“That guy’s not bad looking, so why did he get divorced?”
“Maybe he’s no good in bed?”
Lu Jianguo heard what these people were saying, and his face turned red with anger.
“Xiao Mandong, you sold me this job. Give me the money back. I don’t want this job anymore.”
She had long wanted to quit this job. She had assumed it would be office work, but instead she ended up in the fine sand workshop. She had thought that if she could just endure three months, she’d be made a permanent employee. Heaven knows how miserable those days were—it was worse than working in the fields. And to make it worse, those people Xiao Mandong had introduced her to were always setting traps for her and picking on her.
Now she could just return the job to Xiao Mandong and be done with it. She also wouldn’t have to listen to her dad call her a lazy good-for-nothing every day.
This family really kept pushing the limits of Xiao Mandong’s patience: “Lu Hong, are you out of your mind? You lost the job yourself. What are you going to give me back?”
Lu Hong stuck out her neck and said with great conviction: “You’re the one who let me lose the job. Isn’t it only right that you bear the consequences?”
The villagers were quite put off by the divorce, but when they heard that this woman called Lu Hong had lost her job herself and was still asking for a refund, that really was over the line.
One auntie couldn’t stand to watch one family bully a young woman like that: “Your family is something else. Someone sells you something, you eat it all up, and then you say it turned into shit and demand your money back. Isn’t that shameless?”
The analogy drew a burst of laughter. Lu’s mother started throwing a fit: “What the hell do you all know? When this bitch sold the job, she said it was office work. But when I went to work, it turned out to be a worker in the fine sand workshop. Isn’t that fraud? If it weren’t for the fact that we were once family, we would have already turned her in.”
“Xiao Zhiqing, that’s not right of you. You said you sold them office work. How can you swap it for workshop worker?”
“Yeah, cheating people isn’t right.”
If it were in the past, Xiao Mandong would never have admitted she sold office work, since it wasn’t in the contract anyway. But since Lu Hong had already lost the job, so what if she admitted it?
“I admit I sold office work. But in any unit, when you first take over a position, don’t you have to work three months as a temporary worker before you get a chance to be made permanent? May I ask how many days you worked? You didn’t even make it a month, right? With the way you behaved—falsely accusing a supply and marketing cooperative employee—which unit would ever let you become permanent?”
“That’s not my fault. If you had shared the meat with me, why would I have made a scene at the cooperative?”
“Why should I share with you? Are we that close?”
Ma Lanying sat on the ground and wailed: “Xiao Mandong, you ungrateful bitch! Our family helped you back then. How can you push us to the brink? That was two thousand yuan! That was my son’s death benefit! You used our family and kicked us aside. How can you have such a black heart, like a capitalist?”
She was determined to get that two thousand yuan back today. If she couldn’t, she would force Xiao Mandong to remarry her son. The rumors about her son and Wang Xiumei were flying everywhere. After the military investigated, they said his political review had failed. They had planned to have Lu Hong get married first and then pass the job on, so they could marry her off to a city man with the job. But just as the match was being arranged, the job fell through.
“It’s my dowry—why shouldn’t I take it with me? You people keep repeating the same words over and over. Aren’t you tired? Do I have to publicly announce the reason for the divorce to the whole country?”
Before she even finished speaking, Wang Xiumei burst into tears, cried like a weeping pear blossom, and “plopped” down on her knees in front of Xiao Mandong: “Mandong, I know it’s my fault. I made you misunderstand. But that money is my husband’s death benefit. Please, please give it back to me!”
“That poor woman—so it’s a death benefit. She’s kneeling to Xiao Zhiqing for the money…”
“Xiao Zhiqing really isn’t being reasonable about this.”
Xiao Mandong didn’t step aside from Wang Xiumei’s kneeling. In her past life, she owed her that much, so she should kneel for a long time. Wang Xiumei had expected Xiao Mandong to hold her up, but Xiao Mandong just looked at her coldly. That bitch—if it weren’t for her mother-in-law forcing her, how could she kneel to Xiao Mandong?
“You really should kneel. After all, you’re the one who ruined my marriage. If you hadn’t seduced my brother-in-law and I hadn’t caught you in bed together, why would I have divorced? Caught in bed, no less. Do you want me to tell everyone what you looked like that day?”
The crowd went quiet for half a second. A few aunties exchanged glances, then the murmur rose, and someone even shouted for her to tell the story.
Wang Xiumei’s face flushed bright red, but she still forced herself to say: “You really misunderstood. Don’t slander me like this.”
“Whether it’s slander or not, we can go to the commune and have it out. And for the money—Lu Hong is the one who used it to buy the job. You can’t get it from me.”
“Enough. Stop your little act, all of you. Aren’t you tired? I’m tired of watching. Tell me—what exactly do you want?”
Lu Jianguo stared at Xiao Mandong, somewhat dazed. This woman had gotten so beautiful? He had really been blind. Then he looked at Wang Xiumei, whose skin had darkened from working in the fields. After living together for a while, the novelty had worn off.
He had already asked around at the village entrance. Xiao Mandong was preparing to take the barefoot doctor certification exam. Lu Jianguo knew that Xiao Mandong’s family had been doctors for generations. He had asked her about it once, and she had said she didn’t know anything about medicine. Now, he figured, she was clearly lying to him. This woman was full of tricks.
But he believed that if he just spoke softly to her, Xiao Mandong would forgive him. He hadn’t said a word during the divorce because he was angry at the time.
“Mandonng, I know I did wrong. Can you forgive me? I promise I’ll never make you angry again. Let’s go back and live a good life, okay?” Lu Jianguo took a very humble tone, his words sincere. “As long as you’re willing to forgive me, I’ll even split with my parents. From now on, you’ll run the house. Just give me another chance, will you?”
The crowd began to urge Xiao Mandong: “Girl, just go back. Your man is being sincere. Leaving one family to enter another isn’t easy. If you divorce and remarry, you’ll end up with a widower or someone with some problem. Better to go back to your own husband.”
“Yeah, Xiao Zhiqing, your man’s not bad looking. Go back and live properly once you have kids, it’ll be fine.”
“Aunties, no need to persuade me. He came to find me for a reason—not because he knows he’s wrong.”
Xiao Mandong looked at Lu Jianguo with a half-smile:
“Your military plan fell through?”
“How do you know? Did you report me?”
Lu Hong blurted it out. Lu’s father shot her a fierce glare—useless, that girl.
“Of course I know. If I’m not wrong, you’re all here today because Lu Jianguo’s military thing fell through, Lu Hong lost her job, and you want to take me back to remarry, and bring the money from the job back with me, so I can keep slaving away for your family. Am I right?”
Ma Lanying shrank her neck. That was exactly what she thought—was there anything wrong with it? After all, it was their family who had saved Xiao Mandong, so why should Xiao Mandong get off scot-free? Her son hadn't gotten a single bit of advantage out of it, and she'd taken all the dowry with her. Since her son could no longer join the army, they should just remarry, and preferably go back to the way things were—him handing over his earnings to her. Sure, Xiao Mandong didn't have a regular job now, but she was a barefoot doctor, and she'd surely make even more money than she did working an office job.
