Chapter 83 - 84 She is powerless
And part of it was their family tree. This tree was said to be planted by Tang Zhinian’s grandfather a hundred years ago. The tree was tall and sturdy, with its trunk split at points that were big enough to serve as a bed, comfortable enough for a person to sleep in.
Tang Yuxin had secretly wrapped up all the important items at home in plastic and asked her uncle to store them in the tree. Apart from clothes, she also saved Chen Zhong’s cherished books. She brought back a few more whenever she had the chance. As for the other books, she kept them in mind. It was impossible to save all of them, only the ones that mattered most could be rescued.
One night, as Tang Yuxin was falling asleep, she vaguely heard the conversation between the two Tang brothers. Rubbing her eyes, she listened closely.
“Brother, why have you withdrawn all the money?”
Tang Zhijun looked at the sum of money and felt afraid. What if the money got lost? This was all their family fortune.
“The bank is moving,” Tang Zhinian replied with a frustrated look, “they’re moving it into the city, which is too far.”
“But that doesn’t mean you should have withdrawn all the money, right?” Tang Zhinian was struggling to follow his elder brother’s thinking. “Just because the bank is moving, does it mean they have to divide the money?”
“Uncle said there’ll be a credit union opening soon around here. They offer higher interest rates. So I withdrew the money to deposit it there when it opens. Besides, I always find it unsettling to hold a small check. What if it got lost?”
Tang Zhinian would feel relieved only if he could see that check daily. There was more than ten thousand on it, and he was scared.
No wonder he was scared. He had grown up without ever seeing that much money. The idea of money turned into a piece of paper was hard to accept. He felt more comfortable with real cash in hand.
Tang Zhinian looked back at his house, wondering how they could safely store this much money there.
After a lot of thinking, the brothers decided to use an old and crude yet practical method. They found a broken pot, wrapped the money in a plastic bag, put it in the pot, and then buried it.
Tang Yuxin was speechless for words.
She had just breathed a sigh of relief, now she had to worry again.
She thought checks were fine. If lost, she might be able to get it replaced, which could be a bit troublesome. But the money deposited in the bank would not be washed away by floods. Even if the bank got bombed, their money would still exist.
But now that the check had turned into cash, it indeed became more substantial, but also more dangerous. If a flood came, they would have nothing. She began thinking about how to move the money up to the tree.
It also had to be well-wrapped. If it got soaked in the impending rain from the flood, it would be ruined as well.
When the two adults of the house were out, she sneaked into the kitchen. She carefully removed the firewood placed beneath the cutting board, being careful not to hurt herself. She stretched her little hand in and took out a pot.
Then she took out the things inside the pot.
Touching the object tightly wrapped in a plastic bag, she knew it was the money.