Tucking the note away, Chen Liyun let out a long breath of relief, turned around, and walked briskly away.
Qi Hongwei dropped his pen and hurried after her.
Hearing the rushed footsteps closing in behind her, she stopped and turned, her voice icy. “Is there something else?”
Though the note was safely stowed, she still held the little green divorce certificate in her hand. It was the key to her newfound freedom, and she was too happy to even put it away.
Qi Hongwei could clearly sense her joy, raw and completely unrestrained. Was she really that thrilled to divorce him? She had already promised never to remarry, so without him, what did she have to be so glad about?
Frowning, he asked, “Where are you going?”
“What business is it of yours where I go?” she replied bluntly.
She had the divorce certificate, along with the signed paper granting her the house. Even though the clerk at the civil affairs bureau had quietly warned her that the note held no legal weight, she never intended to stay there forever anyway. Once she earned enough money, she would take her three daughters and leave Qijia Village for good. A temporary place to stay was all she needed for now.
With that settled, she had no reason to show Qi Hongwei the slightest bit of courtesy.
Qi Hongwei’s brow furrowed even deeper. Just as he was about to speak, Xue Lili’s voice called out from nearby. “Qi Hongwei! Qi Hongwei!”
Chen Liyun looked over to see a young woman in a white dress approaching. From this distance, she could tell the girl had a decent figure and pleasant features.
She was nothing compared to Chen Liyun in her previous life, but compared to her current self… To be fair, the girl looked far better dressed and healthier. Still, Chen Liyun had seen her own reflection in the mirror at home. When it came to actual facial features, this girl fell short.
If the original owner hadn’t been worn down by raising two children alone while pregnant with a third, and if she hadn’t suffered through endless housework and farm chores while Qi Hongwei lived comfortably in the county town, this girl would have paled in comparison in every way except for her youth.
Then again, the girl was a city native from a wealthy background.
Feeling a pang of injustice for the original owner, Chen Liyun could not even be bothered to glance at Qi Hongwei again.
Qi Hongwei tried to stop her, but Xue Lili called his name once more. Left with no choice, he headed toward Xue Lili, turning back several times to watch Chen Liyun board a pedicab.
Xue Lili was also watching Chen Liyun. As the tricycle passed by, Xue Lili took in the woman’s loosely tied hair, black pants, floral-patterned white shirt, and pale, freckled face. A single glance was enough to bring a contemptuous smirk to her lips.
So this was Qi Hongwei’s country ex-wife.
Xue Lili did not consider her competition in the slightest. Chen Liyun was older, plainer, less fashionable, and from a poorer background. The annoyance Xue Lili had felt just moments ago, when Qi Hongwei seemed reluctant to let his ex-wife go, vanished completely.
“Lili, what brings you here?” Qi Hongwei asked, walking up to her side.
Just as Xue Lili opened her mouth to speak, a sharp, needle-like pain stabbed through her head. In that flash of agony, a vision flickered before her eyes: a little girl and a man. The man was beating the child, slapping and kicking her. When Xue Lili rushed forward to shield the girl, the blows rained down on her instead.
Her face drained of color, and she began to tremble uncontrollably.
“Lili, what’s wrong?” Seeing her sudden, bizarre reaction, Qi Hongwei looked away from Chen Liyun and grabbed Xue Lili’s hands.
Trembling violently, Xue Lili yanked her hand away from Qi Hongwei. The next instant, her headache vanished, and the horrifying scene she had just witnessed disappeared. All that remained before her was Qi Hongwei, his face filled with anxiety and concern.
He reached for her hand again. “Lili, are you not feeling well?”
Her brows knitted tightly. Try as she might, she could no longer recall what she had just seen. Her complexion remained pale, but she shook her head and forced a faint smile. “Did you get the divorce certificate? I came here specifically to wait for you, to celebrate your divorce.”
The reminder brought a flicker of discomfort to Qi Hongwei’s heart. “I got it.”
Xue Lili shook her head as if to brush off the bizarre episode, and a genuine smile finally broke across her face. “That’s wonderful! Qi Hongwei, let’s go to a restaurant and have a nice meal to celebrate!”
The divorce was settled.
A man could not live without a woman. His priority now was to coax Xue Lili into marrying him as soon as possible, hopefully with as large a dowry as possible. After all, she was an only child, and her parents doted on her endlessly. As long as he kept her happy, the good days were right around the corner.
Qi Hongwei smiled back at her. “All right, let’s go treat ourselves to a good meal!”
Chen Liyun had no feast waiting for her. Although it was well past lunchtime after all her rushing around, she remained unsure whether she could sell her embroidery here after failing in town. In the end, she bought only two dry steamed buns and asked a family near a well on the pedestrian street for a bowl of water, making do with that meager meal.
Once she had enough energy to keep going, she started browsing from one end of the pedestrian street to the other. To her disappointment, even after walking the entire length and back, she found no one willing to buy embroidery.
Exhausted and thoroughly disheartened, she leaned against a corner wall and let out a heavy sigh.
“Young lady, what are you looking for?” called out the proprietress of a nearby shoe store. “I’ve watched you pace back and forth without buying a thing, just looking all over. What is it you need? Tell me, maybe I can help.”
The woman clearly had a warm, helpful nature.
Having reached the end of her rope, Chen Liyun replied, “I’ve embroidered a few pieces and wanted to see if anyone around here buys them. But I’ve walked the whole street and asked several shops, and not a single one takes them.”
What era was this, that people were still trying to sell handmade embroidery?
Finding it rather amusing, the proprietress said, “What kind of embroidery is it? Let me have a look.”
Chen Liyun opened her cloth shoulder bag, bypassed the small handkerchiefs, and pulled out a pillow cover. Since the weather was still warm, she had embroidered it with a motif of lush lotus leaves.
On a scorching day like this, the moment she unfolded the cloth, it felt as refreshing as a cool breeze, not just to the shoe shop owner, but even to Chen Liyun herself.
The fabric was ordinary, but the embroidery of the lotus leaves was truly exquisite. The shop owner examined the front for a moment, turned it over to inspect the back, and stroked the fabric, unable to put it down.
“Is this what you want to sell? Did you embroider it yourself?”
Chen Liyun nodded. “Yes, I did it myself.”
“No one around here will buy it,” the owner said. “If you want to sell this, try the department store over there. Someone might take it.”
She had to admit that with craftsmanship this fine, people would likely buy it even if it cost more than regular pillow covers on the market. Still, it was suited for wealthy families who cared about luxury. Much as she liked it herself, she could not justify the expense.
Chen Liyun’s face lit up. “Really? How do I get to the department store? Thank you so much, I’ll go check it out right now.”
The shoe shop owner pointed her in the right direction, which was not far from there. Even after finishing her directions, she kept holding onto the pillowcase, clearly reluctant to let it go.
After a long moment, she said, “Why don’t you go check it out? Regardless of whether anyone buys them, could you come back here once you’re done?”
Chen Liyun finally pulled the pillowcase back and tucked it into her bag. Seeing the woman’s expression, she smiled and agreed without asking any questions. “Sure, I’ll be back in a bit.”
Following the directions, Chen Liyun walked out of the pedestrian street, turned right at the intersection, crossed the road, and walked straight for about a hundred meters until she reached the county’s only department store.
Taking a deep breath, she strode inside.
This time, she was not disappointed. She had barely wandered halfway through the store when a shopkeeper asked to see her embroidery. She took out the handkerchiefs and the pillowcases.
The shopkeeper, a lean man in his thirties, lit up the moment he saw them.
“I usually don’t buy embroidery,” he said, “but your craftsmanship is decent, even if the fabric is fairly ordinary. Since you’ve gone through the trouble of coming all the way here, I can take them off your hands. Fifty cents for each handkerchief, and two yuan fifty for a pair of pillowcases, if you’re willing to sell.”
Chen Liyun had not expected her embroidery to fetch a fortune, but fifty cents for a handkerchief and two dollars and fifty cents for a pair of pillowcases was startlingly low. Even the simplest handkerchief took her most of a day despite her skill, and the pillowcases took far longer.
Earlier that day, she had checked the prices of finished pillowcases across both town and the county seat. In town, a poor-quality pair went for four dollars, and in the county seat, five dollars. The finest sets cost as much as twenty or thirty dollars.
Even if her fabric was not the best, her work was worth more than his offer. The cheap pillowcases sold in town used material barely better than hers.
Seeing her expression and silence, the shopkeeper hurried to add, “That is already a generous offer. Remember, this isn’t just a one-off deal. If you keep producing them, I’ll keep buying them. But I have to make a profit when I sell them on, so naturally I have to mark them up. Since you’re here to sell, you must know there’s always a gap between wholesale and retail.”
Chen Liyun understood his point. Times might have changed, but the fundamental principles of commerce remained the same. In her past life, she had been trained in managing shops and estates, as running a household required nothing less.
“I’ll think about it,” she said with a polite smile, walking away before the owner could reply.
The shopkeeper called out after her, “Hey, listen to me! My price is more than fair! Go ask around, I guarantee nobody will offer you more!” Frustrated by her brisk pace and lack of response, he stamped his foot, went back inside, and picked up the telephone.
To Chen Liyun’s mixed delight and dismay, she found two more vendors willing to take embroidery deeper inside the mall. One offered the exact same rate, while the other quoted an even lower price. Left with no other options, she slipped out through a side exit.
She remembered how fond the shoe shop proprietress had seemed of her work.
The woman had asked her to return regardless of whether she made a sale, which suggested a personal interest in buying a piece. Even if she could not secure a regular supplier agreement today, selling a few items for immediate cash was better than nothing.
Anxious to catch the afternoon bus home, Chen Liyun hurried back toward the pedestrian street.