Chapter 306: The Toilet Beauty Qin Huairu

Cleaning Section.

A department dedicated to sanitation.

Qin Huairu was transferred to the Cleaning Section, which meant she was assigned to sweep toilets.

This outcome.

It was both within and beyond Shazhu's expectations.

Judging by Qin Huairu's skills, no matter which workshop she went to, she'd be a drag on others.

After such a bloody lesson, nobody sane would want to follow in the Ninth Workshop's footsteps, and no workshop leader would dare to take in Qin Huairu.

The Cleaning Section, which had low technical demands, became Qin Huairu's top choice; she had no choice but to go there.

She dealt with feces every day.

She surely carried the smell on her.

Consequently.

Could Qin Huairu still be the celebrated belle of the Yagangchang?

Even if.

She was merely a feces‑smeared belle.

The Jia family's domestic disputes and the Siheyuan's gossip largely stemmed from Qin Huairu's nickname as the Yagangchang belle.

One could say it was a blessing in disguise.

Perhaps because of this, the Jia family would enjoy a spell of peace.

At lunchtime, while getting his meal, Shazhu saw Qin Huairu; she looked dreadfully ill, her face pale and helpless, like a senseless block of wood.

"Ah!"

Shazhu sighed inwardly and gave a slight shake of his head.

He recalled an idiom.

"You reap what you sow."

If Yi Zhonghai had been around, and if Qin Huairu had the slightest ambition, she wouldn't have ended up like this—forced out of the Ninth Workshop and relegated to sweeping toilets in the Cleaning Section.

The belle cleaning toilets.

That in itself was a hot topic.

Even those who rarely used the restroom before now found excuses to go, and some even crossed the plant to use the toilet Qin Huairu was cleaning.

They literally exhausted Qin Huairu to the point of being a bastard!

It was clearly her own fault.

Instead she blamed Jia Zhangshi, claiming her fall to sweeping toilets at Yagangchang was due to Jia Zhangshi hoarding money and refusing to let her use it.

As Shazhu returned home from work and hadn't yet pushed his bike into the Big Courtyard, the quarrel between Jia Zhangshi and Qin Huairu pierced the night and rang in his ears.

"Is your toilet‑sweeping my fault? No, you just lack ambition. You've been filling in for three years, you can't do anything, you only know how to mess around with men. I tell you, Qin Huairu, this is a Jia family job—my eldest grandson Bangeng will rely on it to marry someday."

"Back then, you pretended not to hear anything; if Bangeng can't find a wife later, that's your Jia family's problem, not mine, Qin Huairu."

Shazhu realized he had overestimated the Jia family.

He had thought that after Qin Huairu married An Jiahe, even if Jia Zhangshi and she still clashed, they'd at least pretend to be civil for a few days.

But the very next day his true colors showed—just as before, he remained the same sort of person.

The old are forever shameless.

The young are forever shameless.

Shazhu pushed his bicycle into the Siheyuan.

Quite the fellow.

They're all people.

The Siheyuan's over a hundred residents all gathered in the Zhong Yuan, watching the Jia family's mother‑in‑law and daughter‑in‑law argue like spectators at a show.

They truly treated the scene as a prop to kill time.

Someone brought a small stool and sat to watch the drama; others held their rice bowls, eating while staring fixedly at Qin Huairu and Jia Zhangshi.

He locked his bike and joined the crowd watching the show.

Jia Zhangshi and Qin Huairu, the two widows, exchanged words back and forth, arguing fiercely, each trying to undermine the other and uttering nothing but embarrassing remarks.

"Qin Huairu, how dare you speak to me like that? I'm your mother‑in‑law. If you curse me, you're unfilial."

Jia Zhangshi was seething inside.

She also knew Qin Huairu had suffered at Yagangchang, and she could smell a faint fecal odor on her.

But you're the one who's suffering.

I'm your mother‑in‑law; I gave you freedom and let you marry An Jiahe, such a fine husband.

According to Jia Zhangshi's view, you, Qin Huairu, should be grateful and treat me, your former mother‑in‑law, with proper filial piety.

Too bad.

The unfilial one has come to Jia Zhangshi.

Qin Huairu, returning home from work, vented all her anger on Jia Zhangshi, believing her miserable state was entirely Jia Zhangshi's fault.

Some thought they could use this occasion to press Jia Zhangshi for money.

"Mother‑in‑law? Have An Jiahe call you 'Mom' and see if he does. Your son is Jia Dongxu, my husband is An Jiahe—even if you're a mother‑in‑law, you're only a former one. I say Qin Huairu is unfilial; ask the neighbors, which widow who remarries still brings along her former mother‑in‑law?"

After sweeping toilets all day, Qin Huairu was driven to the brink of madness.

The proud Yagangchang belle had become a feces‑smeared beauty.

Such a contrast.

She could hardly accept it mentally.

Not accepting it is not allowed.

Unless she wants to be fired.

Physical fatigue is one thing, but psychological discomfort is what's truly deadly.

Qin Huairu is also someone who loves cleanliness.

Suddenly having to clean the toilet, with feces and urine all over the floor and a nauseating smell, it almost made Qin Huairu vomit.

Those coworkers are all bastards who kick someone when they're down, showing no regard for feelings. They come from other factory areas to use the toilet and deliberately make a mess all over the floor.

The leaders of the Cleaning Section are no better; knowing full well that Qin Huairu was expelled from the Ninth Workshop, they not only gave her no convenience in sanitation, but instead imposed a bunch of demands, saying that although the toilet is smelly, it must be cleaned spotless, so that every coworker who comes here to use the toilet will feel the efforts of the Cleaning Section comrades.

No matter how much effort or how clean, it's still a place for collecting feces.

Obviously she worked hard all day, yet she got no recognition, and they even said Qin Huairu has an antagonistic attitude toward sanitation work.

I originally thought going back home.

Then it would be better.

I didn't expect to hear, in the courtyard, a faint teasing remark about a feces-smelling beauty.

Qin Huairu instantly got angry, and originally wanted to go reason with that person.

Jia Zhangshi, however, happened to touch her sore point, and insisted on showing off in front of Qin Huairu, showing off the so-called good mother-in-law.

"You say you're good to me, Qin Huairu—then tell me, in what ways have you been good to me?"

"How have I not been good to you?"

"You've been pretty good to me—since your son died, you've been afraid I'd run off with work, watching me all day; I know the Jia family relies on me to hold things together, I know the Jia family would fall apart without me, Qin Huairu, thinking of the child being young, and also thinking of how your Jia family brought me from the countryside to the city, I've accepted it."

"You want to deny it? The work is the Jia family's work."

"I work during the day, come back at night to cook, wait on you, this mother-in-law, after eating, wash dishes, tidy the house, wait for Bangeng and them to fall asleep, then I still have to sew and mend their clothes with needle and thread."

"You think you're the only one suffering? I'm not suffering?"