"We're here to hire workers, not slackers." The middle-aged woman gripped Jiang Nanfei's hair and shouted.
The originally bustling factory suddenly fell silent; everyone was looking at Jiang Nanfei with sympathy.
"Let go." Jiang Nanfei's head was in a daze. She was staring at the woman in front of her with her lively eyes, feeling that she looked familiar but unable to recall who she was. Then her gaze swept across the low factory building and fell onto Huo Jinlan's face.
Huo Jinlan, Huo Jinlan... this face turned her eyes a rapid crimson. Not until the pain from her scalp hit her did she snap out of it and turned her gaze fiercely towards the factory owner's wife, Tian Yuegui.
Those eyes shifted from lively to bloody and ferocious, resembling an Evil Ghost from Hell. Startled, Tian Yuegui unconsciously let go of Jiang Nanfei's hair, took a step backward, and rubbed her eyes only to find that the person in front of her remained the same.
Just now, perhaps she was seeing things.
Jiang Nanfei stood motionless, her eyes shut due to the intense emotional fluctuation, the heaving in her chest uncontrollable as she suppressed her emotion.
She remembered!
This was the textile factory where she worked during the summer vacation of her junior year. She remembered getting caught sleeping on the job after taking medicine for a cold, and was then thrown out of the factory. Too silly and too proud, she had swallowed her anger, but didn't demand her month's worth of wages. This led to her dropping out of school in her senior year, unable to attend college - a regret that haunted her for a lifetime.
But how could this be possible? Was she dreaming? No, the pain from her scalp felt real. She was not dreaming.
"Lazybones, sleeping on the job, no wages for you. You're fired." Tian Yuegui seized the moment while Jiang Nanfei was off-guard, grabbed her hair once again, a hint of anger and calculation flashing in her eyes.
All she wanted now was to get rid of this troublesome girl.
By doing so, not only could she save two months' wages, but also rid herself of a thorn in the eye.
"Wait a second..." Jiang Nanfei tried to free her hair from Tian Yuegui's grip, but any slight movement made it feel like her scalp was being torn apart. She was passively being led by Tian Yuegui towards the exit.
"Let go of me, I told you to let go." No matter how much she struggled, she ultimately was dragged outside and tossed onto the ground by Tian Yuegui.
Wincing from the pain, she covered her scalp. A handful of her thick hair had been ripped out by Tian Yuegui.
"Get out! You damn girl. I knew you were playing a part all along." Tian Yuegui's anger grew as she gazed on Jiang Nanfei's face. She had heard that Jiang Nanfei was nothing but trouble.
If it weren't for Jinlan secretly telling her that Jiang Nanfei was trying to seduce her husband, she would have been played for a fool.
"On what grounds are you kicking me out?" Jiang Nanfei was also getting angry, no matter what happened in her past life, she needed to deal with the issues at hand. She stood up from the ground and confronted Tian Yuegui.
One had fair, delicate skin, and the other, dark and harsh lines. Tian Yuegui's hatred only increased. Girls these days were far from good. Marry for education in the 80s, for money in the 90s.
It may sound good, but where did all this money come from? Not from stealing from others?
"The fact that you were caught red-handed sleeping on the job and slacking is enough. It has affected our factory's morale and output. That you're not being made to compensate is already being generous."
These harsh words even made the other workers, who had gathered to watch the commotion, go pale. Even though every family was able to put food on the table in this era, ordinary folks were still poor.
With many children to feed and the costs of seeds and fertilizers, there was little money left at the end of the year. If they were made to compensate for the loss in production, even selling up home and hearth wouldn't cover it.