Chapter 40

“Everyone, please be quiet, please be quiet.”

Section Chief Fu shouted for a long time, but no one quieted down. He had no choice but to shout louder: “Hello, everyone. Let me introduce, this is our newly hired designer…”

Suddenly, someone from below shouted loudly: “Isn’t she the temporary worker?” Immediately, a burst of laughter filled the workshop.

“Where did this temporary worker come from, thinking she can guide us in our work!”

“We’ve been making clothes for a lifetime, we know more than she does!”

“Exactly! We’re making clothes just fine, what’s the point of her changing things?”

“She’s still best-selling in the Provincial Capital! What a joke! Is she just boasting? Old Fu, do you believe this?”

“Yeah, Old Fu, you’ve worked at the Clothing Factory for a lifetime, and you got tricked by a foreign female scammer. Aren’t you embarrassed?”

“Don’t tell me it’s because she’s young and pretty? Hahahaha! Old Fu, you can’t make a mistake on the issue of style!” 

Section Chief Fu’s face indeed turned red, but it wasn’t because, as the others said, he was embarrassed for being tricked by Lin Qingping. Rather, it was because, as a section chief, he felt powerless in front of these rebellious workers.

Lin Qingping had observed that among so many workers, only a few had been loudly speaking, stirring up emotions, causing the others to laugh and join in the mockery.

Lin Qingping then walked directly toward those few people. She approached a young man who had been shouting the loudest. 

The crowd had never expected her to walk into the middle of the group alone, and for a moment, everyone quieted down and watched her and the young man.

In the workshop, only the occasional sound of sunflower seeds being cracked could be heard, which seemed unusually loud.

Lin Qingping stood in front of the young man, smiling as she looked at him. Gradually, even the cracking of sunflower seeds slowed down, and in the end, there was no sound at all.

The young man, who had been stared at by Lin Qingping, began to feel uncomfortable. He straightened his neck and asked: “What are you looking at?”

Lin Qingping smiled and said: “I see you’re quite good at talking. I’d like to ask for your guidance—where exactly is the problem with my clothing designs? Is there anything you’re unwilling to change?” 

“I…” The young man stammered, looking around, unsure of what he was looking for.

“Can’t find the words?” Lin Qingping continued to smile.

“Who says I can’t find the words!” The young man raised his voice, but his gaze kept darting around, clearly seeking help.

“I’ll speak!” A voice from the crowd interrupted. It was a woman in her thirties, one of the loudest just a moment ago. She rushed to the front, pointing at the clothing rack and loudly criticized: “This one!” She was referring to a coat. “Why is the waistline cut so small? Someone a bit on the heavier side will have their waist squeezed tight! It’s indecent!”

“And this one!” She pointed at a shirt. “Why add so much trim at the cuffs? Is it convenient for washing and cooking?”

“And these pants!” She pointed at a pair of trousers. “Why make them tighter too? It shows the shape of the legs! Who would dare wear these out? Are you trying to make people look like perverts?”

In fact, these designs had only been slightly modified. The straight-cut coat had been subtly shaped at the waist, the cuff trim was just a small touch, not the exaggerated ruffled kind, and it didn’t interfere with work.

As for the pants, they were just regular dress trousers, slightly more form-fitting, giving the legs a longer appearance—nothing to the extreme of tight leggings. They were certainly far from being scandalous; otherwise, people in the Provincial Capital wouldn’t be buying them so crazily.

To use a modern phrase, the woman was just criticizing for the sake of criticizing.

After hearing all this, Lin Qingping smiled and turned to face the crowd. “So, is this what all of you think?”

“Yes!” At first, a few voices agreed. Then, the workshop was filled with a deafening shout: “Yes! We resist! We won’t change!”

Lin Qingping smiled and said: “Alright, I understand! All of you are masters at making clothes, some of you have decades of experience, so you must know better than I do. If a piece of clothing isn’t made with our full passion, it won’t turn out well. Since that’s the case, those who don’t want to make changes don’t have to. I won’t force anyone.” 

The crowd exchanged glances. What was this? Wasn’t she supposed to force them to make changes? Why was she letting them off so easily? Some people started whispering to each other.

“The little girl is too young to go against us. Section Chief Fu couldn’t handle us, and she’s just a temporary worker, a young girl with no experience—what can she do to us?”

“Exactly! We’re all old enough; there’s no way we’ll listen to a young girl!”

“Right! Let’s show her what we can do!” 

While the murmurs spread, Lin Qingping didn’t engage with them further. She called out to Gu Youlian: “Sister, let’s redo these pieces.” 

“Alright!” Gu Youlian had been furious on the side. If this were in their village, she would’ve jumped up and shouted back at them, but this wasn’t the village—it was the factory, and she didn’t want to make things difficult for Lin Qingping.

So, she decided to follow Pingzi’s lead. When Lin Qingping called, she immediately responded and even pulled Du Gen along. 

Du Gen had been working on the modifications for a while now. While he wasn’t good at cutting and sewing, he could handle measuring and marking the fabric. T

he three of them began reworking the clothes in the large workshop. Meanwhile, the other workers continued chatting, cracking sunflower seeds, and some even set up chess and poker games, creating a lively scene that could rival a bustling market.

Section Chief Fu could no longer bear it. He took away the workers’ playing cards and chess sets and ordered them to get back to work.

The workers didn’t care and simply pulled out more boxes of playing cards, provocatively saying: “If you have the guts, fire us! Report us! We don’t want to be recognized as advanced workers anyway!”

This infuriated Section Chief Fu, but he was helpless against these rebellious people. He could only walk over to Lin Qingping and, with a long face, apologize: “Comrade Lin, look, this… I really…” 

Lin Qingping smiled and said: “It’s fine, go ahead and do your work.”

“But how can you stay here like this?” Section Chief Fu genuinely felt sorry for Lin Qingping. 

Lin Qingping, however, remained calm, confident. “It’s alright, leave it to me.”

Section Chief Fu sighed. He didn’t leave but instead sat beside Lin Qingping, unable to do anything else. 

Piles of clothes surrounded them, and the noise in the workshop was deafening. Gu Youlian, while cutting fabric, felt wronged and almost burst into tears.

She had been so happy when she first joined the factory as a temporary worker, even bragging to her in-laws that from now on, she would be a worker! Who could have imagined she would be humiliated like this?

Du Gen, noticing his wife’s sour expression, tried to comfort her: “Look, Pingzi is fine, don’t worry about it.”

Gu Youlian held her frustration in and asked: “Does being a temporary worker really make us so much worse than them?”

Du Gen fell silent. The truth was, temporary workers were indeed looked down upon by the others. In the two days he had been there, just the fact that he was labeled as a temporary worker, and also the person responsible for the clothing quality control, had already earned him countless disdainful glances.