1
"Zhou Ping, even on the verge of death, you still have so many thoughts. It serves you right for your family's destruction!"
In my rental house, my once best old schoolmate, Li Mei, looked at me with eyes full of scorn.
I was indeed about to die!
And it was all because of Li Mei and my ex-husband Liu Yucheng!
But I wouldn't die with my eyes closed!
Twenty-six years had passed, and I still hadn't found my daughter.
I suspected that Li Mei had abducted my daughter, but I couldn't find any evidence up to this moment.
"Li Mei, tell me, where is my daughter? Tell me!"
"Huh!" Li Mei sneered coldly: "What's the use even if you know? You're about to die, even if you knew I abducted your daughter back then, what can you do to me?"
"Your daughter is already dead! Blinded in one eye, legs broken, begging in the streets, and in the end, tortured to death by an old, ugly, and vicious lecher!"
"Now you know? But what's the use? Can you get up and hit me, or take me to the police? Hahaha! Right now, you can't do anything but wait for death!"
Li Mei's face was ferocious, her thin lips parted slightly, each word she spat out was like a nail piercing into my heart.
"Li Mei, I was not unkind to you!"
I said with rage: "If it weren't for me back then, how could you have the chance to come to the city? If it wasn't for me, you would've been violated by that thug! To think you would be so ungrateful as to steal my man and kill my daughter, even as a ghost I won't let you off!"
"It's too late! You only realize this now, but it's too late! When I first came to the city to seek refuge with you, indeed, you helped me settle down and find a job. But all you did was to show off how capable, wealthy, and superior you were!"
Li Mei howled, dragging me off the bed, glaring at me fiercely: "My dignity was trampled underfoot by you, should I be grateful to you or beholden to you?"
"I never trampled on your dignity; it was you who disregarded yourself, I have always been helping you!"
"Haha!" Li Mei sneered, throwing me back onto the bed: "Is there any point in saying this now? You want to save me? Or better save yourself!"
"You want to know about your daughter's situation, right? Fine, I'll tell you now, so you can die with clarity!"
Li Mei said, 26 years ago, she abducted my six-year-old daughter and sold her to human traffickers.
The traffickers sold my daughter to a street performance troop, those circuses were all filled with abducted children.
They were beaten daily, forced to go through various trainings, never getting enough to eat or wear, and for the sake of the acts, they would even break the children's arms and legs at the joints.
My daughter, because she couldn't learn the circus acts, was then sold to a begging gang.
They blinded one of her eyes, broke one of her legs, and threw her onto the streets to beg every day before dawn. If she didn't meet the boss's demanded amount of money, she would be beaten upon return.
Ten years later, a kind-hearted person rescued her.
After Li Mei found out, she deceived her again to a poor mountainous area, and sold her to an old, impoverished lecher, being subjected to torture and venom every day.
In the end, my daughter couldn't bear the torment and jumped into a well!
"You wicked woman, you will suffer retribution!"
"Hahaha, retribution? If there truly was retribution in this world, shouldn't I be the one lying here about to die? Why is it you?"
Yes, why won't heaven open its eyes to see, this woman who has done all evil things, yet lived a carefree life for so many years.
I hate Li Mei and Liu Yucheng, this pair of heartless people, and I hate even more Liu Yuchen's mother who kept everything hidden from me.
Actually, what I hate the most was my own kindness and honesty back then!
If I could do it all over again, I definitely wouldn't be so lenient!
But at this moment, I could only watch as Li Mei stood before me, laughing wildly, exposing all my scars one after another.
It was in endless hatred and despair that I slowly closed my eyes...
2
Just as my consciousness was about to fade, I suddenly heard a voice.
"Honey, get me five thousand yuan, I'm going out to dine with a big client."
That was Liu Yucheng's voice!
That was his voice from twenty-six years ago!
Twenty-six years ago, Liu Yucheng hurried home from outside, completely disregarding me who had just had an abortion, and asked for money right away.
“Is five thousand enough?”
In a daze, I opened my eyes and found myself surrounded by the scene from twenty-six years ago!
I tried to suppress the excitement in my heart, spoke with a cold voice, then got up and took out a stack of money wrapped in newspaper from the wardrobe.
“It should be enough for now, there are only four of us, it won’t cost much.”
Liu Yucheng took the money and left.
I watched him get into the van, sighed softly, changed into a set of clothes, took the Seagull camera considered a treasure back then, and hurried out the door as well.
The day of previous life, August 20th, 1996, the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.
Liu Yucheng took five thousand yuan from me, saying it was for dining with a big client.
In that era, five thousand yuan was a significant amount, but for the two of us courting big clients including entertainment expenses, it wasn’t considered much.
Riding the momentum, the quarry we started a few years ago made a fortune, not only buying a new house in the city but also moving Liu Yucheng’s mother from the countryside to the city.
That night, Liu Yucheng took the money not to dine with any clients, but to gallivant with my old schoolmate Li Mei.
It was because of the hardships we went through at the startup phase, sharing the joys and sorrows, that I trusted Liu Yucheng so much, ignoring what happened that day, leading to a continued series of tragedies.
Until the very end, I met a bleak demise.
Looking at the Red Flag mechanical watch popular in the 80s on my wrist, my heart started beating uncontrollably.
Seven ten in the evening, I never dreamt I could return to this moment in time.
In just over twenty minutes, Liu Yuchen would take Li Mei to the Rose Hotel.
After a grand dinner costing fifteen hundred, they would proceed to a dance hall, and finally, check into a hotel, staying up until midnight before Liu Yucheng returned home.
I could imagine how indulged Li Mei and Liu Yucheng would be at that moment!
I could guess, it was from that moment that Li Mei started her plot to replace me.
At seven twenty-five, I arrived at the Rose Hotel’s entrance first.
A few minutes later, Liu Yucheng and Li Mei showed up.
This life, I will start from today, retrieving everything that should belong to me!
3
Li Mei wore a red batwing shirt, and below, the body-hugging pants popular at the time.
She was arm-in-arm with Liu Yucheng, who was all smiles, both behaving frivolously and flirtatiously.
At that moment, I stood beside a Santana parked in front of the hotel, yet the two of them were too excited to notice my presence.
Then, I inserted the film into the camera and continuously snapped several photos of them.
One could imagine how engrossed Liu Yucheng and Li Mei were in their conversation, that the sound of the mechanical camera didn’t even attract their attention.
An hour later, they emerged from the hotel full of pride and joy.
Li Mei’s face was flushed, and Liu Yucheng swayed as he walked, clearly, they had drank quite a bit.
Then, they went to a dance hall behind Rose Hotel. I didn’t follow them into the dance hall but went ahead to the Waves Hotel which was a couple of streets away.
Waves was one of the high-class hotels in our city during that period, with the best room costing over five hundred for a night stay.
Five hundred yuan, equivalent to a mid-level official’s monthly salary at that time!
In my previous life, Liu Yucheng and Li Mei chose the highest grade room here.
I went ahead, opened a room for them in advance.
And told the front desk staffer: “Later, two folks will come here to open a room, you can directly guide them to room 603.”
The staffer looked puzzled: “Are you renting this room as a small conference room?”
People at that time were quite simple, if a room was rented as a small meeting room, they would try to avoid arranging adjacent rooms for other guests as much as possible.
“That’s the case, those two are important clients for me, we have some matters to discuss here.”
I informed the staffer, as those two clients were very important to me, so their expenses today should all be covered by me.
But she must not disclose any information about me to them.
I gave the staffer fifty yuan as a tip, she immediately replied: “Rest assured, I will do exactly as you instructed!”
After I paid, the staffer led me to the room and left. I locked the door, quickly set everything up, then hid in the closet to wait.
About half an hour later, I heard the door open.
At that moment, my heart was pounding almost out of my throat!
4
Liu Yucheng and Li Mei entered the room, but they didn't hurry to do anything.
Instead, they sat there and started chatting.
“How do you like it? This is the best room in Shenyang.” Liu Yucheng said.
“It’s okay, but it's not like you’re paying for it! Ah, I just wonder, why is your client so generous, even paying for your room! Who exactly is this person?”
Li Mei was very interested in the more affluent individual.
At the moment, I felt a bit nervous, fearing her interest might cause Liu Yucheng to become suspicious.
“These things, you’d better not pry into. No matter how rich that person is, he still has to suck up to me, Liu Yucheng.” Liu Yucheng said disdainfully: “This is what you call, with money you can make the devil push the millstone!”
He said, and lunged at Li Mei.
But Li Mei pushed him away.
Her face darkened as she said: “I was a virgin when I was with you, you can’t just keep dragging this on, you have to give me an answer sooner or later!”
“Tsk! Don’t I still have a daughter? Even if I don’t care about Zhou Ping, I can’t neglect my daughter! Besides, hasn't my mom already accepted you, just wait a few more years!”
“I’ll give you a son soon, and you’ll see whether a daughter or a son is more important! I don't believe the old lady doesn't want to hold a grandson!”
“If you really give me a son, I’ll settle with you right away! I’ll talk to my mom about it too!”
Listening to their conversation, my heart trembled.
In my previous life, I thought my mother-in-law knew about their affair after Li Mei became pregnant.
Turns out, my mother-in-law had known long before and didn't try to stop Liu Yucheng.
She just didn’t like that I gave birth to a daughter!
In this era where having multiple children could lead to fines, and where preference for males over females was prevalent, no matter how good the relationship between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, a rift would inevitably emerge because of the issue of grandson versus granddaughter.
This was something I should have seen coming!
Liu Yucheng and Li Mei talked for a while before getting into bed together, even knowing what would happen next, I was still infuriated at that moment.
Li Mei was my old schoolmate!
It was because of my assistance she could come to the city and seek development.
I never expected she would turn around and act ungratefully!
The two of them were engrossed on the bed, making disgusting noises.
I slightly opened the cabinet door, aimed in their direction, and aggressively snapped several photos.
Then, when they were at the peak of their excitement, I quietly left the room.
Next, I had to wait for the coming of an event one month later!
"Rest assured, I've been closely monitoring these past few days, even if there are losses, they won't be significant."
I reassured her once more, and she continued with the day's accounting with peace of mind.
That way, I also managed to divert some funds from the factory, and Chen Hua, without a hint of guilt, extracted thirty thousand yuan from the day's revenue for me.
"Zhou Jie, I've heard there's a thief from out of town lately, even stealing equipment and such."
Chen Hua was too clever, which made me feel a bit uneasy.
"What, is someone bold enough to completely take over the factory?"
"Ha, besides the boss, who else could pull that off!"
Chen Hua's words served as a significant reminder to me!
Merely manipulating the accounts wouldn't extract much money, but what if we replicated an entire quarry?
Or perhaps, from this moment, Liu Yucheng had already begun to harbor such thoughts?
"If there were another quarry, would Chen the accountant consider switching sides to work for them?"
"That would depend on whose quarry it is, Zhou Jie. It's hard to say for others, but if it's your quarry, I'd definitely jump at the opportunity!"
"By doing this, who would dare to hire you in the future?"
I couldn't figure out what was going on with Chen Hua. In my past life, I hadn't paid much attention to her, but I wanted to understand why she said what she did.
After several probes, Chen Hua finally told me the truth!
From the beginning, Chen Hua had been working as an accountant in the quarry, diligently working for five or six years.
Liu Yucheng used to take good care of her, allowing her to take leave whenever there was an emergency at home and to advance her salary when in urgent need of money.
But once, Liu Yucheng introduced her to a man named Wang Liang, and she was quite satisfied during their initial meeting.
However, the next day, Wang Liang got involved with Li Mei, and the two even did such a thing in the work shed.
"Zhou Jie, I know you're a good person, otherwise, I wouldn't have shared this with you. Honestly, I've wanted to quit working here for a long time, but I couldn't find a job with better pay elsewhere."
She also said she could see that there would eventually be a fallout between me and Liu Yucheng, and if I were to start my own thing one day, she would follow me.
"The boss calls it client relations, but you must have a clear idea of what's really going on. Otherwise, you wouldn't keep coming here!"
What Chen Hua said didn't surprise me much, except for her mention of Li Mei and Wang Liang—I was quite shocked by that.
Because in my past life, until the day I died, I had never known about this!
I was well aware of Li Mei's lack of principles in her personal life, but the person who almost assaulted her two years ago wasn't Wang Liang.
After our conversation, I said, "Replicating a quarry won't be easy, not just because of the production site, but also because of the clients!"
"That's easy..."
Through Chen Hua, I got to know someone who had been running around with clients alongside Liu Yucheng - he was Chen Hua's fellow townsman, Zhao Shu Tong.
Everyone had their grievances with Liu Yucheng, not just in this era, but even in the 21st century, though people back then were more patient.
It seemed everything was going smoothly, just by setting up a new factory, I could snatch away a few of Liu Yucheng's key personnel.
But I felt it wasn't going to be that simple!
I told Chen Hua to wait for my instructions and then left the factory to visit my mother's house. My brother and sister-in-law were there, coincidentally, and immediately started preparing a fine meal upon seeing me.
I stopped them and asked, "Brother, sister-in-law, how much money do you have on hand?"
"What's the matter, you need money? I don't have much, but if you're in urgent need, your sister-in-law can withdraw some from the bank, it shouldn't be a problem if it's around thirty to fifty thousand."
"Brother, sister-in-law, would you consider starting your own business?"
I wanted them to eventually take over the quarry.
After hearing my idea, my sister-in-law was quite shocked, "Such a large factory needs a lot of money upfront, even if we break our backs, we couldn't gather that!"
"What if it was one hundred thousand?"
My brother was silent for a while before saying, "We could somehow manage to get together a hundred thousand."
But my brother meant that, after taking over the quarry and stabilizing it, they would eventually return it to me.
In my previous life, my brother and sister-in-law were very kind to me, but they died early due to an accident.
In this life, not only do I want to prevent their premature deaths, but I also want to start supporting them from this moment on.
After agreeing on this matter, I went ahead with my plan.
First, I manipulated the accounts and increased the workers' benefits, fabricating some inexplicable debts. In just seven days, I had put the factory into a state of debt.
When Liu Yucheng returned, he had no interest in the factory's issues.
Because Li Mei had started her schemes!
Li Mei claimed she was pregnant with Liu Yucheng's child, once again forcing him to divorce me.
So, Liu Yucheng came to me.
Without letting him speak, I said, "I agree to divorce you."
"How did you know I was going to bring up divorce?"
"Li Mei told me!"
But not this time, rather in my previous life, just before I died!
"She's carrying your child. If you want that child, you must divorce me. I agree to the divorce, but I have two conditions."
Liu Yucheng's expression was indescribably shocked.
He probably never dreamed that I would agree to the divorce so readily, yet he had second thoughts!
"Honey, don’t listen to that nonsense! How could I ever divorce you!"
Liu Yucheng’s change of heart wasn't because of any newfound conscience.
Instead, it was because of the thoroughly transformed me!
I wasn't constantly around the stove, not revolving my life around him and my mother-in-law, nor did I allow myself to be confined at home willingly playing the role of the dissatisfaction bearing wife.
Moreover, I dressed myself fashionably and beautifully every day, constantly refreshing those around me.
“Don’t you want to hear my conditions?”
“No matter the conditions, I'll agree to them, but I’m not divorcing you!"
Liu Yucheng seemed very determined, looking quite steadfast, but I wasn't fooled by his appearance.
"What about the child in Li Mei's stomach?" I queried.
"What child? It could be anyone's!"
Liu Yucheng was aware of the kind of person Li Mei was and had doubted the child's paternity but was merely humoring her for the time being."
"Really? You knew?" I pretended to be surprised.
"Knew what?"
"The matter with Li Mei and Wang Liang, ah, she asked me not to say anything, didn’t expect she would spill it herself!"
My act was very convincing.
In my past life, because I refused to divorce, Li Mei began plotting to get close to my daughter. After gaining my daughter's trust, she handed her over to traffickers!
At this moment, Liu Yucheng was grinding his teeth in anger.
Just as he was about to confront Li Mei, his mother suddenly arrived at my house.
"Yu Cheng, take mom to the hospital quickly, I urinated so much blood this morning!"
"What? Mom, what's wrong?"
"I've been feverish for days and even broke out in rashes. Your Aunt An said eating some bitter melon and avoiding the wind by staying home a few days should fix it, but this morning, I urinated a bucket of blood!"
"Why did this happen?"
In a panic, Liu Yucheng said to let me accompany his mother to the hospital.
Just then, the house phone rang, and it was Li Mei.
"Liu Yucheng, give me an answer within a day, or I'll get rid of the child!"
"My mom's urinating blood, and you expect me to care about you and the baby?"
"What? Auntie is sick? Don't worry, I'll come right over!"
After hanging up the phone.
"Since Li Mei is so concerned, why not let her accompany you and your mother to the hospital? There’s been a lot of trouble at the factory these past few days; even if you go now, you probably won’t catch up."
This was something I had planned for a long time!
Liu Yucheng agreed and stressed, "Make sure you keep a close watch on the factory, paying for the medical treatment might require a considerable sum, make sure we don’t end up short on funds!"
"Sure!"
I verbally agreed, but I was chuckling inside.
Don’t worry, Liu Yucheng, the money for your mother’s treatment definitely won’t be coming through!
Liu Yucheng went with Li Mei to bring his mother to the city hospital.
I then headed straight for the factory.
"Chen Hua, let's take stock and see how much this factory is worth now!"
"Zhou Jie, all that’s left of the factory now is a shell, if we sell it, at most the basic equipment is worth around a hundred thousand and some."
"My mother-in-law is ill, it might need a considerable sum, you and Zhao Shu Tong start settling things, and we’ll have to sell the factory!"
Chen Hua nodded and began making preparations.
The very next morning, as I was getting out of bed, the house phone rang.
"Dear, my mom has been diagnosed with renal failure; she needs to be hospitalized and undergo dialysis. Go to the factory immediately and have Chen Hua transfer fifty thousand yuan over."
"Okay!"
I simply responded, not bothering to inquire about his mother's condition.
With Li Mei at the hospital in the city, why should I worry?
Upon reaching the factory, Chen Hua reported, "There have been several inquiries about purchasing the factory, but as soon as they hear we’re heavily in debt, they immediately back out."
"It looks like it’s going to be hard to offload this factory!" I pretended to be troubled.
"No rush, Zhou Jie, let’s think of something else. If all else fails, we can ask friends and relatives for help. After all, the boss’s mother’s treatment is urgent!"
"Always thinking ahead!"
In front of the entire factory, this was our discussion.
Then, I called my brother from the office.
"Bro, my mother-in-law is ill, and we're short on cash at home. I’m thinking of selling the factory to pay for her treatment, can you help?"
My brother responded quickly, "We're family, we'll figure this out together, no need to sell the factory; it's the result of your joint hard work!"
"My mother-in-law has done so much to raise Liu Yucheng alone, we must treat her. Even if it means breaking the bank, we have to!"
My act of filial piety got me respectful looks from everyone at the factory.
They even started voicing their support.
"The factory can always be rebuilt, but this kind of devotion is invaluable!"
"Sell the factory for the old lady’s treatment!"
With everyone’s recommendations ringing loud, I sold the factory!
I sold it to my brother.
After wrapping up all the formalities, the workers gave my brother their thumbs up.
"That's what families are for!"
"Yeah, so many have come to look at our factory, but walked away shaking their heads, no one's willing to take on this mess."
Their conversation, every word of it, found its way to Liu Yucheng's ears.
In the afternoon, as I got home, Liu Yucheng's call came through again.
"Dear, we're so lucky to have you at home, otherwise, I wouldn’t know what to do!"
"I need to inform you of the situation!"
No matter how sweetly Liu Yucheng spoke, it all sounded like nonsense to me now!
Even if he really regretted what he had done to me in this life, I wouldn’t give him any more chances.
I refuse to undergo the pain of my past life for a bit of soft-heartedness in this one!
So I told Liu Yucheng, "We only got eleven thousand for the factory, after the buyers took over but not our debts, settling everything left us with just over forty thousand!"
Liu Yucheng started yelling on the phone when he heard.
"Why so little? Where did these debts come from? What have you done, you harlot!"
I just laughed, silencing him with a single sentence!
Liu Yucheng immediately showed his true colors!
But I simply retorted, “Liu Yucheng, where did these debts come from, are you asking me? Shouldn't you be asking yourself? Remember the times we had internal thefts, do you pretend not to know what was happening?"
"Or maybe you should also ask Li Mei! After she facilitated deals by bridging you with buyers, how much of a cut did she take for herself?"
"If I hadn't been watching over the factory these past weeks, you, Liu Yucheng, might have ended up losing even your underwear! You call me a harlot? You better think hard about who really is the harlot here!"
"Considering our years as a married couple, I’ll give you twenty thousand of the remainder. If you’re too proud to accept this, then you get nothing!"
After saying that, I hung up the phone.
What does their life or death have to do with me?
Just like in my past life, my life and my daughter’s life, did they ever care?
