1970s: My childhood sweetheart ran away, and I turned around and married the wildest chief.

Qiao Wanqing opened one of them, and inside were neat stacks of 100 yuan bills, a thick stack that looked to contain several thousand yuan.

Qiao Wanqing was somewhat shocked. "How much is this?"

"Exactly three thousand!"

In addition, there are two bankbooks, one for 2,000 and the other for 3,000.

Then I opened another one, which contained some large denomination bills and small change, totaling about 1,600 yuan, and then various tickets and certificates.

There are many kinds: watch coupons, cloth coupons, grain coupons, oil coupons, shoe coupons, and various industrial coupons, etc. Almost every kind of coupon in life is available.

"I still have some change and some tickets in my dorm room. I'll keep them there so they can be used in case I need them."

Qiao Wanqing: "..."

She was so shocked she couldn't speak. In this era, wages were basically fixed. Lu Mingzhou was only twenty-eight years old. Where did he get so much money?

"Where did you get so much money? Don't you spend it?"

Seeing her dazed expression, Lu Mingzhou found her rather cute and couldn't help but reach out and rub her little head.

"I spent money! And quite a lot of it. Part of the money came from my salary, and part from my parents."

"I joined the army when I was fourteen. It was my first time going on a long trip. My parents were very worried, so they gave me a few hundred yuan to take with me."

"Later, they even sent me money, worried that I wouldn't eat well and wouldn't have enough money. After all, there isn't much pay when you first join the army, and the troops have a lot of training every day. My parents were worried that I wouldn't have enough to eat and wouldn't have the strength to train, so they were especially willing to spend money on me."

"They stopped sending money after I became an officer and my salary increased. Later, when I went home to visit my family, they found that I had been promoted very quickly and sometimes managed to earn a little money. My parents stopped me from spending time earning money. They gave me the money and told me to focus my time on important matters and train hard so as not to lose my life."

They even said that interpersonal relationships cost money, and since I was so talented, I should just work hard and they would give me money if I needed it. This continued until I went to the battlefield.

"Of course, they were even more heartbroken that their precious son went to the battlefield. So when I came back to visit them, they cried their eyes out, stuffing money and food into my hands while they cried. I guess they were afraid that I might accidentally die one day and not have had a few good days to live!"

Qiao Wanqing: "..."

This reason is simply irrefutable.

"Over the years, I estimate that I have received several thousand yuan, not including food and supplies. I also spent several years on the battlefield, and received various missions, subsidies, and bonuses. If it weren't for sending money to the families of some fallen comrades, my savings would be much greater."

Qiao Wanqing: "..."

It took me a long time to react; it's really rare to see a soldier who doesn't need to supplement his family's income.

Are your in-laws very wealthy? They're giving you so much financial support; don't your siblings have any objections?

This is really illogical. Generally speaking, shouldn't children who are away from home for most of the year send money to their parents for retirement?

Those whose hometowns are well-off can send less money back, but there are quite a few whose hometowns are particularly poor who send most of their salary back to help support their families.

Qiao Wanqing knew that Lu Mingzhou's family was well-off, which could be seen from his daily life. However, he must have no brothers or sisters in his hometown who were unemployed. These brothers were probably already married and had children, and there were probably more than one child. These children all cost money to raise. With such a high salary, there was no reason why Lu Mingzhou would not only not send money home but also receive subsidies from his parents!

Lu Mingzhou chuckled upon hearing this and explained to her, "Some people might feel a little unbalanced, but most people don't. It's because I got promoted quickly and have a lot of authority at home. This is what my parents and grandfather gave me. They don't know much about it, they might have guesses, but they don't know exactly how much they gave me."

"In addition, they dare not have too much of an opinion. After all, they themselves rely on their parents for subsidies, otherwise they would not be able to live as well as they do now."

Qiao Wanqing's eyes widened, even more confused. "What do you mean?"

How come there's such a big difference between them and ordinary families?

Does this mean...everyone relies on their parents for financial support?

The two leaned back on the sofa, the TV on, chatting casually. "You'll know the specifics when I take you back to my hometown in a while. Anyway, my grandfather has a pension, my parents used to be in the military, and now my father is the head of the local commune and my mother is the director of the supply and marketing cooperative. Some of my siblings are married with children, while others are still young. Most of them have jobs. They live at home and contribute to household expenses, so our family is naturally well-off."

"Some of the jobs were my parents' idea. They couldn't have gotten them on their own. In those cases, the kids naturally listened. Besides, my dad isn't someone who's easily fooled. If the kids don't listen, he's very strict with them."

Qiao Wanqing blinked. She realized that the Lu family's training model for climbing the social ladder was similar to that of other large families.

In fact, due to differences in their upbringing, ordinary families and large families often have completely opposite patterns in raising the next generation.

In large families, if a child is smart and capable, the family will allocate resources to support him and nurture him with the family's resources so that he can grow up better and bring honor to the family.

Ordinary families, especially impoverished ones, often expect the smarter person to support everyone else. If someone becomes slightly more successful, then there's a high probability that everyone will try to exploit them, which is why it's so difficult for ordinary families to improve their circumstances.

Capable people are few and far between. If one of them finally emerges, but his whole family holds him back, it will be very difficult for him to stand out.

Qiao Wanqing had thought that Lu Mingzhou was born into an ordinary family and that his fate would be like that of many successful children from ordinary families, who would have to support their siblings. She never expected that he would be the one being supported.

Qiao Wanqing happily put away the money and tickets. "I'll keep them! With so many things bought and so much savings, even if we have children and expenses increase in the future, I won't worry about the children going hungry."

"By the way, my parents gave me a dowry of 20,000 yuan, as well as some traditional household items such as quilts and fabrics. The items are in my brother's dormitory, and he should be able to bring them over in a couple of days."

Lu Mingzhou was startled. "How much did they give you?"

"Thirty thousand. My mother said that my grandfather also meant it. Our family was able to get away with this incident thanks to you, so naturally I should give you more of my dowry."

Today at the Xu family's old house, my maternal grandmother and mother gave her the dowry money, a total of 60,000 yuan, 30,000 yuan in cash and 30,000 yuan in several separate bank accounts.

Seeing this, she knew that her grandfather had hidden a lot of wealth outside, and must have taken out the money from outside.