The Male Protagonist’s Daughter

A few students stared in envy as Luo Shuyan and Shen Yan boarded the car.
There weren’t many car models in this era.
To put it into context, it was considered a luxury to pick up a bride in a Santana borrowed from someone else during a wedding.

Luo Shuyan’s lips trembled as she asked, “Papa, how much did this cost?”

Even though she was still a child, she kept up with the latest news and she listened when the adults were talking.

A Santana should cost around CNY200,000.
Of course, in this day and age, this amount wouldn’t be considered a lot.
However, we are talking about the 90s here.
The average monthly salary was only in the hundreds.
So, you could essentially buy 3 properties in Ning City with the amount you’d use to buy a Santana.

She’d mentally prepared herself for her father’s new car.
However, he’d only brought up his idea in the morning and she didn’t expect him to immediately purchase the car in the afternoon.

Luo Tianyuan held the steering wheel and leisurely looked ahead.
The roads weren’t spacious, people were either walking or riding their bicycles.
A small four-wheeled car definitely caught the attention of many.

He laughingly said, “This is a second-hand car.
Plus, the owner was in a hurry to sell it, that’s why I got it for a good deal.
It was only 140,000 Yuan.

The previous car owner loved the car and didn’t drive it often.
So the car was pretty much as good as new.

’

CNY140,000 was an absolute steal for Luo Tianyuan.
If it weren’t for the fact that the previous owner needed cash in a hurry, he would’ve needed to pay around CNY170,000 to CNY180,000.

Luo Shuyan almost fainted when she heard the amount her father had spent.

When her father first mentioned his desire to buy a car, she expected him to buy an old raggedy car.
It would definitely cost less than CNY100,000, and she could begrudgingly accept that.
Who knew that he’d end up spending CNY140,000 on it…

Luo Shuyan took deep breaths in an attempt to save herself from dying from anger.

As the saying goes, ‘the onlooker sees most of the game’.
On the other hand, Shen Yan raised his head and looked at the back of Luo Tianyuan’s head.

He knew that Uncle Luo was a pragmatic person who didn’t like to brag.
‘140,000 Yuan is a lot in Ning City; you’d be able to buy two decent pieces of property.
Yet, Uncle Luo mentioned such a huge amount as if it were nothing.
There are two explanations for this — It’s either he was keeping up appearances for the sake of looking good, or 140,000 Yuan really wasn’t a lot to him.’

Shen Yan believed that it was the latter.

’

Shen Yan felt relaxed.
Whether instinctively or due to environmental influences, Luo Shuyan wasn’t the only one who was worried about their family’s finances.
Though, it was hard to understand how Shen Yan, who was only 7 years of age, had such a good understanding about the value of money.

Uncle Luo looked out for him and his mother, and he didn’t hope for him to get into financial difficulty all because of a car.

On the other hand, Luo Shuyan couldn’t seem to see the bigger picture.
She had the idea that her family ‘could get by although they aren’t very wealthy’, so it took everything in her from shaking her father’s shoulders and forcing him to return the car.

To be fair, other people in the city deemed that the Luo family were living a comfortable life.

Grandpa Luo used to be one of the important workers in a factory.
In that era, a job in a factory was a job for life; it had good pay and good job security.
Later on, Grandpa Luo retired after having earned a decent amount of income.

In addition to that, Grandma Luo was an elementary school teacher, and the government granted her a house.

Plus, since they both were hardworking and thrifty, they’d managed to accumulate a handsome sum for Luo Tianyuan’s bride-dowy before their retirement.
Though, sadly, he still hasn’t found an opportunity to use it…

Luo Tianyuan himself was the cream of the crop.
He graduated from a prestigious university in an era where there weren’t many university graduates to begin with.

’

Plus, he was working for a company which paid him a commission on top of his base salary.
The commission could range from a few hundred to one to two thousand a month.

With this, it wasn’t odd that Luo Tianyuan was able to afford a second house.

From Luo Shuyan’s observations, she believed that their family was living paycheck to paycheck with their huge monthly expenditures.

‘With all that in mind, where on earth did father find the money to buy a car?’

CNY10,000 is an acceptable amount, but we are talking about CNY140,000 here!

Luo Shuyan was shell-shocked.
She never expected her family to have CNY140,000 in spare cash.
Did she not know her family’s financial situation well enough?’

The two children interpreted Luo Tianyuan’s relaxed tone differently; Shen Yan thought that Uncle Luo didn’t even care about the CNY140,000, whereas Luo Shuyan thought that her father was just kidding and was lying to her on purpose.

’

‘That must be it.
Who could possibly fish out 140,000 Yuan within an afternoon?’

‘After all, Papa isn’t someone who is so unrealistic.’

The more Luo Shuyan pondered, the more she realized that her reasoning made sense.
Furthermore, when she visited the company her father was working at, she remembered seeing a Santana parked in front of the entrance.

‘Oh, perhaps this is the big boss’s car? Or a company car? And Papa merely borrowed it for the afternoon?’

‘That makes sense!’

Shen Yan noticed the change in Luo Shuyan’s expression.
Her furious eyes went from being as big as a copper bell to being as gentle as a lamb.
She was in deep thought and was smiling as if she’d just eaten a huge drumstick; the sunshine had arrived after the rain.

He shook his head imperceptibly.
‘She’s gone mad.’

Luo Shuyan was unwilling to keep up with her father’s lame lie so she didn’t ask where the money came from.
On the other hand, Luo Tianyuan was paying extra attention on the road since he rarely drove, so he didn’t have the capacity to explain the situation to his daughter.