“Why did Grandmother suddenly decide to give you these bankbooks?”

Zhou Cheng took a look—it totaled exactly nine thousand yuan.

It wouldn’t be difficult for him and Xia Xiaolan to produce 9,000 yuan. Bank fixed deposits earned over 8% annual interest. Of Zhou Cheng’s money, Xia Xiaolan had invested 200,000 in a clothing brand partnership with Chen Xiliang, and the remaining 170,000 was split into fixed deposits. Zhou Cheng had given the bankbooks to Xia Xiaolan for safekeeping last summer. Now it was March, and in a few months, just these fixed deposits would earn around 14,000 yuan in interest. Zhou Cheng wasn’t short of money.

But because the remaining money was in fixed deposits, Xia Xiaolan had used her own money for the red envelopes she gave to Zhou’s grandparents and Guan Hue’s couple.

The total was less than 5,000 yuan, which wasn’t much for Xia Xiaolan. She’d spent it already, and hadn’t she also redeposited some of the unused loans from Manager Wu back into the bank? The deposit interest covered the loan interest. It would be useless to just hold onto the money. With Xia Xiaolan’s financial management, a few thousand yuan wasn’t a burden, and she hadn’t planned to seek credit from Zhou Cheng—but now that Grandmother Zhou had accepted her money and given her even more, Xia Xiaolan needed to explain properly.

While Xia Xiaolan and Zhou Cheng could easily produce several thousand yuan, this wasn’t true for Grandmother Zhou.

The old lady had nothing but her retirement pension and what her younger relatives gave her as filial respect.

In earlier years, Zhou’s grandparents still had to subsidize their children. Now, hearing Grandfather’s words, Zhou Cheng suspected their wages might be supporting not just the Zhou family members, but also some of Grandfather’s old war comrades. Although Grandfather had reached a high position, some people remained ordinary soldiers until retirement. If they were left disabled or sacrificed themselves, how would their families survive?

When it came to major life expenses like birth, aging, illness, and death, how could Grandfather Zhou ignore them if he knew about their situations?

These two bankbooks represented money that Grandmother Zhou had scraped together. Zhou Cheng suspected this was most of their savings, and she hadn’t given it to Zhou Yi or him, nor several cousins, but directly to Xiaolan.

The old lady had always played favorites, Zhou Cheng knew.

But such obvious favoritism must have a reason.

Xia Xiaolan surrendered: “I gave your grandparents two red envelopes during New Year’s, saying they were from you.”

Zhou Cheng didn’t know what to say.

His heart was melting.

Only his wife would do good deeds without seeking credit!

Zhou Cheng remembered Shao Guangrong had a girlfriend once when he’d just started working. He quite liked that girl and brought her home to meet his parents. Zhou Cheng thought Shao Guangrong would marry when he was old enough but later heard from Kang Wei that they broke up after meeting the parents—not because Shao’s family disapproved of or interfered with young love. Shao’s family had given appropriate meeting gifts according to custom.

They hadn’t looked down on the girl’s ordinary family background either, even when she brought just a few pounds of apples on her first visit. Because she bought the apples on her initiative, both the Shao family and Shao Guangrong himself thought she was polite.

Shao Guangrong was beaming with joy, and Kang Wei said he’d found true love.

Shao Guangrong thought so too at the time.

But after meeting the parents, his girlfriend kept getting upset, and Shao Guangrong couldn’t understand why.

The girl didn’t understand either—she’d hinted so obviously, yet Shao Guangrong played dumb, so she finally told him directly: the apples cost 2.30 yuan. The Shao family was well-off while her family was poor, yet Shao Guangrong wasn’t considerate enough to voluntarily reimburse her for the 2.30 yuan.

“Then what happened?”

Zhou Cheng had told the story in such a way that Xia Xiaolan was eager to hear the rest.

Zhou Cheng glanced at her, “At first, Shao Guangrong thought his girlfriend was joking. His work unit provided three meals, so he didn’t usually carry much money. He emptied his pockets and had only two yuan, which he gave to his girlfriend.”

“Weren’t they just joking around as boyfriend and girlfriend? She took the money?”

“She took it, and emphasized several times that he still owed her 30 cents…”

Xia Xiaolan was speechless. At this point in the story, there was no need to ask Zhou Cheng—they obviously broke up.

Xia Xiaolan lowered her head, frowning, as if unable to understand how there could be such a girl. Zhou Cheng actually understood even less—how could there be someone as generous as his wife? Speaking of backgrounds, Shao Guangrong’s girlfriend was at least a Beijing local, wasn’t that better than Xiaolan’s rural background?

In Zhou Cheng’s social circle, there were cadres’ children who did well and those who didn’t, but even the worst ones, Zhou Cheng had never heard of anyone taking advantage of women financially. When dating, the man would pay the bills. Shao Guangrong had spent plenty of money then, and when he brought her home, his family gave money and gifts without slight, yet in the end, his girlfriend wanted to settle accounts down to the last 30 cents.

Wasn’t Shao Guangrong disheartened?

Of course, he was.

Afterward, when Shao Guangrong dated again, he never mentioned marriage. After a mutually agreeable relationship ended, that was it—he never brought anyone home.

This incident affected the Shao family. Originally they didn’t care about matching social status, but now they felt it was more important than love, even arranging for Shao Guangrong to meet Tang Lili.

It wasn’t just the Shao family—after this incident, everyone in their circle became wary, afraid their sons might lose their minds and bring home someone petty and uncouth… All over 30 cents, was it worth it?

Zhou Cheng placed his palm on Xia Xiaolan’s cheek, “So tell me, why did Grandmother want to give you these bankbooks?”

Grandmother Zhou didn’t know about Zhou Cheng’s cigarette business earning hundreds of thousands.

That business exploited a loophole, and Zhou Cheng hadn’t flaunted it.

His monthly salary only exceeded 100 yuan after becoming a cadre. His grandmother had calculated that Zhou Cheng’s salary couldn’t have saved up over 2,000 yuan, so she thought Xia Xiaolan had given the money in Zhou Cheng’s name. She then emptied her savings to compensate Xia Xiaolan, both caring for her and not wanting her to spend so much!

Grandmother Zhou wasn’t wrong—although Zhou Cheng had money, the red envelopes were from Xia Xiaolan herself, as Zhou Cheng’s money was all in fixed deposits.

Compared to Shao Guangrong’s widely-circulated “30 cents” story, Grandmother Zhou had willingly given her savings. Regardless of whether Xia Xiaolan was trying to please Zhou Cheng, the old lady acknowledged Xia Xiaolan’s filial piety.

Who knew that Xia Xiaolan had done this good deed without even planning to tell Zhou Cheng? His heart melted completely, then evaporated into gas—his entire being was enveloped in happiness and pride.

“Xiaolan is my wife!”

“She’s the best wife in the world!”

“I’ll treat my wife well for life!”

Xia Xiaolan was startled—they were still on the street, and Zhou Cheng had suddenly shouted this out.

It wasn’t late, and there were still pedestrians who turned to look at this spectacle. Zhou Cheng stood proudly as if receiving a leader’s inspection at a military parade. Seeing his proud expression and the beautiful Xia Xiaolan beside him, some single person couldn’t help but protest:

“…What’s there to be proud about? If I had such a beautiful wife, I wouldn’t just treat her well this lifetime, but the next one too!”

Someone in the crowd nodded in agreement.

Then clutched their chest in pain—brother, that hurt! Forget about a beautiful wife, having any wife would be good enough. As long as she’s female and alive, they’d worship her like an ancestor!