After lunch, Xia Qingqing took the remaining 20 sailor shirts to Zhang Shengli's house. When she arrived, Zhang Shengli's family was having lunch.

Zhang Shengli greeted her warmly, saying, "Qingqing, you're here! Have you eaten yet? If not, come and eat with us."

"No need, Uncle Shengli, I just finished eating and came over," Xia Qingqing politely declined Zhang Shengli's offer.

Upon seeing the large basket covered by a cloth in Xia Qingqing's hand, Ge Chunhua immediately guessed Xia Qingqing's purpose and pulled her directly to the room, not forgetting to lock the door from the inside.

Zhang Shengli stared blankly in the direction of the room. What was this woman up to?

Ge Chunhua looked excitedly at the basket Xia Qingqing was carrying: "Qingqing, is this the sailor shirt?"

“Yes,” Xia Qingqing said, lifting the tattered cloth on the basket to reveal the sailor shirt underneath.

"Wow, this looks like quite a lot, more than 10 pieces, right?" Ge Chunhua said with delight.

Xia Qingqing nodded: "There are 20 items here in total. Aunt Chunhua, do you need so many? If not..."

Before she could finish speaking, Ge Chunhua immediately interrupted, "I want it all."

"Auntie, you know that the cost price of this dress is 5.5 yuan per piece, but I also want to contribute my own favors, so I want to take 3 mao (0.3 yuan) from each dress," Xia Qingqing stated her request directly.

Ge Chunhua didn't mind at all. She had originally planned to split the profits from the clothes with Xia Qingqing, but now that Xia Qingqing only charged 30 cents per piece, she was the one who benefited.

Smiling, she looked at Xia Qingqing and said, "This money is yours to accept, and your aunt has no objection."

Seeing her so readily agree, Xia Qingqing was also in a good mood. It wasn't a waste of her effort; she really didn't care about just 20 pieces.

"Well, Qingqing, go outside and wait a moment, Auntie will get you the money," Ge Chunhua said with an awkward smile to Xia Qingqing. She hid her money quite well, and although she knew Xia Qingqing probably wouldn't have any bad intentions, she didn't want anyone to know where she hid her money.

Xia Qingqing smiled, opened the door, and went out.

Zhang Shengli was completely confused when he saw her come out and immediately asked, "Qingqing, what does your aunt want with you?"

"Uncle Shengli, you should go ask Aunt Chunhua yourself," Xia Qingqing said with a smile, pointing towards the room.

Zhang Shengli looked completely bewildered, clearly unaware of what Ge Chunhua was doing. Let the couple talk about it behind closed doors.

A moment later, Ge Chunhua came out of the room and stuffed a stack of money into Xia Qingqing's hand: "It's 116 yuan in total. Qingqing, count it and see if it's correct."

Xia Qingqing shook her head: "Auntie, I believe you would never cheat me. I have things to do at home, so I'll be leaving now."

"Come visit your auntie's house sometime," Ge Chunhua said with a smile as she saw Xia Qingqing to the front door. When she returned to the main room, she saw the man and the two children staring intently at her.

Zhang Shengli asked with some displeasure, "What exactly are you up to?"

His heart started racing when he saw his wife hand Xia Qingqing such a thick wad of cash.

Over the years, the family has only saved a little over 300 yuan. The eldest son is getting married next year, and the daughter will also get married in two years. The bride price and dowry all depend on this little money.

Fortunately, he understood his wife's character and knew she wouldn't squander the money, which was why he could still speak to her politely.

Ge Chunhua explained with a happy expression: "Didn't I tell you yesterday that I wanted to ask Qingqing to help me get a few sailor shirts to sell? So I went to her house to ask while you were taking a nap. It turns out she really has connections and got me 20 sailor shirts. If we do it well, we can make at least 10 yuan."

"What?" Zhang Shengli looked at his wife in shock, his eyes filled with hidden anger: "Didn't I tell you not to cause these troubles? You're just making things difficult for Qingqing."

Ge Chunhua rolled her eyes at him: "Am I the kind of person who doesn't know any limits? She took 30 cents from every piece of clothing."

Zhang Shengli choked, then said with a stern face, "That won't do either. If they have the connections, why don't they go and make the money themselves? Why do they have to let you make it? It's only because of Heping that they want to help our family. You're not being fair in handling this."

"What's wrong with me? I didn't pressure her or make things difficult for her. Who did I do all this for? Was it for myself?" Ge Chunhua's eyes were red, and she seemed about to cry at any moment.

Zhang Wei, the eldest son of the Zhang family, couldn't stand it anymore and spoke up for his mother: "Dad, how can you say that about Mom? She did all this for our family. Even Qingqing didn't say anything. Why are you yelling at Mom like that?"

“Yes, Dad, you can’t talk about Mom like that,” Zhang Xia said, looking at Zhang Shengli with disapproval.

Ge Chunhua smiled with satisfaction: "Our Xiaowei and Xiaoxia are so sensible. Some people don't care about anything every day, all they do is throw tantrums. If they're so capable, they should just kick us three out."

"I...I didn't say anything," Zhang Shengli's tone suddenly softened.

Ge Chunhua ignored him and looked at Zhang Wei, asking, "Son, do you have any friends who want sailor shirts? They're 6.5 yuan each and don't require cloth coupons."

"I'll have to ask them first, but I guess they'll definitely want it."

Ge Chunhua didn't mind: "It's okay if you don't want it. I'll go to your grandma's house tomorrow. Lots of people want to buy sailor shirts but can't find them."

"Mom, can I have one of these sailor shirts? I want one too," Zhang Wei asked Ge Chunhua expectantly.

“Of course, no problem. Mom earns money so that you two siblings can have a better life,” Ge Chunhua said with a smile.

Then she looked at her youngest daughter, Zhang Xia: "Xia, don't envy your brother. When I have time, I'll go to the county and get some cloth to make you a floral shirt."

"Thank you, Mom, you're so kind," Zhang Xia said happily, hugging Ge Chunhua's arm and nuzzling her affectionately.

For Zhang Xia, whether or not new clothes were made was not important. What mattered was that in her mother's eyes, she and her brother were equally important, and she had everything her brother had from childhood to adulthood.

Unfortunately, neither she nor her brother had much academic talent and only graduated from junior high school because neither of them got into high school.

This disappointed Ge Chunhua greatly, because she had prepared the tuition fees for her two children's high school education well in advance.

Zhang Shengli watched helplessly as his wife and two children chatted happily, ignoring him completely, and inexplicably felt abandoned.

He walked awkwardly to Ge Chunhua's side and said, "Wife, please don't be angry with me anymore, okay? I didn't mean to say that just now. I really have no problem with you."

Ge Chunhua rolled her eyes at him: "What do I have to be angry about? After all these years, don't you think I don't know your temper? I'm used to it."