Divorce Is An Absolute Must! - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Work

◎9 to 8?◎

Qian Cancan’s focus was on something else.

“Did you just say Li Lan agreed to let you be on the variety show?”

Zhu Qing was lying on her stomach, scrolling through videos on her phone. Hearing this, she nodded like a pecking chick. “Yeah!”

“Are you sure about this?” Qian Cancan’s tone was conflicted. On one hand, she had already experienced the shocking reality of her best friend marrying a big star. On the other hand, her best friend hadn’t been publicly exposed yet and was still a complete nobody. Going on a variety show would affect her life.

Zhu Qing was on her bed, with the first two episodes of the variety show on her phone. Her tone was firm. “If I’m going to pursue Li Lan, I have to get involved in her work. You have no idea how busy she is. The schedule Qian Chu sent her was jam-packed. It was hard to squeeze in a single day off in a month. There was no regular time for rest.”

Qian Cancan recalled Zhu Qing’s state after she got married. “Even though your job is stable—9 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day—you two really don’t spend much time together… Wait a minute, are you going to pursue Li Lan?”

“What else would I have been doing all these days, playing house?” Zhu Qing sat up and said sincerely, “Help me think. What other tricks can I use to get Li Lan to completely give up on divorcing me?”

Qian Cancan sniffed out a hint of a conspiracy in Zhu Qing’s words and said suspiciously, “This isn’t your real reason for wanting to be on the show, is it? If you two go public, Li Lan won’t be able to dump you. Holy crap, you’re so evil!”

Zhu Qing raised her eyebrows triumphantly, hiding her motives. “That’s only part of the reason. The most important thing is that I can’t bear to part with the six million yuan in liquidated damages.”

Qian Cancan rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to pay the liquidated damages. You could sell your body parts and still not get six million.”

“If you’re going to put it like that, if I ever get kidnapped, you’ll be the first person whose bank card and password I expose!” Zhu Qing snapped.

Qian Cancan felt threatened and changed the subject without batting an eye. “Then what about your job?”

Zhu Qing’s movements froze. She hadn’t thought about that yet.

Qian Cancan saw an opening and quickly said, “Let me tell you something first. You really like this job. No matter how much I tried to persuade you, you wouldn’t quit. Now that you just have amnesia, you want to be exposed and forced to quit?”

Zhu Qing couldn’t give an answer. Since she had amnesia, she had only been in contact with Li Lan, and she had decided she didn’t want a divorce. The importance of this job was clearly not as great as Li Lan’s.

“I have to go to the kindergarten anyway,” Zhu Qing said, calculating the time. “Xiao Bao won’t arrive until tonight. Why don’t you come with me to the kindergarten? If this job isn’t worth it, I’ll quit it. I can always find another job.”

Qian Cancan was not very happy about Zhu Qing going back to the kindergarten, but she chose the lesser of two evils. She grabbed her keys and went out with Zhu Qing.

The kindergarten was close by, a ten-minute drive. It was snack time for the big classes, so the campus was quiet, and the teachers and children weren’t outside.

“Zhu, is that you?” A pure British accent sounded beside the two of them.

The beautiful British foreign teacher walked over and said in surprise, “Are you well now?”

Zhu Qing was a little surprised but quickly spoke a string of fluent English. “No, I don’t remember anyone or anything here right now. Who are you?”

A look of regret and sadness appeared on the foreign teacher’s face. “Eos, you can call me Eos. I’m sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help you?”

Zhu Qing glanced inside the campus and whispered, “I want to see my old desk. Can you show me around?”

Eos said cheerfully, “Of course. Your desk is right next to mine. I’ll show you around.”

After she finished speaking, she walked to the door, used face recognition to enter, and then stepped aside to let Zhu Qing in. Qian Cancan followed them in.

“This is my friend. We’re together,” Zhu Qing introduced Qian Cancan.

Eos nodded and smiled at her. “Hello.”

“Hello,” Qian Cancan said, a smile on her face. Her voice was half a degree higher than usual. She took a step forward, reached out her hand, and said enthusiastically in a carefully modulated voice, “You must be Zhu Qing’s foreign teacher. Thank you for taking care of Ah Qing. My name is Qian Cancan. You can just call me Can. Would you like to have a meal with us sometime?”

Zhu Qing pulled Qian Cancan into the campus with a blank expression, then turned and smiled politely at Eos, translating, “She’s thanking you for taking care of me.”

Eos laughed. “I should be the one thanking you. Chinese is so hard to learn, and you helped me a lot.”

Eos led them to Zhu Qing’s desk. Zhu Qing was Eos’s assistant, and they shared an office.

Zhu Qing’s desk was very clean, with only a computer for work and a stack of paper documents on it, in stark contrast to Eos’s desk, which was piled high with lesson plans.

“What do I usually do for work?” Zhu Qing walked around but found no signs of familiarity.

Eos smiled. “You help me translate and revise lesson plans.”

“How many classes do you have a week?” Zhu Qing asked.

Eos calculated. “Ten classes, mostly in the morning.”

Zhu Qing was confused. “It sounds like I don’t have a lot of work.”

Eos said seriously, “That’s for sure. Your salary is too low, so I give you very little work. You can finish your daily tasks in one or two hours.”

Zhu Qing glanced at Qian Cancan. She remembered Qian Cancan saying that she worked from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Why did it sound like her job was very easy when Eos talked about it?

If she only had to work for two hours a day to earn three thousand a month, even though it was still low compared to her previous hourly wage, it sounded much more bearable.

A job couldn’t be both difficult and low-paying. Why else would she not go into easy, fast-paying translation work?

But if the pay was low but the work was easy, Zhu Qing wouldn’t be so averse to it.

“Then what do I do after I finish my work?” Zhu Qing asked.

Eos shook her head. “I don’t know. You usually only come to the kindergarten in the morning, and so do I.”

Zhu Qing felt that something was strange, but she couldn’t ask. She looked through the lesson plans for a while, got a general idea of her work content, and then followed Eos outside to look around.

The kindergarten wasn’t small. It had its own playground and two teaching buildings—one for classes and one for offices.

“There are fewer and fewer children,” Eos said. “A few years ago, when I first came to China, there were at least three classes for each grade. Now there’s only one. The entire kindergarten only has 130 children.”

Zhu Qing listened carefully, nodding from time to time. Her English was very good, and she could have a deep conversation with Eos. After talking, Zhu Qing’s anticipation for this job continued to decrease.

Qian Cancan looked around with her hands in her pockets. “Look, that’s where you fell down.”

The stairs were brand new and spotless. Because of what happened last time, a layer of soft plastic similar to an acupressure mat was wrapped around the handrail to prevent the children from playing on it.

An elite bilingual kindergarten didn’t need one more Zhu Qing, nor would they be missing one.

She no longer disliked the job as much as she did initially, but she still couldn’t find a reason to stay.

Qian Cancan asked, “What do you think?”

Zhu Qing didn’t hesitate. “I’m going to be on the variety show.”

For her, her job was an external thing. Nothing was more important than a person. She wanted to be with Li Lan.

Qian Cancan showed a look of expectation and nodded. “Okay, I’ll respect your wishes.”

Having made a decision, Zhu Qing’s mood became lighter. She carefully observed and recorded everything on campus in her heart as a farewell.

When she walked to the edge of the playground, Zhu Qing suddenly saw a building.

“What is that?”

The building was hidden at the end of an alley. With its black stone and white tiles, it looked very old and rundown.

Eos thought for a moment. “It should be an orphanage. I remember you mentioned it. The orphanage was built a long time ago. It’s an old brick-and-concrete structure. The internal pipes and electrical systems are severely aged. The children all squeeze into one big communal bed, and it’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. There are only two special needs teachers there, and many things are not taught.”

Had she mentioned it before?

Zhu Qing had no memory of it. She looked carefully at the orphanage hidden deep in the street.

The base of the walls was covered in moss and withered vines, and the main building looked even more dilapidated. A few broken windows were barely sealed with tape and cardboard, like a pair of tired eyes, quietly watching the world outside the campus.

The entire building gave off an air of being abandoned. Not a complete ruin, but barely holding on.

An indescribable feeling welled up in Zhu Qing’s heart.