Chapter 13

“Chen Yubing, I always thought you were a sharp woman—how could you be so foolish?” Auntie Zhang Hua was so shocked she couldn’t even find the right words to describe Chen Yubing.

They were all long-time neighbors. Everyone knew that Old Lady Chen Ju doted on her eldest and youngest sons, and also favored her only daughter, since out of four children, she had only one girl. That left Qiao Laiwang, the second son, always overlooked and invisible in the family.

Over the years, Chen Ju had secretly funneled money to her other three children behind closed doors—neighbors had witnessed it more than a few times.

Where did the money come from? Back then, the neighbors had wondered.

Now, they understood. It had probably all come from Qiao Laiwang’s salary.

“That mother-in-law of yours…” Auntie Zhang Hua clicked her tongue and shook her head. She thought to herself, some old folks might genuinely try to help their kids save money—but if Chen Ju was ‘saving’ money for Qiao Laiwang, it had clearly gone into someone else’s pockets.

Another neighbor also shook their head and said, “That explains it! I always thought Baihe was such a studious child, then suddenly last semester she dropped out. Back then I asked Auntie Chen Ju why, and she actually told me Baihe didn’t like school and was making a fuss about not going—so she didn’t enroll her.”

Qiao Xinyi immediately added, “My mom always said that Baihe loved studying since she was little, and her grades were really good.”

Having exposed her family’s dirty laundry, Qiao Xinyi knew when to retreat. She didn’t want to disturb everyone during their mealtime, so she sensibly returned home.

As soon as she walked in the door, a cup of water came flying toward her. But Qiao Xinyi had anticipated it and dodged in time.

“Grandma, be careful when you throw water—my head’s still injured. If it hits me and the wound gets infected, going to the hospital will cost more of my mom’s money,” she said, patting her chest like she was still shaken. “My mom works so hard to make money. We can’t waste it on things like that. Yunbai still has to go to school—if Mom runs out of money, he’ll have to drop out too.”

Skinny as she was, her voice carried far—Auntie Zhang Hua heard it and came marching over with her spatula.

“Auntie Chen Ju! You’re upset, so you take it out on a child who just came home today? You really are getting more unreasonable the older you get!”

“What? Angry because the kid accidentally blurted out what you did? If you’re so afraid of being embarrassed, then maybe you shouldn’t have done it.”

“You’ve been doing this for twenty years, and now you’re scared of people talking? Tch.”

Auntie Zhang Hua spat on the ground and turned to look at Qiao Laiwang. “And you! We neighbors all thought you were honest and kind-hearted. Who knew you’d be a grown man relying on your wife to support the whole family? I don’t even know what to say to you.”

“You go ask your mom to show you the wage books she’s been ‘saving’ for you for the past twenty years. If she’s even left you half of your wages, I’ll say she really does care about you!”

Qiao Xinyi practically wanted to applaud Auntie Zhang Hua on the spot! This was the kind of backup she needed!

She declared: From this day forward, she would genuinely love every single morning glory flower! (This is a pun—“Zhang Hua” means “flower,” and “morning glory” is a kind of flower. It implies she now loves Auntie Zhang.)

Qiao Laiwang snapped back, “Zhang Hua, don’t go spouting nonsense about our family. My mom always said a new daughter-in-law can’t be trusted with the household finances. She’ll just splurge on her own family and has no sense of thrift. My mom’s been through hard times—she’s used to managing the house. She knows how to save, which is why she helped me save my salary.”

Of course, Qiao Laiwang didn’t believe Zhang Hua’s accusations. He genuinely believed he was the most filial among his siblings. The neighbors often praised him for it, and even their relatives said he was the most dutiful child out of all the brothers and sisters.

He supported his mother in her old age and never fought his eldest brother over the old house. His mother lived with him, so how could his wages have been used to subsidize his other brothers?

“Exactly! Our family’s business—what does it have to do with you, Zhang Hua? A dog meddling in rat affairs, sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong! If you’re so worried about other people’s problems, why don’t you go work at the neighborhood committee?”

Chen Ju had felt a bit guilty at first, but once she heard her second son so firmly on her side, she immediately regained her confidence and straightened up.

Qiao Yunbai stood inside the doorway. He looked at Chen Ju, then at his biological father, Qiao Laiwang. In a soft voice, he said:

“Five years ago, Uncle and Aunt came to our house to borrow money from Grandma. They took 500 yuan, said it was to help Cousin get a job.

“Two days later, Uncle Qiao Dongmei and Aunt came too. Said getting to work was inconvenient and they needed a bicycle. They came twice and took 400 yuan in total.

“Then Auntie came in the last week of that same month, said she needed 300 yuan to pull some strings so Cousin could get a permanent position.”

Qiao Laiwang suddenly turned to look at his own mother. One 500, one 400, one 300—that was 1,200 yuan gone in a single month.

His mother hadn’t even reached retirement age back then—she had given her job to the youngest, Qiao Dongmei—so she didn’t have a pension.

So where had that 1,200 yuan come from? Wasn’t it all his own wages?

Qiao Yunbai continued, “Last summer, Uncle and Little Uncle each asked Grandma for another 200 yuan. Said it was too hot and they needed to buy fans.”

At this point, Qiao Yunbai’s tone turned unhappy.

“We don’t even have a bicycle at home. But their families have at least two each. Uncle’s house has four! Isn’t our house hot in summer too? But we don’t even have one fan. And yet they have one in every room—even in the living room.”

“This morning, Grandma told Dad that Big Sister is just a girl, not worth buying meat for. Then she took the money and meat coupons Mom gave to Dad. As soon as Dad went to work, Grandma went straight out and used Mom’s money and coupons to buy a pound of pork belly to send to Little Uncle.”

Back when Yunbai was younger, perhaps the family assumed he was too small to understand, so whenever Qiao Yougen and the others came asking Chen Ju for money, they didn’t bother hiding it.

But they didn’t expect Qiao Yunbai to be so precocious—or maybe it was their difficult financial situation that made him so sensitive to money matters. Any time Chen Ju even hinted at withdrawing money, he would skip school and secretly squat outside the post office to see who she gave the money to.

This morning, when Chen Ju took the money and meat coupons and said she was going out, Yunbai immediately followed her in secret.

After all these years, no one knew better than Qiao Yunbai where Qiao Laiwang’s salary had gone. Not even Chen Ju herself.

Although the Qiao siblings always said they were “borrowing” money, none of them ever planned to pay it back. And Chen Ju never expected repayment either, so she never kept any records.

But Qiao Yunbai had a palm-sized notebook in his schoolbag that he’d kept for years, with every cent he knew about written down line by line.

All these years, he’d never had the chance to say any of it. But today, he felt that if he didn’t speak up now, he might never get another chance.

He ran back to his room, fetched the notebook from the study, and handed it to Chen Yubing.

“Mom, I wrote down everything I know in here. But there’s still a lot I don’t know.”

Chen Yubing’s face was expressionless. She didn’t even reach out to take the notebook. As far as she was concerned, she’d held her head high all these years. She had never cared about Qiao Laiwang’s money and didn’t want to.

She could raise the children on her own.

But Qiao Laiwang rushed over in a few quick steps and snatched the notebook away.