Zhao, the accountant at the brigade office, was one of the old educated youths who had been sent down to the countryside in 1966. He had long since settled down in Renxing Brigade.
Because he was exceptionally skilled with an abacus, he had eventually become the brigade accountant.
He had been doing the job for seven or eight years now.
With a few quick movements of the abacus, Accountant Zhao soon calculated the Cheng family’s work points from the past two years.
After deducting the work points exchanged for grain, the money left over from the Cheng family’s work points for those two years amounted to only 375 yuan and 86 cents.
And that was after the value of work points had been increased during those two years.
If they used the work-point rates from previous years, it probably wouldn’t have even been half that amount.
Although the Cheng family had eight members, their third son was serving in the army, so his household registration was no longer here.
Cheng Anju and Cheng Zhenxing could both earn ten work points a day, but more than a year ago, Cheng Zhenxing had gotten a job at the county textile factory and had completely stopped earning work points at the brigade.
Liu Yufen earned seven work points a day, while Zhao Chunhua… could consider herself lucky if she earned five.
Ironically, Li Wanqing was actually one of the hardest workers.
Although she was an educated youth from the city, she was by no means lazy.
She usually earned eight or nine work points a day, and sometimes even managed to earn ten.
The remaining two were little children, so they couldn’t earn any work points at all.
After Accountant Zhao finished calculating everything, everyone realized that something was wrong.
“That can’t be right. By this calculation, their savings should be about the same as ours! How could the Cheng family have so much money saved up?”
“Exactly! My family even has more able-bodied workers than theirs, but after working all year, we barely have any money left in our hands.”
…
Liu Yufen stuck out her neck and shouted, “How much money my family has is none of your damn business!”
“Yufen, you can’t put it that way,” Wang Guiying said sarcastically. “We’re all neighbors here. We’re only worried about you.”
Liu Yufen: “…”
She certainly didn’t look worried to her!
“Accountant Zhao, what about Eldest Brother’s wages?” Li Wanqing asked with a frown, putting on a worried expression.
Zhao Chunhua hurriedly added, “Exactly! My husband earns thirty yuan a month…”
It was true that her husband earned thirty yuan a month, but he had only worked for twenty-two months in total.
That meant he had earned just over six hundred yuan…
Not to mention that none of his wages had been handed over to his mother-in-law. Even if they had been, adding them to the family’s remaining work-point earnings, the entire family’s savings would only amount to a little over one thousand yuan even if they didn’t eat or drink.
…
That was nowhere near the amount of money in her mother-in-law’s cash box!
Could it be… that her mother-in-law and father-in-law had secretly engaged in some kind of profiteering?
That was something serious enough to get them arrested!
“Mom, hurry up and explain! Where did all that money come from?” Zhao Chunhua panicked and pressed Liu Yufen for an answer.
Liu Yufen was so frustrated by Zhao Chunhua’s stupidity that she almost cried.
She could only press her lips together and remain silent.
He Mei nudged Li Wanqing.
“Why did your mother-in-law suddenly go quiet? Could she really have been involved in profiteering?”
Li Wanqing shook her head.
“She wouldn’t dare. But she doesn’t dare say anything now, either. If she explains where the money came from, she won’t be able to keep it.”
He Mei looked puzzled.
If the money had been obtained legitimately, why would she be so worried?
Liu Yufen remained silent, while everyone at the brigade office wore grim expressions. The atmosphere suddenly became tense.
Zhao Chunhua started hitting Cheng Zhenxing.
“Why aren’t you saying something? If your mother gets accused of profiteering, are you going to keep your job? What about your son’s future?”
“Mom…” Cheng Zhenxing looked at his mother pleadingly.
His current job wasn’t difficult, and he occasionally received some “gifts” from people as well.
He really didn’t want to lose his job!
Liu Yufen opened her mouth.
She knew that if she didn’t explain things clearly, this situation would be difficult to resolve.
“That money… it all…”
Liu Yufen was still struggling with how to explain it when Li Wanqing simply stepped forward.
“Let me explain it to everyone.”
“Most of the money in that box was sent back by my husband as his military allowance. He sends 101 yuan every month, which comes to 2,420 yuan over two years.”
“On top of that, after I married into the Cheng family, I handed over the 300 yuan I had on me, along with a large number of ration coupons and other certificates…”
“Nonsense!” Liu Yufen’s eyes turned red with anger. “That money belongs to me!”
“Then why don’t you explain where the money came from?” Li Wanqing spread her hands.
“Besides, I still have the receipt you signed when I handed over the money back then. And the remittance slips from my husband are also in your cash box.”
“No matter what, you have to return this money to the third branch of the family.”
Cheng Anju stepped forward with a stern expression.
“What the third daughter-in-law said is correct. Most of that money did indeed come from the third branch.”
“But we haven’t separated the household yet. It’s perfectly reasonable for the money to be kept by your mother-in-law.”
He had truly underestimated this daughter-in-law.
If he had known she would become such a troublemaker, he never would have listened to his third son and allowed her to marry into the family.
“If you treated Nono and me like family, I wouldn’t have brought this up,” Li Wanqing said coldly.
“But look at what you’ve done.”
“I can endure the way you treat me, but Nono is your granddaughter, and she’s still so young…”
Thinking of her daughter’s thin and frail body, Li Wanqing’s voice choked with emotion.
“If you don’t consider us family, then it’s better for us to separate households and be done with it!”
Cheng Anju thought to himself that this was bad.
Before he could say anything, Liu Yufen shouted out,
“Fine! Let’s separate the household, then! But don’t even think about taking a single cent!”
Cheng Anju grabbed the old woman and shot her a warning glare before turning to Li Wanqing.
“Third daughter-in-law, don’t listen to your mother-in-law’s angry words. We’re all family. Why are you talking about separating the household?”
His third son was doing well in the army, and the entire Cheng family benefited from it.
If they separated households, with their third son thousands of miles away, the old couple would completely lose their connection to him.
The old man’s face was suddenly filled with an extraordinarily kind smile.
Li Wanqing looked at him with disdain.
In the two years since she had married into the family, she had never once seen her father-in-law act this kindly toward her!
“Then I won’t insist on separating the household. But give me the money belonging to our branch. Nono is weak, and the doctor said she needs better nutrition.”
Cheng Baichuan wasn’t here. Separating the household would be extremely difficult!
It would be better to get their money back first.
Nono was far too weak and needed proper nourishment.
The moment she heard that Li Wanqing wanted money, Liu Yufen felt as if someone had ripped her heart out.
“Dream on!”
Li Wanqing turned her head toward Zhang Jianguo.
“Captain, then let’s separate the household. There’s no way we can continue living like this.”
“No, no, no!” Cheng Anju hurriedly stepped forward to stop her.
“Third daughter-in-law, I’ll make the decision. I’ll give you 100 yuan. Use it to take good care of Nono and help her regain her health.”
“One hundred?”
Li Wanqing glanced sideways at him and held up two fingers.
“No. I want 2,000.”
“Dream on!” Liu Yufen’s face trembled with anger.
“You might as well kill me!”
Li Wanqing ignored her and continued.
“I’ll forget about the ration coupons and other certificates I handed over before. But you have to return the 300 yuan to me. Surely the Cheng family isn’t going to keep their daughter-in-law’s money and refuse to return it?”
“As for the money Cheng Baichuan sent, some of it was meant as his filial support for you. I won’t interfere with that. But Nono and I should at least get half of it.”
Liu Yufen was about to start cursing again, but Cheng Anju stopped her.
“The most I can give you is 1,500 yuan.”
Li Wanqing had made her case with solid reasoning. No matter how unwilling they were, they had to hand over the money.
“Deal!”
Li Wanqing agreed without hesitation.
Liu Yufen initially wanted to claim that she hadn’t brought the money with her, but Li Wanqing immediately exposed her lie.
In the end, Liu Yufen had no choice but to painfully hand over the money.
She had tried to steal a chicken and ended up losing the rice instead.
She had suffered a massive loss!