Chapter 4 - Oh boy. This boss seemed to be a villain cloaked in a nice guy’s front! (2)
A loud voice came from behind her.
Tong XueLu finally recollected herself. She turned around and saw a middle-aged woman in a blue outfit standing behind her. She had boy around 3-year-old or so in age clamped under her armpit.
The little boy was so dirty that she could barely stand looking at him. He looked like he had just finished rolling around in mud and he had snorts coming out of his nostrils.
When Tong XueLu looked over at him, his mouth cracked out and he have her a big, bright smile. “Big sister is so pretty!”
The middle-aged woman let out a cry to herself when she saw Tong XueLu. For the dozens of years that she had been around, she had never seen a girl like her. Tong XueLu’s skin was so fair that she looked more tender than tofu.
Then there was her casual military outfit, her satchel with the wordings “Servicing the People”, and her duffle bag with the pattern of a panda. All of them emphasized that fact that she was no ordinary person.
Of all the years that she had been staying at this compound, she had never seen anyone with relatives that looked like Tong XueLu.
“Hi, aunty. I am looking for Tong Dajun’s unit.” Tong Dajun was the name of the original owner’s birth father.
Hearing the words Tong Dajun, the middle-aged woman quickly looked up and down Tong XueLu. “How are you two related?”
Tong XueLu lowered her eyes and put on a sad look. “I am his daughter.”
“Oh, my gosh. You are Tong Dajun’s daughter who was switched??”
The middle-aged woman’s voice had a built-in sound effect of a loud speaker. When she was done talking, a few other came running out from inside of the compound.
“Lao Cai’s woman, what are you yelling about now?”
“Come take a look. This is Tong Dajun’s daughter who was switched!”
A few women came running out. They surrounded Tong XueLu and looked her up and down as though she was an animal at a zoo.
“Oh, mi. She sure is Tong Dajun’s daughter. I have seen a picture before.”
“Now that you mentioned it, she does kind of look like Tong Dajun and his wife, especially her nose.”
“Girl, are you here to visit your parents or your siblings? Are you parents from the other side okay with you coming back?”
Tong XueLu felt that there were tens and thousands of flies bustling over her head but she did not let any of her impatience show.
When the young and older women all finished talking, she finally said, enunciating every word, “I am here to return to my family.”
What?
Return to her family?
“Aiyo, girl, you are joking, right?”
“We’ve heard that your other parents are government offices. Why would you come back to your parents over here?”
Tong XueLu looked up and gave them a serious look. “I am a daughter of the Tong’s family. Of course I should return. If I don’t even recognize my own parents, how do I differ from an animal?”
Noticing how trendy she dressed and how fair she was, the others felt for certain that she would not want to live her days like them over there. What came out of her truly surprised them.
They felt that she was a child who would not forget about her roots.
Someone, however, raised a question, “It had been two weeks since your parents passed away. Why are you just now returning?”
That made everybody frowned. That’s right. The Tong couple passed away two weeks ago. If she was truly as familial as she said, she should have been back a long time ago!
Tong XueLu frowned and immediately made her eyes turn red. “Big sister, it wasn’t that I didn’t want to come back. I fainted the moment I found out what had happened to my parents. Then I got severely ill. I was only able to get out of bed two days ago. Just look at my hand…”
She rolled up her sleeve as she talked and showed them the needle marks in her arm. As her skin was so tender, there was a big patch of bruised area around the needle marks and they looked startling.
Every one was convinced immediately.
She was, indeed, a very conscientious good child!!!
Unlike that Tong Zhenzhen. Tong Dajun and his wife had raised her all these years and she just up and left them.
What an ungrateful child!
Tong XueLu rolled her sleeve back down and lowered her eyes.
The needle marks were real as was the bruises. They weren’t from her being sad though. The original owner had purposefully made herself sick when she found out about her real identity to get sympathy from her adoptive parents.
Who doesn’t like a conscientious person?
Everybody was even more affectionate toward Tong XueLu and ushered her inside the compound.
Tong XueLu learned more about the Tong’s family from their chattering.
Tong Dajun and his wife were from Beihe Province originally. They had saved the textile factory’s director son back in the days and were taken to the capital to work in the factory. Tong Dajun was a stevedore and Mother Tong was a textile worker.
When there were two persons working in a family, it was an honor to villagers. Nevertheless, their days were tough. Not only did they have four children to support, they had to send back half of their salary to their home at Beihe.
Two months ago, Tong Zhenzhen, their oldest daughter fell ill and suddenly said that she was not their daughter after she had recovered. She said her real parents were government officials and insisted on leaving despite the objection from the Tong’s couple.
The couple worried so much about her and they worked and looked for her at the same time. They were able to locate her in the end but they were told that Tong Zhenzhen, indeed, was not their daughter.
What made matters worse was that neither of the two daughters wanted to recognize them as their parents and to go home with them!
The couple returned to their work at the factory, heartbroken. Lo and behold, they were involved in a car accident on their return trips and both were killed.
Back then, traveling was a big deal so the matters of their funeral was taken care of by the factory workers.
Tong XueLu’s eyes flickered. “You mean to say that our family back in Beihe still haven’t learned of my parents’ accident?”
The little boy under the armpit twisted back and forth. Aunty Cai smacked him on his butt. “Of course they knew. Jiaming gave them a call right after the accident. It was said that they were tied up and wouldn’t be able to come over for a little while.”
“Jiaming is still at school right now, right?”
It took Tong XueLu a little while to realize that Jingming was original owner’s oldest (younger) brother.
“No, he quit school a while ago!” Interjected another middle-aged woman.
“Jiaming had to take care of his younger siblings and work at the factory since your parents had passed away. It had been very difficult for him.”
Children without parents were worthless like weeds. All of the bosses had fairly sad childhoods.
That being said, the family back in Beihe looked at Tong Dajun and his wife like they were their money tree.
Every time they have visited the capital, they would wipe out everything like locusts. How was it possible that they did not come over after Tong Dajun and his wife had passed away?
Never mind about the compensation from the government and their factory unit. They would, at the very minimum, be eyeing the two positions at the factory that had now been opened up.
Meaning…
It wasn’t that their family back at Beihe was too busy; they probably hadn’t learned of the incident yet!
Recalling about Tong Jiaming, the future elite in the business world, Tong XueLu raised her brows.
Oh boy. This boss seemed to be a villain cloaked in a nice guy’s front!