“Mom, 50,000 yuan. That was 50,000 yuan we were talking about. Little sister donated them just like that?” Shu Jianxiang was close to tears. “Why couldn’t she have just given that to us? That is almost enough to buy a house in town.”
“What is the point of saying this now? Why didn’t you say something earlier?” asked Shu Jianbin sarcastically.
“I didn’t see you speaking up either.” He wasn’t that much better than him. The pot was calling the kettle black.
“Alright. Stop with the fighting already. You’ve heard them. From now on, every one of you will be giving us 250 jin of wheat, 250 jin of millets, and 2,500 yuan every year.” Shu Youfu’s words exploded among the brothers like a bomb.
“Dad, are you kidding us? Wheats and millets are fine. 2,500 yuan? I’m not even worth that much if you are to sell me off.” Shu Jianbin felt that his father was being very funny.
“Exactly, we only said that to get money from our little sister. Surely you are not asking us for the same.” Shu Jianxiang rolled his eyes and felt that his old man had let the acting got to his head.
“We’ve already signed an agreement. Are you already trying to breach it?” Shu Youfu drew a puff of the dry tobacco and glanced over at them.
“Wait, Dad. Are you asking us to start supporting you now?” asked Shu Jianbin incredulously.
Nobody retired in the village. Some people worked into their 70s or 80; others until the day that they die. Nobody would wait for their children to support them until they could no longer walk. Shu Youfu had just turned 60 this year. It was early for him to need supporting right away.
Shu Youfu glanced at them. “What? You are not going to support me? The Village Party Secretary and the Village Director had just left. I can always ask them to come back.”
The three bothers didn’t know what to do when they realized that Shu Youfu was serious in what he was saying. That was odd. He had always been working with them. Why did he ask to be supported all of a sudden?
“That’s not what I meant, Dad. It was…… just so sudden,” said Shu Jianxiang with a stutter.
“Of course, I knew you can’t afford that much money so all I am asking for from each of you is just 300 jin wheat, 300 jin millet, and 150 yuan. That’s fair, right?” Shu Youfu knew that they would not be able to come up with so much money so he asked for a more reasonable amount.
With the previous comparison, the brothers felt that this was a more acceptable amount and they all agreed. Shu Youfu brought out pen and paper and they signed a new agreement before sending the three brothers on their way.
“What are you doing, old man? We are both healthy right now. Why do we need their money?” Lin Zixiang didn’t say anything earlier because she wanted to present a united front in front of their sons. Now that they were gone, she could ask her husband in private.
“What do you mean by early? When I wandered around the hospital a few days ago I have seen a lot of old men and women lying there. Very few of them had children next to them. We should have money of our own. If we don’t…… hrm hrm. We will just be brought home to wait for our final days. Take that one time when I had fallen off from the roof as an example. Which one of them couldn’t come up with 2,000 yuan? How long did it take them to shell them out? That made me leery. Keep the money from Shu Yan close and don’t let Jianbin take them from you this time. They will be nicer to us when we have money in hand.”
Shu Youfu had always assumed that his three sons would be familial to him. He finally noticed the issues when he fell the time before and again when he was bored and chatted with the old men and old ladies outside of the hospital.
Having one’s own money was more important than someone else having money.
Shu Yan had no idea about everything that was going o at home. She sent 60,000 yuan to Shu Jianyang – 50,000 of them for the road. The remaining 10,000 yuan included the 2,500 annual payment for Shu Youfu and his wife, for the purchases of wheats and millets. And the remainder of that would be kept by Shu Jianyang to give to Shu Youfu over holidays, etc.
“Work has been difficult lately?” asked Feng Zeyu when he looked at the somewhat tired looking Shu Yan.
“No. My family matters. I had my cousin helped me out and signed an agreement with my family.” Shu Yan told him the story and lamented, “Had it not been the 50,000-yuan donation, for sure this would not have gone so smoothly. The money was well-spent and also doubled as some karma for “myself”.
Shu Yan mostly did that for the original owner. If there were souls, then perhaps she had already reincarnated. And, not just right now she would continue to perform charity acts in the future to accrual karma for herself and for original owner.
