Even this was supported by Sister Lu. She didn’t even have the chance to go to school. Sister Lu said that it was because a women’s director came to the village that year and forced Lu Xiaoqian to go to school. After Lu Xiaoqian graduated from elementary school, the women’s director was promoted and left, and Lu Xiaoqian had to face the problem of going to school again.

At this time, Sister Lu appeared and was willing to pay for her to go to school. The Lu family’s parents also wanted their sister to promote their son in the future, so they agreed after weighing the pros and cons. Lu Xiaoqian continued to study until high school.

When she finished her first year of high school, she became an adult, and it was time for her to get married in the countryside. Her parents brought up the idea of dropping out of school again.

At this time, even Sister Lu could not stop them because someone was willing to pay a hundred yuan for the bride price and a sewing machine. The immediate benefits were obviously more attractive to them than the benefits a few years later.

This girl was quite smart; she found herbs by herself and sold them at the purchasing station in the city to save some money. If she hadn’t taken her two younger sisters at home into consideration, she would have made a big deal out of it and gone to school.

After thinking for a while, Wen Jiajia decided to sell the spot to her.

They agreed to meet this weekend, and she didn’t know why Sister Lu came today.

Seeing Wen Jiajia, Sister Lu showed a little anxiety on her face. She pulled her aside and asked, “Well, Jiajia, I want to ask if the quota can be arranged as soon as possible?”

“Did something happen?” Wen Jiajia asked.

Sister Lu smiled bitterly, “They say that family disgrace should not be made public, but… my brother and sister-in-law are greedy and incompetent. That man increased the betrothal gift to 120, and they became even more tempted. I could have delayed it, but now that I mentioned this, they want me to pay the 120 for a sewing machine, or they will marry Xiaoqian off.”

“Xiaoqian wanted to run away last night, but she was found by the villagers not long after she ran away. She was beaten by her parents and is still locked up. I only found out about this this morning when her little sister came to report the news in a hurry.”

Wen Jiajia couldn’t believe it: “They beat her and restricted her personal freedom!”

She wanted to say, “Didn’t anyone call the police?”

But the next second she remembered that at this time, many people thought it was natural for parents to beat their children. Even parents who were worse than pigs and dogs had the “right” to beat and scold their children.

Even if the beating was severe, few people would think it was wrong, especially in rural areas.

Sister Lu sighed, “This happens all the time, but this time the beating was a little harsher.”

Wen Jiajia said hurriedly, “Then bring her here quickly, I will help her with the entry procedures today.”

Sister Lu was shocked and said, “Really? My money…”

“Didn’t we agree on this? No money.”

Wen Jiajia didn’t ask for money, but she was not a sucker either.

What did she want? A small courtyard that had collapsed on one side.

The courtyard is not big, with an area of only about 120 square meters. It was the house of Lu’s husband’s uncle. His uncle had no children, so the courtyard was later left to him.

According to Sister Lu, her husband is in a critical period of promotion recently, and the family actually already has a house allocated by the factory, and it is quite large.

But this actually does not comply with the policy, because he owns a house and is a single worker. He was able to get the house because he followed the right leader back then.

But his boss was transferred, and he could only keep a low profile without a backer. Besides, few people knew that this courtyard belonged to him. And because it collapsed, it would cost hundreds of yuan to repair it, and the people from the street and housing authority didn’t care.

That would be fine, but the key point is that his ancestors also had a house, and now that house is still occupied by his uncle’s family.

I don’t know why, but this matter was exposed and spread all over the factory. Although it hasn’t been exposed to the courtyard, it’s enough to scare Sister Lu’s husband.

It was barely acceptable for one family to have two houses. Anyway, his father and he did not work in the same factory. At worst, he could just let his parents move back into that house.

But there is still another house…Sister Lu’s husband couldn’t imagine how miserable it would be if it was discovered.

At this time, he wished that the house was not his and just wanted to sell it as soon as possible! Even if it was for free or even at a loss, it would be fine.

But he couldn’t tell anyone about this, especially friends and colleagues. If he was caught, he would be in trouble. Until he learned about Wen Jiajia from Sister Lu.

He knew that Wen Jiajia didn’t have a house in the factory, so with the determination to “fight to the death,” he told Wen Jiajia about the matter and wanted to spend more money to give the yard to her.

Wen Jiajia: …

Pies don’t fall from the sky this way^[1]is a way of expressing that success or rewards do not come without effort or hard work..

Wen Jiajia went to the courtyard to take a look with a cautious attitude. It was not habitable, but the location was good.

It was next to a garden in the inner city and was a protected area. There was a 99% chance that it would not be demolished in the future.

But she just liked this kind of house. She could buy any house that was being demolished, but she only liked the ones that could not be demolished.

This courtyard was big enough for her to give the quota to Lu Xiaoqian, but for the sake of the girl’s future, Wen Jiajia only asked Sister Lu not to tell her husband about her not confiscating her quota money. After all, things change over time, and if Sister Lu’s husband regretted it in the future, he couldn’t blame Lu Xiaoqian.

Although Sister Lu didn’t understand, she listened to Wen Jiajia’s words. She asked, “Then shall we go through the formalities this afternoon?”

“Sure! I can do anything. But how will you convince your brother and sister-in-law?” Wen Jiajia asked again, “This requires a letter of introduction.”

Sister Lu said, “It’s easy. Just give them a sum of money every month.”

Wen Jiajia felt a little aggrieved: “They want a lot, right? Xiaoqian said last time that she would give you a sum of money every month, and now she has to give it to her family. She is so busy for a month that she won’t have much left for herself.”

It goes without saying that her parents were conscientious enough not to take away half of the money.

Sister Lu said, “There’s nothing we can do. We have to get the job first and see what happens. Can we force her to give it to us even if she doesn’t want to? Even if we sign an agreement, there are loopholes. Besides, I don’t want Xiaoqian’s money.”

“Sister, you still want it. I’m sincere.” Wen Jiajia sighed. Although she didn’t know what loopholes there were, she naturally had her own ways.

Sister Lu didn’t stay long and left soon.

After she left, Wen Jiajia did not return to the office but went to the human resources department.

Lin Yunfei was a little surprised to see her: “It’s rare, you shouldn’t be staying in the office drinking tea at this time.”

“What do you mean?” Wen Jiajia sat down calmly and picked up the biscuits on her table to eat.

“Hey, I only have one piece left!”

Wen Jiajia thought, if it wasn’t one piece I wouldn’t have eaten it. Now there’s only one piece left and I’m watching, so she should eat it.

After eating, she patted the cookie crumbs on her hands and said, “Well, I want to recommend someone.”

Lin Yunfei was stunned, then asked, “Who is it?”

“A girl who has just finished her freshman year of high school.”

“Okay.” Lin Yunfei was very straightforward.

Wen Jiajia thought for a moment and asked again, “Are you going to hire someone soon? If you need to hire someone within a week, she can actually wait a little longer.”

By then, Xiaoqian will come in by herself, and in this case, the yard will be given to me and will have nothing to do with this girl at all.

“Recruiting people is something we should do after the New Year. You’re trying to tire me out by recruiting now. I didn’t have a rest for a whole month recently. I was just training, training, and training!” Lin Yunfei was full of resentment, and her anger was about to soar to the sky. Wen Jiajia could understand her very well, as she thought the same thing when she was working the night shift.

Wen Jiajia took the opportunity to complain to her, saying that the concept of “work first” did not exist for them.

Wen Jiajia didn’t have such an idea at all. Even though she had never been a social animal, she had understood the benefits of working 996. How could she have such an anti-human idea?

As for Lin Yunfei, she was born with it.

Some time ago, she was angry at her boss because of overtime, and bluntly said that if she had the same salary as her boss, she could be very diligent and put work first, which made her boss so angry that he almost fainted.

This matter was also noticed by the union, which had some power at that time. Her boss was immediately criticized by the union, although he still worked overtime for a week afterwards.

Well, it can be seen that even though the unions have power, it is slowly shrinking.

They complained until their mouths were dry and their tongues were parched. After venting, both of them felt better and Wen Jiajia left.

Sister Lu brought Lu Xiaoqian to the factory gate in the afternoon, but she didn’t expect that her parents were also with them.

Seeing Sister Lu blinking at Xiaoqian frantically behind her parents’ backs, Wen Jiajia immediately understood and put on a look of keeping strangers away and asked, “Who is Lu Xiaoqian?”

Sister Lu pushed Lu Xiaoqian forward: “She is.”

Father and Mother Lu stood at the factory gate at a loss. Seeing Wen Jiajia, they showed some flattery. Father Lu asked, “Hello, comrade, this OEM can’t, can’t… I’m strong, I can do more work!”

Wen Jiajia was shocked for a moment, and then she realized that they just thought it was an OEM.

This is quite good. After all, if you continue to do OEM, you may be able to enter the factory. It can be seen that Sister Lu and her nephew are quite particular.

Wen Jiajia said with a straight face, “Are you a high school student?”

“Ah, this…”

Wen Jiajia: “Don’t waste my time. If you can do it, do it. If you can’t, tell me as soon as possible and I’ll find someone else.”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

The father didn’t dare to say anything anymore and just kept signaling Lu Xiaoqian with his eyes. Wen Jiajia pretended not to see anything and pulled Lu Xiaoqian into the factory.

After entering the factory, Lu Xiaoqian breathed a sigh of relief and said embarrassedly, “They insisted on coming with me, and I didn’t tell them about buying a job.”

Wen Jiajia: “Smart! I just can’t tell you. But I didn’t buy it. The matter of this yard is a bit complicated. To be precise, it’s a deal between me and your uncle. Don’t feel too burdened. By the way, how did you get the letter of introduction?”

“The village leader is my uncle. He knows what kind of people my parents are. He helped me get the letter of introduction and the household registration.”

“So how many months do you think you’ll be working as a substitute?”

“Six months.”

Wen Jiajia said, “After six months, you can say that someone else wants you to do the work for them. After that, you can become a temporary worker. Ask for a lower salary so that you can keep more money for yourself.”

Lu Xiaoqian smiled. “I know.”

She didn’t want to give a single cent to her family. She had already decided that she would use the money to pay her younger sister’s tuition and return the rest to her aunt.

Although Wen Jiajia always said that the yard had nothing to do with her, Lu Xiaoqian couldn’t help but keep it in her heart. The two chatted for a long time along the way. Wen Jiajia introduced her to places they passed by and then took her to the human resources department, where she helped her get the job.

Where to go? To the archives, which is a nice, quiet, and respectable place.

Wen Jiajia said, “You still want to study, right? Next to the archives room is the reading room, which is full of books and usually very free. You can go to the pharmaceutical factory’s night school when you have time. People in our factory can go to the pharmaceutical factory to attend night school. The night school now teaches various crafts. If you need it, I can help you apply. There is also a dormitory, which I have also applied for you.”

Lu Xiaoqian didn’t expect to be able to go to the archives room. She thought she was going to the workshop! She nodded quickly. “Okay! Thank you!”

Wen Jiajia ran over in the afternoon to help her finish the work.

The whole factory was busy during this period, even the archives room was no exception. So when they saw the newcomers coming, they had no time to ask questions. The sisters smiled very brightly and asked them to work with them.

Wen Jiajia felt a twinge of guilt after she finished talking about the free time in the archives room, but it didn’t matter. Everything would be fine after this busy period.

At three or four o’clock, she took Lu Xiaoqian to the dormitory and the cafeteria, and Wen Jiajia felt relieved only after she was settled.

She was originally going to complete the formalities for checking in, but unfortunately, she didn’t bring Wen Jiajia’s ID.

For this reason, Sister Lu’s husband was a little annoyed and repeatedly told her to bring it tomorrow. This house was really like a hot potato^[2]refers to a controversial or difficult issue that people are reluctant to handle or address. in his hands.

Wen Jiajia couldn’t help but ask, “What if the house becomes valuable in the future?”

Sister Lu’s husband smiled bitterly. “It’s valuable, so what. Comrade Wen, don’t worry, I won’t ask you to take the house back. If I don’t give it to you, I will give it to someone else.”

For example, his uncle’s family. But his uncle’s family was too greedy, and he didn’t dare to bet whether they would use this as leverage against him.

Maybe he would donate, but once he did, the fact that he once owned three houses would be exposed, and he would definitely be demoted.

Wen Jiajia said, “Okay, I will bring it tomorrow. But I will give you the money tomorrow. How about buying it with a 30% discount off the market price? Don’t tell me you don’t want it. If you don’t want it, to be honest, I wouldn’t dare to accept it. Oh, and I have to write an agreement and explanation.” Anyway, the collapsed house is relatively inexpensive, and it can’t be lived in, so the price is much lower than that of an ordinary yard.

Besides, she is familiar with Sister Lu, but not with Sister Lu’s husband. If he says he won’t take it back, does that mean he won’t take it back?

By then, she wouldn’t be able to take over the yard without spending tens of millions of dollars. If any dispute arises, wouldn’t she be wronged?

Sister Lu’s husband nodded repeatedly.

After Wen Jiajia returned home, she told Wei Dai about this. Wei Dai never expected that she would actually buy a house.

“Where?” Wei Dai asked.

“From Shanyuan.”

Wen Jiajia said with a smile, “I have been eyeing the courtyard of Teacher Yan and Teacher Feng’s house for a long time. I like the feeling of a world of its own once the gate is closed. Let’s build one like that when the time comes!”

***

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