She won't clear her name; she'll throw away all the scum.

The deputy factory director, panting heavily like an old ox doing manual labor, said, "This is utter nonsense! What does their family business have to do with you? Why should you be giving them advice behind their backs?"

Grandma Xia: "I didn't offer any advice, I just wanted to comfort them. They need to figure out their own family matters before they know what to do. If they can't figure it out themselves, no amount of advice from outsiders will help. So don't say anything out of turn."

The deputy factory director said, "If you hadn't comforted them, they could have continued as before, living peaceful and harmonious lives at home, and finding love smoothly. Wouldn't that have been wonderful for them? And look at what you've done to Director Yuan. She's divorced now and all alone."

Director Yuan: "Even a lonely person is more lively than a large family. In the end, it's better for me to be the only one serving that large family. Don't you agree?"

Deputy factory director: "You've really been led astray, Lao Yuan. I remember you weren't like this before."

Director Yuan: "How was I before? I had to wash the clothes of their whole family before I had even finished giving birth and my lochia had cleared up. Or were those people who were perfectly capable but were paralyzed at home, and I, who had just given birth, had to cook the meals and hand them the chopsticks."

Or, after all these years of hard work and worry, they still say I'm not as virtuous as other people's wives, not as good at earning money, and not as helpful to them as other people's families?

Deputy Factory Director: "Which woman hasn't gone through this? This is your fate. When life was harder, no one complained. Now that life is better, you start to feel like you can't stand it. I think you've eaten too much, that's why you have time to think about these things."

Grandma Xia: "Tsk tsk, when it comes to food, how can anyone eat as much as you? People don't forget the well-digger when they drink water, your mother went through so much hardship to give birth to you, and you think it was all her fault? Giving birth to you would have been worse than giving birth to a dog..."

Director Yuan suddenly coughed: "Cough cough."

Grandma Xia immediately realized that this wasn't the same group of people she used to argue with, and that her previous statement was indeed a bit vulgar.

She paused for a moment, and seeing that the deputy factory director's face was flushed red, she felt a little nervous. "That deputy factory director, you are still more useful than a dog. A dog doesn't have your good fortune."

The deputy factory director's face immediately darkened. "Comrade Xia, listen to what you're saying. Is this how a women's director should act? If you're going to do women's work in the future, are you going to keep talking about dogs and cats all the time?"

Old Mrs. Xia got angry and said, "Then why was our factory's women's director appointed by men like you who don't even know the suffering of women? I'm not suitable, but are you all suitable?"

Listen to what he just said, what does it mean to say that suffering like this is our fate as women? I think it's because of leaders like you who exploit and despise women that we women are living such a miserable life. In your family, is it that if you say one thing, your wife wouldn't dare say another? If your father says go east, your mother wouldn't dare go west?

Isn't this just landlord behavior? Are your wife and mother just farmhands in your household? Don't they have any rights as human beings? Do they have to listen to all that nonsense your father and you spout? What kind of person are you, lecturing me like this? I see better than you how hard it is for us women to live, so I should be the director.”

Director Yuan suddenly burst into loud applause, "I agree, I support it."

In the end, both Grandma Xia and Director Yuan were kicked out because the deputy factory director, who had just been scolded by Grandma Xia, suddenly felt unwell and almost fainted.

"Old Yuan," Old Man Xia called out to her guiltily.

Director Yuan sighed, "Old Xia."

Grandma Xia: "Do I still have hope?"

Director Yuan: "I will do my best to help you get it."

Grandma Xia: "I will continue to learn how to persuade others in a civilized manner."

Director Yuan: "You must work hard."

Grandma Xia returned to the workshop dejectedly, not even wanting to eat.

Even until she left work, Grandma Xia kept thinking about what the people in the office were thinking.

She always felt that none of them would want her to be the women's director, and even the factory's labor union didn't want her to join.

Otherwise, even if she didn't become the women's director, she could still work at the grassroots level in the factory's labor union and come into contact with many people.

Old Mrs. Xia spent most of her life working at the grassroots level of the workshop, content to be a front-line worker. She never thought about what the leaders were thinking, so even though she thought about it until her head ached, she could only vaguely sense that her path to advancement was extremely difficult.

This situation is not good. Old Mrs. Xia is very upset. She feels that she still has a lot of things to ask others for advice.

She had initially thought that Jiang Wenhua might see things more clearly than she did. Although that guy was just a deliveryman, he was quite intelligent. However, since he said he didn't want to see her climb the corporate ladder, she couldn't possibly go looking for him again.

Grandma Xia walked slowly home. She wanted to ask Yu Hongzhen for advice; he was a capable man. But remembering Jiang Wenhua's comments about men and women, Grandma Xia felt that even Yu Hongzhen might not know how to teach her.

Her path to advancement was different from Yu Hongzhen's; it was fraught with entirely different difficulties.

She went home and whispered with her sister for a long time. Then, at dinner that evening, Chen Xiangbei, who had somehow escaped back from somewhere, came in with a weed still hanging in his hair.

Grandma Xia was preoccupied with her own affairs and didn't pay any attention to him.

The sound of arguing came from outside the door, and the three heads of Grandma Xia's family involuntarily peeked out.

A short, withered-looking old man was pointing his finger at Jiang Wenhua and cursing him. Several men were following behind him, seemingly about to rush into their house.

Jiang Wenhua, his face dark, pushed the old man's hand away. "Dad, my sister has been beaten like this, and you still want to take her away from me with them? She's your own daughter."

The withered old man was Qiu's father, who was jumping around like a wild monkey, spewing wildly: "You little brat, who's your father? You ruined your sister's marriage before, and now you want to make her get kicked out by her in-laws? Let me tell you, if she really gets kicked out, I'll hang myself at your doorstep. I'll let everyone know that you're an unfilial son who forced your adoptive father to his death."

Jiang Wenhua: "Then are you my dad? You say no one minute, and then you say yes the next. Are you or aren't you?"

Mr. Qiu felt like he was about to explode with anger. Every time he talked to this kid, he would get furious. Was this the time to talk about this? Regardless of whether he was his father or not, regardless of whether he acknowledged him as his son, the most important thing now was to apologize to his son-in-law's family and then properly send his daughter back home.

"Jiang Wenhua, don't give me any other advice. Call your sister out right now and have her go back with my son-in-law. What kind of behavior is it for her to live in her brother's house after she's married?"