Zeng Wenxiu, when asked by her daughter, didn't want to say that it was her youngest son, Xiaojiu, who had earned the money. After all, her son was only five years old, and no one would believe it if she said so, and neither would her daughter. She could only tell her daughter that it was her eldest brother who had earned it. He had made a success of himself now and had made money by doing business with a boss in Guangdong. He had even donated 200,000 yuan to the village to build a cement road, and now everyone in the village was praising him. Hearing it from her mother's mouth, Liu Hexiang finally truly believed that her good-for-nothing brother had actually made money. Now he also knew how to be filial to their mother and had built such a nice house. He still had a conscience after all. He had run away for two years without sending any news and hadn't sent any money back home, leaving their mother and younger brother to live a difficult life. She had originally planned to give Liu Heping a good beating when he came back, but now it seemed unnecessary. The whole family had a meal together. After the meal, the two were ready to go back because they also needed to prepare for the Spring Festival at home. Anyway, they would come back during the Spring Festival, so they had no intention of staying overnight. Xiaojiu packed all the candies and cookies and gave them to his nephew. His eldest sister was delighted to see this and praised Xiaojiu for growing up and being sensible, and for finally acting like an uncle. Zeng Wenxiu pulled her daughter into the room and gave her a passbook with 100,000 yuan in it. She asked her eldest daughter to go back and renovate the house. In the past, the family was poor, and her eldest daughter and son-in-law had helped a great deal. Now that Zeng Wenxiu had money, she definitely wanted to repay them. Her daughter and son-in-law were still living in an old house, and she hoped they could take the money back and rebuild it. Liu Hexiang refused to accept it, saying, "The money was given to you by my younger brother. You should keep it for yourself. Chen Jun and I will earn it ourselves." Zeng Wenxiu said to her daughter, "Just take it when I tell you to. I still have money, and your brother and the others will take care of me. I don't need so much money." After all, Zeng Wenxiu felt that she owed her eldest daughter. She had made her drop out of school and get married at an early age, but she really had no other choice at that time. After all, she had five children to raise, and the family was extremely poor. Where could she get the money for her daughter to go to university? Her eldest daughter could have been assigned a job after graduating from university, but now everything was gone, and she could only be a farmer's wife. Her daughter's bright future had been ruined by her, and as a mother, she felt sorry for her daughter and blamed herself for not having the ability to provide better for her. Liu Hexiang understood her mother's feelings. To make her mother feel better, she took the passbook and said, "Thank you, Mom." Liu Hexiang had once harbored some resentment towards her mother. But since she became a mother herself, she came to understand the hardships of being a parent. Which parent didn't want the best for their children? Her mother had really had no choice but to do what she did. Only when one raises children can one know the difficulties of being a parent. Without experiencing it, one can't understand the pain involved. So Liu Hexiang forgave her mother. Although she herself wasn't living a very good life, she still kept subsidizing the family. After her daughter and son-in-law left, Zeng Wenxiu began to prepare for the Spring Festival. Since they had earned so much money this year, Xiaojiu planned to make it a lively celebration. He asked his elder brother to buy 100,000 yuan worth of fireworks, which filled two whole cars, ready to celebrate the Spring Festival. Two days later, the second sister, Liu Hemei, also came. She brought fish and some other things as New Year's gifts for her mother. When Xiaojiu saw that his second sister had come alone, he knew that her husband surely wouldn't come again. Her husband was named Li Zhantang, but he was extremely narrow-minded and stingy. Originally, Zeng Wenxiu hadn't thought much of him during the blind date. But to lighten the family's burden, her second sister had insisted on marrying him. Since her daughter wanted to get married, Zeng Wenxiu didn't say anything and agreed. Her second sister got married first and gave birth to two daughters in a row over three years. At that time, the family planning policy was strict. Li Zhantang's parents started gossiping, and Li Zhantang believed them. He cursed his second sister, calling her a hen that couldn't lay eggs. Enraged, his second sister, who was still in the confinement period, packed her things and went back to her parents' home. She tearfully told Zeng Wenxiu what had happened. How could Zeng Wenxiu tolerate such an insult? She took her daughter and went to her in-laws' house. In front of her in-laws, she slapped her son-in-law twice and said, "What the hell do you mean? You call my daughter a hen that can't lay eggs? Then you should blame your own poor 'seeds' for only being able to have daughters. If you think having daughters is bad, then compensate me 20,000 yuan, and I'll ask my daughter to divorce you. I'll take my daughter and granddaughters away, and we'll have nothing to do with your family from now on." How could Li Zhantang agree? He didn't have much money in the first place, and it was not easy for him to marry a wife. How could he get divorced like this? He had just been influenced by his parents and had just been complaining and cursing a bit. Zeng Wenxiu could tell from his expression that he didn't want a divorce. She said, "If you don't want a divorce, that's fine. But if my daughter is wronged in any way in the future and comes back to tell me, I won't let you off. I'll lead people to raze your house to the ground." From then on, her second son-in-law didn't dare to scold her second daughter anymore, and the two of them just managed to get by. But he hated his mother-in-law to death and would never step foot in her house even if he was forced. Zeng Wenxiu didn't mind either. As long as he treated her daughter well, it didn't matter if he came or not. Couldn't she live without one son-in-law? There was no way around it since her second son-in-law was so narrow-minded. He hadn't visited the house since that incident. Her mother and second sister were also used to it. Her second sister always came alone each time. When her second sister reached the door of the house, she couldn't recognize it. She wondered how the house had been built so beautifully, and she had no idea about it. She quickly rushed in and, seeing her mother busy, called out, "Mom." She said, "When did our family get so rich? It must have cost a lot of money to build such a nice house, right?" Zeng Wenxiu had no choice but to attribute it to her eldest son, Liu Heping, again. She said, "Your brother made money by doing business in Guangdong. You don't need to bring things or money back home in the future. You have a hard life yourself." Liu Hemei was quite happy to see that her family had become wealthy. From then on, she could hold her head high at home. She didn't want her husband to keep gossiping and saying that she only cared about her娘家 and didn't care about her own family situation at all. Zeng Wenxiu wanted to keep her daughter for a meal, but her second daughter said she had to go back, saying that her two children were still young and needed her to take care of them, so she really didn't have time for a meal. They could have a meal together during the Spring Festival. Seeing that her daughter was determined to leave, Zeng Wenxiu went to the room, took out a passbook, and stuffed it into her daughter's hand, saying, "Take this money and do what you think is right with it. You've helped the family a great deal over the years. Consider this as a return gift." Liu Hemei held back her tears and said, "Thank you, Mom." Over the past few years, in order to support her娘家 with things, Liu Hemei had endured a lot of cold looks and gossip from her husband's family. But she had always endured it. After all, her own family was poor. Now that her family had become rich and her mother had given her a passbook, she didn't even know how much money was in it. When she got back, she was determined to throw it in her husband's and his family's faces. She wanted them to see the return gift from her娘家 and show that she hadn't eaten their things for nothing all these years. She wanted to vent the grievances she had suffered over the past few years. Zeng Wenxiu also knew that her daughter had suffered grievances but had always kept them to herself and hadn't told her. Only when she was really pushed to the limit would she run back to her parents' home. Now that she had money, she definitely wouldn't treat her daughter unfairly. She gave the same amount of money, 100,000 yuan, to both her daughters. In the 1980s, this amount of money was an astronomical figure. In an era when even "ten-thousand-yuan households" were rare, especially in the countryside, it was even more remarkable. Liu Hemei didn't even look at how much money was in the passbook and left in a hurry. When she took it out and glanced at it while waiting for the bus in the town, she was so shocked that she almost threw the passbook into the field. She quickly put the passbook in her arms and hugged it tightly with both hands. She had never seen so much money before. She never expected her mother to give her such a large amount all at once and was really at a loss as to what to do.
