Chapter 42: Dying of Anger

When Zhao Feng heard that Gao Xiulian had been caught shortchanging people on their food portions, enraging everyone and getting transferred to the back kitchen, his first reaction was—what was she thinking?

She saved food for the state-run restaurant, but it’s not like she could bring it home. Pah! Even if she could bring it home, did their family look like they were short on rations?

He earned nearly 200 yuan a month including his salary and subsidies. Aside from what he sent to his parents, the bulk of it went to Gao Xiulian. Even if she only used half that money, it’d still be more than enough to feed a family of five. So why did she do it?

What was Gao Xiulian thinking?

Of course—she just wanted to vent her anger!

Jiang Ling had argued with her a few days ago, and then had the nerve to come to her window for food? How could Gao Xiulian swallow that anger without doing something?

But when Zhao Feng questioned her, Gao Xiulian only cried and said, “I really didn’t do it on purpose! There were too many people in line, I got distracted and gave her a smaller portion! Just like you said, it’s not like the restaurant belongs to our family—I can’t take the extra food home! Why would I deliberately serve her less and give her a reason to make trouble? What would I gain from that?”

Zhao Feng couldn’t make sense of it, which made him all the more angry. But seeing her crying so hard, he couldn’t bring himself to keep scolding. He just frowned and asked, “You really didn’t do it on purpose?”

“I swear I didn’t! Heaven knows! If I served her less food on purpose, may I… may I die a miserable death!” Gao Xiulian raised her hand and swore.

Zhao Feng frowned. “Why are you saying stuff like that?”

“I’m just upset! Think about it—so I gave her a little less food. Couldn’t I just explain and make it up to her? What’s the big deal? But Jiang Ling had to blow it out of proportion, accuse me of being unfair and acting on my own whims, and said I shouldn’t be working the serving window.” The more Gao Xiulian spoke, the more she believed Jiang Ling was out to get her.

It wasn’t like this was the first time Gao Xiulian had served short portions. Other people hadn’t said a word. But Jiang Ling insisted on making a scene. Clearly she was holding a grudge over their earlier argument.

Gao Xiulian kept sobbing: “I just don’t get it. We have several windows in the cafeteria. Me continuing to work at one—how does that bother her? If she didn’t trust me, couldn’t she just go to a different window? But no, she clung to that one mistake, and forced our Supervisor Huang to transfer me to the back kitchen.”

Though Zhao Feng believed his wife had mishandled the situation, after hearing her sob story, he began to feel Jiang Ling had taken it too far. He asked with a grim expression, “Just because of a few words from her, your supervisor transferred you to the kitchen?”

“Of course not!” Gao Xiulian immediately denied it. “You don’t know how cunning Jiang Ling is. She used this incident to stir up the other cafeteria customers, and got them to all complain about me. And those people—sometimes I even gave them more food than they paid for! How come no one said I was unfair back then? And Supervisor Huang—I’ve always worked diligently. He didn’t see that, and just because of some complaints, he moved me out of the serving window…”

Hearing this, the anger Zhao Feng had built up on his way home started to fade. But he didn’t offer much sympathy either. He said, “In a job like yours, fairness is key. People give money and tickets, you give the correct amount of food. Whether it’s too much or too little—it’s wrong either way. And even if the line was long, you can’t just be careless. Your unit doesn’t even have a time limit on serving food. What were you rushing for?”

Gao Xiulian didn’t know how to explain. She just lowered her head and muttered, “I… I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time.”

Zhao Feng let out a long sigh, rubbed his temples, and said, “Fine. Let’s leave it at that. Since you’ve been transferred to the kitchen, just do your job well…”

Gao Xiulian was stunned. “Wait, I didn’t mean to give her less food. Can’t you talk to Supervisor Huang and get me transferred back to the window?”

She hadn’t said all that just for Zhao Feng to tell her to do her best in the kitchen!

Besides, being a vegetable washer was embarrassing. If she’d known that was what she’d end up doing, she never would’ve agreed to work at the state-run restaurant.

Zhao Feng was shocked. “After all this, you still want to go back to the window?”

What kind of shameless thinking was that?

Gao Xiulian’s face dropped. “Go out and ask around. Who can guarantee they’ve never made a mistake at work? I’ve only been at the restaurant a month. So what if I made one mistake? Why should one slip-up erase all the effort I’ve put in? No, I don’t care! You have to talk to our supervisor and get me back to the window. If not—then I’m not going to work anymore!”

But Gao Xiulian clearly misunderstood Zhao Feng. When she tried to threaten him by saying she’d quit, not only did he not panic, he even nodded solemnly: “Alright, if you don’t want to work, then don’t.”

In fact, when she first said she wanted to work at the restaurant, Zhao Feng had hoped being busy might stop her from gossiping and causing trouble.

But no—just one month in, and she caused such a huge mess! If Supervisor Huang hadn’t covered it up, things could’ve escalated. Not only would she have lost her job, he might’ve been dragged down too.

Ask Huang to transfer her back to the window?

Only if he was out of his mind and wanted to ruin his own life for fun.

But was he the kind of man to lose his mind?

…

Because Zhao Feng refused to help her get her job back, Gao Xiulian was so angry she couldn’t sleep the whole night, and only woke up around 8 a.m.

As soon as she saw the light through the curtains, her heart sank. She jumped up from bed—then immediately remembered she’d been transferred to the kitchen as a rotating-shift vegetable washer.

She flopped right back down onto the bed.

She didn’t want to go to work at all. Just thinking about the looks people gave her when Supervisor Huang announced the transfer made her sick.

Even though a vegetable washer and a food server were technically on the same level with the same pay, in her eyes, they were worlds apart.

Serving food at the window was clean, respectable, and admired.

Washing vegetables in the back was menial and looked down on.

To make it worse, after the transfer, Wang Qing came over and flattered her, saying, “When I first joined the restaurant, you told me that no job is better than another. As long as you work hard and do your part, you’ll shine like gold. I really took that to heart, worked hard in the kitchen, and look—just one month later, Supervisor Huang noticed me and transferred me to the serving window!”

Gao Xiulian nearly slapped her right then and there. She thought: I was the one who got screwed over, and that’s the only reason you got moved to the window! And you have the nerve to act like it’s because of your own hard work?!

Shameless!

But with all the kitchen staff watching, Gao Xiulian could only swallow her rage and choke back the blood.

Wang Qing wasn’t done. She went on, “Now that you’ve been transferred to the kitchen, I want to give those words back to you. No job is beneath anyone. As long as you work hard, you’ll shine wherever you are. You’ll stay at your post, work hard, and be a shining example, right?”

What could Gao Xiulian say?

All she could do was force a smile and say, “I will.”

At this point, she was stuck. Whether she liked the job or not, she had to keep doing it—unless someone higher up voluntarily moved her.

That’s why she had pinned her hopes on Zhao Feng pulling strings with Supervisor Huang.

For military wives like Gao Xiulian—whose husbands held high positions—getting a job after following their spouse’s transfer often depended heavily on the Military Family Affairs Office.

To protect the interests of military wives whose husbands didn’t hold high enough ranks, and to ensure fairness as much as possible, the Military Family Placement Office prioritized arranging jobs for military spouses based on how long they had accompanied their husbands. Second came the hiring needs of the employers, and the least important factor was the husband’s military rank.

If that weren’t the case, given Zhao Feng’s rank, Gao Xiulian wouldn’t have had to wait over a year after joining her husband to finally get a halfway decent job arranged for her—though the fact she thinks it’s “not decent” is purely her personal opinion.

Once you get over the first hurdle and enter a work unit, it becomes much easier to maneuver and get transferred to a better post.

And it’s not like Gao Xiulian expected Zhao Feng to say just one word and have Director Huang promote her to a leadership role. She just wanted to return to a front-desk job—surely that wasn’t asking too much?

But Zhao Feng didn’t care one bit about their relationship and flat-out rejected her!

Aaaaargh!!

Gao Xiulian was livid!

Still, no matter how angry she was, once it was time for work, she had no choice but to head in. Otherwise, if that bitch Wang Qing found out, who knows what kind of gossip she’d spread about her!

Fuming, Gao Xiulian left the house and walked along the little path between the Zhao and Zong family courtyards. When she saw Lin Wei and Yang Yi chatting next door, her anger suddenly subsided.

Even though her job wasn’t ideal, at least she had one—unlike Lin Wei, who still hadn’t been assigned any work.

Thinking this, Gao Xiulian forced a smile and asked, “Having a chat?”

Lin Wei and Yang Yi exchanged glances, then turned around and asked, “Are you talking to us?”

Gao Xiulian almost rolled her eyes but kept her smile and said, “Who else would I be talking to? You’re the only two here. Honestly, I really envy you. No job, no need to get up for work every morning—so carefree. Not like me, born to toil and can’t even rest.”

Yang Yi looked at Lin Wei again, then turned and said, “You envy us? No need.”

Gao Xiulian smiled smugly, about to say something like “Don’t worry, your jobs will come,” but before she could open her mouth, Yang Yi continued:

“You said yourself you’re born to work, so no matter how envious you are, you can’t compare to people like us—born to enjoy life, right?”

As soon as Yang Yi finished, Lin Wei added, “Comrade Gao is just being polite, saying she envies us. Why take it seriously? She’s a person with a strong sense of responsibility. After being reassigned yesterday, she swore in front of everyone at the state-owned restaurant that she’d stay at her post and do a good job washing vegetables. No way she actually envies us, right? What do you say, Comrade Gao?”

Gao Xiulian’s face froze. “Where did you hear that?”

“What?” Lin Wei feigned confusion, then said after a moment, “Oh, you mean the part where you swore to stick to your post? It’s all over the family compound. Didn’t you hear? Yesterday everyone was wondering whether you’d be upset about the sudden reassignment and whether you’d try to get your old job back. But now they’re all relieved.”

Gao Xiulian blurted out, “Relieved? Relieved about what?”

Lin Wei smiled. “They believe you’ll stick to your post and do a great job washing vegetables. Since you won’t be trying to get back to the front desk, they feel reassured.”

“When did I ever say I’d stick to the post and not go back to the front desk?! That was clearly…” Thinking back to what Wang Qing said yesterday, Gao Xiulian’s face changed dramatically.

Wang Qing had clearly done it on purpose!

She’d said all those things in front of so many people to force her to nod along, then added fuel to the fire by spreading it everywhere, all to lock her in place and stop her from reclaiming the front desk job!

Realizing this, Gao Xiulian lost all interest in showing off her job to Lin Wei. Without a word of goodbye, she stormed off in a huff.

As soon as she left, Lin Wei and Yang Yi burst into laughter.

After the laughter faded, Yang Yi asked, confused, “What do you think is going on in Gao Xiulian’s head? She just got kicked off the front desk for short-changing customers, and she still has the nerve to flaunt her job in front of you?”

Lin Wei thought for a moment, then said with a straight face, “Maybe she loves me deeply.”

Yang Yi’s eyes widened in shock, as if to say, “Are you okay?”

Realizing Yang Yi didn’t get the joke, Lin Wei coughed and clarified, “I was joking.”

Yang Yi let out a breath. “I thought so.”

Lin Wei smiled but didn’t say more about Gao Xiulian. Instead, she changed the subject and asked, “On a serious note, didn’t your mother-in-law and brother-in-law come to visit? How do you still have time to hang out with me?”

Unexpectedly, Yang Yi’s face fell immediately. “Don’t even mention it. I seriously can’t stay home anymore. I just made an excuse to come see you so I could get some air.”

Lin Wei was slightly surprised. “You don’t get along with them?”

She had known Yang Yi for nearly three months, and through their chats had learned a bit about her family background.

Yang Yi came from a poor peasant family, with three brothers and one sister—she was the middle child. While her family didn’t treat her like royalty, she wasn’t mistreated either. At around eighteen or nineteen, she was introduced to her husband Qi Tao and started dating him.

Don’t be fooled by Qi Tao’s current rank as a battalion officer—back then, his conditions weren’t great.

Though he had already been promoted to an officer, he was only a deputy platoon leader. His rank was too low for family accompaniment, and after marriage they’d only see each other once every two or three years. To make things worse, his father had passed away, his mother’s health was poor, and he had a younger brother around ten years old. Marrying him meant caring for his mother and raising his brother—a huge burden.

Yang Yi’s family didn’t think much of Qi Tao at the time, but she was young and only cared about looks. After meeting him, no one else caught her eye. She was determined to be with him.

Her parents reluctantly agreed to the marriage a year later.

After the wedding, life was just as people said: she had to serve her mother-in-law and raise her brother-in-law. Life was tough for years.

Even when Qi Tao was promoted to deputy battalion commander, she waited until her brother-in-law got a job and got married before packing up and joining her husband.

Luckily, her sacrifices weren’t in vain. After moving to join the army, she and Qi Tao were a loving couple, seen as role models in the family compound.

And during their usual chats, Yang Yi never spoke ill of her mother-in-law or brother-in-law. So Lin Wei always assumed they got along. But based on Yang Yi’s tone today, that might not be the case.

“It’s not that things are terrible,” Yang Yi explained. “It’s just that ever since Qi Tao became successful, my mother-in-law acts like I don’t deserve him and can’t stop picking on me.”

Clearly holding it in for a while, Yang Yi vented to Lin Wei: “If I cook more dishes, she says I’m wasteful and don’t know how to run a household. If I make fewer, she says I’m starving her precious grandson. If I rest after finishing housework, I’m lazy and don’t notice anything that needs doing. If I do find work to do, she says I’m slow and take all day to do one thing.”

Lin Wei frowned. “Was she always like this?”

“No way! Before my brother-in-law got married, no matter what I did, I was always right. She used to tell people I was like a daughter to her. But the moment he got married, I became useless.” Yang Yi said sarcastically. “Just this morning, after seeing Liu Dan go to work, she scolded me, saying I’m lazy and should get a job instead of just living off her son!”

Lin Wei asked, “And you just took it and ran to my place?”

Yang Yi looked sheepish. “I wanted to talk back, but she’s old now. What if we had a big fight and something happened? She’s still my mother-in-law, after all.”

“Even if she’s your mother-in-law, she shouldn’t be treating you like that,” Lin Wei said coldly. “If she thought you weren’t good enough, she should’ve spoken up when you were dating her son. Back then she said nothing, let you slave away to support the family, and now that both sons are doing well, she turns around and criticizes you? What kind of person is that? Does Qi Tao know about this?”

Yang Yi shook her head. “In front of him, his mom never says a single bad word about me.”

“You didn’t tell him?”

“How could I? You don’t know her—my mother-in-law is such a good actress. In front of him, she treats me like I’m her own daughter. Anyone watching would think I’m her real daughter and he’s the son-in-law.”

“What about your brother-in-law? You basically raised him. When your mother-in-law talks bad about you, doesn’t he say anything?”

Yang Yi sighed. “Actually, my brother-in-law is a good kid. When my mother-in-law badmouths me, he even apologizes to me. But my mother-in-law’s used to being the boss. What he says doesn’t really change anything.”

Lin Wei said, “…What good is apologizing behind her back? He’s her biological son—no matter how useless his words are, if he spoke up, she’d still be a bit more cautious. And even if he can’t get through to her, what, does he not have a mouth? He could’ve told Qi Tao what’s really going on, right?”

Hearing that, Yang Yi’s expression changed. “You mean…?”

“I mean, either your brother-in-law is a two-faced little snake, apologizing to you while actually siding with his mom, and that’s why he never told Qi Tao. Or… Qi Tao already knows everything, and just chooses to say nothing. The rest—you figure it out yourself.”

Lin Wei had seen through it now—Qi’s family was a bunch of high-level white lotuses, and they’d raised a masterclass green tea man, playing Yang Yi—the big-hearted fool—like a puppet on strings.

The only question left was whether Qi Tao was completely clueless, or if he fully understood Yang Yi’s situation and chose to turn a blind eye.

If it was the former, at least there’s hope—sometimes a rotten tree can grow a good shoot. Yang Yi might still be able to count on him.
But if it was the latter… then this whole family was downright terrifying.