Transmigrated into a child bride, she punishes scumbags, raises children, and marries a soldier.

Xiao Beichen's eyes darted around: "I'm the eldest son, and I haven't been by their side all these years, so it's only right that I contribute more money... But don't worry, your salary will definitely not be less."

"Hmph, if you dare to withhold my wages, I'll go ask your division commander for them,"

She herself wasn't worried. She had signed the agreement, and Old Man Yang was there as a middleman. She just felt sorry for the two children. They were so unlucky. Not only did their mother die young, but they also had a father who was blindly filial to his parents!

Sure enough, men of that era, once they had money, loved to cause trouble. They'd only had a few days of peace before they were already thinking about robbing Peter to pay Paul.

"You're so filial, sending all your savings back to the countryside. Let's not even talk about how much your parents will actually use. What about the future? You still have children to raise..."

"Fine, I won't ask you how much money you send to your parents in the countryside every time. How about this, from now on, when you get your monthly salary, you can give us our money first, and then you can give the rest to whoever you want. What do you think?"

Xiao Ran leaned closer to Zhou Chuan. He felt safe and secure only when he was next to his aunt.

Xiao Beichen thought about it and agreed. In any case, her salary and the daily expenses of the two children were still unavoidable. Since setting a rule would put their minds at ease, then so be it.

"Okay, your salary plus food allowance will be about forty yuan a month. I'll send it to you when I get my salary next month."

"Forty? Forty isn't enough!" Her salary alone is twenty-five, and the three of them only have fifteen for food each month? How can that be enough? It's simply not enough.

“You’re such a roughneck, you can’t do math. Let me do the math for you. Xiao Ran eats more than the average child, so I’ll give you a higher estimate. Let’s start with the staple food. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just half coarse grains and half refined grains. It’ll cost more than fifteen yuan a month. Let’s say fifteen yuan. And then there’s the little girl. We didn’t manage to buy any milk powder this morning, so you’ll have to pay for that from now on. Let’s say five yuan a month.”

"And the vegetables for the family. I only just finished tidying up the vegetable garden these past two days, so we'll have to wait a while if we want to eat vegetables. You have to pay for the vegetables. Vegetables are cheap, so I'll just charge you three yuan a month."

"And this chicken and meat, as I just told you, your son needs to get proper nutrition, otherwise he might end up as a shorty. As his father, you can't ignore this. Even if each chicken costs 1.5 yuan, if he eats five a month, that's 8 yuan."

"And then there's meat. Eating it every day isn't realistic. Five times a month isn't too much. Let's say 70 cents a pound of meat, that's four dollars a month. Then there's oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and stuff like that, let's say two dollars a month. How much is that?" Zhou Chuan counted on his fingers.

“Thirty-seven, let’s say forty, and keep the remaining three dollars for the children’s stationery and books. You have to give us a total of sixty-five dollars. Remember, you have to give us sixty-five dollars every month when you get your salary.”

Xiao Beichen was dumbfounded: "No, you...you're asking for way too much? I've already bought all those things you mentioned, like rice, noodles, and meat, haven't I? Why are you asking me for money again?"

If you give him that much, how much money will he have left?

"You can send a large sum of money to your parents who you haven't been able to take care of for over ten years as compensation, but you can't consider what you bought today as compensation for your children?"

This woman surnamed Xiao might be blindly filial. In the future, she'll have to help her two children squeeze as much as possible out of their father. How could she possibly use the money she's already bought to offset the debt?

"If we're talking about pitiful people, who can be more pitiful than Xiao Ran? Your parents and your brothers can take care of you, but what does your son have? If your grandparents were powerful, things might be a little better, but if your parents were honest people, who knows how Xiao Ran would have to read their faces?"

Xiao Ran had only been here from the countryside for less than half a year, and his memories of rural life were still fresh. Now, hearing Zhou Chuan talk about it stirred up his memories, and tears instantly welled up in his eyes.

Zhou Chuan, holding a little girl in her arms, could only free one hand to pat her little shoulder: "Did Auntie touch on something that upset you? I'm sorry, Auntie didn't mean to. Okay, don't cry..."

After offering a few words of comfort, Zhou Chuan turned his gaze to Commander Xiao: "Look how sad the child is crying. He must have been bullied a lot back home. Let me tell you, no one will stop you from being filial to your parents, but these two children are yours to raise, so you have to take care of them."

"I underestimated things earlier. I only calculated living expenses. Xiao Ran will need to go to school, and you'll have to cover that separately. Also, the child isn't young anymore; in a couple of years, he'll be getting married and starting a family, so you'll need to prepare the dowry and other expenses..."

Xiao Beichen watched as her son leaned against her, helplessly wiping away tears, and heard the rapidly increasing numbers she was talking about. His head was about to explode: "I... my monthly salary plus subsidies is only a little over a hundred... I can't possibly give it all to you?"

What bad luck he had today! He should have agreed to the price of 65 yuan earlier.

Zhou Chuan wiped away Xiao Ran's tears again: "A little over a hundred? How much is a little over a hundred? One hundred and ninety-five is also a little over a hundred. Just be straightforward and give me a real number!"

Xiao Beichen felt something was strange. He had always been in charge of his own salary, so how could his money suddenly become his own after only half a meal?

Seeing his hesitant and stingy manner, Zhou Chuan became very impatient: "You're a grown man, why are you always so indecisive? Can't you just be more decisive!"

Xiao Beichen looked at his sobbing son and then at his daughter wriggling in his arms for some porridge, and relented: "One hundred and five? Our country has only been established for a few years, how can we afford a salary of one hundred and ninety-five?"

Zhou Chuan thought about it and realized that was indeed the case, but she asked again, "So, for people like you who are frequently on missions, sometimes for ten days or half a month at a time, doesn't the military give you any rewards or anything?"

Subsidies are provided to everyone who goes, no problem. But bonuses are uncertain. Given Commander Xiao's temper, he must have some powerful connections. Otherwise, why would such a large army tolerate someone who is incompetent? That's why Zhou Chuan asked this question.

Xiao Beichen was stunned. He hadn't expected that the other person would even know this. Then, as if possessed, he lied: "You, who told you that? Li Dazui? You must have misheard. Really, there's no such thing. The country pays us salaries. Isn't it our duty to go on missions? How could we have the nerve to ask for bonuses? No, no, absolutely not. You've got it wrong. There's absolutely nothing like that!"

He didn't know why he lied, but he had a strong intuition that if he told anyone, all his money would be taken from him. To be on the safe side, he decided not to tell anyone.

After hearing what he said, Zhou Chuan was also a little unsure. After all, what he said made sense. It was the early days after liberation, and the country was still very poor. They might not really have any extra money to give as a reward.

"Let's leave it at that for the first year. We'll talk about it again next year when you get a raise."

Xiao Beichen secretly breathed a sigh of relief: "Don't worry, Xiao Ran is my... my own son. How could I abandon my own son?"

Zhou Chuan smiled at Xiao Ran, and then continued his father's words: "Since you say so, then you should give the child five yuan of pocket money every month. The child is growing up and can't do without some money."

Xiao Beichen silently counted in his mind. Subtracting the sixty-five from before, and now they were asking him for another five yuan, the two together amounted to seventy. After deducting the money sent back home, damn it, he had nothing left.

He caught a glimpse of his son's expectant eyes and couldn't bring himself to refuse, so he reluctantly agreed: "Here you go, but don't spend it recklessly. Your dad... your dad... never mind, you just shouldn't spend it recklessly."

After Commander Xiao finished speaking, he got up to leave. He dared not sit any longer, fearing that if he sat any longer, he would be ransacked and might even lose his underwear.

It's really too weird. He only came back for dinner, and before he was even full, he suddenly pulled out such a huge amount of money. The worst part is that he doesn't even have anyone to complain to. He can't even tell Old Ma. If Old Ma finds out, he'll probably laugh at him to death!

"You're leaving already? You haven't eaten much..." Zhou Chuan saw Commander Xiao get up and walk out without saying goodbye, so he tried to persuade him to stay, but the other man didn't seem to appreciate it. He took a few big strides to the door and then left without looking back.

Zhou Chuan suppressed a laugh: "Your dad has really suffered a huge loss this time..." He probably won't dare to go home unless necessary from now on.

Xiao Ran was in a particularly good mood when she learned that she would have five yuan of pocket money from now on: "Auntie, I have money to buy meat to eat."

Zhou Chuan picked up a piece of meat for him: "Eat it while it's hot, your dad isn't lucky enough to have it, you should eat more." Then he started feeding the little girl porridge, chatting with her as he did so, "Auntie's asking you, are your grandparents in the countryside good to you?"

This question stumped Xiao Ran. He thought for a long time but still didn't know how to answer: "I don't know."

Zhou Chuan asked, puzzled, "How could I not know? Good is good, and bad is bad. Isn't it easy to tell the difference?"

Xiao Ran thought for a moment: "Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not."

"So when are they good to you, and when are they not?"

"When I was hungry, my grandparents would secretly give me food, but when my aunt scolded me, they wouldn't care. And when my cousin Xizi bullied me, they wouldn't do anything either; they even told me to just bear with it..."

Zhou Chuan ruffled Xiao Ran's hair: "Your grandparents are getting old, they're counting on your uncle and aunt to take care of them..."

As people get older, they have concerns. They didn't know if their eldest son was alive or dead, so they didn't dare to wholeheartedly side with Xiao Ran. They were afraid of offending their other sons, and that when they became unable to move, there would be no one to take care of them.

They're completely overthinking it. The other sons treat even their own brother's only child harshly, so how can you expect them to be filial? They're dreaming!

However, it was none of her business to comment on these things. She just felt sorry for Xiao Ran. "It's all in the past. Now you're with your father. Your father, sigh, I don't even know what to say. I bet he sent a lot of money to your grandparents. The key is that the money he sent might not have actually been spent on the two old people."

Hearing what Xiao Ran had just said, Zhou Chuan was furious. What kind of lousy uncles and aunts were they? They were treating the child like a child laborer and not even feeding him properly. They were worse than animals!

Seeing Xiao Ran's bewildered expression, Zhou Chuan felt a pang of heartache. She gently rubbed his cheek and softly comforted him, "It's alright. Auntie just helped you get a lot of money. We'll take it out of your dad little by little from now on. Rather than letting those people in your village who treat you badly benefit from you, we might as well get the money from your dad. Just watch, Auntie has plenty of ways to deal with your dad!"