Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Chunlan, are you home?"

Fan Hongying's voice came from outside. Zhan Chunlan quickly got up and opened the door, only to see Fan Hongying standing at the door with a sullen face.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Zhan Chunlan asked with concern.

“It’s not my business,” Fan Hongying said listlessly. “Your neighbors just had a fight, did you know?”

"It's so close, it would be hard not to know!"

"Aren't you angry?" Fan Hongying asked, puzzled by her calm expression.

"Why should I get angry when they're arguing?" Zhan Chunlan asked, puzzled. While the noise from next door was indeed annoying, it was ultimately their business; why get upset?

"Sigh~ You don't know..." Fan Hongying could tell from her expression that she had only heard the argument but hadn't bothered to find out what it was about. "Let me tell you, that old lady Wang is so wicked!"

"Yes, that's true. It's really inhumane not to take the child to the hospital just because she's a granddaughter." Zhan Chunlan couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"Not only that, I was furious when I heard about it." Fan Hongying then explained the whole story.

It turned out that Deng Xiaomei's daughter had caught a cold early in the morning and had a slight fever. Before going to work, she gave her child cold medicine. Knowing what kind of person her mother-in-law was, she explained to her in detail the seriousness of the cold and fever and told her to take the child to the hospital if anything seemed wrong.

I repeatedly told her to take good care of the child, but this old lady did the opposite. The child was sick, but she was busy chatting with others and didn't care about the child at all.

When Deng Xiaomei got home from work and opened the door, she saw that her child's face was flushed red with fever and he was unconscious. She was terrified and rushed the child to the hospital.

What's even more disheartening is that, from the time the child was taken to the hospital until now, neither Mrs. Wang nor Deng Xiaomei's husband, Liang Chao, has visited the hospital once.

Deng Xiaomei had originally hoped that Liang Chao would bring money, but after waiting and waiting, he didn't come. She could only ask the nurse to help look after him while she hurriedly went home to get the money to pay for the medical expenses.

As a result, that damned old lady Wang stubbornly disagreed, arguing, "It's just a cold and fever, sweating it out will make it better, why go to the hospital!"

Deng Xiaomei and Liang Chao both handed over their wages to Old Mrs. Wang for safekeeping, but now that they need the money, she refuses to give it to them, and Liang Chao remains silent on the side.

Deng Xiaomei was trembling with anger, but she had no time to argue with them. Yinyin's illness couldn't be delayed for even a moment. She had no choice but to borrow money from her neighbors first. The first family she approached was the Fan family. Several members of the Fan family had jobs, were well-off, and were kind-hearted. They were her only hope at the moment.

When Fan Hongying learned of Deng Xiaomei's plight, she felt both sympathy and fear, worried that she might encounter the same situation after getting married. So she went to talk to Zhan Chunlan.

"Chunlan, tell me, why do people always have to get married?" Fan Hongying was a little scared.

No one says you have to get married. Zhan Chunlan silently told her this in her heart, but she didn't dare say it aloud. In this kind of society, the pressure of not getting married was too great, and she might not be able to bear it.

"What? Are you scared?"

“Some people ask, why does Sister Xiaomei have to hand over her own wages to someone else for safekeeping?” This is also a point of confusion for Fan Hongying. “If she kept her own wages, she wouldn’t have encountered this situation.”

"This..." This really stumped Zhan Chunlan. Who knows what she was thinking?

"I guess it's to make it easier for old ladies to buy groceries and vegetables. That way, they can buy them whenever they see them without having to go back and forth to get money..."

Looking into Fan Hongying's bright eyes, Zhan Chunlan felt a pang of guilt as she realized that Fan would believe whatever she said. "Uh... okay, actually I don't know either."

“So,” Zhan Chunlan said firmly, her eyes clear, “we women must hold onto our own money. We must manage our own money. Don’t easily entrust it to others—not your husband, not your children. In this world, the most reliable person is ultimately yourself.”

Fan Hongying asked worriedly, "Is the child alright?"

Zhan Chunlan sighed, her gaze drifting to the window as if she had witnessed the coldness and warmth of human relationships both inside and outside the courtyard: "Look around here, how many families are like this? The older generation worked themselves to the bone when they were young, sacrificing their entire lives to get their sons married and raise their children. But when they get old and can't move, how many of them are truly well cared for? Haven't you seen enough people die of illness or starvation?"

“There’s really nothing we can do about this illness,” Fan Hongying muttered softly.

"Tsk, that's how you think." Zhan Chunlan poked Fan Hongying's forehead hard, her tone carrying a hint of disappointment, yet also a subtle envy. This kind of thing would be troublesome for others, but for Fan Hongying, it was pure worry.

If she really handed over her salary to her mother-in-law for safekeeping, it probably wouldn't take more than a year or two before not only did she lose every penny of her own money, but the whole family would also have to hand over their savings to her.

"What should Sister Xiaomei do now?" Fan Hongying, who was still unaware of the power of her "chosen one," was genuinely worried for others.

"Actually, it's a good thing that she saw through this family so early," Zhan Chunlan said calmly and logically. "Right now, we'll borrow some money to get through this difficult time. Starting next month, she'll keep her own salary firmly in her own hands and not hand over a single penny. Then we'll slowly figure out a way to get Liang Chao to hand over his salary as well. Once she has control of the family's finances, what family conflicts will there be?"

Fan Hongying was still worried: "But... what if Old Wang is so unreasonable every day? What if she makes a scene at home and throws a tantrum?"

Zhan Chunlan snorted coldly, her eyes showing no sign of compromise: "If it were me? From the very first time she caused trouble, I would have packed my bags and sent her back to her rural hometown. She's a rural resident, and everything she eats and uses is rationed for Xiaomei and the children. She scrimps and saves, yet she's raised a bullying old hag?"

"But Uncle Liang Chao is very filial, he definitely won't agree."

“That’s because it didn’t harm his interests,” Zhan Chunlan said incisively. “Think about it, whose food rations are being cut off for what we eat and use? Whose wages are being paid? Even this room was allocated to us because he and Sister Xiaomei are both employed. Taking care of the elderly and managing relationships—isn’t it Sister Xiaomei who shoulders all the burden? Has he contributed a single bit?”

Her eyes were sharp, and her tone became increasingly pointed: "Once Deng Xiaomei stops tolerating it, and Granny Wang's mouth starts causing trouble outside—with no one to clean up her mess, one problem after another will fall directly on Liang Chao's head. Do you think he'll be anxious? At that time, he'll probably be more eager than anyone else to send his mother back to her hometown!"

At this point, Zhan Chunlan pulled Fan Hongying up: "Come on, let's go to the hospital to see Sister Xiaomei."