Favors were the hardest things to measure.
What did Grandmother Yu need favors from the Ji family for? She felt it was embarrassing to associate with them.
Since Ji Lin insisted on repaying the favor, Grandmother Yu told them to convert it to money, without specifying an amount – she’d let them decide. She hadn’t intended to collect on old favors; it was from so many years ago, and she wasn’t lacking money for daily life now. Before meeting Xia Xiaolan, the old lady had lived on her monthly street sweeper’s wages without ever asking the Ji family to repay any favors.
The Ji family was too guilty, fearing Grandmother Yu might hold onto the debt of gratitude and make excessive demands, so they wanted to settle it first. Such behavior from the Ji family couldn’t earn Grandmother Yu’s trust – she would never mention finding her son Xu Zhongyi to them, no matter what.
Ji Lin worked at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and Ji Ya had lived in America for over ten years – wouldn’t they be more convenient than Xia Xiaolan for helping?
But Grandmother Yu simply didn’t trust them.
Ji Lin wanted to save face, and Grandmother Yu was annoyed to death by him, so she directly said to convert the favor to money.
When Ji Ya learned of this, she finally found an outlet:
“So she just came for money! She should have said so earlier – I can give her money!”
Her attitude was especially intimidating, and she berated the Ji family members harshly. Once the money was mentioned, Grandmother Yu’s standing plummeted in Ji Ya’s eyes.
“Shut up! How could Aunt Yu possibly come asking for money!”
If she’d wanted money, she would have come while the old master was still alive. Coming after his death to ask for money – what kind of behavior was that? But Ji Lin was indeed relieved; problems that could be solved with money were manageable. Though the Ji family wasn’t extremely wealthy, they weren’t short of money.
Ji Ya couldn’t go abroad, and George had stayed in China for love.
George was willing to provide the money.
“I can give her dollars!”
US dollars were the world’s most popular currency, and even the Chinese government desperately wanted foreign exchange.
How could Ji Lin agree to let George provide the money? That would change their debt to Grandmother Yu into a debt to George!
Ji Lin checked his family’s savings, which only amounted to 20,000 yuan. As the eldest, he would contribute the largest share, while others would contribute smaller amounts, each family giving 10,000. This wasn’t a small sum – unlike Ji Ya who earned dollars, the other Ji family members would need many years of wages to save 10,000 yuan.
Since Ji Ya had caused trouble, although the Ji family members followed Ji Lin’s request to contribute money, they were very dissatisfied with her.
Ji Ya herself contributed 20,000.
Ji Lin gathered 80,000 yuan and delivered it to Grandmother Yu.
“Aunt Yu, if you need any help in the future, the Ji family will do our utmost. Please take this money first. You’re so far away in Shangdu, and we younger ones can’t look after you regularly.”
The Ji family gave 80,000 yuan!
At this moment, Ji Lin’s intelligence finally showed up, knowing it was better to give more than less – this way, Grandmother Yu couldn’t bring up past favors anymore.
Grandmother Yu snorted lightly. They were quite clever with their little schemes – this was about the level of Ji Huaixin’s son.
“Fine, I’ll take the money. I won’t trouble your Ji family again in the future.”
80,000 yuan could be gradually exchanged on the black market for eight or nine thousand US dollars. When Xia Xiaolan helps her find her son in the future, this money should be enough for one trip. Ji Lin and Grandmother Yu were mutually satisfied. Liu Fen, looking at the money on the table, felt like she was dreaming.
The Ji family brought so much money, and Grandmother Yu accepted it.
“The Ji family now only has their face worth something. They’ve had trouble with Mayor Tang before, and there are rumors they’ve offended the Zhou family. If I were to come out now and say the Ji family was ungrateful, Ji Huaixin’s reputation built over many years would be ruined completely! They’re paying now to keep me quiet.”
Liu Fen half-understood: “But they gave too much…”
Too much?
The Ji family knew how to read people.
Because the Yu family had been wealthy before, Grandmother Yu had high standards. The Ji family knew the old lady wouldn’t be easy to deal with, which was why they offered 80,000.
If it had been an illiterate old lady from the countryside coming to their door, even with equally great favors to the Ji family, they would have sent her away with at most 800 yuan.
Grandmother Yu had previously split the 10,000 yuan that Liang Bing’an had thrown into her yard, sharing 5,000 with Xia Xiaolan. With last year’s and this year’s shop rent, Grandmother Yu had gathered about 90,000 yuan.
She took two stacks from the pile and handed them to Liu Fen: “Those present should share in the fortune. If I hadn’t come to Beijing with you for a trip, this money wouldn’t have fallen into my hands.”
How could Liu Fen accept Grandmother Yu’s money? A lonely old lady needed money most for security.
Security comes from oneself – with money in hand, Grandmother Yu would have more confidence in daily life.
When Grandmother Yu said the money was for Xia Xiaolan to use in finding someone in America, Xia Xiaolan refused: “The timing isn’t certain yet, don’t rush. Let’s deposit this in the bank first, it can earn some interest.”
Convincing Grandmother Yu to buy property wasn’t realistic – Beijing’s property price surge was a future event, and at her age, she might not live to see it.
In Shangdu, Grandmother Yu had a residence and a small building at Erqi Square. Xia Xiaolan thought Grandmother Yu should choose more conservative investment methods. A bank term deposit was a good choice – one thousand yuan could earn several hundred yuan in interest annually. With 80,000 yuan in the bank, Grandmother Yu would earn several thousand yuan each year.
With the rental income, the old lady could truly live comfortably if she moved to Beijing.
The Ji family’s action was a fair transaction, the only thing Xia Xiaolan appreciated about them – at least they hadn’t tried to “default.”
Giving 80,000 showed the Ji family had the means and valued their face.
This money wasn’t extorted by Grandmother Yu – why shouldn’t she accept it?
Xia Xiaolan told Grandmother Yu to accept it without worry; future confrontations with the Ji family wouldn’t need Grandmother Yu’s involvement. Grandmother Yu was now eager to return to Shangdu, not because she was short-sighted about taking the money back – she planned to move to Beijing permanently anyway, so she deposited the money directly at Manager Wu’s branch. Manager Wu wanted to persuade Grandmother Yu to buy government bonds, but looking at the old lady’s age, he swallowed his words.
Government bonds took several years to redeem – for an elderly person, if anything unexpected happened, they wouldn’t even have time to redeem them. That would be too unfair!
Manager Wu suppressed his heartache: “Miss Xia, we’ve found some leads on the shops you wanted. When you have time, I can take you to see them.”
Xia Xiaolan truly had no time.
All her spare time was invested in intensive English study.
She had weekends free, but she wanted to visit the academy then. A month had passed – surely Zhou Cheng could receive visitors now? This month, she and Zhou Cheng had been completely out of contact. The letters she sent had sunk like stones – this had never happened since they’d known each other.
If she hadn’t learned about the academy’s rules from Guan Hui’e, Xia Xiaolan would have stormed the academy already!
“I’ll let my mother go with you to look. She’ll be managing the shop anyway.”
Since Manager Wu said they had leads, he must have secured connections with the work unit, so they could rent a shop – it was just a matter of what conditions they’d propose. This was also an opportunity for Liu Fen to gain experience. Liu Fen didn’t decline as she had before but bravely stepped up. With Grandmother Yu accompanying her, Liu Fen wasn’t afraid of being cheated!