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Chapter 199: Chapter 192: The Profligate Old Ladies
Shen Yunfang said with some difficulty, "Mom, this is really putting me in a tough spot. I’m the only one in the family working, and it’s good enough if I earn enough work points for my own food ration. Hongjun earns a salary, but you know how generous he is. Today one comrade has an issue, tomorrow another needs help. The money he can send back every month isn’t that much, and after I buy some oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and stuff, there’s hardly anything left. It’s hard for you to just ask me to come up with a hundred yuan. Where am I supposed to find that money for you?"
Qiu Shuping’s face changed at the mention of money. Her previously somewhat mild expression turned sharp as she said in a displeased tone, "Oh, don’t fool me. I may not know whether you earn money or not, but my son makes a good amount every month. Over all these years, he’s always sent money home every month, never missing even when he had comrades in need. How come ever since he married you the money stopped coming? Who would believe that if you said it?"
"Ah, that means our family must have saved quite a bit of money as well. Hongjun has been in the army for so long, just the money in mom’s hands should be enough for Hongqi’s wedding gifts," Shen Yunfang said, her face one of surprise.
Qiu Shuping didn’t expect her daughter-in-law to latch onto her words and take this turn. She was somewhat at a loss for words. Of course, she had some money in her hands, enough for her son’s wedding gifts. But the money in her possession was dwindling, and now that they had separated households, her son wouldn’t be giving her money every month anymore, so naturally, she had to spend sparingly. Besides, with the daughter-in-law around, if she didn’t take care to secure some of her son’s earnings, it would all be spent by the daughter-in-law, leaving her with nothing.
"That little bit of money isn’t enough! Over the years, your eldest brother’s family hasn’t separated, and don’t everyday expenses like firewood, rice, oil, and salt cost money? How much could we have possibly saved from the small amount Hongjun sent? Besides, when you all separated the household, I gave you quite an old sum, and now your father and I are left with nothing. We wouldn’t have to come to you for Hongqi’s matter otherwise," Qiu Shuping argued.
Shen Yunfang pursed her lips, wanting to say that when they had divided the family assets, she only took out a hundred yuan, her second son took fifty, and in the end, she had to chip in another fifty just to pay off a year’s worth of eldercare money. With the two hundred they had pulled out, it was as if they didn’t touch it and put it back into her pocket, yet she claimed to have nothing left.
However, Shen Yunfang had already figured out her mother-in-law’s character—if she wanted to be unreasonable, she could be extremely shameless.
"So that’s how it is, but I really don’t have any money on hand. Even ten yuan would have to come from trimming my own expenses. Why don’t you wait a bit? Tomorrow I’ll go see my uncle and see if I can borrow some money," Shen Yunfang said, clearly lacking confidence.
"Yunfang, do you really not have any money left? Before you married Hongjun, didn’t you borrow five hundred yuan from him? And he’s paid back a fair amount over these months, hasn’t he? This is the toughest time for Hongjun’s brother. If you could lend a hand now, Hongjun would surely think highly of you when he gets back," Qiu Shuping, seeing that Shen Yunfang wouldn’t take the initiative, brought up the past. "You say you have no money? Then I’ll talk about the times you had money. Now you’re saying it’s gone, shouldn’t you explain where it went?"
"Heh, mom, look at what you’re saying. Hongjun and I are a couple. What difference would it make if he thinks highly of me after he comes back? A man with no family of his own, where else would he go if not stay with me?" Shen Yunfang rolled her eyes, "Besides, Hongjun is well aware of where my money has gone. I lent him all my savings when we first married, and he has paid back half over the past two years. When we got married, we had absolutely nothing in the house, which was really embarrassing. So I went out and bought some wedding items myself. Mom, you wouldn’t believe how expensive it is to make quilts, just a few meters of fabric and a few pounds of cotton cost me over ten yuan. And after getting married, we couldn’t go without new clothes, so I even bought fabric and made two outfits each for us. And this, this, and this," Shen Yunfang pointed around the room to the wardrobe, tables, chairs, and benches, including the towel quilt they had long coveted, "were all bought new back then."
"You wouldn’t believe it, mom, but this was valuable. I spent over seventy yuan on it at the department store. At that time, I had to grit my teeth and stomp my feet before I had the heart to buy it," Shen Yunfang lovingly stroked her towel quilt with a fond expression.
Qiu Shuping was so angry she nearly shattered her back teeth. What a waste of a woman, spending over seventy yuan on a mere big towel! Was it edible or wearable? Damn it, she was spending her son’s money like it was nothing!
"After getting married, I gave all the remaining money to Hongjun to hold onto. As an old lady, toiling with my face towards the soil and my back to the sky, even if I had money, I’d have nowhere to spend it," Shen Yunfang said with a bashful smile, "When Hongjun left, he bought me a sow. Mom really doesn’t have any money left, or else you could write to Hongjun and ask him if he still has any money left. If he does, you can tell him to mail some back to you."
As if there was any money left, there was just over two hundred to begin with, and with the purchases of a wardrobe and a sow, it would be good enough if that was all that remained. Qiu Shuping was furiously resentful in her heart, but she dared not show it on her face. She was clear as a mirror inside. In Gaijiatun, her usual tricks were useless. Without her son around, there was nobody to give her face, even if she wanted to throw a fit. Besides, if she made a scene now, her disrespectful daughter-in-law would probably kick her out. So, in order to get the money, she still had to rein in her temper and coax gently.
Li Xianghe, who was beside them, couldn’t listen any longer. All her second brother’s money had been squandered by this woman, "That’s easy then. If you don’t have money, just sell some of your chickens. Anyway, you have a lot of them."
The room fell silent instantly. Shen Yunfang kept quiet, and Qiu Shuping watched her, waiting for her to take a stance.
"If that’s still not enough, sell a few sheep too. That should definitely make up two hundred," Li Xianghe said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Heh, little sister, you do say the funniest things. I’ve never heard of selling off a daughter-in-law’s family’s belongings when her in-laws need money. Is this a tradition in Taoshu Village? I’ll have to go back and have a good talk with the folks in our settlement. No one should marry into Taoshu Village, it’s like falling into a den of bandits," Shen Yunfang mocked.
"What do you mean your family’s belongings? You married my second brother, so all this is the Li Family’s now," Li Xianghe said anxiously.
"Oh my, by that logic, when you marry in the future, you might just take the entire Li Family with you as your dowry," Shen Yunfang said, as if watching a joke unfold.
Indeed, according to what Li Xianghe said, everything belonging to Shen Yunfang before she married Li Hongjun had become the property of the Li Family. So, in the future, when Li Xianghe married someone else, wouldn’t everything belonging to the Li Family prior to her marriage also become the property of another family? 𝚗𝚘v𝚙𝚞b.𝚌𝚘m
"You, you’re talking nonsense, that’s not what I meant at all," Li Xianghe couldn’t stand it. If words like these got out, how could she find a partner—who would dare to court her?
"Oh, so I misunderstood, did I?" Shen Yunfang looked at Li Xianghe and nodded before continuing, "All those chickens at home, I raised them from the year before last and the sheep too, so all those belong to the Shen Family." In other words, if you want to sell them to raise some money for yourselves, that’s not happening. They don’t carry the surname ’Li’."
