Shen Yunyun couldn't hold it in anymore when she heard Liao Zhen say these things, her shoulders shaking violently.
Liao Zhen was speechless. "Laughing like that will cost you your good karma."
"Sorry, I really can't help it. I know I shouldn't, but I just can't hold it in, hahahahaha..." Shen Yunyun truly couldn't stop, absolutely couldn't stop.
This poor kid—why did he keep running into such unlucky things?
"And then?" Shen Yunyun, having laughed enough, wanted to hear him continue.
"Then I went to work in a coastal city for a year and paid off all the loans."
Shen Yunyun couldn't help but fall into thought.
"Is it possible that you'd be doing just fine if you didn't start a business?"
He'd just said that year he was over a hundred thousand in debt, and he paid it off after working for a year.
This time he owed over three hundred thousand, and after working for another year, he paid it off again.
That meant in two years of working, he'd saved over four hundred thousand.
While four hundred thousand wasn't much to her, for an ordinary worker, it was a lot—and that was after expenses.
In a small place like Goose City, four hundred thousand could buy a pretty decent second-hand house in a good location.
If he worked outside for three years, he could come back and buy a house, a car, and find a wife.
Liao Zhen: "..."
"But I just can't let it go. I want to change the situation in my hometown."
Shen Yunyun looked at him suspiciously. "What does your hometown's poverty have to do with you? You want to lead them to prosperity together, but not only are they ungrateful, they stab you in the back, and you still can't let them go? Are you a saint?"
Liao Zhen opened his mouth as if to speak but stopped.
Shen Yunyun just stared at him.
Despite failing at starting businesses repeatedly, his eyes were still clear.
Like a college student fresh out of school.
"I want to make my hometown wealthy so more kids can go to school, learn to reason, broaden their horizons..."
"Speak plainly."
"I don't want any more girls to end up like my mom." Liao Zhen lowered his head after saying this.
Seeing his expression and recalling he'd said his mom died when he was very young, Shen Yunyun suddenly realized something: "Was your mom trafficked?"
Liao Zhen turned his head away, looking both awkward and aggrieved.
Shen Yunyun fell silent.
The "taken-in" college student forced her to believe that even in this highly civilized modern era, traffickers still existed.
It was an undeniable fact.
Though she was reluctant to believe it and couldn't accept it, she had to admit it was true.
They both fell silent.
"My grandparents all thought I was too young to remember anything back then, but I remember everything. I remember the police coming to my house, and I saw strangers crying bitterly with my mom. I remember those strangers hitting my dad and grandma right in front of the police, pinning them to the ground and beating them. I was so scared I hugged my mom's leg, but a stranger kicked me into the pig trough. Later, they left in a police car, and I ran after them crying, chasing them for a very long way until I fell into a ravine..."
As Liao Zhen spoke, Shen Yunyun couldn't help wiping away tears.
She hated traffickers and fully supported executing them.
She also hated the buyers—no demand, no harm.
But she also sympathized with Liao Zhen. What had he done wrong?
Born with original sin.
And what had his mom done wrong?
"I hate traffickers. I believe the suffering of my mom and her family was caused by traffickers, while my dad and grandma's suffering was caused by poverty. The girls in the village all marry out of the mountains, but no outside girls are willing to marry into the mountains. So I want to solve the problem at its root. If the mountain people have money, every family can live in a small villa, drive their own car, eat their own pesticide-free green vegetables, eggs from their own poultry, and meat from their own livestock raised without feed. Then I think the boys in the village won't have to worry about not finding a wife anymore."