The Ruanlin Family also loved Ruan Jiaojiao very much, but right now the household needed money, and her hidden stash couldn’t be cashed in at the moment; she just had to be more frugal.
"Have money! Want to buy them all!" Xiu Xi was very persistent, but after saying so, he hesitated and looked at the salesperson with a tiny frown, "How much?"
"How much what?" The salesperson didn’t understand right away.
"How much money." Xiu Xi said.
"Oh, that, five yuan per piece, twenty-five for five." The salesperson hesitated a bit.
She had a daughter herself; the skirts were pretty, but at five yuan each, about the cost of five pounds of meat, they wouldn’t bear to buy one, let alone five at once. That would be more expensive than their monthly salary.
Xiu Xi did have some concept of money.
Thinking of the money he got in exchange for his hunted game, he breathed a sigh of relief; it was enough!
"I’ll take them all!" he declared with a little wave of his hand, quite imperiously.
This startled the Ruanlin Family’s Ms. Ruanlin so much that she gasped, "Xiaoxi ah..."
"Nanny, have money! Enough!" he turned to look at Ms. Ruanlin, "Saving money for Jiaojiao, over a hundred."
"You’re paying?" Ms. Ruanlin was taken aback once more.
"Even so, we can’t buy that many!" Ms. Ruanlin said with a smile, "You need to save your money well, to have something for emergencies. As for the skirts, Nanny will buy them for Jiaojiao; you don’t need to use your money..."
"No! Buy for Jiaojiao!" Xiu Xi became anxious, his tone intensifying, "Money, get more!"
If he ran out of money he could always get more, but he was adamant that he must be the one to buy the nice clothes!
He knew he didn’t have much money, and the game he could trade wasn’t plentiful either, but that was okay, he would go to the mountain tomorrow and bring back even more game.
"This child really..." Ms. Ruanlin was at a loss for words; she found that when this kid got stubborn, there was no reasoning with him. Like when they told him not to go hunting in the front mountain, he would always sneak in, catching them off guard!
Fortunately, since he got hurt that last time, he never got injured again and, in fact, could come back from a trip to the front mountain without even getting a corner of his clothes dirty.
Sometimes she wondered if that accident might have been deliberate—perhaps to break away from that household?
"Xiu Xi?" Over there, Ruan Jiaojiao, given a small biscuit by Xu Mei, was led by Du Qing to come over.
Curiously, she looked at him and Ms. Ruanlin.
"What are you doing? I could hear you talking about skirts from far away. Are you buying them for Jiaojiao? I think that pink set is nice; Jiaojiao would look pretty in it." Du Qing had actually set her eyes on that dress set early on, but she had been planning to save money recently. Seeing Ruan Jianguo move out, she wanted to build her own house sooner. After all, now that they had separated families, continuing to live together would only lead to more conflicts as time passed. Plus, the kids were growing up and needed their own space.
"This kid wants to buy them all for Jiaojiao!" Ms. Ruanlin said with a wry smile.
"Ah! Why buy so many? They’re so expensive; one or two sets would be enough," Du Qing said.
"Right, that’s what I think too, but this child..."
"Pretty." Xiu Xi walked over, took hold of Ruan Jiaojiao’s hand, and pointed at the several sets of dresses, his eyes gleaming, "Want to buy all, have money."
"That’s too many, two sets are enough," said Ruan Jiaojiao, who didn’t have her own money. Aside from occasionally hunting meat to improve her family’s living, she didn’t do much else and didn’t want to be so extravagant. Moreover, she could tell that the little antagonist wanted to buy them for her.
But no matter who bought them, she felt it wasn’t right.
Yet Xiu Xi was insistent and determined to buy all five sets hanging up.