“Fine, I’ll pay!”
The doppelganger said sarcastically, “Why didn’t you do that earlier? You’re still paying a thousand!”
Yi Zhong Hai’s molars were about to be crushed, he sat in the house without moving!
The doppelganger glanced at him and said, “What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and get the money! Do you think I’m idle and can stay in this courtyard forever?”
Seeing that the matter wasn't completely resolved, the postman wouldn’t leave, Yi Zhong Hai got up nervously and returned to his room.
It must be said that having experienced the most difficult years, Yi Zhong Hai knew how to save money.
He didn't trust banks and liked to keep his money at home. He kept all his family's valuables in a small box and hid it in a relatively inconspicuous place in the house.
This was the case with Yi Zhong Hai. The bottom of the kang in his house was empty. He simply lifted the wooden boards on the kang and there was a hidden space he had specifically left for this purpose.
Yi Zhong Hai took out an iron box from inside and opened it. It was filled with money, a total of seven thousand yuan! This was all the savings he had accumulated over twenty years working at the steel factory.
The thought of this money going into someone else’s hands made Yi Zhong Hai feel extremely uncomfortable.
He had scrimped and saved for decades, only to be left with nothing. He had been thinking about using this money to marry off Bang Geng later, and now he had lost two-thirds of it!
It was all ten-yuan bills, a hundred bills in a stack, five stacks of money. Yi Zhong Hai's trembling hand counted for tens of seconds!
He Yu Cheng couldn't help but laugh as he used his spiritual power to sense the money.
You’ve been jumping around in the courtyard all day, now you can finally settle down for a while!
It was a distance of over ten meters, and Yi Zhong Hai took five minutes to reach the He family. When he arrived at the He family, he played another trick and handed the money directly to He Yu Zhu.
He Yu Zhu had never seen so much money in his life. Seeing Yi Zhong Hai hand the money to him, he was ecstatic. But the postman’s question pulled him down from the clouds.
“I’m He Yu Zhu, their elder brother!”
“Then the money has nothing to do with you. This is for He Yu Cheng and He Yu Shui. If you dare take it, I’ll call the police again.”
Yi Zhong Hai felt his blood rush to his head, was this never-ending? Always threatening to call the police, he was determined to ruin him.
But thinking that the money was still in the hands of the He siblings, he thought there was still a way to get it back. His money wasn't so easy to take!
He Yu Cheng took the money and his eyes never left the money, He Yu Zhu was the same, his eyes fixed on the money!
The doppelganger spoke again, “You’re not a good brother either. I just heard outside, you are giving your money away to help others, but you are making your brother and sister drop out of school. You’re 24-25 years old, can’t you be more sensible? Besides, you just said that you’ve separated, right? Since you’ve separated, this money has nothing to do with you!”
Originally, He Yu Zhu had been thinking that once the postman left, he would take the money. Hearing that the money had nothing to do with him, He Yu Zhu was unhappy and said stubbornly, “Why does it have nothing to do with me? It’s also money sent by my dad! It’s definitely mine! Besides, I’ve been supporting them all these years and paying for their schooling!”
“Have you inherited your father’s job?”
He Yu Zhu nodded.
“As far as I know, a formal job is now worth eight hundred yuan, which means you’ve inherited eight hundred yuan of your father’s assets. You’ve been supporting them for seven years, right? Have you counted how much money you’ve spent in those seven years?”
He Yu Zhu had always been a carefree person, and he never cared much about his younger siblings. As long as they didn't starve, he didn’t care. He was still a child himself, who could blame him?
Hearing the postman’s question, He Yu Zhu didn't say anything. Since Qin Huairu had married into the courtyard, the money he had given his younger siblings was only enough to keep them from starving, four or five yuan each month.
He Yu Shui had long been dissatisfied with He Yu Zhu and directly said, “Yes, I have a record of how much money my elder brother has given us over the years, including how much tickets he has given us after the ticket system.”
She ran to her room and brought out a worn-out notebook.
The doppelganger smiled when he saw the notebook.
He flipped it open and looked at it, “Wow, you are really something. This is how you take care of your younger siblings? Tuition is five yuan a year, textbook fees are twenty yuan a year! Living expenses average out to three yuan a month, and even your clothes, you have a record of how much you’ve spent each year. Look carefully, is there anything missing?”
He Yu Zhu took the notebook and looked at it. His eyes went green. This was how he had taken care of his younger siblings? But upon reflection, it really was like this. He didn’t let them eat well, he didn’t let them dress well. He Yu Shui was a girl, and she was growing, so he bought her a new set of clothes each year, while He Yu Cheng had been wearing his hand-me-downs for all these years.
He wanted to find something wrong with it, but after thinking about it, he couldn’t find anything wrong.
Looking at He Yu Zhu's gloomy face, the doppelganger smiled and said, “Ha, so you’re the elder brother?”
He took the record book and tossed it to Yi Zhong Hai, Come on, take a look, how these two children were being deducted for their living expenses. What kind of life did they live? What did they eat and drink?
Yi Zhong Hai took the notebook and looked at it. The food was all steamed buns and boiled water, with very little pickled vegetables. Even he couldn't believe that this was the food of a cook’s family.
“You’re a real piece of work, someone like you, if this notebook were to be taken to the police station, you’d get shot directly. You’re still the head of the courtyard, how can you have the face to manage the courtyard?”
Yi Zhong Hai was like a broken pot that has already been smashed, he allowed the doppelganger to mercilessly scold him!
After scolding Yi Zhong Hai, the doppelganger turned to He Yu Zhu and said, “How much is the living expenses for the two children for seven years? Should we calculate it?”
He flipped through the notebook and roughly calculated. In these seven years, He Yu Cheng and He Yu Shui had only spent about eight or nine hundred yuan! It was less than sixty yuan per person per year. This was including tuition, textbook fees, and the money spent on buying clothes and shoes.
If it was only living expenses, then it just reached the standard of five yuan per person. But deducting all that, it was only a little over three yuan a month!
It was no wonder that He Yu Shui was so thin in the original story.
The doppelganger said to He Yu Cheng, “Alright, directly give him a thousand yuan and see if he has the face to take it. If he's shameless enough to take it, then the brotherhood is over right here. You two are now sensible, keep some living expenses for yourselves. I’ll take you to the bank to open a fixed deposit and save the money. You can withdraw it when you get married!
This completely blocked all the back doors that Yi Zhong Hai and He Yu Zhu had been thinking of!
He Yu Cheng directly took a stack of money from his hand and handed it to He Yu Zhu.
This thousand yuan was He Yu Zhu's salary for three years, how could he not want it? But as he thought about all the despicable things he had done, he hadn’t been earning much in the past. But now, he earned thirty yuan a month and occasionally made some extra money by cooking for people. But he had spent less than five yuan on his younger siblings!
Seeing that He Yu Zhu felt guilty, Old Lady Lou knew that he didn't want to take the money. So, she said, “Ai, He Yu Zhu, take it. Save this money and find yourself a wife!”
Old Lady Lou was a clever woman. She knew that since things had already gone this far, whether he took the money or not, He Yu Cheng and He Yu Shui would resent He Yu Zhu. It was better to take the money!
Hearing the old lady's words, He Yu Zhu lowered his head and took the money!
The doppelganger gave another cold laugh, “Ha, the elder brother is still the boss, how ridiculous!”
He Yu Zhu's face was so red with shame that it could drip blood. Ignoring He Yu Zhu, the doppelganger said to He Yu Cheng and He Yu Shui, “Do you trust me? If you do, I’ll take you to the bank to deposit the money, so that no one will covet it!”
The two naturally nodded in agreement. They followed the doppelganger out of the courtyard.