Chapter 127 New Assistant
It had been more than half a year since I last saw Rong Yuan. When they met again, Zhou Yuan was still so nervous that he could hardly breathe.
During this period, she would rather shiver alone in her dorm wrapped in a blanket than go home even during the Chinese New Year. Her stubbornness and determination made her stepfather Zhou Chengjun lose face among relatives and friends. The man was furious and not only claimed to sever ties with her, but also strictly forbade her mother Kong Yuhong to visit her at school from then on.
In the past, Kong Yuhong would sometimes secretly give her some money so that she could buy some delicious food. After she completely lost contact with her parents, Zhou Yuan cried at night, wiped her tears when she woke up in the morning, and decided to support herself.
She put aside her dignity and pride, and collected the bottles and waste paper thrown away by her classmates during the break, and sold them together after school. But Zhou Yuan didn't know that even the thrown away bottles actually belonged to them. They were the extra income of the cleaning aunties who cleaned the toilets, lawns, teachers' office buildings and other places in the school. Everyone tacitly owned the right to dispose of the garbage in their own cleaning area. Zhou Yuan didn't know the inside story, and swept all the discarded beverage bottles she could see, which naturally made people unhappy. But she was a student in the school, and the aunties couldn't do anything to her if she worked part-time, so they took a detour to save the country, and instantly became much more diligent. They wandered around the trash cans whenever they had nothing to do, and quickly put away bottles and other things. Compared with students who had to go to class and do exercises on time every day, their activity time and scope were much freer. For a week in a row, only 20 to 30 bottles were picked up every day, which was incomparable to the hundreds before. Zhou Yuan felt strange in her heart, and after careful observation, she knew why, and silently gave up the idea of making a living from this.
She started working everywhere, handing out flyers, washing dishes, working as a cashier, working as a 50-cent Internet cafe troll, tutoring, delivering express mail, organizing promotions, cleaning for people... Because Zhou Yuan's appearance was not good, she only worked after school and on weekends, so she encountered many setbacks in the process of finding a job. When she was working, she not only had to deal with all kinds of weird things, but her salary was sometimes deducted for inexplicable reasons. It was hard to describe the hardships. However, there were both good and bad things. She knew that she was ugly, and in the dark, she couldn't even tell that she was a woman just by looking at her back. Therefore, she was very bold and dared to go anywhere and take any job. She was not like other girls who had to worry about their personal safety when they went out to work, for fear of being taken advantage of.
Zhou Yuan was busy working, and during class she was calculating how much money she had in her pocket and how much she could get paid today. She was exhausted when she came home from work at night, and could only deal with her homework carelessly. Naturally, her academic performance went downhill, and her grades, which were originally above average, dropped to the bottom of the list. At the beginning of the final exam, she didn't pass any of her courses. The teacher had talked to her many times, but Zhou Yuan was still the same. Otherwise, even if her grades went up, she would not only have no money to go to college, but also no money for food and accommodation.
Just when she even began to consider giving up her studies, Jin Yang introduced her to a job that paid 100 yuan a day on weekdays from afternoon to evening, and 200 yuan a day for full-day work on weekends, with food and accommodation provided. He asked her if she wanted to go.
Zhou Yuan nodded quickly, as she had no objection. She only earned a hundred yuan for handing out flyers all day in the cold winter, even though her fingers were frozen. The pay for this job was already very high for her. Moreover, the working hours did not conflict with her class schedule. It was much easier to work only one job than running around to different places to meet deadlines when she worked several jobs before.
Jin Yang also told her that the workplace was far away and it would take nearly two hours to commute every day. The living conditions were also very poor, and the employer was a man. He asked her if she could accept it.
Zhou Yuan nodded again. She was not afraid of this! And she believed that Jin Yang would not introduce her to an unreliable boss.
She followed the address Jin Yang gave her and found that it was indeed in a very remote place, and the place where she worked was actually a warehouse that looked abandoned. At this time, she couldn't help but doubt the accuracy of Jin Yang's information and regretted not confirming it with him before coming. After wandering outside the door for a while, Zhou Yuan hesitantly knocked on the door.
But she never expected that the person who answered the door was Rong Yuan.
Zhou Yuan is going crazy.
Single girls still have basic self-defense awareness, and they also made some preparations to prevent accidents before coming. In short, they dress themselves up a little sloppily, with messy hair, dirty face, torn clothes, and a brick in their bag. With her face and figure, she believes that any normal man will not be interested in her.
——Of course Rong Yuan wouldn’t have that either.
If Jin Yang were here at this moment, Zhou Yuan would have wanted to pounce on him and bite him to death.
…
Rong Yuan looked Zhou Yuan up and down, and after a while he confirmed, "Zhou Yuan?"
The girl in front of me has changed a lot from before. Probably because of the change in diet and the increase in exercise, the fat on her body has been reduced a lot. Although she is still fat, at least her facial features can be seen clearly. Her skin has also improved a little. Most of her previous moon face has been filled, leaving only some deep and shallow acne marks. However, due to the sun and wind, her face has become dark and rough. But her spirit is completely different from the past. At first glance, what people notice is not her appearance and figure, but her sparkling eyes.
In the past, Zhou Yuan even had difficulty speaking to Rong Yuan face to face. Although she looked dumbfounded and stupid now, at least she could look Rong Yuan in the face and did not show her past humble look.
"Jin Yang introduced you here?" Rong Yuan asked knowingly. The truth was that if he didn't speak, Zhou Yuan didn't know how long he would stay in a daze.
"Oh... yes!" Zhou Yuan came back to his senses, shuddered all over, and answered hurriedly.
"Come in." Rong Yuan moved aside to open the door.
Zhou Yuan followed in tremblingly, carrying her bag. She hurriedly used her free hand to smooth her hair while cautiously eyeing Rong Yuan out of the corner of her eye. Her heart was pounding wildly. If it weren't for her dark face, it would have turned red by now.
Rong Yuan had not been seen in the school for a long time, and there were many rumors. Some said he had gone to college, some said he had gone abroad, and some said he had been picked up by his wealthy biological father. Zhou Yuan had never thought that he would be the employer this time.
Because of this new assistant, Jin Yang and Rong Yuan made some modifications to the house in advance. In short, they put away all the things that Rong Yuan couldn't show to others. They used a few partitions to separate the bedroom from the living room and bathroom, and then divided the bedroom into two rooms. Because there was not enough space, they moved the original partitions to the laboratory. However, the space occupied by so many experimental equipment could not be compromised, so each room was very small. Rong Yuan's bedroom was better, but Zhou Yuan's bedroom was so small that only a bed could be placed inside, and clothes could only be hung on the wall or stuffed under the bed.
However, she was only separated from Rong Yuan by a wall. Zhou Yuan liked everything and smiled foolishly all the way. She was not dissatisfied with anything. During the holidays, students could not live in dormitories, so she stayed in hotels. Every day, she spent half of her part-time job money on accommodation. She had not paid the school's accommodation fee for the next semester. When she heard that this place provided food and accommodation, she checked out and packed her luggage. All her belongings were in her bag. Rong Yuan asked her to put her things away and took her to explain the content of her future work.
As soon as he opened the door, Zhou Yuan couldn't help but hold his breath and for a moment he didn't even dare to go in.
Many instruments emitting a cold mechanical luster, experimental instruments densely arranged on the test bench in different categories, and a set of experimental equipment that was undergoing reactions, these things produced an invisible pressure in silence, reminding her that this was completely different from the rags or flyers she had held in her hands before, and was completely different from what she usually came into contact with. It really made people feel that this was not a place that ordinary people should set foot in, and it made people feel awe and want to retreat.
She looked at Rong Yuan, who was standing by the test bench waiting. He was wearing a white shirt, casual trousers, and a lab coat as white as snow. He picked up a test tube with his slender fingers and shook it. His condescending eyes seemed a bit careless. Zhou Yuan felt that he fit in perfectly with this place, while she was like an ugly duckling who had accidentally entered and had no qualifications to stand here. This huge gap made her previous blushing thoughts disappear. She felt so ashamed that she even wanted to turn around and hide her face and run away.
——This is exactly why Jin Yang wanted her to take this job.
In Jin Yang's opinion, this girl has been making a lot of money recently. She works just for the sake of working. She puts the cart before the horse. Not only is her study in a mess, her interpersonal relationships are also a mess. She has nothing to say to her classmates or roommates. She ignores the slander, isolation, contempt and concern of people around her. She just thinks that everything she does is right. She is even secretly proud of her independence and self-reliance. She can't listen to other people's well-intentioned advice.
She was still the same as always in front of Jin Yang, a simple and a little reserved girl, but when Jin Yang advised her not to push herself so hard, to pay more attention to her studies, and to get along well with her classmates, the disapproval in her eyes was all seen by Jin Yang.
So Jin Yang asked her to come to Rong Yuan. In their daily contacts, Zhou Yuan always tried to find out about Rong Yuan's recent situation in a roundabout way. She thought she was being subtle, but how could Jin Yang not see it? He knew that this girl's love for Rong Yuan had not changed. Letting her see with her own eyes what Rong Yuan was doing now was more effective than anyone else's persuasion.
This is not bad for Rong Yuan. The assistant he needs must be diligent, careful, serious, able to endure difficult conditions, never perfunctory in daily experiments, absolutely obedient, not self-willed, and extremely loyal and confidential. All experimental details here cannot be disclosed to the outside world. If any of these conditions are not met, Rong Yuan would rather not have them. Among all the people Jin Yang knows, Zhou Yuan is the only one who can do these things and accept a low-paying job.
Rong Yuan had limited funds, so he naturally couldn't offer Zhou Yuan a high salary. In fact, he only paid 50 yuan a day, and Jin Yang paid the rest out of his own pocket. After becoming independent, the girl actually had a strong sense of self-esteem and was unwilling to accept financial assistance from others. She didn't even apply for the school's poverty subsidy. Jin Yang continued to use the name of her working for Rong Yuan so that she could get a job that could meet her basic living needs and save money for college. Although it wasn't much, it was enough to solve Zhou Yuan's urgent needs and let her focus on the right path again. Following Rong Yuan, Rong Yuan didn't need to say a word, and she would naturally want to work hard to make progress.
Rong Yuan knew all this, but he didn't say anything to Zhou Yuan. He had a mediocre impression of this girl, but since it was something Jin Yang asked him to do, he would naturally do it.
