Chapter 199: Father and Mother Sheng Were Surprised
There was really no other choice. If forced to choose between a handsome man and a massive fortune, she would, of course, choose… the money!
Sheng Wanyan brushed her teeth at lightning speed, then dashed back into the bedroom with the toothbrush still in her mouth to lock the passbook safely inside her dowry chest.
Gu Tingxiao didn’t know whether to laugh or be angry at her dramatic display. Shaking his head helplessly, he gently took her by the arm and steered her back out to the washbasin.
“Now that your treasure is safely hidden, hurry up and finish brushing. Breakfast is going to get cold.”
Sheng Wanyan nodded quickly. She hadn’t even realized that she was acting more and more like a coddled child around Gu Tingxiao. But that was the reality of being with someone who truly loved you—you couldn’t help but be spoiled into a state of innocent innocence.
Meanwhile, at the Chengdu Iron and Steel Plant:
“Master Sheng, the factory director wants to see you in his office.”
Old Mr. Sheng was deep in the middle of a grueling shift in the production workshop. Hearing the page from outside, he immediately wiped the thick layer of sweat from his forehead with a rag and hurried over to the administration building.
His nerves were shot. Why would the factory director suddenly summon a low-level laborer like him?
Father Sheng ran through a hundred different possibilities in his mind, anxiously reviewing his recent performance on the floor. Lately, a coworker, Father Chen, had been deliberately making things difficult for him at every turn. The Chen family harbored a bitter, venomous resentment against the Shengs ever since the Shengs had orchestrated sending the youngest Chen son off to a labor farm.
Father Chen was a cunning man. While his actual technical skills on the line couldn’t compare to Father Sheng’s decades of experience, he was an absolute master at currying favor and playing politics. He had managed to worm his way into the good graces of their workshop’s team leader, who happened to be a distant relative of the Chen family removed by several generations.
They weren’t even legitimately related, but Father Chen was relentless. He didn’t care how weak the blood tie was; he loudly claimed the team leader as family every single day. He also showered the man with expensive gifts, once reportedly giving away a tribute worth half a month’s salary.
Since the team leader had accepted the bribes, he naturally shielded Father Chen, consistently turning a blind eye whenever Chen sabotaged or undermined Father Sheng on the shift. Father Sheng had simply chosen to swallow the insults. It wasn’t worth jeopardizing his stable livelihood to engage with such toxic people.
In a twisted way, he actually possessed a shred of grudging admiration for Father Chen’s sheer audacity. Chen was the sole remaining breadwinner in his household, with several mouths depending on his wages. Even though his family was practically broke, he still managed to cough up half a month’s pay just to buy influence. It was almost impressive.
But today’s sudden summons from the factory director filled Father Sheng with deep unease. Could the director be another one of Father Chen’s distant relatives from some faraway village?
Father Sheng took a deep, steadying breath. No matter what awaited him behind that door, he had always worked honestly and stood tall. He had no reason to fear Father Chen’s underhanded tricks.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Come in.”
Father Sheng stepped into the director’s office, and the heavy door shut behind him, leaving the rest of the factory entirely in the dark regarding the conversation inside.
When Father Sheng finally emerged a half-hour later, his legs felt entirely weightless, as if he were walking on clouds. Like any worker who had dedicated his life to the line, he had dreamed of advancement. He had bled for this factory for decades precisely to earn a promotion.
But in his wildest dreams, he had only ever aimed to become a team leader. He never could have anticipated that he would instantly leapfrog the ranks to become… the deputy director of the entire workshop.
As he walked out the factory gates, the director’s parting words echoed continuously through his mind: “You have an extraordinary daughter, Lao Sheng.”
Father Sheng was still in a complete daze by the time he clocked off and walked through his front door. When Mother Sheng returned from her own shift and found him staring blankly into space, her heart instantly dropped, assuming the worst.
“What on earth is wrong with you? Why do you look like you’re hovering between life and death?”
Father Sheng swallowed hard, staring at her as if the words were physically stuck in his throat. Mother Sheng’s panic spiked.
“My… my employment status changed today,” he stammered. “I might not be working on the workshop floor anymore.”
“What? What happened? Did you lose your job? Did someone stab you in the back?” Mother Sheng asked, her voice rising in distress. Ever since learning of Pan Yue’s pregnancy, she had been desperately trying to pinch pennies to ensure they could leave a solid inheritance for the next generation. “Was it the Chen family? Did that old scoundrel finally trip you up? That’s it—I’m going over to their house right now to settle the score!”
Fuming, Mother Sheng turned toward the door, ready to wage war against the Chens.
Father Sheng lunged forward, grabbing her arm to pull her back. “No! No! Honey, you’ve got it all wrong!”
Mother Sheng paused, looking at him in utter confusion. Father Sheng took a deep breath, forcing himself to articulate every single syllable with absolute clarity.
“Wife… I got a promotion!”
Mother Sheng blinked, processing the words for a stunned second before a radiant wave of joy washed over her face. “Is that true? You finally made team leader?”
She knew better than anyone how hard her husband worked. He had given his youth and his health to that grueling workshop for decades. Seeing his dedication finally recognized made her intensely proud.
Father Sheng simply shook his head.
Mother Sheng didn’t care about the specific title—a step up was a step up, and any advancement was cause for celebration. “Well, what is it then? It’s not like you suddenly became the director!” she joked.
Father Sheng stared at her, his eyes wide. “How… how did you guess that, honey?”
The moment she registered his expression, Mother Sheng’s jaw dropped. They had been married for a lifetime; she could read his every micro-expression and gesture perfectly. She knew exactly what that look meant.
“Lao… Lao Sheng…” she stuttered, her voice trembling with disbelief.
“Deputy Director,” he whispered, his own voice cracking. “Deputy Director of the production workshop. Wife… I was promoted straight to deputy director!”
Mother Sheng froze completely, her eyes locked onto his, not even daring to blink. A sudden wave of vertigo hit her, making her feel as though the ground beneath her feet had turned to water. It felt entirely like a dream.
“You… say that again…”
“Your husband is now the deputy director of the workshop.”
The reality of the news finally broke through her shock. An intense wave of emotion flooded her chest, and her eyes turned heavily bloodshot as tears welled up.
“Say it one more time…”
“Deputy Director of the workshop.”
“Say it again!”
“Deputy Director… I’m the deputy director…”
At that, Mother Sheng buried her face in her hands and burst into deep, agonizing sobs. Decades of backbreaking labor, decades of breathing in factory dust and enduring unfair treatment—it had all finally been validated.
“Honey… please don’t cry,” Father Sheng cooed helplessly, reaching out to gently wipe the tears from her face. Mother Sheng wept out years of built-up exhaustion before finally managing to steady her breathing.
As they sat together, Father Sheng began to recount the surreal details of his day. But when he reached the part about the root cause of the promotion, Mother Sheng gasped in shock.
“You’re telling me… this happened because of our daughter?”
“Those were the factory director’s exact words to me.”
Mother Sheng’s mind spun in complete confusion. How could a massive industrial promotion in Chengdu possibly connect back to her daughter living on a remote military base? “No, this doesn’t make sense. I need to call Wanyan immediately and ask her what’s going on.”
Anxiety began to gnaw at her. “What if she pulled strings through the Gu family’s military connections to secure this for you? If she’s draining her in-laws’ political favors for her maiden family, how will she ever be able to hold her head up high in the Gu household?”
Terrified for her daughter’s marital security, Mother Sheng bolted out the door to find a telephone, with Father Sheng hurrying close behind her.
Over at the military base, Sheng Wanyan had just finished her evening meal when an orderly arrived to inform her that a long-distance call was waiting for her at the communications office. She instantly guessed it would be her mother.
She sprinted across the compound to the answering room, lifting the receiver to find Mother Sheng’s anxious, worried voice crackling over the line.
Wanyan immediately sought to soothe her fears. “Mom, breathe. This job transfer has absolutely nothing to do with the Gu family’s influence.”
“Then what on earth is going on? Tell me the truth, you’re going to worry me to death!”
Left with no alternative, Wanyan carefully walked her mother through a modified version of the medical breakthrough. Mother Sheng listened in absolute awe, stunned to discover that her daughter possessed such an extraordinary, latent genius for pharmacology. She felt a sudden pang of maternal guilt; she and Father Sheng had been so utterly consumed by their own exhausting factory shifts over the years that they had almost completely overlooked and stifled their daughter’s immense potential. It was a miracle Wanyan had crossed paths with that old traditional doctor and spent those years studying under him, otherwise her brilliant mind would have been entirely wasted on mundane labor.
“Mom, you and Dad can accept this position with absolute peace of mind,” Wanyan reassured her softly. “There’s no need to worry about any hidden strings or blowback.”
Hearing her daughter’s confident tone, Mother Sheng finally let out a long sigh of relief. Yet, a lingering trace of traditional anxiety made her add, “But even so… allocating such a massive benefit to your maiden home… won’t your husband’s family take issue with it?”
Sheng Wanyan couldn’t help but let out a fond chuckle. “Mom, every single member of the Gu family already occupies an incredibly high, powerful position in the capital or the military. Trust me, not a single one of them has any use for a workshop directorship at a steel plant!”
