"How's the garment factory doing now?" Ren Jin asked, sipping the soup Gu Yueji had made, as they chatted about their daily lives.
Gu Yueji sighed, "The current order volume is not enough to cover daily operating costs." In other words, they are still operating at a loss.
After more than a month of learning, Gu Yueji and Xiao Yao have basically mastered the operation of the garment factory.
The factory was originally operating well, the machines were newly purchased before the pandemic, and the workers were skilled and willing to work hard. However, due to the impact of the pandemic over the past few years, the volume of foreign trade orders has decreased precipitously, the factory has not received any orders, and thus, the financial situation has become problematic.
So after learning about the work at the garment factory, Gu Yueji and Xiao Yao discussed and divided the work. Xiao Yao was mainly responsible for the factory's production management, purchasing raw materials such as fabric and buttons, and managing the workers, while Gu Yueji, because she ran an online store and knew many people in the same industry, was responsible for finding orders for the factory.
After the work was assigned, Xiao Yao rented a house near the garment factory to live alone. Gu Yueji, apart from meeting Xiao Yao at the factory once a week, could stay at home the rest of the time. She and Ren Jin resumed their previous life of having dinner together.
“You need to be mentally prepared; you’ll definitely lose money at first. But your husband is good at making money, so losing money for a while won’t be a problem. As long as you can find orders, the factory can keep operating,” Ren Jin comforted him.
Gu Yueji couldn't help but feel sorry for him and softened her heart. Ren Jin worked so hard at the construction site, enduring the sun and rain, to earn money. Even though he knew it was a loss, he still invested money in her. She felt like a spendthrift woman. "Thank you, husband. I will definitely work hard to earn back double the amount."
Ren Jin raised an eyebrow. "Don't worry, I don't want much interest. It can be taken care of in bed."
Gu Yueji playfully lifted her foot to tease him, "It's okay if we don't have to be in bed."
Ren Jin grabbed her foot, which had slid down to his thigh, and gave a meaningful smile. "You said it."
Gu Yueji felt so itchy and wanted to pull back, but Ren Jin wouldn't let her.
She blushed and surrendered, "I haven't finished eating yet."
Ren Jin rubbed his leg for a bit before letting go, then finished the soup in his bowl in one gulp. Suddenly, he remembered the phone call he received today. "My aunt called me today and said it's my aunt's 50th birthday. She's planning to host a celebration at a hotel this weekend."
Gu Yueji was taken aback. "Your aunt?"
“She’s my dad’s older sister.” Ren Jin said with a mocking smile, “Just so you know, my aunt is no pushover. And my dad and his family will probably be there, so this meal might not be very enjoyable.”
Gu Yueji hadn't met Ren Jin's other relatives and wanted to find out more about them, so she asked, "Besides your aunt, who else do you have?"
Seeing that she was too lazy to cook the remaining large plate of shrimp, Ren Jin dragged the plate in front of him and began peeling them slowly as he spoke, “My dad has an older sister and a younger sister. The younger sister is my aunt, who married into the next village. When I was little, my dad didn’t care about me much, so my aunt took care of me the most. My dad’s older sister, my aunt, went to the city to study a long time ago. Later, she married a civil servant in the city and rarely came back to the village. I’ve hardly ever seen her since I was little. When she occasionally came back to see my grandparents, she acted like she was inspecting the people’s conditions, with a superior attitude, and she hardly paid any attention to me. However, when the village was allocating demolition houses, she called me, implying that boys and girls are all their parents’ children, and that in terms of inheritance, all of my grandparents’ children should have a share of the demolition houses. Later, when she found out that my grandfather had already transferred the land and houses to my name, she stopped calling me. This aunt is very cunning. I heard from my aunt that her husband is some kind of section chief in the urban management bureau, and she herself is a factory worker, yet she bought several houses. At that time, she even tried to instigate my aunt to fight me for the houses.”
His aunt had looked down on him since he was a child, and she never gave him a friendly look whenever she saw him. Now that he's grown up and made some money in construction, she's taken the initiative to call him.
Ren Jin still doesn't understand why an adult would look down on a child.
Perhaps it was because he never knew how to please adults from a young age. When she boasted about how big and clean her house in the city was, and what her husband's job was, he just found it boring and drew pictures on the ground with pebbles. Later, when he grew up, she liked to use her son's university degree to lecture him for not studying hard enough and to learn from her son. He would retort by asking how much a university graduate could earn, and his aunt and son's faces would immediately turn sour. After that, whenever Ren Jin saw her car in front of his grandfather's house, he would stay far away and not go home.
After Ren Jin finished talking about his father, he thought of his mother, Huang Qiuyan. He was even more unfamiliar with his mother's relatives. "My mother has two uncles, but I don't remember what they look like. I probably wouldn't recognize them if I met them now."
Gu Yueji listened silently; Ren Jin's relationship with his relatives was pretty much as she had expected.
The older she got, the more she understood that relatives are just a group of people with whom we have blood ties that we cannot choose. Blood ties do not represent the closeness of the relationship. Sometimes, people with blood ties may be more reluctant to see you do well, while strangers are more willing to help you unconditionally.
Gu Yueji ate the shrimp he peeled, nodded and said, "Your family relationships are quite good, I like them very much."
Ren Jin looked up at her, a smile in his eyes, "What do you mean?"
She seemed quite happy despite his discord with his family.
Gu Yueji shook her head and began to analyze things for him logically, "Think about it, if you have a bunch of aunts and uncles, I have to maintain good relationships with each and every one of them. During holidays, weddings and funerals, there are so many things to do throughout the year. Now I understand why your former blind date wanted to find an orphan to be his husband."
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