69, Report Paper 2

  The vice-county magistrate handed over the envelope with three large consolation money to Tian Biao in front of the camera lens of the reporter. Tian Biao thanked him repeatedly and said many good words. After the vice-county magistrate left, it was already more than an hour later.

  As soon as the leader left, those villagers immediately surrounded them. Wu Yugui and Tian Gui were among them. "Is there money in this letter?"

  "Big brother, hurry up and open it to see how much money is inside?" Tian Gui urged.

  "Dad, this consolation money, no matter how much or little it is, even if it's only two dollars, it's the deputy county head's intention, take it and put it away." Tian Yuan hurriedly stopped Tian Biao from opening the envelope and made a gesture to Li Shufen to help Tian Biao into the house.

  "Ah, let's take it apart and go in again! Let's see how much there is!" Wu Yugui shouted, stretching out his hand towards Tian Biao.

  Although the field marker is unclear, he still followed Li Shufen into the house and said that he had been sitting for a long time and was a bit tired. He didn't sleep well last night because of worry and tension, so he wanted to rest before dinner.

  As soon as Tian Biao left, everyone's face fell. The second wife habitually spat on the ground and said, "What's so precious about a broken envelope?"

  "It's just that I think there isn't much money in it, nowadays officials are both black-hearted and corrupt, who knows if inside there's only two cents' worth of stuff, the big boss must have felt it was too thin to take out, afraid we'd laugh at that leader"

  Zhao Qiuxiang and Wen Hua's mentality in Tian Yuan's eyes is just like the saying "sour grapes", but Tian Yuan herself also finds it strange. This condolence money, she remembers that when she read new articles in the 21st century, they would always open the envelope to reveal the money inside and even tell others how much was given. Probably at that time, there wasn't such a custom yet.

  Tian Wei didn't care about the money either, and took Tian Lu back to her room to do her homework. She didn't go downstairs until Li Shufen came to call them for dinner.

  Li Shufen and Tian Biao were all smiles as they saw the three children, let alone how happy they were. They looked around and saw no one, beckoned to the three children, lowered their voices and said, "The leader sent another 2,000 yuan in consolation money today, my husband and I still feel uneasy, always feeling that this matter is like a dream."

  "It's just that the other day we were still borrowing money everywhere, your mom and I even lost sleep for many days because of it, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep, as soon as we closed our eyes, we thought about not being able to borrow money anywhere. Now, this money, suddenly comes pouring in, it's hard to believe." Finally, Tian Biao reminded them, "You guys can't go around talking about this outside, got it? Nobody can say anything."

  "Oh!" The three siblings responded in unison.

  Anyway, the three kids don't worry about anything either, as long as they see their dad and mom happy, they're happy too.

  "Now we can rest assured, and the child's education is no longer a worry." Tian Biao looked at Tian Yuan with affectionate eyes. "This year, Yuan also turned ten years old, it's a big birthday, should be celebrated well. Originally planned to earn more money this year for Yuan's birthday, didn't expect something like this would happen, almost made life difficult too. Thought about it, the plan was going to fall through, my precious daughter would have to suffer... now it's all good, nothing to worry about anymore!"

  "Yes, Yuanyuan's 10th birthday is coming up, and she can get a new set of clothes. Yuanyuan and Lulu didn't even buy new clothes for the past New Year's celebration." Our family is poor, so the kids only get to add a new piece of clothing every few years. They wear two or three sets of clothes throughout the season, and when they're worn out, we patch them up and continue wearing them. When the bigger ones can't fit into them anymore, we pass them down to the smaller ones. As parents, it's heartbreaking to see this."

  PS: I see some relatives questioning the tuition fees. Here's an explanation: In any era, every city has a gap between the rich and the poor. The consumption in rural areas of relatively backward cities is lower, and so are their incomes.