"Our Cici has grown up."
Tears glimmered faintly in Grandma's eyes. "But I don't want to live in a big house. I just want you to be safe and happy."
-Bang.
As though burst after burst of fireworks had bloomed in his mind, Chu Ci's heart softened beyond measure.
"I want you to be safe and happy too."
Chu Ci still had no intention of accepting the money, but this time, he found a more tactful way to put it. "I'm not capable of managing money yet. Please keep it for me for now."
"All right."
What Chu Ci said did make sense. After all, the original owner had been rather soft-natured. If this money really were handed to him, it might end up in his parents' hands again.
"I'm going downstairs to buy groceries."
"Wait..."
Chu Ci stopped.
Under his puzzled gaze, Grandma took a few more sheets of toilet paper out of the tin box.
Why would she keep toilet paper in a tin box?
While Chu Ci was pondering this, Grandma had already unfolded the toilet paper, revealing red renminbi notes inside.
Was this... money wrapped in toilet paper?
On their way back to the original owner's home earlier, Lele had found time to explain this world's currency to Chu Ci. Before the rise of the internet, people used paper money, and the red banknotes Grandma had wrapped in paper were the largest denomination.
As the internet developed faster and faster, paper money was gradually phased out, and people began paying with their phones. The most common payment methods were WeChat and Alipay.
However, some elderly people still preferred paper money.
Still, Chu Ci could not understand why she would wrap banknotes in toilet paper.
Noticing Chu Ci's confusion, Lele thoughtfully explained.
[In the old days, elderly women didn't have much money, so whenever they received their wages, they would carefully put the money in paper or plastic bags, afraid of losing it.]
"Here."
Chu Ci wanted to refuse again, but Grandma simply pressed the money into his hand. "Buy something you like to eat."
Chu Ci looked at the bright red banknotes in his hand, his long, thick lashes trembling slightly. The words of refusal hovered in his throat, but in the end, he did not say them.
"...Thank you, Grandma."
Chu Ci's voice was strained.
"Oh, you. There's no need to be so polite with your grandma."
Grandma looked at Chu Ci with smiling eyes.
The banknotes in his hand were incredibly light, yet to Chu Ci, they seemed to weigh millions of pounds.
"Tell me."
Only after locking the door did Chu Ci begin communicating with Lele through his mind. "How long did she spend saving this money?"
Grandma had pressed thirty-two banknotes into Chu Ci's hand, amounting to 3,200 yuan. Many of them were crumpled, showing that their owner had spent a long time saving them.
[Probably... two or three years?]
Lele answered tentatively.
It did not really have much of a concept of paper money either, but Grandma had unwrapped five or six sheets of toilet paper to put together those 3,200 yuan. She had little income now, and she had scraped all this money out of her own food budget.
"So foolish."
Chu Ci looked at the money in his hand, his heart aching.
If Grandma knew her own grandson had already passed away, she would probably be devastated, wouldn't she?
Lele's voice also carried a hint of wistfulness.
[So this is familial love that asks for nothing in return.]
Lele was a top-level mecha. He had awakened the greatest degree of self-awareness, and his thoughts were the closest to those of a "human."
It could even sense, in the original owner's grandmother's tone, how much he cherished and cared about the original owner.
"That's why the original owner made taking care of Grandma one of his wishes."
Chu Ci carefully put the money away.
The original owner had only two wishes. The first was to become a good actor, and the second was to take care of Grandma.
That meant his dream and Grandma were equally important.
There was a market near the building.
Chu Ci was still unfamiliar with the area and was about to ask a passerby for directions when his phone rang.
It was the original owner's phone.
Chu Ci glanced at the phone. The caller was saved as "Mom."
"Cici, when can you send us some money? I heard you made it onto that... what was it..."
It was very noisy on the other end, with the occasional clatter of mahjong tiles. The original owner's mother called out "Pung!" as she continued, "...Weibo trending list. I heard you can make loads of money from getting on the Weibo trending list. When can you send me the money? I know it isn't easy for you to earn money away from home. I'm not asking you for much. Just send me thirty thousand."
A breeze lifted the stray hair over Chu Ci's forehead.
Both the original owner's mother and his grandmother called Chu Ci "Cici," yet the feeling behind it was completely different. The former was calculating and self-serving. She only called the original owner "Cici" to get him to keep sending her money. Grandma, however, loved the original owner from the bottom of her heart, her tone full of unconcealed heartache and guilt.
"Hello? Cici, are you listening?"
The noise on the other end grew louder. Someone seemed to have won a hand, and hearty laughter reached Chu Ci's ears.
"...What rotten luck."
The original owner's mother cursed under her breath.
But remembering that she still had a living, breathing money tree, the woman's mood instantly improved again. She earnestly coaxed him, "Cici, I'm really doing this so you can have a better life in the future. After all, you're my one and only darling son. Won't all my money be yours someday? Doesn't that make sense?"
Her money someday?
Chu Ci gave a casual scoff.
How could someone who loved gambling as much as the original owner's mother ever save any money? Even if she really did die in an accident someday, all she would leave the original owner would be a mountain of debt.
Those words could only fool children.
"I don't have any money."
Chu Ci's voice was cold.
"Cici, you can't say that."
Hearing Chu Ci refuse her demand, Cui Xuemei immediately grew anxious. "Do you think it was easy working so hard to raise you? Would you have gotten into the entertainment industry without me? Now that you have money, you've completely forgotten about us. I'm telling you, this is unfilial. If I expose this online, everyone will despise you..."
Chu Ci: "?"
How did she have the nerve to say she had "worked so hard to raise him"? The original owner had only grown up healthy because he had a good grandmother. What did his irresponsible parents have to do with it?
"If thirty thousand is too much... how about twenty thousand?"
When Chu Ci still refused to speak, Cui Xuemei had no choice but to lower her demand. "If you can't even come up with twenty thousand, then ten thousand. That's the lowest, lowest, lowest I'll go. I can't back down any further."