Anning had to spend a lot of effort explaining to the Lin family that the money for shopping was from her scholarship.
Because she ranked first in the county, both the town and the county awarded her money.
Lin Jiugen was overjoyed upon hearing that Anning ranked first in the county, even performing better than the students from the county's No.1 Middle School, his joy beyond words.
"Great, our Ningning is really smart, to be able to rank first in the county, truly making our old Lin family proud."
Wu Pan'ni also had a face full of joy, proudly touching the scarf around her neck: "Good, our Ningning can even earn money to buy things for Grandma now."
Lin Aiguo was planning to pray to the ancestors during the Lunar New Year's Eve tomb visit, asking them to bless Anning with good results in next year's college entrance exam.
It wasn't just a thought; he also discussed with Lin Jiugen how to make offerings to the ancestors during New Year's Eve.
Wang Cuixhua urged Anning: "Ningning, hurry and bring out your exam paper for mom to see. Right, copy down the scores; during New Year's Eve, we'll burn them for the ancestors to share the joy too."
"That's right."
Putting aside his tobacco pipe, Lin Jiugen coughed and said, "It's about ti we properly talked to our ancestors. Our old Lin family's ancestral graves puffing blue smoke, now producing a cultured person."
Just as Lin Anping arrived, Lin Jiugen began to prod him: "I don't expect you to match your sister by ranking first, but you should still strive hard, aiming to get into a university."
Lin Anping's face imdiately soured.
How tough it is to get into university, with only a few from First Middle School managing each year, and for soone with dium academic performance like him, it seed trendously difficult.
Anning, not caring about Lin Anping's frowning face, smiled and patted him: "Grandpa, Anping is studying hard now, he will surely make it."
Lin Anping almost wanted to kneel to Anning.
Don't sabotage like this, always saying this. If he doesn't make it, won't he end up being skinned by Grandpa?
The Lin family had a joyful year because of Anning ranking first.
Utilizing the ti before the Lunar New Year, Anning got up early and slept late every day, knitting three red scarves in just a few days.
Anning was clever and skilled, making particularly beautiful scarves, which she gave to Wang Cuixhua, her grandaunt, and her little aunt. These three female elders all seed especially happy and proud.
Especially the grandaunt, who was particularly fond of Anning.
An Jie was only a year younger than Anning, and when Anning was born, An Jie could barely walk, which was the most tiring ti. Additionally, with Wang Cuixhua's health not being good then, she couldn't take care of Anning. Hence, Anning was taken care of by her grandaunt since birth.
Back then, Anning spent her days and nights with her grandaunt, who took care of all her needs until she could walk and went back ho to be with Wang Cuixhua.
Because of this year-long care, Anning and her grandaunt were particularly close.
Having no daughters, the grandaunt completely treated Anning as her own.
She wore the scarf knitted by Anning and wandered around the village, proudly showing off her scarf. When people praised its beauty, she smiled and said it was bought by Anning, adding how understanding and filial Anning was. She spent the scholarship money she earned from ranking first in the county to buy gifts for the elders, not spending a penny on herself, which she felt unbearably sweet.
The grandaunt's constant praises made countless villagers envious.
Especially Lin Anjie, upon hearing these words, felt both sour and resentful in her heart.
She knew it, Anning this hateful girl, always knew how to win people's hearts, using trifles to please the elders, making everyone like her, everyone biased towards her.
It happened that, while Lin Anjie was feeling indignant, Liu Erni was also outside praising Anning, even more enthusiastically than she praised her own children, fueling Lin Anjie's anger even more, with nowhere to vent it.
Liu Erni's praise of Anning was actually with a little sche in mind.
She just thought that An Jie was her own eldest daughter-in-law. Even if she praised Anning a bit, it was to make her daughter-in-law happy.
Moreover, with Anning's brilliant intelligence, scoring first place in the county this ti, she would definitely get into a prestigious university next year. She would then have a bright future out of the agricultural life. Having relations with the Lin family, if handled well, perhaps she could benefit from it in the future too.
It was precisely because of this mindset that Liu Erni keenly sought to strengthen ties with the Lin family.
However, she didn't know about the discord between An Jie and Anning, and she even less expected that An Jie would feel pained to hear her praise Anning.
As the New Year was fast approaching, it was a ti of joy for the Lin family, but the Su family was sowhat sorrowful.
This year had been tough for the Su family. Previously, to marry off the three Su brothers including Zhiqiang, they had drained all their savings and incurred famine debts, which must be partially repaid by the end of the year.
Su Shuanzi was robbing Peter to pay Paul, ending up with not even enough money to prepare for the New Year festivities.
The three daughters-in-law had no money for new clothes, the pigs raised at ho had been slaughtered for previous weddings, leaving none for this year, and without money or at, they still couldn't just have a vegetarian New Year. Shuanzi was so worried that he couldn't sleep at night.
As the eldest son, Zhiqiang also understood that this year would be tough.
He wanted to do sothing for the family, but he didn't have the skills to earn a large sum of money, so he thought of focusing on An Jie.
One evening, Zhiqiang washed his feet and lay on the bed, watching An Jie apply Nivea cream on her face, he gently discussed with her: "An Jie, I want to talk about sothing."
An Jie didn't turn her head: "Go ahead."
Zhiqiang chuckled, "You know our family is struggling this year, Dad doesn't even have money to buy at. I was thinking, since you have considerable dowry, why don't we use so of it to tide us over this New Year? Next year I will go out to work, and I will definitely make up for your money."
Zhiqiang thought this was a feasible solution. He was just borrowing money from An Jie and planned to fill this financial gap next year. He didn't regard it as taking advantage of An Jie's dowry.
But An Jie didn't think this way.
She thought Zhiqiang was truly despicable.
During the ti of being married to Zhiqiang, An Jie felt increasingly that Zhiqiang was incompetent.
The other brothers, Su Zhijian and Su Zhikang, knew how to protect their wives, always finding ways to let their wives skive off tasks, but Zhiqiang insisted on her being more diligent, doing more chores at ho.
Whenever she had any disputes with Li i and Wang Min, not only did Zhiqiang not help her, he even criticized her for being narrow-minded, saying she, as the eldest sister-in-law, should give in to her sisters-in-law.
She put up with this considering the amount of money Zhiqiang would earn in the future.
But she never expected Zhiqiang to stoop so low as to ask her to use her dowry to subsidize the family expenses.
Why should she?
All three daughters-in-law of the Su family had dowries.
The dowries the Su family gave to Li i and Wang Min were not less than hers, so why should she be the one to use her dowry for family expenses and fund those two?
Afford at? Ridiculous, if there's no money to buy at, then don't eat it. If they wanted to eat, everyone should contribute money. She wouldn't be the sucker paying for those ungrateful people.
An Jie curled her lip, continuing to apply Nivea cream nonchalantly: "Unfortunately, a few days ago when I went back ho, my mom said they would need money when Anning goes to college next year, so she had take my dowry back ho. Now the money is probably in Anning's hands, why don't you borrow from Ning?"
An Jie was eager to see if Zhiqiang had the face to borrow money from Anning.
At this mont, she was utterly disgusted looking at Zhiqiang, really not wanting to see his face.
Originally, what An Jie liked was soone tall, thin, fair-skinned, and with a gentle temper, just like Xue Feng.
But it just happened that Zhiqiang was burly, dark, and rugged, unkempt, and she found him hard on the eyes.
An Jie felt every mont with Zhiqiang was an endurance, feeling extrely uncomfortable altogether.
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