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Chapter 44
Old Mrs. Zhou's voice was neither hurried nor slow, but as a former lady of the household, each of her words hit Zhou Nan's heart, making it flutter.
Yet An MeiYun's pretentious words were like a joke, inescapable.
After leaving the front gate, An MeiYun carefully glanced at Zhou Nan's expression and heard her say, "MeiYun, tell your mother the truth, were you deliberately saying those things just now?"
Perhaps she hadn't realized it at the time, but after the old lady's reminder, she suddenly became aware that it was because of MeiYun's words that Zhao JingYun had properly raised questions.
And she also felt that Zhao JingYun was too insensitive. Things were already going as she wished, MeiYun had already used marriage as the price to leave home, yet she was still pestering.
Clearly, when she first came, she intended to advise Zhao JingYun well so that she would return home, but in that instant just now, she had completely forgotten.
"Mother, do you think so poorly of me too? Is it true that I have become a redundant existence in this family?" An MeiYun looked aggrieved.
But Zhou Nan sighed, also feeling very embarrassed internally.
The biological child and the one raised by hand, how should she make a choice between them? Why did this kind of thing have to happen to her?
Her life had gone well for most of her years, but at the happiest time she was being strangled by the neck, which was how she felt now.
"Let's go home first, we'll talk more there." Zhou Nan thought that if Zhao JingYun didn't want to come back, she wouldn't come back for now. In a few days when MeiYun got married, everything would be fine.
After they left, Zhao JingYun was still holding Little WenQing in her arms.
Blinking at the old lady, Zhao JingYun said, "Granny, did they forget WenQing here?"
"Your mother's mind really gets more muddled as she gets older. It didn't use to show before. Let him stay here for now. They'll naturally come to pick him up when they remember," said the old lady, playing with WenQing.
In fact, it didn't take long before Zhou Nan, already halfway riding her bike home, suddenly realized she hadn't brought the child back and turned around again to get him.
With WenQing gone, Zhao JingYun, having nothing to do, locked herself in her room again.
At the entrance of the Ping'an State-run Hotel, Zhao JingYun was carrying a package of six mung bean cakes she had made by hand in her space at noon, wrapped in oiled paper.
Liang Zhiwei rode over smiling, stopped in front of Zhao JingYun, and said, "Get on first."
Zhao JingYun, as if unguarded, got on the back seat of the bike without even asking.
Liang Zhiwei didn't go far, but stopped in a secluded place nearby.
"I've had someone look at the ginseng. It's from the 1960s or 1970s, but there's one thing I have to ask you. Apprentices in the state-run hotel kitchen have to accumulate seniority. The first year's salary is 18.5 yuan. It goes up by 2 yuan for the first 3 years. After 3 years of completing apprenticeship, you can become a master chef with a salary of 36 yuan. But if you choose to be a formal server, you start at 24.6 yuan. You decide."
Zhao JingYun still looked at him gently, "Director Liang, can I be an apprentice?"
Liang Zhiwei nodded, "You can."
After speaking, he took out 200 yuan from his pocket that he had prepared long ago, "Girl, don't say I took advantage of you. Aside from getting you the job, I'm giving you 200 yuan for that ginseng."
"Director Liang, you've already helped me tremendously by finding me a job. I can't take the money."
Zhao JingYun refused, but Liang Zhiwei directly put it in her palm, "Take what I give you. I'm a grown man. I can't have people say I bullied a child behind my back. "
In fact, if Zhao JingYun hadn't urged him, he wouldn't have felt the money burning his hand.
No matter what, he was taking advantage.
If he took out the ginseng to sell, it would definitely fetch over 1000 yuan. If used for connections, it would be even more worthwhile.
But he was keeping it for his wife to use. If it could really improve his wife's health, it would be priceless to him.
Speaking of which, Liang Zhiwei muttered again.
If it were anything else, he wouldn't blink an eye cheating others. But something for his wife to use, her health was already poor. Would it damage his virtue?
In recent years, for Zhao JingYun's health, Liang Zhiwei had visited all the big and small hospitals in Jincheng, and done all kinds of begging gods and buddhas in secret.
When it came to Zhao JingYun, he cared 100 times over.
In recent years, although his work had been difficult, and he did everything to get promoted, he never got involved with doctors, even if they were labeled one of the "Four Olds" of traditional Chinese medicine. He would never touch them.
You never know when you might need their help one day.
After some demurring, Zhao JingYun accepted the money, but handed the mung bean cakes to Liang Zhiwei, "Director Liang, I'm really so grateful to you. You really are a good person. I don't have anything worthwhile, so I made these mung bean cakes specially to give you and Teacher Zhao a taste. Please don't look down on them."
Liang Zhiwei found it very interesting internally.
No matter if she was truly naive or pretending to be naive, this was still the first time someone had praised him as a good person since becoming Director Liang over the years.
"Alright, I won't stand on ceremony with this." Liang Zhiwei took the mung bean cakes and hung them on his bike.
Liang Zhiwei didn't suspect at all that Zhao JingYun was approaching him with ill intentions. A girl who had just come from the countryside, at best she was calculating for her own future, what great skills could she have?
Moreover, he hadn't offended anyone either.
Speaking of which, he thought of something. "You've had it pretty rough. Uncle doesn't mind helping you a bit more. I heard the Gao family who switched with you still have a pair of children. They bullied you a lot before. Do you need me to avenge you?"
His work had been difficult these past few years. The bunch in the city were crafty, hard to catch wrongdoing.
Criticizing a couple people didn't count as an achievement, but it was just a sentence for him. The underlings scrambled to do it.
He was also in a good mood today. And seeing the girl's silly look of being sold without realizing it, he rarely felt charitable.
Usually, Director Liang wouldn't do such thankless things.
"Forget it. They bullied me before also because someone directed them to. After all, we were siblings for a period. Now without their parents' backing, their lives are already hard. I don't want to..." Zhao JingYun smiled self-deprecatingly, "Let bygones be bygones. I don't want to bring up the past again. But still, thank you for Director Liang's kindness. Well...although I can't help Director Liang with big things, I'm especially knowledgeable about little snacks like mung bean cakes and chestnut cakes. If you like them, I'll make them for you to eat next time."
Liang Zhiwei looked at the mung bean cakes on the bike. He didn't know what was inside the oiled paper package, but the thought was already touching.
Unfortunately, he never believed anyone would be foolish enough to give without asking for something in return.