The canteen worker didn’t know the answer either. She said, “I heard the instructions came down from the factory director, but as for which leader’s family, we don’t know.”

“I heard the factory director’s daughter is about marriage age too. Could it be her?”

The canteen auntie smiled. “Not sure, but the higher-ups said the factory workers are welcome to join in the fun tomorrow. No gift money required, just to share in the joy.”

With that, the two became even more convinced that it had to be the director’s daughter—no one else would have that kind of privilege.

They lingered there for a while, prompting the canteen auntie to urge, “Comrades, do you still need something? There are people waiting in line behind you.”

The workers had been laboring all morning and were starving. Complaints were already starting to rise from the back of the line.

Bai Guo and Zhao Hongyun nodded in apology to the coworkers behind them and found a place to sit down.

Talking didn’t get in the way of eating, and the only topic of conversation between the two of them was Jiang Ling.

Just talking about Jiang Ling alone was enough to keep their friendship going strong.

Zhao Hongyun said, “Didn’t you all already tell Jiang Ling to move out of the dorm? She’s still not planning to leave? Her skin is really thick.”

“Exactly. With her in the dorm, we have to be cautious about everything we do. It’s really inconvenient.”

“So when does she plan on moving out? Hopefully she won’t just cling on and refuse to leave.”

Bai Guo shook her head. “No idea. We’ll find a chance to push her on it again tonight. You know how it is—the factory’s dormitory management rules don’t actually say that married workers can’t live there.”

If such a rule really existed, they would have gone straight to the dorm manager and had Jiang Ling kicked out long ago.

For now, they could only try to isolate Jiang Ling and make her feel unwelcome in the dorm, hoping she would eventually move out on her own.

“I’m getting married tomorrow. If you’re interested, you can come to the factory canteen for the meal. No need to bring a gift—just come and join in the fun.”

The dorm mates had indeed planned to go to the canteen tomorrow for the “factory leader’s daughter’s” wedding banquet. They had heard about it at lunchtime from the canteen auntie. Even if it was just to show their faces in front of the leadership or get a free meal, it was still worth going.

But hearing this from Jiang Ling made them suspect she had gone mad. She must have heard the same news in the canteen—that the director’s daughter was getting married on Sunday—and somehow imagined herself to be that daughter.

If you’re going to brag, at least make it believable. They were all workers in the same factory—everyone knew everyone.

Jiang Ling’s father was just an ordinary loading and unloading worker in the factory. Her mother had become a housewife after giving up her job to their son. The Jiang family had no powerful or influential relatives, so how could her wedding possibly alarm the factory?

The few women exchanged glances, now suspecting that Jiang Ling wasn’t just difficult to get along with—she might actually be mentally unstable. Maybe she was having some kind of hysterical episode and believed herself to be the factory director’s daughter.

If that were the case, then it was all the more reason she couldn’t be allowed to stay in the dorm. They’d heard stories about mentally ill people committing murder without being held legally responsible. If she were to suddenly lash out one day and hit someone, they would be the ones to suffer for nothing.

Even the most hot-tempered among them didn’t dare say anything harsh now. When dealing with someone who might be mentally ill, it was best to coax and placate them.

“Alright, if we have time, we’ll go,” they said.

Because their change in attitude happened so quickly, Jiang Ling didn’t pick up on anything unusual.

The next morning, Ding Yan arrived at the dormitory along with a few senior women from the Accounting Section. Since Jiang Ling had fallen out with her own parents, these women were now acting as her side of the family.

While everyone else was dressed in thick floral cotton jackets and factory work uniforms, Ding Yan showed up in leather shoes and a wool coat. Just from her attire, it was clear she was someone of status—not someone to mess with.

She came bustling in, full of energy. “Why hasn’t the dorm been decorated at all? It’s so dull and dusty—how is this supposed to look like someone’s getting married?”

In front of Ding Yan, everyone’s confidence seemed to shrink by a third. It wasn’t just Wei Ming—Jiang Ling, too, became more subdued.

She scratched her head and gave a sheepish smile. “No one’s coming here anyway. Keeping it simple is fine.”

“How could that be acceptable?” Ding Yan pointed at Jiang Ling’s clothes and hairstyle. “You’re a pretty young girl, and yet you don’t know how to take care of yourself. It’s your wedding day—you didn’t even get your hair permed or buy a new outfit.”

Ding Yan had just permed her hair before the New Year, and the curls were still holding their shape. Otherwise, she would’ve definitely gone and gotten it done again for the occasion.

The female workers who were temporarily living in the same dorm as Jiang Ling had only joined the factory in the past six months. They barely even knew everyone in their own workshop, let alone relatives of leadership who rarely showed up. Only one girl felt that Ding Yan looked vaguely familiar.

It wasn’t just Zhao Hongyun who had gone all out trying to smear Jiang Ling’s reputation—Jiang Ling, too, would take any chance she got to talk badly about the old couple from the Jiang family.

She said, “I’d love to, but all the money is with my parents. I don’t have any to get my hair permed or buy new clothes.”

It was true that Jiang’s parents asked their daughter for food expenses.

After deducting that, along with the money spent on lunch at the canteen, she was left with about ten yuan a month. Her younger brothers, Jiang Liwen and Jiang Liwu, would still come asking her for pocket money from time to time. And the original Jiang Ling, being a girl who liked to look good, would occasionally want to buy a piece of clothing, a new hair tie, or some facial cream…

The Daily Chemical Factory regularly distributed laundry detergent and shampoo, but didn’t produce facial cream. That, she had to buy on her own.

With all these little expenses, she ended up spending quite a lot each month and could hardly save anything.

Ding Yan disliked Jiang Ling’s parents. She didn’t have a good impression of the couple she had never even met. What kind of people would try to marry off their daughter to a divorced man with a child? They couldn’t be any decent sort.

She spoke with a hint of disdain, “Those two parents of yours—honestly, best not to even bring them up. From now on, live a good life with Xiao Song. If you run into any trouble, come find me.”

It was her wedding day, and she hadn’t even bothered to dress up properly. Ding Yan had originally wanted Jiang Ling to redo her hair. When she had gone down south before the New Year, she’d seen the young women there tying their hair up at the back of their heads, like a flower bud.

She thought Jiang Ling was pretty, and that kind of hairstyle would definitely suit her.

She lifted her wrist and glanced at her watch. There wasn’t enough time—the groom would be arriving soon to pick up the bride.

“So slow and scatterbrained. That face of yours is the only thing going for you, at least it’s useful.”

Even though she was scolded, Jiang Ling actually felt quite comforted inside.

“What’s that smell in this room?” Ding Yan waved her hand to fan the air. “Tomorrow I’ll bring you a bottle of perfume I brought back from the south.”

At her age, wearing perfume would only invite gossip behind her back, but for a young girl, it was just right.

Ding Yan had originally planned to give the perfume to her niece, but since Jiang Ling happened to catch her in the moment, she decided to gift it to her instead.

“A pretty young girl should learn to dress up more,” she said.

Li Chunjiao covered her mouth and laughed. “When it comes to dressing up, our Director Ding definitely has authority on the matter. Back in the day, she was a well-known beauty.”

After all, youth alone wouldn’t have been enough to attract such a high-ranking leader’s attention.

Jiang Ling laughed along. “I can totally see that. Just from your features, it’s obvious—Sister Ding must’ve been stunning when she was younger. But even now, you’ve got a special kind of charm. There’s no trace of age on your face. If you didn’t mention your age and we walked out together, people would definitely think we’re sisters close in age.”

Jiang Ling was very skilled at flattery.

Ding Yan blushed from the teasing. “We’ve got business to handle—don’t start rambling on about nonsense.”

The girls in Jiang Ling’s dorm hadn’t had time to leave yet. They sat on their beds, listening to the older women chat with Jiang Ling.

When they heard Li Chunjiao call Ding Yan “Director Ding,” all of their hearts skipped a beat.

Though they didn’t know what kind of director she was, even the smallest director was still a person of authority.

One of the sharper ones noticed that her surname was Ding—same as the factory director.

That meant this older sister was very likely a relative of Director Ding.

In that instant, an uneasy suspicion crept into her heart: could it be that Jiang Ling wasn’t mentally ill after all? And that the person getting married today in the factory canteen, the one with the factory director officiating the wedding, was actually Jiang Ling?

That female worker couldn’t help but feel a bit resentful toward Bai Guo, the dorm leader. She blamed her for going out and gathering all that information, even getting chummy with Jiang Ling’s younger siblings, yet somehow never finding out that Jiang Ling had such powerful connections and actually knew relatives of the factory director.

Jiang Ling had already packed her things. A single small bundle—that was all she owned.

Ding Yan, who owned countless beautiful clothes, felt a pang of sadness when she saw it. This girl had already worked for two years, earned two years’ worth of wages, and still hadn’t managed to save up even a little dowry for herself.

It was clear her parents had treated her poorly.

The other women in the dorm followed Jiang Ling and the others downstairs. They wanted to see for themselves whether Jiang Ling had been bragging or if she really was getting married at the Daily Chemical Factory’s canteen today.

All the way to the canteen, Bai Guo even spotted someone she knew. Who else could it be but Zhao Hongyun?

Of course Zhao Hongyun was there to crash the wedding banquet. Standing beside her was her mother-in-law, Sun Yilan. The food at a wedding banquet was bound to be better, and since they didn’t have to offer any gift money, only a fool wouldn’t come.

In the crowd, Zhao Hongyun spotted Jiang Ling being surrounded at the center and thought to herself how this third sister-in-law really loved being the center of attention. Someone else was getting married, yet she had wedged herself right into the middle, to the point Zhao Hongyun couldn’t even tell who the actual bride was.

She stood on tiptoe and asked, “Do you see the bride? I haven’t been able to spot her from here.”

Bai Guo’s expression turned complicated. “It’s not the factory director’s daughter—it’s Jiang Ling.”

“What?”

She repeated herself. “The one getting married at the factory canteen today isn’t anyone else. It’s Jiang Ling.”

In fact, word had already quietly spread through the factory: the couple getting married in the canteen were two clerks from the Accounting and Technical Sections, both regular employees—not children of the factory director.

But no one really knew exactly who the couple was. As for the official explanation—that the factory had faced a rough patch recently and was holding a staff wedding to bring in some good fortune—no one believed that for a second.

It had to be a leader’s child or relative. The whole “bringing in joy to dispel bad luck” thing was just an excuse. Did they really think everyone was dumb enough to be fooled?