"You tell me, the family supported you to study, bought you a job, married you a wife, and even gave you pocket money. How much did it cost? It surely wasn’t less than two thousand yuan altogether. But you? You secretly saved up your wages and didn’t give a penny to the family, yet you cried poor and deceived me into giving you money to spend. Ma Xiangnan, you are heartless."

"You ungrateful brat, you dare accuse your mother of stealing your money. I’m your mother. It’s perfectly right for me to take money from my own home. Who doesn’t turn in what they earn before the family splits up? Before, I spoiled you and let you keep the money, but now the family is out of money, waiting for money to use, so I took it back. What do you have to complain about?"

"With the family yet unsplit, sons and daughters-in-law aren’t allowed to save private money. Your elder brothers did well in this regard, why should you want to save private money? Only you know how to scheme, only you’re clever, huh! Let me tell you, from now on, you and your wife must submit fifty yuan from your paycheck every month. Otherwise, I’ll go to the factory and have a word with your leader. I’d like to ask whether the management would tolerate an unfilial wretch like you who only cares about himself and not about the life-and-death of his family."

"The family supported you to study, get you a job, let you marry a wife, spent so much money on you. Your elder brother earned stipends for over ten years, and almost half of it was spent on you. Now that your elder brother lost a leg, I’m merely asking you to turn in your wages, and yet you grumble. Let me warn you, if you dare not turn in your wages to me, don’t blame me for being harsh."

Ma Laosan was scolded viciously, his stomach hurt terribly from the kicks.

He gritted his teeth, covered his stomach, and slowly climbed up, looking angrily at his mother, "Mother, you... are you trying to end this son’s life? You have two grandsons, without money, how do you expect us to live?"

Ma Laosan felt heartbroken as if bleeding.

He and his wife had saved thriftily for six or seven years, having over three thousand yuan, all taken by his mother just like that.

He still wanted to buy a large courtyard for his wife and kids when they grew up. The tube-shaped building could then be rented to colleagues, bringing in a few yuan a month in rent.

But now...

Ma Laosan wept bitterly, "Mother, this is killing your son. Without money, how does a family of four eat or drink? We would live on northwest wind."

"Mother, the family needs money to spend. I’ll give you three hundred, no, five hundred. You can’t take it all. That money was saved to buy a house. This tube-shaped building is too small for my two sons as they grow older. Mother, you wouldn’t want your two grandsons to always live in a hall, would you?"

Yuan Chun came over, slapped him in the face with a series of loud smacks, cursing, "Ungrateful brat, after a few good days, you’re getting lofty, aren’t you? Look at who in the city isn’t crammed with dozens in three or forty square meters. Your home hosts four people in a one-room apartment, and you complain it’s small. How can you be so greedy? Do you want to live in a villa?"

Slap slap slap...

Another series of smacks.

"Unfilial brute, if I don’t beat you, you really think I’m easy to deceive. You and your wife earn seven or eighty yuan a month, and I’m only asking you to hand over fifty yuan. With thirty yuan left, it’s more than enough for a family of four, yet you say it’s little. You want to wear gold and silver and eat lavish delicacies?"

Yuan Chun’s slapping intensified, throwing him back down.