Transmigration: On the Gossip Front
Chapter 202 True or False First Love 2_1

Chapter 202: Chapter 202 True or False First Love 2_1

Knowing the address of the family home, Zhang Yu originally wanted to return, but after some thought, she changed her direction.

Zhang Shifen always felt uncomfortable in various ways today, giving her the feeling that something significant was about to happen.

After much consideration, Zhang Shifen suddenly stood up, fearing her daughter might have been duped into wanting to become an "educated youth."

Although she worked at the factory union and had encouraged others to become "educated youth," with some issues having been revealed, she truly did not wish for Zhou Lina to join their ranks.

Especially since she had learned that this time, the destination for the "educated youth" was the Great Northwest, a place with really harsh conditions.

Loess highlands, areas lacking water, how could the harvest there be good?

After a year of hard labor, not to mention making money, even getting enough to eat might be a problem, perhaps hunger accompanied by a pile of debt.

Nowadays, many people had signed up to become "educated youth," yet they stayed in the city. As she was in a leading position at the union, she couldn’t let Zhou Lina sign up and not go to the countryside, or simply make a show of it and then return to the city to stay at home.

Someone would definitely report that, unless she was ready to lose her job.

More importantly, she didn’t know what Zhou Juan had filled Zhou Lina’s head with, as Lina seemed to hang on her every word.

Even if Zhang Shifen were to lose her job, Zhou Lina would still create a fuss about going to the countryside to "build it up."

While she was lost in her thoughts, she heard a colleague come in from outside, "Sister Zhang, your daughter is downstairs waiting for you."

Zhou Lina came to look for her? Zhang Shifen was full of suspicion; ever since the argument about whether to go to the countryside as an "educated youth," their relationship had been cold and distant.

At home, she behaved as if she hadn’t even seen her daughter, with no verbal communication between them—so why would she come to the factory to find her?

Although Zhang Shifen wasn’t sure why her daughter would come to the factory to find her of all places, at least it seemed to be a positive sign.

She briefly organized the documents she had been working on and then headed downstairs. Seeing Zhou Lina standing at the exit of the office building, she ran over quickly.

Just as she was about to ask what was the matter, she noticed the household registry in Zhou Lina’s hand.

Zhang Shifen’s anger surged instantly; her first thought was that her daughter had grabbed the household registry to report for the "educated youth" program and was now merely informing her.

Zhang Shifen’s face changed color with fury, and she really wanted to question what exactly was happening.

Seeing the change in Zhang Shifen’s expression, Zhou Lina’s mood shifted from happiness to a long face, wondering why her mother would suddenly change her expression like that.

Then noticing the household registry in her hand, she immediately understood why her mother was angry.

Before Zhang Shifen could explode with rage, Zhou Lina pulled her aside and stuffed the household registry into her hands.

"Mom, I didn’t sign up, here’s the household registry," she said.

Zhang Shifen had been thinking about how to severely reprimand Zhou Lina for her increasing disobedience with age, but to her surprise, the girl hadn’t signed up despite having the household registry.

Viewing Zhou Lina with skepticism—after all, the girl had made such a fuss about wanting to become an "educated youth"—she now had a golden opportunity. Why would she give it up? Zhang Shifen was sure there was a reason behind it.

"Mom, let’s take a walk," Zhou Lina suggested. There were people coming and going in the office building; it was not a good place to talk.

Zhang Shifen hmmed in response and randomly picked a direction to walk in. "The household registry, how did you get it?" she asked.

Now somewhat relaxed, Zhang Shifen focused on a crucial point. To sign up as an "educated youth," one had to take their household registry, which she had taken great care to put away early on.

She hadn’t expected Zhou Lina to find it, as she was quite confident in her ability to hide things, otherwise Zhou Lina wouldn’t have been unaware until now.

After recalling the previous owner’s memories, Zhou Lina of course knew the reason. "Uncle Zhou came to look for something before you got off work yesterday, and I saw it when he took it out," she explained.

Although Zhou Dajiang didn’t directly hand the household registration book to its original owner, knowing full well that the original owner was searching for it, wasn’t this move of his very deliberate under such circumstances?

The original owner was happy to find the household registration book and could proceed with the act first and report afterward.

But who is Zhou Lina now? She has been through so much, how could she be fooled?

This was definitely a scheme Zhou Dahai and Zhou Dajiang had agreed upon, both brothers unanimously hoping for Zhou Lina to become an "educated youth" in the countryside.

Since either Zhou Juan or Zhou Lina had to become an educated youth, the brothers Zhou Dahai might have been looking out for their own family interests.

Zhou Lina knew that even though she had married Zhou Dajiang, Zhang Shifen was still her birth mother.

After hearing the whole story, how could Zhang Shifen not understand why Zhou Dajiang would maneuver things this way?

When Zhou Lina insisted on going to the countryside as an educated youth, she had discussed with Zhou Dajiang whether to let Zhou Lina take over the job, so she wouldn’t always be thinking about becoming an educated youth.

However, Zhou Dajiang just kept persuading her, saying that if they gave the job to Zhou Lina and she turned around to go to the countryside anyway, that good job would be wasted.

Zhou Lina thought about it and agreed, so she didn’t insist on the matter.

But in recent days, Zhou Dajiang had loosened up, mentioning the job succession and urging her to complete the formalities before Zhou Lina could sign up at the local office.

Had she not been so busy at work these past few days, she might have actually gone to the labor and capital department to process the paperwork.

Now she understood why Zhou Dajiang changed his mind, it was because they were sure Zhou Lina would absolutely become an educated youth.

To not waste the opportunity, who else could take over her job but Zhou Juan?

Later on, while Zhou Lina suffered in the Great Northwest, would she return home to serve her in-laws and wait for her stepson Zhou Yong to marry, just to look after three generations of Zhou Dajiang’s family?

It was only after marrying into Zhou Dajiang’s family that Zhang Shifen realized that people who seem honest might not be so honest after all.

But by then, she had no way to propose a divorce, especially with Zhou Dajiang being so seemingly honest.

"Xiao Na, I am very happy that you have finally come to understand," Zhang Shifen said. Thankfully, Zhou Juan did not go through with the entire act and didn’t bring the household registration book.

Otherwise, considering her own daughter’s wit, she really could have been easily tricked.

It was also lucky that because of the house issue, Zhou Lina’s household registration had not been transferred.

Otherwise, she didn’t even dare to think whether Zhou Lina would have already taken the registration book to the local office to sign up.

Long before Zhou Lina showed any signs of wanting to become an educated youth, she moved the personal household registration book to the office to prevent her from secretly signing up.

The reason it was taken back again was because Zhou Dajiang said he needed to pick up some kind of certificate, so she brought it back and then forgot to return it.

The more Zhang Shifen thought about it, the angrier she became. If this matter had nothing to do with Zhou Dajiang, she could definitely jump off the building.

Seeing Zhang Shifen’s expression becoming increasingly ferocious, it was clear she must have guessed the truth.

"Mom, it’s okay, I haven’t registered yet, but I can’t keep living like this," Zhou Lina said.

There was actually another key reason why educated youths were encouraged to go to the vast countryside for development.

It was because their generation was the product of a massive campaign encouraging women to become ’hero mothers’ and have many children.

After liberation, when there was not a large population, it made sense to encourage childbearing, but as the children grew up, the rapid population expansion came with its issues, including the inability to provide jobs for the working-age youth.

Without jobs, it wasn’t just Zhou Dajiang who’d be unhappy, the local office would come knocking too, persuading her to go down to the countryside and become an educated youth.

But now, truly, jobs were hard to find, not just permanent positions, even temporary work was hard to come by.