Once the three had left, the brigade leader finally spoke. "No, I should be the one thanking you. What future is there in staying home and farming? The young people need to get out, study, and find jobs!"

If his village weren’t so underdeveloped and lacking connections, he would have loved to arrange for all the young people to go out and find work.

"Mr. Xie, you can rest assured. I’ll help look after your relatives in the village." The brigade leader was an astute man, and he understood Xie Changning’s intentions. He knew that by offering up security guard positions, she was asking for their "special care" in return, so he offered her his assurance.

A small smile graced Xie Changning’s face. "Thank you so much. And you can rest assured, the next time our factory expands, we’ll come to your village to recruit first!"

"Well now! That’s just wonderful!"

The elder and the youngster hit it off, chatting away congenially. When the brigade leader warmly invited them to stay for a meal, Xie Changning and Xie Changyi politely declined, saying they needed to get back to the county seat.

In the end, the brigade leader had someone hitch up a donkey cart to take the two to town, where they could catch the bus back to the county seat.

Only after Xie Changning and Xie Changyi had left did everyone crowd into the brigade headquarters.

"Sixth Uncle, are they really reliable?"

"Yeah, an official already? At such a young age?"

"Could she just be bluffing?"

’So young and pretty, and already the director of a whole factory?’

The brigade leader, whom they called Sixth Uncle, took a few puffs from his pipe before speaking. "You all don’t read the papers, so you wouldn’t know. The Anong County Machinery Factory really does have a young director. I’ve seen her photograph. That was her."

He’d thought Xie Changning looked familiar the moment she walked into the production brigade’s area.

It was only after she introduced herself that he remembered. There really was such a person.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have agreed so readily or trusted Xie Changning so easily.

Hearing what the brigade leader had to say, the villagers finally relaxed. "My Zhuzi was chosen," one of them asked naively. "Does that mean I might get a chance to work at the factory later on?"

"In your dreams! Do you know why she was recruiting security guards? Because it’s the least skilled job at the factory! The other positions require technical skills and literacy. What skills do you have?"

A quick-witted villager instantly shattered her fantasy.

The woman whose fantasy had been shattered snorted in displeasure but didn’t say anything else.

"Sixth Uncle, I think those two have a grudge against a few people here in the village..." A particularly sharp-eyed villager had noticed the enmity between Xie Changning, Xie Changyi, and the local members of the Xie Family.

’Her looking out for our village now is probably related to that, isn’t it?’

Sixth Uncle nodded. "From now on, keep a close eye on those few. Don’t displease Mr. Xie." Whatever bad blood existed between them didn’t matter. As long as it kept Xie Changning happy, "watching over" them was a small price to pay.

There were many ways to make someone’s life difficult in the village, none of which had to be overt.

Everyone understood instantly, and they all chimed in, promising to "look after" them well.

「In the county seat」

Xie Changyi looked at Xie Changning. "You had this all planned out from the beginning, didn’t you?"

"What?"

"To use the security guard positions in exchange for making their lives miserable."

Xie Changning paused in the middle of making her bed and sat down. She looked at Xie Changyi and said, "I did have that in mind, yes. But if their village hadn’t had anyone who met the requirements, I wouldn’t have gone through with it."

"The fact that there were suitable candidates just made it even better. It saves me the trouble of conducting more interviews later."

’Just thinking about the interviews she’d conducted during the last recruitment drive made Xie Changning’s head ache.’

Xie Changyi looked at her sister. "I thought you were going to get your revenge in person."

"I do want to strike back, Sis. But a single slap won’t be enough to quench my anger. I want them to suffer for a long, long time." ’Just like the original host of this body, who endured prolonged psychological torment.’

’They owe the original host a life.’

’How could a few slaps ever be enough to repay that debt?’

Hearing her say that, Xie Changyi didn’t press the issue. Instead, she said, "Just be careful and know what you’re doing. Don’t get dragged into it yourself."

"Of course. I said ’look after,’ not ’abuse.’"

"You’re such a little schemer." Having spent so much time in the Northeast, Xie Changyi had picked up the local accent and the habit of inverting her sentences.

The two sisters talked for a while longer before finally falling asleep.

They got up early the next morning.

When they went downstairs for breakfast, they saw the three villagers standing by the door, waiting for them with all their bags packed.

Xie Changyi waved them over. "Come on in and get something to eat. The train won’t be here for a little while."

The men shook their heads.

"We’ve already eaten."

Since they were too polite to accept the invitation, Xie Changning didn’t insist. Instead, she had the innkeeper pack up some steamed buns for them to take on the road.

With their belongings gathered and the buns in hand, Xie Changning led the men onto the train.

Once seated on the train, the men all had slightly dazed expressions, as if lost in remembrance.

Once on the train, Xie Changyi took over the conversation. She began asking the men about their pasts, like what branch of the military they’d served in, why they had been discharged...

...how many people were in their families, and so on.

When Xie Changyi confirmed that their backgrounds were all solid, she gave Xie Changning a reassuring nod, her heart finally at ease.

Otherwise, she would have been genuinely worried they might cause trouble for her younger sister. If that happened, it would be awkward even to send them back to their village.

Xie Changning understood her sister’s good intentions and shot her a grateful glance.

The train ride to Hui Chun City took four to five hours, and the trip to Anong County was about the same length. Fortunately, Xie Changning had already contacted the factory and arranged for a driver to pick them up from the station.

By car, it would only take about three hours to get back.

Upon arriving at the Anong County Machinery Factory, Xie Changning led the three men to Wang Guofu. "Uncle Wang, these are the three I recruited. They’ll be the security guards for the new factory wing. Could you get them settled into the dorms for today? You can take them over to the new building tomorrow."

"Sure thing! Leave it to me!"

Once she dropped the men off at the factory, Xie Changning couldn’t wait to get home to see her son and daughter.

’She hadn’t realized it before she left, but now that she’d been away, she found she actually missed her children a great deal.’

When she got home, Aunt Wang, worried that Xie Changning hadn’t been eating well on her trip, insisted on cooking her a bowl of noodles as a snack.

"Aunt Wang, you’re going to spoil me rotten," Xie Changning said, though the speed at which she devoured the noodles didn’t slow in the slightest. It was clear she hadn’t eaten this well on the road.

Seeing her eat with such gusto made Aunt Wang happy too.

"I knew you wouldn’t be eating properly out there," Aunt Wang said with a smile. "So what if you get spoiled? You’re busy all day, sometimes too busy even to eat. You need to be looked after with extra care!"

She didn’t find it the least bit troublesome to cook for Xie Changning. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Not even for an extra meal like this one.

After the Lunar New Year, some of her husband’s relatives heard that she had a good job working for Xie Changning.

So, they wanted to come work in Xie Changning’s home too.

’As if she would let that happen!’

’She would never let those people get in front of Changning and be an eyesore!’

Xie Changning had no idea that both of the "aunts" had received letters from their families, or that neither of them had written back.