Chapter 18: Old Lin, You’ve Got a Heavy Burden, Don’t Rush to Reincarnate!
Lin Wan broke through the crowd. Walking forward a bit, she saw her younger brother, Zhang Hongqiang, playing near the water pump with a gang of kids.
He had a tattered cloth sheet tied around his body and was brandishing a wooden stick. Tied to the top of the stick was a pair of red underpants with holes in them—goodness knows whose they were.
He was swinging the red underpants so violently that they whizzed through the air.
That tattered cloth sheet looked pretty familiar to Lin Wan, too.
“Comrades, charge!”
A long line of kids followed behind him, shouting, “Charge!”
“Zhang Hongqiang!” Lin Wan called out loudly.
Zhang Hongqiang shivered in fright. He hurriedly hid the tattered cloth sheet and the underpants behind his back.
“Sis…” He stood there, stiff as a quail.
The other kids looked just as terrified when they saw Lin Wan.
Older sisters in other families wouldn’t dare beat their younger brothers; they had to pamper them instead. But the older sister in Zhang Hongqiang’s family was different. Not only did she beat her own brother, but she also beat everyone else’s brothers.
“Sister Lin Wan.”
The pack of quails shrank into the corner of the wall and scrambled to snitch on him. “Zhang Hongqiang made us play this!”
“The underpants belong to his eldest brother.”
“The cloth sheet is the pee-sheet from your family’s Sandan…”
“We really didn’t steal them this time!”
Zhang Hongqiang was absolutely furious. None of them had any loyalty!
However, Lin Wan didn’t beat Zhang Hongqiang. Instead, she shoved the mesh bag into his hands. “Take this and go home!”
“Hongqiang, your sister tested into a job at the post office!”
“You really are incredibly lucky. When you grow up, just have your sister hand her job over to you, and you won’t have to go to the countryside!”
Auntie Su’s heart was green with envy. The moment she opened her mouth, she spouted divisive words.
Everyone in the compound had witnessed exactly how selfish Lin Wan was. There was no way she would be willing to give her job to her brother. But if Zhang Hongqiang took it to heart, the Zhang family would have a lot of drama ahead! After all, Zhang Hongqiang was the son, while Lin Wan was just a girl. Old Zhang would definitely take his own son’s side.
“That’s right, Hongqiang. Hurry up and say some sweet words to your sister, or she won’t give you the job in the future.”
“Are all of you sticking your noses into other people’s business because your stomachs are too full? Why don’t you tell your own daughters to give their jobs to your sons?”
“What happens in my house is none of your damn business!”
Huang Guixiang rushed down from upstairs in a furious rush, brandishing a rolling pin as she pointed at Auntie Su and the others, cursing them out.
Zhang Hongqiang jumped up and down by her side, chiming in, “Exactly!”
“I don’t even want my sister’s job! I want to go to the countryside!”
“I’ll grow vegetables in the countryside for my sister to eat!”
“I’ll raise old hens to lay eggs and save them for my sister!”
“I’ll earn work points to exchange for fresh grain for my sister to eat!”
“I’ll turn you envious old hags green with jealousy because you don’t have a brother to support you!”
“You undying old vixens… Blehh…”
Zhang Hongqiang pulled down his eyelids, stuck out his tongue, and made a hideous face, leaving Old Lady Su and the others trembling with rage.
This wretched child—goodness knows what kind of spell Lin Wan had cast on him. Listen to the nonsense he was spouting! He was just small right now and didn’t understand anything. Just wait. When he grew up and went to the countryside, he would learn what regret felt like when he had to do farm work!
Taking good intentions for granted. He deserved to toil like cattle for a black-hearted wretch like Lin Wan for the rest of his life!
Huang Guixiang didn’t have the time to bicker with the neighbors right now. She hurriedly dragged Lin Wan back inside the house, closing the door to shut out the outside world. She asked excitedly, “My precious, did you really test into the post office?”
Lin Wan nodded, pulling out the admission letter and the household registration transfer certificate to show Huang Guixiang.
Huang Guixiang wiped her hands repeatedly on her apron before cautiously taking the few sheets of paper from Lin Wan’s hands. Although she had never attended formal school, she wasn’t illiterate; Lin Wan’s biological father had taught her how to read.
“Mom, Mom, let me see!” Zhang Hongqiang jumped around by their side, looking as anxious as a monkey.
Huang Guixiang read the papers over and over again, her eyes turning red. Once she finished, she carefully handed the documents back to Lin Wan. “You child, you even kept it from your own mother. When did this happen?”
“Tell Mom all about it.”
Lin Wan pulled her down to sit, handing her an enamel mug. “That day when I went to the public restroom, I overheard the people in the stalls next to me saying that the post office was recruiting… It just so happened that day was the final day for registration. I made up a lie saying an insider from their system introduced me to sign up…”
“Because I sneaked in to register, I didn’t know if they would keep me, so I didn’t tell you. I was afraid that if it didn’t work out, you would feel disappointed and sad along with me!”
“Hehe, who knew your daughter would be so lucky? Not only did I place first in the exam, but the post office also happened to get a new bureau chief. He came to inspect the exam rooms, saw that I did exceptionally well, and hired me on the spot. He said it didn’t matter if someone was from the unit or an external one—whoever got the best score would get the job!”
Hearing Lin Wan’s words, Huang Guixiang was overjoyed beyond measure. She grabbed Lin Wan’s hand and stroked it. “As expected of my Huang Guixiang’s daughter, absolutely brilliant!”
“My Huang Guixiang’s daughter was born with a blessed life!”
“Your grandmother and those people were truly blind. What use is a son?”
“A hundred useless sons combined can’t match up to a single capable daughter!”
“Oh my, no wonder you suddenly bought so many envelopes and stamps… Turns out you weren’t playing around blindly, you were preparing for the recruitment exam!”
“Those sour old hags were all mocking you, saying you’d gone mad!”
“Heh~”
“Their brains are stuffed with nothing but tofu dregs. How could they possibly comprehend my daughter’s ambitions!”
Because of that matter, Huang Guixiang had fought several shouting matches with people. Now, she could finally hold her head high!
“Come, come, come. Give your father a kowtow and thank him for protecting you!”
Huang Guixiang pulled Lin Wan into her bedroom. Using a key to unlock a chest, she fished out a photograph of Lin Wan’s biological father and placed it on the writing desk.
“Old Lin!”
“Our daughter has made something of herself. She tested into a job at the post office!”
“I raised her well, didn’t I?”
“You need to put in some effort too. Work hard to bless our daughter so she can be even better in the future, climb higher in her career, and enjoy a happy, fulfilled marriage for a lifetime!”
“The burden on your shoulders is heavy, so do not rush to reincarnate!”
Lin Wan: “…”
In her heart, she lit a row of candles for Old Lin, who had been dead for over a decade.
After murmuring her piece to the photograph, Huang Guixiang urged Lin Wan to kowtow to Old Lin. “Come, Wanwan, kowtow to your father.”
Lin Wan knelt down properly and delivered three resounding kowtows to Old Lin’s photograph.
Dad.
Rest easy.
I will take good care of Mom.
Don’t worry about us.
The blurry silhouette of her father in her memories instantly became clear upon seeing the photograph. Comrade Lin was a handsome and gentle father who used to carry little Lin Wan in his arms and hoist her onto his shoulders to let her “fly.” Every single time he received his wages, the very first thing he did was run to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy candy for her…
“Father Lin, I will take care of Sister and Mom. I won’t let anyone bully them!”
Thud, thud, thud.
Zhang Hongqiang, who had followed them inside, kowtowed even harder than Lin Wan. By the time his three resounding kowtows were finished, his forehead had turned completely red.
“Sis, why does my head feel a bit dizzy?” The boy rubbed his head, his gaze completely blank.
Lin Wan: “…”
She pulled him up, walking out of the bedroom under Huang Guixiang’s rolling eyes.
“Mom, I need to go to the neighborhood subdistrict committee to transfer my household registration and get the certificates, as well as a marriage referral letter.”
“I’ll have Hongqiang come with me!”
“Oh right, Huo Xiao bought quite a few dishes at the state-owned restaurant. I left them on the table…”
Seeing the large aluminum lunchboxes inside the mesh bag on the table, Huang Guixiang grumbled, “Why buy so much? It’s just letting the members of the Zhang family ride our coattails again!”
“You need to speak to Little Huo. Tell him not to buy things like this in the future. Once you two are married, his money is your money, and your money is still your money!”
“Spending money so lavishly like this is just draining your wealth, do you understand!”
Lin Wan nodded vigorously. “I understand!”
Without slowing her pace, she grabbed Zhang Hongqiang and bolted outside.
They went to the neighborhood committee first to process the certificates and transfer the registration. When Auntie Qin and Auntie Yang heard that she had tested into a job at the post office, they refused to believe it no matter what. After making a phone call to the post office to verify and receiving a definitive confirmation, the expressions on the two women’s faces were incredibly complicated.
How on earth did a reckless troublemaker like Lin Wan manage to test into the post office? Were the leaders at the post office completely blind!
Lin Wan tilted her chin up, saying in a thoroughly punchable tone, “Aunties, don’t come to my house to mobilize me for the countryside anymore. I have a job now!”
It left the two women completely choked.
After walking out of the neighborhood committee office and the local police station upon finishing their business, Lin Wan wrapped an arm around Zhang Hongqiang’s shoulder. “Let’s go!”
“Sister is taking you to buy grain!”
The only reason Lin Wan had brought Zhang Hongqiang along was to use him as a cover so she could smuggle some grain out of her system space. The rice jar at home was hitting rock bottom. Previously, when Huang Guixiang went to line up at the grain station, she hadn’t managed to buy anything at all. Food supplies were incredibly tight, and buying grain for every household felt like fighting a war, requiring frantic efforts several times a month.
