This trip brought Lin Wanying more than just the two hundred yuan bodyguard fee.
Zeng Lancao mentioned her father worked in chemical manufacturing, and that she was going to start a household chemical workshop back home, making laundry soap, toothpaste, soap bars, and the like. She explained it all in detail, then asked Lin Wanying’s opinion, and whether she’d have a way to handle it if someone tried to obstruct the paperwork. Asking questions like this, was she trying to pull her into the venture?
Lin Wanying didn’t leave with Zeng Lancao, staying one more day to have dinner with her mentor.
Her mentor only asked whether Zeng Lancao’s divorce had gone smoothly, without asking at all why she’d suddenly wanted the divorce. Her mentor clearly had his own understanding and knew not to probe into this kind of secret.
Lin Wanying shared her own guesses with her mentor and asked his opinion: “If she extends an olive branch to me, Mentor, do you think it’d be too much for me to ask for thirty percent?”
Her mentor said, “If your value in her eyes isn’t worth thirty percent, then don’t partner with her at all.”
That was exactly what Lin Wanying thought too, if the offer was too little, don’t bother, and save her energy for a more worthwhile venture down the road.
Gu Liansheng had said he’d come pick her up, and though she was over two hours late, he still waited happily on the platform. Really, she just had a small bag with her this trip and didn’t need anyone to meet her at all, but having Gu Liansheng come made her genuinely happy, a sense of being valued, something she’d never experienced once during her five years of marriage to Xu Youcheng.
Gu Liansheng carried her bag over his shoulder, took her hand, and pushed through the crowd toward the exit, saying: “This morning, a comrade named Zeng Lancao came looking for you and left a message, said she wants to discuss something with you, and left her phone number. She seemed pretty anxious, so why don’t you call her before we even leave the station?”
Lin Wanying had guessed right, Zeng Lancao had business to discuss and was quite anxious, hoping Lin Wanying could come by right away.
Gu Liansheng was very considerate, saying: “I figured you’d want to go the moment you made the call, so I made dumplings for dinner and set them aside for you. Whenever you get back, I’ll boil them for you then.”
…
Lin Wanying went over, eating and talking business at the same time. Once things were settled, she headed home, where Gu Liansheng was still waiting for her, asking if she was hungry, whether she wanted her dumplings boiled.
Lin Wanying shook her head. “Zeng Lancao insisted I eat and talk business together, so I already ate at her place. Have you all eaten?”
Gu Liansheng said quickly, “We ate. Shuisheng and Huinan went off to run the night market stall. Did you two settle things?”
They had settled things, but Lin Wanying was quite surprised by what came of it. Zeng Lancao really did want to open a household chemical factory, proposing that the two of them each hold forty percent of the shares, with the remaining twenty percent held in trust by Lin Wanying for now, to be distributed to key staff members later on. Lin Wanying had no objections to that.
But Zeng Lancao further proposed that all the shares be registered under Lin Wanying’s name alone, neither she nor her father would hold any shares on paper, with only a verbal agreement between her and Lin Wanying, not even a written contract.
Lin Wanying said, “She said she’s not afraid I’ll cheat her out of it. Her father agreed to this arrangement too. I don’t know why they trust me this much.”
“So did you agree?” Gu Liansheng asked.
“Her father handles the R&D, she handles operations and management, and I handle any external pressure, really, not much falls on me at all, and the shares offered are reasonable. I agreed.”
Gu Liansheng hesitated a moment, feeling that Zeng Lancao’s trust didn’t quite make sense, worried there might be some trap hidden in it, but his wife had been trained by her mentor, and surely wouldn’t miss such an obvious trap. And even if there were one, no one would manage to fool his wife.
But there was one conflict, Gu Liansheng said regretfully: “My mentor met with the district leadership yesterday. Secretary Zheng said the district job is still being held for you. I’ll tell my mentor tomorrow that you’ve found your footing elsewhere, no need to hold it.”
Lin Wanying said quickly: “Don’t. Setting up that chemical factory will take some time, and though Zeng Lancao’s husband’s family moved to Pengcheng, they still have deep-rooted relatives and connections in the capital who might try to trip us up. If I can get the district job, it’ll make things more convenient for me.”
…
Lin Wanying’s interview at the district office went smoothly. The market management office had previously belonged to the street office, so for now she was being counted as temporarily transferred from the street office to the district. Once things were settled, she called Gu Liansheng and asked him to come after work so they could go together to have dinner at District Chief Zheng’s house.
She bought fruit as a gift, and cooked alongside Chief Zheng’s wife, the four of them got along quite well over the meal.
Lin Wanying told the story of her divorce and remarriage, slightly adjusted, saying: “I came to the capital wanting to say a few words to Xu Youcheng. On the way, fate brought me to Gu Liansheng. After both of us remarried, we’re both living better than before, so whatever I’d originally meant to say to Xu Youcheng, there’s no need to say it anymore.”
District Chief Zheng thought highly of this: “That kind of open-mindedness, you’re capable of great things.”
His wife, Chen Luozhen, added her praise: “That’s the right attitude. Since it was a peaceful divorce, don’t compare from now on, just live your own life well, each in your own way.”
…
Leaving Chief Zheng’s house, Gu Liansheng thought it over and asked: “You’re a woman working closely alongside the district chief, were you worried his wife might get jealous, and that’s why you brought me along to let Chen Luozhen see us together?”
Lin Wanying smiled: “Just being cautious, getting the leader’s wife to have a good impression of us matters a lot. If anyone ever gossips to Chen Luozhen in the future, she won’t suspect any impropriety.”
Gu Liansheng was quite pleased, giving himself a bit of a compliment: “Chen Luozhen kept praising me the whole time, so I guess that means we’re no worse a match than they are?”
“Of course,” Lin Wanying said. “Based on what I know of our respective exes, we’re living better than they are.”
“But you’ll be coworkers with Xu Youcheng now,” Gu Liansheng said. “I understand your side of it, but I’m worried Li Qiuzhen won’t. I lived with her for five years, so I know her fairly well, if she gets jealous, she might do something unexpected.”
Lin Wanying said, “No need to worry. Whoever cares about it is the one who’ll be upset, I don’t care. Do you still care?”
Gu Liansheng used to care, but now that things were harmonious between him and Lin Wanying, he didn’t care at all anymore.
…
What Gu Liansheng had worried about did happen, though it ended up working in Lin Wanying’s favor.
Lin Wanying had only worked at the district office a few days when Li Qiuzhen found out, and immediately grew tense, assuming right away that this was Lin Wanying’s revenge.
She voiced her worry to Xu Youcheng, who told her not to overthink it, Lin Wanying had gone to the district because she’d managed the market so well that she’d caught the leadership’s attention and was borrowed over on a trial basis. It wasn’t her actively pulling strings to get there, and there was no revenge involved.
Xu Youcheng said, “I’ve told you before, the only thing I ever lied to Lin Wanying about was the divorce, nothing else. If Lin Wanying had come with revenge in mind, I’d try to stop it myself without you even needing to say anything. Stop overthinking it.”
Li Qiuzhen calmed down for a couple of days, but the moment Xu Youcheng worked overtime and came home late, she started spiraling with wild thoughts again.
She went to see Chen Luozhen, and after chatting for a while, steered the conversation toward Lin Wanying, saying: “Her marrying my ex-husband Gu Liansheng was already her revenge against me and Youcheng. Now she’s gone and taken a job at Youcheng’s workplace too, what if she does something extreme and goes after some leader? Wouldn’t that ruin several families?”
Chen Luozhen didn’t think Lin Wanying was that kind of person at all, after all, her mentor was a key leader at the Pengcheng development zone, and had even stronger connections in the capital, there was no need for her to resort to seducing someone’s husband for revenge.
Chen Luozhen said earnestly: “Xiao Li, you need to open up your heart a bit more. You’re both ex-spouses of each other’s current partners, if she doesn’t badmouth you two behind your backs, you shouldn’t badmouth them either. It’s not a good look, and it’s not good for Youcheng either. How do you expect people to see him?”
…
A leader has a leader’s magnanimity. Chen Luozhen only mentioned this matter to her own husband: “Look at Xu Youcheng’s wife compared to Lin Wanying’s husband, the difference in character is immediately obvious.”
Chief Zheng never went out of his way to bring up Xu Youcheng’s family matters, but there was that one day when several of them went down to the countryside together, and halfway there the car got a flat tire. Surrounded by rural farmland, no one knew what to do, Lin Wanying told everyone to stay put, went and borrowed usable tools from a local farming household, found a few strong farmhands to help lift the car, and swapped the spare tire with practiced ease, leaving everyone watching in stunned silence.
And that wasn’t all, everyone was famished, stomachs practically touching their backs, when, while borrowing the tools, Lin Wanying had also asked the villagers to cook a big pot of vegetable noodles. No oil in it, but when you’re starving out of your mind, everything tastes good.
Chief Zheng was thoroughly satisfied, telling Lin Wanying: “Xiao Lin, get a receipt from the villagers, don’t forget to file for reimbursement when we get back.”
With Lin Wanying so capable, someone couldn’t help but ask Xu Youcheng: “You both seem like decent people, why couldn’t you make it work? Why did you two actually divorce?”
Xu Youcheng, feeling guilty, didn’t dare say.
Lin Wanying said with a laugh: “Personality clash. Outside, I always showed my good side, saving all the bad for my husband. Gu Liansheng appreciates my good side and tolerates my bad side, but I can’t demand the same tolerance from everyone else. Xu Youcheng couldn’t accept my flaws, that’s why we divorced. Both of us had our own issues, it wasn’t just one person’s fault.”
That was such a graceful way to put it that Chief Zheng couldn’t help but privately tell Xu Youcheng about his wife going to complain to Chen Luozhen.
“Look how Xiao Lin never complains outside, honestly, none of us like hearing complaints either. I think highly of you, that’s why I’m telling you this in confidence, go home and rein in your wife, don’t have her badmouthing your ex-wife openly or in insinuations out there.”
Only then did Xu Youcheng learn that Li Qiuzhen had gone to Chen Luozhen and hinted that Lin Wanying might steal someone else’s husband.
…
Working at the district office had its advantages for Lin Wanying. During the preparations for the Lancao household chemical factory, when the business license got stuck in bureaucracy, she went over in person, and the moment they saw her workplace, they processed it right away.
Zeng Lancao’s ex-husband’s family tried again to have people obstruct things, but were politely turned away, no one wanted the trouble. The chemical factory got up and running smoothly.
Working at the district office, Lin Wanying naturally knew the current policies on private enterprise, small factories like this one couldn’t have more than a single-digit number of workers exceeding nine, so they stayed within the policy limits for now, planning to expand hiring once the regulations for running a factory loosened up.
They’d originally planned to make soap, but there were already too many established soap brands, leaving little room for a new factory to compete, so they switched to laundry detergent, and also developed a toothpaste, testing to see which single product could break through, rather than staking everything on just one.
During the R&D phase, they got all the inspection and certification paperwork in order. Besides sending the first batch of goods to the department stores and supply co-ops, they also had Lin Huinan and Gu Shuisheng promote it at their market stalls, with the newspaper advertisement posted right alongside.
The toothpaste ad promoted cavity prevention and health care, the detergent ad used plain, down-to-earth messaging about saving time and effort, leaving clothes clean and fragrant. It ended up selling even better at the market than at the supply co-op.