I was reborn after my cousin stole my life.

Chapter 5: Yuan Xiu, who didn't want to be taken advantage of

Xiangyang Commune had eighteen production teams under its jurisdiction. The entire commune had only three telephones: one in the commune office, one in the commune post office, and the other in the commune armed forces department.

Ordinary people might not even be able to find a telephone to handle their private affairs, but Wu Dajun, as the commune director, had the means to make that call at any time.

Yuan Xiu followed Wu Dajun to the gatehouse.

A young female colleague, around twenty years old, was sitting in the reception room. When she saw Wu Dajun bring his people in, she smiled, stood up, and called him "Uncle Wu Dajun."

Wu Dajun glared at him, and the woman stuck out her tongue and immediately changed her address: "Director Wu."

Wu Dajun didn't say much, but handed his niece the phone number and address he had copied onto a piece of paper: "Dial this number."

Officer Wu sat down in front of the telephone, carefully lifted the velvet cover, picked up the receiver, and began dialing.

"Hello, is this the switchboard? I want to make a long-distance call to **province, **city, the number is..."

Once the long-distance call was connected, the next step was to wait, with no fixed timeframe. This was something Yuan Xiu, who had returned from the year 2000, wasn't used to. She had almost forgotten how troublesome it was to make a long-distance call these days.

Fortunately, she was lucky this time. Within minutes, the switchboard called back, "Your long-distance call is coming in, please speak!"

Xiao Wu quickly handed the phone to Wu Dajun.

"Hello, this is Xiangyang Commune. I'm Wu Dajun, the commune director. Here's the situation..."

Wu Dajun spoke loudly, gripping the microphone tightly against his ears, afraid that he wouldn't hear clearly and that the person on the other end wouldn't hear him either.

There was static on the other end of the phone; the phone reception was poor, and the person on the other end was speaking very loudly, so Yuan Xiu, who was standing next to Wu Dajun, could also hear what was being said.

"...Who? Jiang Zhou? His family hasn't been working at the factory for a long time. His father passed away two years ago, his mother remarried, and he joined the army. We even received a letter from his family a while ago, which I helped forward. How come someone is still contacting him at the factory?"

Wu Dajun turned to look at Yuan Xiu, then continued speaking to the person on the phone: "Could you please give me the phone number and address of the Jiangzhou military unit? I need to speak with them urgently."

"That won't do. You can't just give out military phone numbers like that!"

"Comrade! We really have an urgent matter, a very urgent matter, and we must contact Comrade Jiangzhou immediately!" Wu Dajun shouted.

"It's not that I don't want to give it to him, it's that I don't know either. I had to ask his father's old comrade-in-arms for his address."

"Could you please help me contact that old comrade-in-arms and have him answer the phone?"

Presumably because the call came from a commune unit, the person on the other end didn't make things difficult. "I can help you contact him; he's at the factory..."

Then came the waiting. The call wasn't disconnected, because I was afraid that if I did, I'd have to be transferred to a switchboard for a long-distance call. I didn't know if I'd be so lucky next time, since sometimes I might have to wait all day.

This time, after about ten minutes, there was a rustling sound on the other end of the phone, then someone picked it up, and a deep voice came through: "Hello, who's looking for Jiang Zhou?"

This time, Yuan Xiu answered the phone. "Hello, my name is Yuan Xiu, and I am Yuan Jianguo's daughter."

"Old Yuan's daughter?" The person on the other end of the phone clearly knew Yuan Xiu's father. "You wrote the letter last time, didn't you? What's wrong? Hasn't Jiang Zhou replied to you yet?"

Clearly, he was even aware of the childhood betrothal between Yuan Xiu and Jiang Zhou.

"Girl, don't worry, I'll call him right now and give him a piece of my mind! Uncle Zhao will stand up for you!"

Upon hearing the words "someone will stand up for her," Yuan Xiu's nose suddenly stung with tears, and she quickly said, "No, please listen to me first."

Xiao Wu's eyes widened more and more. Could there be something wrong with her ears?

Yuan Xinmin is such a scoundrel!

After Yuan Xiu finished speaking, a loud noise came from the other end of the phone, followed by a series of curses!

"Damn it! That son of a bitch is even worse than the Japanese devils! If this were before, I would have shot him dead!"

The phone call was very loud, and Yuan Xiu pressed her ear tightly to the receiver, not wanting to miss a single sound.

She had never met Uncle Zhao before. When she was little, she had heard her father talk about his comrades who had fought alongside him through thick and thin. Among them, the closest to him were Jiang Zhou's father and Uncle Zhao. She had heard that he was a man with a particularly fiery temper. Unexpectedly, he and Jiang Zhou's father were assigned to the same place after they retired from the army.

"Girl! I'll contact Jiangzhou right away. Don't be afraid, Uncle Zhao is here. By the way, do you need Jiangzhou's address? I'll tell you now, write it down."

Officer Wu handed her a pen and a slip of paper, which Yuan Xiu wrote down one by one.

The two didn't say much, gave Yuan Xiu a few instructions, and then hung up the phone.

Wu Dajun laughed, "That's great! They should be able to contact Jiangzhou soon, and your cousin's wedding is definitely off!"

Yuan Xiu smiled gratefully: "Thank you, Uncle Wu, for helping me, and thank you, Officer Wu."

Xiao Wu quickly waved his hand, his eyes burning with gossip!

Unfortunately, she had to stay in the gatehouse and couldn't leave, so she could only watch helplessly as her uncle took Yuan Xiu away.

Back in the office, Wu Dajun asked Yuan Xiu, "Now that you have the address, are you planning to just go there?"

Yuan Xiu nodded. "Uncle Wu, could you please help me get a letter of introduction? I plan to leave today."

Wu Dajun exclaimed in surprise, "So fast?"

His gaze fell again on the luggage placed in the corner. "Yuan Xiu, don't you plan to ask your uncle in person? You don't need to worry about Jiangzhou at all right now."

Yuan Xiu sighed: "My uncle won't admit it."

Wu Dajun waved his hand dismissively: "It's not about whether he admits it or not now! Once the military receives the call, his lies will fall apart! This isn't just your family matter, it's also a matter for our commune. As an employee of the supply and marketing cooperative, his behavior will definitely be severely criticized by our commune!"

It would be best to remove him from the team!

Yuan Xiu's eyes flickered. "Uncle Wu, my grandparents are still alive. If I stay here, they will definitely plead for my uncle. After all, I am the younger generation..."

Wu Dajun was taken aback. This was indeed a problem. The old couple from the Yuan family were not easy to talk to. If it weren't for them, the job at the supply and marketing cooperative wouldn't have fallen into Yuan Xinmin's hands so quickly.

Yuan Xiu is just a young girl. Even if she has some opinions, she probably doesn't have much. If the government decides not to investigate unless the people complain, Yuan Xinmin will still be fine.

Thinking of this, Wu Dajun's eyes lit up, and he nodded. "Alright, Uncle Wu won't try to persuade you anymore. I know it's difficult for you too."

He sat down at his desk, picked up his pen, and began writing a letter of introduction. After writing just two words, he suddenly slapped his forehead. "Oh dear, look at my memory! How could I forget something so important?"

Yuan Xiu feigned ignorance: "What's wrong, Uncle Wu?"

Wu Dajun quickly said, "You need to write an explanation for the phone call you just made. It's not that Uncle Wu is making things difficult for you, it's just that this is a government phone, and every call needs a reason to be made. You can't just make this call casually unless it's an emergency, you should know that, right?"

Yuan Xiu nodded. Of course she knew that her father worked in the commune's armed forces department when he was alive, and one of the commune's three telephones was located in the armed forces department.

"Uncle Wu, I'll go to the reception room right away and get the explanation."

"No need to go to the reception room, just write it here." Wu Dajun took out another sheet of white paper. "Your situation is quite complicated, so you need to write it down carefully."

Yuan Xiu, who was writing on the table, pursed her lips tightly. With this "explanation," she believed that this "Uncle Wu" would definitely kick Yuan Xinmin out of the supply and marketing cooperative.

In his past life, the Wu family accounted for half of the people in Xiangyang Commune who could get government jobs. Would Wu Dajun, who could put all his relatives into government positions, be a "selfless" good cadre?

Yuan Xiu never imagined that she could get Wu Dajun to help her by relying on the little bit of friendship she had with her father when he was alive.

But Yuan Xinmin can—no, I should say, the job Yuan Xinmin is doing now—can.

As an orphan girl about to marry far away, this job certainly wouldn't fall to her. If Yuan Xinmin were kicked out, another position would be vacant. How could Wu Dajun just watch such a good opportunity slip through his fingers?

As for her, she could of course choose not to look for a fiancé, but instead stay here and take advantage of this incident to get the job back from Yuan Xinmin.

But she didn't want to stay here anymore. Only she knew how much the old couple had wronged her; no one else knew. If she stayed, either she would sever her family ties and be condemned by everyone, or she would continue to be drained by the old couple.

Right now, she doesn't want them to take advantage of her in the slightest!