Huang Meifeng finally couldn't help but seek out Fu Yurou, who was idling away in her room, staring blankly.
"Yurou, did you take the things in the kitchen?"
"I took them."
Fu Yurou readily admitted it.
Fu Yuqing sprang out from behind Huang Meifeng, her hands on her hips, glaring with fierce brows: "Are you a starving ghost reincarnated? That's our family's grain ration for the entire month! If you take it, what are we all going to eat?"
"Figure it out yourselves." Fu Yurou spread her hands with a look of utter indifference.
"I'll beat to death you!"
Fu Yuqing lost control, rushing forward to hit Fu Yurou, who instantly snatched up a nearby stool.
"Yuqing, don't be impulsive."
Huang Meifeng hurriedly pulled her daughter back, looking at Fu Yurou with a complicated gaze.
"What? Not telling Fu Yuqing to yield to me as her older sister anymore?"
Fu Yurou lowered the stool with a hint of regret.
It seems I need to stock up on some lethal weapons in my spatial dimension. I haven't collected the pots and pans from the kitchen yet—oh, mustn't forget when I leave. And this stool is quite useful for smashing people in a pinch.
"Yurou, I know you resent us for sending you down to the countryside, but your father and I really had no choice. Your dad has already given you all the family's savings. If you take the grain rations as well, our whole family will starve to death."
Fu Yurou remained completely unmoved: "Stop putting on a pitiful act here. I don't believe the family doesn't have a single cent left. Since we can't cook today, you'd better hurry to the state-run restaurant and buy some food so that when my dad comes back, he won't actually go hungry."
Huang Meifeng let out a sigh, wearing the expression of someone who refused to bicker with a difficult child.
She returned to her own room for a moment, then dragged a thoroughly rebellious Fu Yuqing out of the house.
This was clearly out of fear that the two would start fighting.
Once they left, Zhang Pan sat silently at the dining table in the living room. Fu Jianye went into his own room briefly, then walked over to Fu Yurou and handed her an envelope.
"Second Sister, this is the lucky money I've saved up over the years. You're about to go to the countryside, and I don't have anything else to give you. Take this."
Fu Yurou gave Fu Jianye a surprised look and took it.
Opening it up, she found it packed with one-cent, two-cent, twenty-cent, and fifty-cent notes—a thick envelope containing probably around a dozen yuan, along with some ration coupons. It was certainly more practical than Fu Aiguo, who was supposed to be her father.
She accepted it with a smile, unceremoniously.
Even a mosquito's thigh is meat.
"Thanks, and you don't have to feel regretful about it."
You'll be in the same boat in a few days anyway.
"I know you're unconvinced, but there is no absolute fairness in this world. Sometimes impulsiveness can't solve problems either. At home, we are family and will tolerate you, but outside, no one is going to give way to you."
If Fu Jianye giving her money had been a surprise, then hearing him spout this speech made her truly astonished.
Fu Jianye was the only boy in the Fu family; arguably, all future resources would belong to him, with Fu Yuqing and Zhang Pan at best getting a small share.
Yet the person who ought to have been the most arrogant and domineering was speaking with the mature wisdom of someone who had already received the harsh lessons of society.
Is this what they call being a prodigy?
Still, Fu Yurou wasn't the least bit moved.
"Is this a vested interest standing on high moral ground to lecture me, a loser?"
If Fu Jianye genuinely had feelings for Fu Yurou, he wouldn't have just watched and done nothing; he was merely choosing to side with his full siblings.
It was human nature, which Fu Yurou understood—after all, the original owner had bullied Fu Jianye since childhood, so there wasn't much affection between them.
But she hardly needed him preaching to her.
"I really am worried about you."
"Just worrying without ever lifting a finger—that kind of verbal concern isn't necessary. However, I accept your good intentions. Now that I've taken your money, does it make you feel less guilty?"
Fu Jianye looked at Fu Yurou in astonishment, his face showing the fluster of someone whose hidden motives had been exposed.
He had indeed given this money out of a sense of compensation.
"Your guilt is truly cheap."
With that, Fu Yurou turned back to her room and tucked the envelope straight into her spatial dimension.
Half an hour later, Huang Meifeng and Fu Yuqing brought dinner back, and Fu Aiguo returned from work as well.
The moment Fu Aiguo stepped through the door, Fu Yuqing chattered away to lodge her complaints.
Fu Aiguo's expression turned extremely gloomy and unsightly.
Huang Meifeng waited until Fu Yuqing finished speaking before stopping her: "Your older sister is about to go to the countryside; it's only natural she's feeling upset. Don't bother your father—he's been working hard all day, don't let these trivial family matters upset him."
Fu Aiguo appreciated Huang Meifeng's consideration.
His expression softened a little, and he didn't lecture Fu Yurou either.
"Let's eat."
Such deliberate ignoring and indifference can sometimes be much more chilling than a roaring argument.
However, Fu Yurou had a thick skin. Acting as if she couldn't read the room at all, she ate the most at the dinner table and even kept fighting Fu Yuqing for the meat.
In the past, her health had been poor, requiring strict dietary control, and she had never had the chance to truly savor good food.
Even though she had arrived in this material-scarce era, now that she had a healthy body, she was certainly going to eat her fill and make up for it.
Once she was full, she hummed a little tune, took her bath ticket, and spent five cents to go take a bath at the bathhouse, returning just to lie down and sleep.
Half-asleep, she felt as though a shadow drifted past the head of her bed.
She woke up and lifted her chin: Fu Yuqing was snoring away as usual, but Zhang Pan, who slept on the bottom bunk, was gone.
Off to dig for treasures, are we?
Heh!
Go on, busy yourselves.
Yawning, she rolled over and went back to sleep.
For the next two days, Fu Yurou stirred up some minor trouble every single day—either quarrelling with Fu Yuqing or discovering this or that item missing around the house.
But knowing that Fu Yurou was leaving imminently, everyone gritted their teeth and endured it.
They were just waiting to send away this plague god.
It was worth noting that over these past two days, the faces of Huang Meifeng and Zhang Pan looked terribly haggard and worn out, as if they had been utterly devastated.
Late at night for two days running, they had quietly slipped out, returning only just before dawn, while still having to work normal jobs by day—not even an iron body could take that kind of punishment.
Fu Yurou saw it all and pretended to remain oblivious.
Fu Yuqing, on the other hand, made a noisy fuss, convinced that her mother and sister were in this state because Fu Yurou was up to her old tricks, which only made her look upon Fu Yurou with even greater displeasure.
And so, the day of her departure arrived.
The train was at three in the afternoon. No one came to see her off; in fact, not a single person from the family was even home.
Fu Yurou didn't mind at all; it actually made it much more convenient for her to move around.
First, she packed up her own bedding, but feeling it was a bit too thin and would definitely be cold in winter, she stuffed both Zhang Pan's and Fu Yurou's bedrolls into her spatial dimension as well. She didn't even spare the tables and chairs—aside from two empty beds and the wardrobe which she left untouched, everything else vanished.
"I'm so kind for leaving the beds behind for you."
She turned and stepped into Fu Jianye's room.
Fu Jianye's room was very clean. Aside from his sleeping bed, there wasn't even a wardrobe; his few clothes were kept in a wooden chest at the head of the bed.
She had no interest in a man's clothes, but his bedding might come in handy. One shouldn't play favorites; all the brothers and sisters in this family deserved to be treated equally.
She stuffed his bedroll into her spatial dimension too.
Once she finished with that section, next came Fu Aiguo and Huang Meifeng's room.
Heh!
It was even locked up. Who were they guarding against?