Reborn before the famine, kicking away the scumbag's family and living a carefree life.

15. Questioning

Seeing that her daughter didn't take it seriously, Liu Yulan pounded on the door and shouted, "Ayu, open the door!"

Su Jinru could only helplessly say, "Okay, okay, I'll get up. Stop hitting it. If the door is broken, we'll have to spend money to fix it."

Su Jinru came out after getting dressed.

Qi Zhengyang stood at the door of Su Jinru's house, refusing to come in no matter how Liu Yulan tried to persuade him.

Seeing her mother's ingratiating expression while Qi Zhengyang maintained his usual indifferent demeanor, Su Jinru was somewhat annoyed.

"Qi Zhengyang, it's so late, what do you need?"

Qi Zhengyang gestured for Su Jinru to go to a secluded place to talk.

Su Jinru followed him impatiently to the open space where she was building her house.

"Su Jinru, my parents said you were honest and kind, but you are actually cunning and treacherous."

"I'm cunning? How am I cunning?"

“Over the years, you’ve managed the household affairs, and you must have hidden a lot of money away from us. We’ve all been fooled by you.”

"Qi Zhengyang, with your parents' health like that, if it were any other family, they probably wouldn't have survived a year. They at least had some medicine to keep them alive, which is why they lived for another five or six years. Do you think medical treatment and medicine don't cost money? And what about the food and drink for the whole family? Don't those cost money too?"

Qi Zhengyang: "We don't need that much. We've been married for seven years. My annual income is 360 yuan, which is 2,500 yuan over seven years. After deducting living expenses, you should still have at least 1,000 yuan left! I don't want it all back. Just give me back 500 yuan."

Su Jinru: "Qi Zhengyang, could you be any more shameless? Your salary has always been managed by your mother. She only gives me a little when the family needs to buy something, or when they need me to take them to the doctor or buy them medicine, or when they need me to run errands. In the year since your mother passed away, your relatives have come to collect debts. I promised them that I would pay them back a little each month, slowly. Now, I have just paid them off, so I don't have any money at all."

"Su Jinru, you speak with such certainty. I was fooled by you before. I believe what you say, but don't think I'm blind. If you don't have money, how will you build a house?"

"The money I used to build my house was borrowed. I borrowed 100 yuan from my parents, 100 yuan from the village, and 30 yuan from my second sister's family."

"Su Jinru, we were both reborn and know what we need most in the future. Even if you borrow money, why don't you use it to buy and store food first, but instead build a house? Have you lost your mind?"

“We have nothing to do with each other now, so what I do is none of your business.”

"Of course I don't care if you've lost your mind or not. I just have reason to suspect that you must have some secret stash of money, which is why you spend money so recklessly, not buying life-saving food but building houses instead. This can only mean that you have enough money to buy food, so you still have money left over to build houses. I have a share of your secret stash of money, so I have the right to get my money back."

Su Jinru's plan after her rebirth was to borrow money to buy and store grain. However, on the day of her divorce, she discovered that she had a space where she could farm. So grain was not the most scarce resource for her. With that space, she would not go hungry in the future. What she lacked was a place to live. So she was willing to borrow money to build a house.

What she didn't expect was that because she built a house, Qi Zhengyang mistakenly thought that she had saved a lot of money.

“Qi Zhengyang, whether you believe it or not, I left with almost nothing. Over the years, I can say with my hand on my heart that I have done right by your parents and by you. I have a clear conscience.”

“Su Jinru, you experienced famine in your past life and know how cruel it is. Food is life, and everything else is unimportant. If you’re not out of your mind, you should know that every penny you have now should be used to buy food, not to build a house.”