BOSF 052: Asking for Money

Xiang Yang was escorted home, flanked by his parents. Along the way, the well-dressed, young, and handsome Xiang Yang once again became the focus of the entire village. Only this time, no one insulted him to his face, nor did they criticize him in private. Instead, they watched him with gazes filled with curiosity, envy, or scrutiny.

This is what is known as the bandwagon effect: when individuals are influenced by the unanimous thoughts or actions of a majority, they tend to follow the crowd’s thinking or behavior. It’s also called the herd effect. In the village, it might have started with just one person scolding Xiang Yang, but soon more and more people joined in. Over time, criticizing Xiang Yang seemed to become a matter of course, something anyone could do. However, when praise from the outside world drowned out the criticism, people’s hearts began to shift, leaning toward the majority’s voice. The tide of gossip vanished in an instant, and then people began to notice his good qualities and echo the sounds of praise.

This was Xiang Yang’s current situation, and his striking appearance invisibly boosted his image even further. But no matter how enthusiastic the people around him were, Xiang Yang seemed to turn a blind eye, his attention solely on Ji Yan walking beside him. This proud and aloof demeanor should have been off-putting, but his autism became an excellent protective camouflage. It was easily understood and accepted by everyone, who thought it was only natural. Aren’t all artists like that?

Ji Yan still felt like laughing. He also found it ironic.

It had been a while since Ji Yan had last seen Xiang Yang, and he had originally planned to go to Xiang Yang’s room to hang out like before. Unexpectedly, Li Lilian suddenly stopped him at the door. “Excuse me, Ji Yan. Xiang Yang has just come back after so long. Your uncle and I have something we’d like to talk to him about.”

Li Lilian’s tone was polite but distinctly distant. Ji Yan understood that the family was probably about to discuss something that would be inconvenient for him to be present for. He said to Xiang Yang, “I’ll come find you later then.”

Xiang Yang opened his mouth as if to say okay, but his lips only moved slightly. In the end, he just nodded, continuing to feign his old, dazed appearance.

Ji Yan paused for a second, then smiled and turned to go back to his own house.

Neither Xiang Hongxiu, his wife, nor Xiang Jie could understand the little secret between the two of them. In the past, the couple had never needed to ask for Xiang Yang’s opinion on anything, yet now they were suddenly treating him like an adult, and the words didn’t even feel awkward coming out of their mouths.

The door closed, and the family of four sat on the sofa in the living room. Xiang Jie, who was at an age where he couldn’t sit still, had also been made to stay, a look of displeasure on his face.

Li Lilian glanced at Xiang Hongxiu before she began to speak. Her tone lacked its previous impatience and was instead cautious. “Xiang Yang, is work going okay? Are people treating you well?”

Xiang Yang looked at her for a while before nodding.

“That’s good…” In the past, Li Lilian never knew how to communicate with Xiang Yang; you could ask him three questions and not get a single answer. So, upon receiving a response, she actually let out a sigh of relief before continuing, “Your father and I know how hard it is to work out there. But no matter how nice others are to you, they’re still outsiders, not like family. If anything happens, you must tell us. You rarely come back. Is it because the house is too small? If you think your room isn’t big enough, I’ll have Xiang Jie switch with you…”

“Mom!” Before Li Lilian could finish, Xiang Jie shouted in protest, “I don’t want to switch rooms!”

“You shut up.” Li Lilian glared at Xiang Jie, seemingly scolding him just to please Xiang Yang. “Your room used to be your brother’s. If he hadn’t let you have it, would you be living in such a big room?”

Xiang Jie had lived in the large room since he was little and had no idea about this. Hearing Li Lilian say this, he didn’t know how to argue back. But he was still unhappy, pouting as he muttered, “Hasn’t he been away from home this whole time…”

“Your brother is busy with work. He’ll come back to stay when he’s on vacation. He’s out there working and making money. If other people found out we made Xiang Yang live in a small room, would he have any face left?” 

Li Lilian said with righteous conviction, as if certain that Xiang Yang would continue to live at home from now on. When the couple had married, they had only planned on having one child, which was why they had bought this two-bedroom, one-living-room house with a small storage room. Xiang Jie’s birth had been an unavoidable choice, so one of the two brothers had to live in the storage room. In the past, they didn’t mind letting Xiang Yang live there because he couldn’t do anything. 

But now things were different. Not only could Xiang Yang earn money, but he also had a bit of a reputation. It was obvious which of the two brothers should make the sacrifice.

Hearing his mother say this made Xiang Jie even more upset, as if his rights had to be sacrificed for his brother’s “face.” He glared at Xiang Yang, remembering how he had been bullied in kindergarten, when everyone called him the retard’s younger brother. He had suffered so much because of Xiang Yang, and the anger in his heart grew. He yelled at Xiang Yang without any courtesy, “So what if you can make money? Didn’t you guys use to say he’s a re—”

This time, before Li Lilian could scold him, Xiang Hongxiu cut him off sharply. “Xiang Jie!”

Xiang Hongxiu was the head of the household, the one who shouldered the family’s livelihood. His word had always been law in all family matters.

Xiang Jie was, after all, only an eight-year-old child. He might talk back to his mother, but he wouldn’t dare disobey his father. His eyes suddenly turned red. He turned his head away and sat back in his chair, aggrieved and resentful.

The whole family was putting on a family drama right in front of Xiang Yang, the topic revolving around him, yet he remained as impassive as if he were a bystander.

Afraid that Xiang Yang would take it to heart, Li Lilian quickly tried to smooth things over. “Xiang Yang, Xiang Jie didn’t mean it like that…”

But she found that Xiang Yang didn’t seem to be listening, and she felt that her forced explanation was rather odd. It was as if she was only now realizing that Xiang Yang was autistic, not an ordinary person, and probably wouldn’t care anyway.

Xiang Hongxiu had clearly noticed this as well. The normal way of speaking was obviously not suitable for Xiang Yang. He said directly to Li Lilian, “Just get to the point.”

Li Lilian had been the one doing all the talking from the beginning, but it was clear that Xiang Hongxiu was the family’s true pillar.

Li Lilian glanced at her husband, then looked back at Xiang Yang before speaking. “Xiang Yang, it’s like this. You’re out there earning money now, and your father and I are worried. You don’t know how to manage money, and we’re afraid you’ll get cheated. So after discussing it, we think you can give us your money to keep for you. We’ll help you save it and won’t touch it. When you have money in the future, it’ll also be easier for us to help you find a partner…”

After all that talk, it turned out the money was the main point.

Xiang Hongxiu was getting older now and couldn’t run his business out of town as often as when he was young. Although Xiang Yang was grown, Xiang Jie was still small, and he still had to support the family. The money Xiang Yang gave him allowed him to work less, but people are greedy. Seeing his son with a little success, well-dressed and living a comfortable and free life, he couldn’t help but wonder just how much money Xiang Yang was actually making. Xiang Hongxiu had originally planned to just have Xiang Yang cover his younger brother’s school fees, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought that if Xiang Yang was really making a lot of money, he could retire early. So, after discussing it with Li Lilian, they both felt that since they were going to ask for money anyway, they might as well just take over management of Xiang Yang’s account. This would prevent Xiang Yang from being cheated by others, which would be a true and total loss.

When they didn’t care about Xiang Yang, they excluded him. Now that he could make money, they treated him like family. The couple saw nothing wrong with this, because their traditional, old-fashioned beliefs taught them that it was natural for children to be filial to their parents, so there was nothing wrong with taking his money. But in the end, they still saw Xiang Yang as the same clueless idiot he used to be, even bringing up finding a wife for him. Because as long as they found a marriage partner for Xiang Yang, he would surely stay at home in the future and provide for the entire family. It was killing two birds with one stone.

The more the two of them thought about it, the more wonderful it seemed. They decided to take advantage of Xiang Yang’s trip home to start planning his future for him. Although Xiang Yang had autism, he had inherited their good looks. Plus, he was now quite famous in the village. It shouldn’t be a problem to find a nice, obedient girl for him to marry.

“Xiang Yang, where is your passbook? Can you give it to Mom to look at? That way, Mom will have the confidence to help you look for a match.” Li Lilian genuinely believed that Xiang Yang would be happy if she helped him find a partner. For a boy, starting a family and a career was a major life event; no one wouldn’t long for that.

Even after hearing these outrageous words, Xiang Yang still showed no reaction. He lowered his head and began to rummage through his luggage.

Seeing this, Li Lilian was overjoyed and immediately went to help. “Is the passbook in here? Mom will help you find it.”

However, even after searching through all of Xiang Yang’s luggage, Li Lilian couldn’t find the passbook.

Xiang Hongxiu asked, “Did you leave it at your dorm?”

Xiang Yang nodded blankly again.

Seeing Xiang Yang’s foolish appearance, the couple dropped their pretense. Xiang Hongxiu said impatiently, “Remember to bring it back next time, you hear? Don’t leave it at the dorm, it’s so dangerous out there. What if someone steals your money?”

Xiang Yang didn’t respond, not that Xiang Hongxiu needed one. He turned to Li Lilian. “Xiang Yang doesn’t understand anything. Are you really so comfortable entrusting him to that girl named Shen? What if she cheats him out of his money?”

Li Lilian had already been wrong once before and immediately retorted, “What do you know? If it weren’t for her, would Xiang Yang be able to make this much money? I already misunderstood her once and lost a lot of face. If it happens again, she’ll probably get angry. What if she stops giving Xiang Yang work…”

Xiang Hongxiu asked again, “Then how much is Xiang Yang making? Xiang Yang himself can’t even explain it clearly. Why don’t you ask that girl?”

“I’ve asked. That girl always beats around the bush with me. She said we signed a contract and that it’s fine as long as we get our share of the money every month. Now there’s some kind of privacy protection law, she said she can’t say unless Xiang Yang himself asks…”

“Where did all these rules come from?”

“I don’t know either…”

Just like that, Xiang Hongxiu and his wife laid everything bare right in front of their two children, revealing the greedy and ugly side of human nature.