As the rumors of a solitary star spread, some disbelieved, some were skeptical, and some firmly believed.
Whether one believed someone was a solitary star or not was akin to the fable of "doubting the neighbor's axe"; those who didn't believe from the start naturally wouldn't overthink things.
But if one believed from the beginning.
Even if certain events had no inherent connection, they would involuntarily draw associations and link unrelated matters.
For instance, those who firmly believed Ding Yun was a solitary star would attribute all the recent misfortunes they encountered to her, thinking it was her fault that their families suffered unexpected losses.
Some might even blame Ding Yun for losses caused by their own actions, using it as an excuse to shirk their responsibilities.
These people were more detestable. While the former might only talk about it within their families, the latter, to absolve themselves, might spread word to others, saying something like, "It's not my fault, it's all because of that Ding Yun. I just bought something from her the other day and touched her hand, that's why I've been unlucky and made mistakes."
With such people propagating these rumors.
Even those who initially hadn't thought along these lines might involuntarily start to connect the dots. Those who couldn't think of any recent misfortunes might be indifferent, but those who had indeed experienced bad luck recently.
Would undoubtedly choose to err on the side of caution and avoid direct contact with Ding Yun, including not buying from her shop. After all, there were so many shops on the street; it wasn't as if they absolutely had to eat Ding Yun's food.
Some might even forbid their family members from buying there.
As a result, Ding Yun's previously excellent business.
Soon declined significantly.
It declined to the point that Gu Hongxia, who was in charge of collecting money, had to explain to Ding Yun that sales had indeed dropped considerably due to the recent rumors.
It wasn't that she had made accounting errors.
Or underreported income.
"It's alright, it's alright. I believe you.
But what exactly are these rumors you're talking about?
They're even affecting our shop's business..."
That's right, to this day, Ding Yun still didn't know what was happening outside because she was completely unwilling to go out. Normally, if she wasn't researching food prices, she wouldn't even go to the market.
When her neighbors chatted with her.
They wouldn't specifically bring up this matter.
Nor would shop employees say anything to their boss's face.
So, it wasn't until today, when the shop's assistant Gu felt the income was too low and felt compelled to explain, that she learned about the rumors affecting her business.
And immediately pressed for details.
Then, Gu Hongxia hesitantly recounted the general situation as she knew it, which was about the solitary star. She then added another matter: "Boss, there's something else.
I don't know if I should say it or not..."
"Go ahead. We're already talking about solitary stars,
What else can't be said?"
Ding Yun knew without thinking where these rumors were coming from. Whether they were intentional or unintentional, she didn't care. Intentional or not.
The rumors were out anyway.
So she didn't mind hearing about other things.
"Boss, it's like this. Recently, quite a few older women have come to buy things and specifically asked about you. Some I don't know, but some I'm not entirely unfamiliar with; they're professional matchmakers, the kind who arrange blind dates. In other words, matchmakers.
It's obvious someone has taken a liking to you.
Later, I went out to inquire, and many of the older women privately said you're a little wealthy, and any man who marries you won't have to worry about housing.
So I wanted to tell you to be careful.
Someone might be plotting to marry you through heroic rescue or other less savory means!"
Gu Hongxia felt that Ding Yun was still young, with no elders above her, and might be capable in business, but was certainly not knowledgeable about matters of love.
That's why she was subtly reminding her.
To prevent her from being taken advantage of.
He Sui, standing by, saw Ding Yun nod and seem somewhat dismissive, and immediately said anxiously:
"Boss, don't take this lightly.
Let me tell you about something from a few years ago. A few years ago, in our county town, on Ting Street, a girl named Zhao was pushed into the river by someone while passing by. Then, a local hooligan immediately jumped in and rescued her.
After saving her, he even performed CPR.
At the same time, people around were shouting, attracting a crowd. In the end, Miss Zhao had no choice but to marry that hooligan. Later, some suspected that the person shouting loudly was the hooligan's mother, and it's unclear who even pushed Miss Zhao into the river.
Some people are truly wicked these days.
You absolutely must not take this lightly."
"There's such a thing? That's truly excessive.
I'll be careful. I won't walk near rivers, and I won't go to secluded places. But aren't people saying I'm a solitary star everywhere now? Why would anyone still have designs on me?"
After a few perfunctory nods.
Ding Yun again pretended to be curious and asked.
Gu Hongxia immediately gave a wry smile and explained:
"Boss, you don't know, some people are willing to take risks for money, even risking their lives.
What solitary star are you? Your family isn't completely gone. Even if your family were all gone, some people would still be willing to risk marrying you. After all, in our county town now, most families of five or six people are squeezed into houses of thirty to forty square meters. Who wouldn't envy your large shop and the small courtyard behind it?"
"I never expected to become such a coveted prize.
It's fine, I'll be careful. You two can go back now. It's getting late, be safe!"
Hearing this, Ding Yun could roughly understand the current situation and had some plans. Coupled with other matters she needed to attend to, she immediately began to see them out.
After Gu Hongxia and the others finished speaking, they felt relieved. Of course, they rose to take their leave. Once they were gone, Ding Yun shook her head helplessly:
"Alas, the tree desires stillness but the wind will not cease.
I just want to live a good life, why do some people persist in clinging on? Can't everyone just live their own lives and not meddle in others' affairs? Really!"
"However, rumors are indeed quite annoying, especially those that are baseless and lean towards the metaphysical, making it impossible to prove one's innocence.
In the age of the internet, one could at least issue a statement.
Now, I can't go and explain to every household.
It seems I can either do something big to divert everyone's attention, or just quietly ignore it.
As time passes, people will naturally stop talking about it."
Regarding how to view and deal with rumors, and why those nosy mothers-in-law wanted her to be their daughter-in-law or granddaughter-in-law, Ding Yun actually had plenty of ideas.
It was just that considering the original owner's young age, she shouldn't have known these things, so she deliberately played along with the two employees just now. Now that the employees were gone.
She naturally had to seriously consider solutions.
After some thought and deliberation.
Ding Yun decided to take a two-pronged approach.
That is, to simultaneously ignore the current rumors and do something big. If the big thing she did was indeed sensational enough to draw everyone's attention, that would be ideal. If it wasn't as sensational as imagined.
Then it wouldn't be a significant hindrance.
As for the source of the rumors, Du Village, that was what truly gave Ding Yun a headache. She sometimes truly wished that every client she took on was an orphan, because she was truly not good at handling relationships between blood relatives. If everyone's relationship was good, she could get along harmoniously with those relatives.
But when she encountered troublesome relationships, where they were like enemies, wishing the other dead, and wanting to seize all their family assets, and yet the ties couldn't be broken.
She was truly at a loss.
Sometimes she would be so disgusted that she wished she could just poison them all with rat poison.
Or wished she was in a lawless society.
In an apocalypse or something similar.
Dealing with those relatives would be much easier.
The difficulty lay in this rule-of-law society, where shameless people were always more troublesome and harder to deal with than decent people. They could spread rumors to affect Ding Yun's emotions, but if Ding Yun were to spread rumors, let alone whether they would reach their ears, no one would probably care about their rumors.
And they probably wouldn't care about their thick skin anyway.
The level of mutual harm was not comparable at all.
Finally, Ding Yun could only think of a method that theoretically might work, but she didn't know if it would work in practice, and this method also had to be coordinated with her idea of doing something big.
But regardless.
Having an idea was better than having no clue.
Therefore, Ding Yun quickly put aside her inner worries for the time being and, starting from the next day, began running errands to various government departments to obtain permits and licenses for a private enterprise. That's right, a private enterprise, not an individual proprietorship.
Ding Yun's plan to do something big.
In fact, she wanted to establish a private food factory.
The earliest batch of national enterprises in China, such as those selling refrigerators and beverages, were established in 1984. Although this year, 1985, was a little later, because Ding Yun's location was also a small place, there were no private enterprises yet.
As the first private food factory in the local area.
As long as it could be successfully established.
It would be hard not to cause a stir.
As for how to use this private food factory to deal with her blood relatives, Ding Yun's plan was mainly to recruit a large number of diligent villagers from Du Village who did not have bad relations with her to work in her food factory.
Even if only one person per family was hired.
Then that family would stand behind her.
Once a village had most households with family members working in her factory, it would be easy to isolate a certain person or family.
Even if Du Ruhai and the others wanted to say bad things.
Or do anything harmful to Ding Yun.
The villagers would probably hold them back first.
Of course, these plans and ideas were contingent on her being able to establish this private food factory.
Therefore, Ding Yun was busy non-stop.
Busy with processing related permits and certificates.
Busy finding ways to purchase packaging assembly lines.
Busy looking for factory locations and loans.
In reality, because Ding Yun's business for the past six months was mostly "free," with very low costs, her current savings made it easy to establish a small private food factory, especially since she had a food batch cooking machine and didn't need to buy other food production lines.
But she knew her costs were low, while others didn't know that many of her ingredients were "free," thinking her profits were meager. So, to avoid trouble, even though Ding Yun had money, she still took out a loan.
Moreover, loans were very cost-effective at this time. Money would only depreciate in the future, so taking out a loan with a longer term, even with interest, was a very worthwhile thing.
After being busy for more than half a month, Ding Yun completed all the necessary procedures and secured the loans.
The factory was set up in the defunct old mooncake factory.
The place wasn't large, and the equipment was old, but the advantage was that the old mooncake factory had been bankrupt for a long time, the building was ready, the price was not expensive, and she didn't need to take over the original employees.
Thus, Ding Yun spent another half a month renovating the old mooncake factory.
It was transformed into a comprehensive snack production factory.
However, even though everything was ready, Ding Yun didn't hire anyone immediately. She first purchased a lot of ingredients based on her memory and then used the food batch cooking machine in her space to produce a batch of snacks.
She then went to the major shopping malls in the local area to promote them.
She even offered to let them sell the products for free, paying her only after they were sold, and allowing returns if the products neared expiry, guaranteeing no losses for them.
With this arrangement, and after tasting the snacks Ding Yun provided and finding them delicious, most of the shopping malls agreed to Ding Yun's terms, finding a dedicated space to display her snacks.
Then, naturally, people started buying.
And the word-of-mouth was good, with considerable sales.
Only at this point did Ding Yun officially hang the signboard at the factory entrance, start hiring people locally, and then specifically returned to Du Village.
She found a few families who had shown kindness to the original owner.
And hired some people from them.
Thus, the framework of her food factory was built.
On the day of the official opening, many leaders from relevant departments came to congratulate her, and the local newspaper even sent a reporter to take photos for publication and promotion.
Subsequently, everyone learned what the young owner of the small grocery store, who had been out of sight for over a month, had been doing during this time. They were all shocked and regretful – regretful for speaking ill of her behind her back, for not establishing a connection, for distancing themselves from her in recent days.
Some also regretted not trying to arrange a marriage for her.
As for the so-called rumors of the solitary star, from this point on, they basically died down. Because in people's eyes, a sole proprietor and a factory director were not comparable. They could arbitrarily gossip about an individual proprietor, but they didn't dare to gossip about a factory director who could hire one to two hundred, or even more, workers.
What if someone in their own family could get a job there?
Work was hard to find now.
Many educated youths who had returned years ago were still unemployed.