her, the more she will feel that you are trying to cheat her, and she will be more afraid to take the job.
So, Officer Wu started to play the victim: "Originally, this job really wouldn't have fallen to you, but Director Chen had high requirements, requiring a junior high school degree or above. You know the situation of these military wives who are temporarily unemployed in our family compound. It's already a big deal if they have only attended junior high school, let alone graduated from junior high school. In the whole compound, there's really no one else who meets the requirements except you. But Director Chen refused to give in at all, and even said that if the family compound didn't have a suitable candidate, she would call the county high school and ask them to introduce someone."
At this point, Secretary Wu clapped his hands and said, "Director Luo got anxious when he heard this. If Director Chen bypasses our department and successfully recruits students from the county high school, other departments will have to follow suit. Then, will the wives of the soldiers in our compound still have jobs in the future? It's all a problem!"
"Director Luo is worried, so we subordinates have to find a solution. I happened to have a list of all the wives of soldiers in the family quarters. I flipped through it twice and saw you." Officer Wu took the credit for himself without hesitation and continued, "Originally, our director was reluctant to assign you such a good job, but Director Chen urged her urgently, so she had no choice but to agree."
If Secretary Wu said that it was Director Luo who proposed this matter, Deng Xiangyun might still worry about problems and refuse the job. But Secretary Wu took all the credit for himself and said that Director Luo had no choice but to agree. Deng Xiangyun hesitated, "As for Director Chen..."
"Don't worry about Director Chen. She just wants to find someone who is well-educated and meticulous. She heard that you worked as an accountant before joining the army. She was very satisfied and said that an accountant who is good at accounting must be meticulous in his work." Officer Wu said with a smile, "As long as you nod, this matter will be settled. You can report to the hospital directly next Monday."
After Wu finished speaking, Deng Xiangyun didn't say anything, so he patiently asked, "Comrade Deng Xiangyun, you don't say anything, do you have any concerns?"
Deng Xiangyun said awkwardly: "There is a little bit. You also know that my little Shitou is still young... I stayed at home to take care of him."
"He's over three years old, not young anymore." Despite that, Wu still gave Deng Xiangyun some advice: "If you're worried about him being alone at home, ask the neighbors if anyone is willing to help you take care of the child. Many working wives of soldiers in the family quarters do this. If you're still worried, you can bring the child to work, but there's a prerequisite: the child can't disturb your work."
Deng Xiangyun pondered for a moment and asked, "Secretary Wu, can I consider this matter again?" She was still a little undecided.
But Secretary Wu came here with a mission, so how could she continue to think about it? She quickly said, "It's not that I don't give you time to think about it, but Director Chen is pressing us to make a decision today, otherwise she will contact the county high school. Think about it, the county high school has so many graduates every year, but there are only a few state-owned factories in our county. Director Chen is willing to recruit students from the county high school, and the school must be very happy. If they make a deal, what can you do about it!"
Deng Xiangyun licked her lips and said, "I..."
But before she could finish her words, Wu interrupted her: "If you don't want to work anymore, I won't say much, but if you still want to work, listen to my advice and agree to it. This opportunity is really rare. If you miss this opportunity, it will be difficult for you to find a job in the future."
This is what Secretary Wu really thinks. If Deng Xiangyun refuses to agree, and Director Chen recruits students from the county high school, or if this job ends up falling on Lin Wei, then she can no longer count on Luo Shuzhi to arrange a job for her.
Although Deng Xiangyun didn't know about Lin Wei, she thought of the former, so she knew that this was her only chance.
Accept or reject?
Without further hesitation, Deng Xiangyun said firmly: "I want to work in the hospital pharmacy."
…
When Deng Xiangyun made the decision, Lin Wei had just washed the enamel cup that Director Chen had drunk from. She put it on the chest of drawers in the living room and went back to her room upstairs.
After entering the house, Lin Wei did not lie down dejectedly. Instead, she took out the diary and pen she brought from her hometown from the closet, turned to the last page and started writing.
The content is nothing else but the text related to her in the original book.
In the novel, not long after Lin Wei passed away, Zong Shao transferred to Shicheng because there was no one to take care of his child and became the deputy director of a small state-owned factory.
He was very capable and was promoted from deputy director to director within a few years. The small state-owned factory gradually grew and became the industry leader in the Hu Province.
But problems also followed. Zong Shao was bold and ambitious and wanted to continue expanding, but his superiors were conservative and were always worried that he would take too big actions and bring trouble to the factory, so the conflicts became increasingly serious.
In the mid-1980s, Zong Shao chose to leave the state-owned factory and went south to Shenzhen to start a business.
It was also there that Zong Shao met the male and female protagonists.
In fact, he met the male protagonist first. At that time, the male protagonist had just been released from the army and was also preparing to start a business. The two met by chance and started a business partnership because of their similar personalities.
As a result, one time the hero invited Zong Shao to his home for dinner, the heroine lost her composure as soon as she saw Zong Shao. The hero became suspicious and found out indirectly that Zong Shao was the person the heroine liked, and an emotional crisis arose between the two.
At the same time, the cooperative relationship between the male protagonist and Zong Shao is also in jeopardy.
Fortunately, the male and female protagonists finally talked it out, and the male protagonist and Zong Shao continued to cooperate, so Zong Shao played a lot of roles in the later part of the novel. Moreover, after Zong Shao's career stabilized, he also brought Mingming and Ruirui to Shenzhen Stock Exchange, so the two brothers had a lot of roles.
Therefore, although Lin Wei does not even have a formal appearance in the novel, she is mentioned many times.
But many of them are old and invalid information. After Zong Shao became successful in his career, people who wanted to match him up came one after another. Whenever they were rejected, someone would mention Lin Wei and lament her happiness and misfortune.
What Lin Wei has to do is to piece together the final timeline of her life in the novel from the fragmentary words and sentences in the original work.
This matter sounds complicated, but it is not difficult for Lin Wei.
She has a good memory, and although almost a week has passed, she still remembers the original plot clearly.
Moreover, Lin Wei had recalled it in her mind as early as when she woke up from the dream, but there were so many people on the train and they were talking so much, and she was afraid that if she wrote it down in her diary, the notebook would be lost, so she didn't start writing.
Therefore, after opening the diary, Lin Wei wrote very quickly.
But that was only at the beginning. When she wrote to the third page, Lin Wei's speed gradually slowed down, and she had to think for a long time before she could start writing on the fourth page.
In the end, she could no longer think of any new details. She paused for half an hour, put down her pen, opened her diary and read it again from the beginning, then sorted out the timeline of events based on the content.
This task is relatively easy because many of the events listed are from the past. Lin Wei was an eyewitness to these events and could determine the time at a glance. There were only six or seven other events that happened on the island.
The problem is that after Lin Wei sorted out the timeline, she found that although she was sure that she died in a typhoon next summer, the specific time and event were still blank.
Without specific time and events, it would be extremely difficult for her to change her fate.
Lin Wei could only put down her pen and continue to recall, but before she could figure out what was going on, she heard Mingming's voice coming from downstairs. She quickly put away her notebook and stuffed it into the deepest part of the closet. She then walked to the dressing table, patted her cheek, and went downstairs to ask, "What's wrong?"
Mingming was surprised and asked, "It's time for lunch, Mom, did you just wake up?"
Lin Wei quickly raised her hand to check her watch and found that it was already half past eleven. She rubbed her face and said, "Are you hungry? Mom will go cook now?"
Mingming shook his head and said, "I'm not really hungry, but Xiao Shitou's family has dinner, and his mother told us to eat at his house. But Ruirui said, "Mom, you said we can't eat at other people's houses, so we came back!"
After saying that, he blinked and looked at Lin Wei, his whole body showing a desire for praise.
Ruirui felt it was unbearable to watch, so she covered her face and quietly moved to the side.
Lin Wei couldn't help laughing: "You guys are so good today, how about giving each of you a banana as a reward?"
Mingming's eyes lit up and he nodded vigorously: "Okay, okay!"
Ruirui didn't feel embarrassed anymore. She moved back and stood side by side with her brother, looking at her mother with anticipation.
Lin Wei gave each of the two children a banana and went to the kitchen to make lunch.
Lunch was simple. Lin Wei cooked a pot of vegetable soup, stir-fried some shredded potatoes, and mixed some seaweed.
Seaweed was also purchased at the seafood supply station, but probably because it was vegetarian, no ticket was required to purchase it, and the price was quite cheap, you could buy a large handful for one cent.
But it was the first time that Lin Wei saw this thing, and she didn’t know whether it would taste good or not, so she didn’t make much of it and only mixed half a plate. But after mixing it, she tasted it and found it tasted okay, crispy, and made people want to have another bite. It went well with rice.
The two brothers also liked it very much. They were obviously naughty and deliberately bit it hard when eating it, so that the sound of the seaweed being bitten off sounded more crisp.
Ruirui was more practical, so he stretched out his long spoon and rolled up a small half of the seaweed. By the time Mingming reacted, most of the seaweed was in his bowl.
So the two brothers began to fight for food.
The meal was like a war, and the two brothers only calmed down when Lin Wei slammed the table.
…
After dinner, Lin Wei took the two children upstairs for a nap.
Ruirui slept a lot and fell asleep after lying on the bed for a while. But Mingming couldn't fall asleep. He lay on the bed in the master bedroom for a while, then ran to lie on his own bed in the guest bedroom. After two minutes, he ran back and repeated this process over and over again.
Lin Wei put her hands behind her head and closed her eyes as she continued to recall the details in the original book.
In the original novel, the three uncles of Zong Shao did not shy away from mentioning her, but seldom mentioned her death. In the words of the heroine, her death was a pain in their hearts.
The male and female protagonists are both smart people and would not deliberately poke their wounds, so they never asked. The heroine later met the person she met on Yazhou Island, but when others chatted with her, they deliberately avoided topics related to Zong Shao, thinking that she had not let it go.
Of course the heroine wouldn't ask proactively, for fear of causing jealousy at home. Although the couple maintained a good relationship with Zong Shao, she always kept her distance from him.
This also makes Lin Wei's death a mystery in the original novel.
But there are still some clues about the time. Just now while eating, Lin Wei remembered something.
In the original novel, the male protagonist was having dinner with the company's senior executives, and someone asked casually if Zong Shao was there. The male protagonist said that he had something to do at home and couldn't come.
Then an old employee said that it seemed like Zong Shao had something going on at home every year and didn't come to the company. Then someone joked and asked him how he remembered it so clearly. The old employee replied, "It's my wife's birthday on Army Day. Every year after her birthday, I would hear that Zong Shao had asked for leave when I came to work. Do you think I remember it clearly?"
"Mom, are you asleep?"
Lin Wei heard Mingming's voice ringing in her ears and opened her eyes to look over: "What's wrong?"
Mingming asked softly: "Can I have a mango?"
"Want to eat mango?"
The little guy nodded rapidly: "Yeah, I only ate a small bite yesterday, and Dad ate so much by himself!" As he spoke, he opened his hands and compared the size.
Lin Wei: "...A mango is only the size of a palm. Your father can't eat that much."
"I'm exaggerating to show that the mangoes my dad and I eat are very different in size," Mingming said before sighing heavily. "Mom, how come you don't even understand this?"
Lin Wei laughed: "You also know how to use exaggeration? Who told you that?" He had a lot of reasons to give.
"My uncle said that my aunt didn't let him smoke, so he lay in bed and said he felt so uncomfortable and was going to die. My aunt softened her heart and let him smoke. Then my uncle felt better. Then my aunt got angry and said my uncle was a liar. My uncle said he was not a liar. This is an exaggeration to show that he would feel very uncomfortable if he couldn't smoke!"
Listening to Mingming's twisted and heretical retelling, Lin Wei's mouth twitched slightly, "How do you know this?"
"I saw it secretly," Mingming stood up from the ground and whispered in Lin Wei's ear, "I also saw my uncle kissing my aunt secretly."
Lin Wei: “……!!!”
She quickly looked at her eldest son and asked seriously, "Did you see anything else?"
"What?" Mingming asked puzzledly.
Lin Wei breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Don't learn from your second uncle in the future, understand?"
Mingming was puzzled: "Why?"
"Because your second uncle did something wrong. First of all, smoking is very bad for your health. If you smoke too much, your lungs will turn black..."
Mingming interrupted and asked, "What are lungs?"
Lin Wei pressed Mingming's chest and said, "The lungs are what's inside your body. If they're red, you can breathe. If they turn black, you'll die."
In fact, Mingming is too old to understand death, but when he thought about the contents of his body turning black, he quickly said, "I don't smoke, I don't want to turn black!"
Lin Wei hummed and continued, "Also, although my uncle argued that he was exaggerating, he was actually lying and using the care of his relatives to achieve his goals. This is not good. If we get used to it, our relatives will be very sad when they find out that they have been deceived."
Mingming lowered his head to think, and after a long time he raised his head carefully: "Mom, was I lying to you just now?"
The two brothers looked smart, but children of three or four years old have no sense of right and wrong. They just learn whatever they see, so they clearly did not know that their second uncle's behavior was wrong, nor did they know whether they were lying.
Therefore, after hearing what Lin Wei said, the little guy became worried.
Lin Wei touched his soft hair and said softly, "You didn't lie just now, you were just exaggerating a little. But if you said that dad ate all the mangoes yesterday and you didn't eat any, that would be called lying."
Mingming drew inferences from one example and said, "Then my uncle is not uncomfortable, but he said he was very uncomfortable, which is a lie, right?"
Lin Wei nodded and continued, "You're not lying, but you're not completely right either. We should be realistic when speaking. One is one, and two is two. It's wrong to exaggerate one and say it's two, and it's also wrong to minimize two and say it's one."
Mingming was confused and asked uncertainly, "Is it correct to say one as one and two as two?"
Lin Wei nodded again: "That's right."
Although I was recognized, my head was still dizzy and I was lost in thought. As he was thinking about it, he began to feel sleepy. He yawned, turned over and snuggled into his mother's arms, completely forgetting about eating the mango.
But Mingming still got to eat the mango he had been craving for that day. After he woke up, Lin Wei washed it, cut it in half and gave them to him and Ruirui.
The mangoes bought from the supply and marketing cooperative are ripe. When you put them in your mouth and press them with your tongue, the flesh will melt and the sweet juice will flow down your mouth and throat, as if the sweetness has penetrated into your heart.
While eating mango, Lin Wei continued to think about what Mingming had interrupted her.
After thinking about that incident, Lin Wei's memories were no longer limited to the three Zong Shaos, and she began to recall the details of the life of the heroine's family.
Because they are in business together, the two families have a good relationship, so Ruirui and the children of the male and female protagonists obviously know each other. Later they moved to the same villa area and the two families visited each other more frequently.
As she was thinking, Lin Wei recalled something that happened on the second day of Army Day.
This incident happened when Luo Yun's daughter came back from outside and met Zong Shao and his two sons on the way. Seeing that they were wearing formal clothes, she felt strange and asked the two brothers a few more questions, but the brothers' attitude was cold, which made her feel a little wronged. She said in front of her mother that she would never play with them again. After hearing this, Luo Yun said that they had important business to attend to and asked her not to make trouble unreasonably.
But Luo Yun did not say what the special event was. In addition, Lin Wei did not think there was anything special about the date, so she did not think there was anything special about it.
But after recalling the conversation between the male protagonist and his colleagues in the company, Lin Wei felt that this matter was unusual.
Lin Wei felt that the anniversary of her death in the novel might be this day.
So every year on this day, Zong Shao would ask for leave, and the three of them, father and son, would go out in formal attire. The main thing they were going to do was probably to visit the graves.
Lin Wei didn't know how others would feel after learning the date of death, but after she confirmed the date, she calmed down completely.
Since it is certain that you will die soon, it is better to know the time of death in advance than to wait for death blindly.
At least, her chances of survival would be greater.
If Lin Wei could still think calmly when she was on the boat, she would know how she would spend the rest of her time if struggling was useless. Now, Lin Wei only had one thought in her mind -
Not only would she spend the rest of the year with Zong Shao and the children, she would also have to spend the next ten or even several decades with them.
She must survive!
The author has something to say:
There will also be an update tomorrow morning.
By the way, the red envelope for the previous chapter has been sent out, but the unified comments don’t seem to be displayed. If the little angels haven’t received it, please tell me and I’ll make up for it.
Please collect the next article~
"Traveling back to the 1970s and becoming a stepmother"
1. Su Ting traveled into a period novel and became the hero’s perfect sister-in-law.
Since her original body could not marry the male protagonist, she deliberately designed a plan to adopt the male protagonist's brother's child who was a comrade-in-arms. After the marriage, she was unwilling to give in and deliberately tortured her stepchildren, and finally succeeded in committing suicide and was sent to prison.
Finding herself on the road where she lost her stepdaughter, Su Ting turned around and walked into the supply and marketing cooperative with the little girl in her hand!
2. After traveling through time, Su Ting was dealt a bad hand——
The husband is away in the army and the relationship is distant. The mother-in-law has money but favors her younger uncle. There is also an unreliable family and a bad reputation...
Looking at the two skinny little kids in front of her and thinking of her husband who was the head of the group at that time, Su Ting decisively took the children and traveled thousands of miles to find her husband!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
