Chapter Twenty-Four: Wen Xiuting

Aunt Lin E, Shen Ye’s uncle’s wife, hurried home.

As mentioned before, their family’s financial situation was not good. Shen Ye’s uncle had worked at a printing factory in his early years, but after being laid off, he opened a small shop. Now, the five members of their family lived in one of the old apartments in the printing factory’s housing complex, barely over fifty square meters, with two bedrooms and a living room, all very simply furnished.

And yet, in this small space lived five people: Shen Baoping, Shen Ye’s uncle; Lin E, his aunt; Shen Die, his older cousin; Wen Xiuting, his cousin’s wife; and their son, Shen Nan.

When Lin E returned home, her husband, Shen Baoping, was reading the newspaper with his reading glasses; their son, Shen Die, was poring over a financial paper; her daughter-in-law was washing dishes in the kitchen, and her grandson, Shen Nan, was watching television. The TV was an old twenty-nine-inch set, bought ten years ago—a TCL, still working well. On the screen, Ultraman was playing.

“I just went to the square dance and ran into Lin Mei. She bought a gold necklace and a new phone that cost over three thousand. Guess what? Her son bought them for her. And get this—Shen Ye’s little ‘Seaside Retreat’ brings in a net profit of over fifty thousand a month.” Lin E was still in shock as she spoke.

“What? You can’t be serious.” Shen Baoping was the first to react. “Fifty thousand a month? We don’t even make that in a year!”

“That can’t be. I graduated from college and have opened one shop after another, but even with all my experience, I still lose money every time.” Shen Die, twenty-seven this year and also a college graduate, echoed his father’s disbelief. Unable to find a job, he’d simply kept opening shops, but none of them ever turned a profit.

Opening a shop requires start-up capital. Over the years, he’d spent nearly all of Shen Baoping’s savings. Still, Shen Die believed he would succeed one day.

“How can you say it’s impossible? According to Lin Mei, not only did Shen Ye buy her a gold necklace and a phone, but he also got his father a phone worth over three thousand. And his sister, Shen Xiaoyun, he went ahead and bought her an iPhone 6. That’s the popular phone among young people, right? It costs five or six thousand each—unbelievable, a phone that expensive.” Lin E couldn’t understand how a phone could cost so much; her own simple phone had cost just over a hundred.

With Shen Jiaping and Lin Mei spreading the word, the entire Shen and Lin families soon learned that Shen Ye was making a fortune with his Seaside Retreat. Immediately, everyone envied them and marveled at what a fine son Shen Jiaping and Lin Mei had raised.

…

Wen Xiuting, Shen Ye’s cousin’s wife, was twenty-five years old. Though she stood only 1.55 meters tall, her figure was astonishing. Just walking down the street, her curves naturally drew attention. While the average Chinese woman wore an A or B cup, she was easily a D, maybe even an E. She had a lovely oval face and fair, flawless skin.

Because she was so beautiful, she was frequently harassed while working as a hotel waitress. Sometimes wealthy men would approach her privately, offering ten or twenty thousand a month to keep her as a mistress.

But Wen Xiuting remained steadfastly loyal to her husband, never straying. Her coworkers often scolded her for being foolish: “You’re young and beautiful—why be so stubborn? Life would be so much easier with a rich man. Your husband, Shen Die, never makes a profit no matter what shop he opens.”

When faced with such talk, Wen Xiuting never argued—she simply walked away in silence.

At this moment, Wen Xiuting was on her way to the hotel when her phone rang. Seeing it was a call from the principal of her son Shen Nan’s kindergarten, Red Yellow Blue, she answered right away.

The principal’s voice came through the phone: “You’re Shen Nan’s mother, correct?”

“Yes, that’s me. Has something happened with Nan? Did he get into trouble?” Wen Xiuting asked anxiously.

“It’s like this. We need to raise the kindergarten fees. You know how much prices have gone up nowadays—if we don’t adjust the fees, we can’t keep going,” explained the principal.

“Raising the fees again?” Wen Xiuting’s heart tightened. “How much?”

“It used to be eight hundred. Now it’s eleven hundred—just a three-hundred increase, not much,” the principal replied. “Please pay within three days. Is that alright?”

“Yes, yes, no problem,” Wen Xiuting replied three times before hanging up. But as she did, tears welled up in her eyes. How could it be no problem? Her monthly salary was eighteen hundred. The kindergarten fee had been eight hundred, meals for the family cost six hundred, and four hundred went toward clothes for her son.

Shen Nan hadn’t gotten a new toy in ages, only little trinkets costing a few yuan. As for herself, she hadn’t bought new clothes in years, always making do with old ones. Her husband, Shen Die, was always talking about opening a shop, but he never made a profit—just losses, over and over.

Now, with the kindergarten fee rising by three hundred, it was almost the last straw that would break the camel’s back.

Wen Xiuting felt it was getting hard to breathe. The weight of life pressed down on her slender shoulders. She suddenly recalled her colleagues’ teasing—maybe if she let a man support her, life would be easier. Her son Nan could have a better life too. But she quickly shook her head, banishing the thought.

Just then, a few thugs appeared from the roadside. Their leader was about 1.8 meters tall, all muscle, with a scar running from the corner of his right eye down to his mouth. He wore a black suit and tie, looking to be around thirty.

Wen Xiuting instinctively sensed their ill intent and stepped back, trying to walk around them. But they moved to block her path again. She tried the other direction, but they followed and blocked her once more.

Her expression changed. “Who are you? What do you want?”

The scar-faced man grinned menacingly. “Who are we? You can call me Scar Bro. As for what we want—well, you’re Shen Die’s wife, aren’t you? Quite the beauty. Shen Die owes our boss three hundred thousand in loan shark debts. Now that he’s disappeared, we have no choice but to come to you, right?”

“As the saying goes, the wife pays the husband’s debt.”

“What? Shen Die owes your boss three hundred thousand in loan shark money?” Wen Xiuting exclaimed.

“That’s right. How else could he open a clothing store that big—over a hundred square meters? Where did the money come from?” Scar Bro sneered, running his eyes over Wen Xiuting before nodding in satisfaction. “I didn’t expect Shen Die’s wife to be such a knockout. At a nightclub, you’d go for two or three thousand a night. We could just take you to pay off the debt.”

Wen Xiuting was terrified, stepping back and speaking in alarm, “What are you trying to do?”

Scar Bro and his men swaggered toward her. “What do you think? We’re taking you to work off the debt.”

With a wave, his men grabbed her. No matter how hard she struggled, she was no match for several strong men. They tied her up with a rope from who-knows-where, stuffed a cloth in her mouth, and shoved her toward a black Mercedes parked nearby.

Scar Bro climbed into the passenger seat and said to the driver, “Go.”