Chapter 790: Time Flies

Labor Day, 1968

Since the battle between the Jia family’s mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, several months have passed. In the end, as Jia Jia Zhangshi expected, this months-long struggle ended with Qin Qin Huairu returning to the Jia family.

During these months, quite a few things happened to Cao Cao Weiguo and those around him.

What makes Cao Cao Weiguo happiest is that Song Song Yulan is pregnant again. Secondly, Cao Cao Weiguo was transferred to the Municipal Industrial Bureau to work as the section chief of the Procurement Management Section. After the news spread, it caused a huge sensation in Nanluoguxiang and the Red Star Steel Rolling Plant.

Although this was a lateral transfer and Cao Cao Weiguo’s administrative rank remained at the section chief level, the functional power of the Municipal Industrial Bureau and the Red Star Steel Rolling Plant cannot be mentioned in the same breath. The Municipal Industrial Bureau is a government-affiliated unit responsible for guiding the city’s industrial production management, and the Red Star Steel Rolling Plant is also under the leadership and management of the Municipal Industrial Bureau.

Thanks to the care of Director Director Jiang, Cao Cao Weiguo has risen rapidly, becoming someone even Li Li Huaide has to treat with caution, making Li Li Huaide sigh with jealousy: "It really lives up to the old saying: 'With someone in the court, it’s easy to be an official.'"

As neighbors living in the same alley, Yi Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong, Yan Yan Fugui, Sha Zhu, Xu Xu Damao, Yan Yan Jiecheng, and others are filled with jealousy and resentment.

What is Cao Cao Weiguo worth?

Back then, Cao Cao Weiguo’s parents died, and he was just an inconspicuous orphan in the courtyard. When he entered the plant, he was just an inconspicuous apprentice. But who would have thought that such an inconspicuous thing would suddenly have such good luck, rising like a rocket from a cafeteria director to a section chief in a government unit.

This level of government leadership is top-tier even in the entire Nanluoguxiang. The police station chief and the neighborhood office director are several levels lower than Cao Cao Weiguo.

Thinking of Cao Cao Weiguo’s smooth official career, Yi Yi Zhonghai, Sha Zhu, and others curse the heavens for having no eyes. Liu Haizhong and Xu Xu Damao are green with jealousy, scrambling to bring gifts to congratulate him and climb the social ladder.

Qin Qin Huairu, who returned to the Jia family to continue being a beast of burden, sheds tears of grievance. Back then, this Cao Cao Weiguo also revolved around her like Sha Zhu and followed her words obediently.

Unfortunately, she didn't see Cao Cao Weiguo’s potential and didn't grasp this "potential stock." Otherwise, she wouldn't have to suffer oppression in the Jia family and cold eyes in her maiden home.

After she fought with Jia Jia Zhangshi, she took Xiaodang and Little Huaihua back to her maiden home in a fit of anger, but her maiden home’s attitude toward her was also hard to describe.

The living conditions of the Qin family were not wealthy to begin with, or rather, there are few ordinary peasant families today that are wealthy; everyone relies on selling their strength to earn work points.

Qin Qin Huairu’s maiden home has parents, brothers, sisters-in-law, and a whole family living together, already living a tight life, where every bit of fuel, rice, oil, and salt has to be carefully calculated.

When Qin Qin Huairu took her two daughters back to her maiden home, her family was happy at first, thinking Qin Qin Huairu had come back for the New Year to show filial piety to her parents.

But when they learned that Qin Qin Huairu had fallen out with her mother-in-law and wanted to stay at her maiden home for a long time, the expressions of Qin Qin Huairu’s parents, brothers, and sisters-in-law all changed.

Qin Qin Huairu’s parents have unspeakable bitterness, Qin Qin Huairu’s brothers have complex expressions, and Qin Qin Huairu’s sisters-in-law turn their faces directly, complaining to Qin Qin Huairu with great reluctance about how there isn't enough food in the house, how there isn't enough space to live... constantly persuading Qin Qin Huairu to bow her head and apologize to her mother-in-law.

They also said that Qin Qin Huairu is in bliss but doesn't know it—how many women hope to enter the city to eat commercial grain but can't, while Qin Qin Huairu does the opposite, abandoning the "iron rice bowl" and taking her children back to her maiden home to farm and earn work points, not knowing how to enjoy her blessings.

As for the conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, that is common. From ancient times to the present, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts have existed. Every mother-in-law and daughter-in-law has gone through that time. Just bickering, fighting, bowing your head, and admitting your mistake is enough. Once the page is turned, it passes; you can't stop living just because of a moment of anger.

Under these complex circumstances, Qin Qin Huairu persisted in her maiden home for several months, even though her parents, who felt sorry for their daughter, couldn't hold out in the end.

It was truly forced by life!

The family was already not wealthy, and suddenly three more mouths were added, making life even harder.

Although Qin Qin Huairu also helped with work to earn points, she had been married to the city for many years, and working at the Steel Rolling Plant was far easier than farming, digging pits, moving bricks, and repairing canals.

Qin Qin Huairu truly couldn't do the real heavy labor. She worked three days and rested two, and the work points she earned weren't even enough to feed herself, let alone raise two children.

Seeing less and less food in the house and eating worse and worse, her sisters-in-law couldn't sit still anymore. They stopped complaining indirectly and directly told Qin Qin Huairu to go back to the city, or just split the family and let everyone live their own lives.

On one side are her son and daughter-in-law, and on the other are her daughter and granddaughters. Both sides of the palm are flesh, and Qin’s parents were also in a difficult position.

Just at this time, Yi Yi Zhonghai and First Aunt came on behalf of Jia Jia Zhangshi to pick up Qin Qin Huairu.

Qin Qin Huairu wasn't doing well at her maiden home, so she wiped her tears, took the opportunity to step down, and followed Yi Yi Zhonghai and First Aunt back to the Sihe Academy.

Naturally, after returning, Qin Qin Huairu suffered a lot of ridicule from Jia Jia Zhangshi.

But life is like this; for the sake of survival, she could only endure it, bowing her head and working to support the family.

Fortunately, with First Aunt and the Deaf Old Lady mediating, plus the fact that Jia Jia Zhangshi’s pension had long been squandered by her good grandson Bangeng, and she didn't want to go to the plant to work at her old age, she didn't humiliate Qin Qin Huairu too much. After ridiculing her a few times, she let Qin Qin Huairu go and continued to peacefully fatten herself up at home and sew shoe soles, waiting for her grandson to come home and show her filial piety.

Turning her head to look at Jia Jia Zhangshi, who was sitting at the door, holding an awl and a shoe sole and scolding, Qin Qin Huairu, clutching the laundry, shed tears of grievance.

Look at the life Song Song Yulan is living, and then look at the life she is living.

This heaven is too unfair.

They are both women, so why can Song Song Yulan marry Cao Cao Weiguo and enjoy happiness, have no worries about food and drink, enjoy all the glory, and be served like the Queen Mother of the West while pregnant, while she became a widow at a young age, served the whole family like a beast of burden, was humiliated and abused by her mother-in-law, and her son was unpromising and went to the reformatory... when will this bitter life end?

The more she thought, the sadder she became; the more she thought, the more miserable and helpless she felt... Qin Qin Huairu couldn't help but look at Sha Zhu, who was cooking outside, thinking whether she really should find someone to rely on.

Since Cao Cao Weiguo turned his life around, the person she wanted to marry was Cao Cao Weiguo. Unfortunately, Cao Cao Weiguo married Song Song Yulan, and this guy is very shrewd. He eats and wipes his mouth, leaves things behind, and doesn't recognize anyone. He purely treats her as a tool for amusement, and there is no sentiment to speak of. It is precisely because of this that Qin Qin Huairu resented Cao Cao Weiguo for not helping Bangeng, and in a fit of anger, she broke with Cao Cao Weiguo, and the two stopped having contact.

Without Cao Cao Weiguo, this big financier, her life plummeted. Poor in ambition and thin in spirit, Qin Qin Huairu had to lower her sights and set her eyes on the honest and honest Sha Zhu again.