Chapter 23: Grandma's Gift

  "Wow, Grandma, you're so biased! I've accompanied you for walks, tea, meals, chats, and TV time all these years, but never heard you mention giving me a salary!" Jia Kai and Jia Luo came downstairs together after changing clothes, and one sentence amused everyone.

  The old lady saw that it was home Kai and hummed "I've been changing your diapers, feeding you, bathing you, taking you to kindergarten, and apologizing to the kids you bullied for so many years. How much salary do you want to pay me?" Everyone laughed even harder, waiting to see how Home Kai would respond.

  "Grandma, I was wrong. Sorry, I apologize. Please forgive me this time. I'll kowtow to you." Jia Kai made a servile expression, bent his knees slightly and pretended to kowtow.

  Everyone laughed and didn't bother him anymore.

  "Go and call your sister quickly, Xing Ye is eight days older than you!" Yu Jia Kai pushed his younger brother Jia Luo, with a tone that sounded like he was gloating.

  At close range under the starry night, this sixteen-year-old boy was much taller than himself, more robust than his brother Jia Kai, with a childish face similar to that of his aunt, and at this moment standing in front of him, he could even feel his unease. Was it himself who made him afraid?

  "She looks younger than me, and she calls me brother, which is about right." Ka Lok shouted after staring for half a day.

  Auntie knew he was too embarrassed to call, so she deliberately teased him: "Originally you should be the older brother, but who made your aunt give birth prematurely? You were born more than 30 days early, and you lingered in your mother's womb until the due date wasn't coming out. No way, that's how you became a younger brother."

  "Counting on ten months of pregnancy is still me"

  How can you count it like that!

  "Alright, I'll call you Jia Luo, and you don't have to call me sister, just call me by my name, okay?" Xing Ye proposed.

  "Alright, it's settled then. From now on, you're my sister. Don't worry, I'll protect you. If anyone bullies you, I'll take revenge for you." Jia Luo patted his chest in guarantee.

  At night, he tilted his head and said that he would no longer call her sister, but he didn't say that she had to call him brother. His understanding ability is really strange.

  The night flew by with laughter and chatter, and when Auntie was about to leave, she secretly handed her a red envelope containing 5,000 yuan. "Go buy something you like, use the rest as pocket money, and let me know when it's all spent." Looking at Auntie's carefree demeanor, she actually had a thoughtful side, knowing that what she bought might not necessarily be to Xing Ye's taste, but rather to satisfy her own hobby.

  "Tonight, don't decline," her aunt said, pressing down on her hand. "Don't make your uncle and me feel even more guilty, accept it, and we'll feel a bit better."

  Clutching the money tightly in her hand, she watched as her uncle and aunt left.

  Lying in bed at night, recalling this day that seemed especially long, what a lovely family. Lying in bed at night, they found it was just a short day, but they made themselves feel a sense of belonging, and the worries in their hearts disappeared.

  The knocking sound came, "Xīng Yè, have you slept?" It was Grandma's voice.

  Ran out in the middle of the night to open the door and asked grandma to come in.

  "Grandma, it's so late and you still haven't rested? You need to take care of your body."

  "It's nothing, people get fewer thoughts as they age." Grandma sat on the bed, and at night she saw that she was holding a bag.

  "Come, sit next to Grandma." Xing Ye sat down beside her.

  Grandma didn't say a word, and took out a black lacquer jewelry box from her bag, exactly the same as the one Mother had left for me.

  "This was a pair back then. Your mother wanted one, so I'll give this to you instead, and the pair can stay together." Grandma said while stroking the jewelry box.

  At night, he took out his mother's old one from the drawer and placed the two boxes together. The patterns on the box faces formed a complete picture of flowers and birds.

  "This was given to me by my mother-in-law when I got married, it has a history of over 100 years." Grandma explained while looking at the two jewelry boxes.

  "It's really exquisite, and after such a long time, the lacquer surface is still so bright." Both boxes are well preserved.

  "Good things are never wrong at any time." The grandma opened the box she brought. "I have a gift for you."

  A pair of jade bangles, one of which was obviously broken and then rejoined using the gold-inlaid method.

  The bangle shone with a greenish luster under the lamp light, and Xīn Yè was amazed that green could be so dazzling. He carefully picked it up, and even though he didn't understand jade, he could tell that this crystal-clear transparency was probably a top-quality piece of jade.

  "How beautiful!" exclaimed Xing Ye, unable to help himself.

  Grandma looked at the infatuated expression and smiled, "Your grandfather gave it to me back then, it's an old thing. Your mother also liked it like you when she was young, she would secretly take it out to look at it, once she accidentally dropped it on the ground and cracked one side, later we asked a master craftsman from Liuhe Tower to re-embed it, and it can still be worn."

  Never thought mom would be mischievous and get into trouble when she was a kid.

  Grandma took out a starry night wristband and put it on her wrist, "Originally, this was supposed to be given to your mom, and then passed down to you as an heirloom. But since your mom left early, I'll give it to you directly. Consider it a gift from Grandma for our meeting."

  "Grandma, this is too valuable, I don't want it." Xīng Yè knew an old saying that good jade is priceless. She had often visited jewelry stores in her past life and the jade she saw were not as good as these bracelets. Even if only one of them was for sale, it would be impossible to buy it even with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Although she didn't understand much about it, she knew that if it was an antique, its value couldn't be measured. Moreover, since Grandpa had given it to Grandma, the meaning behind it was different.

  "What's expensive or not, when I'm old and my eyes are blurry, one day I'll drop it and it won't be worth a single cent."

  "But this is what your grandfather sent you with a different meaning!" Xīng Yè said restlessly.

  "That's just childish talk, we're an old couple in our sixties, what does this ring have to do with whether our feelings are good or bad? What's the meaning of it all? If he didn't give me this ring back then, couldn't we still grow old together? Our hearts only have room for each other, no space for material things. Don't get your priorities mixed up, Ah-ya. Forget what's truly important."

  Looking at Xing Ye with a thoughtful expression, Grandma continued: "You're young, you can't fully understand some things yet, don't think about it too much, just live life and as you gain more experience, you'll naturally come to understand."

  "Grandma, you are so wise and your words have such deep meaning. I really admire you." Xing Ye looked at this open-minded and wise old man with great admiration.

  My grandma chuckled and said "I've just eaten a few more decades of rice, isn't there a saying that people get wiser with age?"

  "Grandma, you're not just an old person, you're actually a fairy, no, you're a goddess descended to the mortal world."

  "What fairy, is there a fairy with wrinkles all over her face?" The grandma laughed so hard that she couldn't close her mouth.

  Jumping out of bed in the middle of the night, he pointed at the photo on the wall and said: "I didn't lie to you, look, isn't she even more beautiful than a fairy?"

  "The little pony is so spoiled, she can coax me into happiness, and in just one day, Jia Kai taught her to be oily-mouthed and slippery-tongued." Grandma's words were full of doting love, but a big hat of spoiling her younger sister was placed on Jia Kai's head.

  "Grandma looked around the room and said, 'This guest room is too small, the furniture is also incomplete, and we need to add a lot of things.'"

  "Grandma doesn't need to bother, just one more desk will do." Xing Ye hastily stopped her.

  "A girl's room can't be without a dresser, don't worry about it, I'll design it, you go to sleep early, you're tired from the whole day."

  "Grandma, you should get some rest too, goodnight."

  After sending his grandmother out of the door, he quickly put the bracelet and the five thousand yuan into the jewelry box overnight.

  She couldn't help but feel grateful that her grandmother's family was very nice and they all liked her.

  She held the jewelry box tightly in her arms under the starry night.

  Mom, did you see that? My daughter is doing well, and grandma and grandpa are also good. Don't worry! How are you in heaven? Are you together with dad? I miss you both every night, missing you.