Chapter 316: Who’s Lying?
Director Guo also said very politely, “Comrade Lu, feel free to ask.”
Seeing Director Guo so calm, Lu Qiaoge knew that she probably wouldn’t learn anything.
Neither the factory director nor Director Guo mentioned anything about dismissal due to taking leave.
So what Wei Xia said—that she was dismissed because her child was sick and she took too long on leave—didn’t hold up.
Lu Qiaoge asked in surprise, “What method did you use to notify Wei Xia? Written or verbal notification? If it was written, Wei Xia shouldn’t have it in her possession. If verbal, who told Wei Xia?”
Before Director Guo could speak, Lu Qiaoge seemed to suddenly remember something and smiled embarrassedly, saying, “I also heard a piece of news: Wei Xia’s ex-husband’s current wife, that Du Wanqing, said that Director Guo of Wangjiang Shoe Factory is her relative. So after we looked into these things, we felt this matter seemed a bit suspicious, which is why we came to bother your factory.”
Lu Qiaoge watched Director Guo’s expression while speaking.
Then she felt certain of her guess. That’s right, Director Guo—they had come prepared.
Sure enough, Director Guo glanced at his leader Old Chang and said with some difficulty, “Actually, Du Wanqing and I are not relatives, just classmates, but not in the same class. We just went to the same school. Our two families have no relatives relationship at all. I don’t know why she said that, but I can guarantee I have no relationship whatsoever with Du Wanqing. Everything we did was reasonable and legal.”
Old Chang considered for a moment, then still said, “If it’s because of Hou Cheng’s matter that Wei Xia’s situation can’t be covered up, then there’s indeed no way for now. Hou Cheng and Wei Xia’s situations are similar, but Hou Cheng skips work irregularly, and his usual performance is also poor, so the factory department and labor union jointly decided to dismiss him. The loss he caused at the time was more than three hundred yuan less than Wei Xia’s.”
Director Guo nodded and said somewhat helplessly, “We had no choice. To avoid stirring up public anger, we could only handle it this way temporarily.”
Lu Qiaoge said patiently, “Factory Director Chang, Director Guo, what I just asked was what method you used to notify Wei Xia. How did you notify her? What was her reaction at the time? Don’t worry, I have no other intentions. I just want to confirm whether Wei Xia is lying.”
Sister Qiao nodded immediately from the side. “Yes, because what you two sides said doesn’t match at all. One side is definitely lying.”
Old Chang couldn’t help but frown. He looked at Director Guo and asked, “How did you notify her?”
He had already gone out of town for a meeting at that time, so naturally he didn’t know.
Director Guo smiled very calmly. “I notified her personally. I showed her the documents and the report. At the time, she admitted her mistake and did a self-criticism with me, hoping I could give her a chance. Actually, this chance was hard to give.
Hou Cheng’s family was watching closely, but after Wei Xia admitted her mistake and did her self-criticism without getting the result she wanted, her emotions became very unstable, somewhat collapsing.
Considering her family’s actual situation, I told Wei Xia that we’d handle this matter this way for now. There were too many people watching the factory; we couldn’t do anything we wanted to do right now, only wait and see if there was a chance after some time. Then Wei Xia took her things and left.”
The cadres from the Military Factory Neighborhood Committee couldn’t help but exchange glances.
Lu Qiaoge said, “The situation I learned is this: Wei Xia returned to work after her leave ended, but you notified her that due to unauthorized absence from work for leave, the factory had decided to dismiss her. But the factory director wasn’t home, so the dismissal documents had to wait for the factory director to return before they could be signed.”
Director Guo gave a wry smile and spread his hands. “Look at this mess. Wei Xia’s nerves aren’t quite right, is she? How could she lie?”
Lu Qiaoge asked again, “Where did you say these words?”
“It was in my office, with only me and Wei Xia there at the time, so now whatever I say, no one will believe it.”
The implication was that Wei Xia was likely talking nonsense and lying. She had suffered too great a blow from the divorce, and her mental state was already abnormal.
If the two were pulled out separately for everyone to choose who to believe, Lu Qiaoge believed that eighty percent of people would choose to believe Director Guo.
The reason was simple: Director Guo was a normal person. He spoke clearly and logically, with strong reasoning, evidence-based, a clear timeline, and it wasn’t his decision alone—it was researched and decided jointly by the factory department and the labor union. It even involved the so-called trouble from Hou Cheng, so they had to treat staff who made the same mistake fairly.
As for Wei Xia, her emotions were indeed unstable. Her neighbors all said her mental state wasn’t good now, that she spoke incoherently. Before yesterday, she looked like she didn’t want to live and often hit her child.
Sister Qiao, Cadre Liu, and Shao Le weren’t speaking now.
They felt that even if they wanted to say something, they couldn’t grasp the key points as well as Lu Qiaoge.
So they simply stayed silent.
Then Lu Qiaoge said, “Factory Director Chang, we want to apply in the name of Wei Xia’s family to reinvestigate the production accident caused by Wei Xia and the related losses.”
Old Chang was stunned for a moment, while Director Guo quietly clenched his fist.
Lu Qiaoge said earnestly with a serious expression, “Wei Xia is a resident under the jurisdiction of our Xiangyang Neighborhood Committee. You also know her current situation—it’s truly terrible. Our neighborhood committee can’t accompany her twenty-four hours a day, so we earnestly request a chance to reinvestigate. If the facts prove it was indeed Wei Xia’s fault, we as her family have nothing to say. Moreover, doing so would better reflect the principles of fairness, justice, and openness in how Wangjiang Shoe Factory handles problems.”
Lu Qiaoge glanced at the seemingly calm Director Guo, then looked at Wangjiang Shoe Factory’s Factory Director Old Chang.
Sister Qiao: “Old Chang, this handling result could involve five lives. Whether big cadres or ordinary workers, you have to be cautious.”
Cadre Liu nodded. “Old Chang, although the investigation will bring trouble to you, it’s also giving Wei Xia an explanation.”
Old Chang looked at Director Guo, then nodded and said, “Alright then, we can reinvestigate. How do you want to investigate?”
Before Lu Qiaoge could speak, Director Guo said with some difficulty from the side, “If you want to see that batch of defective products, that’s very regrettable—they’ve already been dealt with.”
Sister Qiao and the others all looked at Director Guo in unison.
Old Chang couldn’t help but ask, “When were they dealt with?”
“Factory Director Chang, they wouldn’t normally have been dealt with so quickly, but we have a foreign trade order on hand. Because a batch of cowhide was ruined, we could only dismantle the defective products and reprocess them. We didn’t sell them off like other defective products.”
Then he added, “Actually, even defective products have plenty of buyers.”
