Mai Aotuo sat alone beneath a tree, silently finishing three Golden Fruits before softly asking Fan Ruisi, "Ruisi, how much money do you have? Could you lend me some?"
Fan Ruisi said in surprise, "...Aotuo, what do you need it for? You're short on money?!"
Mai Aotuo said, "I have money. I'm just worried it won't be enough..."
Fan Ruisi became even more wary. "Tell me what you need it for first."
Mai Aotuo said, "...Captain Xia's family is poor. I want to help her move her family to Beichen Star and settle there."
"That's the capital planet of the Beichen Empire. In every way, it's better than that backward, remote Guiyuan Star."
Fan Ruisi fell silent. After a while, she said, "I've saved six hundred thousand Nanxing Coins. That would be about 1.2 million Beichen Coins, which isn't even enough for the down payment on a small house in the outskirts of Beichen Star Imperial City."
Neither her family nor Mai Aotuo's family lacked money, but that was family money.
As for them, they could only collect their monthly allowances.
Mai Aotuo said, "I have one million Nanxing Coins. That's two million Beichen Coins."
"Put together, that should be enough for a down payment, right?"
Fan Ruisi shook her head. "What use is just the down payment? Do you think Captain Xia's family can afford the mortgage installments?"
Mai Aotuo let out a long breath and said, "How about we hold back some of the rare plants we collected today...?"
He shot Fan Ruisi a meaningful look.
Fan Ruisi had grown up with him and understood what he meant.
After thinking it over, she said, "That wouldn't be right. Captain Xia said beforehand that we would split the collected supplies equally."
"How about you ask Captain Xia?"
Mai Aotuo