Shen Mingzhu stared at Shen Hongmei, dazed for two or three seconds before she came to her senses.
"You want to resign? What's the reason?"
Shen Hongmei lowered her head, her shoulders slowly beginning to tremble.
Shen Mingzhu took out a handkerchief from her bag, stood up, and handed it to her, her voice gentle, "What happened? Tell me about it."
Shen Hongmei was a year older than Shen Mingzhu, which made her 25 by the rural count of age.
In those days, rural girls got married early, some even starting families at seventeen or eighteen.
Someone like Shen Hongmei was considered very old to still be unmarried in the countryside.
Shen Hongmei, working with Shen Mingzhu, had earned quite a bit of money for the family each year, but she couldn't withstand the local gossip. Ashamed, her parents disregarded her own wishes and forcefully arranged a marriage for her to wed her off as the "old maid."