Volume One, Chapter Four: The Fool Left in the Dark & The Wise Man's Self-Inflicted Misery

“Where’s Mom?” Luo Xuan asked. “Don’t you want to see her?”

Luo Jue spoke softly, “Dad, Mom—they’re the same, no difference.”

Luo Xuan thought for a moment and advised, “To be fair, Mom has been really good to you.”

“Really?” Luo Jue’s lips curved into a faint smile. “You truly think Mom’s been good to us?”

Once again, Luo Xuan sighed inwardly: some suffer from drought, others from floods. In her eyes, Mom had already been good enough to their eldest sister.

The eldest sister sized Luo Xuan up from head to toe. “Those dark tan marks on your chest—have you been helping unload goods at home?”

Luo Xuan tugged at her collar and nodded.

The eldest sister said flatly, “Over the years, we’ve all worked on the sewing machines as general workers, helped Mom and Dad with the accounts to pass inspections, inventoried warehouse materials, handled orders and packaging, washed cars, delivered goods, greeted customers, cooked meals, and cleaned the canteen… Have we ever received a single cent of wages?”

Just thinking about it made Luo Xuan shudder.

Workers get days off, but daughters never do. The workers were all relatives from their hometown; when they had issues, Mom and Dad had to be understanding. So when manpower was short, the three sisters had to fill in.

As a child, when writing an essay about what she wanted to be when she grew up, Luo Xuan always wrote: “I absolutely refuse to work in the factory! I won’t open a factory! I’d rather die than work for my family! I want to be a white-collar worker in a big city!”

Luo Yu added, “No matter when or under what circumstances, Mom and Dad always said there was no money. When you paid to enter a swimming competition yourself as a kid, I was the one who paid for you with my scholarship, wasn’t I? We didn’t cost the family anything for compulsory education; high school was publicly funded; as for university fees—after I took the college entrance exam, the county rewarded me with 100,000 yuan, which they gave to Mom, and Mom used that money to pay for both our tuition. Later, when you earned money as a private coach from competitions, you paid me back, but Mom has never returned the rest of the money.”

Luo Xuan tried to reason again, “After all, this is our family’s own factory. The money is tied up in inventory and can’t be liquidated quickly. I can understand that.”

Luo Jue interrupted, “Do you know Mom paid for our cousin to study abroad?”

Luo Xuan blurted out, “Our cousin scored just over a hundred points across seven subjects in the college entrance exam. His exam paper fell on the floor—if I stepped on it, I’d still score higher than him. Him? Studying abroad?”

A faint, cold smile appeared on Luo Jue’s face. “He’s going to South Korea. Mom paid 50,000 yuan.”

Fifty thousand!

After decades of hard work running the factory, the family had only about two hundred thousand yuan in cash left—Luo Xuan felt a lump in her throat, unable to swallow.

Luo Jue continued, “When you visit Uncle’s house, have you noticed all their nice things? Mom bought them all. Think about our own home—our gas stove for bathing doesn’t even work properly; in summer, we wash with boiling water, and in winter, with cold water.”

Luo Xuan murmured, “But Mom washes like that too.”

Luo Jue sighed, “Yes, Mom thinks she doesn’t deserve good things, so naturally her own children don’t deserve good things either. Only Uncle should have good things. Mom can’t even tell if she’s Uncle’s sister or his mother.”

Luo Xuan instinctively shook her head. “Mom’s not some self-sacrificing saint. If Grandma ever showed favoritism to Uncle, Mom would spit in her face; when Grandpa hit her, she climbed up to the roof at midnight, tore off tiles, and poured water onto Grandpa’s bed. When Mom used to accompany you to deliver goods to Guangzhou, if they encountered a robbery gang, she managed to escape with her life… Mom doesn’t even kill a mosquito without skinning off a bit of flesh. There must be reasons we don’t know.”

Luo Jue said quietly, “Whatever the reasons, she’s stingy with her own children but willing to send our cousin abroad…”

Luo Xuan cut in, “Eldest sister, this time Uncle fought us over the inheritance. He shamelessly blocked the notary officer from coming to witness the will. Fortunately, Uncle helped us, or we wouldn’t have gotten the inheritance.”

Luo Yu was quiet for a moment, then lifted her cold, sharp eyes.

“Are you defending Uncle?” she asked.

“Eldest sister, judging by deeds, not by heart; no one’s perfect,” Luo Xuan replied. “You’re the golden phoenix who flew out of that small workshop, always excellent, never tolerating a speck of dust in your eyes. But I think ‘good enough’ is enough—I don’t have your high standards.”

Luo Jue said simply, “You always say you’re not stupid, but you really are.”

Luo Xuan sighed inwardly. When one sees too clearly, one has no friends. The world is covered by a great veil; who doesn’t have their own schemes? If you’re not a little confused, it’s hard to be happy.

She didn’t argue with her eldest sister. “Eldest sister, no matter what, Red Star Garment Factory is our family’s own factory. We all have shares. Dad left a will—Red Star Garment Factory, you hold a quarter.”

Luo Jue stood up and pulled out some papers, handing them to her.

Luo Xuan opened them and saw in black and white: “Voluntary Waiver of Inheritance Statement.”

Luo Jue said, “I don’t want a penny from Luo Wenbin and Lin Zhaodi’s money. Since they don’t love me, I don’t love them. I will never go back. If you want to understand me, then we’ll get along as we should. If you don’t, then consider me dead. My mind won’t change.”

After saying this with finality, a fine sweat appeared on Luo Jue’s temple.

Luo Xuan looked at the small balcony without even air conditioning, glanced at the dry cereal, then at her frail eldest sister, utterly unable to understand her resoluteness.

The beautiful eldest sister, pure and white like a jade sculpture: “Life is about holding onto a breath.”

Why suffer so much, giving up real benefits for some vague pride? Luo Xuan immediately took her eldest sister as a cautionary tale and silently vowed she wouldn’t be like that; she had to make her own life comfortable.

Luo Jue looked at her sister, reached out and tapped her forehead, unable to bear it any longer: “You fool!”

“You’re smart,” Luo Xuan shot back, “Smart people like you always like to make life hard for themselves.”

Seeing her eldest sister’s sweaty forehead, she turned the fan from blowing on both of them to blowing only on Luo Jue.

As she left, Luo Jue reminded Luo Xuan, “The inheritance Dad left you—keep it in your own hands. Don’t be fooled again like before, giving away money to anyone who sweet-talks you. The gold necklace you bought for Mom? It’s hanging around your aunt’s neck.”

Luo Xuan’s scalp tingled. “What?”

That necklace was a token of her affection when she first started working!

Luo Jue looked at her with pity. “Mom wore it once. When Aunt said it was pretty, Mom immediately took it off for her. You didn’t know?”

What could she know? She knew nothing—Luo Xuan was furious but said nothing.

Now she even began to doubt herself: Was she really that foolish?

Seeing Luo Xuan’s frustrated, confused expression, Luo Jue laid it out clearly:

“Dad had a mistress and an illegitimate child and teamed up with Uncle to siphon money from Mom’s factory to build a secret fund. Mom can’t trust him at all. If Mom has kept the factory going until today, it’s only because Uncle has helped support her. Compared to us, Mom trusts Uncle more. But Uncle has his own agenda... Our youngest sister is sharp—I’m not worried about her. But you—you have to look out for yourself.”

At first, Red Star Garment Factory was just a family workshop, started from nothing by the couple. Luo Wenbin handled shipping, buying, and selling; Lin Zhaodi did bookkeeping, logistics, and cooked for workers. The three sisters worked in their spare time, doing leftover material work, learning to count, checking inventory, folding packaging bags, cleaning—all without missing a single task.

After China joined the WTO in 2001, overseas garment orders flooded in. The factory grew bigger and bigger. The four women were overwhelmed, exhausted like withered radishes. Luo Wenbin recruited many relatives from their hometown to help, including Uncle’s entire family.

Red Star Garment Factory made money, but Luo Wenbin began to entertain shady ideas. Lin Zhaodi was a tough, shrewd woman who tightly controlled the factory’s finances. Luo Wenbin had to find ways to siphon money from her.

When Lin Zhaodi discovered her husband’s and Uncle’s schemes, and personally caught Luo Wenbin cheating several times, she stopped trusting him altogether. Unwilling to let the fruits of their hard work slip away, she called her own brother Lin Guodong to quit his official post and come work at the factory to help her.

Because of this, Lin Zhaodi always felt guilty toward Lin Guodong, fearing he might not be doing well.

In her words, Lin Guodong was a precious university graduate, destined to be an official, but for her sake, his sister, he willingly became a worker.

Luo Jue gave a cool smile. “Business has been good these years. Uncle has pocketed at least a million yuan from the factory. Why does Mom always think he’s not doing well? I’m a precious university graduate too, I passed the civil service exam. Why isn’t Mom worried about me?”

Luo Xuan blurted, “A million? How could Mom allow that?!”

Luo Jue smiled. “Mom is Uncle’s sister first, and then our mother. Mom’s favoritism toward Uncle far exceeds that for the three of us.”

Luo Xuan was stunned, shook her head, and argued, “Mom’s personality isn’t one of selflessness. Her little bit of guilt isn’t worth a million. There must be some reason behind this.”

Luo Jue retorted, “What other reason could there be?”

Luo Xuan could think of none.

She recalled her youngest sister’s words, “You never know anything,” and her mind was in turmoil.

Luo Xuan gave up. “Fine, fine, I know nothing. I’m just a fool. After handling Dad’s affairs, I’m going back to Shanghai to work. Mom doesn’t even like me. She can manage Red Star Garment Factory and give me my share of the profits each year. I won’t get involved. I’ll just be a money gobbler—swallowing all the money, never letting a dime slip to Uncle. Is that okay?”

The eldest sister chuckled, “You expect Mom to give you money?”

Luo Xuan straightened her neck. “I have a share in Red Star Factory!”

Luo Jue hesitated, then showed a cold smile. “See, you’re still a fool. Teaching you is useless; you only learn from experience.”

Luo Xuan asked directly, “What experience? Why don’t you all just say it clearly? Why do you like making people guess? How am I supposed to guess?”

Luo Jue said, “You’ll know soon enough.”

Know what? Luo Xuan wondered bitterly.

Did the answer write itself in the air?

How come everyone else knows, but she can’t see it?