Chapter 493 - 480: Opportunity

Zheng Changsheng was taken aback by Lin Shuying’s words. He quickly understood and felt a faint warmth in his heart. ’She must think I’ve fallen on hard times, showing up dressed like this,’ he thought. ’But she doesn’t look down on me for it.’

After entering the room, he’d glanced around. It was a large home, and it seemed to have everything. On his way here, he had also noticed that the house was in a good location, not in the suburbs. The housing prices here couldn’t be cheap; a house this big must have cost a fortune.

Lin Shuying had changed too. Both her clothes and her spirits were much better than before, which meant she was genuinely living a good life. Zhongshan looked spirited as well, no longer sickly like he used to be; his illness must have been cured. Xinghua had grown into a young woman, and her smile when she saw him was sincere, not just for show.

Their lives had improved, yet when they saw him, an old acquaintance from their past, they didn’t shun him. Instead, they welcomed him to stay, which proved that they hadn’t changed. They were still people of loyalty and kindness. His trip had not been in vain.

"I didn’t really suffer much. The journey over was actually quite smooth. It was just so cold. When I got off the train in Harbin, I nearly froze to death. My whole body felt stiff. You have no idea, everyone else was wearing thick, padded coats, and I was the only one in thin clothes. They stared at me like I was a circus monkey. But what could I do? I didn’t expect it to be this cold when I left, so I didn’t bring any heavy clothes. At the station, I met an old man. He saw how badly I was freezing and struck up a conversation. I asked him where I could buy clothes, and he offered to sell me the ones he was wearing. His clothes were filthy and they stank, but I was in a hurry to catch my next train and had no idea where else to find any. So I just bought his. They’re not comfortable, but they’re warm. Otherwise, I think I would’ve frozen solid."

Zheng Changsheng smiled as he explained about his clothes. He knew it was his attire that had caused Lin Shuying’s misunderstanding, and he didn’t want her to get the wrong idea. ’I know she isn’t the materialistic type. Even if I were a beggar, she wouldn’t ignore me. There was no need to test her with an outfit like this.’

"Oh, I see! No wonder they don’t fit well. Look at all the grime on these clothes, they’re absolutely filthy. They probably haven’t been washed in ages. Take them off in a bit. Zhongshan has a new padded coat; I’ll find it for you to change into."

Lin Shuying finally understood.

"I’ll go get a set. Uncle Zheng and I are about the same build. I’m afraid Zhongshan’s clothes won’t fit him."

Sun Jiaming took a look; Zheng Zhongshan was indeed thinner and shorter than Zheng Changsheng.

"Thank you, Jia Ming. I won’t stand on ceremony with you, then."

Lin Shuying nodded.

As Sun Jiaming went to get the clothes, Lin Shuying quickly asked Zheng Changsheng if he had eaten. When she learned he had only had a couple of bites of dry rations, she hurried to bring him a bowl of sweet rice balls.

Zheng Changsheng finished the sweet rice balls and drank all the soup, only then starting to feel his strength return.

Only then did Lin Shuying ask, "Changsheng, how have you been this past year or so?"

Everyone else also turned to look at Zheng Changsheng.

"After you left, I stayed in the village for two days before I left too. I originally wanted to come here, but I hesitated at the train station. You had just returned, and if I followed you right away, I was afraid people would gossip about you. It was Da Niu who was in the wrong, who treated you poorly. But if I came, people would surely talk, and you’d be seen as the guilty party even though you were innocent. So, I didn’t come."

Since Zheng Changsheng had chosen to come, he no longer intended to hide his feelings.

Hearing him say this, Lin Shuying’s eyes reddened again. ’This man, always thinking of me.’

"I couldn’t come here, but I didn’t want to go back to the village either. I sat dazed at the train station for a long time. Then, I happened to overhear some people talking about going to Guang City. They said you could make money doing anything there, that it was like picking up free cash off the street. That sounded great to me. I was just wondering where to go, so I bought a ticket to Guang City."

As Zheng Changsheng recounted the past, he remembered sitting on the floor of the train station, feeling like his life had no direction. He was in a daze, with no idea where to go. If he hadn’t overheard that conversation, he had no idea where he would be today. ’Life... sometimes you just never know.’

Gu’er glanced at Zheng Changsheng. ’I can’t believe he went to Guang City,’ she thought. ’Guang City was one of the first cities to develop. There are so many opportunities there. I wonder how well he’s done for himself.’

"Guang City? I’ve heard Gu’er mention it. They do business there, importing goods. You were in a new place where you didn’t know anyone. How did you manage?"

"It was rough when I first got there. I’d never traveled far from home before, and I couldn’t understand the local dialect. It was hard to find work, too. I don’t even like to think about those days. But later, I found a job at a clothing factory and started earning some money, enough to get by. Then, over half a year ago, an opportunity came up. I designed a clothing style that earned me a bit of money, so I opened a small storefront. After that, I made a few more designs, and business has been decent."

"You’re really capable. I don’t think I could have done that."

Lin Shuying sighed with admiration, happy for Zheng Changsheng.

"Uncle Zheng, when you say you earned ’a bit,’ how much is that, roughly? And what does your shop sell? We should see if we can cooperate in the future."

Gu’er asked because, while they already had business partners in Guang City, having a familiar face there would make things much more convenient. After all, they couldn’t travel to Guang City often, so they couldn’t get firsthand information on the latest trends. If they had someone like him who could tell them what was popular and ship it back, their department store could always stay at the forefront of fashion. As long as the quality was acceptable, the store wouldn’t decline. Even if the quality wasn’t top-tier, as long as the styles were new and exciting, they could open another shop just to sell those items.

"Over the past six-plus months, I’ve probably made around three hundred thousand yuan. The first time was the main thing; I just stumbled into it. That design sold exceptionally well, and I made over a hundred thousand from that alone. Cooperation sounds great! I have no problem with it. We can sit down tomorrow and discuss the details."

Lin Shuying’s eyes went wide. ’My goodness, hundreds of thousands! That’s so much money! He earned all that in just over a year? It sounds so unreal.’

Zheng Zhongshan and Zheng Xinghua were also in disbelief. ’Uncle Zheng is that amazing?’ they thought. They had thought their family was doing pretty well, but they never imagined Uncle Zheng was now worth hundreds of thousands.

Gu’er also sighed to herself. ’A person’s fortune is truly unpredictable. Back when Li Zhi, Dingzi, and I went to the Soviet Union for goods, we worked so hard hauling everything and dodging the police. A tough trip like that would only net us ten or twenty thousand. But Zheng Changsheng made hundreds of thousands in less than a year. There’s just no comparison.’

However, their current net worth was far beyond what Zheng Changsheng could compare to. Although they had spent a lot of money helping the government build a nursing home, with the department store’s profits and their savings combined, they were practically millionaires.