Chapter 52: Shame is the mockery of charity.

Chapter 52

After Granny Zhou had tidied everything up, she filled up a whole bag and placed it on the front rack of her bicycle. The quality of a 28-inch rack was no joke, a bicycle could bear the weight of two to three hundred jin, and it was the main means of transportation at that time.

An ZhiAng also took out a package of green bean cakes from her satchel and put it on the table inside the house. She went out and said to Granny Zhou, “Granny, I don’t know what you like to eat either, so I brought you some green bean cakes.”

She didn't say that she had made them herself, because the green bean cakes looked very nice, and they definitely didn't have any at home. Even someone as carefree as An ZhiAng would have realized this.

Granny Zhou's health was not as well maintained as the old lady in their house. When she smiled, you could see that most of her teeth were already missing. "You silly girl, why spend so much effort on me? Granny's teeth are not good now, I can only drink thin congee. Don't bring these things next time, listen to me. If you have money, buy some tasty food for yourself and take care of your health."

An ZhiAng quickly smoothed things over and said, "Granny, don't worry. ZhiXia is not lacking money now, she's even richer than me. My second brother contributed 100 yuan and my third brother 50 yuan for ZhiXia's pocket money. My mom probably subsidized quite a bit behind the scenes too..."

An ZhiAng raised his eyebrows at ZhiXia, "Little sister, am I right?"

ZhiXia just smiled. Zhou ZhiZhi, who was standing next to her, had her mouth half open in surprise.

She had known since she was little that her aunt's family was wealthy, but she didn't expect them to be this wealthy.

Her cousins weren't even married yet but could give their little sister tens or hundreds of yuan as pocket money. One could imagine that what they had in hand was even more.

Both she and her eldest brother were already so old, yet after decades of hard work from her parents, she had overheard them discussing that the family had saved only a dozen or so yuan.

But it was also normal. Apart from the yields from the fields, the countryside didn't have any other income, so it was not easy to earn money. After receiving rations for the year’s labor and deducting the annual expenses, many families did not have enough to cover their costs and still owed money to the village.

Even Granny Zhou was shocked by the An family's wealth.

But after thinking about it, she felt at peace. There's a saying that even a rotten boat has three catties worth of nails. The An family was once a prominent rich family in Jincheng, and her son-in-law was a high school principal with a good monthly salary. With several children who were all working and not yet married, it was normal for them to have saved up some money.

After that, when Aunt Zhou brought back clothes, she was reluctant to take them, and was criticized by her mother for it.

Because for them, making a new piece of clothing not only required money, but also fabric tickets. It was not easy to make a new one every three to five years, most were handed down from older to younger siblings until they really couldn't be worn before ripping them up to patch shoes.

Granny Zhou didn't understand the situation. She tapped Zhou Yuanyuan on the forehead, "You silly girl, don't be too arrogant. Look at the other girls in our village, whose clothes aren't covered in patches?"

"That's different." What Zhou Yuanyuan cared about was not whether the clothes were new or old, but the contempt from An MeiYun. "Ah, I already told you you wouldn't understand. I won't explain it to you. I'm going back to try on my new clothes."

At the moment she first learned An MeiYun was not a blood relative, Zhou Yuanyuan admitted she did feel a bit of schadenfreude. Who made her look down on them before?

Moreover, there was no harm without contrast. Compared to An MeiYun's arrogance and sharpness, ZhiXia was gentle and generous, and people naturally liked those who were gentle and nice to them. Who would like someone who looked down on them all the time?

Zhou Yuanyuan thought that even if ZhiXia gave her used clothes in the future, she would definitely not dislike them, because unlike An MeiYun, ZhiXia would not say such contemptuous words.

Besides, in the countryside, not to mention picking up used clothes, even children's diapers were reused by others. It was nothing unusual or shameful at all.

What was shameful was the derisive charity from others.

It was very late when An ZhiAng and ZhiXia got off their bikes.

The early autumn night was chilly. Fortunately, ZhiXia was wearing long sleeves.

An ZhiAng was wearing short sleeves, but boys had more vigorous internal heat. Coupled with the exercise from biking, he was not cold at all, and his back was even sweating so much that you could see the wet outline of his shirt.

"Fourth brother, when are you leaving?" Although she knew that once An ZhiAng left this time, he would be embarking on the bright future he deserved, ZhiXia still felt reluctant to part.