Reborn: Back to the 1980s Chapter 41

Chapter 41: Dismissal

"Aunt Ying, where's Ermao?"

Li Ying turned and saw Guan Yuan walking in. "Ermao went to the county to deliver some things." This was Guan Yuan's arrangement—every month, he and Zhao Shenggu sent fresh food to Old Master Li and Old Master Zhao.

Guan Yuan nodded, then turned his gaze to Dazhuang's wife and her group. "I heard you all don't want to work here anymore?"

The women who had been shouting so loudly just moments before now fell silent. They knew deep down that what they were doing wasn't right.

Dazhuang's wife forced a smile. "Xiao Yuan, it's not that we don't want to work—we were just thinking, could the pay be raised a little?"

"Oh? You think the pay isn't enough?" Guan Yuan asked casually, picking up some of the garlic cloves Dazhuang's wife had peeled. More than half of them still had skin clinging on.

The women across from him saw it too, and their smug expressions stiffened.

Guan Yuan tossed the garlic back into the basin and brushed off his hands. "Since you aunties feel the pay is too low, I won't force you to stay. This is just a small workshop—we can't accommodate such big shots. You're better off finding something more suitable. Once Ermao gets back, I'll have him calculate your wages for this month. Oh, and even though you've only worked ten days this month, since you've been with us for half a year, I'll have him pay you for the full month."

The dozen or so women on the other side all turned pale. Muzi's mother burst into tears. "Xiao Yuan, please don't fire me—my Muzi still needs his medicine!"

Guan Yuan didn't even glance at her. Instead, he looked at Li Ying's group. "Anyone else think the pay is too low?" 

Not a single person spoke.

Dazhuang's wife no longer looked so smug. "Xiao Yuan, are you really sure you can fire us? Do you even have the authority to make that call?"

Guan Yuan found her question amusing. "Why wouldn't I?"

"This... this shop belongs to Shenggu, doesn't it? You're just a kid, stop joking around!" As soon as she said that, the women behind her perked up, as if they'd found a lifeline. "That's right, this shop isn't yours. You can't kick us out."

"He says what goes," Zhao Shenggu suddenly walked in. No one knew how much he had overheard.

Seeing Zhao Shenggu walk in, Guan Yuan couldn't be bothered to handle things anymore. He stepped back and leaned into his brother's arms, staying quiet.

 

"What! Shenggu, we're all your aunties! You can't just turn your back on your own people..." a woman standing behind Dazhuang's wife spoke up.

"Yes, and it's precisely because you're my aunties that I pay you such high wages. Do you think I absolutely have to run this workshop in the village?"

The women exchanged uneasy glances. What did he mean by that?

"I could just as easily open this workshop in the county town. Finding a few workers there wouldn't be hard at all. It was Xiao Yuan who wanted to help the village out, which is why we set it up here," Zhao Shenggu declared with conviction. 

Guan Yuan pursed his lips at that. His brother had already developed a merchant's shrewdness.

The real reason they'd opened it in the village was simply for easier management.

"If you don't want to work here anymore, I'll just find new people in the county. That way, it'll be more convenient for our franchise partners to pick up the seasoning supplies too."

The moment Zhao Shenggu said this, not only did the women on Da Zhuang's wife's side turn pale, but even the women on Li Ying's side started to look uneasy. "Shenggu, you can't listen to them! We're doing great work here. We know you gave us these jobs as a favor, and we're not ungrateful people!"

"That's right! We're all perfectly happy with our work and want to keep going!"

The others chimed in one after another, afraid that if they spoke too late, Zhao Shenggu would kick them all out together.

Zhao Shenggu raised his hand. "I know. I have a clear idea of who's genuinely committed to the work. And I won't shortchange anyone who puts in honest effort."

Hearing this, the women finally settled down. Now, when they looked at Dazhuang's wife and her group, there was anger in their eyes. It was these people and their unreasonable demands that had nearly cost them all their jobs.

As for Dazhuang's wife and her group, they were already panicking. Several of them, including Muzi's mother, were on the verge of tears. If they lost such a good job, there'd be no peace for them at home.

But Zhao Shenggu stood firm. No amount of crying or tantrums would change his mind. He turned to Li Ying and the others and said, "Aunties, as long as you keep working steadily, Xiao Yuan and I will treat you well. Now, let's get back to work, or we won't have enough stock." Hearing this, the women immediately threw themselves back into their work with renewed energy. With Da Zhuang's wife and her troublemaking group gone, productivity picked up noticeably.

Just then, Guan Ermao returned from the county town. Zhao Shenggu instructed him to settle the dismissed workers' wages, then took Guan Yuan back to the courtyard. He trusted Guan Ermao to handle the rest.

Guan Ermao didn't ask Zhao Shenggu anything. Looking at this group, he could guess with his toes what had happened. He sneered inwardly—a bunch of greedy, never-satisfied people.

"It's all your fault! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have lost my job! You owe me money, you owe me money!" Muzi's mother, seeing that Zhao Shenggu was gone and nothing could be changed, vented all her pent-up anger on Dazhuang's wife.

But Dazhuang's wife was no pushover. She shot back immediately: "Pfft! If you hadn't been so eager to squeeze out more money for yourself, none of this would've happened. Now you're blaming me? Where do you get the nerve?"

Muzi's mother stood there, dazed and speechless, her face filled with despair. This really was the end.

Guan Ermao didn't bother looking at her either. Muzi's father had passed away the year before last, leaving only sickly Muzi and his mother to rely on each other. Zhao Shenggu and Guan Yuan had always been especially kind to her out of pity. What a waste of their kindness.

"Enough. If you're going to fight, take it outside. If anything in here gets broken, you'll have to pay for it," Guan Ermao said. As a young man, he always kept a stern face to keep these women in line. As soon as he spoke, they dared not cause any more trouble and shuffled reluctantly out of the workshop.

Following Zhao Shenggu's orders, Guan Ermao paid them a full month's wages. "Alright, off you go. Go find better opportunities elsewhere. I'll be right here watching to see what kind of good jobs you land," he said with a mocking tone.

Humiliated and flustered, the women were shooed away by Guan Ermao.

Dazhuang's wife clutched her twenty yuan in wages, her regret burning deep inside. She'd never wanted to leave the workshop. The work was easy, it let her take care of the home, and all of her son's school fees had come from her earnings there. Now, thinking about how the family would have no steady income to rely on — just her husband farming a bit of land and her raising a few pigs — she wondered when they would ever be able to build the beautiful new green-brick, big-tiled house they had just planned for this year. And then there was her child's future tuition fees... The thought of going back to counting every single penny made her head spin. She didn't even realize she had already walked through her own front door.

Dazhuang was repairing farm tools in the yard. Seeing his wife back so early, he asked, "Why are you back so early? Did the workshop take a day off?" There was precedent for this—during busy farming seasons, Guan Yuan and Zhao Shenggu would give them a day or two off to tend to their fields.

"But that doesn't make sense—there's nothing to do in the fields right now," Dazhuang scratched his head, confused.

At his question, Dazhuang's wife collapsed onto the table and burst into tears.

"What's wrong with you? Who bullied you? Don't just cry—talk to me!" Dazhuang paced around the table anxiously.

After sobbing for a while, she finally managed to tell Dazhuang what had happened, piece by piece. The more he listened, the more the veins on his forehead bulged. By the end, he slammed his hand on the table and shouted, "You foolish woman!"

When Dazhuang's wife saw him yell at her, she wailed, "I don't know what came over me! I was just so fixated on getting more money. I know I was wrong. Could you go talk to Shenggu and see if he'll let me come back?"

Dazhuang's face darkened. "You've got some nerve! What did they ever do wrong by you? And you pushed them like that? You're heartless! I'm not going. You've made me lose all face!"

The same scene was playing out in the other households of those dismissed by Zhao Shenggu. But at Muzi's home, the atmosphere was different. Muzi was nine years old now. Maybe it was true that children from poor families grew up faster. After his father died, Muzi had matured quickly. After hearing what his mother told him, he packed his finished homework into his school bag and stood up to leave.

His mother looked at him with red-rimmed eyes. "Where are you going?"

"To apologize. Mom made a mistake, so as her son, I naturally have to go apologize."

His mother thought he was trying to get her job back and nodded eagerly: "Yes, yes, I'll go with you. Maybe Shenggu will take pity on us poor mother and son and let me come back!" She started to get up.

But Muzi stopped her: "Mom, you stay home. We may be struggling, but we must never use our hardship to manipulate others' sympathy. Brother Shenggu and Xiao Yuan have been more than good to us. What you did was wrong, and it hurt them. Don't go back to the workshop. From now on, I'll help you carry this family."

Muzi's mother was completely stunned by his words. To be honest, when she'd joined in the clamor for higher wages, she'd secretly hoped that Zhao Shenggu might take pity on her and agree. She never expected to lose the job altogether. Now, hearing her son's words, she felt burning shame. When had she become this kind of person without even realizing it?

Watching her son's small, thin figure go off to apologize on her behalf, tears streamed down her face like broken beads from a necklace.