"Where are the things?" Mrs. Bai asked, "What happened to all the things you bought?"
Bai Erlang was stunned and couldn’t speak.
Mrs. Bai continued, "How many things did you even leave in your room? You gave away the rest, didn’t you? I don’t mind you playing with the kids in the village, but not . All that New Year’s money gone just like that."
Upon hearing this, Old Master Bai immediately said, "Erlang, you’re still young, let your mother manage it for you. Don’t worry, our family isn’t short on money, your mother won’t take your money."
Bai Erlang then tearfully said, "Grandmother, I wanted to give those things to my friends, they also gave me gifts. I won’t waste money anymore, please let Mother give my money back to me."
Old Master Bai also said, "Mother, Erlang has grown up now, he’s not a little boy anymore. Besides, he earned that money himself, it wasn’t given by the family. Let him manage it."
"No way," Old Master Bai said with a stern face, forcefully, "The family’s money doesn’t just appear out of thin air. Erlang doesn’t know how to control his spending, so let his mother manage it. If he needs money, just give him a few taels of silver for daily use."
"What can I do with just a few taels of silver," Bai Erlang said, "If the farm needs to buy some new seeds, or if I want to do something, I won’t know how much it will cost."
"Don’t try to fool me, you think I don’t know? The farm is spending money from Shanbao’s family, what do you need money for?"
"Mother," Old Master Bai couldn’t help but say, "You see, Shanbao is managing his own money..."
"Is your son the same as Shanbao?" Old Master Bai cut him off and said, "Shanbao is saving his money. Aside from buying some toys, he spends mostly on books and ink. Where did Erlang spend all his money?"
After a long persuasion from Old Master Bai, Old Master Bai still did not agree. In the end, she got annoyed and simply said, "I’m going to sleep; neither of you should stand here anymore. Go out and don’t argue any further. For now, let his mother keep the money, we’ll discuss it again when he’s grown up."
Not long ago, Old Master Bai discussed with Mr. Zhuang about his youngest son’s education. He knew that it was not always effective to punish the child; sometimes praise and adding a bit of pressure could work better than fists.
To his surprise, his approach was quite successful with his son but ended up facing setbacks with his mother and wife, which made Old Master Bai quite angry. He left with a grim face after bowing respectfully.
Of course, he was taking his son with him.
Bai Erlang felt that getting his money back was hopeless. Fortunately, he had left twenty-nine pieces with Shanbao; otherwise, he would have been devastated.
He swore he would cry himself to death in front of his mother to show her.
Old Master Bai pulled his son along at a brisk pace. Seeing her husband upset, Mrs. Bai felt uneasy and hurried after him, lifting her skirt.
Just before reaching the main courtyard, Old Master Bai stopped, telling his son to go ahead. When Mrs. Bai caught up, he said gravely, "Give the money back to Erlang."
Mrs. Bai clearly hadn’t expected him to bring this up again. She opened her mouth to argue, but Old Master Bai suddenly spoke with a heavy face, "Ms. Chen, even if you wanted to take money from Erlang, you should have asked him first or at least told him. I just realized, why didn’t you mention anything to Erlang during dinner?"
Mrs. Bai turned pale, not because of Old Master Bai’s questioning, but because he had called her "Ms. Chen"—it was the second time he had done so since they were married.
The first time was when he decided to send Erlang to the County School.
"Old Master, you..." Mrs. Bai took a deep breath and said, "Don’t you realize how recklessly Erlang spends?"
Old Master Bai impatiently said, "It would be fine if the money came from the family, but he earned it."
"That came from your..."
"That’s still earned," Old Master Bai said, knowing what she was thinking about—the incident of selling the exclusive wheat seeds to him at a high price by the three children had caused some discontent in Mrs. Bai and Old Master Bai recently, he said, "Since we agreed to let the three children manage on their own, we shouldn’t interfere too much. Business is business. If I agreed to the deal, then it won’t cause a loss. Haven’t I told you that I would sell the wheat seeds at an even higher price?"
"Then tell me, am I cheating the children or not?"
"Of course not; you are an adult..."
"Just because I’m an adult?" Old Master Bai interrupted her, saying, "Apart from the decent profit I could make, even if it meant a loss, I’d be happy to see the growth in those three children!"
"The mother is getting old, and there were things I couldn’t say in front of her just now, but now listen to me. Let’s not talk about Shanbao. Take Manbao, for example; you know about her, the little girl from the Zhou Family, two years younger than your son. She made so much money from me. Given the Zhou Family’s situation, they also let her manage the money!"
Old Master Bai asked her, "Does our Bai Family really care that much about a few hundred taels? Why can the Zhou Family manage it, and our Bai Family cannot?"
"Manbao is very sensible; she never spends money carelessly, unlike Erlang..."
Old Master Bai was somewhat exhausted and his voice softened, though he was still firm, he said, "Then let him learn! Don’t you see how much your son has changed?"
He spoke deliberately, "Times have changed, don’t you see? A year ago, no, just ten days ago, if Erlang told you he could make back more than four hundred and ninety taels, would you believe him?"
"What? More than four hundred and ninety taels? Wasn’t it just two hundred taels?" Mrs. Bai exclaimed, "I saw only twenty silver ingots in the box."
Old Master Bai was startled, then laughed heartily. After he stopped laughing, he asked Mrs. Bai, "See, your son already knows how to hide money. No, he has learned to use money to test you. Do you think he’s still the son you know?"
Mrs. Bai turned pale.
Old Master Bai waved his sleeve and said, "Give him the money back. You always worry that he can’t manage money and will be wasteful. If you keep thinking that way, he will never learn to manage money and will always be wasteful!"
With that, he turned and walked back to his room.
Mrs. Bai stood at the doorway for a long time before she entered the room with teary eyes.
Old Master Bai didn’t lie down on the bed but on the couch. After a long while, he quietly said, "The other day, Mr. Zhuang got drunk and cried on my shoulder all night. Both of us underappreciated Mr. Zhuang—he is a very good teacher; it’s just a pity that Dalang doesn’t have the fate to continue studying with him. Otherwise, I’d really want to bring Dalang back from the government school to continue his studies under Mr. Zhuang."
Mrs. Bai was taken aback.
"And such a good man as Mr. Zhuang, the other day, held my hand and said Manbao is the most perceptive child he has ever seen, both in personality and scholarly pursuits."
Mrs. Bai didn’t quite understand what he meant.
"And Shanbao is also outstanding; he’s a bit more proficient in his studies than Ziqi. Now, with Manbao on his left and Shanbao on his right, both accompanying him in the academy under Mr. Zhuang’s instruction, and mostly playing with those two outside of school, pressuring him at this time is not for his own good, but rather harming him."
Mrs. Bai fell silent.