When She Stops Being Dramatic

Chapter 144: Chapter 69: The Top Star of the 1960s Art Troupe (8)

Now that she’d had a falling out with Tong Yuanbin, all those fair-weather friendships were surely gone.

Xia Zhaoyun counted on her fingers, but couldn’t even name a single trustworthy friend besides this one she’d made later in life.

But she was the factory’s famous belle, and everyone paid attention to her.

After a night of the news brewing, plenty of admirers would have heard about her breakup with Tong Yuanbin and her glorious return to the single life. The incident in the cafeteria was still making the rounds, so it wasn’t surprising that some people, upon hearing the broadcast, would head straight for the broadcasting room to try and curry favor.

She gently brushed a stray hair from her forehead. ”Was it the son of some deputy director, or a relative of some section chief or manager? You didn’t tell them? I was born to be Huo Tianhao’s wife, and I’ll share a grave with him when I die.”

He Qingran slapped her on the arm. ”You narcissistic thing! Your ass is on fire, how can you be so carefree? It was your m—, no, it was *Zhenbao’s* mom!”

”She came panting all the way up to the seventh floor, and when she saw you weren’t here, she refused to leave. Insisted on waiting for you to come back. She stayed for a solid two hours. What’s even more annoying is that she grabbed my hand and went on and on about how hard it was to raise such an ’excellent’ daughter like you!”

”But I’m no pushover. I made her drink five huge mugs of water and watched her run to the bathroom four times.”

”When it was time for lunch, I took out my keys to lock the office door, and only then did she finally leave, all reluctantly. I guess you two must have just missed each other. You didn’t see her?”

Xia Zhaoyun shook her head and pointed toward the reception office. ”I was too tired to climb the stairs, so I was in there reading some files.”

”I have no idea what she wanted to talk to you about. But you just wait. The second you go on air this afternoon, she’ll come looking for you again!” He Qingran said with a pout. ”Hey, Yunyun, do you think she might have known all along that you’re not the Song family’s real child? What kind of parents would be so cruel to their own daughter?”

”They’re both educated people. Even if they favored sons over daughters, they couldn’t possibly be *that* bad, right?”

”But I’ve seen how the Song family dotes on that Zhenbao!”

Xia Zhaoyun pressed her lips together, her expression turning solemn.

She hadn’t thought about it that way until He Qingran mentioned it. But once a sliver of doubt takes root, a whole stack of evidence can be found to support it.

Father Song and Mother Song were truly good to Song Zhenbao. After they brought her home, you could tell most of the story just from how they registered her name. One was a treasure, while she was just a floating cloud!

The couple had always been stern with her, ordering her around. Sometimes, Mother Song would stare at her face, and that look of jealousy now stood out among her many memories.

’That was it.’ Xia Zhaoyun took a deep breath. The Song family was quite plain-looking. The men could barely be described as having regular features, and the women, whether it was Mother Song or the recently returned Song Zhenbao, were merely delicate-looking and average at best.

Could a flock of chickens really give birth to a phoenix?

’This is so obvious. Did that couple really know beforehand? And since when?’

Xia Zhaoyun pursed her lips. ”There’s no point in dwelling on it now. I have nothing to do with them anymore. Let’s hurry up and eat. I’m starving!”

The two of them headed to the cafeteria, laughing and talking hand in hand.

A big factory was great in every way. The salary and benefits were incomparable to those at smaller factories. Take meals, for instance—employees received a subsidy, which cut their food expenses in half!

Xia Zhaoyun was supposed to be a director’s daughter, looking glamorous and cherished, but that was all for show. In reality, she had to hand over every single cent of her monthly salary.

She usually just alternated between two work uniforms. Only on the rare occasion she was going out with Tong Yuanbin would Mother Song grudgingly give her a little bit of fabric and make her sew her own clothes on the machine.

She ate all three meals a day at home, where Mother Song would say that girls needed to watch their figures and not indulge their appetites. As a result, she barely got to eat meat more than once a month.

After everything she’d been through, Xia Zhaoyun wasn’t about to shortchange herself anymore. She went straight up and ordered braised pork and stir-fried tomatoes with eggs. And because she was both beautiful and bore the title of Huo Tianhao’s ”little wife,” she got about half a portion more than anyone else...

Xia Zhaoyun tried helplessly to refuse, but the more she waved her hands, the more the cafeteria ladies and uncles serving the food seemed to like her. They couldn’t exactly bend the rules and give her the world, but they could make sure their hands didn’t shake and that they scooped from the spots with the most meat and eggs!

Well, with all this food, He Qingran didn’t even need to buy her own main dishes. She just got some rice and vegetable soup.

The braised pork was glossy and melted in her mouth, while the stir-fried tomatoes with eggs were fragrant and delicious. The sauces from both dishes were divine for mixing with rice. In the past, Xia Zhaoyun could only smell the aromas, but now she could extravagantly mix half her rice with the braised pork sauce and the other half with the tomato and egg!