Cheng Zhiwen spoke softly, "You go ahead."
Shen Qing resolutely declared: "First, I will leave the traitorous party! Second, I will break off my engagement with Miss Liu! Third, I will break up with Miss Zhu!"
In fact, she never expected him to agree to these requests.
She knew he couldn't do it, which is why she deliberately set such a high bar for him.
If he can't do it, he won't bother me anymore.
In the darkness, Cheng Zhiwen scratched her hair in frustration: "Not for now."
Shen Qing sneered, kicked him, turned around and lay back on the bed, covering her face with the blanket.
Behind him, Cheng Zhiwen calmly said, "My situation is unlikely to change in a short time, but please believe me, I will not let you down."
Shen Qing closed her eyes and retorted sarcastically, mimicking his words: "Our relationship is just like your situation, and it's hard to change in a short time, but please believe me, I will definitely disappoint you."
She wasn't asleep; her hand still gripped the hairpin knife, her whole body on guard. She prayed that Cheng Zhiwen would sleep with her as he had the night before and not bother her.
However, this intense concentration made her increasingly tired, her eyelids became more and more sore, and she was about to fall asleep.
Suddenly someone knocked on the door.
Shen Qing kicked Cheng Zhiwen: "Go open the door."
Cheng Zhiwen put on her bathrobe, got out of bed, and opened the door.
Shen Qing lifted the blanket to look over.
The lights outside were bright, but the room was dark. The person was backlit, so she couldn't see who it was, but judging from the figure, it was either Jiang Shen or one of his followers.
The man whispered something to Cheng Zhiwen, who cursed "son of a bitch" and immediately went back to the dressing room, quickly getting dressed and coming out.
"I have to go out for a while."
Shen Qing was overjoyed and quickly asked, "When are you coming back?"
She hoped he wouldn't come back until dawn so she could get a good night's sleep.
"It's hard to say." He hesitated for a moment, then walked to the bedside, bent down and tucked the blanket around her. "Go to sleep quickly, you'll get better if you get enough sleep."
Shen Qing smiled and said, "I understand. You should go now."
After closing the door, she happily kicked her legs on the bed and played for a while before getting out of bed to lock the door.
However, the door was already locked.
When Cheng Zhiwen left, he locked the door for her.
With Cheng Zhiwen absent, Shen Qing slept soundly and went to see the factory with Jiang Shen early the next morning.
As soon as she got into the carriage, she asked, "Was it you who came to call Cheng Zhiwen out last night?"
Jiang Shen shook his head: "I was on duty until midnight last night and then went to rest. I didn't go up to see Mr. Cheng."
“Not you? That’s strange,” Shen Qing said. “A man came to him in the middle of the night, said something to him, and then left in a hurry.”
Jiang Shen pressed further, "Did Mr. Cheng say where he was going?"
Shen Qing shook her head: "No, they didn't say anything."
Seeing Jiang Shen's serious expression, she asked worriedly, "When he was outside, he must have had people with him, right? They must have been able to protect him, right?"
"Mr. Cheng was accompanied by entourage, but if..."
Shen Qing's nerves skipped a beat: "But what?"
"If the enemy has a large number of people and a lot of weapons, those few followers may not be able to hold them off. It's like on the ship. In fact, our people are similar to the pirates, but because the pirates also have guns, Mr. Cheng was injured."
Shen Qing understood and let out a long sigh: "Who told him to abandon his good business and get involved in those things? If he were just a simple businessman, who would want to kill him?"
Jiang Shen remained silent.
Shen Qing parted the curtain to look outside, then asked, "Are we heading to the outskirts? Is there electricity in the outskirts?"
Jiang Shen snapped out of his daze and said, "Mr. Cheng said we don't need to look for a place with electricity; he will prepare a generator for us."
Shen Qing nodded: "It's indeed difficult to find factory buildings in the areas of Shanghai that currently have electricity."
Without the constraints of electricity, she quickly settled on a factory location near where the girls lived.
Having the factory and dormitory next to each other makes management easier.
She asked He Fei to organize the girls to clean the factory, while she went to the market to set up a stall and recruit workers.
This time, they're still hiring all female workers.
Ten machines require ten nimble female operators. The girls rescued from Britain cannot work on the machines yet; they can only process the woven inner fabric.
Although Shanghai was more civilized than Jiangzhou, it still took Shen Qing more than half a month to recruit enough female workers.
Coincidentally, the female workers had just been recruited when the machines arrived in Shanghai at the same time.
This is a ready-made machine; no assembly is required, just plug it in and it's ready to use.
Shen Qing quickly sent Lao Xu to Chun'an to contact for raw materials. After working on this for more than half a month, the factory was running smoothly.
Once the tightly woven inner lining fabric was successfully woven and accumulated to a certain quantity, it was transported back to Jiangzhou for chemical treatment.
Two days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Shen Qing planned to return to Jiangzhou.
The fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month is approaching. First, I need to go home for a family reunion, and second, I need to deal with the 100,000 taels I owe Master Zhao.
The loan agreement stipulates that the principal must be returned in the ninth month of the lunar calendar, so she needs to go back and discuss this matter with Qi Zhenheng in advance.
Otherwise, once the first day of the ninth month arrives and the money hasn't been repaid, Master Zhao will again threaten to kill and seize the house.
So I definitely have to go back before the Mid-Autumn Festival.
But before going back, Shen Qing wanted to settle the cost of the machine and generator with Cheng Zhiwen.
Only then did they realize that Cheng Zhiwen had disappeared for a month or so.
When asked, Jiang Shen and Lao Xu said no one knew where he went or whether he was safe.
Shen Qing was a little worried.
She hid the banknotes she was going to give to Cheng Zhiwen, planning to settle the accounts with him the next time she saw him.
On the fourteenth day of the eighth lunar month, Shen Qing got up very early, preparing to return to Jiangzhou.
Not wanting to be too conspicuous in a European-style long dress when she returned to Jiangzhou, she changed into a Qing-style jacket and skirt.
Jiangzhou is a traditional little place. If she goes back dressed in Western style, it will cause unnecessary trouble.
As she coiled her long hair into a bun and inserted the ruby hairpin into it, Shen Qing thought of Cheng Zhiwen again.
He let out a long sigh, got up, picked up his suitcase, and went downstairs.
Standing at the top of the stairs, Zhang Ma was so shocked when she saw her dressed as a woman from the Qing Dynasty that she widened her eyes in surprise and forgot to say anything.
She knew about Shen Qing and Cheng Zhiwen's relationship; they were even sleeping in the same room. How could there really be nothing between them?
She never expected that Shen Qing was already married. Her dress and hairstyle both indicated that she was a married woman!
Jiang Shen took the box from Shen Qing and carried it to the carriage. Old Xu quickly placed a stool on it so that Shen Qing could step onto it to get into the carriage.
With everything ready, Jiang Shen sat in the front of the carriage, and Old Xu led the horse around to turn the carriage around.
Aunt Zhang ran out, stopped Old Xu, and led him to the shade of a tree.
She glanced at the carriage curtain and whispered to Old Xu, "So this Boss Shen has a husband? How could Mr. Cheng have taken a fancy to such a slut?"
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