Mingxia had spent 25 days on the dike, and by the end of August, the floodwaters had gradually receded. Various units began to withdraw, and naturally, she was in the first batch to leave. For original chapters go to NoveIＦire.net
During this period, she had spent eighty thousand yuan, which included around ten thousand yuan for Zhang Yun’s transportation and hard work fees; the rest of the seventy thousand was spent on purchasing meat, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and medicines for heat prevention.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t willing to spend more, but the soldiers lacked little, and this was all she could afford.
When she left, she took the kitchen utensils she had purchased back home and stored them in her home’s storage room. The house came with a small storage room for parking at the front of the unit building that was provided to each household, so whether it were camp beds, pots and pans, or gas cylinders, she didn’t feel like giving them away or throwing them out; she brought them all back home.
After Zhang Yun dropped her off at home, he also left. Having earned ten thousand yuan in a month wasn’t much and was quite exhausting, but Zhang Yun said he would never forget it. Indeed, it wasn’t just him; she couldn’t forget it either. She even took many photos at the scene, marking a very meaningful turning point in her life’s journey, so she definitely wanted to record it, possibly to include in her own memoir one day.
So, how was she going to spend the remaining 300,000 yuan?
First, she didn’t feel confident donating it to a certain Lions Club, so she temporarily kept it in her own account. Then, she watched television and read newspaper reports about people who needed help—these were officially verified and truly in need of assistance, so she felt very confident in donating the money.
When she returned home at the end of August 1998, her daughter, having not seen her for a month, clung to her, crying vigorously, especially seeing her tanned skin, and cried saying, "Mom has gotten uglier; Mom doesn’t look good." This commotion left Mingxia not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"We saw you on TV, on our provincial station. Even though they blurred the face, we could tell it was you right away, Xiao Xia. You really made Mom proud. But the part about you donating money and items, was that true?"
Mingxia smiled and nodded, "It wasn’t much, I still owe a lot of people money; how could I not feel embarrassed about failing to repay my debts just to pretend to be rich? So I only did what I could afford. I was so afraid of debt collectors that I didn’t dare show my face."
Aunt Wang couldn’t help but laugh and cry at this, "Look at you, you’ve lost at least seven or eight kilos this month. Rest well for a few days. Xiao Xiao starts school the day after tomorrow, and Yangyang left yesterday. Before he left, he asked me to send you a message. While watching TV, he kept saying his aunt is his pride. This summer break, thank goodness for Yangyang; otherwise, I might not have been able to manage alone!"
"Godmother, thank you and Yangyang. Otherwise, I really couldn’t have freed myself to do what I wanted to do."
"We are all family; why speak as if we’re not? But when you have time, go develop the photos. I want to send a letter to Cao Yuan. The kid, it’s been almost a year, and he hasn’t returned yet, especially with no calls in the past six months; what on earth is he busy with?"
Mingxia thought about the scenarios from TV dramas, "I guess Brother Cao must be out on a mission, making it inconvenient to contact."
Aunt Wang sighed deeply, "As long as the liberation army doesn’t come knocking on the door with a box, I can accept anything else."