Chapter 45 Unexpected News
The day after Shen Lingyu signed up, Zhao Lujun, who had taken her to the hospital and met Song Lubai twice, also signed up.
Can people from the same place be assigned to one location?
While others who sign up first ask important questions such as what kind of work they will be assigned there and how many times they can go home in a year, this man's focus is different from others.
The person in charge answered affirmatively: "That's for sure. Basically, each person from one area can be assigned to a company. When we recruit people, we will form squads and teams organized by street, so we will not break them up. This will take into account neighborhood relations and facilitate centralized management. If you sign up together, you don't have to worry about being separated."
Before the crowd of people who had come to sign up had dispersed, Xiao Yan came over happily and nudged Song Lubai on the shoulder, "Go quickly, it's time to collect your salary. I'll watch over things here for now."
After pressing her fingerprint, Song Lubai received twenty-three yuan and a small number of receipts.
She had been working for over a month. Everyone else received their wages on the third day after she arrived, but she didn't have much to do then. After a month of hard work, she finally received her pay.
The few receipts in his hand were the most common soap coupons, salt coupons, kerosene coupons, and match coupons, as well as a cigarette coupon.
Not long after she returned to the office, someone came to ask her what tickets she had received.
"Do you have any industrial coupons? I can exchange them for tofu coupons."
Song Lubai shook her head and simply spread all the receipts on the table for everyone to see.
That person was somewhat hard to describe. Apart from one cigarette ticket which looked nice, the other tickets were really ordinary and not worth mentioning.
Zhao Lei, who was passing by, shook his head. "Now you know what's wrong with us, right?"
They never get to have the good stuff.
Although industrial vouchers are rare, other units and collectives receive some every month, but getting industrial vouchers at the street office depends on luck.
If you were to exchange the industrial ration coupons needed to buy a bicycle with the big shots at the neighborhood office, you could never save up enough for a bicycle in your entire life.
"Your cigarette coupons are enough for 5 packs. Do you want them? I can exchange them for tofu coupons."
Song Lubai shook her head, "Someone in my family smokes. I got paid today, and I'm thinking of spending it after work."
Lin Dahai has been in a bad mood lately, and although the atmosphere at home is somber, Song Lubai feels that her relationship with Lin Dahai has inexplicably improved. She buys him a few packs of cigarettes as a token of her appreciation and to thank him for speaking up for her before.
When it was time to leave work, Song Lubai and several female colleagues from the office went to the nearest department store together.
The department store was about to close at this time. Although there were still people inside, there weren't many. After all, most of the rare items had been sold out during the morning rush hour.
Cigarettes are a consumable item, unlike meat, which is consumed by the whole family and sells out quickly. There are still many different types of cigarettes on the shelves.
Song Lubai didn't know which cigarettes were good, but she knew the kind Lin Dahai often smoked. She ordered three packs of Round Ball brand cigarettes, which Lin Dahai often smoked, costing 12 cents a pack, and also bought two packs of Glory brand cigarettes, costing 38 cents a pack.
As she hummed a song and returned to her apartment building, the smile on her face vanished the moment she opened the door and saw the people in the main room.
Lin Shuhong's younger sister, Lin Shuyan, was sitting on a stool, glaring at her as she entered. Her eyes were red and swollen, as if she had been crying.
Song Lubai asked with a long face, "Why are you glaring at me? What did I do to you? Or are you just jealous?"
Compared to when I saw Lin Shuyan during the Lunar New Year, Lin Shuyan is now noticeably fatter.
Zhang Cui gave Song Lubai a look that said "shut up."
Song Lubai thought to herself that something important must have happened again, otherwise her mother wouldn't be acting like this.
Lin Shuyan stood up with her arms crossed and questioned, "I heard you're the one who saved that man?"
Song Lubai was taken aback.
Why bring up Li Guangming again? Isn't that all in the past? What are you trying to settle with her about now?
She asked impatiently, "What exactly are you trying to say?"
Lin Shuyan, her eyes red, said, word by word, "My brother's newborn son died because he couldn't get milk. Tell me, does this have anything to do with you? Shuhong came to you for help before, and what did you do? If you hadn't been so cold-blooded, would Shuhong's son have starved to death without his mother's milk? If you hadn't interfered, none of this would have happened. Tell me, isn't it your fault? You and your daughter are both wicked! If it weren't for you..."
Lin Shuyan was very agitated. She pointed at Song Lubai's nose and cursed, and also cursed Zhang Cui.
Song Lubai was shocked to hear that the baby was gone.
Although she never held the child, she saw him at the hospital many times.
Most of the time, the baby lay quietly sleeping in the hospital bed, even his whimpers were very soft.
Liu Mei suffered severe bleeding when the child was born, and the child seemed very weak.
His death was indeed unexpected, but she didn't seem to have done anything wrong, did she?
It wasn't her fault that he died.
As Lin Shuyan angrily questioned, "Are you all satisfied now?", Song Lubai also revealed a sharp and furious expression:
"What does this have to do with us? If Liu Mei and her family hadn't been so heartless and done those illegal and harmful things, would the police have arrested her? You dare to blame us because we're easy to bully? Why don't you dare go to the police to demand her release, you coward? Why don't you blame Liu Mei's family for not taking good care of the child? Why don't you blame yourself for not taking the child home to raise after Liu Mei was arrested? You just gave birth not long ago, you could have fed the baby together! You blame us, do you even have the right to blame us?"
Lin Shu-yen was left speechless by the rebuttal.
After learning that Liu Mei had gotten into trouble and been arrested, she did have the idea of taking the child back to raise together, but her in-laws and her husband disagreed, so she had to give up. She thought that since the Liu family had treated Liu Mei well in the past, the remaining women in the Liu family should also treat Liu Mei's child well.
Who would have thought that the child would die in just over half a month?
Lin Shuyan was furious, but she didn't want to admit that it was her fault.
She raised her hand to hit Song Lubai, but Song Lubai grabbed her arm and shoved her hard.
Lin Shuyan staggered backward, while Song Lubai continued to press closer, "Why don't you blame yourself for not taking the child back to raise? Do you have any right to blame me? I owe you anything?"
In the dream, Lin Shuyan's harsh words about her at her grave overlapped with her current appearance.
Song Lubai's temper flared up, and she blurted out, "Liu Mei deserves it. Heaven has eyes and punishes those who do bad things."
"Smack!"
The loud slap was deafening to Song Lubai.
She looked at Lin Dahai, who had hit her, and blood silently flowed from her nose, down her lips, and onto her chin.
Her ears were still ringing. Lin Shuyan's mouth opened and closed, her expression fierce, but Song Lubai couldn't hear what she was saying.
Her mother also came closer and said something to her, and judging from her expression, she seemed to be blaming her as well.
It wasn't until I heard the noise from the outside world again that everything returned to reality.
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