Hunting 81: Gathering Goods in the Mountains, I Spoil My Ex-Wife to the Extreme

"No, fifty-seven dollars and sixty cents is fifty-seven dollars and sixty cents, not a cent more."

As a result, Feng Cuilan resolutely refused.

She stared at Wang Yuanchao warily and said, "That's my hard-earned retirement money. I'll only spend what I need. Don't even think about secretly taking extra money to buy cigarettes and alcohol."

"Mom, I don't spend money recklessly. If I take a little more, I'll treat Manager Niu to a meal. That way, I can reduce the punishment from the company. If we can avoid paying half a month's salary, we'll actually make a profit."

Wang Yuanchao patiently explained, but in his heart he felt somewhat disappointed by Feng Cuilan's unwillingness to contribute even a penny more.

When his father passed away, he left a sum of money for the family. Although it wasn't much, it was still several hundred yuan. He had seen it; his mother had kept it all.

Later, he took over his father's job at the commune's grocery store. At first, his salary was only 18.5 yuan, but as his seniority increased, his salary gradually rose to the current 38.5 yuan.

Over the years, he has handed over most of his salary to Feng Cuilan, who then manages it in a unified manner.

But after getting married, Feng Cuilan held onto the money even tighter. Whenever the family needed to buy something, Li Yunlan would use the money from her dowry. Later, when the dowry was gone, Li Yunlan would take odd jobs to earn money to support the family.

As soon as he received his monthly salary, the money he handed over to Feng Cuilan was saved by her.

Although he didn't know how much money his mother, Feng Cuilan, had saved, Wang Yuanchao estimated it must have been more than a thousand yuan.

However, when asked to produce fifty-seven yuan and sixty cents, his mother made excuses and refused to give him a single cent more.

"How could you possibly make a profit? If you hadn't caused trouble, you wouldn't even have had to pay for your manager's dinner."

Feng Cuilan countered with a question.

"Mom, just give me sixty yuan."

Wang Yuanchao looked pleading.

"No, not even one more point."

Feng Cuilan's tone was resolute; if it weren't for her back pain, she might have already jumped out of the pit.

"Okay, fifty-seven dollars and sixty cents it is."

Seeing how stingy Feng Cuilan was, Wang Yuanchao was angry, but he was also helpless against her.

"You go out first, I'll get you the money."

Feng Cuilan then asked Wang Yuanchao to go outside, clearly not wanting him to know where she hid her money.

"They're really treating me like a thief."

Wang Yuanchao was inwardly dissatisfied, but in order to get the money, he still went out.

However, Wang Yuanchao also had a trick up his sleeve; when he went out of the house, he deliberately left a crack in the door.

He wanted to see where his mother was hiding the money.

Just after Wang Yuanchao left the house, Feng Cuilan struggled to sit up from the kang (a heated brick bed), then, leaning on a stick, shakily moved towards where she had hidden her money.

However, with each step she took, a painful expression appeared on her still swollen face, clearly indicating that her lumbar disc herniation was very serious.

But at this moment, through the slightly ajar door, Wang Yuanchao's attention was not on Feng Cuilan's pained expression at all.

After a while, Feng Cuilan finally moved to the place where she hid her money, which was a large wooden box in the room, usually used to store clothes and bedding.

However, Feng Cuilan didn't open the box itself, but rather a hidden compartment at the bottom.

As soon as the hidden compartment opened, Feng Cuilan put the stick aside and took out a wad of money.

Wow, that's a lot of money.

Outside, through the crack in the door, Wang Yuanchao's eyes widened as he saw Feng Cuilan take out a wad of money.

Because the wad of money his mother, Feng Cuilan, took out was a thick wad of ten-yuan bills, tied tightly with a hair tie, and it was estimated to be at least seven or eight hundred yuan.

"This is just a whole bill of ten-yuan notes, and it's already this much. If it were all the loose change, wouldn't it be even more? I want to see how much money Mother has saved over the years."

Wang Yuanchao muttered to himself as he thought about it.

Inside the room, Feng Cuilan took out the stack of ten-yuan notes, counted out five, put them aside, tied the money with a hair tie, put it back in the hidden compartment, and then closed the compartment.

Then, leaning on her cane, she laboriously moved to another place and took out the money she had saved and hidden.

The money they took out this time was all in small denominations, including five-yuan notes, two-yuan notes, one-yuan notes, and many small bills, cent notes, and coins.

Feng Cuilan took out a five-yuan note, a two-yuan note, a fifty-cent note, and a one-cent note.

Feng Cuilan had changed where she hid the money. Wang Yuanchao was outside and could only see it clearly through the crack in the door. However, the iron box where Feng Cuilan kept the money was quite large, so he estimated that there must be a lot of money inside.

However, the thought that his mother, Feng Cuilan, had saved up so much money but wouldn't give him even a penny more made Wang Yuanchao feel somewhat uneasy.

His mother, in particular, treated him like a thief.

You know, he's his mother's only son, and she's so wary of him, which makes Wang Yuanchao even more uncomfortable.

"I need to talk to my mother about it when I get my salary next month. From now on, I can manage my own money. Anyway, she has saved up so much money for her retirement."

Wang Yuanchao thought to himself.

After a while, Feng Cuilan hid all the money inside the house, then used her cane to move to the edge of the pit before speaking, "Yuanchao, come in."

Hearing Feng Cuilan's call, Wang Yuanchao pushed open the door and went back inside.

"Here's fifty-seven dollars and sixty cents, take it."

Feng Cuilan handed the neatly folded money to Wang Yuanchao. Looking at the exact amount of money in her hand, Wang Yuanchao felt a pang of resentment and his desire to manage his own salary in the future grew even stronger.

"Thank you, Mother."

However, despite his dissatisfaction with Feng Cuilan, Wang Yuanchao still thanked her when he took the money.

"Um."

Feng Cuilan responded faintly, then lay down on the kang (a heated brick bed) and closed her eyes to rest.

"Mother, there's something else I need to tell you."

After putting the money in his pocket, Wang Yuanchao spoke again.

"What happened? You didn't get into trouble again, did you? Let me tell you, I don't have any money to pay you back. I've worked hard for decades, do you think it's easy for me to save up that little bit of money?"

Upon hearing that Wang Yuanchao wanted to talk to her, Feng Cuilan immediately opened her eyes and stared at him warily.

"Mother, no, no, I didn't cause any trouble."

Wang Yuanchao quickly waved his hand. From childhood to adulthood, he was most afraid of his mother. He had been beaten and scolded by her. On the contrary, his father had hardly ever scolded or beaten him. It was just that his father passed away too early, only in his forties.

"What do you want to tell me? Stop beating around the bush, my lower back hurts terribly, I need to rest."

Feng Cuilan stared wide-eyed as she spoke.

"Well... I've divorced Li Yunlan."

Startled by Feng Cuilan's glare, Wang Yuanchao's heart skipped a beat. He stammered for a moment before finally speaking.

"What? You're divorced? What about our new 36 legs? What about the Li family's money?"

Wang Yuanchao had previously told her that if she could appease Li Yunlan and prevent her from divorcing him, they could then have Li Yunlan come forward and have the Li family pay for a new set of thirty-six legs for the house.

After that, every now and then, Li Yunlan would be asked to ask her family for money.

Once the new thirty-six legs are in place, and the Li family's money has reached the Wang family, they'll kick Li Yunlan aside again...

Although the Li family treated them poorly, even coldly, when they went to the hospital today to ease tensions, neither Feng Cuilan nor Wang Yuanchao considered the possibility that Li Yunlan would divorce them.

Inside the room, after a moment of silence, Feng Cuilan couldn't help but yell, "Wang Yuanchao, what are you good for? You can't even win over a woman, and you even got divorced! I raised you all these years, and you've been wasting your time!"

Wang Yuanchao was so frightened by Feng Cuilan's sudden outburst of scolding that he trembled all over.

"Mother, I..."

Wang Yuanchao tried to explain that Li Yunlan's family had come to the grocery store to pressure him to divorce her, and that they would cause trouble in the store if he didn't.

If he dares to have a conflict with Li Yunlan's family in the shop, the consequences will be unimaginable.

They might even lose their jobs.

"What do you mean, 'what about me'? I raised you with all my might, and you can't even keep a woman by your side? What good are you?"

"..."

Although Wang Yuanchao wanted to explain, as soon as he opened his mouth, Feng Cuilan's voice was half again as loud as his, and her sharp and sarcastic curses echoed incessantly in the room, even reaching those nearby.

"Who is that old hag Feng Cuilan cursing now? Why is she shouting so loudly?"

"Who else could they be cursing? Wang Yuanchao, of course. Didn't you hear me? Wang Yuanchao and Li Yunlan got divorced. I bet Feng Cuilan found out and gave Wang Yuanchao a good scolding."

"However, there's a hint of conspiracy in Feng Cuilan's curses. What does 'new thirty-six legs' and 'Li Yunlan's family's money' mean?"

"Didn't Li Yunlan's family burn the thirty-six legs that Li Yunlan brought with her as part of her dowry? They would rather not take them back themselves than let the Wang family get them. Think about it carefully. When Wang Yuanchao and Li Yunlan divorced, Feng Cuilan was furious and threw a tantrum. She definitely didn't want Wang Yuanchao and Li Yunlan to divorce, at least not for the time being."

Considering the so-called "new thirty-six legs" and the money from Li Yunlan's family, I reckon the Wang family wants to keep Li Yunlan in check first, then use her to get a new set of "thirty-six legs" and their money from her family, before finally kicking her aside.

"So, Feng Cuilan is now furious and cursing so fiercely because the plan has failed?"

"Of course, otherwise why would they have yelled at Wang Yuanchao so loudly?"

"Hiss, that old hag Feng Cuilan is quite vicious, having such thoughts. Li Yunlan is really lucky to have divorced Wang Yuanchao, otherwise she would still be schemed against by Feng Cuilan and Wang Yuanchao."

"That's right. I thought Feng Cuilan was just a bit sharp-tongued, but I didn't expect her to be so vicious in her thinking. Why didn't we kill her back when we were eliminating the Four Pests?"