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墨書 Inktalez
To be honest, after leaving that factory, I felt nothing but frustration. In this economically backward prefecture-level city, aside from government agencies, public enterprises, hospitals, and schools, which company pays social insurance? Where can you find a job that offers severance pay of N+1? Where is there an eight-hour workday or year-end bonuses? If you dare to bring these up, you'll surely be met with scorn and insults.
You work for a day, and the company pays you for that day—what a fair transaction! I thought to myself, never mind, I’ll just go home and prepare to raise my child.
But then came the salary payment after a month of waiting. Out of an 8,000 yuan monthly salary, I received only 500! The finance department said the payroll was prepared by the HR department. When I called the HR representative, a young woman who was clearly annoyed answered the phone: “Last month, there was a serious quality issue with our client’s delivery; everyone in the Quality Inspection Department only received 500 yuan!”
I had been let go two months ago; what did last month’s quality issues have to do with me? After I explained my situation, the young woman remained obstinate: “This was decided in the general manager's office. If you have a problem, go talk to President Xu!”
Fine, I would go talk to him. What’s so special about that? Xu Huairen was my classmate from vocational school. He had a soft appearance and came from a well-off family. He often flirted with female classmates and earned himself the nickname "He Shen."
Many female classmates dated him, but aside from rumors of him taking someone for an abortion, nothing ever came of those relationships. In our final year before graduation, he set his sights on me.
I wouldn’t say I was particularly beautiful, but I had a certain charm. I just didn’t care much about my appearance and felt somewhat insecure due to my average background, so I rarely interacted with boys.
He relentlessly pursued me—treating me to meals and movies, even singing “The Moon Represents My Heart” to me at a class gathering… He wasn’t my type at all; I remained indifferent to his advances and kept my distance.
Feeling entitled due to his privileged background, he developed ulterior motives towards me. He organized an extravagant birthday party and invited me since it was a group event. Little did I know he spiked my drink with something. By the time the party ended, I felt drowsy. He sent everyone else home and insisted on helping me into his car.
Taking advantage of my hazy state of mind, he not only took inappropriate photos of me but also pinned me down in the back seat and threatened me: “You better behave… or I’ll post these pictures online!”
I struggled desperately; even as he tore my dress apart, I refused to give in. Finally, I managed to free my right hand from his grip and pushed his disgusting face away from mine. With both hands free, I slapped him twice across the face and kicked him between the legs.
He howled in pain while clutching himself. Seizing his phone that he used to take pictures of me, I smashed it into pieces and cried out that I would call the police.
Terrified, he wet himself as liquid streamed down his pants while he knelt on the ground begging for mercy.
Such matters can indeed tarnish a girl's reputation, so I chose not to delve deeper into it. To be honest, I was quite shaken myself! Then he dropped out and enrolled in a certain university to pursue an MBA that could be obtained with money. Rumor has it that his boss is his uncle, and he is the offspring of his boss and his aunt… The boss has no children of his own, so this is a roundabout way of claiming his heritage.
As for me, perhaps this is Xu Huairen settling the score for the grievances of the past.
“Salary? You’ve been fired for over a month; what salary are you talking about?” Xu Huairen sat behind the large desk, while his newly hired assistant was giving him a shoulder massage from behind.
I sat down in front of him and said, “So, does that mean President Xu isn’t planning to pay me for that month?”
“What a joke! With such a huge problem in the Quality Inspection Department, you, as the former manager, can’t escape responsibility. It’s already good enough that the factory didn’t make you pay for it! Weren’t you quite capable back then? You almost ruined my reputation; who would have thought it would come back around to me?” He smugly pulled the female assistant’s hand to his mouth and wrapped an arm around her waist.
“Or you could find a time to meet with me alone and persuade me to change my mind.” He deliberately emphasized the word 'persuade'.
I had no intention of applying for labor arbitration. In our kind of factory, there’s no social security or employee ID; unless someone could prove otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to argue against him saying I wasn’t their employee. I also didn’t have the energy or time to waste on this.
I called my boss, firstly to check in on him and secondly to discuss my situation. It truly echoed the saying: never empathize with capitalists. During our conversation, my boss was cheerful and expressed gratitude for my concern, but when I mentioned the personnel changes at the factory and my situation, he started laughing: “Xiao Jiang, I’m getting old; I’ll leave the factory matters to Xiao Xu from now on. If there’s anything, just communicate directly with him, okay? That’s it for now; I need to go check something.”
It really confirmed the old saying: “Those who aren’t family don’t enter through the same door.” My former assistant Xiao Xia was still at the factory and sent me a long message full of grievances via WeChat:
The office director Lao Cao and others who were dismissed by Xu Huairen had all submitted. Despite being nearly forty, Lao Cao now humbly bows before leaders who are under thirty. She mentioned that she has now become an ordinary quality inspector. The new Quality Inspection Department manager is a top graduate in business management, but she lacks expertise in printing and doesn’t even understand customer requirements for products. She disregards technical specifications at each stage and mainly pretends to know what she’s doing; she doesn’t listen to advice or suggestions. This led to two large truckloads of goods delivered last month being rejected due to issues like color deviation in Offset Printing, misalignment in embossing, smudged hot stamping lines, and blown impressions… The entire Quality Inspection Department worked overtime for a week just to sort through everything, achieving only a 77% yield rate and incurring losses exceeding three hundred thousand.
Xu Huairen deducted over 90% of the salaries from all employees in the Quality Inspection Department, along with 50% from each machine operator's salary across processes like Offset Printing, Hot Stamping, Impression, and Die Cutting.
For the sake of my baby, I decided to take it easy and focus on my pregnancy. As for our living situation, my husband works as a teacher at County No. 1 High School; although his income isn’t high, it is stable enough.
My husband went to Provincial Normal University for further studies, and I came to visit him. His dorm mate, a young man named Zhang Guohua, insisted on treating us to dinner. "Sister-in-law is here, so I must show my appreciation. I've just started working, and Brother Zhuang has taught me a lot. In a way, you are both my sister-in-law and my mentor," he said.
They say city folks are indifferent, but Xiao Zhang is quite a nice kid. To show his sincerity, he invited us to his home at Jiangcheng Golden Water Shore.
His 147-square-meter duplex was beautifully decorated, with top-notch appliances and furniture. Seeing us wide-eyed like Liu Laolao entering the Grand View Garden, Xiao Zhang gestured for his wife to introduce herself. "Don’t mind me, brother and sister-in-law; I’m living off my wife’s family. Your parents are from the Tobacco System, and since I'm the only son-in-law in the family, they treat me like their own son."
When the food was served, Xiao Zhang's wife, Laiwen, noticed we seemed a bit shy and tried to make conversation by asking about my job. I explained my situation, and the young girl exclaimed, "Sister-in-law, you’re an expert in the Printing Industry?"
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