Chapter 3 - Oh boy. This boss seemed to be a villain cloaked in a nice guy’s front! (1)
Tong XueLu walked over to the entrance from her memory.
The Tong’s family lived in the compound belonging to the General Logistic Department. Everyone there was a government official.
Father Tong was the Director of the Oil Department of the General Logistics Department of the People's Liberation Army and Mother Tong was the Director of Women's Federation. All the other members of the Tong’s family also worked for the government.
Family background like this was very impressive even in modern time. It made sense to Tong XueLu why the original owner was reluctant to leave.
Tong XueLu was just thinking how she had lucked out not running into the other women in the compound.
And then.
She had just got to the front door of the compound before a Phoenix brand bicycle stopped just half a meter in front of her with a squeak.
It blocked her way like a tiger.
Tong XueLu looked up.
In front of her stood a girl around 17 or 18 years old in a casual military outfit. Her hair braided behind her and sunlight reflected off of her forehead.
She seemed surprised when she saw Tong XueLu and then her eyes lit up. “Tong XueLu, are you kicked out of the Tong’s family? Hahaha… Didn’t you say that they wouldn’t have the heart to let you go?”
Listen to that.
Just listen to that.
She couldn’t have sounded any happier.
The girl standing in front of her was Fang Jingyuan, sister of the original owner’s fiancé, Fang Wenyuan. Fang Wenyuan was a handsome man and the original owner was head over heel in love with him.
Fang Jingyuan, not wanting the original owner to become her sister-in-law, had tried at best she could to stand in between the two of them. The original owner was also not a subtle person. As such, the two were always at each other’s throats.
That was, however, the original owner. Tong XueLu, on the other hand, had no intention of becoming Fang Jingyuan’s sister-in-law.
Tong XueLu ignored Fang Jingyuan altogether and walked around her.
“… …”
Fang Jingyuan felt looked down upon!
When Tong XueLu walked past her, Fang Jingyuan grabbed her by her hand and said, “Tong XueLu, have you gone deaf? Didn’t you hear me talking to you?”
Tong XueLu stopped in her tracks and looked over at Fang Jingyuan’s forehead.
Fang Jingyuan was very sensitive when it came to her forehead. “What are you looking at? Did you want to tell me that I have a big head again?”
She had a big head and Tong XueLu had many nicknames for her since their childhood.
Something along the line of big skull, turnip, big-headed doll, the worst of it all, tiger head goldfish.
That angered her to no end!
The guard at the entrance cracked his mouth opened and smiled. “It wasn’t just recent when Xiao Lu made fun of your big head. That’s exactly what she meant.”
Tong XueLu, how had yet to have an opportunity to respond, “… …”
Sir, can you not try to make matters worse?
Fang Jingyuan’s face turned beet red, “My mom said that having a big head is a sign of good fortune. You only wish you have it too!”
She thought Tong XueLu would, for sure, rebut her. Lo and behold, she saw her red lips curved, showing off her light dimples, and said, “You can’t be more right. Most people with a big head are quite smart.”
Fang Jingyuan, “???”
What was up with Tong XueLu today? Not only was she less combative, she was praising her?
She lifted her chin and asked, “What are you trying to pull? Don’t think that I will drop this just because you had said something nice to me.”
She had been fighting with Tong XueLu since they were kids. Tong XueLu, however, was the sly one and she was the one who lost to her every time.
Now that Tong XueLu was being kicked out by the Tong’s family, it was a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity and she would not let it slip her by.
Tong XueLu looked up and down her face and said slowly, “Your features are lively and you are already 80% a beauty. Your problem is that your hairstyle doesn’t suit you. And that’s where your 20% deduction come from.”
Fang Jingyuan, “? ? ?”
She had no idea how to react to that all of a sudden. She figured she would adopt the strategy of wait and see. She wanted to know what else was going to come out of Tong XueLu.
As it turned out.
Tong XueLu was done talking.
Retrieving her own hand, she left without looking back.
Oh, oh. How annoying was that!
Tong XueLu walked toward the bus stop with the duffle bag.
Tong XueLu had been a green tea for many years and defeating NPC had already become a passive skill of hers. She couldn’t stop herself when she saw one.
Fang Jingyuan might be a bit spoiled but she wasn’t a bad person. Most importantly, she was a Second Generation Government Official.
Her father was the Minister of the Military Supplies Department in the General Logistics Department and ranked higher than even Father Tong. Of course it would be beneficial for someone like her to be on her side.
From what she could recall, going head-to-head with Fang Jingyuan was not the best approach.
That being said, with them being at each other’s throat in the past, simply becoming the weaker side would not be a good approach either. She needed some sort of a hook to hook her.
Fang Jingyuan’s big forehead and her hairstyle was the best bait.
Now that she had dropped the bait, all she had to do was to wait for the fish to bite.
***
She walked for half an hour to the bus stop and waited another hour before the bus heading over to Yanqing County had arrived.
The buses in the capital were white and red striped with a layer of thick dust caked on its exterior. The inside was very beat down with a pungent smell.
After getting inside the car, Tong XueLu handed 30 cents over to the stuck-up ticketing person whose nostrils pointed at the sky and found a spot at the very last row.
After the bus started again, the driver hummed a little tune and drove the bus like he was driving a Mayback all the way till they were in the rocky Yanqing County.
The road was so rocky that Tong XueLu almost vomited on her way. She sat on a rock for a long, long time before the nauseated feeling went away.
At this Tong’s family, both Father and Mother Tong worked and both workers of Hongxing Textile Factory.
She asked for direction all the way until she reached the compound for the factory workers.
The environment at this compound was much worse than she had expected.
There were some 20 families in the not-so-big compound and each of them have at least three generations residing in them, sometimes four.
In short, there were over 100 people residing in this compound.
With so many people packed into such a small area, many personal items spilled into the common areas. It made the environment seemed crowed, dirty, and messy.
Before she had transmigrated, she lived in a mansion that was over 1,000 square meters in size. Any of the bathrooms in her mansion was bigger than a unit here.
Tong XueLu had a headache coming on before she even walked inside of it.
“Hi, fellow comrade. Who are you here to visit?”