Li Xiuhua stared tremblingly at Chen Jinyou, wanting to speak, but her lips only quivered soundlessly.
Chen Jinyou was just as terrified. He reached instinctively for the tobacco pipe in his hand, only to remember that it had been knocked clean to the ground back when the village chief kicked him.
“No way, we can’t give it to her! Sister-in-law’s money belongs to this family!” Chen Xuelan shrieked at the top of her lungs.
If the money stayed in her parents’ hands, it would eventually be spent on her. But if it fell into Xiao An’s hands—judging by the sharp, terrifying transformation Xiao An had just displayed today—not a single cent would ever find its way to her.
Xiao Changzhu stood up. “Then we’re calling the police. I’ll make a trip to town myself.”
Xiao An turned her gaze toward Li Xiaogang. “Comrade, can you take me to Chen Xueqiang’s former military unit? I want to ask his commanding officers if they plan to do anything about this.”
Chen Jinyou snapped out of his daze and roared at Li Xiuhua, “What are you standing there like a fool for?! Go get An’an her money right now!”
With a pain that cut straight to her heart, Li Xiuhua stumbled toward the main room. It wasn’t long before she emerged carrying several cloth handkerchiefs, every single one of them stuffed with cash.
Xiao An stepped forward to take them, but Li Xiuhua clenched her fists around the bundles, refusing to let go. With a sharp jerk, Xiao An forced the handkerchiefs out of her grip and handed them directly to the village chief.
The chief passed the money to the person who had been keeping the tally just moments before. As the handkerchiefs were unwrapped one by one, several villagers couldn’t help swallowing hard.
It was the first time most of them had ever laid eyes on so much cash in one place.
“Village Chief, there’s two thousand four hundred and twenty yuan here.”
Xiao Changzhu looked over at Xiao An. “An’an, you take two thousand four, and leave them with twenty. That way, they can’t go around ruining your reputation later by claiming you didn’t leave them a single cent to live on. The remaining six hundred will be written down as an IOU.”
“Uncle Chief, I’ll listen to you.” Xiao An clutched her two thousand four hundred yuan tight in her hand, then shifted her gaze to Li Xiuhua. “Where are the cash coupons and meat ration tickets?”
Li Xiuhua gritted her teeth. “Those… those things are long gone.”
Xiao Changzhu let out a cold snort. “Chen Jinyou’s wife, who do you think you’re lying to? You don’t even use ration tickets here in the village. You and Chen Jinyou could probably manage to get lost just walking to town—do you really have the guts to go all the way to the county seat to spend these?”
“Well… Xuelan—Xuelan knows the way, she… she spent them,” Li Xiuhua stammered in defense.
Xiao Changzhu nodded. “Fine, then we’ll add it all to the IOU and you can pay it back together.”
Write an IOU, my foot, Li Xiuhua thought to herself. That piece of paper was nothing more than a blank sheet as far as she was concerned. She had no money to pay it back anyway; what could the village chief and Xiao An possibly do to them?
Xiao Changzhu continued, “The IOU will be paid off using your family’s collective work points. We’ll prioritize deducting whatever you owe An’an. As long as you lot have enough left over to keep breathing, that’s all that matters.”
Xiao An saw right through Li Xiuhua’s scheming expression. “Uncle, I’m not afraid of them refusing to pay. If they don’t, I’ll go straight to Xueqiang’s military unit and make a scene until it gets deducted directly from his survivor’s pension. Xueqiang’s been gone for over two years now, and I haven’t laid eyes on a single cent of that pension.”
Chen Jinyou lashed out, planting a brutal kick squarely on Li Xiuhua’s shin. “Are you going to get that box or not?!”
Limping heavily, Li Xiuhua scurried back into the house a second time. When she came out, she was clutching a wooden box, which she hurled directly at Xiao An’s chest, making Xiao An gasp from the sudden impact.
Tian Weiying strode forward and delivered a resounding slap straight across Li Xiuhua’s face.
“Tian Weiying, I’m going to tear you to pieces! Don’t think just because your old man is the village chief you can act like a tyrant!” Li Xiuhua shrieked, lunging forward with both hands.
Unfortunately, she lacked Tian Weiying’s height advantage. No matter how wildly she flailed and jumped, she didn’t manage to land a single hit.
“Village Chief, the ration tickets really haven’t been used, but… a portion of them have already expired.”
Hearing the word “expired” while she was still in the middle of hopping mad, Li Xiuhua turned on Chen Jinyou with a glare of bitter dissatisfaction. “I told you we should spend the tickets first and keep the cash, but you insisted on saving the tickets for Xuetu—”
“Shut your mouth! I was only thinking about how Xuelan will need to go to university later on! How was I supposed to know they’d expire?!”
Snapped at so fiercely by Chen Jinyou, Li Xiuhua clamped her mouth shut just in time, nearly blurting out Xueqiang’s name.
Those ration tickets had originally been intended to be mailed over to Chen Xueqiang after a little while longer. Xueqiang had explicitly told her that he was currently trying to court the daughter of a high-ranking cadre in his military unit, and those tickets would come in very handy.
“Write the IOU. I won’t ask for extra; just lump it together with the previous six hundred and make it an even thousand.”
“One thousand?! Why don’t you just go rob a bank?!” Chen Xuelan shrieked.
If all one thousand had to be paid back through their work points, it would take until the Year of the Donkey to clear. That would cut directly into her own interests!
“Don’t want to write it? That’s fine too—I can just go find Xueqiang’s commanding officers.” Xiao An raised an eyebrow.
“Write it, write it, write it!” Chen Jinyou barked hastily. “Xuelan, you’re the only one in our family who can read and write. Go write it down, and I’ll come over at the end to press my thumbprint.”
Xiao An dictated: “Chen Jinyou and Li Xiuhua owe Xiao An one thousand yuan. Reason: Privately misappropriating Xiao An’s money, grain tickets, and meat tickets. After conversion, a balance of one thousand yuan remains unpaid. Make sure to add the date.”
Once Chen Xuelan finished writing, she shoved the IOU straight into Xiao An’s chest. Xiao An took it with a blank expression, read through it carefully from start to finish, and finally handed it over to Xiao Changzhu.
Xiao Changzhu turned to the elderly couple. “You two, come over here and press your fingerprints on the IOU your daughter wrote.”
“There… there’s no red ink pad,” Chen Jinyou stalled, clutching at straws. “How about… let’s call it a day for now, and we can press the prints tomorrow?”
He figured that once night fell, they could talk Xiao An around, and these things would wind up back in the old couple’s pockets anyway.
“I have some. I carry an ink pad on me wherever I go.” Xiao Changzhu reached directly into his jacket pocket and pulled out a rusty, round metal tin. Flipping it open, he revealed a red ink pad that was nearly worn down to the bottom.
Chen Jinyou’s facial muscles twitched violently. Reluctant to reach out, he shot the chief a sour look. “You… why on earth do you carry an ink pad around in your pocket?”
“Naturally so I can handle things for the villagers whenever the need arises. If I hadn’t brought my ink pad today, wouldn’t you old bastards be trying to wriggle out of it tomorrow? Stop dragging your feet and press your prints already.”
Though Chen Jinyou and Li Xiuhua dragged things out with a hundred different signs of reluctance, they ultimately had no choice but to press their thumbprints onto the IOU.
Xiao Changzhu handed the paper back to Xiao An. “Keep this safe.”
“Uncle, I’m going to have to trouble you to make a trip to the township credit cooperative with me. It’s not safe carrying this much cash on me.”
Wealth tends to tempt the greedy.
Xiao Changzhu nodded. “Alright, Uncle will walk with you.” He then shifted his gaze toward his wife, Tian Weiying. “Mother of my children, head on back and have everyone eat first. An’an and I are heading into town; we can grab a bite to eat along the way.”
Seeing this, Li Xiaogang hurried over to Xiao An’s side. “Xiao An, why don’t… why don’t you hold off on depositing that money in the township? The old commander asked me to bring you back to Kyoto with us. Just pack up your things and we can leave right away; you can deposit the money once we get to Kyoto.”
Xiao An replied, “Please thank Grandpa Pei for me, but I won’t be going to Kyoto. However, let Grandpa Pei know he can rest easy—if I ever happen to run into another good man, I might consider remarrying.”
She was deeply grateful that the people in Kyoto had continued to keep her in their thoughts. Back when her grandfather had fallen gravely ill and they had offered to bring him to Kyoto for medical treatment, her grandfather had refused simply because he didn’t want to exhaust their favors. Now, it was even less likely that she would go and cash in on those favors herself.
As for remarrying, she had never actually given it serious thought; she simply wanted to live a proper life for herself this time around. Saying this was purely to give peace of mind to the people in Kyoto who cared about her.
The moment Xiao An spoke those words, several people in the crowd immediately found it hard to hold back their urge to play matchmaker.
Even though Xiao An’s complexion was currently a sallow yellow and she was so thin she was practically skin and bones, she was still an exceptionally pretty young woman. On top of that, she was industrious, capable, and literate. A woman like that would find suitors even if she had been married before—let alone when everyone in the village knew full well that Xiao An and Chen Xueqiang had never even shared a bed. At most, it was a marriage in name only; Xiao An was essentially still an untouched maiden.
And now, she was an even more extraordinary catch: she had a mountain of cash in her hands, and important people in Kyoto were looking out for her—people from Kyoto, which meant they were people of high standing and influence.
What family wouldn’t want a daughter-in-law like that?
With a daughter-in-law like her, the futures of their grandchildren would be guaranteed.
“Xiao An, my nephew works at the county machinery factory! The lad stands one-meter-seventy-eight, looks sharp and bright—how about we set up a time to meet?” someone shouted from within the crowd.
Hearing this, Li Xiuhua instantly hit the roof. Striding forward with a fierce, aggressive aura, she yelled toward the voice, “Oh, look at you, Wang Chunhua! My son isn’t even dead yet, and here you are trying to poach from my yard! Do you think our Chen family is completely wiped out?!”
Xiao An hadn’t expected her casual remark to provoke such a fierce reaction from Li Xiuhua. Seizing the moment, she feigned pleasant surprise and cried out, “Mom, really? Is it true? Is Xueqiang still alive?!”