MAC’60s Chapter 101.2

The factory where Sun Mei worked had also gone on holiday, so she stopped staying in the dormitory and returned home.

The first day she got home went quite well. Sun Mei relayed Xu Lei’s words to her own mother in several different ways, then declared her determination with complete confidence.

“Mom, Xu Lei has already said that the job on his family’s side will take a little longer. So please stop pressuring me. How could I not understand what you mean? I’ll definitely behave well. After some more time has passed, I’ll have him turn my temporary job into a permanent position. You have no idea how good Xu Lei is to me!”

Sun Mei spoke happily. “When I get married, I’ll leave my job for my younger brother. Our family already has Dad’s job, but wouldn’t it be even better if my younger brother didn’t have to take over someone else’s position? That way, our family won’t have to live so tightly stretched.”

Sun Sanmei glanced at her daughter.

“It’s good that you understand. Our family is not like other people’s. We’re already struggling financially. If I hadn’t thought you were reasonably promising, I would have registered you to go to the countryside this year. Don’t take this matter lightly. Once you get married and leave home, we can ask Xu Lei to pull some strings for us. Then no one in our family will have to go to the countryside. You’ll also be able to live a good life.”

Her family had two children. By rights, Sun Mei should have been sent to the countryside long ago. But wasn’t it because Sun Sanmei had hoped to find her daughter a good family to marry into that she had kept putting it off until now?

However, there was no way to delay it any longer. Her younger son would graduate next year. If Sun Mei couldn’t get married and leave home, she would have to go to the countryside next year.

At least one person from every family had to go to the countryside. If it wasn’t Sun Mei, then it would be their son.

Sun Sanmei didn’t even need to think to know that, with the prospect of being sent to the countryside hanging over her daughter’s head, Sun Mei would sooner or later manage to establish connections through Xu Lei.

Establishing those connections would be wonderful! Their family had always lived in poverty. If they could form an alliance with a good family through marriage, wouldn’t that allow them to change their family’s circumstances and rise to a better social position?

Sun Sanmei was burning with excitement. She told her daughter to prepare the meals at home, then happily took her needlework and went out to find people to boast to.

Having received her mother’s instructions, Sun Mei clenched her fists even more firmly.

She had to hold on tightly to Xu Lei, this high branch she had managed to climb. She had to show her mother what she was capable of!

But what Sun Mei hadn’t expected was that things would take a turn the very next day.

Sun Sanmei had spent the entire day boasting to people. The next day, she was still gathering with others to gossip. Even though it was the New Year period, that didn’t stop her from wandering from house to house.

The family she was visiting had their own New Year preparations to attend to, yet they still had to make time to listen to Sun Sanmei boast endlessly. They were already getting rather annoyed.

Suddenly, she heard someone knocking at the door.

The hostess hurriedly stood up. “Coming!”

Whoever it was, please come and rescue her!

When the main gate opened, two people dressed like government officials were standing outside.

“Comrade, we’re here to investigate the electricity and water supply problems in this residential area. We heard that someone reported people here cutting electrical wires in the middle of the night?”

The neighbor slapped her thigh. She had been startled when she saw someone arriving just now, but if they were asking about the electrical wires, she could put her mind at ease.

“Leaders, that really has been happening!”

The neighbor pointed at the electrical wires outside and began to complain.

“I don’t know which bastard is doing it, but someone keeps coming to cut the wires. At first, I thought someone from another household was doing it on purpose, that they had some kind of grudge against our family and were cutting our wires to get back at us. Just think about it—how utterly despicable is this person? Aren’t they afraid of getting themselves electrocuted to death?

“Later, I found out that the person cutting the wires hadn’t just cut ours. Several other households nearby had their wires cut, too. It’s caused so much inconvenience! When my child comes home, they even have to go to the neighbors’ house to borrow their light to do homework.

“After we finally managed to get the wires repaired, guess what happened? They were cut again!”

The two people who looked like government officials didn’t waste any time either. They took out paper and pens and immediately began making notes.

The neighbor rambled on, and they recorded everything point by point.

“Leaders, can this problem with our electrical wires actually be resolved? The New Year is almost here. If we reconnect the wires, what happens if they get cut again?”

One of them replied, “We’ll also report this matter to the higher authorities. After all, it’s not up to us to make the final decision.”

Sun Sanmei had been listening from the side for quite a while. At last, she saw an opportunity to interject.

She figured that no matter how much she boasted in front of the neighbor, it wouldn’t do much good. It would be better to show off her future son-in-law’s influence right now!

“Hello, comrades. I’m also a family member of an employee at our factory.”

Sun Sanmei eagerly squeezed her way to the front.

“Will you be reporting this electricity problem in our factory’s residential buildings to the county committee?”

“Yes. Problems in our factory area have to be reported to the higher authorities.”

Sun Sanmei was so pleased with herself that her tail practically rose into the air.

“Then can you report it to Comrade Xu Lei?”

She was determined to show off, so she explained in great detail.

“I mean that Xu Lei, the deputy section chief in your Factory Affairs Office. His parents are both cadres in our county’s People’s Armed Forces Department.”

The brows of the two people holding the paper and pens furrowed slightly.

“Xu Lei?”

Sun Sanmei raised her voice. “Yes! Xu Lei! He’s my future son-in-law! If you report it to him, he’ll definitely handle it with extra speed and urgency!”

The two exchanged a glance.

“Comrade, there’s no such person in the county committee.”

Sun Sanmei was taken aback.

“How could there not be? His surname is Xu—the Xu written with the speech radical! He works in the Factory Affairs Office!”

The man wearing a hat couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Comrade, our county committee doesn’t even have a department called the Factory Affairs Office!”

The other man added, “That’s called the Factory Liaison Office. It doesn’t belong to the county committee either. It’s an independent department.”

Sun Sanmei felt her breathing grow rapid.

“Impossible! His surname is Xu! Maybe I remembered it wrong. Perhaps he doesn’t work in the Factory Affairs Office… Could he be in another department? Yes, he must be in another department!”

The man in the hat said, “There’s no one surnamed Xu in our county committee. And there isn’t anyone by that surname in the People’s Armed Forces Department either.”

“How would you know?! It’s not as if you necessarily know every single person!”

The man in the hat replied irritably, “There aren’t that many people in the county committee right now. If you count everyone together, there are fewer than a hundred of us. Why wouldn’t I be able to know them all? And the People’s Armed Forces Department is even more ridiculous! I live in the area where the department is located. You’re right that I might not know every single person there, but I know the cadres. There really isn’t anyone surnamed Xu.”

It was like a bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky!

Although the neighbor standing nearby looked utterly confused, inwardly, she felt as refreshed and satisfied as someone drinking cold water in the height of summer!

Sun Sanmei’s face began to burn. In the short time this had taken, not only had the neighbor witnessed the entire scene, but a large crowd had also gathered outside.

“Whoa, what’s going on here?”

“This is hilarious! That woman from the Sun family goes around bragging every day about how capable her daughter is and how she’s latched on to a cadre’s family. Well, what do you think? Turns out he’s a fraud!”

“Not necessarily a fraud, right? Could she have remembered it incorrectly?”

“If she can’t even get the department right, how could he not be a fraud?”

“Listen, don’t say that. My daughter came home yesterday and mentioned something, too. She said that the letters Sun Mei’s boyfriend writes are all crooked and messy, with quite a bit of pinyin mixed in between!”

“…Pinyin? What cadre writes like that these days?”

“Tsk, tsk. Look at Sun’s wife’s face. It’s probably hot enough to fry an egg on!”

“Heh heh. Wasn’t she the one going around telling everyone just a few days ago, ‘Our county committee this, our county committee that’? She was showing off so shamelessly, as if she would be moving into the county committee compound tomorrow!”

…

Sun Sanmei’s face kept burning, until she felt as though she could no longer function.

The promising son-in-law her daughter had found was a fake!

This news struck her so hard that it practically knocked the soul out of her body.

She didn’t even notice when the two men left. In a daze, she made her way home.

As soon as she arrived, she saw Sun Mei coming out to greet her.

“Mom, the meal is ready—”

Smack!

Sun Sanmei slapped Sun Mei hard across the face.

Tears immediately sprang into Sun Mei’s eyes.

“You wretched girl! Of all the people you could have deceived, you had to deceive me! I’ve completely lost face today!”

Sun Sanmei grabbed her daughter and began beating her without caring about anything else.

Sun Mei cried so hard that she could barely catch her breath.

“Mom, what did I lie to you about?!”

Sun Sanmei continued shouting and beating her daughter. In the end, she was so furious that she fainted.

When she woke up again, her dark-faced husband was already sitting beside the bed, waiting for her.

Sun Sanmei burst into tears.

Old Sun, this isn’t my fault.”

Who could have known where Sun Mei had found such a fraud?

He had deceived her so terribly!

Her husband smoked his cigarette for a long while before finally speaking.

“This won’t do. We have to find that fraud.”

If they didn’t track down this man, neither their daughter’s reputation nor their family’s reputation would survive!

People who knew the truth might say they had simply been unlucky enough to encounter a fraud. But those who didn’t know the truth might think their daughter had been cheated out of her money or taken advantage of sexually.

Old Sun continued smoking until the smoke swirled thickly around him, but his gaze grew even more determined.

“We have to find him and report him to the authorities. Otherwise, if we can’t find him later, Sun Mei’s whole life will be ruined.”

It would have been one thing if she had been secretly dating someone. The troublesome part was that his wife had already spread the news of Sun Mei’s relationship throughout the entire residential compound.

If they allowed the rumors to continue, it wouldn’t be long before people started gossiping about Sun Mei.

Sun Sanmei quickly thought it through. She wiped away her tears and said fiercely, “Find him!”

She had to drag that fraud out into the open and give him a thorough beating!