Afterward, He Jin glanced at Third Aunt, who was still bent over her sewing, completely unaware of anything unusual, then turned and left the Yan residence.
Reaching the central courtyard, he did not hesitate and headed straight into the Jia household.
He looked at Xiao Dang and Xiao Huaihua sitting on the floor playing quietly. A trace of complicated emotion flickered in his eyes. Then his gaze shifted to Jia Zhangshi, sprawled on the bed, snoring with her plump frame rising and falling.
Disgust and exasperation welled up in him. Jia Zhangshi was truly lazy—early in the morning, and instead of caring for the children, she was fast asleep.
But recalling both the original drama and his observations over the past month regarding how Jia Zhangshi treated her two granddaughters, he quickly understood. It was hardly surprising.
Not wanting to look any longer at the rather unpleasant sight, He Jin immediately began scanning the Jia home.
It didn't take long to locate two hidden stashes—one inside a relatively new pillow in the wardrobe, and another sewn into an old garment.
Inside the pillow were a gold ring, a gold bracelet, and over 1,200 yuan. Clearly, this was Jia Zhangshi's retirement fund.
Inside the old clothing, however, there was nearly 2,000 yuan in cash. Even He Jin couldn't help but feel surprised.
He recognized the garment from memory—it had belonged to Qin Huairu, and the original Sha Zhu had seen her wear it many times.
To be honest, He Jin had guessed that Qin Huairu must have had savings. Over the years, she had coaxed hundreds of yuan from the original owner alone. But he truly hadn't expected her to have secretly accumulated more than 2,000 yuan. That exceeded his expectations.
After a moment's thought, however, it made sense. Aside from what she had obtained from Sha Zhu, the rest likely came gradually from Yi Zhonghai, Xu Damao, and various men at the factory who had designs on her.
Qin Huairu's skills were indeed formidable. Had she been born decades later, she would probably have thrived—very likely securing wealth through men for a lifetime. Unfortunately for her, she had been born in the wrong era.
After a brief sigh, He Jin did not hesitate to transfer all of Jia Zhangshi's retirement savings into his secret realm.
Yet when he turned his attention to Qin Huairu's hidden 2,000 yuan and was about to take it all, his eyes once again drifted toward Xiao Dang and Xiao Huaihua.
Though in the original drama both girls grew up to be ungrateful, He Jin knew it wasn't truly their fault. They had been shaped by Jia Zhangshi and Qin Huairu. In truth, the two girls were the most unfortunate members of the Jia family.
Given their low status at home, if he took every last cent from Jia Zhangshi and Qin Huairu, Qin Huairu might still manage to secure food for the family through her own means.
But He Jin couldn't be sure that Jia Zhangshi, stripped of her retirement savings, wouldn't turn increasingly bitter—demanding money from Qin Huairu while venting her anger on the two granddaughters.
If Jia Zhangshi grew even harsher toward them, and Qin Huairu, preoccupied with scraping together money, lacked the energy to watch over her daughters, something might happen to the girls.
Watching Xiao Dang and Xiao Huaihua playing quietly, their innocent laughter ringing out, He Jin felt a stir of compassion.
After a moment of hesitation, he chose not to take all of Qin Huairu's savings. Instead, he took 1,500 yuan, leaving her with a little over 600.
He reasoned that with several hundred yuan remaining, Qin Huairu wouldn't be consumed entirely by the need to chase money and would still have the capacity to care for her daughters.
As long as Xiao Dang and Xiao Huaihua could grow up safely as they had in the original story, he would not feel guilty.
Leaving the Jia household, He Jin suppressed his complicated emotions and stepped into the Yi residence across the courtyard.
Seeing First Aunt bustling about cleaning, his feelings once again grew complex. In many fanfiction stories he had read, Yi Zhonghai was branded a hypocrite, while First Aunt was portrayed as a good person.
But He Jin believed that two people who shared a bed could not be so different. As Yi Zhonghai's closest companion, First Aunt could not possibly be unaware of his character and actions.
At that moment, He Jin suddenly recalled a plot point often mentioned in fanfiction—that Yi Zhonghai had secretly intercepted the living expenses He Daqing had mailed to support Sha Zhu and He Yushui after running off to Baoding with a widow.
He decided to find out whether it was true.
After scanning the Yi household, He Jin couldn't help but sigh again. Even though he had already estimated Yi Zhonghai's wealth generously, he had still underestimated him.
There weren't just one or two hiding spots—but seven or eight in total.
Two of them were even buried more than half a meter underground.
In a wooden box inside the wardrobe, He Jin found exactly what he had been looking for—the living expenses mailed by his "cheap father."
Counting carefully, he discovered 1,680 yuan in the box, along with two letters from He Daqing.
From memory, He Daqing had run off at the end of 1951 and begun mailing money in early 1952. That meant he had stopped sending money about three years ago.
That made sense. By then, He Yushui was already over twenty. He Daqing likely believed his daughter was either married or working and no longer needed support.
As for the two letters, He Jin skimmed them. Their contents were brief—mostly entrusting Yi Zhonghai to look after the siblings.
He Jin doubted these were the only letters ever written. Most likely, other correspondence had contained information Yi Zhonghai didn't want the siblings to see and had been quietly destroyed.
The two preserved letters were probably kept as insurance—so that if the embezzlement of living expenses were ever exposed, Yi Zhonghai could claim he had acted under He Daqing's instructions, all for the siblings' own good.
A normal person would never believe such an excuse.
But recalling the original Sha Zhu's unwavering trust in Yi Zhonghai, He Jin fell silent.
Without hesitation, he placed the wooden box into his secret realm. With another thought, he swept up the contents of Yi Zhonghai's other seven hiding places as well.
He Jin truly hadn't expected that besides over 6,000 yuan in cash, Yi Zhonghai had hidden two small chests of gold bars, a crate of jewelry, and two crates of silver dollars.
Clearly, these were not possessions an ordinary man could easily come by.
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