Chapter 483 People from the factory have arrived.
She felt that her life was going to be ruined by this fifteen yuan.
Who will she beg from first thing tomorrow morning?
Who can lend her so much money?
Su Hongmei looked out at the dark sky. The sound of even breathing came from the two rooms on either side, and Su Youfu's snoring came one after another, making her feel desperate and helpless.
She lay on the wooden bed, unable to fall asleep at all.
Her eyes were blankly fixed on the ceiling, on the fan hanging from the rafters in the darkness, and she thought of a summer day when she complained that the room was stuffy and wanted to sleep under the wisteria trellis.
Li Banxia bought a gauze curtain herself, tied it to the flower stand with rope, and asked her second and third uncles to make her a bamboo bed. Li Banxia also fanned her with a palm-leaf fan.
As she was falling asleep, Li Banxia continued to fan her. When she woke up, Li Banxia was still fanning her. She was leaning against a pillar, exhausted, with her eyes closed, and her hands were still fanning her.
Later, when she went to school, her deskmate wore a pretty polka-dot dress, which she said was imported. She begged Li Banxia to buy it for her. Li Banxia went to the Friendship Store to look at it, but came back saying it was too expensive. She offered to make one for her instead.
She didn't want that; she wanted the foreign item.
Li Banxia couldn't resist her pestering, so she eventually bought it for her. The dress cost over two hundred yuan and was the most expensive dress she had ever worn. She only wore it once and never wore it again.
I absolutely had to buy it because I wanted to show it to her deskmate, since she had one too.
Her mother only earned a little over a hundred yuan a month at the time. How could her mother bear to spend more than two hundred yuan plus foreign exchange certificates?
Money is so hard to earn!
Even with the price increase of so much each day, it's only three yuan. Two hundred yuan is too much; she'd need to work for three months to afford it. No... if you include the money she'd have to exchange for foreign exchange certificates, she'd probably need six months.
She said she wanted it, so her mom bought it for her.
Even though she only wore it once, her mother never blamed her for it.
If she goes to her mother to borrow fifteen yuan, will her mother lend it to her?
Su Hongmei's expression was blank, but her nose felt extremely sore, her eyes welled up, and tears slid down her cheeks.
She didn't sleep all night, and when it was dawn, her eyes were bloodshot.
She got up to cook, and just as she entered the yard, there was a knock on the gate. Su Youfu grumbled and called out to her, "Who is it? It's so noisy. Can't a person get some sleep this early in the morning?"
Su Hongmei hurriedly ran over to open the door.
When she opened the door and saw who it was, she paused for a moment, "Are you looking for my dad? He's still sleeping..."
"No, I'm not looking for him, I'm looking for you."
The person who came was the secretary of the auto parts factory manager. He smiled and took an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to her. "I should have given it to you yesterday, but I had a meeting at the factory that lasted until very late, so I didn't come over. I thought you would be holding it today, so I quickly brought it to you."
"This is……"
Su Hongmei's heart skipped a beat, and her fingers trembled slightly as she took the envelope.
The secretary smiled and said, "This is the factory's tuition for your studies. The factory manager said he will support you until you finish university. Of course, you have to get into university first. You can pay back this money after you graduate. However, you'll have to figure out how to cover your living expenses yourself."
Su Hongmei's pupils suddenly contracted, her head spinning from the overwhelming joy. She staggered a couple of times before grabbing the courtyard gate to steady herself.
She opened her mouth, her lips trembled twice, and it took her a while to find her voice, which was tinged with a sob, "Really? The factory gave it to me?"
"Yes, it's for you, but you have to return it," the secretary said with a smile.
Su Hongmei covered her mouth, trying her best to stop crying, but tears streamed down her face uncontrollably. She nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, I will pay it back, I definitely will! Thank you, thank you, factory manager, thank you..."
As she spoke, unsure how to express her gratitude to the factory director and him, her knees buckled, and she was about to kowtow to him in thanks, but her secretary caught her in the swift motion.
"No, no, Su Hongmei, it can't be that bad!"
Su Hongmei looked at him, smiling, but tears streamed down her face. "I don't know how to thank you..."
“Study hard and live up to the expectations of the person who gave you this money; that’s more important than any formalities,” the secretary said.
Su Hongmei nodded emphatically, "I will! I will definitely study hard and take my exam results to the factory to show the factory manager."
The secretary smiled and waved her hand, saying, "No need for that. Just make sure you don't waste this money."
"Yes, I won't let you down."
With tears in her eyes, Su Hongmei smiled and made her promise.
The secretary sighed, "Alright, take the money and go register. Don't delay."
"Mmm, mmm."
Su Hongmei clutched the envelope, watching the secretary walk away until she could no longer see him. She carefully opened the envelope and glanced inside. There were three hundred and fifty yuan in total, including one fifty-yuan note and one fifty-yuan note.
That's exactly what her tuition fee was!
She worried all night that she wouldn't be able to register for school because she was short fifteen yuan. Now, not only is she able to afford it, she even has more than three hundred yuan left!
She can go to school now!
She's old enough to go to high school!
Waaaaah...
Su Hongmei squatted down, clutching the envelope, her whole body trembling with sobs.
"Su Hongmei, who is that?!"
Su Hongmei paused in her sobbing, looked up at the courtyard, wiped away her tears, folded the envelope and stuffed it into her pocket as she stood up, then tugged at her shirt before replying to Su Youfu.
"Nobody here, you knocked on the wrong door, you're not looking for our family."
After saying that, she touched her face to make sure there was no water on it before casually returning to the yard and going to the kitchen to cook.
Grandma Su came out wearing a thin coat, ran to the courtyard gate, looked around, and came back into the kitchen to ask Su Hongmei, "I heard people talking, about money, schooling and stuff like that. Tell me honestly, who was it?"
Su Hongmei was startled and subconsciously swallowed, her mind racing.
He said, "It was Aunt Liu who took pity on me and lent me ten yuan so I could go to school."
"She gave you ten yuan? You take it..."
Grandma Su frowned, looked Su Hongmei up and down, wanting her to hand over the money, but then she remembered Su Laosan's crazy way of smashing things, and swallowed her words.
He muttered, "It's like we've raised a daughter-in-law for nothing. She doesn't contribute a single penny to the family, and we even have to pay her out of our own pockets."
Su Hongmei was in a good mood and didn't hold it against her.
I borrowed my neighbor's pot to cook last night, but everyone needed to use it this morning, so I couldn't borrow it again.
She looked around, cleaned the enamel washbasin, added water, and boiled a small half-basin of dumpling soup. She sprinkled some chopped green onions on top and a few specks of oil on top. She gave two bowls to Su Youfu and Grandma Su, and filled her own teacup with it, blowing on it to cool it down as she ate.
After finishing his meal, he picked out a few clothes he could wear and chose one that was washed, a little worn, but without patches. With several hundred yuan in his pocket, he went to register at school.
Grandma Su and Su Youfu were eating together, smacking their lips and muttering, "It looks like they've saved up enough money, over three hundred, just like that, throwing it all down the drain at the school. What kind of education does a little girl need? If they saved that money, they could have bought a lot of things for Liberation to take with them..."
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