After breakfast, Chen Xingling rode his bike to school.
Gu Qi cleaned up the dishes and washed them, then checked the kitchen inside and out and closed the doors and windows before slowly driving his son out.
"Yinmo, do you remember how Dad taught you to count cubes last night?"
Little Tiger answered absentmindedly: "I certainly remember."
Gu Qi smiled and asked, "If I chop one more time, how can I chop out an extra cube of one-third of a pound?"
Xiao Huzi frowned and began to think seriously.
At this moment, a tall figure standing at the intersection ahead waved his hand!
"Brother! Huzi!"
——It was Gu Yi!
Since Gu Yi and his wife stopped coming to Sanyuan for meals, the two brothers had few opportunities to meet. Occasionally they met in the cafeteria, but there were too many people and they couldn't eat together.
Gu Qi pressed the handbrake and stepped on the road with his long legs.
Little Tiger greeted excitedly: "Uncle! Good morning!"
Gu Yi came up to him with a smile and pinched his nephew's chubby cheeks.
"I've been waiting for you here for a while."
Gu Qi asked calmly: "What's wrong? What happened?"
Gu Yi smiled meaninglessly and patted the front of the bicycle.
"Xiao Xing has to go to the post office this morning. She can't read, so I'll go with her. I'm afraid the trip will take too long and I might be late for work, so I'm planning to borrow your bicycle."
"Yes." Gu Qi readily agreed and pretended to get off the car.
"No, no, no!" Gu Yi urged: "Please send Hu Zi to school. I'll wait here. Xiao Xing is still washing dishes in the rental house. She will be out for a while."
Gu Qi didn't hesitate, he tiptoed away on his bike.
After a moment, he watched his son jumping into the school gate, turned his bike around and rode back quickly.
After more than an hour, he handed the bicycle to his brother.
Gu Yi thanked him and took it, saying, "I'll park it in the carport later. I'll give you the key during lunch."
"Yeah." Gu Qi nodded indifferently.
There was still more than half an hour before work time, so he just had to walk over slowly.
Gu Qi didn't take a step forward, and asked calmly: "Have you gone upstairs to visit your mother recently? Have you met Gu Miao?"
"No!" Gu Yi shook his head. "I gave money to my mother on the day I got my salary. I don't dare to go there at other times. Every time we meet, my mother either nags us or asks us for money. Xiao Xing wants to ask, and so do I. If I don't, she will lose her temper. I haven't seen Gu Miao for a while. The last time I met Ah Xuan after get off work, I said hello after school, but I didn't see Ah Miao at all."
Gu Qi immediately noticed something was wrong and asked, "They both rode their bikes to and from school together, how come you only met Xuan?"
"I don't know where Ah Miao went." Gu Yi answered: "Ah Xuan said that Ah Miao always went out by herself after school. She would wait for fewer people and do more exercises before going home. Ah Xuan also said that she sometimes came back in the middle of the night."
When Gu Qi heard this, his handsome face turned cold.
"A girl comes home in the middle of the night - how does her mother take care of them?"
Gu Yi blurted out: "She is not a child anymore, she is already seventeen!"
Gu Qi glanced at him coldly and said, "He is seventeen years old, so I have to be strict with him to prevent him from getting hurt outside."
"Ah? Oh? Right, right!" Gu Yi quickly agreed, "She's not too young anymore, so she really needs to be carefully managed. Ah Xuan never likes to go out, and stays in her room reading all day. Ah Miao is the complete opposite of her, she can't sit still and loves to stroll around, and she has to go out even in the cold weather."
Gu Qi ordered calmly: "Go upstairs after get off work once in a while and tell mom to be strict with her. If you see her wandering around instead of attending class, drag her to my office and I will punish her personally."
"Oh oh!" Gu Yi replied hurriedly.
Gu Qi asked, "You and Xiao Xing have been pretty busy lately, right? Yucheng's winter isn't that cold, but it still gets cold for a few days when the cold front comes. Does the rental house you live in leak?"
"No." Gu Yi smiled and replied, "No matter how strong the cold wind is, we won't be afraid if we close the doors and windows. We are... okay, okay."
Gu Qi immediately noticed the strangeness in his brother's eyes and couldn't help asking, "What's wrong? Are you okay? What's wrong?"
"Ah~~" Gu Yi laughed bitterly; "It's all about Xiao Xing's parents. The day before yesterday, her parents sent another telegram saying that the autumn harvest was not good, and they were worried that there would not be enough food for the winter, so they asked her to send some money back to buy wheat and sorghum. I borrowed your car just for this matter, and I was planning to send the money."
Gu Qi raised his eyebrows and asked, "Is the money enough? If not, I have some here."
Most of his salary was given to his elderly mother and two younger sisters, but he still had some subsidies and a fixed allowance from the provincial capital.
Xing'er should make a lot of money. She never spent his money and occasionally gave her the allowance. She would turn around and throw the money into a big shell, saying that she would save it all.
She was the one who supported the family, inside and out, and paid for all the expenses for three meals a day. However, he usually ate in the cafeteria, did not smoke or drink, and hardly spent a penny.
The ten dollars that had been lying in my briefcase for several months had not been spent and I didn't even have a chance to get change.
His younger brother earns more than half as little as he does. Even with Xiao Xing's help, they both have to pay for living expenses for their elderly mother, and they also have to pay for rent for various expenses. Their financial pressure is much greater than his.
Gu Yi shook his head: "No, we still have some. It's just... I've always wanted to save money, but I haven't been able to save any in a few months. It's not easy to save up 20 yuan, and then I want this, then that, and then I spend it again. I finally saved 30 yuan last month, and this time I have to remit 15 or 20 yuan, and my savings are gone in a flash."
Gu Qi smiled and consoled her, "You just started working this year, so it's normal that you can't save any money. Fortunately, Xiao Xing can help you make money, which can alleviate some of your burden. Not being in debt and not having to worry about not making ends meet is already a great thing."
"...Really?" Gu Yi asked bitterly, "Brother, were you able to save money when you and sister-in-law just got married?"
Gu Qi shook his head. "At that time, I hadn't been awarded a professional title yet, and my salary was very low. I had to send most of it back to my mother. Fortunately, your sister-in-law was very good at managing the household. There was always fish, shrimp, crabs, and all kinds of seafood in the tube building. There was a field behind her house where she grew rice. I would go to help with the harvest, and then she would bring back a few bags, enough for the two of us to eat for a long time. We couldn't save money at that time, but we didn't have to worry about food and clothing."
Whenever he thought of that short period of beautiful and warm days, he couldn't help but feel grateful to his father-in-law and his family.
When he was in the most difficult times, they did not look down on him, but instead always secretly rescued and helped him.
Gu Yi Tuoqi asked: "So, did you guys save any money later?"
"I saved it." Gu Qi explained, "Your sister-in-law has a very big and beautiful shell. There is a very small gap that can be used to stuff money in. But you need professional tools to pry it open. She asked me to stuff five dollars in it every month when I get my salary and try to save it. I could stuff it in but couldn't take it out, so I saved it slowly."
"...Shells?" Gu Yi nodded and muttered, "If you can stuff it in but can't take it out - maybe that's the only way to really save money."
Gu Qi continued, "After I came back from overseas, I received my allowance for more than two years in one lump sum, and I made up for every month I had saved before. Until now, I have insisted on saving five or ten dollars every month, and I have saved a lot of money. Your betrothal gift came from that."
"Really?!" Gu Yi nodded hurriedly: "That's a really good idea!"
Gu Qi reminded: "You don't earn enough now, so you can't save a lot at once, and you can't save it. Once you can't save, it's easy to break the habit of saving money. Once the habit is broken, it won't be able to stick to it soon. You might as well learn from us and save five or ten yuan a month, and try not to withdraw it. Once the habit is formed, the money will be saved."
"Tsk!" Gu Yi smiled: "I'll remember it."
After a pause, he leaned forward and lowered his voice: "Brother, Xiao Xing's family comes to ask for money every now and then, and they always have a reason. It's not that I don't want to help them...it's just that we have to live our own lives. At the end of the year, we have to pay the rent, and it will be a big bill again."
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