The Scum Gong Begs Me to Get Back Together, but I Just Want to Get Rich

Neither party could refuse, so the red envelopes were accepted.

In fact, the two thousand yuan wasn’t a big deal for the two families. Jiang Xiao also knew the personality of Ye Bing and his wife, but he couldn’t refuse it if others didn’t want it.

Those who treat themselves well with sincerity, shouldn’t neglect others because of their kindness. They have to treat others well and must be paid back what was due.

After Jiang Xiao left, Ye Bing and his wife held the thick red envelope and sighed slightly.

Not to mention how hard it had been for Jiang Xiao to earn money, which he went back and forth with the truck in the past six months, he also took care of the meal just now. It was really not easy and rare for a half-grown child to have this kind of skill.

“It’s a good thing that Xiao Xiao came sensible again. My brother’s spirit can see it from heaven and I also feel relieved,” Ye Bing sighed, “But the two of them are only an orphan and a widow, no matter how sensible Jiang Xiao is, there are some things he cannot take care of. I’m also often away. It was hard on you, but when you have time, please take care of them more. I will also help you.”

“As it should be. Don’t worry,”

After returning from Ye Bing’s family to give New Year’s greetings, on the second day, the Jiang family finally got their own time together.

Unlike ordinary parents, Xia Wanwan accepted Jiang Xiao’s red envelope under the banner of ‘I’ll save them for you’. She didn’t want the two thousand yuan Ye Bing gave them and let Jiang Xiao keep it for himself.

This was probably the only red envelope that Jiang Xiao could receive from outside during Lunar New Year. When Jiang Xiao’s father, Jiang Hai, was around, even though the Jiang family’s relatives were well off and his grandmother was biased, his father was clear about it. He was able to keep his word, that he should be the one who provided the money for his family1 and no one dared to mess with him, so they could always have peaceful Lunar New Year’s celebrations.

The same goes for Xia Wanwan’s natal family, which he used to visit on the second day of the Lunar New Year. The Xia family was very patriarchal. When Xia Wanwan insisted on studying, she had already quarreled several times with them, therefore their relationship wasn’t good. However, as long as Jiang Hai took her back after lunch, they didn’t dare to say anything over there.

When his father passed away, the situation changed.

The Jiang family didn’t show any mercy when they robbed his father’s pension, and later, they also wanted to take away the house. Don’t know how many more despicable things they did, to the point that Xia Wanwan was admitted to the hospital several times. These things wouldn’t stop, as the previous celebrations had been torn apart like that. So why bother to find himself unhappy during the Lunar New Year?2

It was the same with the Xia family. After Jiang Hai passed away, Xia Wanwan got hospitalized a lot, but they didn’t visit her there even once. Forget it, they even sneered at her. Xia Wanwan knew her family’s attitude, so she didn’t bother to take Jiang Xiao back to make trouble, so she just spent the Lunar New Year alone.

Jiang Xiao probably didn’t care about these so-called relatives. As long as his mother was still there, the two of them could take care of each other and their small family still felt satisfied. They were not envious even the slightest, of how abundant other families’ celebrations were.

On New Year’s Eve, Jiang Xiao got up early in the morning. He still had winter vacation homework piling up. Before the winter vacation started, he had a few days to spare before going to Liujiang to buy goods. He had working on his homework but hadn’t finished them yet. So today, he had some time to make up for it.

He started from morning until afternoon and finally put down his pen after three o’clock. Afterward, he got up to prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner with his mother.

Two people couldn’t eat much after all, so the amount of each dish should be made smaller, so there would be more variety of dishes.

The taste of the celebrations was very strong this year to the point where Xia Wanwan was willing to buy a lot of high-quality meat and vegetables today. Jiang Xiao was not shrinking away from helping her make it festive, so he made a steamed cake using a rice cooker. He decorated it with whipped cream and put two to three pieces of strawberries on top. It looked delicious.

In winter, the sky was already dark from six o’clock to seven o’clock. Xia Wanwan turned on the TV and the rehearsal program for the Spring Festival Gala was already playing on it. Fireworks had started to go off outside and there were a lot of them. They had been banned in Liujiang for several years in his previous life, except for some large-scale events.

The source of fireworks was not only one. It seemed that every family would buy a barrel of fireworks at this time. Looking from the balcony, he could see fireworks of different colors lifted into the air from all directions and exploded.

The TV in the living room still played the rehearsal program for the Spring Festival Gala. The host was wearing a sparkly costume and his words were well-spoken.

“Happy New Year to the Year of Goat!”

“Tonight’s program can be said to be wonderful…”

Jiang Xiao was standing on the balcony holding his rice bowl. The sound of fireworks exploding outside was too loud. While he could occasionally hear a sentence or two from the TV, he couldn’t hear it clearly. In addition to fireworks, there was also the sound of firecrackers outside, seemingly coming from downstairs, crackling.

Jiang Xiao probed his head and took a look. The sound of firecrackers4 should be from the neighbors. He finished the bowl of rice in his hand and felt that he was half-full. He fried a plate of spicy shredded beef3 at night. It was a delicious and spicy snack.

After the firecrackers were set off downstairs, a group of children ran out from the neighborhood. Each of them held a dozen of firework sticks5 in their hands, which were long and thin. After they were lit, small fire flowers would spark from the tip.

Now it seemed that these products could be sold for a dime. It would also burn out after a while, but on the Lunar New Year, every parent would still buy one or two for their children no matter what.

It was very enchanting to play with this kind of small fireworks in the snow. The children gathered together and chased each other until their fireworks burned out. The street lights were dim and Jiang Xiao couldn’t see clearly when he was standing upstairs, but the most eye-catching thing was the burning firework sticks that looked like stars.

This was just a very common occurrence, but Jiang Xiao continue to chew his spicy shredded beef and watched them from upstairs with relish. He felt happy when he heard the children’s laughter.

Xia Wanwan also had finished eating. She quietly walked behind him and patted Jiang Xiao on the shoulder. “Is it so interesting?”

Jiang Xiao chewed the shredded beef with puffed cheeks and replied, “It’s interesting.”

Xia Wanwan smiled, then handed him a handful of firework sticks. It looked very fancy and wrapped in plastic bags. It was quite a big handful, there were about forty to fifty sticks, and they were divided into different types. There were also other fireworks with different shapes.

“Go and play,” She smiled at Jiang Xiao, “There was also a big firework in the storage room, let me see it this year.”

All the children downstairs were no older than ten years old. Jiang Xiao was three times his age mentally, so he was a little embarrassed. However, Xia Wanwan just put him in a thick coat and a plush hat, then pushed him away.

No matter how big Jiang Xiao had grown, in the eyes of his mother, he would always be a child.

Jiang Xiao was pushed out of the door. He looked at the large bunch of firework sticks in his hand and stood helplessly at the door for a while before going downstairs.

The children in the open space downstairs were saving their corners. Jiang Xiao was not ashamed to argue with children, so he got a corner and looked up. Xia Wanwan should be able to see him if she were standing on the balcony of their home. He took a lighter, picked one at random, and lit it up.

This small firework stick burned for up to 20 seconds. When he shook it in his hands, it will pass in a flash, but the moment it lit up was very exciting.

The flames splattered around and there was a feeling of nostalgia.

It’s really fun to set off fireworks.

Really fragrant too.

Hei hei6.

Jiang Xiao lit about one or two sticks more and became addicted to playing.

There were different kinds of bags. He burned the yellow one and the bottom one glowed green when it burned. There was also a round one that was placed in the plastic bag. When it was lit, it will spin on the spot, like a fire spinning top.

He had a lot of fireworks, so after a while, all the children who were playing next to him were attracted. Some children even knew him, called out Jiang Xiao gege, and then looked at him eagerly.

Playing was only fun when everyone played together. Jiang Xiao gave them some fireworks in his hand. The children laughed happily and lit the fireworks around him to play in circles.

The children were sweet, they took the fireworks while praising their Jiang Xiao gege for being so kind. A little girl took out a piece of sweet peanut candy in a festive red wrapper and handed it over to him.

The light spots in the snow lasted for a while and after the small firework sticks were burned, Jiang Xiao moved out the big firework from the storage room.

After igniting them, large groups of colors exploded above his head, accompanied by the excited screams of children. Jiang Xiao glanced at his balcony, where the fireworks sparked to its brightest color could be seen closer, and saw Xia Wanwan watching them.

After he finished playing, he went upstairs excitedly and the Spring Festival Gala almost started. Xia Wanwan had already arranged all the snacks on the table in the living room and his cake was placed in the middle.

The two of them were lying on the sofa in the most relaxed position, watching the Spring Festival Gala. Jiang Xiao wrapped himself in a small blanket. After eating the cake, he ate melon seeds, then he ate fruits. This year’s skit was still very funny. Smiling, he was a little sleepy at eleven o’clock and fell asleep on the sofa until the sound of firecrackers and fireworks outside woke him up during the climax of New Year’s Eve.

“The New Year’s bell is ringing!” can be heard on the TV.

Welcoming a new year and new season, he rubbed his eyes and looked at his mother near him in the middle of the night. He felt that there would be infinite possibilities in the future.

It was also New Year’s Eve in Liujiang’s Lin family. Lin Chengyu and his grandfather had a New Year’s Eve dinner and discussed something in the study. Grandpa was in a good mood, but he didn’t put less care on anything like before. When he went out for so long a few days ago, it’s just that Grandpa didn’t have time to take care of him, not that he didn’t know.

“Are you looking for that kid again?”

Lin Chengyu nodded.

Grandpa glanced at him and asked again, “Did you owe him something?”

“I owe him a lot,” Lin Chengyu said honestly, “I’m afraid I’ll let him down again.”

Grandpa didn’t speak anymore and there was a long silence between the two of them.

“It’s good to owe something to a person, but I’m most afraid of owing favors. Other things can be counted, only this one can’t be counted.” Lin Chenngyu heard his grandfather say, “You are old and have your ideas. I can’t control you. Yue Cheng is around, so nothing should happen. Don’t run around in the next few days, I have something that I need to tell you. Don’t be afraid, I’m still here and they won’t cause trouble at home.”

The old man has lived for several years and he was more lenient after seeing many things. He often went to Jiang Xiao as part of his grandfather’s acquiescence, so he was not afraid of what the family would do to Jiang Xiao because of him.

Lin Chengyu felt relieved and nodded.

With the current situation at home, it would be nice to have a quiet New Year’s Eve dinner. It was impossible to enjoy the Spring Festival Gala, though. Lin Chengyu and his grandfather went back to each other’s room after discussing things.

The Lin family’s house was huge and this old villa area was located in a quiet place. He couldn’t feel the excitement of Liujiang City during the New Year. His room was so quiet that it seemed dead silent. He sat at the table and read a book for a while, then raised his eyes to check the time. At that moment, he realized that the new year had passed and it was already past twenty minutes after midnight.

He didn’t know what Jiang Xiao was doing now.

Was he watching the last memorable song of the Spring Festival Gala on the TV, or was he already too sleepy to watch it that he went to sleep?

Lin Chengyu put down the book in his hand, lay on the bed, and turned off the light. On New Year’s Eve, he thought about that person thousands of miles away and couldn’t fall asleep no matter what. He tossed and turned for a long time before falling asleep in a daze. It was lidded with strange dreams.

<

>

1 I think this means that although Jiang’s family is well off and also values sons more than daughters, Jiang Xiao’s father always refuses this kind of favor (perhaps because he knew that his family wasn’t that good either and it is not good to ‘owe’ them something). Even though I think red envelopes are pretty much standard.

2 This means that because both Jiang Xiao’s paternal nor maternal family didn’t let him good impression of the Lunar New Year and kinda ruined it for him, he just doesn’t bother to reconnect or visit them anymore, especially after his father’s death, so he will still be happy. Like cutting off the relationship for good, which is quite hard to do for Asian households living in their native country. Especially if grandparents are still alive. If not, it was somewhat understandable.

3 灯影牛肉丝 or ‘spicy shredded beef’ kinda looks like this :

4 爆竹 or ‘firecrackers’, it looks like this and very LOUD. There are a lot of different types of fireworks/firecrackers.

5 烟花棒 or ‘sparkler’ or I translated it literally as ‘fireworks sticks’, it looks like this.

Usually, children love to play with it, but it is actually dangerous and you should not let children hold it, I think. The flame can get into their clothes. It’s a fire hazard. But I used to play this too as a child and enjoyed it XD It’s weird that Jiang Xiao thought fireworks to be ‘fragrant’, idk if they were scented like incense in China but in my country, it just smelled like… something’s burning. Bigger fireworks tend to leave more smoke and it’s not healthy or smelled nice. Or it could mean that he was nostalgic about the smell.

6 嘿嘿 or ‘hēi hēi’ is like a mischievous laughter sound.

T/N: When I read about both Jiang Xiao’s paternal and maternal families weren’t the best, I somehow can relate to Xia Wanwan’s family. While my paternal family can be considered to be ‘scholarly’, my maternal family came from a ‘merchant’ background, but they are both quite patriarchal. My maternal grandma cannot understand why a woman needs to study, as women would end up in the kitchen anyway and men are often ‘scared’ if the woman is ‘too smart’. So my mother, like Xia Wanwan, needs to fight her way to get a college degree. She’s now a university professor with a Ph.D.

My mother also used to say, it’s easier to owe someone money than favor. Money can be repaid, the amount is fixed, however, favor can’t be measured. Because of this, she often said that the easiest relationship is the relationship with money. Lol. Relatable 100%.