Chapter 3: Boss Fu

Lin Xuexia was still wearing that red dress, feeling uncomfortable with an inexplicable stickiness on her skin. After a night of tossing and turning, her curly hair had become oily, though to the touch it still felt relatively dry—perhaps just a trick of the mind.

Having lived a life of comfort for several years, she hadn’t looked so disheveled in a long time.

She had been reborn into the past! She was younger now! Her body was healthier! Brimming with vitality! After so many years, nothing was more important than good health.

Though the days remained warm, it was undeniably autumn; the mornings were cool, bringing subtle hints of the season. Before going downstairs, Lin Xuexia didn’t bother with formalities toward Fu Wei. She rifled through his wardrobe and found an old military shirt, draping it over her shoulders and casually tidying her hair.

Now she looked much more normal.

In this humid, hot climate, going a day without changing clothes made one feel sour and rancid. Lin Xuexia wanted to bathe but gave up, as she had no fresh clothes to change into.

Besides, after trembling all night beside a strange man, washing up and changing openly might have made Fu Wei think she had gone mad.

Even the slap she had given Fu Wei was completely out of character for the Lin Xuexia of the past.

She used to be a conservative, honest country girl. Her grandmother had repeatedly warned her not to look at men indiscriminately or behave flirtatiously. Her parents urged her to be virtuous and diligent, to keep her head down and work hard, so that when she married, she would be a good wife.

But tragedy had struck: a botched abortion had left her unable to bear children. Her engagement had long since been broken. Her eldest uncle had pocketed the wages she had earned over two years of hard labor to build a house for his son and even tried to sell her off as a stepmother to a widower.

Her younger sister, Lin Yuexia, barely seventeen or eighteen, had gotten involved with a man from a neighboring village who knew how to sweet-talk. She became pregnant before marriage and, wanting nothing, married him. Later, she gave birth to a daughter, but the man’s family did not care for them—no help with childcare, constant hostility from sisters-in-law, and the husband went off to work elsewhere. At first, he sent money, but eventually, he disappeared entirely.

The young sister had no choice but to return to their parents’ home with her child, bringing the family endless ridicule from the villagers.

After a string of setbacks, Lin Xuexia’s health deteriorated further. She struggled to keep up with factory work, her speed at screwing bolts gradually slowing until the factory let her go. Thankfully, her second younger sister, Lin Yuxia, was ambitious and got into university, giving Lin Xuexia hope.

Unwilling to return to the village, Lin Xuexia stayed in town, running a small stall to support her sister’s education. Though her health was poor, she had excellent skills. She sold braised meats, pickled vegetables, and various sauces. Life slowly improved.

Her stall prospered, and local thugs never dared to bother her. At first, Lin Xuexia didn’t understand why, but she soon realized Fu Wei still had feelings for her.

Before, she had hidden inside the factory, avoiding Fu Wei. Now that she was outside, he often lingered near her.

Fu Wei had both saved and harmed her. Lin Xuexia did not hate him—without him, her fate would have been far worse—but she couldn’t bring herself to thank him either. She simply wanted to avoid seeing him.

Seeing him always reminded her of the two children she had once carried.

Fu Wei was persistent, and she couldn’t escape him. Lin Xuexia had thought it would only last a few years, but he clung to her like stubborn gum—thick-skinned, refusing to leave no matter how much she pushed, scolded, or hit him. She unleashed all her lifelong bad temper on Fu Wei.

He always called her “his woman,” made his friends call her “sister-in-law,” stole kisses whenever he could, hugged and groped her, treated her as his wife, and poured out sweet words as if they were worthless. He claimed they weren’t just friends, though no one else believed it.

Lin Xuexia was at a loss. Their relationship was complicated, but eventually, they settled into life together. Still, Lin Xuexia never agreed to marry him officially.

By then, both had careers taking off. Lin Xuexia had opened a restaurant and a sauce workshop; Fu Wei had become a successful businessman. She never really intended to marry him.

She was a woman who could not bear children, though she had once been pregnant with Fu Wei’s child. In her memory, men in her village married women not out of love but to have children—sons in particular—to carry on the family name. A woman’s worth was measured by her ability to bear sons, securing her place in her husband’s family and gaining dignity.

Women who could not produce sons, like her mother, were mocked for years, unable to hold their heads high, suffering abuse from grandmothers and aunts-in-law.

Her father, her girls’ biological father, didn’t care for his daughters. He considered daughters as water to be poured out, focusing all his hopes on his nephews. The money she earned working was given to support her cousins.

He believed daughters could not care for him in old age, only his son’s sons were reliable because men could “stand tall and firm.”

Her second sister argued that daughters could care for him just as well. She had gotten into university and would have a job and salary, but he refused to believe it. He insisted daughters were different from sons.

When asked how, he said that when he was old and sick, lying bedridden, a woman’s strength was too weak to support him, only a man could do so.

Her sister was furious, unsure whether to curse their father’s stubbornness or resent the world and her own gender. It was obvious that when he was seriously ill, only the three daughters would care for him; his nephews surely wouldn’t.

He was like a man pretending to be drunk, unlikely to regret his choices until death’s door.

He stubbornly believed his nephews were the true continuation of the Lin family.

Lin Xuexia had some money now from her business, and her father begged her to help her cousins. Knowing Fu Wei ran companies in transport and construction, had broad connections and quick money, he urged her to leverage Fu Wei’s influence to get her cousins lucrative procurement jobs.

Lin Xuexia refused. Her father and mother knelt, tears streaming, pleading with her. They said she couldn’t bear children, and no matter how much money she had, she couldn’t hold onto her husband. Eventually, she’d have to rely on the men in the Lin family. They begged her to think about her future.

After all the turmoil, every cousin who got a job ended up in jail. Her father called her heartless and a disgrace to the Lin family, but Lin Xuexia felt relief.

Her heart had long since turned cold.

If her own father treated her this way, how could other men be different? Lin Xuexia didn’t believe Fu Wei would stay with her forever. One day he would want a son to carry on the family name. A wealthy man like him had no shortage of women throwing themselves at him, and beautiful actresses wanting to climb into his bed.

She and Fu Wei lived in a de facto marriage, with no children and none to be expected. They said children were the glue that held a marriage together.

Lin Xuexia had no illusions about how long she and Fu Wei would last—maybe they’d part in a year, maybe ten, or maybe tomorrow by some accident. If Fu Wei found another woman, she wouldn’t even be considered a wife.

Before the relationship ended, Fu Wei suddenly fell gravely ill. Lin Xuexia came to terms with many things.

After Fu Wei’s surgery succeeded, Lin Xuexia relented, saying that once he recovered, they would officially marry.

Fu Wei, already forty, smiled like a fool.

“You finally agreed to marry me? Listen, everyone, she finally agreed to marry me…”

His reaction made Lin Xuexia laugh. To her, whether or not they registered their marriage made little difference—they had been called “sister-in-law” for years, and life went on.

Fu Wei, however, cared deeply.

He told her he had once fought in the war as a company commander, leading his soldiers into battle. Even years later, he still dreamed of the flames and the young faces that had been buried in the mountains. For him, every day alive was a blessing, and he didn’t care whether he left descendants.

“Ring ring ring—” Fu Wei pumped air into the tires of his sleek black bicycle. From under the seat, he pulled out a rag, wiping dust from the rear seat and handlebars. As the cloth brushed against the bell, it emitted a clear, crisp chime.

His movements were brisk, but his mind was elsewhere. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a woman’s sandals, slender ankles, and a flash of scarlet from the hem of a dress.

The gentle morning light illuminated the ground beneath her feet, her instep as smooth and pure as white jade.

Fu Wei’s breathing quickened involuntarily. Though he didn’t look up, he sensed her gaze on him, yet he could not read her expression.

He wiped the bicycle again, growing anxious. Finally, he turned his head, not fully meeting her face. When he saw the old military shirt belonging to him draped over her, his breath caught. He could hear his own heartbeat, the air around them thick and warm, as if enveloped by a soft current of heat.

The woman’s voice came from ahead. “Boss Fu, did you sell your house? A relative of mine said they want to come see it.”

There was a hint of schadenfreude in her tone. Her eyes humorously studied Fu Wei’s battered bicycle, then flicked to Lin Xuexia, her expression briefly startled.

“Oh, what a mess this has become. You should hurry and sort it out. Just earlier, a bunch of debt collectors came by—it was quite a scary scene.”

Her words brought Fu Wei back to reality. A middle-aged woman had approached. She wore thick, ear-length hair with faint blonde highlights. Her high cheekbones and sharp features gave her a somewhat harsh look. Middle-aged and slightly stout, she wore a loose floral dress and a dull yellow neck adorned with a string of irregular pearls.

She lived on the same street, surnamed Huang, named Honglin. The neighbors called her Aunt Hong. She owned two houses she rented out and spent her days playing cards and mahjong, gambling small amounts. Winning put her in a good mood; losing made her irritable.

Aunt Hong had a son in his twenties who did no honest work, wandering around arcades and dance halls, stealing and fooling around. She wanted to find him a wife to keep him in line.

Relying on her property, even though her son was good-for-nothing, Aunt Hong was proud and refused to let him marry an outsider. She wanted a local girl from a nearby village with a house.

Since the 1980s, their area had undergone urban development. Originally villagers, their farmland had been converted into urban land. The government provided compensation and relocated them to planned new villages. Many used the money to build houses and start small businesses; some lost everything gambling or in failed ventures.

Those with houses at least had a place to live. If they had empty rooms to rent or a storefront downstairs, they lived comfortably.

Aunt Hong hoped her son would marry into a well-off family but definitely not be fooled by migrant country girls coming to work here. Marrying such a woman would be troublesome—not only would he have to support her, but also her family of poor siblings seeking favors.

Didn’t the Tang family’s son marry exactly like that? Aunt Hong secretly enjoyed watching such dramas.

She had heard that the Zhou family’s son had also been enchanted by a poor country girl from a distant village at a dance hall and was about to marry her, causing family conflicts.

They said country folk were honest, but country women weren’t necessarily so. The honest ones were the ones quietly working in factories screwing bolts or sewing clothes.

Aunt Hong had picked out a local girl with a good family background, Chen Zhenzhen, for her son. But Chen Zhenzhen was attracted to Fu Wei, the wealthy northern man working in construction.

Tall and strong, handsome, with a commanding voice like a TV announcer, respected by his group of brothers—how could her son compare?

Aunt Hong disliked Fu Wei intensely, seeing him as an outsider stealing their local girls and competing for brides with her son.

Fu Wei’s construction projects had run into trouble, leaving him heavily in debt. Many debt collectors had come knocking. Recently, he had been selling everything he had. Everyone in the neighborhood had seen it; his house had been emptied, and the next step was surely to sell it.

Many coveted his house but held back, hoping to drive down the price by taking advantage of his difficulties.