“Uncle dare not help any more, I guess Uncle Three never intended to bother with them from the start, right?”
Wen Ying’s third uncle, Wen Changlin, was the shrewd sort like Huahua.
Wen Changlin sold insurance in Rong City and, right from the outset, knew to target areas teeming with old folks. He would go about calling them uncles and aunties, charming the grandparents into buying policies from him.
No senior would pass such valuable know-how to a newcomer; Wen Changlin had simply figured it out himself with his quick wits.
When Wen Hongyan sought Wen Changlin’s aid, he countered by asking if she wanted to buy insurance.
What?
No money for that?
If no money, then do not hold him back from chasing deals and hitting targets. He still needed to support his wife and child through insurance sales!
Could Wen Hongyan be dearer to him than his own family?
Evidently not.
Should some illness strike in future, only his wife would care for him. Was he to raise his sister and niece now, hoping for their gratitude later?
His second brother, Wen Dongrong, served as a cautionary tale. Wen Hongyan’s way of repaying kin was to land her own brother in prison, and Wen Changlin truly could not afford such trouble.
“Uncle Three is clear-headed.”
Wen Ying praised him sincerely.
Wen Dongrong suspected Hei Xin Mian was taking a dig at him, but lacking proof, he could only grumble, “Your granduncle dare not help, your third uncle is clever, but your grandma still got duped.”
Shu Guobing had relatives too, but they were all poor and knew Wen Hongyan’s character well enough not to lend her a penny.
Unable to reach her second brother Wen Dongrong, and failing to fool Wen Ying’s granduncle and third uncle, Wen Hongyan turned her sights on Grandma Wen.
Grandma Wen had no pension and usually lived with Wen Ying’s granduncle’s family. Whatever money she had came from her three sons’ filial offerings.
The old lady had long reached an age for quiet retirement. She sought no great devotion from her daughter Wen Hongyan, only that she spare the elder’s modest savings!
“Since Grandma gave her the money, how could Shu Lu drop out over lack of fees?”
Wen Ying’s knack for spotting holes was sharp as ever.
At this, Wen Dongrong truly fumed. “Your grandma went soft, not wanting Shu Lu to quit school, so she secretly gave money to your aunt. Over the summer, your aunt claimed Shu Lu’s rural school had poor teaching and her grades were plummeting, needing a cram class. She already took money from your grandma for that. Then, before term started, she said no funds for tuition and got more from your grandma. In the end, Shu Lu joined no class and paid no fees. Your aunt blew the cash on a load of useless junk!”
Wen Hongyan chased pie-in-the-sky get-rich schemes. That summer, someone roped her into selling therapy gadgets, touting high-tech electromagnetic pulse massage neck pillows that supposedly cured cervical issues and even chronic ailments like diabetes and hypertension.
It screamed scam from a mile off, yet Wen Hongyan swallowed it whole. The money she wheedled from Grandma Wen went straight to franchise fees. She did try hawking them for a few days, but with no silver tongue or credibility, not a single pillow at over a thousand yuan each moved.
Seeking more from Grandma Wen? Even if the old lady had funds, she could not fall for it time and again.
Just days into term, what fresh expense could there be?
This time, Shu Lu came sniffling to Grandma Wen, saying her mum’s cash had turned into unsold neck pillows piling up at home, leaving nothing for her registration.
Without fees, Shu Lu faced dropout!
Dropout was grave. Grandma Wen, angry at Wen Hongyan’s deceit, still turned to Wen Dongrong for counsel.
One might call Grandma Wen a country bumpkin of little learning, but the old lady knew schooling was the straight path.
Her grandson Wen Kai had aced into a top capital university, granddaughter Wen Ying studied at Rong City’s finest provincial key school, but niece Shu Lu had a jailed father and a lazy mum who never finished high school herself. Dropout now, and her life was as good as wrecked!
“What does Grandma mean, shall we pull one more string?”
Wen Ying felt glum.
Wen Dongrong’s face twisted like he had swallowed a fly. “I cannot speak for your grandma’s mind. I, for one, will not lift a finger.”
It was not that Wen Dongrong bore a grudge against his teenage niece or relished watching Shu Lu quit school.
Simply put, Shu Lu did not merit his help.
Back in the provincial city they went, so schooling was her sole shot.
Yet upon inquiring, Wen Dongrong learned Shu Lu ranked near the bottom of her class!
Not some elite academy either; with those marks, scraping through high school meant no university shot!
Hardship at home demanded greater effort. The needy students Wen Dongrong sponsored all shone academically. It was not unwillingness to aid the laggards, but resources were finite. Giving the weak equal to the strong would be the gravest injustice.
Birth you cannot choose, but marks, those you could strive for.
Thus, Shu Lu’s dropout stemmed not just from fees, but her own failure to keep pace.
With Wen Dongrong firm against aid, Wen Ying had no mind to play saint!
“Schooling is the best route for most, but if truly unfit, paths still exist. I wish Shu Lu well on hers ahead.”
Wen Ying knew dropouts close by.
Little sister Deng Juan made the prime case.
Deng Juan never finished junior high, slaved as a maid for years in Chen Li and Deng Shangwei’s home, but under Wen Ying’s nudge, seized a chance and turned her fate. Now she aided Qin Jiao in the capital, expanding the ‘Shrimp King’ market as her right hand.
Wen Ying, during a Beijing signing, made time to meet Deng Juan. She had grown so poised, even her accent refined. Strangers would never peg her as a former child nanny.
Another averse to school was Yang Xi.
Yang Xi mainly itched to earn and support the Yang elders who raised her.
She thrived now, thanks in part to Wen Ying’s boost, but chiefly her clear aims and relentless grind for family.
Shu Lu lacked even the will to study, yet expected Grandma Wen’s coin for fees. To Wen Ying, that smacked of utter folly.
Forget her being a spiteful kin with history; even a stranger without grudge, Wen Ying would not back such a soul’s schooling!
Wen Dongrong raised this not to probe Wen Ying’s stance; he had long decided.
Years as family ‘patriarch’, plus his cadre roots from farm to office, left him deep down wary of moral or public flak for shunning kin.
One’s upbringing stamps lifelong; Wen Ying took two lives to heal boyhood shame, while Wen Dongrong, seasoned in the system far from village roots, still bore marrow-deep views hard to shake.
His choice made, backed by Wen Ying, eased the inner strain at once, snapping an unseen chain.
Old Wen’s ‘growth’ slipped by thus, silent, unnoticed even by Wen Ying.
Click.
Creak.
Turning the key, pushing the door, Chen Ru came home from work.
Father and daughter turned as one to Chen Ru, her face a mask of mixed ire and mirth. “Are you two hiding something from me?”
