It was Gao Shenshi's daughter, who had married and moved away, who returned to the Gao family.
In Shen Qing's memory, this sister-in-law was forced to marry a man from out of town because she became pregnant out of wedlock with him while he was doing business in Jiangzhou.
My husband's family home isn't particularly far from Jiangzhou, only about 200-300 kilometers away. If you travel at a fast pace, you can make a round trip in a day.
However, her husband's family treated her very harshly, never allowing her to return to her parents' home. She herself was also foolish; she dared not return because they wouldn't let her. Moreover, she gave birth to three children in the three or four years after her marriage.
These days, I'm either in postpartum confinement or pregnant.
Thinking of all this, Shen Qing shuddered, shook his head, and walked into the workshop.
Her office was the accounting room, a temporary loft room. The stairs were located next to the workshop door. Once you entered the workshop, you could turn right to get to the accounting room.
As she climbed the stairs, she asked Chunju, "Did that girl say why she came back?"
Chunju shook her head: "She didn't say anything, but as soon as she came back, she burst into tears in front of the old lady, which made the old lady cry too."
Shen Qing waved his hand: "Never mind her, let's live our own lives and keep to ourselves."
Chunju sighed, hesitated for a moment, and then expressed her concern: "I always feel that the timing of Miss Gao's return is too coincidental."
"Hmm?" Shen Qing picked up a brush, opened the ledger, and recorded the two hundred bolts of rayon that had been lost in the past two days.
"Why did they have to come back so suddenly, only when the Gao family's business started to improve? Why didn't she come back when the Gao family was almost ruined?"
Chunju's words caught Shen Qing's attention.
She placed the brush on the brush holder and pondered calmly.
Even a girl like Chunju, who couldn't read a single word, could see the oddity. It seemed she was too blatant to hide anymore. Or perhaps, this daughter of the Gao family was so confident that with the Gao family's son dead, she was the only one left to inherit everything, so she couldn't possibly stop her cunning.
But the Gao family is a piece of meat that not everyone can stomach. At best, they'll end up in jail; at worst, they'll lose their lives.
Miss Gao, who only knows how to give birth, wants to have her cake and eat it too. Shen Qing wants to see if she has the ability.
He gave a mocking laugh and picked up the brush again.
It's true that everyone in the world is driven by profit.
Only Cheng Zhiwen would help her when she was at her lowest point.
Shen Qing was busy arranging for the second batch of rayon to be sent to Suzhou for printing and dyeing, and didn't get home until midnight.
It was late at night, and Gao Liushi and her maids and servants had all gone to rest, leaving only two or three servants on night duty standing in the corridor and courtyard.
The house was quiet and peaceful, no different from when it was ***.
Shen Qing went straight back to her room.
Chunju lit the lamp, removed the hair ornaments from her head, and then put her long hair up in a bun.
In modern times, Shen Qing was used to taking a bath every day. After transmigrating, he also asked Chunju to boil water for him every night so that he could bathe and change clothes before going to bed.
But her hair was so long and thick that she always wore an elaborate updo, and taking it apart to wash it was a huge undertaking, so she could only wash it once a week.
Fortunately, the environment was good in ancient times with little pollution, so hair was only washed once a week and didn't get oily or itchy.
Shen Qing gazed at herself in the bronze mirror.
The skin is plump, fair, and moist, without any fine lines or peeling.
If this were modern times, in the dead of winter, her skin would definitely be extremely dry, often peeling as soon as she applied foundation, and she would need to do a lot of moisturizing every day.
She thought to herself that living in ancient times wasn't as bad as she had imagined.
Aside from a few minor inconveniences, such as not having sanitary napkins during menstruation and not having a bra to wear during the day...
Shen Qing instinctively thought of imports.
In Europe at that time, sanitary napkins and bras were available.
I wonder if Cheng Zhiwen will be able to import this stuff...
Even if he had a solution, it wouldn't be good to bother him with this kind of thing...
Thinking about it this way, Shen Qing remembered Cheng Zhiwen again.
He's been back in Shanghai for over half a month now. What has he been busy with during this time?
They neither sent a telegram nor informed Lao Xu of their whereabouts.
Shen Qing suddenly felt that this person was very mysterious. Apart from knowing that he was from the Cheng family in Yongzhou, had returned from studying in the United States, and worked as a comprador in Shanghai, he knew nothing else.
Shen Qing was sometimes very curious about his experiences in the United States, and even more curious about his ideals and plans for the future, but he always kept quiet about it.
Their interactions seemed to consist only of his observations of her and various attempts to test her.
"Young Madam," Chunju called softly, "the hot water is ready, shall I take you to take a bath?"
Shen Qing snapped out of her daze, pulled her shawl tighter, got up, and went to the bathroom.
Steam rose from the wooden tub. She went inside, closed the door, took off her shawl and undergarments, and casually hung them on a clothes rack. She then immersed herself naked in the waist-high tub.
Hot water reached her neck and soaked her whole body. She closed her eyes comfortably, rested her head on the edge of the tub, and tilted her head back to relax.
She was thinking about the future of rayon.
What we can confirm right now is that selling rayon in shops is no problem.
But what she wanted wasn't just to sell a couple hundred bolts of rayon a day; what she wanted was tens of thousands of bolts of rayon, shipped all over the country and even the world.
The workshop in Jiangzhou, converted from an abandoned silk tapestry workshop and equipped with only ten machines, was merely a small, transitional workshop.
Next, she plans to open silk factories in Suzhou, Hangzhou, and other areas with a large number of textile and dyeing enterprises, leveraging the local technological advantages to significantly reduce transportation and labor costs, thereby further lowering the cost of rayon.
Currently, the price of rayon is not cheap because it covers equipment and shipping costs; it could be even cheaper.
Once she has paid off her debts, she can begin preparing for the establishment of a women's college, thus realizing her original vision.
Shen Qing became more and more excited as he thought about it, and an unprecedented fighting spirit ignited in his heart.
I was exhausted before, but now I feel energetic.
Feeling the water gradually cool down, she stood up from the water, walked to the clothes rack, picked up a clean silk bathrobe, and wrapped it around her shapely body.
His gaze was unfocused as he stared at the paper window, fastening his belt while planning his next move.
Suddenly a dark shadow flashed past outside.
Shen Qing snapped out of her daze, pulled her bathrobe tighter around herself, and shouted, "Who's there? Who's outside?"
There was no sound outside.
Shen Qing asked several times before Chunju's high-pitched voice finally came through: "Young Madam, what's wrong? Are you done washing?"
Shen Qing quickly opened the door and let Chunju in.
The door closed, and she asked urgently, "Did you see anyone outside just now?"
Chunju shook her head: "I went back to your room to make the bed. I just came over and didn't see anyone."
Recalling the height of the dark figure, Shen Qing walked to the window and gestured with her hand.
The shadowy figure was about ten centimeters taller than her, but it was large and agile. It must have been secretly crouching there early in the morning, waiting for her to finish washing and getting dressed before fleeing.
The servants in the Gao family mansion were thin and small, almost as short as her, let alone fat.
Therefore, the shadowy figure was very likely to have secretly hidden in there just today.
Shen Qing guessed who it was, cursed inwardly a few times, and returned to her room without making a sound.
Chunju helped her change into a silk nightgown.
Wrapped in soft silk bedding and pajamas, Shen Qing was wide awake.
She stared nervously at the dark brown carved door, tossing and turning for a long time, before finally getting up and pulling the dresser behind the door to block it.
Lying back in bed, she was still uneasy, afraid that the person was hiding outside, secretly tearing the oil paper on the window to spy on her while she slept.
Shen Qing tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep well, and decided to kick that pervert out of the Gao family tomorrow!
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