(Minghui.org) People I know, including my boss, my mother-in-law, and my friends, often say that I am a person of noble character. I credit Falun Dafa for teaching me the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and enabling me to be a good person.
My boss owns the factory where I work. As the business was doing very well, she decided to build a bigger factory. One day she explained to me how she chose the location of the new factory.
“You might not believe me, but 80% of the reason that I chose the current location was because of you. Actually another district gave us a better offer, but my sister worried that you might quit because that district is too far away from your home. We can not afford to lose you.”
“With you in the factory, we can go out and travel for a month without a worry, not because of your cabilities but because of your noble character. If you quit, I would never find such a good person like you. To be honest, will you please postpone your retirement for five years? We are planning to run a senior center and we want to still count on your help.”
I was touched to tears. To be fair, I didn’t do anything special but simply worked in an ordinary way. I have never intentionally tried to please anyone. I simply applied the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance to my words and actions. I think that is why I gained their trust.
My boss is shrewd and meticulous, but a bit impatient and harsh in her words. She is very suspicious, and once told me that she didn’t trust anyone.
Not long after I joined the factory, I found out the reason that she was always suspicious. She was present at the factory for only a short time every day and was unable to monitor the whole process, from the raw materials to the end products. The employee monitoring the production process was always overloaded and had conflicts with the others on the production line. In addition, although the factory manager was honest, he was always quiet and only answered questions the boss asked. The lack of communication made the boss feel that things were unclear and hard to coordinate, which made her anxious and suspicious.
The first thing I did was to straighten out the accounts, and gave the boss daily reports on what happened in the factory. At the same time, I humbly asked the manager and workers for technical advice. I treated them as my children and always talked to them with respect. I helped them pass along their difficulties and reasonable requests to the boss. I advised them to avoid producing scraps as much as possible, but if they did, face it openly and I would try to minimize the fines.
With everyone open with each other about what was going on in the factor, the factory ran smoother. When I was given more work to do the workers were all very cooperative.
The factory sells scraps periodically and each time the scraps can be sold for tens of thousands of yuan. In the past, to prevent workers from colluding with the scrap buyers to fatten their own pockets at the expense of the factory, the boss always required four people present, including herself, at the time of the trading. Now the boss always tells me to do it by myself, because she trusts me. However, I always find a second person to be present.
When my husband had an affair, our son and his daughter from a previous relationship sided with me. My son suggested that I divorce my husband. After my mother-in-law learned about it from my stepdaughter, she was very angry and blamed my husband, “She [referring to me] is such a good person. Why did you betray her? What you did is disgusting, especially at your age!”
When I knew this, I told my children, “No matter what your father did, he loves you. Anyone can blame him, but not you. He is getting older and you should love him unconditionally.”
I also told my mother-in-law, “Thank you for educating him.” She replied, “I have to thank you for not divorcing him.”
She once said privately, “Of all of my daughters-in-law, you are the best.”
When the local police and community staffers came to harass me because of my faith, my mother-in-law always resisted the persecution in her own way.
During a lunch with some friends, they learned that I had put two apartments under my husband’s name only. When my stepdaughter got married, I also used almost all my savings to cover her wedding costs. One friend said to me, “Why are you being so silly?” Another one said, “You don’t know her? She is like that. No one has better character than she!”
Another “silly” thing I did was to allow my husband’s sister to take possession of two units of a multi-unit storefront my mother-in-law had promised to give to me and my husband. My mother-in-law was mad that I didn’t fight back, but I acted like nothing happened.
My mother-in-law later asked if I’d be willing to give up the remaining units of the storefront, as her other son needed money to pay off his business debts. She said he'd sold his house but was still short of money. And he also needed to support his child’s college education. I didn’t hesitate at all and simply agreed to let my brother-in-law take the property.
I told my friends that I don’t think I am silly or stupid and that I just take profit lightly. If they think I have good character, that’s all because I practice Falun Dafa.