Chapter 123: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 123

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

The expressway project was underway in full swing.

Li Xiulan followed Zhang Zhongtian's engineering team for over a month, but she couldn't keep at it.

It was simply too hard.

She had to do very heavy physical labor every day, and she was busy from morning till night, ten-plus hours, resting only at noon for a meal.

The old injury on Li Xiulan's waist flared up again, and this time she no longer forced herself; she wisely chose to withdraw.

Because she still had Wang Zhanggen's construction site as a fallback, she didn't need to ruin her waist for this bit of money.

The pain in her waist was truly unpleasant—she knew from experience—so she didn't want to hurt herself again.

When Li Xiulan tendered her resignation, Zhang Zhongtian still tried to keep her with apparent sincerity, saying that a job paying twenty yuan a day wasn't easy to find anywhere, and in this mountain pass of Shanggou Village, only he, Zhang Zhongtian, could offer Li Xiulan such work.

Li Xiulan did not deny this, but she feared her waist injury would recur; she would rather work for Wang Zhanggen at fifteen yuan a day than risk another recurrence.

After Zhang Zhongtian understood Li Xiulan's worries, he stopped trying to keep her, but he still said:

"Xiulan, if you leave now, I'm afraid you'll only get one month's wages. The higher-ups have regulations: those who haven't completed a full month of work hours must be counted as one month. You now have one month and eight days of work hours."

Li Xiulan was very displeased about this in her heart, but thinking that Zhang Zhongtian had handled many matters for her before, and that Zhang Zhongtian was now the Village Committee Secretary of Shanggou Village, she didn't want to make things too stiff with Zhang Zhongtian, so she finally had to compromise.

"Fine, fine, then just give me one month's wages."

But she didn't know that there was no such regulation at all from above.

Above only told him to hire workers, and wages were paid in full every day.

But it had to go through his hands; how he paid the workers below, the higher-ups wouldn't inquire into.

This gave Zhang Zhongtian the loophole to deduct the workers' wages.

Zhang Zhongtian appeared gentle and amiable on the surface, very understanding of human feelings.

But he devoured people without spitting out the bones.

He even dared to deduct the wages of fellow villagers from the same village with a clear conscience!

Actually, he didn't need to deduct Li Xiulan's bit of wages; he could still make a fortune, but he did it anyway.

He deducted eight days of Li Xiulan's wages, totaling one hundred and sixty yuan.

And now he could take in over three hundred yuan a day!

A supervisor from above who knew the situation found Zhang Zhongtian's behavior an eyesore, came over and muttered a sentence:

"Why are you deducting her money? She's clearly a poor village woman; there's no need to deduct these few days' wages from her. How pitiful!"

Zhang Zhongtian, however, laughed and said:

"You don't understand this. I'm not deducting her money because I'm greedy for this bit of cash, but to make management easier."

The supervisor gave a dry laugh:

"Oh? Is that so?"

He despised Zhang Zhongtian in his heart—clearly deducting people's wages yet speaking so righteously; this kind of person was the worst.

Zhang Zhongtian, however, said:

"Think about it. If I let Li Xiulan leave so casually, other workers would see it and think our job is one where you can come and go as you please. Wouldn't that be chaos? I have to do this so they don't dare quit randomly; even if they quit, they must grit their teeth and finish a full month. Otherwise, how troublesome it would be for me to find new workers!"

The supervisor, upon hearing this, had to admit it made some sense.

One can only say that standing in different positions, the problems considered are different.

Zhang Zhongtian was indeed very capable at his work, but it was undeniable that he was exploiting vulnerable workers like Li Xiulan.

After Li Xiulan returned home, she told Wang Zhanggen that she had resigned from Zhang Zhongtian's place, collected six hundred yuan in wages, and wanted to go back to Wang Zhanggen's construction site to do odd jobs.

Wang Zhanggen, upon hearing this, was unwilling.

"You think you can come and go as you please? Do you think that construction site is your home? Now Zhang Dabiao's wife Chen Dongmei is doing odd jobs there, and she works harder than you. I'd be embarrassed to chase her away!"

Although Wang Zhanggen's words were harsh, they were the truth.

Besides, Wang Zhanggen couldn't make this decision either; he wasn't the boss of this project. The owner, Chen Dongmei, was the real boss of this project.

Li Xiulan was very depressed about this, but had nothing to say.

Wang Zhanggen finally said:

"If you really want to come back and work for me, then you go talk to Chen Dongmei yourself and see if she's willing to give up the odd-job position to you. I don't have such a thick face to bring this up!"

Li Xiulan knew she was in the wrong, and she didn't have such a thick face either to bring this up.

Poor people are all like this: as long as they don't starve to death, they care about face.

Finally she could only say:

"Fine, fine, then I won't go work. After you finish this construction site, we'll go work together. I'll just farm some land at home!"

In the end Li Xiulan chose to farm at home.

It happened to be the autumn plowing season.

Li Xiulan planted two or three mu of paddy fields and over one mu of peanuts.

She once again focused her energy on farm work.

The last time she focused her energy on farm work was already several years ago.

Wang Zhanggen said nothing about this.

He was no longer as restless as when he was young. After being battered by society, he had become conservative and silent. Now he had no ambition; going to the construction site to work every day and coming home to a meal was enough.

Of course, his relationship with Li Xiulan remained the same.

Both wore stern faces toward each other; there was certainly no warm family atmosphere, only occasional quarrels and mutual attacks. Over the course of a year, there were dozens of small arguments and seven or eight major ones.

For Wang Xiaohua, who had not yet started school at the time, this was said to have caused him immense psychological trauma.

Fortunately, whenever the couple quarreled, they never involved the child. Wang Xiaohua only needed to hide in the bedroom to read, and he would be fine; at most, after they finished quarreling, he would come out to the living room and see a mess everywhere.

In the blink of an eye, the Millennium Year arrived, and Wang Xiaohua was at the age to study and go to school.

In September of that year, it was time to register for school.

Unlike other children who cried and refused to go to school, Wang Xiaohua actually acted as excited and happy as during the Spring Festival. He had long wanted to come to school; before, it was to find playmates who wouldn't mock him, and now besides that, he also wanted to escape the oppressive atmosphere at home.

As long as he went to school to study, he wouldn't have to face his frowning mother, his father who threw tantrums at the slightest disagreement, or all sorts of unbearable negative emotions.

"Xiaohua, when you go to school, you must study hard, listen to the teacher, understand?"

Li Xiulan sent Wang Xiaohua to the school gate and patiently instructed him.

Wang Xiaohua was short in stature, with a childish face, but had very mature eyes.

He said to Li Xiulan:

"Mom, I haven't been called Xiaohua for many years; please call me Xiao Hua!"

Li Xiulan laughed:

"Okay, okay, Xiao Hua, study hard, I'm leaving!"

She didn't care whether her youngest son was called Xiaohua or Xiao Hua. She had never truly deeply understood Wang Xiaohua's inner feelings, nor did she know how much sensitivity and self-esteem lay hidden behind his well-behaved and sensible personality.