Chapter 86 The Division of Families Ends

Actually, their family structure is quite easy to divide.

Mrs. Huo first explained her income: "Fifty-five years ago, when the country was struggling and wages were not yet graded, your father, your grandparents, and I didn't have much income. We basically used it all to buy things for the house."

"When the rank was determined in July 1955, your grandparents had already reached the age of retirement."

"According to the retirement policy at the time, people like your grandparents who participated in revolutionary work during the War of Resistance Against Japan would receive 90% of their fixed salary."

“At that time, your grandfather’s starting salary was 425 yuan and your grandmother’s was 63 yuan. Based on 90% of that, they would receive 439.2 yuan in retirement pension each month.”

“From July 1955 to now, they have received a total of 13 years and 4 months of retirement pay, which amounts to 70,272 yuan.”

After talking about her parents-in-law, Huo's mother then brought up Huo's father's salary.

“When your dad was first assigned a rank, he was a deputy military officer with a monthly salary of 252 yuan. In 1958, he was promoted to the rank of full military officer, and his salary has now increased to 277 yuan.”

"By 1963, he had been promoted to the rank of a full military region commander, with a monthly salary of 382 yuan."

"My salary for the first three years was 9,072 yuan, for the middle five years it was 16,620 yuan, and for the last five years and four months it was 24,448 yuan, which adds up to a total of 50,140 yuan."

“Next up is mine. Our General Political Department Art Troupe is a division-level unit. When the rank was determined in 1955, I was a battalion-level cadre with a monthly salary of 101 yuan.”

"In 1959, I was promoted to deputy regimental commander, with a monthly salary of 127 yuan. In 1964, I was promoted again to regimental commander, with a salary of 141 yuan."

"Over the past few years, I have received a total of 19,800 yuan."

"This is all the income our family has had over the past ten years, totaling 140,212 yuan."

Jiang Si was quite surprised to hear this number.

However, in this era, salaries were indeed based on a fixed grade. Given the positions of grandparents and parents, it was normal for them to receive so much.

After all, if you join the military, promotion depends entirely on military merit.

Military merit, to put it bluntly, is something earned by risking one's life, one sword and one spear.

Lost in thought, Mrs. Huo began to tally up the family's expenses over the years.

Compared to income, expenses are relatively trivial.

Mrs. Huo then mentioned several major expenses.

First, there was the house in Xishan Compound. When they moved in, in addition to the furniture they received from the army, Huo's mother also added a lot of things.

Back then, furniture and household items were quite expensive; this cost around 1000.

Next up is where the children get married.

The current price for a complete set of 72-legged furniture is around 500 yuan.

The prices for "three turns and one sound" are roughly the same: a watch costs 120 yuan, a sewing machine costs 155 yuan, a bicycle generally costs between 160 and 180 yuan, and even the most basic radio costs around 80 yuan.

Adding these two things together, including receipts, it costs about 1200 yuan per child. If you also include the bride price, it would cost more than 2000 yuan per child.

Next comes the cost of three meals a day.

Everyday life requires money for basic necessities like firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea.

Take food rations as an example. With more than ten people in the family, it costs several tens of yuan every month just to buy the rationed food that is rationed according to the food ration book.

In addition, there's the cost of daily grocery shopping, eggs and milk for the kids, and the occasional snack.

Just the living expenses alone amount to more than 100 yuan a month.

If you also include the social interactions over the past ten years, as well as the purchase of clothes, the amount would be even greater.

Of course, these are not the main issues.

The biggest expense for the family was actually the money that Mr. Huo had anonymously donated over the years.

Mr. Huo always said that not being able to bring those who followed him back safely was the thing he regretted most in his life.

So over the years, whenever there was a disaster or danger, or whenever a young soldier's family was in trouble, he would do his best to help.

Although Huo's mother tightly controls Huo's father's allowance, she is never ambiguous when it comes to matters like this.

Finally, there are some miscellaneous expenses.

After all, Mrs. Huo sometimes had to go out to perform for the benefit of the people, and she couldn't possibly keep track of every single expense in the household.

After all that, the family savings account still had 68,468.56 yuan left.

Oh, right, there's one more thing.

The two sums of money that the Yang family returned today totaled about 12,000 yuan.

That means I have a total of 80,468 yuan now, not counting the cents.

Over the years, each household's salary has been kept by them. Apart from a symbolic monthly allowance, the majority of the money has been spent by the elderly couple.

The only ones who are at a disadvantage right now are the first wife and the third wife.

After explaining the income and expenses, Mother Huo addressed her second and fourth sons.

“You two grew up by my side since you were little, unlike the eldest and third sons, who never enjoyed a single day of happiness by my side.”

“I’ve roughly calculated that it’s cost about 150 yuan a year to support you two brothers over the years.”

"The annual subsidy you receive after marriage is roughly the same amount."

“I’ve made it clear that before the family splits up, I want to use this money to pay off your eldest brother and the third brother.”

"In addition, your eldest brother has settled down in Xinjiang Province, and his situation is the same as that of the third brother."

"So in addition to the bride price and the things I bought, I will also give the couple a separate settlement allowance of 2,000 yuan."

"Oh, right, there's also the money the Jiang family gave for the third son's medical treatment. This money was demanded back by the third son's wife, and I'll give it to her directly then."

"Take a look, do you have any objections?"

“If you have any questions, say them now. Don’t wait until the family is divided up before you start gossiping behind people’s backs.”

Upon hearing this, the second and fourth wives shook their heads, saying that the money originally belonged to their parents and grandparents.

How to distribute the money is a matter for the elders.

They had no objections.

"Okay, it's good that you have no objections."

After deducting these, there is still more than 60,000 yuan in the account.

According to the Huo family tradition, 50% of the 60,000 yuan is to be passed on to the next heir, while the other 50% is the family property.

Elderly care is usually the responsibility of the heirs. However, for people of their level, medical treatment, hospitalization, and caregiver services are all fully reimbursed by the state, and their retirement pensions are also high, so they basically don't need to worry about it.

Mrs. Huo calculated that the 30,000 yuan would be divided into 5 parts. They and the old man would keep one part for emergencies, and each household would receive about 6,000 yuan.

Mrs. Huo had already calculated these accounts several times in advance, so she had done so a few days earlier when she was renewing her bankbook.

She had already converted all the family savings into anonymous deposit certificates.

Jiang Si was unaware of these traditions of the Huo family.

When she saw the deposit slip handed over by Huo's mother, she was stunned for a long time.

"Mom, did you calculate this wrong?"

While shaking her head, Huo's mother also explained these things to Jiang Si.

Not only these few savings books, but also the salaries of the couple and the old man will be left to the third wife in the future.

This is why the old man and his colleagues' salaries were all credited to Mr. Huo.

Because when the Huo family was handed over to Huo's father, Huo's fourth uncle's share had already been given.

As for the other branches of the family, Mr. Huo had already spoken to them about this matter beforehand.

The second and fourth sons had no objections.

The eldest son will probably come back to visit his parents when he has time, but it's unlikely he'll stay in Beijing.

Therefore, the Huo family could only entrust the responsibility to the third son and his wife.

Jiang Si didn't refuse after hearing this. Since it was a tradition of the Huo family, she had nothing to be embarrassed about.

However, the 30,000 yuan deposit slip only passed through her hands briefly before returning to Huo's mother's hands.

Mrs. Huo was stunned.

"Sisi, what are you doing—"

Fortunately, Jiang Si quickly offered her explanation: "Mom, I want to use this money as an education fund for the Huo family."

"Education fund?"

"Yes! From now on, any descendant of the Huo family who achieves success in exams or in a certain field will receive a bonus."

"You mean, we should use this money to educate the next generation?"

"That's right."

Jiang Si nodded, her tone unusually serious.

"Mom, the rise and fall of a family can never be sustained by the dominance of one branch of the family."

"What Tingzhou and I hope is that in the future, the descendants of the Huo family can be a blazing fire when they are together, and a sky full of stars when they are apart, so that each child can shine in their own field of expertise."

"Only in this way can we pass it down from generation to generation."

Thirty thousand yuan is nothing to Jiang Si.

But what if we could exchange this for a chance for our whole family to prosper, or for a healthy competitive environment?

She still thinks it was worth it!

When the Huo family heard her say, "Together we are a blazing fire, scattered we are a sky full of stars," they were deeply moved.

My emotions also inexplicably surged.

Grandpa and Grandma Huo exchanged a glance and then smiled with satisfaction.

"Let's do as Si Yatou says."

They said that handing the Huo family over to them was the right thing to do.

They didn't know what happened when other families split up.

But the Huo family's division of assets this time can truly be described as harmonious and joyful.

The only time the argument occurred was after lunch.

We were in a good mood today, so everyone ordered a few more dishes.

Mr. Huo, along with his second and fourth sons, also unusually joined the old man for a few drinks.

Seeing this, Jiang Si decided to go down and secretly pay the money.

Little did I know, the money had just been handed over.

Yang Meina quickly stopped her, saying, "Let me do it!"

Then Guan Xue came over, "Second sister-in-law, third sister-in-law, let me do it this time."

"No, I'll do it."

"Second sister-in-law, let me do it."

"I'll do it!"

Seeing this, Huo's mother, who was a few steps behind them, couldn't help but smile.

In the end, no one could win against Huo's mother.

After settling the bill, she waved her hand and took her three daughters-in-law to the Beijing Department Store that afternoon.

Perhaps it was because people are in high spirits during a happy occasion, but just after noon the next day, the telephone that the Huo family had been waiting for finally rang—