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The death of a soulful hair salon girl
By Fu Jianfeng (southweekend)
Updated: 2005-10-20 08:57 At first, Gou Li found a job for 300 RMB at a clothing distribution market.
Chen Xiaolin found a job for 350 RMB at a factory. The couple did the
arithmetic: rent at 50 RMB and all other expenses are at least 100 RMB. After
one year, they can save around 5,000 RMB. "When will we ever repay the debt?"
the worried Gou Li woke Chen Xiaolin up in the middle of the night and asked.
Gou noted down her
items of expenses before her death.
[southcn.com] |
After half a month, Chen
Xiaolin quit his job and borrowed money to buy an old motorcycle to work as a
taxi driver. Gou Li also quit. She told her husband: "Many people from our home
are working at hair salons. The pay is around 1,000 RMB. Don't worry, I won't do
anything to betray you." At first, Chen Xiaolin took her to work every day at
the hair salon.
In those days, Gou Li used to come home at 9pm at night. Chen Xiaolin was
usually very tired from his work. Gou Li would fetch the water water to wash his
feet. They had a small tape player and they sit and listen to it together. They
like the song "Two butterflies." Gou Li would lean on her husband's shoulder and
sing lightly: "Dearest, let us dance. Love's springtime has no sundown ..."
Sometimes, Chen Xiaolin drove the motorcycle at night and did not come home
to sleep. Her wife told him that she came back every evening at the same time.
But pretty soon, he found out from the landlord that his wife was lying. From
there, Chen Xiaolin found out that his wife was working as a "miss" at the hair
salon.
He was enraged: "No matter how poor we are, we cannot do this! You have
betrayed me!" He called up Gou Li's brother and said: "I can no longer deal with
Gou Li. Let us get divorced." Gou Li cried: "Did you think that I really want to
do this kind of work? Do you want to see dad wasting away his life for money? I
am doing this only to lighten the burden at home."
In thinking back to this shameful episode, Chen Xiaolin lowered his head,
rubbed his hands together hard and cried: "At the time, I could not find
anything to say ... I felt that I was too poor, too useless, and not a man. My
wife did this for the family. She loved me so much ..."
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