Chapter 118: A Moral Role Model
Just as Xu Youyou thought the system was ignoring her, a reply appeared in front of her.
[Take a guess: which has a higher value—the newspaper windfall or the birdcage windfall?]
Xu Youyou: !!!
Xu Youyou immediately grasped the system’s hint. She had thought she only lost a few million, but it turned out to be billions?! She clutched her chest, as if she could hear the sound of a dull knife slicing into her heart.
Pain! This was excruciating!
“Boss, are you feeling unwell?” Xu Fang asked anxiously, noticing Xu Youyou gritting her teeth.
Xu Youyou clutched her heart and replied, “It’s nothing, I just suddenly felt a pang of conscience.”
Xu Fang didn’t know how to respond—should she laugh at the boss’s dark humor, or should she stay worried about her health?
At that moment, Aunt Liu finished her phone call and returned.
Xu Youyou asked, “Aunt Liu, what did your friend say?”
Aunt Liu frowned and said, “She didn’t know the newspaper was worth so much. Those old newspapers had been piling up at her place for days, and she doesn’t even remember where they originally came from.”
Xu Youyou raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “So, is your friend planning to return the newspapers to their original owner?”
Aunt Liu nodded.
Xu Youyou suddenly felt like a clown compared to such a righteous person. If she had that kind of moral integrity, she’d probably still be stuck in a tiny rental in the slums, feeling sorry for herself.
“You have to talk some sense into her! If people thought like that, how would businesses ever make money? Should everything be sold at cost price? She didn’t steal or rob those newspapers—whoever owns them has the right to them! She shouldn’t be so naive,” Xu Youyou insisted.
Aunt Liu sighed. “I tried to tell her that, but she said that by that logic, she already gave the newspapers to Guai Guai along with the chew toy. No matter how valuable they are now, she can’t take them back—because they belong to Guai Guai now!”
Xu Youyou: Huh?
That logic was unbeatable. Basically, she didn’t care who got the newspapers, as long as it wasn’t her!
Xu Youyou had encountered many types of sellers in her reselling ventures—greedy ones, shrewd ones—but never someone so radiating with moral righteousness that it made others feel ashamed.
She couldn’t help but grow curious about Aunt Liu’s friend. She really wanted to meet this admirable woman.
“Guai Guai doesn’t understand these things. You have to convince your friend. Money isn’t something to be dismissed so easily. If she sells those newspapers, she could improve her quality of life instead of struggling every day collecting recyclables,” Xu Youyou reasoned.
Aunt Liu shook her head. “Miss Xu, I’ve said everything I could. But she’s as stubborn as a mule. Once she makes up her mind, there’s no changing it. The newspapers belong to Guai Guai, and that’s final.”
Xu Youyou sighed. “If she really won’t take them, then you keep them.”
But Aunt Liu immediately shook her head like a rattle drum. “She gave them to Guai Guai! How could I, an adult, fight with a little dog over something? That would be ridiculous! Miss Xu, please don’t bring this up again!”
Xu Youyou never expected that a fortune worth tens of millions would be passed around with everyone refusing to take it.
And then, something even more unexpected happened.
A line of text appeared in front of her:
[Congratulations to the host for completing the task. Reward: One A-type villa in Yihe Residences.]
Xu Youyou: !!!
The system added a snarky remark: [The dog’s owner is useless, but the dog is competent.]
Xu Youyou ignored the system’s sarcasm and internally screamed: Dogs truly are humanity’s best friends!
She repeated her previous action—grabbing her phone to search for Yihe Residences. She had no idea where this property was.
Ten seconds later…
Xu Youyou: !!!
She looked at the system reward again—an A-type villa.
There were only two A-type villas in the entire residential area. They were the crown jewels of the development. The official property registration listed the floor area as 2,500 square meters, but with the included basement, the actual usable space exceeded 3,600 square meters.
She could never fill up this much space! She would need to split herself into multiple people to even attempt living in such a massive house!
The most luxurious detached villa in the HD district! Right next to the Summer Palace!
Five hundred million yuan!
She stared at the villa photos on her phone, practically drooling.
Xu Youyou didn’t forget that she owed this entire windfall to Aunt Liu’s friend. But knowing this person’s moral standards, there was no way she would accept money outright.
Xu Youyou thought about how she was already supporting so many people. Adding one more high-paid employee wouldn’t hurt. Suppressing her excitement, she turned to Aunt Liu and asked, “Aunt Liu, can you tell me more about your friend? How did you two meet? One of you is in Hucheng, and the other is in the capital—how did that happen? Does she have any children?”
Aunt Liu sighed. “She’s a native of the capital. Back when I was a model worker at the factory, I was sent to the capital for training. That’s when I met her.”
“I love dogs, and she loves them too. But she loves all animals—cats, dogs, everything. She’s especially passionate about taking care of strays. We shared a dorm during training, and the more we talked, the more we clicked. Because of our shared interests, we stayed in touch all these years.”
Xu Youyou mused on fate. “Maybe you were sent to that training back then just so you could meet her and form this lifelong friendship.”
Aunt Liu agreed. “I didn’t even learn much from the training. Two years after I finished, the factory shut down, and I got laid off.”
Although Aunt Liu lost her factory job, she wasn’t struggling. After buying out her work years, she still contributed to social security. Her home situation wasn’t bad—she had both her retirement pension and a salary from working for Xu Youyou. Plus, her daughter wasn’t married yet, so she had few financial burdens. That’s why she could stay so relaxed.
“As for children… she doesn’t have any. If she did, maybe things wouldn’t be so hard for her,” Aunt Liu added.
Xu Youyou picked up on something in Aunt Liu’s tone and asked, “Has she been struggling a lot in recent years because she doesn’t have children?”
Aunt Liu let out a deep sigh. “Her struggles aren’t just because of that. At first, she was just like me—she worked in a factory that later shut down. But the money she got from buying out her work years was completely squandered by her good-for-nothing husband.”
“He racked up debts everywhere. Normally, when a debtor dies, the debt disappears. But she’s so stubborn—she refused to let it go. Even though she could barely feed herself, she still paid off every last cent of those debts.”
“By the time she finally paid everything off, she was old, with no pension. She could only survive by doing cleaning jobs and collecting recyclables. She has no children, but she takes care of a yard full of stray cats and dogs. They all need to eat meat and chew on bones, so of course, she struggles.”
Xu Youyou could picture the old woman pitifully surrounded by a mountain of recyclables.
“At least she still has a house,” Xu Youyou remarked.
But Aunt Liu’s face grew even darker, and she choked up as she said, “Not for long. She’s about to be homeless.”
