"Three hundred? You were that lucky?" Yan Aohan teased, noticing Zhu Yanyi’s spirits had returned.
Zhu Yanyi nodded, recalling the past. "That was when I was in third grade. I took our class committee to sell scrap paper. I wanted to browse for things, too. I found a bundle wrapped in newspapers. I wasn’t curious; I just opened it by accident. Inside were thirty ten-yuan bills."
"Then what? Did you hand it in?" Yan Aohan didn’t believe Zhu Yanyi was that obedient.
Zhu Yanyi looked at her. "Am I that noble?" She didn’t feel wrong about keeping the money. "Someone sold it as scrap. No one could trace it. So, it was mine. But I didn’t hide it. I invited the whole class for an activity. We visited lonely elderly people and gave them gifts. We spent all three hundred. Our class fund even lost twenty yuan."
"You really spend money freely. Did your homeroom teacher know where the money came from?" Yan Aohan led Zhu Yanyi to her car.
"I didn’t tell them. They thought my dad gave it to me. I told my dad. she said, ‘You found it, didn’t steal it. It’s fine. Doing good things is what matters.’ So, only you and my dad know." She acted like they were now best friends sharing a secret. "Keep it safe."
Yan Aohan understood. He smiled lightly. "Don’t worry. I’ll hide this secret deep in my heart. No one will know. Unless you tell them yourself."
"I’m not that bored. I won’t say it." Zhu Yanyi waved her hand, promising silence.
Three hundred yuan wasn’t much for Yan Aohan. But for the current economy, monthly wages were only forty or fifty yuan for good jobs. Most people earned around thirty. So, three hundred was a lot.
"You could spend that much? A whole class event cost so much?" Yan Aohan didn’t think Zhu Yanyi was careless.
Zhu Yanyi smiled. "It was three hundred and twenty. It was split into two parts. First, we celebrated a birthday for a child with no parents. Then I thought, why just her? So everyone celebrated. My class had forty-five students. Each got a one-yuan-fifty gift. That cost sixty-seven yuan and fifty cents. Then we gave two-yuan gifts to our teachers, the principal, and the dean. We had eleven teachers, plus the principal and dean. Thirteen people. That cost twenty-six yuan. To make the child special, we added a five-yuan gift for her. That was ninety-eight yuan and fifty cents. Then we visited lonely elderly people. We gave each a ten-yuan gift. We chose twenty-five elders. That cost two hundred and fifty yuan. I thought ‘two hundred and fifty’ sounded bad, so I went over budget."