Liu Jianjun sat dejectedly on the sofa.
Ever since Liu Fen left with the child without looking back, the family has been a complete mess.
The floor was always sticky, covered with a layer of dust and food scraps. The clothes piled up in the basin would smell rancid after just a few days. The dishes and chopsticks on the stove were piled high like a small mountain; Granny Li only cared about finishing her own food and never cleaned up. The once bright and clean home, filled with the aroma of delicious food, had become like a garbage dump, exuding an aura of decay.
Every day when Liu Jianjun came home from work, he was no longer greeted with a hot meal, but with Li Pozi's endless complaints and curses. She called Liu Fen an ungrateful wretch, called Nannan a money-loser, and cursed him for being incompetent at keeping his wife.
He initially tolerated it, but later he couldn't stand it anymore, so he started eating out or simply staying at work until very late before coming home.
Today, he has to face an even more serious problem—he's out of money.
One of his comrades from the same battalion was getting married, and according to custom, he had to give a five-yuan gift. He instinctively went to find the small tin box where Liu Fen used to keep her money, but when he opened it, it was empty. He frowned and asked Granny Li, "Mom, where's the money at home?"
"Money? What money? How would I know where the money is!" Granny Li was cracking sunflower seeds, not even lifting her eyelids. "Wasn't that jinx in charge before? When she left, she must have run off with all the money! I told you she wasn't a good person, but you wouldn't believe me!"
Liu Jianjun's brows furrowed even more. He had seen Liu Fen leave with his own eyes; she only carried a small bundle containing nothing but a few old clothes.
“She didn’t take it,” he said in a deep voice.
"Didn't you take it? Did that money grow legs and run away?" Granny Li spat out the melon seed shells and said impatiently, "Don't you give me your entire monthly salary? Do you think I don't need money to buy vegetables and rice? Do you think I'm a fairy who can conjure food out of thin air?"
Liu Jianjun felt a wave of frustration. His monthly salary was fifty-five yuan, and after deducting his own spending money, he gave fifty yuan to his family. When Liu Fen was alive, they lived frugally, but they had never been like this before, unable to even come up with five yuan for a wedding gift.
He suppressed his anger and found the family's account book. It was left by Liu Fen, and every expense was clearly recorded in her delicate handwriting, from a penny's worth of salt to several dollars' worth of cloth.
He turned the pages one by one, his heart sinking deeper with each page.
The accounts showed that Liu Fen was indeed extremely frugal. She kept household expenses very low, spending no more than twenty yuan a month on rice, flour, vegetables, and miscellaneous necessities. Based on this calculation, her family should have saved at least a thousand yuan over the past five years!
But what about the money? Where did all the money go?
A cold sweat broke out on Liu Jianjun's back. He had always thought that the family was poor because Liu Fen didn't know how to manage a household, or because raising children was expensive. But the accounts clearly told him otherwise. Liu Fen had scrimped and saved to the extreme.
The money that disappeared has only one destination.
He suddenly looked up at his mother. Old Lady Li felt a little guilty under his gaze and avoided his eyes, saying, "Why are you looking at me like that! It wasn't me who spent the money!"
Just then, the phone on the table suddenly rang.
Liu Jianjun picked up the phone, and his younger brother Liu Jianmin's excited voice came through. Thinking it was Granny Li answering, Liu Jianmin shouted, "Mom! It's me! I have great news! With the three hundred yuan you gave me last time, I bought a black and white TV! And a big wardrobe! My wife is so happy! In our village, only our family has a TV; it's so prestigious!"
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