Chapter 6: Whoever Does The Best Stays
Lu Qiaoge continued righteously, “Zhao Qing made Sun Qin leave with nothing and even abandon her daughter. Duan Xiaoxiang broke up her daughter-in-law’s family, and they all say it was the old lady who forced it.
Now it seems, was it really Old Mrs. Zhao who forced it and not them teaming up to bully Sun Qin?
For such a Zhao Qing and such a Duan Xiaoxiang, why should I give them face? Doesn’t Sun Qin deserve face? Doesn’t she deserve justice in front of everyone?”
Not far away, Sun Qin, who was worried about Lu Qiaoge, originally wanted to come apologize to Lu Qiaoge, but she happened to hear these words.
She covered her mouth, tears silently rolling down her cheeks.
Meanwhile, Huang Juan had already pulled Lu Qiaoge to keep walking forward, her expression extremely complex.
Such a Lu Qiaoge made her feel unfamiliar, but at the same time happy for Meng Xia—it must be the falling into water incident that stimulated her to become sensible and reasonable.
Lu Qiaoge’s eyes turned slightly. After walking a bit, she stopped and sincerely thanked her: “Aunt Huang, thank you for giving me the opportunity. I didn’t do the job well and caused you trouble. I’m sorry.”
Then she added: “Even though Duan Xiaoxiang is not satisfied and says I’ll never get into the neighborhood committee my whole life, I don’t regret finding Sun Qin a place to stay.”
Huang Juan was stunned, then playfully poked Lu Qiaoge and smiled at her, saying: “You girl, you go home first. I’m going to the neighborhood committee.”
Lu Qiaoge obediently agreed.
The calico cat darted out from the roadside grass, meowing at Lu Qiaoge a few times.
【Duan Xiaoxiang quarreled with Old Mrs. Zhao because no one was making dinner for them.】
Lu Qiaoge picked up the calico cat and stroked it a few times; the calico cat purred comfortably.
Sun Qin has good cooking skills and is diligent too. Now that she moved away, those two are in for it.
Lu Qiaoge remembered something and said: “Don’t eat those two mice from the Zhao family—they provided very useful information today.”
The calico cat looked up at Lu Qiaoge.
It had gone to the Zhao family today and happened to run into those two mice. Instinct was to catch and eat them, but it held back. When it wanted to ask questions, it found that besides them preparing to flee and trembling, it couldn’t understand anything they said.
But when Lu Qiaoge arrived at the Zhao family, it suddenly could communicate with those two mice.
Very magical—one of the mice even called itself Cat Lord.
The calico cat proudly lifted its head: 【Got it, I won’t catch the Zhao family’s mice.】
Then it shared its discovery.
Lu Qiaoge narrowed her eyes. Cats and mice are different species, but very likely because they were within her approachable range, they unlocked language with each other?
Probably so!
Lu Qiaoge patted its head: “The window behind my room isn’t closed—you can come in anytime you want. But don’t catch mice and bring them in to eat.”
The calico cat nodded quickly.
Lu Qiaoge let go, allowing it to play on its own first. She glanced toward the neighborhood committee, then turned and walked toward home.
Everyone in the Old Lu family was there.
Elder Brother Lu was saying to find an opportunity to beat up Liang Aishu, but Meng Xia scolded him, telling him not to stir up trouble at this time.
However, Meng Xia was a bit restless; she had heard about today’s events too.
Her second daughter actually found Sun Qin a job.
She felt so sour inside.
You know, the Old Lu family now had only Lu Da as a formal worker.
And although the eldest son was a temporary worker in the transportation team, because there was no hiring target, he not only didn’t enjoy labor protection welfare, his monthly salary was only eleven yuan. Because his payroll was not in the transportation team but in the neighborhood committee, he had to pay management fees to the neighborhood committee every month.
Temporary workers in this era couldn’t be hired casually; the work unit needed a target for it.
So such temporary workers without a target were fundamentally unstable and could be dismissed any day.
The couple still had rural household registration. It was a planned economy now, with grain supplied per head, so every month the family’s grain wasn’t enough to eat and they had to borrow from outside.
She was now a housewife, supplementing the family income by making paper boxes.
The third daughter’s down-to-the-countryside place was in the hometown. Although the mother-in-law took care, living expenses had to be mailed every month.
The only consolation was that Lu Da was a level seven worker with a high salary, so the family hadn’t starved to death. But Lu Da was stubborn. Although he was an experienced old worker, he wouldn’t pull strings with leaders to arrange jobs for his children. Plus, the youngest son was weak and often needed medicine and injections, so their days grew poorer and poorer.
Compared to other families, none of the four children had made anything of themselves.
Meng Xia was even more unwilling to think about how much debt their family owed, but just now she had to calculate it—it was almost three hundred yuan.
She felt like she’d never pay it off in her lifetime.
Although Meng Xia looked down on her eldest daughter-in-law Su Hui, she still hoped she could get a formal job.
The more she thought, the more frustrated she got, and she resented Lu Da: “Your family’s old fourth isn’t a good one either. He didn’t even tell me about this good thing. Regardless of whether it works or not, let Su Hui give it a try. Isn’t it just cooking? Su Hui’s cooking skills are good too—definitely not worse than Sun Qin’s.”
Su Hui, who was cooking, excitedly gripped the rice spoon tightly. After a few breaths, she still helplessly sighed.
Deep down, she knew she wouldn’t make it even if she went.
Lu Da was sitting under the tree enjoying the cool, and upon hearing this, he frowned and said: “That’s the military industrial research institute—the screening is very strict. Don’t you know what your eldest daughter-in-law’s class background is?”
Meng Xia unhappily retorted: “Sun Qin is fine though?”
Just then Lu Qiaoge pushed the door in and, hearing this, said: “Mom, Sun Qin definitely qualifies because she was once a technician’s wife. The organization screened her countless times.”
Lu Qiaoge glanced at her sister-in-law Su Hui again. Sujia Village used to be her ancestors’, so one could tell Su Hui’s family background from that.
Luckily, by her father’s generation, the ancestral property had mostly been squandered by him.
Su Hui had always been cautious at home, mainly because Meng Xia had a bad temper and loved to get angry. Not wanting conflict over this unfounded job, she hurriedly said softly: “Dinner’s ready. Let’s eat.”
At the same time, at the neighborhood committee, Old Hu also said: “Now only Lu Qiaoge has completed the task, so let’s end the discussion here today. We should get off work and go home for dinner too.”
Ren Xiaocui: “I think there’s no need to discuss. When the time comes, just look at the satisfaction from the follow-up visits—who does the best stays!”
Huang Juan’s eyes flickered, and she smiled: “If that’s how you put it, Lu Qiaoge is out of luck. You all don’t know? Duan Xiaoxiang said she’s extremely unsatisfied and that Lu Qiaoge should forget about ever getting into the neighborhood committee.”
Director Hu frowned slightly: “Whether it works or not isn’t up to Duan Xiaoxiang.”
“But she’s the party involved. She’s not satisfied that Qiao Ge found Sun Qin a formal job—why would she praise Qiao Ge?”
Huang Juan said this while organizing the things on the table, then stood up and walked out.
The others felt this sounded quite uncomfortable.
Duan Xiaoxiang clearly had poor character—how did she have the qualification to comment?
Ren Xiaocui glanced at Huang Juan, feeling she said it on purpose.
Director Hu also stood up and said: “Although Lu Qiaoge acts impulsively, her mind is really sharp, and her observation skills are strong too. How about this, Old Huang—you go notify Lu Qiaoge and see if she can solve that exam question for Old Chen’s son.”
Ren Xiaocui widened her eyes: “Qiao Ge is just a young woman. Having her handle the Old Yao family matter—isn’t that inappropriate?”
