"You mean... Young Master Shun, no, Mr. Chu, also knows?"
"Whether he knows or not is irrelevant, but I know is enough. Hey, speaking of which, aren't you Young Master Zhong's secretary? How come you're still handling such trivial matters as the Crown Asia after several months? You could just find anyone for that... fallen out of favor, huh?" Song Tianyao said, halfway through his sentence, when he suddenly looked enlightened and said to Kong Wing-yan, "Putted to the cold palace?"
Kong Wing-yan glared at Song Tianyao: "It's none of your business. Then I'll do as you say and continue with the separation process. That's all, I'm leaving."
As she spoke, Kong Wing-yan stood up to leave. Song Tianyao lazily patted his back as he stood up and saw Kong Wing-yan out. Seeing Song Tianyao's tired appearance following her out of the office, Kong Wing-yan frowned. "If you're going to do business, then do business. Let the workers do the hard work. Why are you making yourself suffer?"
"I'm born to be a workaholic, and I like to do things myself..." Song Tianyao said, just as Lou Fengyun, accompanied by Shu Yan, slowly walked out of the next room. When she saw Song Tianyao standing outside, rubbing his back and talking to Kong Wing-yan, Lou Fengyun blushed and turned back into her room.
Kong Wing-yan had witnessed the scene just now. Turning back to Song Tianyao, she chuckled and pointed at Song Tianyao with her finger, "You really do things yourself. It's not good to let others do these things for you. When you were working for Mr. Chu, you didn't realize it, but now that you're doing things on your own, you've completely adopted Mr. Chu's elegant methods."
"Your smile can't hide your disappointment. When you get tired of this and want to change jobs, why not consider coming back to talk to me again?" Song Tianyao wasn't embarrassed by Kong Wing-yan's teasing; he just looked at her with clear Kong Wing-yan: "Large families like to do things personally because they have enough manpower. It's naturally difficult for outsiders to gain their trust. Unless you're like me, taking risks all the time and willing to risk your life at the hands of the Chu Family, you might get a chance to rise to the top as a secretary. But honestly, you don't need to, and you're not me. You can't do what I do."
Kong Wing-yan, who had been smiling brightly, immediately lost her smile at Song Tianyao's words. She stared into Song Tianyao's eyes for a moment, then softly hummed in agreement, "I'm leaving now."
Song Tianyao watched Kong Wing-yan walk out of his factory, then turned back and let out a heavy sigh. Kong Wing-yan's life seemed to be quite difficult.
"Clang! Clang!" Cook Sister Xiong banged loudly on the water tank at the kitchen door with her ladle, calling out to the female workers outside the workshop who were dealing with stray hairs, "Tell everyone to finish work, wash your hands, and line up for lunch! It's char siu rice again! Boss Song is really being too kind!"
Before long, sixty or seventy female workers in the workshop lined up, each holding their own bowls and chopsticks, waiting at the kitchen door for their meals. While they were busy in the kitchen, Sister Xiong's husband, Brother Xiong, was sweating profusely as he placed a large bucket of steamed rice at the kitchen door. Brother Xiong's name sounded impressive, but his appearance was the complete opposite of Sister Xiong's. Xiong Sister Xiong was broad-shouldered and burly, while Brother Xiong was lean and short. The contrast in their physiques when the couple stood together was quite amusing.
Brother Xiong used a rice scoop to serve rice to the female workers in their bowls, while Sister Xiong was responsible for putting three slices of char siu, two pieces of green vegetables, and a spoonful of fragrant and rich char siu sauce into each female worker's bowl.
Moreover, while preparing the food, she kept glancing sideways at her husband. If she noticed that he dared to linger his eyes on a certain female worker for even a moment, she would immediately kick him, causing the female workers serving the food to chuckle from time to time.
For some of the older female workers who were clearly married and had children, Sister Xiong would often give them two extra pieces of char siu pork and two extra spoonfuls of char siu sauce, reminding them to reheat it when they took it home for their children.
After getting their meals, the female workers returned to their respective workstations in the workshop to eat. Only after seeing them off did Sister Xiong wipe her hands and, like a mother to the sleeping women, loudly knock on the door of a row of dormitory rooms. "Get up and eat! Go back to sleep after you've eaten!"
All the female workers on the night shift got up, yawning and sleepily lining up for their meals. Some of them were even wearing floral pajamas, revealing their slender arms and half of their fair legs. Meanwhile, a dozen or so heads were peeking out from the factory's high walls, their eyes gleaming as they watched the female workers lining up for their meals, occasionally letting out a whistle.
Busy serving meals to the workers, Sister Xiong had no time to curse those good-for-nothings. She could only watch as any female worker came out disheveled, muttering her own painful story, "Wear your clothes properly! A woman is worthless if she's seen naked! I was seen by this good-for-nothing, which is why I ended up marrying him!"
However, the female workers in line were still half asleep. While one was still grumbling, the other had already gotten their food and gone back to their dormitory to continue sleeping. Seeing that the line was thinning out, Sister Xiong called out towards Song Tianyao's office, "Boss, boss's wife! And those three prospective concubines! Come out and eat!"
Song Tianyao, his face dark, walked out of his office carrying a bowl and chopsticks. He glared at Sister Xiong and handed them to her, saying, "Why don't I just give you a megaphone so you can stand on the mountaintop and shout to all of Hong Kong? Who told you she's the boss's wife?"
Sister Xiong took Song Tianyao's bowl and chopsticks, and like the maid, served him rice and two pieces of char siu pork, the only difference being that she added a few more stalks of green vegetables. She then handed them back to Song Tianyao, saying nonchalantly:
"Oh dear, I've been there, sister-in-law. Ever since you said yesterday that the wig was finished, Lou Fengyun has changed completely this morning. Last night, it must have been you two..."
As she spoke, Sister Xiong gave Song Tianyao a look that said, "I don't need to go into too much detail about this."
The Sister Xiong couple were taken in by Song Tianyao from North Point. The couple came to Hong Kong to visit relatives, but their relatives had passed away. The couple pawned Sister Xiong's only remaining silver jewelry to raise capital and opened a small makeshift food stall in the North Point factory area, barely making ends meet. They sold food in the front and lived in the back. The workers couldn't afford to eat at the food stall, and it didn't last long. Song Tianyao took the couple back to the factory and put them in charge of cooking for the factory.
Sister Xiong was always outspoken, and Song Tianyao was used to her loud voice. In this factory, they did need a woman who seemed rough around the edges but was incredibly perceptive to mediate among the female workers, establishing a different kind of authority and making it easier for her to help Song Tianyao resolve minor conflicts. So, when Sister Xiong teased him, Song Tianyao was just feigning anger and joking around. However, today, Sister Xiong's words made Song Tianyao's face burn. This woman was truly sharp-eyed; not only could she spot the major and minor conflicts among the female workers early on, but she also knew that he, after running the factory for so long and finally being happy with the wig production, was secretly indulging in some illicit activity.