Chapter 38 - "Your grandmother called the factory this afternoon!" (1)
Chen Dani had a total change from her stern look and hands on her waist posture. “Comrade, you can’t be righter. Being a woman is such a hard life!”
This female server looked like someone who had a story behind her.
Tong Xuelu walked over to her and nodded emotionally. “Exactly, right? Us women have to get up earlier than chicken, go to bed later than dogs, eat worse than pigs, and work harder than cows. Then, during holidays, we don’t even have the rights to sit at the table!”
Huang Xianglan couldn’t relate just a little while ago but, after Tong Xuelu’s last speech, she suddenly recalled how her mother would get up before day break every year on New Year eve and, after slaving away the entire day, couldn’t even sit and eat at the table. She suddenly felt for her mother.
Then there was her cousin. Ever since she had married into the He family, she had never had a good days. Being beaten was the norm for her.
She couldn't help but nodded along with the other two: Yup, surely it was awful to be a woman!
Tong Xuelu went on, “Our Chairman had already said that women can hold up half the sky. As such, why was it that men can treat us women the way that they do? I’ve decided. I am going to help out that working-class sister who was undergoing hardship.”
Huang Xianglan was taken aback a little, “You want to help out my cousin?”
Chen Dani, too, was baffled.
Surely, she was upset. But that was, afterward, someone else’s family business. What could they do about that?
Tong Xuelu nodded, “My father is the director of the PLA Logistics and Oil Department and my mother is the director of the Women’s Federation. Both of my brothers and their wives are government workers. I only have to ask them and they will be able to teach your cousin’s mother-in-law and her husband a lesson.”
Chen Dani and Huang Xianglan had no idea that Tong Xuelu had such background behind her. Both of them were startled.
As much as Huang Xianglan wanted to teach her cousin’s mother-in-law and husband a lesson, it wasn’t her place to make that decision.
Tong Xuelu could see her hesitation right away and said, to her, “Why don’t we do this? You can give me your cousin’s work address and I will go talk to her myself. I will help her out if she wants; and if she doesn’t, I will respect her wish as well. What do you think?”
Huang Xianglan’s eyes lit up. “That’s a fantastic idea. Thank you, Comrade.”
***
Tong Xuelu took a car ride to the address that Huang Xianglan had given to her after she left the restaurant.
Lo and behold, she was told that that Su Xiuying did not come into work that day.
The female server at the government-operated restaurant in the city stared at Tong Xuelu with her swollen eyes and there was visible jealousy in them. “How are you related to Sister Xiuying? She never mentioned you before.”
Tong Xuelu pulled out a couple piece of milk candies from her military purse and shoved them into the woman’s hand. Smiling, she said to her, “I am a friend of her cousin and she asked me to deliver a message to Sister Xiuying. What a bummer that she is off today. What should I do now?”
Photo: military purse
Source: Taobao.com
The female server was envious of Tong Xuelu’s look earlier but, now that she had gotten a couple pieces of candies, she felt that Tong Xuelu was much less annoying to look at. “I can give you her home address if this is urgent.”
Tong Xuelu looked pleasantly surprised. “Thank you, Comrade. I will very much appreciate that.”
Su Xiuying lived a bit of a distance from the government-operated restaurant and Tong Xuelu asked for direction all the way there.
When she walked into an alley paved with bluestone slabs, she could hear a woman crying for help, a man’s angry shouts, and children crying.
Startled, she picked up her pace.
Rounding the courner, Tong Xuelu saw a tall and stocky man punching and kicking a woman.
The woman, curled up in a corner, her hair was a mess and, her head was hit by something and blood was coming down from it. There was blood on the front of her clothes.
She did not try to fend off the man but she threw her body over the child in her arm to make sure that they are safe.
Tong Xuelu’s fist turned hard!