Chapter 23: What Kind of Dirt Did He Catch on Him?
Comrade Huang Guixiang agreed in a split second!
In the past, she refused to split the household because she wanted to use the Zhang family’s money to raise her own daughter. Naturally, keeping the family together meant more money tightly gripped in her hands.
But now…
Times had changed!
If anything, she was now terrified that the first and second branches would take advantage of her Wanwan!
“Right!”
“Split the household!”
It was just a pity about those four people’s wages. Huang Guixiang’s original plan had been to hold onto the entire family’s income with a death grip to save up more money for Lin Wan, so she could subsidize and support her heavily once she got married.
But who told her Wanwan to be so successful as to reel in a regiment commander as a boyfriend!
Then she couldn’t afford to lose the greater good for a petty gain.
A regiment commander valued reputation above all else. If his reputation was ruined, how could he continue to climb the ranks? Huo Xiao was so young, which meant he had massive room for promotion. As a mother, she absolutely could not block her daughter’s path to becoming a chief’s wife!
No matter how much Huang Guixiang loved petty advantages, she still possessed a grand vision when it came to serious matters, clearly distinguishing the long-term from the short-term and the good from the bad!
It was just that… thinking about the upcoming loss of a portion of her income made her chest ache with pure pain.
Lin Wan had been racking her brains for words to convince Huang Guixiang, but she hadn’t expected her to be so decisive. It actually left Lin Wan a bit unaccustomed to it.
“Anyway, splitting the household means splitting the money. Mom, if you’re short on cash, just tell me, and I’ll ask Huo Xiao to bail us out!”
She cowered in front of Huo Xiao when they met face-to-face. But weren’t they apart right now? Hehehe~
Not to mention, Huo Xiao was truly a highly effective tool to use!
And thank goodness she had bought some banknotes from the 1960s before transmigrating; otherwise, if she urgently needed money after transmigrating, she would have to risk going to the black market to sell things! With cash in her hands, her heart didn’t panic, allowing her to remain as steady as a dog… wait, no! Steady as Mount Tai!
Huang Guixiang waved her hand. “No need. Old Zhang isn’t dead yet, so what’s there to split!”
Lin Wan was a bit worried. “But will they agree to it if we don’t split the money?”
Huang Guixiang sneered coldly. “So what if they don’t agree?”
“Once the household is split, they won’t have to hand over their wages anymore. They’ll probably be secretly thrilled! Besides, Old Zhang is still alive. If they want to split the savings, they can wait until he dies!”
Lin Wan gave Huang Guixiang a big thumbs-up.
Huang Guixiang was the type to act with absolute efficiency. She was about to head out right then to bring up the household split, but Lin Wan held her back. “Mom, listen to me.”
“First discuss with Uncle Zhang how to split it. Once you two come to an agreement, let Uncle Zhang step up to handle it. Don’t step forward yourself!”
“And wait until my job placement is completely finalized before bringing it up.”
In truth, Lin Wan wanted to wait until the dust settled regarding Liang Qianjin’s matter. By then, Uncle Zhang would in all probability lose his qualification to take the level-eight worker exam, making it much easier to split the household.
Huang Guixiang nodded. “Alright, Mom will listen to you!”
In the past, as a widow bringing a child to remarry, she had to cast aside all pride to fight and snatch for everything; if she didn’t fight, she would have nothing. To her past self, a good reputation was far less important than letting her daughter eat well and dress warmly.
But now, she was the mother-in-law of a future military chief. She needed to care about her reputation.
Lin Wan added, “I see that Uncle Zhang is in a rather foul mood. Mom, you should comfort him a bit. Relationships with biological children also depend on fate.”
No matter how much Zhang Aimin neglected his biological daughter Zhang Qin, his treatment of Huang Guixiang and herself was absolutely top-tier. Lin Wan was quite protective of her own people.
Once Zhang Hongqiang finished his writing practice and left her bedroom with Huang Guixiang, Lin Wan immediately dug out some northern dried goods from her space, packed them into a cloth bag, and claimed a shipping slip from the system. On it, she wrote Huang Guixiang’s name and the Zhang family’s address.
Mailing a parcel within 500 kilometers cost 0.15 yuan for the first kilogram and 0.08 yuan for each subsequent kilogram. From 501 kilometers to 1000 kilometers, the base rate rose to 0.35 yuan for the first kilogram and 0.18 yuan for each subsequent kilogram. From 1001 kilometers to 2000 kilometers, it was 0.55 yuan for the first kilogram and 0.28 yuan for each subsequent kilogram. The pricing was completely synchronized with the Huacheng Post Office.
For the 1960s, this price was astronomically expensive. Pork cost 0.8 yuan per jin; the postage for mailing a parcel of a few kilograms could buy a whole jin of pork! Consequently, the vast majority of people preferred to carry things themselves whenever possible, rarely choosing to mail anything.
With postage being this expensive, her plan to engage in mail-order business became completely unrealistic.
Lin Wan bargained with the system: “To expand the post office’s business, I intend to develop a mail-order enterprise and run a promotion offering free shipping even for a single cent’s worth of goods! But the price you’re charging is too expensive; I can’t afford it! You should know very well that in my era, courier bulk contracts were incredibly cheap. How about we calculate it per piece, and I’ll pay you the base rate for each piece? If that doesn’t work, then forget it. To be honest, I have cash and supplies in my hands, so I don’t genuinely need to earn money. If it weren’t for your sake, why would I bother exhausting myself like this?”
System: […] Let the world burn!
It compromised: [Fine! But it cannot be fewer than one hundred pieces a month. The host needs to sign a contract with me. If you fail to meet the standard, you will need to pay the difference…]
Lin Wan: “Ten pieces, not a single one more. This is the 1960s—speculating and profiteering will get you sent straight to the firing squad! Take it or leave it, I’d rather enjoy the leisure. Oh right, you also need to provide me with a completely secure address to receive remittances—an address that cannot be traced, yet allows me to collect the money!”
The system figure flickered erratically.
A contract popped up before Lin Wan’s eyes. She clicked it open to inspect the content; the clauses reflected the exact conditions she had proposed, and it included a mailbox address: P.O. Box 88.
This number was lucky! Lin Wan signed her name with absolute satisfaction!
After collecting the parcel she was mailing to Huang Guixiang, the little system figure went offline in a huff, not wanting to pay attention to Lin Wan for a single second longer.
Having settled this major issue, Lin Wan slept soundly and sweetly.
However, the members of the first and second branches couldn’t fall asleep. Both couples were discussing Zhang Qin and that five hundred yuan.
Under the blankets, Bao Yan whispered to Zhang Hongqi: “That younger sister of yours is a total ungrateful wolf. Which family’s sister-in-law doesn’t stay home to help with chores and watch the kids? That Guo Xuyang spoke as if we had abused her! If you ask around, families who truly abuse their girls wouldn’t even buy them sanitary belts! They would sell them off to exchange for a bride price!”
Exchanging for a bride price might bring one or two hundred yuan at most, but that wasn’t money meant to completely buy out family ties. Not to mention, after getting married, a girl could still squeeze her husband’s family to subsidize her maternal family!
“Let’s see what kind of good life she can live in her husband’s family from now on!”
“Without her maternal family backing her up, she’ll have plenty of crying to do in the days ahead!”
Zhang Hongqi muttered in a muffled voice, “She climbed a high branch and refused to acknowledge us, so she better not turn around to beg us in the future!”
He just couldn’t comprehend how on earth Zhang Qin had twisted the facts to Guo Xuyang, making him, the eldest brother, look like a total tyrant. When they were kids and she got bullied outside, he was the one who took Second Brother to fight for her.
Bao Yan poked Zhang Hongqi’s lower back. “Tell me, what exactly did Guo Xuyang say when he called Dad into the room? Dad came out with a dark face and agreed to cut ties right away. Did Dad catch some kind of dirt in his hands?”
“How the hell should I know!” Zhang Hongqi turned over in annoyance, turning his back to Bao Yan. “Go to sleep!”
Next door, the couple of Zhang Hongjun was saying much of the same underneath the blankets. However, the depth of their discussion went significantly further.
“Dear, we definitely can’t count on that ungrateful wolf Zhang Qin anymore. Do you think we can count on Lin Wan?”
Since that ungrateful wolf Zhang Qin had cut ties with the family, the only sister-in-law left now was Lin Wan.
Zhang Hongjun’s brow furrowed tightly. “With Huang Guixiang blocking the front, what we can count on is highly limited! We should thank our lucky stars if she doesn’t pluck every single strand of hair off our bodies just to subsidize Lin Wan! Don’t go thinking that mother and daughter are decent people just because you ate two meals of meat from them!”
“We still need to figure out exactly what kind of dirt Guo Xuyang caught on Dad. If we can find out what that dirt is, we can demand benefits from Dad!”
“How about this, you go egg on Eldest Sister-in-law…”
As Zhang Hongjun leaned close to Zhong Hongmei’s ear and whispered his plot, Zhong Hongmei’s eyes grew brighter and brighter in the darkness.
