Chapter 9 My Jeans Business Thrives
I had integrated future fashion elements. I designed flare pants and high-waisted Jeans. I let the factory mass produce them. Cousin partnered with me.
She specialized in sales. I was responsible for finding manufacturers and placing orders.
Once the products came out we gave them free to young girls on the street to wear. It became a new fashion. Customers gradually increased.
On the fifth day after I left the village my aunt told the villagers that I had not drowned in the river. I had gone out to work. It was all a misunderstanding.
Faking death would cancel my identity information and make things inconvenient outside, but I was a law-abiding citizen.
Anyway I was not local. Gu Cheng's troubles would not involve me.
In this life without me, Gu Cheng was beaten hard by Brother Ma and Liu Erhun together.
Someone called the police, and the two were detained for education. Brother Ma's lending was illegal too, but Gu Cheng still owed a huge principal that had to be repaid.
No one sympathized with him for hooking up with a married woman. No one helped him.
After Liu Erhun beat Gu Cheng he vented his anger. He cursed and divorced Zhu Xiuqin.
Gu Cheng looked on with bright eyes. Although he was injured he could now be openly with Zhu Xiuqin. And I had left voluntarily before the wedding. He had done nothing wrong. Things did not seem so bad.
But Zhu Xiuqin saw that Gu Cheng was crippled and had two younger siblings as burdens. He also had no house anymore. She immediately wanted to leave.
Gu Cheng raged. "I became like this because of you. No wonder you instigated me to elope with you. It turns out you were never divorced."
Zhu Xiuqin had lost her previous gentle manner. She replied with disgust.
"You said yourself that you wanted to compensate me. Did I beg you?"
"Didn't you decide to elope with me because you thought you would make a big fortune in the south?"
Gu Fang and Gu Yuan begged Zhu Xiuqin to take care of Gu Cheng for a while. They thought Zhu Xiuqin loved their brother more. They thought she would stay and do better than me.
Zhu Xiuqin shook off their hands. "Who wants to take care of you two burdens? Do you think I am that fool Song Xiaoya who treated you like young master and miss?"
After a big quarrel Zhu Xiuqin left. I heard she went back to arrange a new marriage.
Gu Fang and Gu Yuan could not get used to the current hard life. They often blamed Gu Cheng for driving me away. They were unwilling to care for the bedridden him.
Later Gu Fang and Gu Yuan could not pay tuition. They could not continue school. One went to cut pig grass. The other found manual work to make ends meet.
Before when they followed me it had been clothes handed to them and food opened for them.
After I read my aunt's letter I felt no lack of satisfaction. But I did not want to dwell on the grudges from my previous life. I only wanted this life to be worthwhile.
Three months later, I saw Gu Cheng again.