The moment she heard that our factory usually worked overtime only until ten at night, she was filled with envy.
I, on the other hand, envied her. She might be exhausted, but at least the pay was better.
“Our department is just the production floor,” Lijuan explained. “The monthly wage is only three or four hundred yuan. But if you can get into the injection-molding section or the painting section, the pay is better. The smell in those two departments is awful, but they give you an extra health allowance. And if you work in injection molding, there’s also a night-shift allowance. Altogether, you can make five or six hundred yuan a month.”
Five or six hundred yuan a month?
I immediately became interested.
It wasn't a huge amount of money, but if I lived frugally, I could send five hundred yuan home every month. That would cover my mother’s and my younger brother’s living expenses. Then I could pursue what I wanted to do without having to worry about my family.
I urged Lijuan to let me know as soon as her factory started hiring again.
Lijuan was exhausted. After eating, she went back to the dormitory to rest.
The dormitory was inside the factory compound. As I accompanied her back, I happened to see the girl from the personnel department putting up a recruitment notice.
I forced myself to forget the harsh things she had said to me the last time. I walked toward her with a smile and asked politely,
“Can I work at your factory?”
As I approached, the girl had already noticed that my foot was no longer injured.
“Of course,” she said gently. “I remember you.”
The moment I heard those words, I was so happy I almost jumped for joy.
I immediately went back to Yongxin to ask for my resignation.
Miss Zhao wasn't there, so I went straight to the dormitory first. Since it was a rare day off, most of the girls had gone out. Only a dark, thin girl named Guihua was sitting on her bed writing a letter.
The moment I entered, Guihua smiled.
“Someone finally came back! Haiyan, how do you write the character for zi in ‘wages’?”
I took the letter from her. It was only three short lines long, yet it was filled with misspelled characters.
I showed her how to write the character for “wages,” then corrected the other mistakes for her.
When I finished, I handed the letter back and quickly began packing my things.
Guihua stared at me in surprise.
“You're leaving?”
Guihua was from Guizhou. She was usually quiet and rarely spoke, but she worked extremely hard. Her speed at assembling watchbands was among the fastest in the factory.
“Guihua,” I said, “didn't you want to make more money? Liangguang Factory across the road pays much more than this place. Why don't we go there together?”
Unexpectedly, Guihua tried to persuade me not to go.
“I don't think you should. You've already worked here for half a month. You've probably earned nearly a hundred yuan. If you leave now, they won't return your deposit. You'll lose more than a hundred yuan altogether.”
I became anxious.
“If I leave now, all I'll lose is a little over a hundred yuan. But if I stay here just because I'm afraid of losing that money, won't I lose much more in the long run?
“Besides, the deposit is supposed to be returned after half a month. And there's my wages. I completed half a month yesterday.”
Guihua shook her head helplessly.
“They won't return the deposit. You're not the first person who has worked half a month and still lost it.
“If you want to leave, go ahead. But I'm different. They’re holding back two months of my wages. I calculated it—two months is nearly 450 yuan. I can't bear to lose that much. Otherwise, I would have left long ago.”
Her words made me nervous.
I left my packed luggage in the room and went downstairs to the security office to wait for Miss Zhao.
I waited for two hours.
During that time, I kept running outside to look toward Liangguang Factory.
Fortunately, they had put up their recruitment notice late, and the hiring wouldn't officially begin until the afternoon.
It wasn't until one o'clock that Miss Zhao finally got out of a taxi, carrying several large bags.
I hurried over to greet her, trying to please her.
“Miss Zhao, you're back.”
I even reached out to help her carry the bags.
She gave me a cold glance and completely ignored me.
I quickly withdrew my hand and followed behind her awkwardly, forcing a smile.
“Miss Zhao, I—I want to resign.”
The moment she heard the word “resign,” she turned around coldly.
“You've only been here a few days and already want to quit? Why are you migrant girls so troublesome?”
Blood rushed to my face.
I wanted to say, Aren't you a migrant girl yourself?
But I swallowed the words before they could leave my mouth.
Carefully, I said,
“Miss Zhao, I actually really want to work here. But the wages are too low. I still have my mother and younger brother to support. My mother isn't in good health, and my brother is still young.”
As I spoke, tears began to fall. I hoped she might feel sorry for me.
But Miss Zhao remained completely unmoved.
Without changing expression, she opened the door to her room and went inside.
I glanced into her room. The bedspread was pink and beautiful, and the faint scent of perfume lingered in the air.
I looked down shamefully at my own worn-out plastic sandals and didn't dare step inside.
Standing outside the door, I pleaded,
“Miss Zhao, I really have to leave. Please return my deposit and ID, and settle the wages I've earned for this half month.”
She looked at me with disgust.
“If you want to leave, I'm not stopping you. You can take your ID. But you didn't work a full half month, so you don't get your deposit back. And you don't get a single yuan of wages either!”
I protested,
“But I completed half a month yesterday.”
Miss Zhao seemed impatient to put away the bags she had just brought back.
“What’s your name?”
Thinking there might still be hope, I quickly answered,
“Yang Haiyan.”
She opened a drawer, took out several identity cards, found mine, and handed it to me.
“Here.”
I quickly took it.
Then I asked timidly,
“When will I get my deposit and wages?”
I knew perfectly well that the money belonged to me. Yet when I asked for it, I felt as though I were the one who owed her something. I could barely summon the courage to speak.
The moment she heard me, she completely lost her temper.
“I knew from the beginning you weren't going to be easy to deal with! I've already given you your ID. What more do you want?
“As for your deposit and wages, the boss has to come back before they can be settled. Do you want to see him? If you do, I'll call him!”
Her aggressive tone frightened me.
Trembling, I asked,
“Where is the boss? Is he far from here?”
She gave a cold laugh.
“The boss is at the public-security office for a meeting.”
The moment I heard the words public-security office, my heart seemed to seize.
“It's okay. You go ahead. I'm leaving. I don't want anything.”
I rushed upstairs as if I were escaping, grabbed my luggage, and didn't even have time to say goodbye to Guihua.
I ran toward the factory gate, terrified that the boss might return from the public-security office at any moment.
But when I reached the gate, the security guard stopped me.
He carefully inspected my luggage piece by piece, making absolutely sure I wasn't taking anything belonging to the company.
Only then did he wave me through.
It wasn't until I reached the entrance of Liangguang Factory that I finally let out a long breath of relief.
By then, a long line had already formed outside the factory.
Just like last time, every person in the line was a young woman.
I hurriedly left my luggage outside the security office.
Looking at the dozen or so girls ahead of me, I suddenly felt frightened.
Leaving Yongxin had been almost an all-or-nothing gamble.
If I couldn't get into Liangguang today, would I have to spend another night alone on the mountain?
Fortunately, the girl at the entrance was fairly friendly this time.
She didn't even look at my ID or diploma before letting me inside.
When she saw that I had brought luggage, she even told me to leave it in the security office.
Then she took all sixteen of us who had come for the interview to the cafeteria for a written test.
The cafeteria was somewhat dark and damp, but it was spacious. Long rows of tables and benches filled the room, and there was even a television.
Everything about it made it clear that this factory was far better equipped than Yongxin.
The so-called test was actually very simple.
For example:
Which weighs more, one kilogram of cotton or one kilogram of iron?
What is one-fifth equal to?
There were fifty questions of that kind.
For me, they were so easy that I barely needed time to think.
As soon as I finished the entire test paper, the girl from the personnel department handed me another form.
I filled that out quickly as well.
By then, many of the other girls were still struggling over the questions, making little grunting noises as they wrote.
Throughout the test, the personnel girl watched us like a teacher supervising her students.
From the factory badge pinned to the left side of her chest, I learned that her name was Liu Yuan.
Because I finished so quickly, she had nothing else to do except walk around.
Eventually, to my surprise, she began chatting with me.
For some reason, I felt almost flattered by the attention.
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