CH 37.1

Names mentioned in this chapter:

– 苏秦 (Sū Qín) – Female Lead

– 黎川 (Lí Chuān) / 黎教授 (Lí jiàoshòu) – Male Lead

– 章程 (Zhāng Chéng) – Li Chuan’s childhood friend

– 王琳 (Wáng Lín) – FL’s mother

– 苏正国 (Sū Zhèngguó) – FL’s father

– 波波 (Bō bō) – Abductee

– 李秀兰 (Lǐ Xiùlán) – FL’s stepmother

Chapter 37.1 – The Truth

This novel is only hosted on Foxaholic, copies found elsewhere are either stolen or plagiarized.

Back in Yunyang City, they accompanied the girl, Bobo, to the police station to make a statement that night. Since the girl has no family and nowhere to go for the time being, Su Qin and her mother brought her home.

As their home was very small and the room was quite narrow, Su Qin slept on the floor in the evening. Spreading a layer of padded mattress on the floor and laying on a woven mat, it was pleasantly cool too.

Seeing Su Qin sleeping on the floor, Bobo felt a twinge of guilt and said timidly, “Sister Su-su, you sleep on the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“It’s okay. The floor is cooling. Go to sleep, it’s late.” Saying that, she switched off the light.

Although it was already October, the room was still very warm. With the electric fan oscillating, it breezed towards Su Qin from time to time.

Laying on the floor, she couldn’t sleep. So she took out her handphone and chatted with Li Chuan via texting. She and Li Chuan chatted about this and that, then unexpectedly talked about a crucial point. It was possible that all the abducted girls in Yunyang City were sent there.

There are many factories in Sangzao Town and it has a thriving transportation system. From there, it is very convenient to smuggle the girls all over the country.

Su Qin fell into silence and recalled when she was abducted in her previous lifetime. She was knocked unconscious outside the school and took a long time to wake up after receiving the heavy blow to the head.

She couldn’t remember if she had been to that transfer hub, but judging from what happened today, she was most likely transported there as well.

From what Bobo said, most of the pretty and well-behaved girls stayed in the country, and were sent to various mountain villages. While those orphans and misbehaved girls were sent abroad by any means.

And Su Qin was probably the former, who was sold to the mountain village.

Bobo said when she was there, what she prayed for every day was not to escape but to be sold to the mountain village.

Thinking of this, Su Qin felt a surge of frost in her heart.

Su Qin sent a long text message to Li Chuan, and her tears couldn’t resist trickling.

“Teacher Li, how many black-hearted people do you think there are in this society, don’t they have a family of their own? Why are they doing such evil things? We girls, we just want to live our lives mediocrely, we just want to get by peacefully, what did we do wrong?”

Li Chuan was silent for a long time and told her, “You girls have done nothing wrong.”

Su Qin’s grip on the phone tightened. There are inevitably evil people who are above the law, and even a bullet can’t offset the sins they committed.

That person who set fire to the abductors’ village, was probably afraid that these devils would exploit the legal loopholes too?

Su Qin thought she could let go of everything in that village, believing it was precisely a hellhole. But Bobo’s incident made her realize there are eighteen levels in hell, every level is unbearably hellish, and the nethermost is the worst.

She couldn’t remember how she fell asleep. Waking up the next morning, her cheeks were dry as if soaked in tears the whole night.

Her mother was already sitting in front of the computer and started working, while Bobo was washing dishes on the balcony.

Seeing that she was awake, Wang Lin raised her hand and pointed at the covered food on the table and said, “Su-su, I left you some porridge and steamed buns. The steamed buns should still be warm, so eat them quickly.”

Su Qin got up and casually ruffled her short hair. She then pulled out a chair and sat down at the dining table.

Wang Lin told her as she typed, “Su-su, I sent our store’s well-matched clothes to Tianya Forum and also changed the content of your article. I didn’t expect the response to be pretty good. Everyone complimented how well we matched them and wanted us to post more match-up photos.”

“Tianya?” Su Qin was stunned as she chewed the steamed bun in her mouth.

Wang Lin turned the computer over to show her, “Look, many commented below, clamoring for us to post more of these match-up clothes. But my writing skills are not very good, and I can’t write a good article … otherwise, it should attract even more people.”

Su Qin was thinking of matters as she engrossed with her meal.

Right, she was reborn from the future and only saw the popularity of Weibo and WeChat marketing platforms, yet forgot about the once Tianya and Douban, whose traffic were also very vast and comparable to the later Weibo and WeChat public platform.

She remembered there were several skincare brands that became continuously popular in Tianya.

There were several forum moderators in Tianya who specialized in promoting these Taobao goods. If she brings the future fashion experience that focuses on clothes matching to capture the aspects of women, then finds those moderators to discuss the marketing price, won’t she get twice the result with half the effort?

Su Qin is precisely the astute kind who acts on her ideas. She asked her mother to bring Bobo to the internet cafe to teach her how to use Taobao incidentally.

Bobo was homeless and wanted to go out looking for a job, but Su Qin kept her, hoping she would stay and work for her with a salary of 800 yuan.

With the increasing sales on Taobao, one customer-service is obviously not enough and two are just right, no more nor less.

Although Su Qin’s place is small here, she usually stays on campus and only comes back on weekends. Coming back to stay only one night a week, Bobo didn’t need to go find a place at all.

She gave Bobo an internship salary of 500 yuan with meals and lodging, turning full-time a month later with 800 yuan commission.

Bobo is only 15 years old, and she was not good at studying previously. She left the orphanage to work before high school. She was at the age where no one would hire her if she went out to look for a job, but Su Qin was willing to take her in, providing her with food, lodging and even pay her salary, so she was extremely happy.

After Wang Lin took Bobo to the internet cafe, Su Qin was left alone at home, hence she started editing the fashion article.

The first fashion article was [2006 Early Autumn Match-Up, Qi Peipei dressed as such too].

Qi Peipei is an actress who became popular from a martial arts drama last year. Her every move has attracted a lot of attention at Tianya. In this article, Su Qin taught everyone how to match the current trendy styles and predicted the upcoming sought-after styles. She only advertised their store’s trendy designs at the end of the article.

Once the article was uploaded, it attracted the attention of many netizens within two hours.

Seeing that the traffic was good, Su Qin found a moderator and paid the ads fees to help push her posts.

At twelve o’clock in the evening, Su Qin’s post was refined and became popular throughout the forum.

This post was just Su Qin’s trial, but it was well received and could be said to be a great success.

Early next morning, Wang Lin announced the good news, “Su-su, our store’s sales are up all of a sudden! The customers said our clothes are very well matched and asked us to put up more new styles!”

After two nights on the floor, Su Qin’s back was sore. Rubbing her eyes as she sat up, she glanced at the posting on Tianya and the popularity was beyond expectation.

Su Qin’s ID ‘Yunyi Clothing House’ became modestly popular in Tianya. Her post was transferred to Douban where there was no marketing, yet the traffic was pretty good too.

Su Qin counted the money on hand. Minus the packaging and marketing, she has less than 10,000 but can still buy a computer.

She told Wang Lin to post up a day-off notice and to accompany her to go buy a second-hand desktop.

Seeing that the two of them were going out, Bobo spoke nervously, “I won’t go then? I can stay and help you guys keep an eye on the computer at home. Although I am slow at typing, I can still respond to the customers.”

Bobo is a girl from the coastal area who is feebly thin with naturally dark skin. She is a little taller than Su Qin, about 168cm.

Su Qin took out some clothes from the simple closet and stuffed it to her, “Change your clothes. We will go out together and bring you to stroll around, and buy some daily necessities on the way.”

Hugging the clothes, the girl pursed her lips and was moved to tears, “Su-su ….. Thank you.”

Su Qin grinned, “Don’t mention it. We are predestined and it’s within my power to help you. A kind person helped me and I just help those who are really in need within the scope of my ability. Society’s compassion needs to be passed on, isn’t it so?”

Although the words were somewhat corny, it was indeed true.

On the bus, Su Qin saw Zhang Cheng’s message.

Those eleven girls were either sent back to the orphanage or arranged to go to school by the local government.

Back to school? Su Qin wondered if those girls could come out of the shadows after being trafficked.

Having no parents and no one around to actuate them, perhaps it is difficult for them to get out of the predicament on their own. Su Qin turned her head to look out the window, the sky outside was cloudless blue.

Under this clear sky, there is no shortage of surging undercurrents and shady entanglements.

No amount of heroes is enough, right?

Computer City.

Su Qin’s group found a small shop that sells second-hand computers. Although the shopfront was not big, there were quite a lot of second-hand computers on the racks.

Su Qin looked left and right, and finally chose a tower desktop and asked the boss for the price.

With his head bowed, the boss was fixing a mainframe. Seeing the three women, he didn’t quote a high price and said, “One thousand one, I will give you the keyboard, mouse and headset.”

“One thousand one? So expensive? My monthly salary is not even that much!”, Wang Lin haggled like buying vegetables by the roadside and bargained, “Eight hundred at most!”

The boss put down the tools in his hand and got a little agitated, “You think you’re buying roadside vegetables? Eight hundred? I even replaced the hard drive of this computer! Eight hundred? Why don’t you snatch by the roadside?”

The boss was a straight technical guy and he spoke frankly without beating the bush.

Seeing that the boss was so fierce, Wang Lin pushed her chest out and said loudly, “Vicious, vicious, what’s with the viciousness? Don’t sell if you don’t like it! Su-su, Bobo, let’s go!”

Wang Lin pulled the two girls out. Before one foot had stepped out the door, the boss called out again, “Eight hundred! Not including keyboard, mouse and headset.”

Wang Lin turned around and spoke unyieldingly, “Eight hundred with everything and not a thing less!”

The boss, “ ….. “

Wang Lin saw the boss’ hesitation and said, “Never mind if you don’t sell, don’t think I can’t even find cheaper than yours in such a big market?”

She dragged the two girls and just stepped out when she was stopped by the boss again, “Okay, okay, okay, I’m really afraid of you. Come and pay!”

Wang Lin smiled and walked back. With a grin, she took out the money, “Delivery and installation are included, right?”

“Of course.” The boss took out a business card and handed it to Wang Lin, “Big Sister, next time when you have business, come back to us again ah.”

“Okay.” After taking the business card, Wang Lin took the receipt and gave the boss their address, asking him to deliver it to the address at six o’clock in the afternoon.

Coming out of the computer city, Su Qin gave her mother a thumbs up, “Mom, you have become more and more beautiful since your divorce. How is it? Do you feel particularly carefree now?”

“En, with my good daughter by my side, I’m content. I’ll never look for stinky men again!”

Wang Lin said, and sighed with emotion, wanting to travel back to slap herself hard.

Was her brain muddled with shit previously? Actually wanted to take care of the mistress’ son wholeheartedly! Thinking of the past, Wang Lin was filled with guilt.

She held Su Qin’s hand, gritted her teeth and vowed to work hard. Work hard to learn new things from the internet and help her daughter to bring Taobao up!

Next to the computer city was exactly Kaiyuan Mall. Since they were at the mall entrance and doing Taobao clothing, there was no reason not to go look at those clothing retail shops’ and also to check out the market.

Kaiyuan Mall sold jewelry on the first floor, clothing on the second floor and culinary delicacies on the third floor. The three women went up the escalator to the second floor and when they passed by a clothing shop, Wang Lin suddenly halted on the spot.

She looked inside through the glass window. Her eyes widened with an expression as if she had seen a ghost.

Su Qin thought she saw something. Looking through the glass window, she saw her father with his son and a woman picking out clothes inside.

Su Zhengguo had a brilliant business career in his early years. Although he was downtrodden, he was very particular about his clothing. He now works in a state-owned enterprise. He likes to dress up in shirts, suit pants and brown leather shoes. With his good looks, there’s naturally no shortage of women around him after the divorce.

The son was sitting on a low stool with toys in his hand.

And the woman was taking out a dress and gesturing to herself. In the thirties the woman is bosomy, but her face is only palm-sized with an entrancing outlook, the type that men like.

Su Qin remembered that woman, who was Su Zhengguo’s second wife, Li Xiulan.

In her previous lifetime, not long after Su Qin’s mother died of cancer, Su Zhengguo married this wife. When they got married, Su Qin did not attend and did not even give any red packet nor her blessing.

When Su Zhengguo was running a factory, he met Li Xiulan, a young and beautiful woman who worked there. After the business failed, Su Zhengguo lied about having no money in the family. In actuality, he not only left with a sum of money but also took the state subsidy.

At that time, the mistress birthed him a son so he took the money to support Li Xiulan and her son. In order to keep Wang Lin from suspicion, he told Wang Lin Li Xiulan had died of illness. And brainwashed Wang Lin by instilling the idea that ‘the third party is dead and the child is innocent’.

Gradually, Wang Lin’s heart actually softened. But considering that her daughter could not accept this younger brother, she did not relented too.

With Su Zhengguo’s character, he could certainly bring the child back without notice. But he was worried about angering the woman. After all, rabbits would still bite if nettled. The woman dared not confront him, but won’t she abuse a child?

Su Zhengguo often went on business trips, so he didn’t dare to just bring his son home for Wang Lin to take care of. Hence, he brainwashed her slowly and entrenched at every step.

Li Xiulan is a shrewd person. She thought of ridding Su Zhengguo’s legal wife, and also pondered if Su Zhengguo wouldn’t marry her, after all she couldn’t be such a grass widow all her life, right? She had to think about her son.

So, she hid the fact of being an unmarried mother and once her son weaned, she just cast him to her mother, while she stayed to work in Sangzao Town’s factory.

Working in a state-owned enterprise, Su Zhengguo would often go to Sangzao Town’s factories for work, thus he took advantage of this opportunity to reunite with Li Xiulan.

Su Zhengguo also knew that Li Xiulan hooked up with other men in the factory, but he just turned a blind eye and didn’t say anything, though he was well aware of it. This was also one of the reasons why he was unwilling to divorce Wang Lin and marry Li Xiulan.

Su Zhengguo enjoyed Wang Lin’s obedience and also relished having a free nanny. He would not have divorce if it wasn’t for Wang Lin’s ‘cancer’. After divorcing Wang Lin, he had no excuse not to get married. Moreover, Li Xiulan’s salary was higher than his, who earned tens of thousands of yuan in a few months, so he married Li Xiulan thinking he still has to live his life in the future.