Volume One, Chapter 15: Personal Karma & The Beginning Unfolds
The sky had completely darkened.
Jiao Jie, dressed in a vibrant rose-red, appeared at the perfect moment to greet them. “I just finished cooking a pot of pumpkin and goji berry porridge. Would you like some to fill your stomach before you leave?”
Lin Zhaodi sighed appreciatively. “You really know how to do business.”
Jiao Jie smiled. “We’re all old friends here; you come often.”
The three of them held their bowls of porridge in silence for a long while.
Xiaomei broke the quiet. “Wei Yinyin is shameless—she stole my dad and even fights me for money. I hate her so much. I only want her to suffer! But... I don’t know. I feel a little sad inside.”
Luo Xuan wiped her face.
Damn it—how could she feel sad for her father’s mistress? Uncle and Xiaomei were right: they were enemies, locked in a deadly feud. Wei Yinyin came to steal their money, and if it were Luo Xuan handling it, she would be even harsher than Mom and Uncle.
Then what was she sad about? What was this complicated, sorrowful, subtle, and twisted feeling?
Lin Zhaodi, who went yearly to the temple to rush for the first incense, was always wearing her lucky Pixiu charm. She rubbed the consecrated beads on her wrist. “Everyone has their own karma.”
She rose to take a phone call.
Only the two sisters remained at the table.
Luo Qi looked up at Luo Xuan. “Sister, if Mom and Dad’s factory never got started, and the family stayed poor, would we really be living better than Wei Yinyin?”
Luo Xuan sighed deeply. “Why do you have to think about that?”
Luo Qi cast her eyes down, her spoon tapping the bowl’s edge. “Sister, it’s because you don’t want to think about it, don’t want to see it, that you know nothing.”
“Being foolish and naive isn’t a bad thing,” Luo Xuan said, gazing at her beautiful but melancholy younger sister, reaching out to stroke her long black hair that fell to her waist. “You and eldest sister are smart, but smart people often bring suffering upon themselves.”
Luo Qi’s tone was stubborn. “I just want to live well.”
“So do I,” Luo Xuan said softly. “But life rarely goes as we wish. Love itself is a curse; everyone is wronged. If you ask for too much, you are destined to be unhappy.”
Luo Qi stared into her bowl, voice firm. “I don’t care if I get it or not. What’s mine is mine, and I won’t let anyone take it.”
She avoided Luo Xuan’s eyes.
Lin Zhaodi was still speaking loudly on the phone, full of energy. “Yes, Hongxing Factory will reopen tomorrow! We can fulfill all orders, no problem at all! Five times compensation if anything is missing!”
Amid their mother’s always resolute and booming voice, Luo Xuan looked at her younger sister’s expression and gradually grew suspicious. “Are you hiding something from me?”
Luo Qi was startled and pressed her fingers to her forehead. “What are you talking about?”
“You always cover your eyebrows with your hand when you lie to me,” Luo Xuan said.
Luo Qi frowned. “I don’t.”
With a clatter, Luo Xuan put down her spoon and crossed her arms, staring at her. “Am I still your sister? Can I still control you?”
Luo Qi bit her lip as Luo Xuan’s gaze remained fixed on her. Finally, she stammered, “Second sister, I want to…”
***
Clang clang clang clang.
Luo Xuan’s phone rang, the familiar tune of “Fate” playing its opening melody.
She pressed speakerphone. Lin Guodong’s voice was irritable. “Why is your mom’s line always busy?! Get her to answer the phone!”
At that moment, Lin Zhaodi ended her call and, smiling, came over. “Has the visitor left?”
“Wei Yinyin can’t leave,” Lin Guodong said amid a noisy background. “She owes one million yuan. Lao Bao and his men stopped us at the train station. Lao Bao said that Luo Wenbin left in a hurry, but his debts in the mortal world aren’t settled yet.”
Lin Zhaodi asked, “What do you mean by that?”
Lin Guodong answered, “That one million, Lao Bao wants you to pay.”
...
Luo Xuan gasped.
One million?
In Luosang County, a rural family’s annual income from farming was 3,400 yuan. Growing some vegetables added ten yuan a month, totaling 3,600 yuan a year.
During off-seasons, working as a part-time garment worker, making a sports shirt paid 5.5 yuan per piece.
Building a new house in the village—a three-story single-layer, 150 square meters—cost up to 350,000 yuan for construction and furnishing.
Luo Xuan worked in Shanghai as a white-collar employee for a global fast-moving consumer goods giant, earning a proper high income of at most 90,000 yuan a year; Luo Jue worked for a Japanese company in Zhihe City, earning less than 30,000 yuan annually.
And now there was a debt of one million!
Luo Xuan couldn’t help but recall that on the day their father died, the doctor had asked her to buy toilet paper at the store. Before the same rolls of paper, her father was about to die, while another child was about to be born.
Life and death side by side; life and death intertwined.
When their father was alive, their family life was as still as death; now that he was gone, this stillness suddenly surged with turmoil.
Luo Xuan belatedly realized—
Luo Wenbin’s sudden death was not the final chapter, but the opening act of a grand drama.
...
Lin Zhaodi’s expression suddenly darkened.
Lao Bao was a notorious debt collector in the area, hired to collect debts and resolve troubles.
Luo Wenbin, in business, had always liked to delay payments and shirk his debts when he could. Until one time, the aggrieved party hired Lao Bao, who tracked Luo Xuan all the way to her school, slapped her twice, and branded a deep burn on the back of her hand with a cigarette.
Even after more than ten years, the scar still protruded.
Hearing Lao Bao’s name, Luo Xuan shuddered involuntarily. On the phone, her uncle said, “Sister, Lao Bao has seized Wei Yinyin and wants to see you.”
***
Lin Zhaodi sneered. “What does Wei Yinyin’s debt have to do with me?”
Lin Guodong replied irritably, “Lao Bao says the money was borrowed under her name by Luo Wenbin.”
Lin Zhaodi, like a mother leopard bristling with rage, snatched Luo Xuan’s phone and overturned the porridge bowl. “Luo Wenbin kept a mistress, borrowed money to live it up, and I didn’t even spend a dime. Now he’s turned to dust, and it’s my turn to pay?”
Lin Guodong advised, “Lao Bao’s coming for the money. Can you refuse? Do you dare offend Lao Bao?”
Lin Zhaodi clenched her teeth, veins twitching on her forehead, fire burning in her chest. “Lin Guodong, you’ve been a coward since childhood! Luo Wenbin shat on me, and so did Lao Bao—I refuse to swallow that shit! Tell Lao Bao, I won’t pay, no matter what!”
After a moment’s silence, Lin Guodong said, “Sister, even if I’m a coward, I’d never dare say that to Lao Bao.”
Lin Zhaodi shouted, “Tell Lao Bao to wait—I’m going to the train station. If he wants to meet, fine! Anyone who doesn’t go is a fool!”
She slammed down the phone, spinning the porridge bowl, which tipped over the table’s edge.
The rice porridge spilled down, dribbling all over Luo Xuan’s pants—cold and sticky.
Luo Xuan jumped back. “Xiaomei, hand me the toilet paper!” Before she finished, a roll struck her hard on the head.
It was Lin Zhaodi.
Throwing the toilet paper onto Luo Xuan, Lin Zhaodi looked up and cursed, “You can’t even drink a bowl of porridge without spilling it. What good are you?”
The toilet paper didn’t hurt, bouncing off and falling to the floor, dragging a long white streak between mother and daughter.
Luo Xuan was stunned.
After a long moment, a surge of grievance rose from her stomach to her head. She suddenly stood up and kicked the toilet paper away. “Why are you taking your anger out on me?”
Lin Zhaodi snapped, “You can’t even keep a bowl of porridge down. What good are you if not a burden?”
Luo Xuan yelled, “Your husband’s infidelity and debts are your problem. Why are you using that to take it out on me?”
Lin Zhaodi suddenly fell silent.
Seconds later, she slammed the table and stood up. “Because I am your mother!”
Luo Xuan watched Lin Zhaodi, panting heavily, eyes wide and face flushed with anger, and felt a pang of fear. “I don’t want to argue with you. Just calm down—don’t make yourself sick! Did you bring your blood pressure medicine?”
Being a child means naturally having to yield.
Luo Xuan watched as her younger sister fumbled to take out two blood pressure pills. After Lin Zhaodi swallowed them with water, Luo Xuan brushed past them and turned away. “I’m going to the bathroom.”
She pushed back her chair abruptly and strode out.