"Twenty yuan?" Zhou Lanfang felt a pang of distress. That was half her husband’s monthly salary. No wonder people say high school is costly—it truly is! Our monthly expenses at home don’t even reach ten yuan, yet Siyu’s schooling costs us ten to twenty yuan a month.
This month, I’ve already given Siyu ten yuan, and adding another twenty makes it thirty. And that twenty yuan is just for study materials, not even living expenses.
So, by this calculation, Siyu needs at least forty yuan as a base this month. My husband’s meager salary is just gone in an instant.
I haven’t dared tell my husband about giving Siyu so much money each month. Whenever he asks, I say seven or eight yuan. Over time, my little stash of private savings has proven nowhere near enough to cover the shortfall.
"Auntie, if the family really doesn’t have money, then never mind. I don’t need to buy the materials. I can just borrow them from my classmates after they’re done with them. The teacher said these materials are very beneficial for the college entrance exam, but it’s also not certain that they’ll definitely come in handy during the exam," Zhou Siyu tactically backed off, using the prospects of college to make her point.
"We’re buying them. These materials are a must-have. We don’t rely on others’ leftovers. Tomorrow, your aunt will bring you the money," Zhou Lanfang decided, gritting her teeth and enduring the pain as she made the promise upon hearing the importance of the materials.
I’ve raised my niece for so many years, and with great difficulty, groomed her for success. I can’t afford to lose out over penny-pinching. Newest update provıded by novel•fire.net
Getting an education can change one’s destiny; this is the idea Zhou Siyu has instilled in me, and I’ve always kept it in mind.
Even though Siyu is just in high school now, even if she doesn’t make it to university, with her status as a top student, she can secure a steady job and marry into a good family. No matter how you look at it, my investment isn’t a loss.
"Thank you, Auntie. I will definitely study hard, and after I get into university, I’ll bring you and Uncle to the city to live in a house where the toilet is inside," Siyu said with remarkable sweetness, knowing she was about to receive money.
Even though her aunt’s affection for her had its motives, the kindness she received was genuine with no falsehood.
Of course, Siyu also understood part of her aunt’s generosity stemmed from finding Shen Mianmian. Whether Mianmian had spent all her money or if it was extractable didn’t concern Siyu.
Right now, the goal was to take whatever money she could get because if she failed to get money from Shen Mianmian, it wouldn’t be so easy to obtain such an amount from her aunt outright in one go.
"How stinky a bathroom inside a house must be?" Zhou Lanfang imagined for a moment, wrinkling her nose in disdain, "City folks only do this because they don’t have the land to build toilets outside their homes, so they build them inside. When we buy a big house later on, we can’t do that!"
"Auntie, you’ll understand once you get to the city. The toilets there flush; they don’t smell at all." Only those who have used a flushing toilet and are out of their mind would prefer a pit latrine.
Water costs money in the city; flushing toilets means paying for water use—how much would that be in one day?
Thinking about it made Zhou Lanfang wince with thriftiness, "You young people don’t know the value of money if you’ve never run a household. Forget it, let’s not talk about this now. Calls are expensive. We’ll talk more when I see you tomorrow."
After ending the call, Zhou Lanfang, without giving second thought to the phone charges, hurriedly went to the brick kiln to find Shen Jianhua.
The Zhang family’s daughter-in-law complained, "This Lanfang, really, doesn’t even check how long she was on the phone. You all come and take a look, be witnesses for me. She was on the call for thirteen minutes; I don’t want her saying later that I overcharged her."