Chapter 42

“Pu——ou——” The person lay on the ground, making the same vomiting sound as Feng Debao. Section Chief Fu arrived upon hearing the news.

When he saw the scene, not only did he feel a headache, but also a surge of anger. He rushed in front of Lin Qingping and Gu Youlian, protecting them behind him. Pointing at Feng Debao and his group, he scolded them loudly: “What kind of men are you, bullying two women? In the workplace, bullying people already shows a lack of morals, but in life, you continue to bully others—where is your conscience? Has it been eaten by dogs? I think you deserve to eat leftover food! You should be eating shit!”

Section Chief Fu yelled at them, his round face turning red with agitation. “Why aren’t you leaving quickly? Do you want to eat shit?” The lackeys stared at Lin Qingping’s bowl of leftover food, trembling in fear that she might, in her moment of anger, accidentally splash it on them. Hearing Section Chief Fu’s shout, they immediately turned and fled. One who still had a sense of “brotherhood” turned back, grabbed Feng Debao by the clothes, and dragged the man covered in leftover food out of the place.

The canteen finally settled down, but it still smelled unbearable. Everyone stood frozen, staring at the scene. From the kitchen staff to the onlookers, everyone had forgotten to speak. Lin Qingping, with grace, apologized: “Sorry, everyone, we scared you.” and then calmly began to clean and wash. Section Chief Fu watched, unsure of what to say, so he simply took action and helped with the cleaning. The aunties who were serving food also came over to help. 

Soon, the canteen was cleaned up. Strangely, no one spoke the entire time, let alone scolded them for making the canteen dirty.

However, the food was definitely no longer edible. Not to mention anything else, Lin Qingping herself smelled like leftover food, and her hands were covered in it. After washing her hands, she said to Gu Youlian: “Let’s go. I’ll change my clothes, and we can go eat outside.”

Gu Youlian had truly experienced a kind of shock she had never encountered in her life. Even in the countryside, no one ever fought by throwing out dishwater and pig feces…

Section Chief Fu was very apologetic and proactively offered to treat the two of them to a meal—after all, he hadn’t eaten either. Lin Qingping didn’t think much of it and went with Section Chief Fu.

In her previous life, she had run a chain of restaurants, where all kinds of social events and business dinners were inevitable. Among her clients were many men, and everything was above board. What was there to be concerned about?

At the State-Owned Restaurant in the county town, Section Chief Fu treated the two women to a meal. As for Gu Youlian, she couldn’t really taste anything.

First of all, she was someone who had experienced grand hotels in the Provincial Capital, so she no longer had the same anticipation for restaurants in small county towns like she did when she was still inexperienced. Secondly, she was still shaken and couldn’t focus on the food.

After the meal, they returned to the factory. Section Chief Fu went home, while Lin Qingping and Gu Youlian headed back to the single dormitory. On the way, Gu Youlian grabbed Lin Qingping and patted her own chest.

“Pingzi, I was so scared! How could you dare do that? Weren’t you afraid the city folks would look down on us even more? Weren’t you worried they’d blame us for dirtying their canteen? At that moment, I was really afraid they’d make us pay for it.”

Lin Qingping smiled. “What’s there to be afraid of? When a person goes a little crazy, others are actually less likely to mess with them.”

“Then… then could I have just gone ahead and pulled their hair earlier?” Gu Youlian had held herself back with great effort.

“There’s nothing wrong with that. But one thing is very important—you have to be confident that you can win. Otherwise, with so many of them, if they fought the two of us women, we definitely wouldn’t be able to beat them physically.” said Lin Qingping.

“So that’s why you…” Gu Youlian looked her up and down.

“Mm, going a little crazy now and then is good for your health.” Lin Qingping’s lips curved into a smile.

Hearing this, Gu Youlian could only feel a deep sense of surrender. She truly admired her. But emotionally, she found it hard to calm down.

That night, when Du Gen came back, she asked him at least ten times whether she still smelled like pig feces. Du Gen was completely baffled by her repeated questioning. Yet Gu Youlian still felt like she did. That sense of inferiority—it was truly etched into her bones. She couldn’t shake it.

That same night, she leaned over the table to write a letter to her younger brother, Gu Juncheng. She wanted to ask him whether Pingzi’s actions today were good or bad, right or wrong. Ever since she followed Pingzi into the city, many of the beliefs she had grown up with had started to collapse. She was truly confused.

Her younger brother was a soldier, the pillar of their family. What he said must be right.

But that night, it wasn’t just Gu Youlian who was stirred with emotion—there were undercurrents flowing through the entire Clothing Factory, okay! The incident in the canteen had spread across the entire Family Residential Compound in no time. That night, there wasn’t a single household not gossiping about the temp worker from the countryside going crazy.

After that night came the fourth day since Lin Qingping had arrived at the factory.

Everything seemed just like usual. And yet, everything seemed different.

What hadn’t changed was that Lin Qingping and Gu Youlian went into the workshop early in the morning to start working. Inside the workshop, the other workers, as usual, just sat around doing nothing.

What had changed was that while those people still sat there doing nothing, they no longer cracked sunflower seeds or chatted idly. The workshop had gone so quiet that the only sound left was that of the sewing machines.

As for Feng Debao, he didn’t show up at all that day. Without their leader, the few followers looked deflated and lost, not knowing what to do. What’s more, they kept a wide distance from Lin Qingping, as if she might throw dishwater at them at any moment.

Lin Qingping simply acted as if she hadn’t seen anything, her head lowered as she marked lines and cut fabric.

At eight-thirty, half an hour after the Clothing Factory’s starting bell rang, Du Gen—who had been missing from the workshop for several days—finally reappeared. He didn’t come alone, though. He brought a whole group of people with him. Calling it a “group” made it sound large, but really, there were just over ten of them, all women, ranging in age from young ladies to wives to older aunties.

Lin Qingping greeted them with a smile. “Everyone’s here?”

Du Gen said loudly: “This is just the first half. There are still a good ten or more—some of them live farther away, or have things to arrange at home. They’ll come tomorrow or the day after.”

The faces of the workers who had been sitting around in the workshop holding tea parties for the past few days instantly changed.

Lin Qingping didn’t look at those people at all. Instead, she kept smiling warmly at the dozen or so women Du Gen had brought. “Hello, everyone. You all know why I’ve called you here, right? Du Gen’s explained it to you?”

“Yes, yes!” Everyone nodded.

“And he’s talked to you about the conditions too? Do you find them acceptable?” Lin Qingping asked with a smile.

Everyone nodded again. “Yes, we’re all willing.”

“Great, then let’s get started right now! First, watch how Sister Gu and I do things. And here’s the blueprint—I’ll teach you how to read it first.”

Lin Qingping began demonstrating and guiding them.

Only then did the workers in the workshop realize—so that’s what this was about! Lin Qingping had brought in this group to actually work—to replace them!

Some of them felt seriously uncomfortable. Originally, they’d been misled into thinking they could pressure this young girl, but it turned out—she didn’t even care about them. Who knew where she had managed to find all these people? And there were still another ten or twenty coming in the next day or two!

One of them couldn’t help herself and quietly asked the Eldest Aunt sitting at the edge: “You’re here… to work for free?”

“Why would we?” Eldest Aunt shot her a glare.