Chapter 78
Director Qiu had just accompanied a team of Hong Kong businessmen to visit the factory. After visiting the factory, they were very interested. Director Qiu accompanied them to the inspection and sent them back to the hotel. He also found a few young people who could read people's expressions to accompany them.
“As long as they ask for good food, good drinks and fun things, we try our best to satisfy them.”
The city has worked hard to attract investment, and Director Qiu is eager to sign the contract tomorrow so that these unemployed workers can get the money.
After arranging everything, Director Qiu returned to the cotton spinning factory.
The factory's overstocked stock had been sold out recently, and the money raised covered one-fifth of the factory's severance pay. The remaining workers had no income, and some began to block his door again.
Director Qiu could only stay in the cotton textile factory as much as possible to calm these people down.
Director Qiu rushed to the factory office and was immediately overwhelmed when he saw someone standing at the door waiting for him.
"Why are you still waiting here..."
Jian Feng stood at the door with empty hands.
Director Qiu saw that he was no longer like he had been a few days ago, bringing all kinds of things every time he came, so he sighed and let him into the office.
Jian Feng walked in and said in a low voice: "Director Qiu, that child is really good at studying. If it weren't for what happened at home, she would have been able to continue her studies."
Director Qiu rubbed his brows and said, "Jian Feng, I think you are a smart person. You should be able to understand what I said before."
"In the past few days, you have come one after another. More than a dozen of the girl's old neighbors have come, and even the street office has come. I have said countless times that this quota cannot be given to her."
Jian Feng's heart tightened: "No, I'm not asking for a quota, I'm giving her a chance."
Jian Feng said anxiously: "If she fails the exam, we won't be able to say anything. But the child has good academic performance, so we are just asking you for a chance."
Director Qiu looked cold: "Now it's not a question of whether to give her a chance or not, it's because her parents have been removed from the factory. If you ask me to give her a chance, the result will be that other children will lose this opportunity."
"There are only three vacancies in total. This is a benefit given to laid-off workers in the factory. She does not meet the qualifications. She got this opportunity, but others did not."
Jian Feng wanted to ask again, but Director Qiu waved his hand and told him to stop.
"Thousands of people have already been laid off from the cotton mill. Once this opening is opened, everyone will come to me. What should I do?"
"Besides, if everyone has opinions, who will be responsible for this, you or me?"
Jian Feng lowered his head: "Is there really no other way?"
Jian Feng is not so arrogant as to think that he can take care of everything for Xu Yanan. He is not a rich man, but a person who has just struggled out of poverty. And Jian Li still has three years of high school and four years of college in the future.
Jian Feng wanted to give Xu Yanan a chance to study. As long as she could survive the past three years, the future would be bright for her.
Director Qiu couldn't bear to see him like this and asked about Xu Yanan's situation.
"Has the police station not contacted her parents yet?"
Jian Feng shook his head, and Sun Yan made up her mind to run. The police station only found out that she took a bus to the south, but they didn't know whether she got off the bus halfway or changed buses after arriving at her destination.
Director Qiu: "Then doesn't she have an uncle?"
Jian Feng smiled bitterly. Xu Yanan's uncle didn't say he would not raise the child, but he just said, take the child home to raise him.
It is impossible to continue studying. The only thing left is to get married and live a life in a few years.
Xu Yanan argued for herself, saying that she would not leave even if she had to pick up garbage in the city.
She is not determined to study now, she just wants to take the high school entrance examination.
Director Qiu's words were on his lips, but he didn't say them out loud after repeating them several times.
He thought that since things had come to this point, why should he insist on studying?
That girl is indeed pitiful, but there are many pitiful people in the world who can survive without studying.
Jian Feng certainly saw what Director Qiu was thinking. He was silent for a moment, wanting to say that he was in the same situation back then.
Looking at Xu Yanan, her situation was so similar to his.
However, the cotton mill has now closed down.
Some things remain the same, and some things have changed.
After coming out from Director Qiu, Jian Feng first went to look at Xu Yanan.
Xu Yanan's food has been provided by each household in the compound in turn these days, and no one complained that it was inconvenient. Most people felt sorry for the child. Some elderly neighbors helped the child and went to the street office and the factory leaders one by one.
This tactic was very effective in the past. In the past few decades, there have been children whose parents have had accidents in the factory, some even worse than Jian Feng. The cotton textile factory also raised the children in this way. The neighbors had a meal in one house and a bowl of porridge in another, but the children still grew up. After growing up, they took over their parents' work, and then things got better.
But now...
Xu Yanan lowered his head: "Uncle, you don't have to do this for me."
A week after Sun Yan left, Xu Yanan seemed to have grown up suddenly. Before Sun Yan was still around, she was always depressed. She was entangled in whether Sun Yan loved her, why she was studying, and where her future would be.
But once Sun Yan left, Xu Yanan told herself that from then on, she would be alone.
The school head teacher called her over and gave her a hundred yuan.
"Kid, try your best to move forward. The more others try to pull you down, the more you should strive to move forward."
"I don't want to do that to anyone. Don't do it for your parents' sake, do it for yourself."
"The world outside is vast and open. Once you climb out, you will find another world."
Xu Yanan didn't say that many people had actually given her money in the past few days.
Sometimes, just by turning around, she would find a few more dollars in her pocket, scattered bills, and she didn't even know who gave them to her.
Xu Yanan glanced at Jian Feng and thought of Wang Mengmei again.
She had never understood why she couldn't develop friendship with Jian Li.
They had known each other since childhood. They had been in the same class since they were very young. As for their childhood friendship, they were born in the same year and went to the same school. She even knew Jian Li earlier than Xia Liu.
When exactly is it?
Xu Yanan recalled the deepest part of her memory and it seemed that she had had a small interaction with Jian Li when she was a child.
That was in the kindergarten of the cotton spinning factory. Jian Li was weak and fragile when she was little, and looked easy to be bullied. Aunt Wang Mengmei bought her a row of Wahaha and asked her worriedly if she could play with Jian Li in the kindergarten.
"Auntie knows that our Yanan is a good kid. Xiaoli is a little younger than you and she is afraid of people. Can you help Auntie watch over her and not let her get bullied?"
Little Xu Yanan patted her chest and promised: "Auntie, I will definitely take care of my sister!"
At that time, Jian Li, blinking her big eyes like black grapes, followed her softly every day, calling her sister.
Xu Yanan would chase away the little boys who pulled Jian Li's braids, and then Jian Li would clap her hands with a smile, open her small backpack, and share the snacks she brought with her.
The two little dumplings sat on small stools, sharing the jelly, dried fruits and jerky that Wang Mengmei prepared for her daughter.
But later, because of something, the two of them stopped speaking to each other?
One afternoon, it was about to rain heavily, and Jian Feng and Wang Mengmei both took leave to pick up their daughter. It was not yet time for school to end, but they both said they were afraid that their daughter would get sick from the rain, so they took Jian Li away directly.
Originally, Jian Feng wanted to take her back with him, but Xu Yanan was stubborn.
"I'm waiting for my mom and dad."
So Jian Feng and Wang Mengmei took Jian Li away.
Xu Yanan waited for an entire afternoon, and all the children were picked up by their parents.
She was the only one there, watching the rain getting heavier and heavier, but still no one came.
Finally, at nine o'clock in the evening, the principal of the kindergarten came with an umbrella and sent her back.
Xu Jianguo said nothing, but Sun Yan was scolding her.
"Everyone else has left, are you stupid? Can't you come back by yourself?"
Xu Yanan thought, perhaps from that moment on, she and Jian Li were destined to never have a friendship.
Jian Li would never understand her dark and damp thoughts.
And she... was jealous of other people's happiness.
She couldn't deceive herself in the face of Jian Li's happiness.
Her parents don't love her.
…
Xu Yanan shook her head and got rid of these useless thoughts.
"Uncle Jian, I've made up my mind."
This thin little girl seemed to suddenly no longer be obsessed with love or not love, and her eyes revealed tenacity and stubbornness.
"The Cotton Mill Middle School is not the only school that does not charge tuition."
"I plan to apply to a nursing school."
The health schools in the city are free of charge for three years, and there are subsidies every month. Although the subsidies cannot cover living expenses, at least there is no tuition fee.
Jian Feng frowned: "You don't have to be like this, high school is fine too, uncle won't just stand by and watch..."
He gritted his teeth and decided that it would only take three more years to support a child. He could...
Xu Yanan shook her head: "Uncle Jian, no need."
She still did not give up her dream of going to college, but at this moment, she chose a path that did not require her to rely on others.
"I will study hard and work hard. Even if I enter a nursing school, I will do my best to improve myself in the future."
Xu Yanan said this to Jian Feng as well as to herself.
"My own path, I want to go on my own."
She was fed up with the uncertainty in life. She could get temporary help from others, but her self-esteem was like a burden that she couldn't get rid of. She had no choice but to accept that she was just that kind of person.
But it is precisely because of this self-esteem that Xu Yanan feels that she can hold on for a long time without falling down.
Xu Yanan stopped thinking about all those distractions and really calmed down to study hard.
In two months, she doesn't want to leave any regrets for herself.
*****
Jian Li was not surprised at all after learning of Xu Yanan's choice.
Jian Feng and Wang Mengmei couldn't sleep for several days because of this incident, but Jian Li advised them not to try to change Xu Yanan anymore.
"Respect her."
Xu Yanan studied hard every day. The exams for the third year of junior high school were held once a week, and her ranking was gradually rising.
From tenth in the class, I gradually caught up to fifth, third...
Finally, half a month before the high school entrance examination, Xu Yanan became the second in the class.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
