Chapter 186: Chapter 186: Counting Money
Perhaps it was the motivation from the money box that gave Lin Cuihua a seemingly endless supply of energy.
Quick and nimble, she stir-fried two more dishes: one of shredded potatoes, and another of bean sprouts and chives.
They had bought the bean sprouts earlier today while selling couplets, as the stall next to theirs was selling them.
"Lao San, go next door and invite them over. I’m almost done here."
Lin Cuihua kept her head down, and with a flip of her spatula, a thin pancake came right out of the pan.
Fearing there wouldn’t be enough food, she made quite a few more pancakes.
Whether the food was good or bad wasn’t the point; at the very least, everyone had to eat their fill. That was the most basic requirement.
An Guoping cheerfully ran out. He went to Jiang Xia’s house and returned with an old man and a young man in tow—three people in total.
An Sancheng went out to greet them, and the group entered the house, chatting and laughing.
Lin Cuihua was setting the table, with An Ning helping by bringing over stools.
"Come on in, we’re about to eat."
Lin Cuihua bustled about, while Zhou Guifen was relegated to the sidelines, not allowed to do a thing.
An Ning wanted to help, but she couldn’t keep up with Lin Cuihua’s pace at all and usually just got in the way.
The kind of getting in the way that earned her a lot of disapproval.
An Sancheng spoke with Grandpa Jiang Xia, inviting the old man to come in and sit down.
Jiang Xia followed behind, and being very observant, he stepped forward to help Lin Cuihua carry the dishes.
"It smells amazing. Auntie, you’re a wonderful cook."
"You’ve made so many dishes. You’ve worked hard, Auntie."
Those two sentences were enough to make Lin Cuihua beam with joy.
"Oh, this boy... Come on, sit down. It’s time to eat."
Meanwhile, An Ning, who had been shooed away for being clumsy, scanned Jiang Xia with her eyes a couple of times.
’This guy has so many different sides to him!’
Jiang Xia met An Ning’s gaze precisely, the smugness in his eyes completely undisguised. The moment he turned away, he instantly transformed back into the perfect child that parents adore.
"Auntie, you should sit down. Where are the chopsticks? I’ll get them."
Jiang Xia’s actions earned him not only a death glare from An Ning but also stares from An Guoping, An Guoming, and the others.
This kid was up to no good.
"Jiang Xia, you’re such a good young man. Come, come, sit next to me."
After Lin Cuihua spoke, Jiang Xia took the chopsticks and obediently sat down.
Suddenly, the only ones left standing were An Ning and her brothers.
Lin Cuihua shot them a sideways glance and said, "What are you looking at? Are you waiting for a personal invitation from me?"
"Hurry up and sit down to eat."
Led by An Ning, the siblings took their seats, ready to eat.
"They’re all good children. These kids all have bright futures ahead of them."
Grandpa Jiang Xia’s praise made Lin Cuihua feel both bashful and a little proud.
"I hope your good words come true."
Everyone chatted and laughed. The two families were no longer strangers, and the meal became much more relaxed.
At the dinner table, An Sancheng thanked Jiang Xia for his help that day. Jiang Xia replied that they were neighbors, and it was a small thing to lend a hand.
They ate, drank, and chatted, and the conversation eventually turned to the topic of the New Year.
In the north, once you enter the twelfth lunar month, it’s considered the New Year season.
The weather was cold, there was no work to be done in the fields, so what else was there to do but plan for the New Year?
"Uncle Jiang, where will you be celebrating the New Year?"
"We’ll just celebrate it here. We have no one left in Beijing. It’s just the two of us, my grandson and I, so it’s the same for us wherever we are."
What Grandpa Jiang Xia said was true, but hearing it out loud was inexplicably heartbreaking.
Lin Cuihua was the first to be moved. After exchanging a look with An Sancheng, the years of tacit understanding between husband and wife prompted An Sancheng to say, "Uncle Jiang, if you don’t mind, please come celebrate the New Year at our house. We can all celebrate together."
"Ah?"
Grandpa Jiang Xia was very surprised and asked with an embarrassed expression, "Wouldn’t that be an imposition?"
"No, no, the two of us will be fine no matter how we celebrate. We wouldn’t want to trouble you."
Grandpa Jiang Xia’s refusal only made An Sancheng more insistent on inviting him.
"Uncle Jiang, you said it yourself: a close neighbor is better than a distant relative. When An Ning had a fever last time, you gave us medicine. It would be too distant of you not to come."
An Sancheng said a few more words, and finally, Grandpa Jiang Xia agreed. Everyone smiled happily, and the atmosphere became even more harmonious.
An Ning felt that something was off. It wasn’t that she saw through Grandpa Jiang Xia’s performance, but rather that his spiritual power had been excited the whole time, not at all like someone who was sad.
The one who understood best what was happening was Jiang Xia.
’The old man is putting on an act again.’
After the meal, Grandpa Jiang Xia stayed to chat with An Sancheng for a while, while Jiang Xia diligently offered to help clear the table.
Unfortunately, the siblings were one step ahead of him.
An Ning, holding a plate in each hand, shot Jiang Xia a threatening glare.
"Jiang Xia, just sit there and have some water. There are plenty of us; we don’t need your help."
In the end, Jiang Xia didn’t get to help. After sitting for about ten minutes, he and his grandfather tactfully suggested it was time for them to leave.
An Sancheng saw the two of them to the door, closed it securely, and went back inside to rest.
When he returned, he saw the whole family had gone into the west room. They were sitting on the kang, each with a pile of small change in front of them, counting.
"Hurry up, this pile is yours."
Lin Cuihua pointed to another pile, then turned back to continue counting her own.
"Oh dear, what was my count?"
She’d forgotten.
"Thirteen yuan and seventy-eight fen."
An Ning stated the number and went back to counting her own pile.
"Really?"
Lin Cuihua didn’t know whether to believe her or not, so she simply counted it all over again.
"Well, what do you know, it really is thirteen yuan and seventy-eight fen."
An Ning finished counting a stack of ten-yuan bills, tied it up, and set it aside. "See?" she said, her tone a little proud. "When it comes to numbers, I’m pretty reliable."
After her moment of pride, An Ning laughed at herself.
’Since when did being able to count become something to be proud of?’
The family counted from when the sky was still light until it was completely dark.
An Ning tied a rope to a flashlight and hung it from a roof beam to serve as a temporary lamp, and they all continued to count.
As they counted on and on, Lin Cuihua’s hands started to cramp up.
"I never thought there’d come a day when I’d get tired of counting money."
"Isn’t that the truth? I wouldn’t have even dared to dream of this before."
An Sancheng added with a tease, and the family kept counting.
They counted all the way until eight o’clock at night. By then, everyone was hungry from all the counting, so Lin Cuihua made a late-night snack.
She boiled a pot of hot noodle soup, and everyone had a bowl or two.
"An Ning, what’s the grand total?"
An Ning was calculating the total.
"The total is two thousand, three hundred seventy-eight yuan and nine fen."
The movements and sounds of slurping noodles all stopped.
"How much?"
"Two thousand, three hundred seventy-eight yuan and nine fen."
An Ning repeated.
At the side, An Guoming nodded and said, "That’s about right. We’ve sold about a third of our stock."
He was the one who had procured the goods, so he had a good idea of the numbers.
Lin Cuihua put down her bowl. It wasn’t that she didn’t know they were making money; she just didn’t know they could make *this* much.
"But wasn’t it all just dimes and nickels? How could it add up to so much?"
An Ning arranged the neatly sorted money and said, "Mom, every household needs at least two sets of couplets, and some families buy three or four. Then there are the ’Fu’ characters, which are essential. Add to that the God of Wealth posters, fortune dolls, calendars, wall scrolls, and candy we sold, and it all adds up."
"Every person who came to buy something spent at least one or two yuan."
"You have no idea how many people there were today."
An Guoqing chimed in with strong agreement, "Mom, it was so crowded, I had to hold my pee the whole time."
