Outsider: The Fifth Young Master of the Kang Family

Chapter 105 Passbook
During the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, the Kang family traveled to Lian County to enjoy the mountains and rivers. Xianglan, who was not in good condition at first, quickly recovered. This is because this place is really different from Guangfu. The mountains, springs, water, and air are beautiful, and life is very comfortable. After playing for a few days, everyone returned to Guangfu on October 7th and prepared to start a new round of moving bricks.

"Big news! There's a typhoon in Taiwan and heavy rain. The water is up to my knees." After returning home, the second sister-in-law was bored and picked up the newspaper to read the news. When she saw the news about the typhoon in Taiwan, she exclaimed, "I wonder how Uncle Chang's family is doing? Should I call and say hello?"

"Oh, silly woman, Mr. Chang is so rich, he must have a lot of servants at home, why are you afraid of something happening to him? Even if the water floods his house, his servants will clean it up in a few minutes." The second brother disagreed. Would such a rich boss be afraid of rain caused by a typhoon?
While everyone was chatting in the living room, neighbor Xu Bo walked into Kang's house and explored the house as if he was looking for something. "Xu Bo, what's the matter?" Big Brother Guang asked.

"Serious business." Xu Bo answered while searching.

"Uncle Xu, have you lost something?" The second brother guessed when he saw him looking around in the living room. But Uncle Xu didn't respond, he just kept walking around the living room looking here and there. Seeing him like this, everyone was more certain that he had lost something, but why did he come here to look for it?

"Jiao Jie, come here." Kang Qirui shouted loudly, and when Jiao Jie came to the living room with a kitchen knife, he asked, "Did Xu Bo come here when we were not at home?"

"Fifth Young Master, after I came back from the countryside yesterday, I opened the door and came in to clean. He came in just as I finished cleaning the living room. He was still in the same state as he is now, rummaging around. I don't think he lost anything, but he is just mentally ill." Sister Jiao replied, and she also guessed that Uncle Xu had not lost anything.

After Xu Bo walked around the living room, he went inside. Everyone followed him in because they were worried. Xu Bo was searching in the courtyard garden and found an envelope with more than 1,000 yuan in cash and a passbook. Er Lao was originally staying behind everyone, but when he saw the envelope, he rushed to the front and snatched it from Xu Bo.

"A Zong, what are you doing? Is the stuff in the envelope yours? Are you greedy for money?" The eldest brother asked doubtfully. The second brother rolled his eyes, took the passbook out of the envelope and spread it out for everyone to see, "It's written with my name, so it's mine. What do you mean by greedy for money? What kind of person am I, Kang Qi Zong?"

"Kang Qi Zong, you are awesome! You actually have the guts to bury so much private money." The second sister-in-law was furious when she saw it. "What? Writing my name doesn't mean it's my private money." The second brother quickly explained.

"Okay, it's not your own money, then confiscate it." The second sister-in-law put the envelope in her trouser pocket, and the second brother wanted to cry but had no tears. When the good show was over and he was about to ask Uncle Xu what he was looking for, he didn't see Uncle Xu anymore. He didn't know where he had gone.

Everyone thought that Uncle Xu had gone home, so they wanted to go out to the living room to continue watching TV and reading newspapers. As a result, when they passed by the old man's room, they heard the old man's scream "Hello? Hello, hello, hello." Everyone hurried in to see what was going on. It turned out that Uncle Xu was lying on the old man's bed covered with a quilt. The old man didn't know who it was and thought he had seen a ghost and was scared.

The boss woke up Uncle Xu and notified his daughter to pick him up. When his daughter came to pick him up, everyone realized that Uncle Xu had Alzheimer's disease and had always believed that he had lost something, so he was wandering around and rummaging through things while shouting about serious matters. The Kang family was originally glad that their parents were healthy.

As a result, after a few days, it was discovered that the old man was acting mysterious all day long, shouting numbers like 8384, 2324, and sometimes he smiled and sometimes frowned. It had just rained heavily and he went to the patio garden to water the flowers. The more he looked, the more he looked like Xu Bo with Alzheimer's disease. The five brothers of the Kang family gathered in the eldest brother's room to hold the first collective meeting of the second generation of the Kang family.

"I've seen Lao Dou talking to himself several times, as if he was saying some numbers." A Zu was the first to say what he saw. "Yes, I've heard it several times. And yesterday Lao Dou called me by the wrong name, calling me A Rui." A Yao said worriedly.

"What's the big deal about calling you by the wrong name? Yesterday, Dou said my wife, your second sister-in-law, was Tianxiu's wife." Er Lao held his forehead and said with a worried look, "Since that day when Uncle Xu came to our house, Dou has become exactly like him. I suspect that Uncle Xu passed on Alzheimer's disease to Dou."

"Don't talk nonsense, second brother. How can Alzheimer's disease be contagious? I don't think that's the case with dad. He keeps muttering numbers. Maybe he forgot the password and can't remember it?" Kang Qirui guided everyone to think towards the correct answer.

"Password? It's not impossible. Dad keeps shouting out numbers, maybe he is trying out the password, but what is the password?" A Yao also agreed with Kang Qirui's idea, but he just couldn't figure out what the password was.

The second brother thought for a moment and said, "If it's a password, then what else could it be? It's either the safe password or the bank passbook password." Kang Qirui said directly, "It should be the bank password. The numbers that Dou kept mumbling were all four-digit numbers, so that's the bank password. Now they all have to be changed to six-digit numbers, so maybe Dou forgot the password for one of the passbooks he changed."

The brothers looked at each other and agreed that this possibility was very high, at least higher than Alzheimer's disease. Then they asked, "What should we do now?"

"What can I do? Just ask Dad." Kang Qirui said as he opened the door and went out. He found Dad in the living room and asked, "Dad, I have something to ask you." Dad lowered his head and thought about something. He replied impatiently, "Ask."

"What are you doing recently? You seem absent-minded." Kang Qirui asked directly. "I'm doing serious things." The old man said perfunctorily.

At this time, Guangzongyaozu also came out, and the five brothers asked in unison: "What's the matter with you? Did you forget the password of your passbook?"

"Huh?" The elder brother was surprised. He looked up at the five brothers and said, "How did you know? Do you know what my password is?"

It turned out to be something as simple as forgetting the password. The brothers all breathed a sigh of relief, and the second brother spoke on behalf of everyone: "We saw you keep mumbling the number combination, so we guessed it. We thought you had Alzheimer's disease, hahahaha."

"You have Alzheimer's disease, you are such a loser." The old man cursed and said, "I want to ask you if you know my password." The old man was desperate and asked for help. How could Kang Qirui and the others know his passbook password? Seeing that everyone shook their heads, the old man waved his hand impatiently to signal them to leave, "Go away, don't bother me here."

Knowing that Lao Dou was fine, everyone was relieved and went about their own business. Kang Qirui returned to his room. He has been busy with three things recently. The first is accompanying his wife during her pregnancy; the second is teaching classes and hosting the project "The Academic Origins of Traditional Chinese Literary Theory", which has now reached an important stage of producing results; the third is to compile his doctoral research into a book "Rhyme Reading of the Book of Songs and Rhyme Reading of Chuci", which is expected to be published in the second half of next year.

It cannot be said that Kang Qirui has no interest in making money, but it is more that he cannot make money. To give a simple example, Penguin, which is still very small, is very short of money. The founding team of Penguin is currently actively introducing funds, and the demand is 200 million US dollars. Not to mention that Kang Qirui does not have it, even if Kang Qirui has the money, if he takes it to Penguin, will it accept it? Obviously, they will not take money from a grassroots person like you.

So just having money is not enough. What is more important is that you have to have resources and status. Only in this way will others take your money, and helping you is also helping them make money, achieving a win-win situation.

Kang Qirui was writing in his room when he heard his father yelling outside, "I thought of it, I thought of it, 3721, , hahahaha." Kang Qirui shook his head and continued to work hard. Just as he started writing, he heard his father screaming, "Who stole my passbook? Come out, come out, all of you."

Kang Qirui came to the living room in confusion. His father had a sullen face and said, "Everyone is here. I lost a passbook. Who of you took it? Bring it back now and I'll pretend nothing happened." Everyone looked at each other. No one took it.

The second sister-in-law and Xianglan raised their hands hesitantly, and the old man asked angrily, "Is it you?"

"No, no, we said that when we were sweeping the floor today, we saw a passbook with Xu Guangli's name written on it, so we returned it to Uncle Xu." The second sister-in-law said in a low voice.

"Oh, that passbook is mine. Uncle Xu's name is Xu Shaofeng." The old man said angrily, clapping his hands.

The second sister-in-law didn't understand, "Then why don't you use your own name? If you use your own name, we won't make a mistake." The second sister-in-law also felt aggrieved. Who would know that the passbook with Xu Guangli's name on it was yours, Kang Ershou.

"At that time, people liked to use pseudonyms to deposit money. Let me tell you, the word Kang is composed of Guang and Li." My father explained. "Then just ask him to take it back. It's not a big deal." Sachiko said indifferently. It's such a simple thing.

"You are so stupid. It's tens of thousands of dollars. If you say it's yours, it's yours. Even if you take it to court and Xu Guangli's name is on the passbook, the judge will think it belongs to Uncle Xu and not your Uncle Kang." But the second sister-in-law felt that the matter was not that simple. There was no evidence to prove that Xu Guangli was the father, and there was nothing you could do if he didn't give it back to you.

"It's mine, how dare he not give it to me?" said the old man. "But that requires people to believe you." The second brother also agreed with the second sister-in-law's opinion. If you, Kang Ershou, go to someone's house and say that Xu Guangli's passbook is yours, who will believe it?
At this time, Xu Bo's daughter came in. The old man immediately stood up and said, "Ah Qiu, you came just in time. I have something to talk to you about."

"Uncle Kang, then I should know why you are looking for me. Just now I saw my father holding a passbook, and I saw that the name was not his, so I asked him how he got it, and he kept saying the Kang family, so I came to find you." Uncle Xu's daughter Sister Qiu said as she handed the passbook to her father. The father had been staring at the passbook in Sister Qiu's hand, and he took it immediately when she handed it to him.

Then Dad explained to Sister Qiu that he had deposited money under a false name, "So that's how it is, then the property will be returned to its original owner, I will go home to take care of Dad." After that, Sister Qiu left the Kang family. It must be said that Sister Qiu is a very good person, not greedy.

(End of this chapter)