The first time they formally met, Fu Mingjun had warmly told Lin Wan to follow him in calling him Uncle.
Lin Wan still remembered that at the time, when she called him Uncle, the Fu Xiuhuai across from her had given a slight nod in acknowledgment, showing not a trace of emotion.
But at this moment, a ripple of fluctuation rose in the man’s deep eyes: “Call me what?”
Lowering her eyelashes, Lin Wan pressed her lips together: “The first time I met you, that’s what I called you.”
Fu Xiuhuai didn’t seem angered, only smiling faintly: “Past matters should pass.”
Lin Wan clutched the marriage certificate in her hand, suddenly feeling this person’s thoughts were deep and unfathomable, giving people no sense of security anywhere. She casually put the marriage certificate back in the drawer and turned to lie down on the bed.
Had her self from this past year gone crazy? How could she have married Fu Xiuhuai?
The other side of the bed sank for a moment. Lin Wan turned on her side to face the wall, knowing in her heart it was Fu Xiuhuai lying down, and suddenly grew nervous.
The man’s powerful and unignorable presence seemed to transform into an invisible aura, enveloping everything around like an airtight shroud. Lin Wan felt somewhat uncomfortable.
Especially when she felt the man behind her approach, his slender fingers seemingly touching her waist, Lin Wan suddenly turned back to look, gazing at him with some vigilance, her eyes full of rejection.
Fortunately, the man was deep and cultivated. The hand tucking the corner of the blanket only paused briefly before returning to normal, gently tucking the thin blanket around Lin Wan, then quickly withdrawing, without any intention of fooling around.
Lin Wan breathed a sigh of relief and only then slept peacefully.
++++
In the middle of the night, a fine drizzle fell over Jiangcheng, soaking Lin Wan’s dream.
In the dream, Lin Wan returned to a year ago in her memory. She was still the student who had just entered her senior year, successfully registered for school. Fu Mingjun was still her boyfriend—not fond of studying, fond of eating, drinking, and having fun, and also fond of disturbing her studies. When they met for a meal, he brought up his uncle.
In the dream, Fu Mingjun said with certainty: “Wanwan, my mom just hasn’t come around yet. I’ve already told her she can’t come find you and say all sorts of nonsense. I apologize to you on my mom’s behalf. But don’t worry, I’ll go beg my uncle more. As long as he agrees to stand on my side, no one in our family opposing it will matter! You don’t know—my uncle is amazing. Actually, in our family, his word carries the most weight.”
When she woke from the dream, Lin Wan, still groggy, sensed a gaze lingering on her cheek. Her vision gradually cleared. A tall man in a white shirt, his broad back faintly visible, was looping a tie around his neck with both hands, every gesture showing refinement and elegance.
Seeing her awake, Fu Xiuhuai looked down at her with focused eyes.
“The company is participating in bidding today. I may come back a bit late.” Fu Xiuhuai finished adjusting his tie, then took the black suit hanging on the solid wood rack and put it on, continuing to instruct: “If you want to go to the garment factory today, have Old Liu drive you.”
Lin Wan was clearly not quite used to the man’s tone of reporting his schedule, but didn’t want him to see anything unusual, so she only nodded groggily.
Fu Xiuhuai had work to do and left quickly. The bedroom instantly became much more spacious.
Lin Wan quickly bid farewell to her university student mindset. After washing up and having breakfast, she got into the car specially arranged by Fu Xiuhuai for the morning and headed to her workplace.
Cuihu Villa was too large. Lin Wan didn’t want to make herself suffer—why not enjoy a dedicated car?
As a state-owned factory with decades of history, Jiangcheng Garment Factory had always been a hot commodity. Employees took pride in entering the factory. The entire factory had over two thousand people, a massive scale. The clothing produced was supplied to supply and marketing cooperatives, department stores big and small throughout Jiangcheng, and the department stores that had sprung up in recent years.
Every year the garment factory would receive a portion of university students as assigned destinations after graduation. After last year’s reform, mandatory assignment began changing to bidirectional job selection. Lin Wan and a dozen or so other university students from Jiangcheng entered the factory this way.
Lin Wan, having just graduated three months ago, was assigned to the factory office as an ordinary clerk—envied by many, a scholar sitting in an office.
Although everything was unfamiliar, Lin Wan treated it as her first day at work and adapted quickly. After a few brief conversations, she swiftly grasped her colleagues’ names and information.
The factory office work wasn’t too busy, and with everyone’s natural inclination to cherish talent when it came to university students, Lin Wan’s first day at work was quite relaxed.
At lunchtime, Sister Yang from the factory office called Lin Wan to go to the cafeteria together, and took the opportunity to ask her about Jiangcheng University.
“My daughter is taking the college entrance exam next year. I’ll have to ask Little Lin then for some advice, to see if she can get into Jiangcheng University.”
The stage of estimating scores and filling in preferences after the college entrance exam was crucial. Sister Yang didn’t understand these things—worried both about failing to get in and about shortchanging the score.
The garment factory was built in ’55. Most workers had been recruited from urban and rural areas over the years. Due to the impact of the great movements and famine in those years, not many had gone to school or studied. Everyone naturally valued educated people like university students, with a bit more yearning in their words.
The education they hadn’t gotten was all pinned on the next generation.
Lin Wan was naturally willing: “Sure, Sister Yang. I’m quite familiar with estimating scores and applying to Jiangcheng University.”
Back in the office in the afternoon, Lin Wan checked off the work handed to her. Basic document and material organization was easy to pick up quickly. Just then, the finance department clerk came to distribute this month’s wages, causing a stir in the office.
“Little Li, this month’s wages are a few days late.”
“What’s going on? We’ve been eagerly awaiting our wages day after day, waiting for the stars and the moon. Our families are about to run out of food.”
This was Lin Wan’s first time receiving a formal wage—not part-time, but a fixed monthly payment. So she had no particular feeling about the other colleagues’ mention of wages being a few days late. Her gaze swept over the long, narrow slip listing name, position, basic wage, high-temperature subsidy, overtime pay, and seven or eight other items. Lin Wan finally locked directly onto the column for total wages issued—365 yuan, 3 jiao, 6 fen.
This was the largest sum of wages Lin Wan had ever received.
The unease and uncertainty of seemingly having lost a year of time, or memories, dissipated quite a bit at this moment. Lin Wan now felt that everything else was illusory and ethereal. Only the solid money in her hand was reliable, truly belonging to her.
Lin Wan planned everything in her heart. The first priority was still to save money. As for where her marriage with Fu Xiuhuai would go, she would take it one step at a time.
After all, nothing was clear yet, so it wasn’t suitable to rashly make major changes.
As for the child in her belly, because it wasn’t far along, Lin Wan didn’t have much feeling about it, not even any emotional stirrings of soon becoming a mother.
The joy of being paid quickly swept through the entire factory. Workers briefly paused their work, beaming as they collected their wages.
Lin Wan put the money in the inner compartment of her bag. As she continued organizing the materials in her hands, she vaguely noticed something off.
Jiangcheng Garment Factory had reached its peak in the ’70s and ’80s—high output, good sales, almost in short supply. Workers only had to work overtime producing. As long as it was produced and sent to supply and marketing cooperatives or department stores, it was snatched up everywhere.
But as Lin Wan flipped through the documents in her hands, after entering the ’90s the garment factory’s annual sales had been slowly declining year by year. Especially in the second half of last year and the first half of this year, sales had slid noticeably. Last month, there had even been a situation where produced clothing was unsold and piled up in the warehouse.
“Sister Yang, our factory’s clothing sales in the past half year don’t seem too good? I heard last month’s batch of clothing is still piled up in the warehouse.” Lin Wan inquired about the situation from Yang Guifen, the most senior person in the factory office.
After all, this was not a good trend.
Yang Guifen didn’t take it seriously: “Maybe something went wrong in some link. It’ll definitely be sent out in the next couple of months.”
Regardless of Yang Guifen, everyone else also seemed very at ease.
After all, Jiangcheng Garment Factory was an omnipotent existence in everyone’s hearts—the most stable and reliable, forever standing tall.
Lin Wan had actually only been at the factory for one day, so naturally she didn’t have such ’emotional attachment.’ Although she didn’t have an in-depth understanding of the factory’s development, she vaguely felt worried inside.
“Lin Wan, your uncle is here.”
A shout from the factory office entrance interrupted Lin Wan’s worry. Beside her colleague, a middle-aged man in dark blue, faded, and worn work clothes waved, signaling Lin Wan to come out.
This was the first time Lin Wan had seen her own family since the bizarre change occurred.
Though whether they counted as family was hard to say.
After all, at a young age Lin Wan had been adopted out to Lin Guofu’s cousin’s family. To the outside world, she was just the daughter of Lin Guofu’s relative, and had to call her biological father Uncle.
“Lin Wan, didn’t I tell you the day before yesterday to bring our son-in-law home for a meal? Why didn’t you come?” Lin Guofu was short, thin and frail, especially somewhat hunched, lacking presence.
Lin Wan could guess his thoughts, and only said lightly: “What meal is there to eat going back? You’d better save the meat for Xiaohao. Doesn’t he need to grow?”
Lin Guofu was choked by his daughter’s words, nearly unable to catch his breath: “What kind of talk is that! Xiaohao is your own brother! Forget it, if you won’t eat then don’t. But you and your husband should at least show some sincerity. It’s almost Mid-Autumn Festival. Our son-in-law is no ordinary person—he can walk sideways throughout Jiangcheng. I heard he can casually contract a project and earn hundreds of thousands…”
“Uncle.” Lin Wan directly interrupted Lin Guofu, showing a somewhat troubled expression. “You really think being a rich man’s wife is easy? Marrying into the Fu family, I’m cautious everywhere, watching people’s faces. Do you think the Fu family’s money is mine to take freely?”
Lin Guofu clearly hadn’t expected his daughter to mention these things. Thinking carefully, it seemed to make some sense.
But he wasn’t willing to give up: “But you’re Fu Xiuhuai’s wife after all. You…”
“The more I’m his wife, the more careful I must be. If I really go to him for money and he’s displeased…” Lin Wan smiled faintly, hitting on Lin Guofu’s deepest worry. “What if he divorces me?”
At these words, Lin Guofu indeed couldn’t say anything more.
What if the wealthy son-in-law ran off?
He patiently instructed his daughter a few words—to treat the son-in-law well in every way, to firmly tie up his heart: “Men doing business outside, few are honest. I heard several department heads in our factory are going to nightclubs. With Fu Xiuhuai’s looks and wealth, you’d better keep a close watch.”
Lin Wan casually brushed him off with a few perfunctory words and sent him away, thinking Fu Xiuhuai was actually a pretty good shield—better than anything.
The garment factory got off work promptly at five every day. Except for night-shift workers and laborers working for overtime pay, almost everyone left on time.
At the factory gate, a torrent of bicycles poured out. Hundreds of “28-bar” bikes, accompanied by the ringing of bells, were like a swimming dragon, mighty and vast, leaving the premises.
Driver Uncle Liu had mentioned he would come pick her up after work. Lin Wan didn’t decline. Carrying the cloth bag with her wages, she walked out, but at the factory gate she saw a grand Santana.
The black body was imposing, especially eye-catching with its sky-high price of 180,000.
Workers leaving after their shift all took a couple of looks at the luxury car as they passed—unable to afford it, but able to feast their eyes.
Lin Wan caught sight of the blurry figure revealed in the half-lowered window at the front of the Santana and was slightly surprised.
“Why did you come?” Walking to the sedan, Lin Wan asked in a low voice.
Fu Xiuhuai got out and opened the car door. As he welcomed Lin Wan in, the corners of his lips held a faint, barely-there smile: “I heard Mrs. Fu is cautious and careful everywhere, watching people’s faces. Of course I had to come see.”
Lin Wan: “…”
Her conversation with Lin Guofu in the afternoon had actually fallen into Fu Xiuhuai’s ears? Lin Wan’s face heated.
After all, she had used him as a shield, fabricating quite a few miserable rich-wife scenarios.
Many people around had their eyes on this spot. Lin Wan quickly got in. The car door closed, and she said in a low voice: “Lin Guofu came to find you?”
The Santana sped along the smooth asphalt road. Scenery outside the window flashed by in a hurry. In the car rose the man’s deep voice.
“He said you were worried I would divorce you, and went on about how I can’t abandon my wife and child, can’t fool around outside.” Fu Xiuhuai straightened his sleeve, his gaze gentle and firm. “I didn’t know Mrs. Fu actually had such worries.”
Lin Wan: “…”
What had he misunderstood? Lin Wan wished she could find a hole to crawl into!