Pan Li was looked at with extremely strange eyes by everyone present. They didn't say anything, but the atmosphere was more embarrassing than speaking. He said angrily, "Where did you come from, little comrade? How can you slander others as soon as you open your mouth?"
Old Lady Xia smiled and said, "To know whether it's a false accusation or not, find out when Comrade Pan Li joined the factory, when he split up, how much his monthly salary was, how many children he had at the time, and then guess at his expenses at the time, and you'll know if he could afford to raise the children on his own."
Director Shao began to flip through the documents, but was stopped by Pan Li. "Alright, you guys are making this fuss just because you want us brothers to support our parents. I agree to pay my share."
Director Shao put Pan Li's information back into her cloth bag. As the women's director of the food factory, she had successfully completed her task today and now it was time for the directors of other factories to make an effort.
Pan Mei's face was still dark. "Dad, so you really wanted to starve us sisters on purpose. If my brother hadn't been born, you wouldn't care if we starved to death, right?"
Pan Li remained silent, but Pan Fu spoke up instead. "Amei, aren't you asking for trouble by questioning your father? Just understand in your heart that your father doesn't care about the lives of others except himself and his son. When he doesn't need to, he just puts the blame on us brothers. You're really overthinking it if you expect a guy like him to say he cares about you."
Pan Mei was disappointed with her father after hearing this, but this was ultimately her own family matter, and being mocked by her uncle was a bit embarrassing. As Pan Li's daughter, she had naturally learned some of his scapegoating skills. "Uncle, please stop mocking my dad. Your family isn't very harmonious either. You're saying my dad is blaming me, but aren't you taking advantage of me?"
Pan Fu: "You have learned a lot of skills from your father. Even though my family was not harmonious, I never let my children go hungry, nor did I hide my money from my daughter."
Pan Mei: "Don't flatter yourself. Uncle, who are you? You push the blame on others when you make your own mistakes. You even say that Grandpa couldn't get promoted because he offended the boss. But the workers of Grandpa's generation retired a long time ago. Who would offend you for a retired old comrade?
Uncle, you said I'm good at passing the buck, but I'm definitely better than you. I won't make such lame excuses to cover up my incompetence like you do. I think you're the most heartless. Grandpa treated you, the eldest son, the best, and yet you're still stubborn and refuse to pay."
Seeing her eldest uncle's face flushed with anger after being scolded by her, while her second uncle, fourth uncle, and fifth uncle were laughing secretly, Pan Mei was also unhappy. Why was her father the only one who agreed to pay now? "Second uncle, don't be so happy..."
Old Lady Xia and other factory leaders just watched as Pan Mei's mouth talked like a machine gun, telling all the bad things about his uncles and aunts' families. The other members of the Pan family who had been laughing just now were so angry that they raised their hands to hit people.
"Assault is against the law. Although Pan Mei is your relative, if she is unwilling to mediate, you can just prepare to pay." Old Lady Xia shouted, and those angry people put down their hands smoothly.
Chen Xiangbei finally understood. The long story Pan Mei had told him on the way was all his father's. There was almost no truth in it. The Pan family was full of black-hearted and rotten-lung people, the worst kind of ungrateful people who would watch their elderly parents die.
They were even unwilling to do it for the sake of face. It was just a few cents, which was not worth mentioning to workers like them. But because the others didn't offer, they were afraid of being at a disadvantage, so the last one refused to offer.
Under Pan Mei's constant prodding and disruption, everyone was forced to agree to pay the money as she wished. Although the money was paid reluctantly, which made the leaders sad, it was at least alimony.
When the time comes, they will report to the street office and the civil affairs office to see if they can apply for any subsidies. Then the lives of the old couple will be much better in the future.
The matter was resolved as she had hoped. Old Lady Xia sighed. The alimony issue had been resolved, but her ideological education had completely failed. Judging from the looks on their faces, they were likely to be even more disgusted with their parents in the future.
"Director Xia, wait a minute." Director Shao from the food factory called her from behind.
Old Lady Xia was puzzled, "What's wrong?"
Director Shao said worriedly, "I'm wondering what else we can do about this. This kind of result makes me feel really angry."
The women directors of the other three factories also came over and chattered about their thoughts as they walked out. To sum it up, they were angry, and they all felt disheartened.
At the fork in the road, Old Lady Xia came up with a good idea. "Why don't you talk to the factory's publicity department about publishing a section about elder care obligations and filial piety in this issue of the factory newspaper and on the bulletin board?"
"That's a good idea. Words can most effectively influence public opinion. Although most people in the factory are good and there are very few people like them, publishing a journal on this topic can serve as a warning to them and remind those comrades who have such intentions that this is wrong." Director Shao agreed first.
The few of them parted ways at a fork in the road, and Old Lady Xia began to think on the way. Although the people who published the journal and wrote the articles were comrades from the Propaganda Department, she also wanted to learn from them.
On the other side, Pan Mei angrily wanted to pull Pan Li to question him again, but Pan Li shook her off with the excuse that he was busy at the factory.
She could only follow Chen Xiangbei, cursing and getting angry.
Chen Xiangbei was helpless. "Why are you following me? I didn't do anything for you, so I won't charge you any money. Let's be even."
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