"Just look at this! Our rice jar is almost hitting the bottom! The cornmeal isn't even enough for us to chew through these next few days, Banggeng is about due for a winter cotton padded jacket again, and with the heavy spring rains coming, those few tiles on the roof need to be replaced, otherwise it'll leak again. Money has to go out for everything!" Mrs. Jia stretched out her fingers, jabbing fiercely into the air with each item she listed.
Her tone shifted abruptly, stabbing straight at the core: "That bit of salary Dongxu brings in was long ago swallowed up by the black market's bottomless pit! The family savings have been emptied out to the point where even a mouse would cry if it came in. Times are this tight—"
Mrs. Jia glanced sideways at Qin Huairu, lowering her voice a bit, but with a deeper calculation. "Huairu, Shazhu is a fool with more money than sense. A bachelor who feeds himself and leaves the whole family with no worries, how much can he possibly spend? That salary of his—dozens of yuan every month—he must have saved quite a pretty penny, right?"
Chapter 22