My Left Eye Can See Through Everything

For the first time, Zhou Yang found himself gazing at this woman so closely, unable to tear his eyes away.

After a long pause, Zhou Yang began to share his story.

Zhou Yang’s family had decent living conditions at first. Their town was about ten kilometers away from the county town. Zhou Yang’s father had purchased a van, which he used to transport goods and passengers.

In the countryside, there was no need for an operating license back then. You could call it an unregistered vehicle, or what people commonly referred to as a “black car.”

Such vehicles were quite common in rural areas during those years, as the remote locations meant no one bothered to enforce regulations. A single trip cost five yuan per person, and a van typically seated seven people, including the driver. However, in the countryside, there was no concept of overloading, nor anyone to regulate it. Sometimes, a van would carry more than a dozen passengers.

Business was especially booming during the Lunar New Year or the twelfth lunar month. Besides regular daytime trips, there were occasional nighttime jobs as well. For instance, transporting someone to the hospital in case of illness or picking up passengers returning from out of town at the bus station.

Those years were indeed profitable. But then, one day, disaster struck.

A villager working out of town called Zhou Yang’s father to pick him up. Zhou Yang’s father agreed without hesitation, as it was a private hire. Picking someone up from the county town and dropping them off at home earned fifty yuan. After deducting fuel costs, thirty yuan was easy money. But what seemed like just another routine trip turned into tragedy.

A car accident occurred, resulting in the van being totaled and lives lost.

What followed was the beginning of a dark chapter.

Not only had the family’s breadwinner been lost, but they also faced enormous compensation demands. The accident had left one person dead and another injured, and Zhou Yang’s family was held responsible.

The biggest issue was that the van had no proper documentation, so there was no hope of any insurance coverage.

The first challenge was the massive compensation. But beyond the financial burden, the emotional toll was devastating. Zhou Yang was only in his early twenties at the time, and he had a younger sister to look after.

How could a family like theirs shoulder such a heavy debt? After exhausting their savings to pay compensation, they had no choice but to borrow money.

Naturally, they turned to relatives and friends for help. But with Zhou Yang’s father gone and the family drowning in debt, who would be willing to lend them money?

In the end, it was Zhou Yang’s maternal uncle and paternal aunt who stepped in to help significantly, allowing the family to weather the storm.

However, the problems didn’t end there. The victim’s family had a young girl still in school, and with their primary breadwinner gone, they were left without financial support. This issue had to be addressed as well.

Since the compensation couldn’t be paid in one lump sum, Zhou Yang’s family had to agree to monthly installments. This was why Zhou Yang was always short on money-he had to repay the debt, paying 2,000 yuan every month until the entire amount was settled.

This was also the reason Zhou Yang withdrew 200,000 yuan in cash today. Based on the repayment schedule over the years, he still owed the victim’s family around 100,000 yuan.

Now that he had the money, he decided to offer them extra compensation. The 200,000 yuan was meant to be a gesture of goodwill, a way to buy some peace of mind.

There’s a saying: “A son inherits his father’s trade, and repays his father’s debts.” A father’s estate is usually passed down to his son, and likewise, the son must shoulder the father’s debts.

You could choose not to repay them, to avoid the responsibility-but the guilt would gnaw at your conscience. More importantly, the burden would fall on your mother.

This was Zhou Yang’s reality over the past few years. The harder he tried to make money, the less he earned. The more he sought a lighter life, the heavier it became.

This trip wasn’t about some grand return home in glory. Zhou Yang’s true goal was to put an end to the past. To resolve all the messy, broken pieces of his history. Only then could he focus all his energy on building his future.

So this journey was inevitable.

“Zhou Yang, it’s all over now. I believe things will only get better for us!”

“With your skills and my abilities, we’re bound to make something of ourselves. But we need a plan.”

“Gambling on Stones and scoring lucky finds isn’t a sustainable strategy. We need our own business. Only with a stable enterprise can we earn money faster and more reliably.”

“Take lucky finds, for example. Say you’re fortunate today and uncover a gem worth hundreds of thousands. But then, for the next ten days or half a month, you don’t find anything worthwhile. That means no income during that period.”

“No income means you’re living off your savings. We need to eliminate that risk.”

“I’ve been thinking about this over the past couple of days. Given the current market trends, there aren’t many viable businesses.”

“But during dinner tonight, Jiang Xueru said something that sparked an idea. There’s one business we could pursue.”

“Opening a Jadeite Rough Store. You understand Gambling on Stones, and Jiang Xueru mentioned she’s heading to Ruili. That’s an opportunity for us.”

“Ruili has incredibly cheap jadeite rough. If we can select some quality pieces and bring them back, we could open our own store.”

“Sure, the profits might be slower, but it’s stable and guaranteed.”

Zhou Yang listened intently. The woman’s logic was sound, but there was one part he couldn’t wrap his head around.

“Lanyan, I have a question I can’t figure out. Can you help me understand?”

“As you just said, I can gamble on stones myself. So why would I buy stones just to sell them to others?”

“Why not cut them open myself and sell the jade directly? Wouldn’t the profit be much higher? Why go through all the trouble for a small margin?”

Ji Lanyan understood Zhou Yang’s point. This time, however, she patiently explained:

“Zhou Yang, there’s a saying: ‘The person in the game is blinded, while the observer sees clearly.’ Right now, you’re the one in the game, so there are things you’re not seeing. Let me explain, and you’ll understand.”

“Imagine a farm with a boss raising 1,000 pigs. On the street, pork sells for an average of 15 yuan per pound. But the boss sells his pigs to middlemen for 12 yuan per pound.”

“Why doesn’t he slaughter the pigs himself and sell the meat directly? Why let the middlemen take that 3-yuan-per-pound profit?”

“The reason is simple. He can’t slaughter 1,000 pigs by himself, nor can he sell all the pork alone.”

“If he waited to slaughter and sell all 1,000 pigs, how long would it take? Instead, he can sell them quickly to middlemen and move on to raising the next batch.”

“Leaving 1,000 pigs in the pen and selling them slowly might look like it earns more on the surface. But in reality, it’s like picking up sesame seeds while losing watermelons.”

“Even if he sold one pig’s worth of meat every day, he’d only manage to sell 365 pigs in a year. What about the remaining pigs? They still need food and water.”

“Hundreds, even 1,000 pigs-if they’re not sold in time, the daily cost of feed alone would be astronomical.”

“And if an outbreak of disease hit, he could lose everything. Do you understand my analogy?”