Witty Wife, Better Life

Chapter 734: Chapter 724: Tell me, what were you really thinking?

Goudan heard his second uncle agree, and he was overjoyed, practically jumping three feet high. The cheerful vibe emanating from him had the clueless Pangpang and Manman following suit with silly grins.

"What’s going on with this kid? What’s so great about going to my place?" Shen Yunfang chuckled helplessly and shook her head.

Li Hongjun glanced at his nephew’s excited hopping, then returned to his meal. "Don’t mind him. He’ll stop hopping around once he’s had enough. But don’t give him any special treatment at your place, ah. Let him do whatever he’s supposed to do. I think the boy needs disciplining; otherwise, it will only get worse." As an uncle, Li Hongjun did hope for the best for his nephew.

"Mhm, you can rest assured on that. We don’t keep idlers at my place. Whoever comes has to work," Shen Yunfang was already thinking about what task to assign to Goudan, the kid who loved to stir up trouble.

After lunch, it was time for a nap. Goudan could not lie still on the bed. One moment he would get up to drink some water from the kitchen, the next he would go to the restroom. In short, he was so restless it was like there was a nail under his butt, compelling him to fidget now and then.

"What are you doing? Can’t you stay still when you sleep?" Li Hongjun got up after the nap and gave Goudan a stern talking-to.

Goudan chuckled awkwardly, "Heh heh, Second Uncle, I’m just a bit excited. Is Second Aunt awake yet?" He said this while peering into his second uncle and aunt’s room.

"Enough already. The whole noon I’ve heard you going back and forth. It’d be a miracle if she wasn’t awake." Shen Yunfang came out of the bedroom and said.

"Heh heh, Second Aunt, is it time to go to work this afternoon? When do we leave?" Goudan’s face was all smiles as he cozy up to her. Ever since she had agreed to let him go at noon, his heart was like it had sprouted grass, eagerly anticipating arriving at the farm as soon as possible.

Shen Yunfang looked at him suspiciously, "Today is the weekend." Although she was the boss, she always treated herself well.

Although there’s no weekend off on the farm because someone needs to be constantly on watch over the fields and pigsties, and even if someone does take leave, they would have to arrange their work with someone else before leaving. And she, the boss, is the only one who takes off every weekend with her kids.

Goudan was stumped. He hadn’t even considered this, and now he became anxious. "We have to go on the weekends too, don’t we? The chickens and ducks don’t take weekends off."

"I think the kid is a bit obsessed," Shen Yunfang said, turning to Li Hongjun.

Li Hongjun huffed in response.

Seeing that his second aunt was ignoring him, Goudan hurriedly edged closer again, pleading, "Second Aunt, let’s go. There’s nothing to do at home anyway. Just take me with you to have a look."

Shen Yunfang sat down on the couch, facing the big boy who was now half a head taller than her, acting coquettish around her, a sight truly hard on the eyes.

But the necessary question still had to be asked clearly, "Wait a moment, come over here and sit down. Let’s have a proper talk."

Goudan, seeing his second uncle and aunt both looking stern on the couch, got jittery with a bad feeling and obediently sat where his second aunt pointed.

"I see you really want to work on the farm, don’t you?" Shen Yunfang asked earnestly.

Goudan nodded vigorously.

"Why? Don’t feed me those irrelevant reasons. Tell me what’s really on your mind. If you try those useless excuses again, you can forget about going," Shen Yunfang warned him as he was about to speak.

Goudan’s words got choked back again.

"Think carefully before you answer," Li Hongjun chimed in beside him.

Goudan looked at the couple across from him, who were glaring at him with cold brows, and eventually chose to tell the truth, "I just want to earn more money."

Shen Yunfang raised her eyebrows, signaling him to tell the whole truth.

"It’s like this: I visited a farm for a few days before, and I secretly overheard some workers say that they earn a lot there. On average, it comes down to about one hundred and fifty yuan a month. At that time, I envied them." Although he was envious back then, the life in the big city still held greater allure for him, so he obediently went to the city to take up the job his second uncle found for him. "Later, I went to the city to stoke boilers for people, and everywhere I was looked down upon. Then I made only a little over twenty yuan a month. I felt that even farming would be better." In the Capital, it was a different story; he hardly ever received any wages because he was cheated out of them. So he still longed for city life, but here, even though people would talk about city folk and country folk, he actually got to hold his wages in hand. And only then did he realize that city wages weren’t so easy to spend freely. Reluctant to spend and buy, those twenty yuan could just about cover his expenses for a month. Hoping to save up for a wife and a house, if he didn’t work until he was very old, it was out of the question.

Thinking of the wages that farm workers earned at his second aunt’s farm got him excited again. When he was stoking boilers, a fire burned in his heart that couldn’t be extinguished no matter what, and this week when he came back, he finally gathered the courage to talk about it with his second uncle and aunt.

"You’re really quite straightforward," Shen Yunfang said to Goudan.

Thinking his second aunt was praising him, Goudan hee-heed with a silly laugh and scratched his head.

"But what you heard isn’t completely correct. The job at our place isn’t for just anyone."

Shen Yunfang’s words made Goudan tense up again.

"Come, let me first explain to you some of the rules and regulations, as well as the welfare system of the farm." Shen Yunfang wanted to manage his expectations, in case the farm couldn’t meet them in the end, leading to the boy being too disappointed.

Goudan listened very attentively from beginning to end.

"So it’s not as you think, that by just going there you could have a wage of over a hundred yuan. For someone like you who’s just started, the basic salary is only thirty. Only when you can really take up the job and become a permanent worker can you earn a basic wage of fifty yuan each month. As for the bonus part, that depends on how much you contribute to the farm. The farm has always distributed earnings based on work—more work, more pay," Shen Yunfang explained clearly and plainly to him.

Goudan’s eyes lit up brighter as he listened, "No problem, second aunt. I’m not afraid, I’ve got plenty of strength, and I know how to work. Back home, my dad and I always worked the land together. I promise I can do it."

"Having a lower starting wage is okay. As long as I do as good a job as anyone else, you just need to raise my wage," Goudan said.

"The farm has a trial period, right? I’ll just give it a try. If it works out, you can keep me on, second aunt. If not, then we’ll see." In the end, Goudan still didn’t dare to make any absolute claims.

This time, without a word from Li Hongjun, and seeing that he understood, Shen Yunfang immediately agreed, "Okay, since you’ve put it that way, you’ll start off as a regular worker on a trial period, like anyone else. I’m not going to pull any strings for you."

Goudan nodded vigorously.

"Also, since you’ll be an employee of the farm, I think you should move into the dormitory there and eat at the cafeteria. After all, we don’t know yet what job you’ll be assigned to, and some work might require you to work at night too."

"Okay, no problem. You assign me to any job, second aunt, and I’ll do it." Goudan was actually quite eager to live in that newly built dormitory building; he had never lived in such a new and tall building his whole life.

"You’re mistaken; it’s not about what I tell you to do, it’s whatever job Manager Zhang of the farm assigns you—that’s what you’ll have to do."