Chapter 23 She has a crush on me. It would be better if Shi Meilan wasn't here...
When she just woke up, Shi Meilan still felt that she was sleeping in her own dormitory.
The chill from last night had not yet dissipated, so the house was not too stuffy. This morning, a few rays of sunlight shone through the window, accompanied by the chirping of birds and the clanging sound of chopping meat coming from downstairs.
She turned over in a daze, and the buckwheat pillow under her head made a rustling sound. She pulled her hands and feet, which had been sleeping all night, hard, and her sleeping muscles stretched comfortably. When the back of her hands rubbed against the unfamiliar cotton bedspread, it brought a somewhat strange touch.
Shi Meilan woke up suddenly.
She sat up, patted her face in confusion, then put on her clothes and walked under the bed.
When she opened the door, the two rooms next door were empty. No one knew where Hu Chengjun had gone. Shi Meilan walked down the stairs by herself. When she reached the first floor, she saw four people busy in the kitchen.
Two kitchen staff, a waiter, and Hu Chengjun.
The vegetables have to be washed and cut in the morning, otherwise you will be too busy all day.
There are not many people in the small restaurant, and as the boss, Hu Chengjun has to help out occasionally. It's a small workshop, so there are not that many people. It's not like a garment factory where everyone has a detailed division of labor, and the work here is basically done in a chain.
When the waiters have nothing to do, they go to the kitchen to help wash vegetables. When the waiters are busy, the chef in the kitchen can also come out to collect money. The boss Hu Chengjun also has to come to do some work occasionally.
When Shi Meilan came down, Hu Chengjun was chopping bones. Hearing footsteps coming from the stairs upstairs, he put down the knife in his hand, took off his bib, and turned around to see Shi Meilan.
Shi Meilan held her work uniform jacket in her arms, wearing only a white shirt on her upper body and a skirt on her lower body. The buttons on the collar of the white shirt were not fastened tightly, leaving two buttons empty, and a plump and full white mass could be vaguely seen.
Shi Meilan, who had just woken up, only had time to tidy her hair with her hands. She didn't even put on lipstick. She had just woken up, her eyes were sleepy, and she didn't have that strong aggressive power. When she slowly walked down holding the handrail, her round face was plain and elegant, and she looked like an orchid hanging on a branch.
Hu Chengjun glanced at her, feeling burned, and turned his head sharply, saying with his back to her: "The kitchen has something cooked, come and eat."
The look on his face made Shi Meilan want to laugh.
Shi Meilan had never seen such a cowardly man in her life. How could he be the same as Hu Honghua? She buttoned up her clothes and said, "It's too late."
Shi Meilan glanced at the sky and said, "We have to hurry to work."
"Then I'll pack it for you." Hu Chengjun walked towards the kitchen, quickly packed up a few iron lunch boxes, and turned around to hand them to Shi Meilan.
Shi Meilan had already buttoned her clothes and was putting on her suit jacket.
Actually, there was food in the cafeteria, and it was free. But Hu Chengjun packed it up and brought it over. Shi Meilan couldn't refuse it, so she simply picked it up, smelled it, and walked out while praising it, "Wow, it smells quite good."
There is beef stew soup in it, and the ingredients are very genuine. You can tell at a glance that it is all meat.
Hu Chengjun felt even more uncomfortable after being praised by her. He stood there for a while with his lips pursed, and then squeezed out a sentence: "I'll send it to your factory again tonight."
Shi Meilan replied, "No need, I'll eat in the cafeteria in the evening," and then left, tied the lunch box to the handlebars, and took it to the garment factory.
8:30 in the morning, a good time to go to work.
——
At the same time, in Baicheng City, inside the guesthouse.
Yuan Yao woke up in his bed in the guesthouse at 8:30 on time.
It’s good to be young. After waking up from yesterday’s hangover, Yuan Yao was still full of energy. After changing into a suit, he called everyone to his room for a meeting. Then everyone packed up and set off for Mr. Chen’s warehouse at nine o’clock.
The signing process went very smoothly. Mr. Chen was a man of integrity. Although Yuan Yao had no competitive advantage, the young man had drunk six rounds of drinks, so he signed - it didn't matter who he signed with, so he might as well sign with someone he liked.
This is how business people do business in this era. Once they sit at the table, the amount of alcohol they can drink is more important than the quality of the drink.
After the contract was signed, Mr. Chen didn't have time to have lunch with Yuan Yao, so he sent him away.
Yuan Yao didn't care. It was normal that people didn't take him seriously because he didn't have the capital and ability now. He would not complain about it, but would work hard to become stronger.
After saying goodbye to everyone, he hurried back to the garment factory.
He wanted to make a batch of clothes of the highest quality immediately.
He got the order this time by drinking, but for the next order, he will sit down and talk with Mr. Chen - he is confident and will use this batch of orders to prove himself.
He wanted to let Mr. Chen know that he could drink, but that was not all he knew how to do.
At Yuan Yao's urging, the small truck that had just arrived in Baicheng City was on the road again, carrying the dreams of some young people, going around in circles, and finally returning to its original starting point.
This time, Yuan Yao didn’t feel that Chunfeng Town was annoying. He was even looking forward to returning to Chunfeng Town.
As long as he sees hope, he can take root in even the most barren place.
——
It was noon on July 3rd when Mr. Yuan's truck returned to Chunfeng Garment Factory.
In the office on the second floor of Building 4 of the garment factory, a group of people were leisurely trying to fish in troubled waters.
The sales team was still busy, the design department was working on the latest styles of clothes, and Shi Meilan from the secretariat leisurely made herself a cup of tea, admiring the scenery outside the window, savoring the fragrance of the tea in her hand, and looking around.
There are two people missing from the office today.
Neither Lin Xinran nor Wang Yulian came to work.
Speaking of this, I have to mention last night. Those three people seemed to have been making a fuss outside for a long time. When Shi Meilan came to work today, Lin Xinran and Wang Yulian were not there.
Speaking of which, yesterday was probably the first time Wang Yulian and Li Jianye had a falling out, right? I don't know how it went down, but if they split up, it would be the end of them. Even onlookers like Shi Meilan would feel sorry if they didn't torture each other.
Shi Meilan sincerely wished that the two of them would be together forever. She felt comfortable when she thought about them being entangled with each other and secretly hating each other for the rest of their lives. Bad people and bad things were the best match.
I don’t know what happened to them yesterday.
Shi Meilan was just thinking about it, and before she could even think twice, she heard someone outside shouting, "Boss Yuan is back!"
Ouch!
Shi Meilan quickly stood up and prepared to go downstairs to pick up Hu Honghua.
Hu Honghua has returned, but Wang Yulian and Lin Xinran have not.
So where did Wang Yulian and Lin Xinran go?
——
Let’s go back to last night.
After the three of them had a fierce fight at the street corner, Li Jianye fell to the ground exhausted, while Wang Yulian and Lin Xinran, mother and daughter, hugged each other and cried.
The mother and daughter had never encountered such difficulties before. Now their lives are even harder than when they were in the village. They don’t know how they got to where they are now.
Wang Yulian's husband and Lin Xinran's biological father was a gentle man who had never fought in his life. Even when he was disappointed with Lin Xinran, he never taught her a lesson. The most cruel thing he had done was to leave all his money behind and return to the town alone, never to come back.
But Li Jianye was different. He really beat them.
When Li Jianye's slap hit Lin Xinran's face, she almost hated him in her heart. Only incompetent men would hit women! She hugged her mother and begged her mother: "Mom, let's go. We don't care about him anymore. He gave us 200 yuan. Let's save it together and pay it back."
They still have jobs. If they work hard in the future, the money they earn from both of them will be enough to pay back the debt. After a year of hardship, they will be able to live a good life.
But Wang Yulian disagreed.
"How can this be?" Wang Yulian hugged her and wiped her tears: "Mom can't be a widow, don't say such childish things."
At this moment, Wang Yulian placed her own life, her love, her obsessions, far more weight than Lin Xinran's thoughts, and dismissed her as childish. Should she abandon everything after a momentary injustice? How could she possibly live her life? Could anyone go a lifetime without being wronged? Who hasn't stumbled through life?
She has suffered enough from being a widow and will never be a widow again in this life. Although Li Jianye has some bad points, he is also good at times, and she feels that she can endure it.
As long as the daughter has the strength to stand up from the ground, she will want to help her mother up, but most of the time, her mother will choose to push her down, and most of the time, her mother thinks she is right.
How can it be wrong to listen to the words and do the things that you have been doing for a lifetime?
Everyone endures this way, and it will be fine if you just endure it. Lin Xinran later understood that her mother was doing this for her own good. She has a complete family, which is different from not having an incomplete family.
Lin Xinran trembled her lips and said nothing.
Lin Xinran didn’t understand. She couldn’t figure out why her mother was still with Li Jianye. Her mother said before that it was for “money”, but now that they have money, why is her mother still reluctant to let go of Li Jianye?
It was obvious that my mother was not cherished by Li Jianye, nor did she receive respect and love from him, but my mother seemed to be convincing herself that Li Jianye loved her, and then she willingly continued to be with Li Jianye.
Is it so important to have a man?
She was still young and could not see through the comparison hidden under Wang Yulian's truth. She just thought that her mother really liked Li Jianye. She watched her mother stand up and walk to Li Jianye who was lying on the ground.
At the end of this quarrel, Wang Yulian chose to bow to Li Jianye first.
She pulled Li Jianye and said, "Let's find a hotel to stay in first."
She was unwilling to separate from Li Jianye like this. Having a man to rely on was one reason, but she also had a second reason.
Secondly, she gave up all her reputation and face to snatch Li Jianye from Shi Meilan. In order to be with Li Jianye, she also gave up everything she had.
If she broke up with Li Jianye like this, wouldn't that indirectly negate everything she had given before? She had to admit that she had taken the wrong path and done the wrong thing.
She was unwilling to admit that she was wrong, so she could not separate from Li Jianye. She had to be happy to justify the suffering she had endured - she seemed to be competing with someone, gritting her teeth to continue living.
The same is true for Li Jianye.
When he was lying on the ground, he wanted to tear everyone's face apart and drink pesticide to death, but when Wang Yulian came to call him, he got up silently.
He gave up everything to be with Wang Yulian, and now he can't afford to separate from her, so the two of them can only continue to live their lives feeling awkward and annoyed with each other.
Many times, people's lives are like this, happiness and disgust entangled together, like an injury to the bones in the arm, pus growing in the bone joints, which cannot be drained out, so they can only grow like this, endure it, and walk out in torture day after day.
If you want to get rid of this pain, you have to scrape the bone to remove the poison, which will seriously damage your vitality. Most people can't bear to do this, so they can only continue to live in this miserable way. Although the arm will still hurt occasionally, at least this hand is still there, right?
From the outside, this is a complete person, not like those with missing limbs.
Li Jianye got up from the ground, and the three of them got up in silence. They found the hotel where they stayed yesterday and booked two rooms.
Lin Xinran slept next to Wang Yulian and Li Jianye. Through a thin wall, she heard her mother and stepfather arguing quietly. Later, they stopped arguing and seemed to roll together. Then she heard another sound.
The two of them seemed to have reconciled.
If the people in Lijia Village saw this, they would mutter: "That's how couples are, fighting at the head of the bed and making up at the foot of the bed."
But whether it is "reconciliation" or "making do", only they themselves know.
——
Lin Xinran was lying next to them, tossing and turning all night and couldn't fall asleep until the early morning.
The next morning at around eleven o'clock, Wang Yulian, who had overslept, knocked on Lin Xinran's door, and the two hurried to the garment factory.
By the time they arrived at the garment factory, it was already past half past twelve.
It was supposed to be lunchtime in the garment factory office, but when they arrived it was not lunchtime, but a group of people were working overtime.
It turned out that Mr. Yuan had returned with the contract and a sample garment, asking the design department to use this sample garment as a target and make a better one. The entire design department then became busy, and even the secretariat was busy dealing with the contract.
At the command of Mr. Yuan, everyone else had to follow suit and work until the task was finished before going to the cafeteria for lunch.
After Wang Yulian entered the office, she was taken away by Tong Dazhi - the sales team's working hours were very unstable, and sometimes they had to accompany customers until midnight, so the sales team basically did not record attendance.
But the secretarial team is different. They have fixed working hours. Lin Xinran came late, which made Manager Sun feel very embarrassed.
Director Zhou from the sales department also left, and his subordinates never caused any trouble, so why did she get into trouble now? Isn't it obvious that she is not good at managing people? If Manager Lu knew about this, he would definitely think she was incompetent.
Manager Sun was very concerned about his reputation and couldn't stand the humiliation, so he scolded Lin Xinran for half an hour with the intention of "killing the chicken to scare the monkey".
She had just left for a business trip, and right after that, Lin Xinran was late. Where had she left her? She definitely wouldn't let Lin Xinran get away with it so easily, so when she came back, she gathered all her strength, grabbed Lin Xinran, and started scolding her.
Lin Xinran hasn't breathed a sigh of relief the entire day since yesterday. She felt her blood boiling at being scolded, but she didn't dare to refute and just lowered her head in response.
Until Manager Sun calmed down after scolding her, he deducted two yuan from Lin Xinran's attendance bonus, and then said hypocritically: "I'm not talking about the person, but the matter. Don't take it to heart. You have to do your work seriously. Okay, get back to work."
Lin Xinran then lowered his head and returned to his seat.
The young girl couldn't stand being scolded in front of so many people. She wiped her tears for a while and then went back to work.
There were only three people in the secretariat today. Hu Honghua went to the third floor, Chen Chunxiang did not come to work, and there were only Shi Meilan and Manager Sun. There was no one to help her with her work, so she was stumbling.
While Lin Xinran was busy with her own things, she heard Manager Sun and Shi Meilan talking together.
There are three departments in this large office: secretary on the left, designer in the middle, and sales on the right. The seats in each department are connected together, and each other's workstations are connected to each other in square blocks. Lin Xinran can hear Shi Meilan and Manager Sun talking.
The two of them were so affectionate and talking about something, and when Lin Xinran heard their voices, she gritted her teeth in hatred.
She had too many emotions: anger at being ignored by her mother, heartache for her mother, resentment towards Li Jianye, and dislike for Manager Sun. All mixed together, tumbling and tumbling in her chest.
These emotions had no place to vent, and in the end they were all directed at Shi Meilan.
She didn't want to hate her mother, and because her mother liked Li Jianye, she didn't want to hate Li Jianye. She picked and chose among these people, and felt that Shi Meilan was the most hateful.
When she heard Shi Meilan's voice, she felt hatred surging in her heart.
Manager Sun, who had just been so cold and stern towards her, suddenly became so nice to Shi Meilan. Why? Why did Shi Meilan have to appear in their lives?
Before Shi Meilan came, Li Jianye and her mother lived in harmony. But after Shi Meilan came, troubles started to happen in their family.
Lin Xinran was so angry that her blood was rushing violently in her body and her head was buzzing. Suddenly, a thought popped up in her mind: If Shi Meilan was not in this garment factory, it would be great. If Shi Meilan lost this job, it would be great.
If Shi Meilan loses her job, she and her mother won't have to see Shi Meilan every day. If Shi Meilan loses her salary, Li Jianye will be happy.
This way the three of them will be happy.
Lin Xinran pressed the keyboard in her hand, thinking that if it weren't for Shi Meilan, the garment factory would definitely be a good place.
At this time, Manager Sun stood up and said to Shi Meilan, "After the contract is collected, pack up the paper contracts and send them to Secretary Hu on the third floor tomorrow. This is important. This is a contract that our President Yuan signed with great difficulty. Please pay attention to it."
Shi Meilan responded with an "ah" and lowered her head to continue working on the things in her hands.
Lin Xinran looked across the desk and saw the contract in Shi Meilan's hand.
A stack of white paper emits a fine luster in the sunlight.
She took a look and a bold idea came to her mind.
Lin Xinran lowered her eyes, reached out to type on the keyboard, pretending that she was busy too.
The voices around her were noisy, and she could hear her heart beating like a drum.
The cicadas are chirping wildly outside the window, and the trees outside are swaying in the wind. Those secret things are suppressed at the bottom and are still unknown to people.
We worked in the four office buildings for the whole afternoon, and by almost two o'clock, we finally managed to enter the progress into the database.
Manager Lu then let everyone leave and go to the cafeteria to eat, while she went to the third floor to report to Yuan Yao.
——
While everyone on the second floor rushed to the cafeteria to eat, Hu Honghua on the third floor was not allowed to go to the cafeteria.
Because Yuan Yao hasn't gone yet.
As Yuan Yao's personal secretary, she had to do whatever Yuan Yao did. Even if Yuan Yao was so busy that he forgot to eat, she had to work even when her belly was sticking to her back.
In the office on the third floor, while Yuan Yao was talking to Manager Lu, Hu Honghua was touching her belly.
So hungry so hungry so hungry so hungry so hungry——
Her resentment was almost turning into substance and emerging from her body.
Yuan Yao, who was talking to Manager Lu, took a glance and saw Hu Honghua with her head drooping dejectedly and a haggard look on her face.
Yuan Yao sneered.
I've never seen anyone so greedy.
Yuan Yao said to Manager Lu, "Alright, let's just report here. We'll have a meeting with other supervisors this afternoon."
Then, his handsome and cold face lifted slightly, and he looked at Hu Honghua with great compassion and said, "Secretary Hu - go to the cafeteria and bring me some food."
Hu Honghua stood up straight in surprise, responded, turned around and ran out without stopping for a moment.
As she walked past the table, something fell out of her pocket. Manager Lu, who was standing by, thought it had been scraped off the table. He took it and handed it to Mr. Yuan, saying, "Okay, Mr. Yuan, I'll be out first."
Yuan Yao's eyes subconsciously fell on the black notebook handed to him by Manager Lu.
When the notebook was picked up, the pages were turned over. Yuan Yao keenly saw his name among the turned pages.
Although it was a fleeting moment, he would not mistake his own name.
This is Hu Honghua’s notebook, which she always carries with her - why is his name written on it?
After Manager Lu left, Yuan Yao sat alone in the office. After pondering for a moment, he raised his hand and opened the notebook.
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