The Xu family had once possessed enormous wealth.
Back then, when private businesses were liquidated and converted into joint ownership, those who volunteered to buy shares received fixed interest from the state at a rate of five li per year. However, ownership of the property was permanently transferred to the state-owned sector. The policy was clear: factories, storefronts, and equipment would not be returned.
A long and extraordinary period followed. Xu Yueyun had never even thought about those fixed-interest payments. She simply treated them as if they did not exist, so as not to bring trouble upon the family.
It was not until 1979 that all the accumulated interest was paid out.
As for the family’s former private property, private homes, and shops, anything that could be vacated was returned. For anything that could not be vacated, replacement housing and rental compensation were provided.
This included the Xu family’s overseas assets. After those assets were recovered, half their value was returned to the original owners in cash, while the other half was turned over to the state treasury.
The Xu family had once been part of the underground Communist Party, funneling large sums of money to the Party and using their status as industrialists and merchants to provide cover for the revolution. They had donated substantial funds to support the organization.
For families that had made contributions to the revolution, their records were officially recognized, and they were designated revolutionary comrades. The United Front Work Department also gave priority to their applications and simplified the procedures.
The bank deposits, foreign currency, and government bonds were another matter entirely. Xu Yueyun recovered a great deal of gold, silver dollars, and gold and silver jewelry. Any surviving original paintings, calligraphy, and antiques were returned directly. Anything damaged or lost was compensated according to its appraised value.
After discussing it with Su Bingcheng, Xu Yueyun donated the paintings, calligraphy, and antiques to museums.
But there was still a great deal of gold and silver jewelry, and she intended to keep that for the children.
Xu Yueyun called the two girls upstairs to the study. Opening the safe, she said, “Come over here. There are some pieces of jewelry inside. Pick a few that you like. Grandma is giving them to you.”
The safe was divided into several compartments, each lined with velvet. Every kind of jewelry was piled inside, filling it to the brim.
There was gold jewelry, jadeite, and gemstones.
Another compartment was filled with jade artifacts. Because they had not been worn for so long, some of them had become dry and dull.
Several gold bars lay in the bottom compartment, along with round silver dollars carefully wrapped in oil paper.
Linlin and Shen Man were startled and quickly tried to refuse.
Xu Yueyun took both their hands and slipped a pair of white jade bangles onto their wrists. “There’s an old saying that jade nourishes people, but in truth, people nourish jade too. I’m getting old and can’t wear these anymore. You girls will look beautiful in them, and seeing you wear them will make Grandma happy.”
Linlin rubbed her forehead against Xu Yueyun’s shoulder. “Grandma, do Big Sister Peipei and Big Sister Yaoyao have some too?”
Seeing through her little granddaughter’s thoughts, Xu Yueyun laughed. “Of course they do. Grandma doesn’t play favorites. I’ve prepared something for your mother and your second aunt as well. Everyone will have a chance to wear some.”
Xu Yueyun took Shen Man’s hand again. “You’re Chengzhou’s girlfriend, which means you’re family. Whatever the girls in our family have, you have too. And when Li Li grows up, I’ve even prepared something for her future wife.”
She sighed. “Your eldest uncle has two sons. When they get married, I’ll give them some money too. It’s just a token of affection from an elder.
“Linlin, your parents aren’t in the capital. You and Yan Yuan have both made something of yourselves. Even if your eldest uncle and aunt come looking for you in the future, you don’t need to get involved. This isn’t something you children should have to deal with.”
But Xu Yueyun knew her eldest son and daughter-in-law too well.
Now that the policies had loosened and they were growing old, Su Ding and Fan Biyun might return to the capital one day.
Deng Jing was too refined and gentle to deal with them, but Su Jue was stubborn as a mule. The eldest son’s family had bullied Deng Jing and her child in the past and had even angered her into falling ill. Su Jue still held a grudge and would never forgive them.
Xu Yueyun was not worried about Lin Zhilan and Su Lang. The eldest son’s family could not get the better of them.
She was only worried that, now that the younger generation had grown up, the children might be too sensible and give the older generation too much consideration. If that happened, there would be no end to their demands.
Xu Yueyun still disliked her eldest son and daughter-in-law, but people tended to grow softhearted with age.
When Su Ming was admitted to a junior college, Su Ding called home to share the good news.
Xu Yueyun did not say much, but she was happy for Su Ming in her heart.
Then, after learning more about the situation, she gave her eldest son and daughter-in-law another thorough scolding.
After being transferred to the northern frontier, Su Ding and Fan Biyun no longer had Xu Yueyun and Su Bingcheng to support them. They were also accustomed to their former extravagant lifestyle.
Only after they had spent all their savings did they call home and beg for help.
Xu Yueyun naturally refused to give them any money. Both of them had jobs; there was no way they would starve themselves and their children.
What Xu Yueyun had never expected was that those two fools, Su Ding and Fan Biyun, would show such blatant favoritism toward their two sons.
Su Ming and Su Lei had never been close. They often fought over things.
Su Lei was favored because he was young and had a way with words.
It had not been so bad when the family still had plenty. At most, Su Ming received a little less.
Later, when the family was no longer as well-off but Su Ding and Fan Biyun still could not change their habit of eating and drinking lavishly, anything good they had went to Su Lei alone.
Su Ming felt it was unfair, but what could a child do against his own parents?
What he truly could not tolerate happened when he had just turned sixteen. By then, the period of sending educated youth to the countryside was nearing its end.
Su Ming had found a way out for himself. He became an apprentice and took a temporary job. Anyone who had work did not have to go to the countryside.
But in order to buy Su Lei a bicycle, Fan Biyun somehow arranged for someone else to take over Su Ming’s temporary job. With no other choice, Su Ming had to go to the countryside.
Later, Su Ming came to his own conclusions. After the college entrance examinations were reinstated, he took the exams two years in a row and finally managed to get into a junior college.
Su Ding and Fan Biyun thought their son had finally made something of himself and that the old folks would be delighted, so they hurried to call and share the good news.
They did not realize that their promising son had long since grown estranged from them.
After speaking with Su Ming on the phone, Xu Yueyun learned what had happened over the years.
Xu Yueyun knew that Su Ming might have used a little emotional manipulation on her, but he had managed to get into college through his own efforts, so she still offered him a few words of gentle encouragement.
She did not offer him anything else. She could hear the probing in Su Ming’s tone, as well as his disappointment, but she did not give in.
Privately, however, she still set aside a sum of money for him.
As for Su Lei, his personality was exactly like that of his parents, and Xu Yueyun could not be bothered to concern herself with him.
She had already instructed Su Jue and Deng Jing to keep Su Lei’s share of the money with them. If Su Lei ever truly found himself in desperate circumstances, they could use it to help him.
Of her three sons, only the eldest was impossible to deal with.
Xu Yueyun had long since thought things through. In terms of the resources the family had invested in the three boys, Su Ding had actually received the most, precisely because he had failed to make anything of himself.
Su Jue and Su Lang had both gotten into university through their own efforts, and their jobs had been assigned to them by the state.
Su Ding was jealous of his two younger brothers and insisted that their parents had favored them. In her younger years, Xu Yueyun had still wanted to prove him wrong. Now, she had long since stopped caring.
At present, the families of her second and youngest sons were both doing very well, while the eldest son’s family remained exactly as they had always been.
After everything that had happened, Xu Yueyun did not want Su Jue and Su Lang to help their elder brother, nor did she want the children to be affected by the grudges of the previous generation.
The early death of her daughter had always been the greatest pain in Xu Yueyun’s heart.
She loved Jiang Chengzhou most of all. Now that Jiang Chengzhou had found a partner, she extended that affection to Shen Man as well.
