Two thousand yuan was a huge sum of money in those days. But for those who had already gone into business, it wasn’t much. And for a family like Sister Liu’s, where both husband and wife worked in government units, their under-the-table income was nothing to sneeze at.
Tian Tian expected to wait two or three days at least. She never imagined that Sister Liu would show up at work the very next day with two thousand yuan in hand.
“You’re not playing tricks on me, are you?”
Seeing Tian Tian acting like they were barely acquainted, Sister Liu lowered her voice and demanded. God knows—after learning at noon yesterday that Tian Tian wanted to sell her job to her daughter, Sister Liu had been in a daze all afternoon. She was afraid she was dreaming. When she got home that night and told her family, her daughter was so excited she wanted to buy the job that very night.
Sister Liu had originally wanted to hold out and see if she could get a discount of a hundred or eighty yuan. But her daughter kept pushing and pushing. Her son also urged her along, and her husband told her not to lose the big prize for a small saving.
So early this morning, she had no choice but to pocket the money and get it done.
“My daughter can come this afternoon to handle the paperwork. Don’t you dare tell me now that you’re not selling.”
Seeing how worked up Sister Liu was, Tian Tian raised both hands in a calming gesture. Her smile was just right. “Sister Liu, calm down. I said I’d sell to you, and that won’t change. I just didn’t expect you to have so much cash on hand.”
Catching the implication in Tian Tian’s tone, Sister Liu’s conscience pricked her, and she raised her voice defensively. “Don’t talk nonsense. I borrowed this money from relatives and friends. Don’t change the subject—are you trying to back out of selling your job or not?”
“What? Who’s selling a job?”
Tian Tian turned around and saw several coworkers crowded at the door. She knew word would spread through the supply and marketing cooperative in no time. Originally, she had planned to quietly let the news of her job sale leak out, hoping to pin one more blame on Xu Lifen before she left.
Now Sister Liu had taken care of that for her.
Tian Tian gave her a silent thumbs-up. Then she turned around and tried hard to recall the pitiful expression her aunt-in-law usually wore. She bit her lip lightly, widened her eyes, blinked a couple of times. As she made the expressions, she silently complained to herself: playing the victim is a real skill. And hers clearly needed work.
But the people crowded at the door weren’t paying attention to that. They were just very curious about why Tian Tian would sell such a good job—and to Sister Liu, of all people, with whom she didn’t get along.
Tian Tian gave up on the performance. She just lowered her head, pretended to sob, let her shoulders shake, and rubbed her nose with her hand. After a few seconds, once she heard people offering comfort and asking questions, she looked up, put on a brave face, and said:
“The other day, A-Fen said I was careless with financial work. Even though I firmly said at the time that I had never made a mistake at work, I just can’t forget her harsh words. I’ve felt terrible coming to work these past two days. I thought about it and realized working here doesn’t mean much to me anymore. Just so happens, a relative is starting a big venture and wants me to come home and help. So I figured I’d just sell the job.”
“Oh, Xiao Tian. A-Fen didn’t mean it. Don’t be so sensitive.”
“Hey, what are you saying? What A-Fen said was nasty. Normally she’s so nice—I don’t know why she said something so mean. Of course Xiao Tian feels bad! But Xiao Tian, won’t you reconsider? That finance department position is too good to give up.”
Several salesclerks, including Sister Qian, took turns trying to talk her out of it. But Tian Tian just shook her head.
Seeing they couldn’t persuade her, two people who wanted the job spoke up and asked Tian Tian to consider them.
Tian Tian put on a troubled expression. “It’s not that I don’t want to sell the job to you. It’s just that A-Fen has said several times that she wants it. If I sold it to one of you, A-Fen would definitely have a problem with that.”
“So what if she has a problem?” one salesclerk said directly.
Tian Tian replied, “Haven’t you noticed that even Sister Liu is having a hard time holding her ground these days? And A-Fen has gotten the better of even her. You all… oh, I couldn’t do that to you.”
With that, Tian Tian headed straight for the Personnel Department.
Sister Liu hurriedly followed, feeling more wary of Xu Lifen than before.
The salesclerks left behind exchanged glances, then slapped their thighs in realization. They, too, felt that A-Fen had been a bit strange lately. Not only had she repeatedly dodged Sister Liu’s attempts to make trouble for her, but she had even gotten Warehouse Supervisor Liu and Section Chief Xu to reprimand Sister Liu.
Once or twice could be a coincidence. Any more than that, and something was fishy.
They exchanged meaningful looks and silently returned to their counters to tidy the shelves. They made a mental note to keep their guard up around Xu Lifen. And another thing: Xu Lifen must have something going on with those two leaders.
Meanwhile, Tian Tian had already obtained the job transfer form.
However, an accountant position was a technical job after all. Transferring it required finding someone with experience. And the transfer required leadership approval, which meant currying favor with the higher-ups.
Given how eager Sister Liu was, she had probably already sounded out the leadership yesterday. Tian Tian didn’t say much more. After counting the two thousand yuan, she took the completed form and went to find Section Chief Lu of the finance department.
Although Section Chief Lu had only recently started, he was already well aware of why she was there. He cooperated fully and signed off on the transfer. However, he insisted that Tian Tian complete the year-end inventory work before officially leaving—after the New Year.
That had been Tian Tian’s plan from the start. She nodded in agreement.
“All done?”
Sister Liu took the job transfer approval form from Tian Tian’s hands and jumped for joy.
“Let’s go, let’s go. We still need to go back to the Personnel Department to get the job offer letter.”
Tian Tian felt things were going too smoothly today. According to normal procedure, Section Chief Lu should have at least asked about the replacement’s qualifications and confirmed whether Tian Tian really intended to transfer the job.
Even if Sister Liu’s family had pulled strings last night, he wouldn’t have said nothing at all.
To be safe, Tian Tian pulled Sister Liu aside and asked about the string-pulling.
“Of course I pulled strings. My husband went to Section Chief Lu’s house last night. Hey, don’t ask so many questions. This has nothing to do with you. Once the Personnel Department finishes the paperwork, I’ll have my daughter come in a couple of days to get familiar with the work. When she does, remember to show her the ropes…”
Tian Tian nodded absently, her mind full of thoughts about Section Chief Lu’s attitude.
But the whole morning passed, and Tian Tian couldn’t figure it out. Still, a voice inside her kept telling her something was wrong.
—
Tian Tian didn’t eat lunch in the cafeteria.
Feeling uneasy, she decided to go out for a walk to clear her head. Of course, she avoided people when she left—she didn’t want to get dragged into more gossip about the details of her job sale.
She had already dealt with enough people coming to pry all morning.
Xu Lifen, of course, had it much harder than her. Tian Tian hadn’t gone to the warehouse, but she heard that quite a few people had gone there to gawk at Xu Lifen. Everyone was saying how cruel she was—that she had been so mean to her own good friend that the friend would rather sell her job than work with her.
Tian Tian was quite satisfied with this outcome. A snake like Xu Lifen deserved to be reviled.
Outside the cooperative, the sun was shining brightly.
Even though it was the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, their region had a subtropical climate. A thin cotton jacket was more than enough in winter.
Tian Tian walked straight along the main road outside the cooperative.
This main road was the biggest street in the county, lined with various state-owned shops. Since the reform and opening up, it was also filled with small stalls everywhere.
Tian Tian had passed many food stalls along the way and planned to grab some stir-fried rice noodles after finishing her walk.
But soon, she realized she wouldn’t be getting those rice noodles.
Because as she passed a private restaurant, she happened to see Section Chief Lu, Warehouse Supervisor Liu, and Section Chief Xu from the purchasing department walk into the restaurant together.
These three had always had a good relationship at work, so it wasn’t unusual for them to eat out together. But Tian Tian’s intuition told her something was off.
So she immediately followed them inside. Her mind raced back to all the gossip and chatter she had overheard from the salesclerks.
Thank goodness for her diligence over the past year—helping the salesclerks with their work had allowed her to inadvertently overhear a lot of things.
This private restaurant was where Section Chief Lu and the others often ate. They always took a private room on the second floor. Rumor had it the food in the private rooms was much better than the regular menu…
At lunchtime, the restaurant was bustling with people. No one paid any attention to a young girl like Tian Tian. She easily followed the crowd up to the second floor.
There were quite a few private rooms on the second floor; several of them had their doors closed.
Tian Tian walked down the hallway, deliberately slowing down each time she passed a closed door. Soon, she found the room where Section Chief Lu and the others were.
—
“Old Lu, how could you just sign off on it?”
Warehouse Supervisor Liu’s loud voice pierced right through the door. Tian Tian immediately stopped in her tracks. The “sign off” he mentioned—no doubt about her job transfer.
Inside the room, Section Chief Xu followed up on Supervisor Liu’s comment. His voice was lower and harder to make out. But soon, Section Chief Lu’s defense became clear.
“You two, stop blaming me. Last night, Old Ma from the tax bureau came to my door personally and asked me to help. What was I supposed to do?”
“Old Ma? His wife is that Liu from the sales counter?”
“That’s right. Old Xu, you know best. Old Ma does have some connections. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have just cursed Xiao Liu out a few times—you would have gotten rid of her long ago. After all, she did bully your precious sweetheart.”
His tone turned teasing at the end. The room instantly filled with the disgusting, lecherous laughter of middle-aged men.
Hearing this outside, Tian Tian felt her ears get dirty.
So the rumors from her previous life were true. Xu Lifen really did have something going on with Section Chief Xu from purchasing.
Judging by how they joked with each other, their relationship was clearly very close. And the big rats in the supply and marketing cooperative—these three were definitely involved.
Sure enough, before long, they returned to the previous topic.
Unfortunately, she was in the hallway, and people passed by from time to time. Tian Tian had to keep moving. Occasionally, she had to duck out of the way of waiters bringing food upstairs. She could only catch bits and pieces.
But from the fragments that reached her ears, Tian Tian already knew that leaving her job wouldn’t be easy. In fact, she suspected they were planning to repeat the same scheme from 1985 in her previous life—just earlier.
That suspicion was quickly confirmed.
In the afternoon, Section Chief Lu came to Tian Tian’s desk, reeking of cigarettes and alcohol.
“Xiao Tian, go find Xu Lifen in the warehouse this afternoon. We need to do the year-end inventory and account closing. There’s only about ten days until New Year. They’re short-staffed over there, and we need you to help verify some of the inbound and outbound records.”
Hearing this, Tian Tian was one hundred percent certain she was being set up as the scapegoat.
In her previous life, she had been that scapegoat. In the end, because important documents went missing under her watch, she was hit with a major disciplinary sanction, and her future was ruined.
Now they were trying the same trick again—she wasn’t going to let it slide. The only reason they dared make her the fall guy was because she was the only one in the entire finance department from a rural village with no connections.
Tian Tian was going to make sure these rats learned that crossing a village girl would not end well for them.
She had originally planned to work quietly until the New Year holiday. But since they wanted to come after her, she might as well go big.
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