Huang Man looked at the clock, which was nearly six o’clock, and Huang Lina still hadn’t arrived.
"I’ll go reheat the lunch, even if Huang Lina doesn’t bring your meal, you won’t have to go without food."
Ah! No way! She actually had to eat the lunch from before, which she initially thought wouldn’t be necessary since Huang Lina didn’t deliver food and wouldn’t have to eat such terrible food.
As it turned out, she still had to carry on, "I’m not eating, I won’t eat it."
Zhao Mei no longer wanted to say anything good about Huang Lina, "It’s not tasty."
"How can it be not tasty?" Huang Man looked around. "Everyone knows that Huang Lina makes delicious food."
"You said a lot of praising words at noon, almost comparable to a chef’s skill."
"Don’t worry, I am definitely not jealous. I’m used to it."
"Alright then, you eat." After Huang Man quickly reheated the dinner, she watched Zhao Mei eat.
"Eat quickly, I still have to go out for dinner." Huang Man had already picked out what to eat for dinner at noon.
Even though there would be a feast tomorrow, she couldn’t mistreat herself today.
"Don’t go out to eat, let’s eat together." Zhao Mei warmly invited Huang Man to save the money.
"No need, like I said, I don’t like the food Huang Lina makes. If you think it’s tasty, then eat more of it."
"I won’t compete with you for it. Tomorrow Huang Xin will be taking care of you, who knows what he’ll prepare for you."
"By the way, do you still have money on you?" Although she didn’t know how much money Zhao Mei had left, if she did have any, it probably wasn’t much.
Having money on her was indeed a pressing issue for Zhao Mei, who felt like crying. Could she say she barely had any money now?
In the end, she held back and didn’t make a sound. Would anyone sympathize if she spoke up? Certainly, no one would show sympathy.
"I... I still have money." Tomorrow she would go to the bank to withdraw money because only if she had money on her would people treat her nicely.
If you have money, that’s good. "Well, then, Huang Xin should be able to buy groceries tomorrow. It’s just that he went out to have fun all day, and I’m not sure if he has any money left."
Forget about Huang Xin; even Huang Lina, once she got the money, became like a bird set free, indeterminate of returning. She took the money and left at noon and still hasn’t appeared.
Huang Man felt that this girl probably went out to hunt down posters of her favorite celebrities. Just yesterday, she vigorously tore down some posters, which made the young girl very angry.
Now that she had money, of course, she would want to buy back all those collectibles. These things were very important to Huang Lina.
They could be even more important to her than Huang Zhiqiang and his wife.
"I’m leaving. Tomorrow Huang Xin will come, and you can tell him to take care of the discharge procedure."
Huang Man wagered that Zhao Mei, who already suffered a loss today, definitely wouldn’t dare to let Huang Xin handle the discharge process, fearing the money would disappear again.
"I’ll handle it myself tomorrow. Oh, and make sure the meal is ready." Zhao Mei truly didn’t dare to let Huang Xin proceed with the procedure.
"I have to go tutor tomorrow. As for cooking, you ask Huang Lina, anyway, that’s her house’s business." Huang Man flatly refused.
"Alright, I’m off," said Huang Man as she grabbed her book and sauntered off.
Zhao Mei watched her leaving and almost spat out a mouthful of old blood, "One by one, they’re all like debt collectors."
The thought of having to go to the bank to withdraw money tomorrow made Zhao Mei extremely reluctant.
Hmph, if they were undutiful to her, they shouldn’t blame her for only looking after herself.
These past few days she could say she hadn’t eaten well. She had to try to eat deliciously, planning to treat herself to a nice meal at a restaurant tomorrow.
And every time the seasons change, she buys new clothes. This time it happened to coincide with Huang Zhiqiang’s incident, so she hadn’t bought any clothes.
Now she just had to treat herself better, otherwise, like Huang Zhiqiang, she would really be at a loss.
And this time, buying clothes, she absolutely couldn’t just pick any random shop, she had to go to a department store.
Everyone says that the clothes in department stores are really nice, so she was going to go there to shop.
Those who are unkind to her, who are unfilial, why should she still side with them?
Having come to this realization, Zhao Mei’s mood lightened considerably, no longer sullen as before.
Huang Man returned home to find Huang Xin alone, "Mom was supposed to be discharged from the hospital today, but she disdained me for being stupid, so I gave all the money to Huang Lina, all that was left by Mom’s side."
"Of course, this is what she said on her own, whether it’s true or not, I don’t know, I can’t make any guarantees."
"What, you’re saying Huang Lina took all the money that was on Mom?" Huang Xin became very unhappy upon hearing this.
Huang Man hummed in agreement, with Huang Xin becoming anxious, "How could you give the money to her? When she has money, she just splurges on all sorts of things."
"If not buying clothes, then it’s buying celebrity posters." Huang Xin really didn’t understand what was so great about celebrity posters.
"A piece of broken paper, just printed with some stuff, costs one or two yuan, I really don’t see what’s so appealing about it."
"She’s just an idiot, easily hoodwinked and then completely lost."
Huang Xin knew Huang Lina’s good friends and also knew how they got along with each other.
Huang Man made no comment; in her eyes, both Huang Lina and Huang Xin were idiots.
Huang Lina had run around a lot today and then managed to exchange from a fellow fan for quite a few coveted posters, though the price was really not cheap.
But there was no helping it, these were things she liked, and with money in hand, she steeled her heart and gritted her teeth to pay for them.
When buying, she really didn’t feel like she was spending too much, only that she was buying too little. But when she spent all the money in her pocket, Huang Lina suddenly felt the world go dark.
That was several hundred yuan, just gone like that. What should she do?
Although she also managed to get quite a bit of money intermittently over the month, she had never received so much money in one go.
But no matter how much money she had, it was never enough for her to spend. Now that she had gone through it so quickly, what should she do?
No matter how guilty she felt, that guilt was toward Zhao Mei. Huang Meina, hearing Huang Xin’s words, was so irritated she barged right in.
She launched into a furious tirade at Huang Xin, accusing him of how terribly and excessively he behaved.
Of course, there were accusations about how extravagant he was, how he played the fool for his friends, "You think treating people to meals, paying for games, they’ll remember your kindness?"
"You believe they really consider you a friend, but behind your back, they have not spared any words calling you stupid, a fool."
Huang Lina remembered reading ’Dream of the Red Chamber’ and thought there was a character who really resembled Huang Xin.
"Many people say that you’re just like Stupid Xue from ’Dream of the Red Chamber’."
"Only you don’t have Stupid Xue’s wealth to squander, but you’re just as foolish as he is."
"You think you’re doing well, but in fact, they all look down on you."
Let’s hurt each other, Huang Lina didn’t care so much, she knew that if she didn’t assert herself, Huang Xin would definitely walk all over her.
The neighbors who were watching didn’t expect this brother and sister to have a loud argument all day yesterday and to start quarreling again today.
"Do you think they’ll come to blows?"
"Don’t know, but look at Huang Xin’s face, it’s so ugly..."
In the era when there weren’t many TV shows and there was no internet, whenever something happened in the neighborhood, everyone would rush over excitedly.