"Hmph." Zhuang Chaoying bitterly lowered his hand, secretly breathing a sigh of relief.
"Mr. Zhuang, Ling, both of you, calm down! Calm down!"
With the Lin couple mediating, the quarrel was finally quelled for the time being.
Adults had their dignity to maintain, after all. Even though Huang Ling was in the right, she felt too embarrassed to keep fighting in front of Song Ying and her husband.
The fight ended without a winner.
Ultimately, though, Huang Ling had gained the upper hand.
Yet even with the upper hand, she could not feel any satisfaction.
Early the next morning, Huang Ling asked the factory for a few days' leave, then dug out several large bags and packed them full. Taking the three children with her, she left home without looking back.
Huang Ling went back to her parents' home.
Her parents lived in Changzhou.
Changzhou was exceptionally prosperous at the time, ranking among the wealthiest cities in the country.
Back then, Huang Ling had been unable to stay in Changzhou. She had only been sixteen when she was assigned to the Cotton Mill here.
With the situation unstable in those earlier years, she had worked at the factory for years and later married here as well.
As it happened, Huang Ling's parents were both senior intellectuals, and the family had always been quite well-off.
Huang Ling had grown up pampered and had suffered little hardship in her youth.
And that was why, whenever she quarreled with Zhuang Chaoying, he believed Huang Ling could neither understand nor empathize with him.
Chapter 13: Father Huang's Amazement
Changzhou and Suzhou were only a hundred kilometers or so apart.
In another twenty or thirty years, once the highway network had spread out, a press of the accelerator would make it a drive of no