Holding a very formal dismissal letter and a brand new envelope containing one thousand four hundred yuan, I returned home in a daze.

The one thousand yuan was what I got from selling my wrongful accusation, and the four hundred yuan was what I got from selling my labor.

In the end, I still didn’t wait for the day when my wages would increase.

I pushed open the courtyard gate. Father was sitting in the yard smoking a rolled cigarette just like in the old days, while Mother was fiddling with a few corn stalks in the corner.

When they saw me return, their expressions both froze.

Mother’s hair was disheveled, her eyes were bloodshot, and even the wrinkles on Father’s face had deepened considerably.

Our three pairs of eyes looked back and forth at each other with tacit understanding.

My affairs had been spreading throughout the village all along. After all, the boys and girls in the workshop all came from nearby villages, and my parents had suffered endless harassment.

Now everyone knew I was Director Fang’s mistress—everyone except me.

By now they didn’t need to guess anymore. My guilt was practically confirmed.

Director Fang had been transferred away, and just three days later, I too was dismissed.

Without asking about the process and only looking at the results… what could be more convincing than this?

When an extremely absurd-looking matter is explained, no one believes it, let alone something that looks so reasonable.

So I had no need to explain anything. Those invisible walls had always been there, almost separating me from my family as well.

I smiled bitterly at my parents and handed over the envelope in my hand.

They didn’t speak anymore, just lowered their heads one after another.

When one’s body is upright, but the shadow spreads overwhelmingly askew, what then?

They could no longer see my upright body, they could only see that overwhelming shadow.

I still needed a whole year before becoming an adult. For others, they might just endure this year at home, but I couldn’t. When I came of age, Liang Wa would also be one year closer to adulthood.

What I was waiting for was a coming-of-age ceremony, but what he was waiting for was a funeral.

In the days that followed, I went alone to town looking for work, but the control over underage employees now seemed very strict. After searching around, I could only find temporary work for three to five days at a time, earning only a dozen or so yuan after several days.

The rest of the time I helped with work at home. Father rode his tricycle to the village to collect dirty clothes. Mother and I were responsible for washing them—one mao per piece. Over the course of a day we could earn a few yuan.

Finally, two months later, at the talent market in town, I overheard others talking about how a newly opened electronics factory in a more distant town had begun recruiting workers. It included meals and lodging, with a monthly salary of three hundred fifty yuan, and there would even be various subsidies.

Although I didn’t hear this news very clearly, I still decided to investigate. I used a public phone at a roadside shop to notify my family, then boarded a long-distance bus to the other town.

Things went more smoothly than I imagined. There really was a newly opened electronics factory recruiting workers in the neighboring town. I had never heard the name “electronics factory” before, nor did I know what kind of things they produced, but I still went to the recruitment office to get a form. I sat by the roadside and filled it out carefully and meticulously. To allow myself to pass the interview smoothly, I changed my age to eighteen years old.

To prevent my fortune from being affected any further, I also solemnly wrote the three characters “Zhang Tiantian” in the name column.

I really hoped that eighteen-year-old Zhang Tiantian could bring me some good luck.

The factory seemed to need many people urgently. They said they would give interview results that very afternoon, so I sat by the roadside and waited the entire day.

When the recruitment manager called out the name “Zhang Tiantian,” I almost jumped up entirely, but I had been sitting for a whole day and my legs were already numb. I staggered several steps before standing steady.

“Here!” I shouted at the recruitment manager.

“So you’re Zhang Tiantian?” That person looked at me wearily among the crowd. “You follow me in. The rest of you don’t need to wait anymore. Today’s recruitment is over. Come early tomorrow.”

Slightly flustered, I followed her inside, with some others who had also passed the interview beside me.

I have to say that although we entered through the back door, the scale of this electronics factory was much larger than the watch factory I had worked at before. The floors here were coated with bright green paint, and there was a very special smell.

The manager led us through the entire huge workshop, then came to a corridor on the second floor.

“Time is limited. You enter this door.” After speaking, she pointed at me and another door on the side. “Zhang Tiantian, you enter this door.”

I didn’t dare ask more questions, just pushed open the door and walked into the office.

This was a temporarily set up interview office. On the desk was a sign with the three characters “Interviewer.”

I was slightly puzzled. Hadn’t I already passed the screening? What was this about?

“Zhang Tiantian?” The interviewer looked up at me. She was a woman in her forties or fifties who seemed to have already interviewed many people today and looked exceptionally exhausted.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“You passed the preliminary test.” The woman said. “I see you’ve worked on other assembly lines before, so you should have experience. This is the second interview now, basically just a formality. Don’t be nervous. Our factory was just established and received a large batch of orders. We’re in need of people right now. Those who pass the preliminary test are basically kept.”

“Oh… okay…”

“You brought your ID card, right?”

“I brought it.” I had just started to agree when I suddenly thought of something. “No… I didn’t bring it.”

“Hm?” The woman was startled and looked up at me. “You didn’t bring your ID card? How can you start work without an ID card? We need to keep a photocopy here.”

“I…”

“Forget it, bring it tomorrow and I’ll photocopy it for you.” The woman said again. “Anyway, it’s just going through the formalities as required.”

I knew that even if I brought my ID card tomorrow, I still wouldn’t be eighteen years old.

But what could I do now?

If I didn’t falsify my age, I wouldn’t even have the chance to meet the interviewer.

“Sis… can I ask about our factory’s wages?” I asked.

“You don’t need to worry about the compensation.” The interviewer said while tidying up the desk. “Base salary of three hundred eighty, includes meals and lodging, three insurances, each month there’s additional payment based on actual orders, subsidies for both winter and summer seasons. If you’re transferred to certain departments involving chemicals, they’ll also provide masks and hazardous work subsidies. Our boss has many factories, all the compensation that should be there is there.”

Although I didn’t understand many of the benefits, I knew the monthly take-home salary would be much more than three hundred eighty.

This was probably my only chance.

But what exactly should I do… to make up for the hard flaw of my age?

I was only a few months away from being eighteen, but after a few months, such a good job might not wait for me.

Although I had worked in society for two years and seen countless people and events, was there any experience that could help me get through this difficult situation?

There was.

The one thing that had stayed engraved in my heart these past two years was that all seemingly unreasonable things could be transformed into a transaction.

The interviewer also seemed to notice my abnormality. She looked up and stared at me suspiciously, asking tentatively: “What’s wrong? Not satisfied with the compensation?”

“No…” I paused, took out my ID card from my pocket, and slowly handed it over. “Sis, this is my ID card.”

She took the ID card without understanding and looked at it. She quickly frowned.

“Ah? This won’t work…”

As soon as she raised her head, her gaze met the gray one-hundred-yuan note in my hand.

“Sis… could you be flexible?”