Chapter 79: Pan Yue’s Carefulness
“You two toil and sweat out there every single day; you need these supplements to maintain your strength far more than I do.”
Mother Sheng only had her son and daughter-in-law’s welfare in mind, but both Sheng Wanze and Pan Yue were deeply filial children; they would absolutely refuse to strip the household of its premium nutrition.
“Mom, as your son, honoring you is my most fundamental duty,” Wanze argued gently. “It will be months before I can secure leave to visit again. If I know you aren’t eating well or taking these supplements to stay strong, I’ll be completely consumed by worry out at the base.”
Hearing the depth of her son’s devotion, Mother Sheng felt a profound sense of comfort. Raising this boy had truly been worth every ounce of effort.
“I want you to eat the very best on a regular basis,” Wanze pressed. “If the pantry runs dry, you just write me a letter and let me know. Supplying my parents gives me a tangible way to fulfill my role as your son. Knowing that you’re well-fed makes me feel incredibly at peace, even when I’m stationed hundreds of miles away.”
Mother Sheng stared at him for a long moment, looking at him as though he were a complete simpleton. Why was her boy so remarkably dense? Didn’t he understand that parents wanted their children to hoard the good things for themselves?
In the end, unable to match his stubborn filial logic, Mother Sheng sighed and carried the heavy tins and candies back to her bedroom. If her son and daughter-in-law flatly refused to take them, she supposed she would just have to eat them herself to keep the peace.
Seeing Mother Sheng retreat safely to her room, Pan Yue let out a massive breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
“Mom really terrified me for a moment there…” she whispered.
“Mom just worries about us constantly,” Wanze smiled, affectionately ruffling her hair.
Pan Yue nodded in agreement. She walked over to the luggage, retrieved the heavy, five-kilogram bags of brown sugar, and pressed them firmly back into Wanze’s chest.
“I need you to sneak this brown sugar back into the pantry once everyone is asleep.”
“We can easily track down comrades at the military district who are willing to trade coupons for sugar,” she reasoned softly. “The market infrastructure is much stronger out there. But back here in the district, Mom doesn’t have access to nearly as many high-grade coupons. It’s better for us to manage on our own than to force her to call in favors.”
“Understood,” Wanze nodded. “I’ll slip it back in later.”
Pan Yue moved to the foot of the bed and unlocked her heavy bridal dowry box, carefully removing the assets her family had provided.
The dowry included three flawlessly tailored sets of new winter clothes. Furthermore, the Pan family had finalized a formal cash dowry of exactly five hundred yuan, comprised entirely of the personal wages Pan Yue had saved from her own job, accompanied by a thick stack of miscellaneous state coupons.
Of course, the Pan family’s provisions didn’t stop there. The massive, custom-built mahogany wardrobe waiting inside their new apartment at the military compound had also been fully funded by her parents as part of her bridal settlement.
Sorting through the stack, Pan Yue pulled out a few highly practical state receipts. “I’ll give these five national food coupons and three sugar coupons to Mom tomorrow morning.”
She paused in thought, then extracted a crisp fifteen yuan from the stack and held it out to Sheng Wanze.
“Hand this fifteen yuan to your parents tomorrow to cover this month’s retirement stipend. We need to establish this routine immediately. From this day forward, you must ensure you mail the bulk of your state coupons back home every single month; we cannot allow the pantry here to run dry.”
“Between my salary and my state allocation, I pull in thirty-five yuan a month,” she calculated. “If we budget carefully out at the base, we certainly won’t starve to death.”
Sheng Wanze stood frozen, staring at his wife in complete silence as she calmly organized their future finances.
“What is it?” Pan Yue asked, frowning slightly as she looked up.
When her eyes met his, she was startled to find Wanze’s eyes brimming with unshed tears. Was her hardened military husband actually about to cry?
“Wife… you are truly incredible,” he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. “Marrying a woman as honorable and selfless as you is a blessing I must have earned over a lifetime of good deeds.”
Pan Yue felt her face flush with embarrassment at the sudden, intense compliment. “Please, there’s no need to be so dramatic,” she muttered, rubbing her arms. “Mainly, it’s because Mom treats me so wonderfully. You’re giving me goosebumps…”
“Keep your dowry secure,” Wanze insisted, wiping his eyes. “You shouldn’t touch your personal savings. I’ll just use my own cash for the fifteen yuan.”
“Do you… actually have any cash?” Pan Yue asked, raising an eyebrow.
Wanze froze. The realization hit him like a brick. He didn’t have a single cent to his name…
He had dutifully surrendered his entire accumulated fortune to Mother Sheng. And when Mother Sheng formally withdrew the cash tomorrow morning, she was going to hand the entire sum directly over to Pan Yue for safekeeping.
He was officially a penniless pauper.
“Moving forward, I will handle the family’s treasury,” Pan Yue announced smoothly, securing the passbook. “I will allocate you an allowance of exactly five yuan for pocket money each month.”
“So… it turns out this money ultimately flows straight back into my own pocket regardless…” she noted with a small, wry smile.
Whether she dipped into her dowry or not, Pan Yue realized she was never going to end up at a financial disadvantage—after all, the absolute control of the household’s wealth and power now rested firmly in her hands.
“Wife… is five yuan truly enough?” Sheng Wanze asked tentatively, shooting her a cautious look. In the 1970s, five yuan was still a respectable sum, but for a high-ranking officer, it was a rather tight leash.
“Do you think it’s too little?” Pan Yue’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.
Sheng Wanze instantly felt a chill run down his spine. He snapped to attention, immediately clarifying his stance. “It is an incredibly generous amount! Thank you, wife!”
Pan Yue was thoroughly amused by his cowardly backpedaling. Laughing softly, she pulled another ten yuan and two premium cake coupons from the stash and pressed them into his hand.
“Your younger sister routinely dips into her own private salary to purchase meat and supplies for the household,” Pan Yue noted seriously. “She is still an unmarried young woman; it’s vital she retains a healthy cushion of extra cash for herself.”
“As her older brother and sister-in-law, we absolutely cannot turn a blind eye to her sacrifices. She eagerly spends her wages on the family because her heart is full of genuine filial piety, and we shouldn’t attempt to stop her.”
“But when I married into this family, I fully accepted the responsibility of supporting our parents and grandparents. You are the only son of the Sheng clan; you cannot perpetually rely on your little sister to shoulder the financial burden for you. She has painstakingly looked after your elders for years, and as her older brother, it is your duty to compensate her.”
“Hand this money to her tonight. Don’t make a grand speech, or she’ll undoubtedly refuse it. Your sister possesses a fiercely stubborn streak, so just casually mention that it’s a little pocket money from her brother and sister-in-law.”
“Make sure you routinely mail her a private cash allowance each month so she can continue purchasing supplies for the family without draining her own accounts. And once we settle back into the military district, I’ll leverage my connections in the Capital to see if I can secure two high-grade Bratsk-style dresses for her.”
Though Pan Yue had only been living in the apartment for a week, she had keenly observed that Sheng Wanyan never once walked through the front door empty-handed. Every single item she carried was food or provisions meant for the collective household; Wanyan had never purchased a single luxury for herself.
Wanyan’s formal state salary was a mere twenty yuan a month, and she dutifully surrendered exactly half of it to Mother Sheng for basic room and board. Pan Yue had seen with her own eyes that all the premium meats and treats Wanyan brought home were purchased entirely out of her remaining ten-yuan allowance. As the eldest daughter-in-law, Pan Yue recognized that moving forward, the daily, physical care of the elders would continue to fall heavily on Wanyan’s shoulders.
Therefore, she absolutely refused to let her sister-in-law suffer any financial deficit. Without Wanyan remaining behind to anchor the household and look after her in-laws, how could Pan Yue possibly return to the military district and live her new life in peace?
What other daughter-in-law in the entire province was blessed with such an incredibly fortunate setup?
Her own older sister, Pan Xing, lived in a cramped apartment with her in-laws, and she was relentlessly bullied and picked apart by her mother-in-law from dawn until dusk. When the older woman lost her temper, she would hurl vicious, sarcastic insults. Pan Yue had witnessed her sister’s misery firsthand. That toxic, suffocating dynamic was the standard reality for almost every household in the state compounds.
The Sheng family’s harmonious, deeply respectful environment was an absolute rarity.
Listening to his wife’s flawless logic, Sheng Wanze nodded in solemn agreement. He realized he had historically fallen remarkably short in compensating his sister. Taking the cash, he stepped out of the bedroom and knocked softly on Wanyan’s door.
Inside, Wanyan was deeply engrossed in translating the mechanics manual. Hearing the knock, she quickly set her pen down and pulled the door open. Seeing her newlywed brother standing in the dim corridor, she offered a look of sheer bewilderment. Why on earth was he lingering outside her door in the dead of night instead of keeping his bride company?
“It’s the middle of the night… why aren’t you asleep?” she asked, leaning against the doorframe.
Sheng Wanze didn’t attempt to step inside, merely scanning the room from the threshold. After all, Wanyan was a grown woman, and it was entirely inappropriate for a brother to casually invade his adult sister’s private quarters; as siblings matured, strict boundaries had to be maintained.
His eyes briefly landed on the massive, English-language mechanics manual sitting open on her desk, and he paused. A foreign text of that caliber was incredibly conspicuous and dangerous.
“Sister, this cash is a little pocket money your sister-in-law and I wanted to give you,” Wanze said, pressing the ten yuan into her hand. “We deploy back to the military district tomorrow morning, so I’m afraid the heavy burden of looking after the household will fall squarely on you once again.”
Sheng Wanyan rolled her eyes dramatically. Serving her parents and grandparents was her natural duty; what was he making such a grand fuss over?
“They happen to be my parents and grandparents too, you know,” she retorted. “What? Are you planning to monopolize the entire Sheng family for yourself?”
“I always knew you harbored sinister intentions! You just wanted me, your annoying little sister, to get out of the way the second you got married, didn’t you?”
Sheng Wanze knocked her lightly on the forehead, highly amused by her theatrics. “What kind of nonsense are you spouting?”
Still, hearing her sharp, playful banter instantly relieved the heavy guilt pressing down on his chest.
“To be honest, I truly wish I could remain here and care for Mom, Dad, and the grandparents alongside you every single day,” he admitted softly.
“Alright, alright. Hand over the cash, and kindly turn right back around!” Wanyan demanded, holding out her palm.
Wanze laughed, surrendering the money, but his expression sobered as he offered a final, urgent piece of advice.
“You had better keep that foreign book strictly under wraps, Wanyan. Do not let anyone from the outside catch sight of it.”
