A Girl’s Heart - Chapter 8

Suddenly, I felt sorry for the plain, rural women back in my hometown. All year round, they worked under the scorching sun and bent over the fields, supporting their entire families, yet they still considered everything they did insignificant compared with their husbands, who would leave for the city for several months and come home with a few USD.

“So did he pay you back the 800.000 USD you lent him?”

“Yes. He told me he would repay the money, including interest. But I told him, ‘Don’t worry about that money. I’ll give you another 500.000 USD so you can consider the money you spent building the house for me repaid.’”

“He built a house for you too? I’ve never seen a man in this world who was so foolishly generous toward a woman.”

She nodded in agreement.

“Yes, I suppose he really was foolish when it came to women. Luckily for him, I’m an honorable person. If I had simply turned my back on him, there was nothing he could have done, because he never made me sign any paperwork.

“I have to admit, beautiful women are always intelligent. They always know exactly what their strengths are.

“The thing was, from the beginning, he knew the company’s work was unstable and that I had no other source of income. My pension was only a little over 100.000 USD a month, so he was very worried. He told me:

‘This isn’t going to work. You can’t depend on the company salary. We need to create a stable source of income for you. You still have quite a bit of land around your house, right? I’ll put up the money to build five rental apartments. You’ll get three units, and I’ll take two. Once the rent from my two units equals the amount I invested, you can pay me back everything. How does that sound?’

“So he paid for the construction himself.”

“Five apartments for only one hundred and 300.000 USD? Were they each ten square meters?”

“No. Each one was seventeen square meters. There was one two-story building with four apartments, and for the fifth one, we made use of two existing walls and converted the space into a room.”

“You’re joking! Even a two-story apartment building with a forty-square-meter footprint, built as cheaply as possible, would cost nearly two hundred million dong.”

“Uh… well…”

She became awkward.

She really was careless. Perhaps the more beautiful a woman was, the more carefree she became.

“And when you gave him another 500.000 USD, he didn’t say anything?”

“No. He didn’t say a thing. I suppose he must have calculated the interest and the salary he still owed me.”

I stared at her in bewilderment, unable to understand how she had done the math.

At one percent interest per month, the annual interest was only ten million dong. Even if we counted the salary he still owed her—say 700.000 USD a month—that would add only another 600.000 USD.

Even at the very least, he had lost 300.000 USD on that house.

Either the man was a fool or…

No.

A man like him couldn’t possibly be stupid.

A thought suddenly flashed through my mind.

He was an extraordinarily perceptive man.

It could only mean…

I looked up at the woman sitting across from me, and suddenly I felt deeply sorry for her.

I wanted to tell her what had just occurred to me, but my throat tightened, and I simply couldn’t get the words out.

When I got home, my mother greeted me excitedly.

“Son! I’ve just found someone for you. The girl is very beautiful. Truly a beautiful woman, my dear.”

I immediately got goosebumps, dropped to my knees, and repeatedly bowed to my mother.

“Please, Mom! I beg you! If I marry a beautiful woman, I’ll be the one who ends up with the ill-fated destiny!”