The Reborn Sidekick Rejected The Male Lead-Chapter 402 - 391st - : A Tooth for a Tooth

After returning from school, Lu Jingqiu made a call to Zhuang Chen, whom she hadn’t contacted in a long time.

Zhuang Chen had joined the public security bureau in the county after Zhuang Yan was discharged from the army and had now become the captain of a brigade.

This time Xia Lin was assigned to be the principal of an elementary school in Ten-miles Village town.

Stepping into the role of a principal right away, no one else received such treatment in their job assignment.

Lu Jingqiu’s call was to inform Zhuang Chen about this, so Sister-in-law Zhuang could help spread the word back home, that the daughter of the village head of Ten-miles Village had returned home after graduating from college to contribute to the local education.

She knew Xia Lin wouldn’t return, but this kind of news would spread through all the villages.

If Xia Lin didn’t go back, there would definitely be people who would be sour about it, saying that once she’d left, she found her own family’s doorstep too lowly for her.

Not even willing to be a principal, she’d rather stay in the city to do business, speculating and profiteering, than return to be a principal.

This was clearly a contempt for them, the country folks.

And that was how things played out back home.

But these past few days, Xia Lin had been busy with Gao Shu’s matter.

Xia Lin vaguely knew it was Lu Jingqiu’s doing, but she dared not tell Gao Shu the truth.

Because Gao Shu had previously taken great pride in his job allocation, many department leaders had shown him high regard.

They always compared him to Shang Ze, and although he didn’t accept it willingly, he knew that Shang Ze’s family background set him apart, and his own wasn’t bad either, so naturally, his allocation wouldn’t be poor.

During the internship, leaders had made it quite obvious that he should do well in his job.

But now he had been assigned to the sub-district office, and when he asked the teacher, they were unclear too, as it wasn’t this place originally.

A recent investigation was underway.

Xia Lin had sought out Qi Anmin, hoping he could help change Gao Shu’s work unit.

Just like in Lu Jingqiu’s case, once it was settled, it wasn’t so easy to change.

Xia Lin wouldn’t mention it, and Lu Jingqiu wasn’t planning on hiding it either; that day she went to the cinema to report for duty.

The first and second floors of the cinema were large screening halls.

On the third floor, there was a large meeting room; the office of the director was on the second floor, along with the projectionist and artist rooms on the first floor.

The second floor had the offices of both Director Wang and the finance department.

It was indeed rare for their cinema to be assigned a college graduate this time.

The former cinema had two graphic artists, but after one was transferred away, there was only one left, who was definitely overworked.

This graphic artist had also been under a lot of pressure lately. Comrade Lu was too excellent, and it was unknown which staff member made the mistake of assigning her here, causing the publishing house and the newspaper to ask for manpower from him.

He steadfastly refused to release her until a consensus was reached: The publishing house and newspaper could borrow her, but when the cinema needed her, she had to be returned.

Director Wang had been waiting in his office since early in the morning, thinking that Lu Jingqiu might have some resentment about being assigned here, and he had prepared a whole bunch of nice things to say.

But when she came in, she greeted him very politely, "Director Wang, hello, I’m Lu Jingqiu from West City Academy of Fine Arts, here to report for duty."

"Comrade Lu, hello, hello, welcome to join our big family. Work hard in the future; the welfare at the cinema is quite good.

Usually, your work is very specific, just to draw the posters for the next day’s screenings or to enlarge the posters of new films that are released, that’s all." freewёbnoνel.com

Lu Jingqiu got a general idea of the scope of her work and listened to Director Wang explain the working hours and employee benefits at the cinema.

The cinema had a total of over a dozen employees, five projectionists, three people at the ticket office, and two graphic artists including herself.

There were four administrative staff.

The cafeteria had two people; their cafeteria was very small, located in a room on the first floor.

They were responsible for cooking for just the few of them normally.

Since it was a cinema, they could only have one day off per week, and it was in lieu of another day; Saturdays and Sundays were the busiest times.

Of course, administrative staff could have fixed rest days, but for the rest, it was not guaranteed.

Although the work was hard, the salary was high; Lu Jingqiu, as a college graduate, earned a monthly salary of fifty yuan.

There was also a living allowance, two yuan per month.

As to what exactly the living allowance was for, she didn’t know, but there was a two yuan subsidy regardless.

Moreover, the employees received five complimentary movie tickets monthly, which could be given to family, relatives, or friends.

After the introductions, Director Wang took her to complete the onboarding procedures and meet Aunt Zhang from the finance department.

She also met Sister Liu and Xiao Miao from the ticket office, along with a male colleague.

Next, they went to the first-floor drafting room.

There was a man in his twenties who Jingqiu had seen before when she was doing drafting work for the government’s exterior wall; his name was Guo Xiaojun.

The two were acquainted, and Guo Xiaojun pointed to the desk next to his, saying, "I’ve already cleared it for you. Your timing couldn’t be better; it’s the summer vacation, and we’re just swamped. Now I finally have an assistant."

Jingqiu was surprised and asked, "Is it that busy?" While speaking, she looked around the office: there was a large table covered with a large piece of poster paper that was still unfinished.

Various brushes were neatly arranged on the wall racks.

As explained by Guo Xiaojun, the work of a poster graphic artist mainly involves enlarging movie promotion posters. Usually, there are drafts provided, so there isn’t much scope for creativity.

Having just reported for duty, Jingqiu started working busily with Guo Xiaojun.

Together, they could complete a poster much faster—what Guo Xiaojun usually finished in a day, they now managed in just one morning.

She had gotten used to the slow pace at the publishing house, but now, both her body and mind had to constantly be in motion.

It was quite tiring.

However, unlike the ticket sellers, graphic artists could leave work at five in the afternoon.

After work, Jingqiu rode her bike to intentionally run into Gao Shu.

Gao Shu hadn’t reported for duty yet; he had been looking for someone to see if there was any way out of his situation.

Just as he was worrying, he ran into her. She was dressed simply in a cotton white short-sleeved shirt tucked into black trousers. Such simple clothes looked particularly good on her—pleasing to the eye.

Pleasing to the eye? He had always found Jingqiu disagreeable, but now... things had changed.

As Gao Shu stared at her in a daze, Jingqiu was the first to speak up, "Long time no see."

Gao Shu nodded, "Long time no see. Is your job allocation settled? Congratulations, I heard that the publishing house has moved into a new office building."

Jingqiu nodded and smiled, "Yes, they’ve moved to a new office building, but my position there is gone now. Do you know why?"

Gao Shu was puzzled and didn’t quite understand.

Jingqiu continued, "I was supposed to be a graphic designer at the publishing house, but unfortunately, some people couldn’t stand me and had to take revenge. As a result, I’m now working at the cinema, my position, graphic artist. Oh, I didn’t run into you by accident today; I came here on purpose. Do you know who got me transferred to the cinema? Xia Lin, your beloved wife.

She did it quite openly. When I asked her, she admitted it herself.

There’s a saying about tit for tat. Today, I’ll also generously admit my mistake. Your job, it was I who had it switched."

Hearing Jingqiu’s words, Gao Shu seemed to hear something incredible. He had never imagined that all the setbacks he had faced lately had been Jingqiu’s doing. "You... what do you mean by doing this? Do you realize how much you’ve hurt me? I thought you had changed for the better, but you’re still so vicious. Jingqiu, I’ve really misjudged you over these years."

"It seems you missed the main point, Comrade Gao. It was your... your wife who schemed against me first, understand? If you want to blame someone, go home and blame your wife. If it weren’t for her making trouble, we could have lived peacefully. You have your life, and I’d have mine, but your wife always has to come out and stir things up, flaunting her presence in front of me, which I find very annoying.

If you want to talk about harming someone, it should be your wife who’s the culprit with her surprise attacks... that’s a very useful tactic. Please pass a message to Xia Lin for me, thank her for the tactic—it’s very effective; I’ve learned it now and am thanking her in return." With that said, Jingqiu pushed her bike, ready to head home. Glancing into the distance, she unexpectedly saw Jiang Nanzhou coming her way.

Jingqiu smiled at him, then turned back to the stunned Gao Shu, "You were right about one thing—you’ve indeed misjudged me these past years."

After a light snort, she walked towards Jiang Nanzhou, "Nanzhou, are you on break?"

Jiang Nanzhou smiled and patted her head, "Yeah, I just came back overnight. Grandpa said you went to work today. How was it?"

"It’s okay. The director is quite amiable, and the colleagues aren’t bad either."

Jiang Nanzhou nodded, then looking up to see Gao Shu glaring at them, asked, "What did you say to him?"

"I just told him that it was me who arranged his job situation."

Jiang Nanzhou squeezed her hand and said, "Wait for me under that tree ahead, I’ll talk to him for a moment."

"Okay, come back soon."

Obediently, Jingqiu walked away. She wasn’t afraid that they would start fighting; if it really came to blows, Gao Shu stood no chance against Jiang Nanzhou.

From a distance, she couldn’t hear what Jiang Nanzhou said to him, but she saw the cold look in Gao Shu’s eyes suddenly turn into a complex wave of emotions.

By the time Jiang Nanzhou walked back, Gao Shu had already left.

"What did you say to him?"

Jiang Nanzhou took the bike from her and said with a smile, "I just told him that it was Xia Lin who went to Qi Anmin about your situation, and that she’s been getting quite close to Qi Anmin lately. Even her factory was bought with Qi Anmin’s help. Men tend to overthink things."

Jingqiu looked at him in surprise, but her mind was on something else.

Xia Lin had an affair in her previous life; would she in this life too...?